It’s been a couple weeks again, between some contract work, some Covid at home (not for me though! four years in and still dodging the hell virus) and a bunch of life admin I’ve had to slow down a bit on Exoloper. I’ve managed to put a couple rather beefy things into the game though, so thats good. Lets kick off with how the game’s feeling and sounding right now: ...

This week had a lot of errands to run, and a lot of fussing about with stuff that wasn’t Exoloper related, but I still managed to get a chunk of cool stuff in. It’s super encouraging to see how quickly I can add new and interesting types of content to the game, from maps, to weapons to ai archetypes. All hallmarks of a set of core systems that empower this kind of work. One thing im kinda toying with in the back of my mind is streamlining all these processes further by adding better editor tools, but my biggest angst here is the potential bugs with those same tools. I’ll think on it. ...

Continuing with the theme of building out the games graphics, this week has been tying up the final bits and bobs for the intro industrial campaign. That includes building models for weapons and utilities, and building the hangar environment for both the menu and the drop sequence. I’ve taken the approach of using a little bit of stuff rom interloper, but for the most part making new elements that look and feel appropriate in atmosphere, and that suit a more modular use case. ...

School holidays have struck. It’s the first time they’ve meant anything to me in nearly twenty years, which.. even writing that makes my back ache. This means I’m short a few days this week and last. In what time I have had though I’ve spent working on all sorts of little graphical bits and bobs for Exoloper, starting with Enemies. Don’t talk to me or my son ever again. ...

This week was a little on the dry side. Mostly spent my time noodling away building out maps for the forest campaign. They’re coming along nice and have some lovely vibes. With these environment assets I’ve been trying to balance out the game design elements of providing cover, destructible terrain and open spaces with the aesthetics and story I’m trying to tell here. In my mind the games that fuse their mechanics with their narrative, or even better tell their narrative via the mechanics and visuals are the best forms of video games. You can force a story down a players throat, give them fully cinematic voice acted cutscenes, but really that’s just a slightly interactive movie. On the other end of that spectrum, you can give them the barebones of a story, put them into a place and time, give them some pointers and let them go. The story is theirs at that point, they can fill in the details as needs be. ...

Tomorrow is a public holiday here in Australia, so I’m pushing up this post a day early (also.. technically a week late?) These past two weeks have has had me in full steam towards making more art assets for Exoloper. The game just needs a lot of art, and while I could certainly make my life a lot easier by ignoring textures the way I did in Interloper, I think that added.. well.. texture will ground the game so much more, as it gives a sense of scale to the geometry. ...

Still punching my way through the art assets for the demo campaign this week. Got a little sidetracked working on biome generation for the campaign map, but overall pretty happy with the way it’s all coming together. Spent my time working on bigger pieces. Turns out the most time consuming part of this week was actually creating the military trim sheet texture. I’m learning as I’m both texturing using trim sheets and generating new trim sheets that the hard part is making the sheet itself, as they actually kinda build the verbiage for the things I’m constructing. ...

I was surprised this week after I’d gotten through my tasks just how much a little bit of art can make such a huge difference to a game. To be clear surprise is maybe not the right word, as much as maybe… taken back? This happens every time I make a game. It’ll go from looking like absolute rubbish, to looking kinda ok if you squint and look at the phone from the other side of the room, to having the rough colour pallet and then boom, looks like a full game, and every time this last stage happens is exactly when I know I’m onto something. ...

After finishing up some final work in the UI early this week, ending nearly three months worth of work, I decided to do something thats just pure serotonin for my brain. (graphics, UI, pretty much everything, as always is placeholder). Warping onto the battlefield After selecting a campaign, building your roster, customising your units and readying for a drop, the menu will fade away and you’ll fade into a first person view of the Exobay. There you’ll go through a preflight check inside your Exo, powering up your batteries, igniting your engines, loading your weapons and booting your radar. When the sequence is complete you are warped down to the planets surface, and must immediately contend with clearing out a landing zone. ...

This past three weeks has been for the most part a complete mess. I’ve been in the process of moving house, but it’s not just any move, it’s unpacking a whole lot of stuff we had in storage for the past two years. It’s moving from a smaller unit into a bigger one, working on getting setup more permanently. In other words, its been a hectic time for me personally. ...