Hello Sweepy Heads!
We're back with another Clean Sweep Devlog! If this is your first time here and you don't know what Clean Sweep is, let us tell you!
Clean Sweep is a comedic 3D character action RPG where everyone in Cleanland is a personification of a real world cleaning product! As the Town Janitor you'll befriend the residents of Cleanland and team up with them to fight germs!
This is Renee here to talk about the month of May! 🌸🥊🌼
Progress
Programming
The first stage of the combat update was released May 25th! 🎉One down, four to go! There's a looong list of changes that you can find in our post from May 25th. Massive props to Nelson and Mia for all of the hard work they put into this update.
But wait, May doesn't end on the 25th! In the days following the update there were even more changes!
Moved a major event in the event system to C++
Moved the item system entirely to C++
Moved the scripting system entirely to C++
Bug fixes:
Fixed the Beaunado not doing DOT (Damage over Time)
Fixed the Janitor's sprite double sliding in no dialogue start
Fixed our music system not properly setting the night song when transitioning from day to night, so no more of the night theme not looping!
Fixed bugs with saving and loading including combat items not saving. Whoops
More systems will be getting replaced in the future to allow for even smoother development. There are also plans for more world encounters to add variety!
Design
We held an internal Quality Assurance playtest for the combat build! Massive shoutout to our internal QA playtesters. Thanks to them, the designers were able to aggregate a ton of helpful feedback, catch bugs, and fuel conversations and decisions on ways to improve the game.
We were able to implement some of those new decisions into the updated build, such as time slowing down in combat, a reactive filling sprite for Charming's passive, and disabling contacts until after Charming's first route event (friendship must be earned). Aside from our currently implemented changes, we have even more improvements planned for future updates, so stay tuned!
The design team asks that you "PLEASE PLAY THE NEW UPDATE!!" We've been hyping up the new combat system for so long and now is your chance to try it for yourself!! It's genuinely fun! And they did say please.
Tech Art / Animation
Tech art has spent this past month cleaning up Soap. By cleaning up, I mean Soap has been fully retopologized with improved UV maps for higher resolution textures! In addition to that, general combat animations are currently in progress! Wow, there's so much to look forward to.
Art
Art has entered its Grand Retexturing. What does that mean? For Clean Sweep, it means retexturing the environment to give it a more stylized, hand-painted feel.
The first step of the Grand Retexturing was to go through the environments, with spreadsheets in hand, to determine what needed to change. There's a lot of retexturing ahead and Jess would appreciate your thoughts, prayers, and sugar cubes.
The first thing to get a texture makeover is the beach house! Unfortunately, Substance Painter decided to nuke Deborah (Jess's PC), so progress has been slower than expected.
Deborah's crime scene photo.
When Substance allows, the process involves painting in greyscale and using gradient filters to fine-tune the overall colors.
Current progress in greyscale.
In addition to the Grand Retexturing, progress has been made on Windy's remodel. There's also a brand new sprite for Charming's passive that has been described as "so cuteular! One might say charming" (-Jess). Rather than making a generic shield, Jess personalized it for Charming:
Charming's new passive sprite.
And who can forget about the devlog image?! This month features Charming cleaning a germ Clean Sweep style. We'll be posting a speed paint of the image next week, so check out our socials to watch Jess figure out how light works on the human face.
Audio
Things have been pretty quiet this month, but our composer did a bit of rebalancing of the new funky combat tracks for the combat build! If you want to hear them, I guess you'll just have to play the update.
Writing
This month in writing was a lot more development of the characters and Cleanland. The characters that got the development treatment this month are Scottie and someone I don't think we've mentioned. Hint: have you ever wondered who lives in the house on the beach?
We did more planning and writing for an event where the player will be introduced to a majority of Cleanland's NPCs. Right now we're considering a few ways for how the main event of the event will play out… How do you feel about scripted losses? Fully opposed? Depends on the execution?
The last writing task I'll mention is camera adjustments in events with Soap. In our hearts and minds, Soap has always been Cleanland's resident tall person, but only recently did they reach their true height. With new height comes new camera angles. If you're playing Clean Sweep and see characters framed in a strange way, ask yourself: is there a tall character in this shot? If not, ask yourself: is this strange angle being used to reinforce the feeling of discomfort being conveyed in the scene? If the answer is no, we probably just framed it weird. Taller Soap and new camera angles aren't in the most recent update, so there's yet another thing for you to look forward to.
Production
We released a combat update! We hope you like the new features! But we're not done with combat yet. Our next few updates will also be combat-focused, so if you've been wanting more from our germs, you're in yuck. If you have any thoughts on combat, or any aspect of the game, we would love to hear it! You can use our feedback form and/or joint or discord server.
Our upcoming milestones are set in preparation for a grant application we're submitting in August. Our main goals for it are to improve combat, hence the combat update, and the visuals, hence the Grand Retexturing. We've created an MVP (minimum viable product) of what all of the departments will be getting done over the next few months, so you can look forward to new additions all around!
Dev Corner
This month's Dev Corner question: If you were a video game character, what would your combat archetype be?
Jess: Definitely an in-your-face melee DPS. I feel like I would have a crit build, but I'd also be very unlucky and be a fragile debuff magnet.
Nelson: Support.
Renee: Probably something long range like a zoner. That or a debuffer.
If there's something you're gleaming to ask the Clean Sweep devs, join our discord linked below and submit a question!
Assoapciate of the Month
The Assoapciate of the month is the beloved Ethan Uzdarwin!
Introduce yourself!
Hey everyone, my name is Ethan and I worked on combat programming and enemy behavior for Clean Sweep! In my free time I like to write songs and edit videos. I am incredibly honored to have been part of such an amazing game and team, and am eager to help more in the future!
If you were a janitor, what would you clean with?
If I were a janitor, I would clean with a vacuum because it could force ranged enemies into melee encounters which I think would be really fun and interesting.
What Clean Sweep food item do you want to eat?
I would love to try the Chicklint Steamer Salad, it looks very tasty and healthy.
If you were a fruit, what fruit would you be?
If I were a fruit, I feel that I would be a lemon because (one) lemonade is my all-time favorite drink and (two) the fact that lemons are actually a cross between citrons and bitter oranges, they do not appear in the wild, which is interesting I think. Lemons are also featured in the Steamer Salad, so something to keep in mind (three).
Thank You
Thank you for reading this Clean Sweep Devlog! You can find devlog updates on our Steam page or on itch.io. If you want to follow along with our game, check us out on our socials below.