How to write a devlog

DEVLOG: NOVEMBER 3RD, 2021

Update 1: The game is out of ALPHA, and we are beginning development of BETA 1 in earnest. With this new feature implemented (Visual Novel Cutscenes with VN Builder), All Major Features planned to be implemented have been added and bugfixed. The town is more or less in it’s final form, other levels will be added as needed, but overall the town is mostly done. There are many different character types added, new characters will of course be added as development continues. Easy Survival RPG V2.5 is the perfect framework for development. The Hub World is nice and ready for further expansion. Basically all major systems are done, no new major systems are planned, and although many major systems will be expanded and improved, the overall framework for development is done, and we can start building our BETA, with a beginning a middle and an end. Although that’s not quite how things work in this game.

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PLANNED FEATURES:

• Implement all the existing cutscene data into the game and write dialogue for it in VNBuilder.
• Expand the story further, with new quests, and characters with missions, motivations and beliefs.
• Expand the town, you can always make it bigger.
• Bring over license owned Daz Environments, one by one, EXPAND THE TOWN.
• A well thought out and well written story, with dark themes.
• Add new characters to the game.
• Add new enemies to the game.
• Expand the Hub World.
• Add Music to every level in the game.
• Create new Story Scenes.
• A Beginning.
• A Middle.
• An End.

When completed the game will be Beta 1. And I can start developing further betas, until the game is saleable, and vastly improved. It will take approximately 2 or 3 years.

ISSUES/PROBLEMS:

When implementing VNBuilder, a bug popped up, where I couldn’t pick up any weapons. They still had the UI and made the pickup sound, but I couldn’t actually add them to my inventory. After talking to the ESRPG V2.5 Discord members, it turned out I needed to add the new code for VN Builder in the base character class, instead of the instanced character blueprint, this resolved the problem fully and now visual novel segments can be implemented without any problem.

Implementing VNBuilder itself was quite challenging, I had to sit down and work on that problem for the entire day. The documentation made it seem like it would be a relatively brief task, but it was not, a great deal of modification and complex new code needed to be created. Interconnected systems had to be working in tandem. It is not the most complex to implement with standard features out of the box, but if you want to be able to walk up to a character or actor and start a visual novel cutscene, then return to normal control, then you will need to do a bit of rigging, and it is not immediately apparent how the dev’s code will be achieved in blueprint. It took the whole day, but I got it running.

Certain enemy types just would not rig their skeletons correctly, anatomy was pulled perpetually to the side, or limbs would spiral like spaghetti in a demonic and parasitic manner. Many of these attempts had to be abandoned. One of the most misshapenly broken enemy was so humorously broken it was retained as a full on usable enemy type in the Hell World.

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What worked well?

Building the town turned out to be a breeze in this update, after tearing apart the teleporter blueprint and making it into a more standard box collider teleporter while still retaining all the character code transitions from scene to scene. The town now feels really nice and easy to move around in, there’s lots of shortcuts, and you can move through all the different sections really well. The town is very beautiful, and the assets are commercial grade.

The Boss Den turned out to be a really excellent area, it was acquired through the asset store and is found in the hong kong alleyway, all the strongest enemies are there and it is the most difficult section of the game so far. A connection between the boss den and the hub world map has been created through the use of mirrors. There is also a mirror to teleport you to the main suburban neighborhood.

The production of new enemy types proceeded at a good pace, and new enemies were churned out excellently, and sufficient to fill the game with a diverse range of enemies for the various environments. There were relatively few errors encountered along the way.

Easy Survival RPG V_2.5 was the perfect framework for development, although it was highly expensive, costing about 400 dollars off of sale, it was such an improvement, and so feature rich, that it was worth every penny, even just to not wait for a sale.

Conclusion:

Development on ALPHA proceeded faster than I had ever possibly expected, what I had forecast as months of work, was completed in less than two weeks. We have arrived at BETA development a lot faster than I had ever possibly expected. I can now start getting the game whipped into shape, and just expand on the existing systems. All major systems planned have been implemented, and now need only improvement and expansion.

I look forward to developing this game into a saleable state and I hope that development proceeds as fast as the previous stages did, although any saved time will be used to expand the game further should development move way too fast, in the best of case scenario.

Check out this breakdown of how to write a devlog at indie game dev .net if you want more information.

Thank you for your time!