This is going to be a fairly lengthy Development Update. A lot of time has passed since the last one, and I'm now working on SPECTER Full-Time. I'm happy to say that development is coming along really well!
I've mostly finished modeling all the diner rooms. added over 110 Interactions to the Diner, Implemented All 20 Ghosts,
Remade Many Player interactions, From Light Switches, To how the equipment Equips & Animates. And Much... Much more.
There's too much to post here, and to be honest, i doubt anyone wants to read about Hit box changes, Footstep sounds, Or how the ghost spawns EMF and Parabolic Evidence..So i'll leave that out lol
Now, You may notice all the other Dev Logs, Map Reveals, ETC, have all been removed.
The game has changed significantly since those older posts, Even the most recent ones.
They've all been removed to prevent confusing new people finding the game, And will be updated over the next few months.
Now, onto the dev update!
Let's start off with
General Changes
Awhile ago, i announced the game would be free, due to recent investments (For the game itself)
changes in Scope, and Other things you'll see later in the post..
I've decided to go back on this, BUT, The game will be free for a week upon launching into early access, It will still be priced around the same as i originally planned ($3 - $6 USD)
And i'm planning a Free Multiplayer Specter game later down the line as well.
The Gameplay
The game, And all 20 Ghost Types, are fully Playable, Functional, And finalized!
The House map is Fully Playable, and as of now, Finalized.
Evidence has been shortened by quite a lot, But more on this later
The Lighting
The new default lighting is a bit of a downgrade, Mainly as it doesn't illuminate Ceilings, and corners as well, But, it gave a 50FPS Increase; you can enable the Old Lighting in the settings menu.
Here's a preview of what the new Default Lighting looks like:
Player Interactions
Lights & Light Switches
The old system was..really dumb, The camera would do a line trace > Hit an Invisible Box over a Light Switch > When Interacted > The Invisible Box would call an event to a separate Actor > Seperate Actor would Turn on/off lights
Yeah..This lagged the game pretty badly, But now:
The camera does a line trace > Hits light switch > When Interacted > Toggles lights in Array.
Much simpler, No Lag at all. Switches are now Animated, and are fully modular with little effort, From sounds, to Custom animations, And more.
Ghost Tab
The ghost tab has been remastered, Finalized.
The ghost tab is no longer a UI Element, and displays on the Tablet Itself.
Page 1:
Evidence, And Ghost selection
When you hover over a Ghost Type, it's Evidence, and any Notes you've saved for that type will appear as well!
This is also where you'll select your ghost
Page 2:
Ghost Tab, Where you can write down all the Side Evidence and Traits you've noticed.
Example: "Hot Temps, Gibberish Writing, Smoke-Filled Room, Interacted a lot, But did not leave it's Room,"
(W.I.P - No image just yet!)
Page 3:
Potential Ghost name, Location Name, Potential Ghost Rooms, Cause of concern, and a Map of the location
(For anyone Curious, at the start of a round, the ghost will pick a Random First and Last name, There's around 110 First Names, And 100 Last names, I do plan on Adding More in the future though!)
Ghosts
Before adding all of the ghosts in, i decided to expand the Traits a bit, Here's the current list (leaving these intentionally vague..)
- Throw Distance/Speed
- Aggressiveness
- Height (Not Visible to the Player)
- Height (Visible to the Player)
- Scared of the Dark?
- Speed
- Interaction Chance
- Interaction MIN (Affects the Interaction Chance variable, The Lower the 'Interaction Variable, the more likely the Interaction)
- Interaction MAX (Some calmer ghosts will have a Higher MAX, Meaning less interactions)
- Interaction Speed
- Unique Interaction Chance (Power outages, Creepy Music, Stuff like that)
- Roam Chance
- Roam Timer
These will all be unique for each ghost, More may be added in the future.
Side note for Interaction & Evidence,
Each time a ghosts does an interaction, or gives evidence,
That Variable Increases, Each time it Doesn't, That variable decreases, Once it gets too low or too high, it'll change to the MIN or MAX Variable. The rate that it increases/Decreases depends on the Ghost Type, and it's Aggressiveness Level.
This gives a more dynamic feel to the ghosts, and makes them feel like they aren't just on a Timer.
There are currently 20 Ghosts in the game, As i've gotten more experienced with UE, There's some other evidence i really want to add...So, i'm not promising anything, but i'd like to see up-to 30 in the game.
But for now, I'm focusing on making each ghost feel unique.
Evidence
I posted on the Patreon some time ago that the Evidence was going from 6 Categories: EMF, UV, Parabolic, Camera, Temp, Wall Writing
To 3 Main Evidence Categories: EMF, UV, Parabolic.
These will be harder to get than the Side evidence, Which is:
Camera, Temp, and Wall Writing.
Side Evidence is just an Attribute of the ghost, and Easier to obtain.
The Ghost Tab has a Note System for each Ghost, So, If you identify a Ghost, you can stick around and get its Side evidence and add it to your notes for that ghost.
For example, If you've found all the Side Evidence for all ghosts with EMF 5, You can get EMF 5, then finish the investigation using the Side Evidence And Traits Only.
There's no Overlapping Main, or Side Evidence, But i did make ghosts with Mixed EMF Very Similar to other ghosts.
On a side note, EMF Has been shortened from EMF 2, 3, 4, 5, Mix, None To EMF 2, 5, Mix
And Laser Pen has been removed entirely.
These have been changed to improve Gameplay, And prevent you from only needing 2 Evidences.
TL;DC the game is going from 26 Evidence to 11
Safe House Update
the safe house got a little bit of a Visual Update, new pool table, Re-textured Arcade Machines, and a Slideshow of Screenshots of each map.
The Ghost Ship Update (W.I.P)
The ghost ship previously only had Two rooms, The ship, and the Lounge Area, But it's currently being expanded upon, With Restrooms, and a Rest/Vending Area being Added!
The waves had to be less than Half the quality due to performance reasons, Mainly to play on Lower End Computers, But now, they are at their Highest Quality by Default, and you can change their quality in the Settings Menu, from High Tri (100K), to Low Tri (6K), to Extremely Low Tri (~20, Waves Disabled)
Misc
Campaign Mode has been renamed to Story Mode
Wall Writing is now only visible on the Camera
The player now has Limited Sprint, and can now Sprint while crouched (Much slower than while standing, though!)
What's Next?
So..While playing the game, it just feels a little..Boring. So..I've started work on Hunts!
If you aren't aware, Hunts were meant to just be for Hard mode, Which was meant to be added in near the full release, But now i'm actively working on it,
2 Ghost Models partially finished, and Stress mechanics figured out, but not implemented.
For those who don't like Hunts, they can be disabled next to the Arcade.
Due to how some maps are designed, they won't be able to support hunts, so they'll be in their own section of the Arcade.
And... At the start of the post, i mentioned i made an investment for the game,
Which is a Full Mocap Setup! Story Mode, Ghosts, and any other animations, will be fully Mocap!
This allows me to spend far less time animating, and more time on actual Gameplay, Maps, and Mechanics.
That's all for now. The game has come along significantly the last few months, And i'm pretty excited for the future of it!