Weekly update 5 (Patreon)

What's being worked on?

Rig and toy structure

This is the main thing I've been doing for a while- simplifying the entire pipeline for creating content for the game. Reorganizing and renaming the bones, animations, and assets for things to be consistent and easily referenced. This is stuff that wasn't a problem back when there weren't many characters/toys, but got more complex as things were added.

I now have the entire pipeline for toys mapped out, but not fully implemented yet. If it works well, I can use the same system for clothing and the actual npcs. 

The main idea is to be able to add toys, clothing, or new characters, with minimal fussing around with data files. If they're added to the rig in the animation software, I can just name it in the data file, and the game will find all the correct animations and assets to use. 

This is a massive improvement in general, cause it speeds up content creation significantly, but it'll also be vital for the next big update. Portals will put heavy strain on the toy creation process due to how the game will see portalled parts. 

So yeah, I figured out the general idea, but gotta test the implementation. Speaking of which...

Entity Component System

An ECS is a coding pattern that's especially useful for games. During a stream conversation/therapy session, I was forced to admit I probably needed to use this for toys. 

An example of a problem that an ECS solves looks like this:

A dildo can be inserted, moved by the player, and vibrated. A (hypothetical) dildo-gag could be inserted, but not moved or vibrated. A (hypothetical) portalled dick could be inserted and moved, but not vibrated. 

The game has toys, clothing, and body parts. The dildo is a toy. But is the gag a toy, or clothing? Is the dick a toy, or a body part? Do I code toys, clothing, and body parts completely differently? No, cause that'd be really annoying (but also, that's what I did).

An ECS doesn't force me to categorize them so rigidly. It mixes and matches traits to game objects that need them.

Adding this will probably go in stages, with minimal implementation in the next released version, and more as we go along. If it seems like a rabbit hole, I'm gonna pull out of this one and wait. I think it'll actually save time on the implementation of how toys work, but we'll see. 

Game Camera

De-derping the game camera has been a fun challenge. I think it's in a releasable state for now. Still derpy though >.>

UI/UX

I've been learning about UI design for a while, hoping to get a better sense of this aspect of game design. Along the way I've also been testing using an HTML layer over top of the game itself. Essentially treating some of the UI like a regular web page. That'd let me avoid having to meticulously code basic windows and dropdowns and crap, which are the absolute bane of my existence. 

I'll talk about UI design more when it's the focus, since it's not for this update, but my tests have been super successful! 

Q&A

When game done?

The pipelines I mentioned earlier need to function, and then all I need is to test basic animations, and do a full feature QA check. So, it's looking pretty good on the code end! If the animation stuff will take a while, I'll disable some features until they're ready, and enable them as they're finished. So, once the rig/toy pipeline is working, I'll be in the final sprint to getting another playable build out.

Another month with no new build posted. It hurts me to see it happen. All I can say is- thank you for your support during this long dev cycle. I can't fucking wait to be back in a normal content release schedule.

Okay also, I know I said I'd start adding screenshots but honestly all I've been looking at all week is terminals, console dumps, and errors. Maybe I'll make a collage of them next time xD

That's all for now! <3