(Small animated gif to showcase the general current state of the game)
Week 7
Hi and welcome to the seventh development blog for Unleash!
This week has mainly revolved around more polishing and basically making ready for the public Early Access release. To this end, we are working on the map design, resolving outstanding networking issues and doing small general tweaks and visual improvements.
Map Design
The new map design includes new “lane separators” - to visually separate the lanes of individual players. This replaces the “mountain range” that we have previously had, with ‘tournament stands’ inspired by sports and gladiator- stadiums. Eventually we will investigate whether we can GPU simulate a crowd of people on the stands, accompanied by the sounds of a cheering or booing crowd, depending on the player’s performance. We will also want a system to support variance in the stands, as currently it is the same model and textures being tiled.
(Shows the new separators - inspired by stadium ‘stands’. Also teases the new gate with a pulsating, animated emission color. This is still a work in progress.)
Additionally, the new map design includes new spawn and lifeshield ‘gates’ - where monsters emerge from and enter into. The new ‘gates’ are meant to look like a sci-fi inspired teleportation gate. Currently, it is missing a particle system-based VFX resembling a type of ‘force field wall’ between the gate pillars, but that will be implemented in some form before releasing this update. The assailant’s player color is shown in the spawn gate, so the gate’s color indicates which player spawns against you. The life shield’s color is your own player color.
(The new gates with pulsating, animated emission color. We are still using the old pipes, although to a less extent. This may change though. This is still a work in progress.)
The final advantage gained from this new map design is that we can reduce the DirectX requirement to version 9.0c - Shader Model 3.0. The old map design’s separators - the ‘mountain range’ - was generated at runtime through GPU tessellation, which required at least DirectX 11 - Shader Model 4.0. Thus, any players who may have previously seen the map as a great big red smudge, should now see the correct rendering - assuming they have a graphics card that isn’t very old.
Networking Stability
We are using a third party software to power our deterministic, lockstep-based networking model. Through close collaboration with them and many iterations we have been working to improve the stability of the network and avoid as many fallouts as possible. A part of this has been focused on updating our implementation in the game to the newest provided version of the library, which has been done this week. Thus, our internal tests indicate that the networking stability of the game is reaching a satisfactory level.
Targeting
Certain towers utilize a ‘lightning bolt’ VFX or similar for their targeting / shooting. Previously, they would generally hit at the base of monsters. Now instead they will target the center of monsters, which visually makes more sense and looks more correct. This is especially visible in the case of certain flying monsters versus Skyhook towers. The center of the monster’s collider is now used as the targeting point, instead of the base of the model.
(Monsters are targeted at the center of their model, rather than at the base of it as previously.)
Closing Remarks
Polishing and map design were the main points for this week. Some networking issues were resolved, lots of bugs were fixed and the new map design should make for a more aesthetically pleasing map, in addition to reducing the DirectX requirement to play the game.
We play Unleash every week, and you can join us for our play sessions. Next one is Tuesday the 14th of November at 17:00 / 5 PM (CET). Join us online for a multiplayer Unleash match!
If you want to see how we play, but cannot join the play session, you can watch gameplay videos without commentary through our Twitch profile. We live stream almost every session, although it has been a few weeks since last, we plan to stream again - starting with this next session.
If you haven’t already, get your free Unleash beta Steam key through our website. The free open beta will run for a limited time period, so use the chance to try it out now for free with your friends!
And remember… Monsters never come alone.