Narrative
Since the halcyon days of planning and pre-production for HeavenX, the game’s web of interactive systems and questlines has only grown. Unlike those gentler days, where work consisted of casual talks through MS paint diagrams, there are quotas. Now we all have measurable things to do and only so much time to do them.
Until very recently, much of my work on HeavenX’s narrative has entailed playing catch-up with the rest of the team; translating charts and written content into Unity. Real work, one might say. But as I’ve been committing to the practical, humdrum labor required to bring the game to life, the sorts of conversations that normally fill the pre-production space have continued. And as they often do, new ideas have gone from slightly out-of-scope to essential for the sort of experience we want to provide for our players.
Systems that had been previously discussed, but not planned, have screamed into life in the last half of this year. For example, we had discussed the need to interact with objects within the 3D office space, but until recently I had written around this requirement because the system itself wasn’t totally nailed down yet. Now that I’ve learned what this system looks like I can leverage it, and enhance my previously written content to strengthen the narrative experience of HeavenX.
With all of the new story elements in mind, I have undertaken the creation of what we call, internally, the “North Star Quest.” This will serve as a compact experience that encompasses all of the narrative systems that the player will be exposed to during their time at Zhaoxing Heavy Industries. We are working to ensure that the next playtest will include the North Star Quest, and cannot wait for you to experience the mosaic of new systems, quests, and characters that will define the game’s narrative.
Dev
It's no secret that Devil Daggers was a big inspiration for HeavenX. We want a game where it's satisfying to just run around and shoot things in an open arena, but ZHI's ambitions aren't limited to just survival. There are tests to run, quotas to meet, and a digital frontier to reclaim, so we've been working on Rightnow!, ZHI's quest ticket system.
The backend of RightNow! is just a few features short of being a small programming language. That may sound like overkill, but it means we can quickly throw together complex tickets without actually hardcoding everything. Without getting too technical, it all works on nested simple tasks. For example, we might want the players to kill X number of replica within a time limit. So first we use an "And" task that just requires all subtasks be completed, and then we can add in a subtask to kill replica and a subtask that checks the time. That's it. Less than a minute to setup a timed mission.
With just a few kinds of tasks we get a lot of variety and flexibility. Then on top of that we can limit the cards that are available or even outright require a specific loadout. Then on a meta level, the exact same system can be used to assign the ticket, so there can be secret tickets with esoteric requirements and rewards.
Art
For the last few months I've been heads down building the 3D office in Unity. The first real problem was not how it looked -- it was how often it needed to change. On a team this small, the story beats and mechanics we have planned are constantly in flux. The environment package has to keep up with those changes without every tweak resulting in more work for me. Instead of hand building bespoke rooms, I put together an office kit of modular pieces that snap together so the space can be remodeled on the fly. Anyone on our team doing level design can rearrange the floor plan for any reason without me having to drag every change back into a 3D modeling program (I use Cinema4D. Yes really.)
I built out the skeleton first -- walls, floors, ceilings, lights, doorways, doors, and a couple of hero props.
More recently I realized the approach itself needed a rethink. We're looking at swapping direction to a more stylized environment, mostly so we can cram much more detail and density into each level than the current pipeline allows. The current pipe requires building out two models per in game asset, baking those down into an optimized mesh, and then painting and texture packing in a way that keeps the results looking crispy in-engine. Multiple programs and multiple steps to get an idea into the game. For the ideas we have in our head, that process might prevent us from launching in a reasonable amount of time. The good news is that because everything's already built as a modular kit rather than a pile of one-off rooms, the rework shouldn't take long. All of prefabs can be updated with the newer more stylized look and feel. We could revert it if we decide its not worth it. Once we are there, we will share more with you and make a decision on the final direction.