This week wasn’t as exciting as the previous week. It was a lot of debugging and getting the momentum going for Super Hero Life IV, but I think next week it’s going to start to pay off again.
LP3
The first half of the week was fighting a bunch of rigging issues with the LP3 body, trying to make a good framework to allow @Ryferion1 to make animations that best fit the avatar. It has been a grueling process. Rigging it in Blender was easy, importing the rig from blender has cost us a lot of time. We’re getting closer though, hopefully by early next week we’ll have the LP3 working enough to post a prototype gif on twitter! (@Nightcycle_LLC)
Map
Through hard work and determination, I took a 3-4 hour boring task and made it into a 12-14 hour frustrating task.
Basically I tried to automate the placement of storefronts.
Going from this
to this
across the entire map (a few hundred stores). For the current store level of quality it is not worth it. However later on I might be able to get more value out of it for numerous reasons. Automating the production of storefront visuals allows me to:
- Easily add and distribute new door styles
- Easily load out and reload a custom level of detail storefront
- Work more with procedural generation which is something I usually like doing
I’m aware the current storefronts are a bit bland though - I’m working on a list of brands that I think will really bring the map to life + give me ample opportunity to add easter eggs and memes that will be outdated by the time the game is playable.
Real Life Stuff
I’ve begun the process of moving to a new apartment! This is both good and bad. The good news is the new apartment has room for me to get my own office + cheaper rent (it’s farther from the downtown area, hence higher quality for less money), which will allow me to not only get more work done, but stay in business longer as my operating costs will be lower. The bad news is that a few days in the month of August I’ll be busy moving and cleaning, and that will temporarily hurt my productivity. Let’s see if I can get some cool stuff out by then though!
Talk to y’all next week!