Hi everyone,
development efforts have been made and I am very happy on the progress I made over the past few days. A problem I am now facing is that if I were to post all my changes here, it would probably spoil you to at least some degree and might take away some of the more surprising and/or scary parts of the game. That's why I will try to write about e.g. scary or story parts of the game only in very generic terms.
The last week's development focused on a lot of things, many new 3D models were added for example. I rewrote the game's entire player detection system (i.e. the system that's responsible for playing a scary sound for example when the player enters a certain area). The camera system got lots of polish. And some of the introduced mechanics include climbing of ladders, fall damage, and a new movement system that slows you down in tight corridors.
What I am still trying to figure out is the right pacing for scares and creepy elements. Many scary sounds and creepy objects are great, but I think a certain level of threat (i.e. chances for the player to die) is also necessary, otherwise the player might learn that there is no harm in anything and they become immune to the scary things in the game (look at reviews of Don't Scream for example, while it is a great and good looking game, some players figured out quite fast that as long as they remain silent the game cannot hurt their player character). I had a friend test Wassermann, and while they said the atmosphere is quite creepy, I think a few more actual elements of immediate danger would have enriched their experience. So in the coming days I will try to focus on implementing some actual 'threats' (besides fall damage) so I can see how new testers react to that.
Full Changelog
Features
- Picking up the lantern now makes a sound
- Added several new letters and adjusted existing ones
- Add basic version of a Checkpoint system
- Add fog (again) to the outside world
- You can now choose if you want to continue from your most recent save, or start a new one
- Add some new decorations to the cabin and the cave
- Add a small kitchen area and more furniture inside the cabin
- Add some detection features that might be used for certain actions of the game
- Add garden area with fences and a fence gate, and stairs leading up to it
- Add 'breaking up soil' interaction
- Add fall damage (sorry)
- Add ladders (sorry again)
- Add mechanic that slows down movement speed in tight spaces (now you have to squeeze through caves)
- Add death mechanic (allows you to respawn from the last checkpoint)
- Add several new sounds and some 'scares'
- Add camera bobbing and sway
- Extend the cave
Maintenance
- Remove some unused textures
- Restructured several assets files
- Add plugin to simplify asset placement process
Bug Fixes and other Small Improvements
- Fix the scale on some rocks
- Change lighting near the entrance of the cave
- Change player spawn point(s)
- Letters now use a different font
- Add collider to the roof of the cabin
- Change lighting inside the cabin
- Change terrain color near the cabin
- Change terrain textures in several places (more rocky textures now)
- Improve overall outside lighting
- Change Credits
- Add a version label to the main menu
- Fix bug where pause menu buttons where not clickable on some locations
- Crouching is now more lying down
- Fix bug where you would be inside the ceiling when standing up after crouching
- Fix bug where lantern did not collide with outside terrain
Thank you for reading the post, and have a great day!
- Flo