Greetings Pioneers!

Our next release is coming as soon as possible and should include shiny new build assets, interior lights and the new fortification system. There are just a few remaining issues to fix before we can confidently push it out to you all.

We have done a lot of debugging this week in order to try and solve some of the potential issues with runaway memory use on the servers. We think we have resolved them for the next release! This should mean more stable servers reducing the frequency in which they need to be re-set.

In between getting this release ready we have been continuing work on upcoming features including the new inventory system, new AI and new structures.

Here is what we’ve been working on this week:

John – Lead Designer

I have been planning production for the next few months, working on further designs for the fortifications, the introduction sequence and story beats for gameplay while helping the guys out with implementation like a boss!

Matt – Art Director

Focused on mesh cleanup for the new build interior and fortification set. Made some critical post process tweaks to compliment our new interior lights as well. Also did a talk for students at Burton college yesterday which I thoroughly enjoyed 🙂

Will be moving swiftly onto character armour meshes in preparation for setting up our new inventory items for crafting of armour pieces.

Lee – Technical Director

So this week I continued work towards finishing off the new SwampSnake, which will be a water based creature. I’ve also made a few changes to how creatures get spawned so we can try to confine certain types to certain types of Biomes. I’m also trying to get some time to focus on bugs which have cropped up of the last few weeks.

Marcin – Designer

What have I been working on this week? What have I not? 🙂 As it turns out variety is not only the spice of life, but also of game development. I have been working on another pass of the survival mechanics designs, character stats, progression, but also the Eden Kit Shield designs. On top of that I have been fixing the turrets, which suffered a massive bug-blow after the server optimisations a few updates back.

My apologies for not noticing that straight away. I also fixed a few issues with Ikas’ and Vipers’ ram attack, which was coming out of sync in multiplayer. Finally, with Matt and Joe. I have been putting my finishing touches on the new primitives and fortifications.

Tristan – Senior Developer

This week I have mostly been at the top of a mountain but I thought I best get back to it so here I am. I have been profiling and looking into server and client issue regarding large structures and working with Yves to come up with some solutions for it. I have also been working on production as well as a fix for replication large power networks.

Yves – Senior Developer

Yves has been fixing some major bugs this week including several issues with build caused by some of the optimisation work. He has also found and fixed an illusive server memory leak, what a hero! Understandably too busy to write his blog this week as he still has things to fix, a hero’s job is never done…

Ricky – Developer

Continuing work on the new Inventory system implementation and UI. This week specifically I have Implemented systems for Item Categories for filtering the new menus, Finished Technical design for the new tab menu interactions including drag drop, and

Joe – Environment Artist

Firstly I finished my work on the visuals on the second Build Set’s fortifications and set them up in-engine – we just need functionality to swap between these sets. I created new simple icons for Primitives, Foundations, Fortifications and some Utilities to make the build menu easier to understand for when we add these new visuals.

Closer to the end of the week I helped with setting up the new Structure assets to fix bugs we found in testing. Finally, I mocked up a new style build wheel based on designs and feedback from Marcin and John!

Tom – Character Artist

Baked out the textures and did a quick paint over for another one of our creatures. I’ll be sharing images of the new fauna and enemies as soon as they are in game!

Lauren – Animator

This week I have been working on Splintermite Queen animations, this giant will emerge from the hives of Splintermites as an additional defence to bypass. I have also been working with Lee to refine the Swamp Snake attacks now that we have them swimming around in our test level pond.

Andy – Lead QA

This week I’ve been working with Yves to try and solve the issue with our server saves and testing all the lovely new build assets and lights.

See you in the Fray

-Team Flix