Greetings, all! I hope everyone is well, and their mops freshly dipped.
Feels like forever since the last update, so I thought I'd take some time to get everyone up to speed on what we've been up to since last year.
There have been some exciting developments and additions for our eventual VCD 2 showcase.
We don't want to reveal too much(as that's half the fun!), but even so there will be lots of juicy images and things here that you might like to rather experience for yourselves in time.
So, if you're keen to avoid spoilers, then proceed mindfully.
Some of you may have already seen a degree of what I have to show off, but rest assured, those areas will see updates in the future, and there are plenty of new things.
First things first.
First Major Level
The desert planet, yet to be given a title, is coming together very nicely.
While vaguely similar in appearance to Unearthly Excavation, it's quite a different beast. Thusly, the focus of its gameplay is something new to VCD, and we're continuing to find ways to extend it in support of its core idea.
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With all that sand, it breeds a familiar threat; our friend the Sand-Trap (colloquially called the Saarlac pit among many for its similarities) makes a return, now improved. They like desert planets, and as such are sure to be a bloody nuisance to you and anyone else who sets boot to sand.
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Automated Tracks
You may notice the many railway tracks as well. These play an important role in a comprehensive system we put together for automating the movement of objects, akin to trains and carts.
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It's capable of moving objects along splines and track paths, handling interchanges, waiting, offloading, pick up, drop, slowing or speeding up due to gravity, etc.
It has made heavy use of UE5's blueprints system, allowing it to be pretty modular, and can now be used for any kind of automated movement and signaling of objects in our levels, both for gameplay and environmental aesthetics. It's hard to overstate how much work has gone into this thing; its always more complicated than you first think, and the images don't really show that.
Regardless, we hope to make use of it in more places, even if just for decorative things.
Office
What will become your Office has seen significant work, and we now have the basic architecture and layout complete. Some of it is subject to change, and we still have to actually pour lots of content into the individual rooms to fill them out and make them unique, but it's going very well none the less.
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The focus here is on making each room unique in some way, and facilitating greater customization than in the original. For this we have lots of ideas but still have much work to go before any of it is implemented. Some ideas are more ambitious than others.
The office(although several times larger than in the original) is still no palace, but you can spruce it up quite a bit. We're still working out the full plan here.
Objects
New Objects
There are many of these, but here are a couple. Some of you have no doubt spotted these barrels before.
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We're still considering a number of different features for certain types of barrels, so work continues.
There is also a plethora of new trash items, many more than you see here.
Many are finished, but others still need some final artwork.
You may finally be able to get your greedy gloved hands on a sandwich!
(only slightly spoiled...)
Equipment
Familiar Faces
The Big Banger and J-HARM return to service, waiting to pounce!
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While they may look like a simple copy-paste job, they are actually much more work than they appear. All of their features had to be remade in UE5; the User Interface, the ability for hands to interact with in-world interfaces, the way the lift technically works, and the radio's movement. All new.
However, this does mean some improvements could be made. For example, the lift now has better physics, and can be knocked over more convincingly. It also doesn't jam in exactly the same way as before.
The Big Banger likewise has new features(which you'll see in due time) and the little dancing physics that make it so iconic are now calculated in real-time from spectral analysis. This is a fancy way of saying we(as developers and modders) don't need to individually map the movements of the radio for each song, it can now figure it out automatically.
Low Frequency notes give more 'kick' and higher frequencies cause more vibration, etc.
However, I went the extra mile and added the system from the original VCD and layered it on top, just so that the radio still moves in the unique way that the original songs did. It's the little things that sell it.
It also now has a seek bar and a cycle mode selection button(Shuffle, Sequential, Repeat), as well as a few other interesting features we'll keep secret for now.
Lighting has also improved, with the Lanterns and Work-lights from before making a return with better lighting.
There will also be some new ones in time.
At the moment, we have all of the main player tools from the original, with a few tweaks here and there. Hands, Mop, Sniffer, Welder, Broom, Shovel
The welder for example has a right-click function this time. We'll reveal more about this in time, as it's still in the early stages.
The notepad is not in yet, but we have some new ideas for that too.
Beyond those original tools, we have some new ones.
New Tools
As of now, there are 2 new tools, mostly done.
We'll reveal these in greater detail in future updates, but you can see a sneak peak here.
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One serves an entirely new purpose, but will also represents a shift in how you aggressively access things common employees cannot.
The other both expands existing interactions with the various decals you are familiar with(like blood and scorch marks) and adds a new modular system for dealing with all sorts of additional tasks you might have in other levels.
In general, we're designing the tools to have either multiple uses, or lots of use cases, so they're not limited to just one level.
New Features
Drop Pod
The drop pod is still not quite finished, but it features so many different things.
Given that it's your go-to destination for both entering and exiting the map, as well as respawning and accessing your tool selection and common vendables, it has a lot of moving parts. We're continuing to look for ways to give it more character, so it's likely to see a number of small changes going forward.
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The less said about the nightmare of its collision the better...nasty business getting that right.
It has lots of features inside and various things to discover, as well as a rather amusing answer to the question of "Where do replacement Janitors come from?".
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Vending Machines
Need I say more? Snacks and drinks for the hungry worker.
Of course, they're probably loaded with unhealthy preservatives, but who cares? Certainly not the company making them!
These are still in a rough state art-wise, but they functionally work.
Cables and Hoses
Physics-based cables and hoses with optional connections on either end.
These were rather difficult to put together, and at this point we're still not sure how reliable these are going to be in Multiplayer, so time will tell.
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For now, we've found a number of places to uses them, and it's an entirely new way of linking mechanics or machines, so we'll probably use these in more places.
Combined Functionality
Previously, certain types of actors were limited to only one or two mechanics. For example, you could pick up a light-bulb and mount it in an incubator but that incubator couldn't move.
Now, with the way we've been designing things, it's possible to combine multiple functionalities together with relative ease. Want to slot a physics object into another physics object and move them around together? No problem! Want to add interactive levers to it too? Why not!
Want it to catch fire and spread fires around? Ok, you're a bit crazy, but sure!
Want it to be partially weldable and have cables on it, ooh and why not also make it able to be pinned to walls! Woah woah, steady on there cowboy. But yes, you can do it. God help us.
You get the idea. With the new approach, it's easier to combine mechanics and allow interactions that would normally be locked away in one actor or another and you've have to choose.
This will largely affect modding; something we have not yet implemented, but are keeping support for in mind as we build mechanics.
Conclusion
It's been a long process, and even though we still have far to go, we're really getting into the meat of things now. The important thing is that every time we make something, we don't have to repeat it, so we can build and build and build upon each new creation, making the next leg of the journey faster.
The code-base for example is now mature enough that we can layer new things on top existing mechanics and it ("just works"™), not to mention the advantage of copy-and paste!
As a result, the areas that are slowing us down now are the new features, the uncharted territories like hose physics and new tool mechanics.
It's been very difficult to form a projected time-frame at the moment for when it'll all be ready for you guys to get your hands on, so we'll just have to continue on with making progress, and once it's all together we can give a reliable date for some kind of early public release.
So stay tuned and we'll have more in the future.
For now, that's it everyone! Work continues and we make steady progress.
As we complete the current major milestones, we'll be able to work on other things, like weaving in the story, office customization, a nice UI, colorful notes, and so on.
Keep your mops wet, and your trunks full!