Greetings esteemed colleagues,
Happy holidays to all our scientists! This week we’ve got a whole bunch of stuff to go over, including this sentence which is a very big hint that something PLAYTEST-Y is right around corner. Did you get the hint? Well, no matter, let's continue.
About Immurement
The remote nature of the GATE Cascade Research Facility makes it ideal for the containment and study of dangerous and obscure specimens. At GATE, we call these Immurement Subjects, or simply IS, for short. There are further classifications but we’ll leave those up to you to discover as you venture forth into the Facility.
Mundane artifacts and oddities that have been deemed safe (Ordo) are immured within Cascade, kept in a particularly dry and deceptively large storage area, while deeper down in the Facility are the specimens under active study and more strict containment. These range from mysterious baubles with unique properties, to entities from beyond the veil of our universe - creatures and denizens of other Anteverses and the many worlds beyond.
"Although Cascade has well-established containment tiers, every subject is unique, requiring a different approach to immurement and study. Basic Ordo storage aside, the reality is that we have almost as many kinds of containment as we have subjects. In the final assessment, our containment tiers are a bureaucratic fiction." ~ Dr. Derek Manse
Please be cautious as you gain clearance throughout the GATE Cascade Research Facility. You never know what you might encounter.
Deep in the Field
For this section of the Status Report, we’ll take a look at just a few of the works our devs have put into the game this past while. There were a lot of things to choose from so we picked some of our favorites!
Jorden, Level Designer
Some of my previous work was in the more grunge, industrial, Manufacturing Sector. Lately I’ve been working away on the sprawling Labs, which is a stark difference in both cleanliness and budget, in terms of staff accommodation. I wanted to convey that difference through how clean and luxurious the areas of the Labs are and how hard GATE tries to keep their “upper crust” happy, but still a bit more utilitarian in comparison to the residential quarters.
Kecko, 3D Artist
Welding Spear
Upgrading from your typically pokey makeshift spear made from cobbled together office parts, the Welding Spear brings fire to the mix. It’s pretty straightforward, but took a few iterations to get to this point. We had some slightly crazier ideas but it ended up looking too cool for being your first spear upgrade. Later designs get a bit more wild, and rightfully so.
Thermal Mallet
The Thermal Mallet, around the same tier as the Welding Spear, also went through a good bit of ideation before we landed on something we liked. It started out looking a bit more sharp (as opposed to blunt) and I took some inspiration from the abandoned mines surrounding the Manufacturing Sector. It ended up being a sort of railroad spike welded to the shaft of the club, wrapped in a high-vis material to keep the crafted look.
Connor, 3D Artist
This was a personal milestone for me as I had never done an animation where the right hand leaves the weapon. It’s a notoriously tricky problem in game development, since the weapon is typically parented to a bone that is on the right hand. I worked it out through a series of null objects and constraints that get turned on and off throughout the animation that allows it to follow either the left hand or the right hand as needed. Additionally animating a bolt action is always a treat. I’m happy with how the player doesn’t feel as proficient with the bolt, being a dorky scientist and all. We of course have progressive reloading animations based on reloading skill, and that changes a bit as the player progresses.
We worked on a hat that both belongs to an enemy, and was something we wanted to make available to marketing for Halloween, so while it was a bit of a rush, I think it turned out quite nicely. The “Swamp Hat” as we’re calling it sure has an interesting look, and perhaps raises some interesting questions too…
Jacob, Programmer
Character Freezing and Slushie Bombs
We wanted some of the early on crafted items to be more fun, so we made the Slushie Bomb physically freeze any character it hits. When affected the character will freeze it's movement and animation, no matter what it was doing, which can look pretty whacky and we love it. You’ll be able to play with this in the next playtest for sure. We also keep the movement so a peccary charging at you will start sliding right past.
PROXIMITY CHAT!
We've changed the in-game VOIP to no longer be global, instead having it proximity based and directional. Alongside that we also have the player's mouth move while they talk, because… You gotta have that. The voice is also a real audio source, so it muffles when out of line of sight and is affected by reverb in the environment, just like a real voice would be. Here's a fun video we posted of a slightly older version of the VOIP in action.
Please Remain Seated
Seats and moveable carts were used in an interesting way in previous playtests, so we've improved the enter/exit logic to prevent certain exploits. Now when you exit a chair or vehicle you should appear in front if there is space, rather than just standing on top of the chair or other whacky locations. This isn’t perfect, but we’ll continue to refine it as we go.
Resistance / Weakness System
Enemies can now have resistances or weaknesses to certain types of damage, which have different audio/visual responses to the hit as well. This changes the type of weapon that might be best for a situation and should really shake up how players encounter things.
Engine Upgrade!
We’ve upgraded the game to Unreal Engine 5.3.2 in our ongoing efforts to keep on top of optimizations and new features. This won’t mean much to you, but it means a lot to us! There have also been some other changes in the optimization department, not quite related to this upgrade, that we hope player’s will notice. As always, keep the feedback coming!
Enemy Changes
We gave the ████ ████ a █████ and the ███████ █████ will be better at █████████ ███████ ████ so we're very excited to see how that plays out in the upcoming playtest. You might find a surprise or two there.
Wow, thanks for that, you crazy kids! Everyone has been extra busy getting content things ready for our next playtest and it’s been great fun to read everyone’s thoughts on their work.
PLAYTEST WHEN?!
There’s an upcoming playtest, very, very soon. That’s all I’m allowed to say, but if you’re signed up for the newsletter, please keep an eye on your inboxes this month.
Stay Tuned
When you descend into the GATE Cascade Research Facility you’re going to be facing a lot of unexpected challenges. Follow these Status Reports for tips, insights and strategies to keep you safe, as well as fun looks-behind-the-scenes at development!
You can also subscribe to our Newsletter to keep up-to-date on news about Abiotic Factor, and gain access to testing environments. Keep your eyes peeled because things are ramping up behind the scenes!
You can also join us on Discord!
See you next time, Scientists!
Wishlist Today!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/427410/Abiotic_Factor/