December 2021

Disclaimer

As a reminder, devblogs will be available only for Patreon patrons until the next game update. After which, every devblog posted prior to this update release date will be publicly posted, one by one, on the game’s website.

It seems that phone web browsers cannot properly read GIFs in some cases.

As you can see, this Devlog appears earlier than expected. I won’t work on the game until the start of 2022, where I will write another post to take stock of what happen through 2021. And, of course, there is an update planned for February 2022!

Vore animation and mouth Render

As of now, when Talas grabs you, he will be able to swallow you whole and alive. He may keep you in his beak to spit you out later, or may choose to gulp you down once and for all.

I worked on Talas’ mouth rendering related to the new vore animations.

Macro character AI

Talas’ current AI can now use movement actions with more ease between the different positions of a situation.

Depending on your position in the environment, his relationship with you and on what he wants to do, Talas will change his position.

This is entirely managed by the artificial intelligence and, of course, helped by areas informing said AI of the current context.

For example :
- If Talas likes you, wants a massage and you’re standing on the table, he won’t hesitate to sit down and stretch his legs on the table, so that he can present you his talons and let you give him what he expects of you.
- If you are on the couch and Talas does not like you, he will make sure to sit down on you in order to squish you. Otherwise, he will do his best to move aside and not crush you underneath.
- Talas will either try to avoid certain positions to not cause any harm, or in the contrary, to cause some, depending on his relationship with you

Multiplayer and replication

The game is now fully playable in multiplayer. I had to do some concessions from a lack of time such as grab physics, but they will come back as new updates are released.

VR Player body animation

I deleted the VR Body’s balancing effect. It was not working as well as I intended, and created issues in multiplayer.

In order to obtain an acceptable result, I would need to undergo a long session of refactoring on VR animations and will have to add new ones specific to the VR animations.

After some retouching, here is the result :

Paws slide on the ground when you move slowly, and the head position has a slight shift, based on if you are crouched or not, but works well in game. :3

I will attempt to make some upgrades in version 0.4.1, especially regarding the paw sliding.

VR Player grab / Teleport

I made a consequent refactoring on the VR Grab and teleport mechanics. I also updated the game’s code for the future use of Open XR, maybe for version 0.5.0.

This refactoring was about the recent edits made for multiplayer. I also deleted hand physics in VR (item collision with walls when holding them), but as said, I will bring these back later !

I also used and edited assets from Unreal 4.27’s VR Template.

Outline render effect

I added effects to preview items when selecting them under different situations, to tell which items can be grabbed in VR by players, what items are selected by the game master and what items can be selected by said game master when hovering their mouse cursor on them.

This also works on VR of course, but for now doesn’t work too well on the Spectacing side of things. It’s less of a problem as it only concerns spectators.

Currently, colors can’t be modified but I would like to add options in v0.4.1 to customize them, by taking into account, of course, preview colors for the teleportation UI.

Game master new control and UI

The game master now has a button to use the Grab action with Talas and catch micros.

I also deleted all the debugging parts from the Game Master’s menu, and used the new outline effects. It also is possible to preview Talas’ movements with a blue line.

We are getting closer to the definitive user interface for version 0.4.0

Happy Holidays

Thanks to everyone for following and supporting my game's development through the year. I will see you next year. Happy Holidays !