After a long break from developing Doomwalker (I spent most of the last 12 months working on my new game Project Starblade), WE'RE BACK BABY!!!
HUGE Thank you again to all the early supporters who are helping this solo dev keep the lights on :)
OK...
Update 0.4.2 and 0.4.3
This patch is entirely an under-the-hood update that improves upon the majority of game systems and performance bottlenecks.
Doomwalker is/was my first large game in UE5, and as such I went into it not knowing how to deal with things the correct way. Developing my second UE5 game, Project Starblade (and a third unnanounced roguelite game!) have given me huge insights into where I was f**king up with Doomwalker.
World Map (finally)
The world map will (finally) be implemented in-game - helping players navigate the world and improving upon the fast travel menu.
Memory Footprint
Compared to the last update, I've been able to, in some places, reduce the memory footprint of individual props/npcs by 20x.
For example, the player character was sitting at around a 2.4gb memory footprint (how much RAM is needed to load and use it at any given moment), it is now at 150mb, or a 16x reduction in memory usage! This reduction is evident with almost all other NPCs. This means less stuttering, faster loading, and overall better performance/FPS in-game.
Lighting and Mesh Optimization
Several changes have been made to in-game lighting, from optimizing draw distances, to implementing UE5's "Megalight" system, lighting/shadow performance have been improved!
Skeletal Meshes and animation updates (what NPC's/Players are made of) are a huge performance bottleneck for UE5.
I have spent alot of time working to optimize shadowing, and multi-threaded animation updates for meshes by utilizing a few plugins like the "Animation Budget Allocator".
Improved Spell Effects and AI
Lots of spell effects have been updated or improved upon, and enemy AI responsiveness and behavior has been improved!
2026 Roadmap
Q2
I'm aiming to release v0.5.0 just before the 2026 Summer Sale, so that new players can get their hands on the game at a large discount, and with brand new content to adventure through!
v0.5.0 will be unlocking the "Veilguard Keep" (Blackstone Pass Castle), "Court of Eldreleth" and "Temple of Shingamu" (Hidden areas atop Kizuni Fen) subzones, bringing new quests, enemies, boss fights, and powerful gear to obtain.
Additionally, I will be implementing the foundations of a crafting system where players can create a variety of potions - some of which will help in combat (health regen/dmg reduction/etc...), others are just for fun (speed boost/jump height/etc...)
Q3
Look forward to v0.6.0, which will unlock the "Lomus Mons" area (Volcano) and the "Heart of Flame"(Volcano Raid boss) zones.
The level cap will also be increased to 50 at this time - bringing lots of new quests, enemies, bosses, loot, and a couple new player abilities to f*** around with!
The crafting system will also be added/improved upon in this patch!
Q4
I'm not entirely sure where I'll be at this point, but my goal is to be close to releasing v0.7.0.
The level cap will be increased to 60, and the end-game zone "Solis Plateau" (Desert) and dungeon "TBA" will be released, which will prove an extreme challenge and narrative finale to Doomwalker.
More in-depth info will be released as this date approaches, and the game will be exiting early access soon after this point!