Greetings Pioneers!

There may or may not be something in store for people to test soon, hint hint. We’re really pushing to tie up some loose ends with the gameplay, adding back in pre-existing destructible outposts and really focusing on making the mining feel better. We’re really excited to see how people engage with the new crafting levels, so it’s closing to the point where community feedback is going to be essential.

Here’s what we’ve all been upto:

John - Lead Designer

Triage is the word of the week. At the beginning of each week we make sure that we have the priority bugs and tasks in order so that we can get maximum gameplay value out of the improvements we’re making to the game as a whole. The final tutorial elements for the beginning of the game is going in, which explains why your RMD (Tool) is damaged from the beginning (due to the protonic EMP blast suffered as you make landfall)

Matt - Art Director

I’ve been processing the new mineral rocks for use in engine. We’ve had a few playthrough reviews that have come back which have meant a few changes to the rock sizes and chunk amounts. We’ve managed to get it pretty much nailed down as to what we think feels best..

Before there weren’t enough chunks to break off on minerals with the assets also being too large. So we’ve scaled those down and re-chunked them to make them more interesting to mine! It’s actually feeling very similar to what we had on the current steam version.

Lee - Technical Director

Been looking at and mostly scratching my head over issues with some of the AI floating in particular area of the levels. Good news is this isn’t a game breaking bug! I’ll be helping Lauren implement sounds for the Stalker soon as well.

James - Environment Artist

This week I finished working on two additional rocks of awesomeness that the player can mine for some sweet minerals. A gold and silver rock. Those lovely golden nuggets, too bad they aren't filled with sugar.



Joe - Lead Artist

More small bits for the UI this week, I carried on with the boot sequence and got it to a stage where it can be disabled/enabled easily and added the art for a notification pop-up that’ll let you know when you’ve discovered a new Data Log entry. Lots of bug fixes too!

OG Tom W - Designer

This week I have been testing and analysing the new crafting and building systems and the progression through them. This has lead to a slight redesign of the crafting progression to include more of the original buildables and items alongside new components.

Captain Tom - Designer

Looked at clean up work on our sandy material along with how it blends with the current rock. Including some finer details such as glistening particles.



Katrine - 3D Artist

Hello everyone! This week I have been working on some health crate assets, to make sure you are all keeping healthy out there in space. It is not done yet, but I will add some renders of it in next weeks blog post!

Tom H - Designer

This week I have been placing new spawners for our AI creatures around certain areas of the map, these areas act as points of interest for players when they are exploring the harsh environment in this world. These sections include wreckage sites from ships, tree locations and interesting rock formations. Be careful when exploring these areas as these creatures are not to be underestimated!

John S - Developer

Had Ricky review the additional work I’ve put in for the fuel system. It’s about 70% there, there’s quite a bit of UI work to go in to inform players of their fuel consumption next. Then this all needs testing!

Will H - 3D Artist

I have spent this week starting on replacing some of the placeholder assets, primarily for the Dam area. This week was focused on creating a modular pipe system that the player will be able to walk around in.



Charlotte - Concept Artist

This week I made a few minor changes to the boot sequence in addition to concepting up a Relay Unit, ready for James to model.

Ryan - Developer

I have worked with Joe to add the data log entry notifications and environment oxygen alerts. I have also been fixing more bugs and crashes with modules and buildables.

Mike - Developer

Diagnosing and prioritising bugs for release. This week my priority has been working to fix the pause menu functions such as saving and loading and exiting to the main menu.

John T - Environment Artist



This week I have been busy producing all the droppable items for the fabricator. These small items will represent the craftables when dropped from the inventory. I have also started to produce the in game points of interest using the Dev scrap building modules, which players will be able to modify and adapt to their own use. Or just smash to pieces...



Andy - Lead QA

This week I have been clearing up the list of known bugs/fixes. Testing more of the guys fixes and testing out the new fists melee that has been implemented.

Jamie - QA

This week I’ve been testing out the first implementation of the new fuel system and along the way I’ve been finding new bugs and crashes for the Dev team to fix. I’ve also been testing some new changes for the build system and interactions in the game.

See you in the fray!

-Team Flix

Greetings Pioneers!

This week at Flix HQ our testers have been on our newly installed giant hamster wheel blasting through a bunch of single player bugs, and retesting ones that have come back from being fixed. Wonder boy Carlos has been implementing our default defence mechanism of punching, and a digger working on the grounds fell over.

But wait, more exciting things have happened.. here’s what we’ve all been upto:

John - Lead Designer

Organisation of the testing team is in full motion. There have been some changes for the better introducing a more dedicated testing team, as we’ve brought them up to speed we’ve been pulling out changes and tweaks through playing builds so we can properly see what is still missing from the player experience. As mentioned previously we’ll be pushing for something we can get onto steam as soon as we’ve properly implemented the changes needed to pull the full experience together.

Matt - Art Director

So there are some aspects of the game that have been in constant review over the last few days, tutorialisation being one aspect. It is a premium with our current setup where the pioneer is given a malfunctioning Tool Arm to repair. This is going to require UI elements to communicate across what is required to fix it, as well as audio that makes this very apparent to as a problem to a player. establishing what will/won’t visually work will by my focus with Joe going into next week.

Lee - Technical Director

Surprisingly AI issues have been quite sparse until this week, we’ve had a bunch of new bug reports come in on some creatures not behaving as we expect. Fixes are in hand once we can figure out what broke those aspects of their behaviours..



Carlos - Developer

This week I’ve been working on adding a default melee weapon to the character for when they have nothing else equipped. Lauren made the weapon, anims and AI reactions which all look amazing! I then worked on the logic to make this weapon become the default if nothing else is available to you guys, so you can punch your way through Pharus 8!



Best watched whilst listening to this - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I33u_EHLI3w
I’ve also been working with our designers to make the current weapons a little more flexible for them to make!

Joe - Lead Artist

I’ve spruced up the death screen so at least you’ll have something nice to look at if you trip and fall off the edge of the world. It’s a stopgap until we can do the full rework which will include more detailed statistics and make it much clearer how you died. I’ve also improved the placeholder Objectives window visuals, and I’m now finalising the boot sequence.

OG Tom W - Designer

This week I have been looking at getting more crafting and buildable up and running and fixes bugs across the board.

Tom H - Designer

This week I have been bug fixing all across the map, you can call me an exterminator I've gotten rid of so many bugs (sorry). Collision issues, floating assets, terrain and landscape deformations and AI spawning issues. I have looked at it all this week, and fixed as much as I can along the way!



I have also been implementing more corrupted tree locations into the map, these small oasis sections provide refuge in an otherwise dead environment, and can also provide you with valuable protonite and fibers, keep an eye out for these areas in the game and often hidden around rocks or in large open areas of the map.

James - Environment Artist

I’ve been working on some tasty (probably poisonous) mineral rocks for the player to mine. I’ve also started working on a radar dish.



Charlotte - Concept Artist

I have been continuing with some implementation of the boot sequence this week, in addition to some more keyframe animation creation with lots of tweaking!

Ryan - Developer

This week I worked on how modules handle/store energy and I have been working more with Jamie and Andy to clear out more bugs and crashes involving UI, dropbags and weapon attachments.

John T - Environment Artist



Previously I finished up one of our ventilation units for the Dam surface.. This week I've been producing extra drop assets for the fabricator. These small assets represent the produced items in game when they are dropped on the floor and in Icons.



Will H - 3D Artist

This week has been spent finalising the Quartz and Silicone nodes. Heavy focus on them looking more natural, so a rougher type of stone detailing was needed to help push this.



Lauren - Lead Animator

AI bugs have been the focus of this week, I've been working with Lee to find fixes for the remaining issues. Also I have been tweaking the animations for the flare while working on 3rd person animations for our new 'fists' melee....

Andrew H - QA

This week I have been ploughing through fixed bugs and tweaks, testing to make sure they are definitely fixed. Also I’ve been doing run throughs and exploring the map for anything that doesn’t look quite right. In doing so found a few pesky bugs that the guys will have no trouble ironing out.

See you in the fray!

-Team Flix

Greetings Pioneers!

The shiny new menus and the UI boot sequence for the start of the game have been getting implemented this week. Also this week the energy blade has been making its way back into game under the same format as our new melee system with blocking and parrying. Meanwhile an extra tester joins the team and more critical issues are continuing the be found and fixed up by the dev team.

Here’s what we’ve been up to in more detail:

John - Lead Designer

There has been a revelation, something that I've always felt to be true, yet only recently realised it. My children have breathed new passion into me with a new calling, paleontology. I just can’t get enough of uncovering old dinosaur bones. No doubt I’ll get bored of my new found love as soon as I return to the office, where my passion for AAA game making will be rekindled.



Matt - Art Director

The the art team have been focusing on cleaning up any of our blockout models that have existed in the game for quite a while, but unfortunately have not been important enough to receive any love up to this point. We’re also going to be stuck into the process of building smaller structures out of the in game build system which players will be able to pull apart and re-build.

A lot of polish has gone into the UI and menu systems, which has now been fully realised by Joe and Charlottes work. Very much looking forward to showing our new UI intro sequence in game!

Lee - Technical Director

This week I have been looking at some hard to produce bugs because they won’t happen all the time, like occasional clipping of AI through geometry. I’ve also tried to continue to focus on adding polish to the existing AI and making life as easy as possible for designers to add more behaviours.

Tristan - Lead Developer

I’ve been to all corners of the earth, nothing can satisfy my thirst for distant exploration on this globe anymore.. So I’ve taken it upon myself to take a week off to train as an astronaut so me and my partner can go sightseeing on the moon. I fear one day the moon may not satisfy my want for distant travel, and on that day I fear I may not have enough money to get home.



Joe - Lead Artist

I’ve pretty much finished the rework of our menu systems this week, and have been fixing up a few bugs and polishing animations. I have also been working through the “boot sequence” with Charlotte and reviewing various bits and pieces the other guys have been hammering through!



Captain Tom - Designer

Reviewing polish work that is going into the levels which is being driven by Tom Hughes. Bits of directional feedback that should hopefully make a big difference to smaller aesthetic touches.

Tom W - Designer

This week I have been going over the crafting and building designs to make sure you can still build and craft everything from before. Some of this has been changed to some that it has better context for our new raw materials. Also we have a couple for new components to streamline crafting and give components 2 or 3 uses in crafting and building.

Katrine - 3D Artist

Hello gamers! Lately I have been working on other projects here at Flix, however I did have some time for an Eden Star model this week! Say hello to a new fancy H2O Canister! Keeping you hydrated and fresh in the sandy dangerous lands of Eden Star. Top yourself up with at least three litres a day, sprinkled with some oxygen and you should be ready to soldier on.



Tom H - Designer

This week I have been implementing final touches to the AI inside the Dam as well as continuing to polish up these areas from a gameplay perspective, making sure the level design is fluid and clear so players will be able to guide themselves effectively through the Dam. Additionally I have been fixing up the edges of the Map with new rocks and structures, making sure there is no way players can get trapped inside rocks or in crevices. In addition to this I have been polishing up the landscape around these areas and adding in points of interest and rock formations.



James - Environment Artist

Been working on getting the new mineable rocks ready to rock *excuse the pun* along with working on a Satellite Dish to phone home!.

Charlotte - Concept Artist

Boot sequence is starting to really come together, we’re implementing the finishing touches to it at the moment and we’ll hopefully be ready to show it off in all its glory next week!

Ryan - Developer

I have been fixing more crashes and hard to track down bugs this week, these bugs have consisted of anything from tough multiplayer only bugs, to UI/Inventory bugs, duplication bugs and building bugs.

John T - Environment Artist

This week I have been working on getting the dev build tools fully functioning for our new Scrap build set. This will allow us to create new structures with the same mechanics as a player. Also this will allow player the cannibalise and adapt these premade structures as they see fit!



Will H - 3D Artist

I got down with a sickness this week, so not much to report, but I have been continuing to revise the mineral rocks when I can. The previous iteration had too much of a cobblestone look, so we are heading for a more singular, solid form.

Lauren - Lead Animator

The baton and the much loved Energy Blade have been getting some tlc this week, we wanted to bring them in line with the axe in terms of functionality. Now we have the ability to block and parry and now include deflected animations for hitting solid objects.

Andrew H - QA

This week I have been mainly trying to reproduce bugs that needed retesting. Most of which seem to have been resolved which is great.
Been working with Ryan on a game crashing bug, testing to figure out what is the main cause.
I have also dug out a few minor bugs for the team to tuck into.

See you in the fray!

-Team Flix

Greetings Pioneers!

The bugs list is getting crunched right down this week as the devs smash problems and implement fixes. On the art side of things, the opening sequence, UI menus, HUD elements, radiation zones and minable rock nodes have been receiving further passes as we tie more elements and systems together prior to release.

Here's what we've been up to in more detail:

John - Lead Designer

We’re continuing to ramp up debugging to get the game as clean as possible, this will involve a lot of playtesting and prioritisation of any remaining game breaking bugs until we get to a stage where most of the critical ones are wrapped up. The majority of new art asset content is now in the game, meaning we have worked it down to a handful of issues surrounding the visuals. communication with everyone is more paramount at this stage to push the quality up.

Matt - Art Director

We've whittled it down to a handful of 3D assets left to produce for our next update. Improvements aside there are a handful of pickup items that still need creating and polishing up along with a few structural elements that haven’t had much attention as of yet.

As insignificant as some structural elements may feel it still breaks immersion when you stumble across any untextured asset. I’ve been tackling quite a few lighting issues myself, and amending materials that are now requiring additional work due to some changes to their global values.

Lee - Technical Director

This week I have been looking at the turrets and seem to have it working well now. I’ve also been putting in some polish with the Stalkers and making some of the behaviour tasks easier for designers to implement. Finally today I have been adding some more debug information to the Gameplay Debugger which is one of those tasks I’ve been trying to get around too, but never do.

Joe - Lead Artist

I’ve been polishing and tidying up the Front-End, Pause menus and Options screens, finally implementing the new visuals from a while back. The options and game setup menus in particular will be much clearer, providing details on what each option actually does! In addition, I have been adding in the new reticles with Charlotte.

They will be much more dynamic, reacting to the player looking at mineables and hostiles, and will also make dealing damage more satisfying. Finally, added the StatusUpdate UI element for when you enter irradiated areas. Here’s a teaser, please understand this is a work in progress!



Tristan - Lead Developer

This week I have been looking into some collision issues in the engine to do with optimisations and foliage. I have also been looking into some of the more awkward issues to do with smash with Lee and Mike where the AI can tunnel through the world.

Carlos - Developer

I’ve completed our new shiny kinetic tool and have handed it over to test to make sure it’s ready! Aside from that I’ve been doing some lovely and much appreciated reviews for the team on some of their work, as well as diving back into the respawning logic to hopefully resolve our inventory bug!

Tom S - Developer

This week i’ve been putting the final touches on the rework of the LookAt/Scanner System. Before the change, you could only interact with what you’re directly looking at; not totally a bad thing, but when the object is an odd shape, it could feel frustrating when it was no longer focused when you expected it to be. Now, instead of needing pixel perfect precision, you can be pretty sloppy with where you’re looking now, as long as you’re roughly looking at something, it’ll pick it up!

James - Environment Artist

I have been sculpting some really nice gold and silver mineable rocks that our super talented concept artist Charlotte whipped up!. I also have been adding the final touches to a really interesting traversable section of the map which includes some interesting finds for the player along with the final touches to a console of which the player can interact with.



Ricky - Lead Developer

Helping resolve some spring cleaning crashes and getting the old fortifications system back up and running on buildings.

Tom H - Designer

This week I have been designing and finalising some more areas of the landscape and terrain, ensuring the cliffs are lined up properly, the rock assets are placed correctly and everything matched up in the landscape. As well as this I have continued with my foliage placement work and mineral placements around the map, ensuring I balance the right amount of mineables for players to use and can gain mineral from.

I have also created new parts of the map to connect up existing roads around the transmitter and near the silo, these roads now connect to underground tunnels that have since been caved in, and also stretch around to the dreaded irradiated areas of the map, ready for exploration in the future.

Will H - 3D Artist

Some time has been spent polishing up the radiation effects from the previous week since they were looking a little flat. The boundary of the radiation zone now shows thick billowing clouds rising from ground. This may be pushed further soon using a mesh with animated clouds on its surface.



I have also spent time working on new minerals for players to hack at for crafting materials, mainly the silicon and quartz nodes. It took some time to achieve a natural look with these. In the end, we opted for minerals emerging from a more igneous type of rock.



John S - Developer

Continuing to implement fuel mechanics into existing Utilities throughout the game!

Charlotte - Concept Artist

This week I have started to implement the reticles I concepted into the engine, in addition to starting on the keyframe animations in Unreal for the opening boot sequence which me and Joe created pre-vis for a couple weeks ago.



Ryan - Developer

I have finished making changes to the crafting menu so it will now indicate newly craftable makeshift items and any items that are not craftable due to lack of resources will be grayed out. I have also continued clearing bugs around multiplayer, UI, gamepad inputs and a few crashes.

Mike - Developer

The melee blocking system was finally finalised and is now fully implemented in its final form. In addition I fixed a bug in the save/load system which cause all player made structures to spawn in the world invisible, and prepared the enemy health indicators for multiplayer.

Right now I’ve just started working on a silly bug: In the even one should throw oneself off a cliff, under the specific circumstances that they are bearing a melee weapon and pause the game at some point before impact, you can cancel out your vertical velocity. Meaning that running off a cliff and rapidly pausing and unpausing means you get to glide over large distances.

That was all last week, however. This week I fixed that falling bug, it was just a small issue involving the transition of player states that took a long time to definitively find. After that I did some multiplayer map management diagnosis to ensure replication was being kept to a minimum - basically optimisation testing, since some numbers were looking a bit suspicious. Then I started working on the turret system for base building.

John T - Environment Artist

Working with Ricky and Tom to implement the remaining components of the new building assets that you will find in the world. We’ll be pre-building these in place of smaller outpost structures so you can rip them apart and build in their place if you so desire.



I've also been working with Tom to improve the PBR shading within interior spaces, some things are far too shiny at the moment but with the introducing of texture masks to dull areas out there should be much nicer contrast between surfaces overall.

Lauren - Lead Animator

Recently I have been putting together the flare, as shown at the end of last week’s blog video, the flare is a throwable light source you can use to quickly illuminate dark areas. The Energy Blade and Baton have also been getting a revamp animation and functionality wise to bring them in line with the new melee weapons. I have also been working on a short part of the opening sequence where you put on your breather mask to protect against the harsh atmosphere in exterior areas.



See you in the fray!

-Team Flix

Greetings Pioneers!

Some crucial bugs have been fixed this week. Building now works without your structures turning invisible, progress! With this level of re-working, you’d be surprised what will break in the process.. The Auto Turrets have also had a fix up as we continue to power through the remaining issues prior to release.

On the art side of things, roads and areas are being joined and tidied up, new meshes for minable nodes are being crafted and the radiation zone visuals have been coming together. Also a new throwable light source, the flare has been receiving animations and particle effects.

As a change of pace we’re leaving you with some gameplay footage that we’ve put together. This does not represent the finished release! But it should give everyone a taster of the new mechanics, UI, and gameplay itself.

https://youtu.be/jrQgEUvcXLQ

We’ll do a full breakdown of what people have been working on next Friday, to restore normal service.

See you in the Fray

- Team Flix

Greetings Pioneers!

The customisation screen for the start of the game has been tested and is mostly working! with just some visual refinements to make, as well as any replication setup so that it all works in multiplayer. New visuals for the Proto-Radiation zones have been in development and the very basic ‘weapon’ of your ‘own two fists’ has now been finished, so you can get to punching aliens in the face.

Here’s what we’ve been up to in more detail:

John - Lead Designer

There’s been a lot work put in this week ensuring there’s a premium placed on destructible buildings within the world. We’ve begun prepping certain levels for the destruction elements in anticipation of building in the existing structures that John and Charlotte have been putting together. This will offer back up the pre-built bases you can stumble across throughout the world.

Matt - Art Director

Making some quite extensive revisions to the Transmitter Tower after playtesting identified we were not getting the most out of the existing gameplay mechanics. There’s been a push to get the Character customisation screen visually up to scratch after the main functionality of it has now been implemented, so there’s some interesting character Combos you’ll be able to assemble when we push this update out!



Lee - Technical Director

In between fixing bugs that Lauren has found with the AI reaction work, I have managed to get a good chunk of time to look at Turrets. They were in a sorry state with all the changes we have been making to different systems, but I think I can now see light at the end of the tunnel. I have a working Turret, with just a few bits of polish left to apply.

Katrine - 3D Artist

I worked on some level design and asset placement this week, placing clusters of loot around in the world. I also worked on some of the cliffs, making sure that they look natural and varied.



Tristan - Lead Developer

This week I have been looking at some the less noticed bugs such as collisions on foliage not being reactivated when they regrow. This is something left over from an engine update but we have tracked down the issue and are now determining how best to resolve it and not break any more recent engine updates. I have also been reviewing lots of the new code and bug fixes coming in and it's looking good all round.

Captain Tom - Designer

Now that I’m back from my holiday, I’ve gotten straight back into the thick of it, optimising and reworking left and right, smacking bugs into orbit and generally getting things nice and polished up for when you finally get your hands on the build. Enjoy the lovely screenshots!



Carlos - Developer

I’ve implemented our new cool shiny Kinetic tool, its now been handed over to our QA team to start testing it. I’ve also been taking a deep dive into the engine to hopefully start sorting out some of our inventory problems which are unfortunately still plaguing us!

Tom S - Developer

This week i’ve been mostly working on being able to interact with things when they’re not quite on the reticule. Having it being quite forgiving makes it feel much smoother, especially when there’s a lot of things to pick up. Still a ways to go in getting it to feel just right, but we’ve made good progress so far!

Joe - Lead Artist

Lots of little extra bits from me this week, I put together some basic visuals for our new UI tutorialisation, added functionality to the new in-world door UI and tidied up much of the UI and lighting for the Front End Character Customisation screen, which is now fully functional!



John S - Developer

Finished the core work around the character customisation system, this has gone onto Art and UI to add the finishing touches.



James - Environment Artist

This week, I worked on sections of the map, adjusting terrain for nice rolling hills and heights for the player to transverse over, adding cliffs/rocks for some nice visual breaks along with some sweet l00t and mineral placement around the map for the player to go and discover.

Charlotte - Concept Artist

This week I continued with concepting individual pieces of the breakable build set ready for John to create in 3D, which I've seen progress of throughout the week and they're looking really great so far! In addition to this I've completed the final designs for the silicon, gold and silver rock nodes you guys will be able to mine. They went through a lot of iteration and I experimented with some cool shapes that may become rarer rock types in the future!



Ryan - Developer

The past week I have been working with Jamie and Mike to remove the most critical bugs that plagues Eden Star. This meant that most of my bugs this week have been bugs with multiplayer around crafting, weapons and player stats like hydration and health.

Tom H - Designer

This week I have been working on one area in the game to ensure the landscape is as natural looking and fun as can be. Asset placements and landscape changes are the aim of the game when creating areas that are fun to explore and also allow you to have a sense of direction, ensuring no matter where you are you can see a way back. I have aimed to achieve this in this area.



As well as this I have also been placing the mineable elements in this area to ensure exploration is rewarded and players looking for progression will be able to have it by wandering through this area. This coupled with the new cliff placements will give you guys an area rich and interesting to explore.

Mike - Developer

Performed some fixes for Multiplayer, relating to account names and UI display as well as a few game mechanics which broke when run online. Also had a few strategy meetings on cleaning up some of the bigger bugs in the game right now.

John T - Environment Artist

This week I have been focused on the planning and production of the assets which will make up a new buildable set used for populating the world. These rundown structures will be entirely destructible and provide the player with resources or a ready built structure to expand off!



Will H - 3D Artist

This week has briefly been spent texturing the Lift from last week. The initial colour scheme was tweaked to match the surrounding in game assets, opting for a more military green.
For the rest of the week, I have been figuring out the visuals for a radiation zone, which will be situated at the edge of the playable area. This involved transitioning into a much harsher post process effect mixed with some particle effects to further push the feeling of the surrounding radiation.



Lauren - Lead Animator

Many bits and pieces for me this week such as weapon and AI balancing, setting up the breather meshes (to have glass, be skinweighted and work on both male and female meshes), updating the animations for first person grenade and spear locomotion, fixing up AI spawners in multiplayer, improving various attack animations and testing the AI...

Besides all that I have managed to make a start on the player 'fists' melee moves such as straight punches and left and right hooks so that even when you have no weapon equipped, you can still use your arms to defend yourself (though they won't be as effective as swinging an axe around)...



Jamie - QA

This week I’ve been working with Mike and Ryan to get some major bugs fixed and signed off. I’ve been doing fps tests across the game to see where we have had the biggest fps drops and what has been causing the frames to drop. I also tested out the new pioneer customisation screen and gave feedback on that.

See you in the fray!

- Team Flix

Greetings Pioneers!

It has been another week of integrating and fixing this week, RMD - Tool modules with the build systems being the main focus. We want to be sure you can still work your way up to be the badass with the kinetic cyborg arm, even if you now start off with little more than an axe pulled out of somebody’s dead face…

Regarding the pending release…

Our initial anticipated release date was pointed out as the ‘end of July’, which is fast approaching, however as we said, it has always been a target estimate. We are super busy at the moment working on multiple projects and so we still feel we need more time to benchmark an enjoyable experience with the core mechanics, making them fun, functional, logical and the major game/fun-breaking bugs, fixed. This is unfortunately not looking likely for the end of July but John is assessing progress this weekend and will update you up with progress on outstanding tasks as soon as possible!

Some of the core links for progress are still flakey at this stage, we need more “wiring” in the world currently as a salvageable resource (for example!) in order for you to then easily craft the Repaired Emergency Build Module. In addition to this we need the new Kinetic Manipulation Module in the game to perform the functionality of the previous Kinetic Blast and Energy Harness modules (mining tool + Fuel as ammo), once you gather the materials and workstations to build it. Smash will now be the final upgrade to this rather than being available from the start allowing us to overpower it a little, balanced against fuel use.

The changes we have made to the progression, crafting and build modules are extensive as we shift the starting configuration to be more ‘left defenceless’ and less ‘left slightly damaged but still a supersoldier’. We hope this will lead to a more intense experience as you battle creatures in hand to hand combat with makeshift melee weapons being the staple for the start of the game; from survival to domination.

On the art and level design side of things, it has been all hands on deck to populate the world with clusters of material nodes and points of interest ‘jackpots’ for Pioneers to explore, discover and loot.

Multiple AI fixes have also been achieved, but in the process of fixing one of the core bugs, some of them have been temporarily broken, we’re working on it! They are really starting to come together now otherwise. The player customisation screen has also been in development this week, with new options for selecting options for the visuals of your character available at the start of the game.

Some of the major things left to fix:

Crashes in multiplayer
Broken AI
Hit reactions bugs
Not attacking - Some of the planners are currently broken + Balancing needed
Build tool
Picking up items being unforgiving
Player movement needing balancing
Player animation bugs
Player weapon and AI balancing
Cleaning up Build Tool so that it works as it does in the current Steam release

Major Features remaining:

Radiation zoning
Fuel in Utilities and Defences
Fuel in Tool Modules

There's a new gameplay video coming soon.... for now here’s what we’ve been up to this week in more detail:

John - Lead Designer

I’ve been running around in reviews all week, attempting to grab a spare minute to organise the remaining tasks and external team members. This weekend I’m going to be reviewing the latest build to check on player-facing progress and to prioritise our last remaining sprints.

Matt - Art Director

So we’ve done a huge optimisation pass on the whole Areas we’re looking at releasing, which included distance LODs and lighting tweaks. We’re now at a constant high frame rate across the game, which we’re still squeezing for more performance up till that last stages. We’ve been working through all the blockout assets left in the game as well as focusing on the quality of the mineral placement throughout the relevant levels.

Lee - Technical Director

So this week I found a rather elusive bug with our AI planners, which I fixed. Unfortunately this fix also exposed some underlying issues with the AI planners in blueprint, which I have been desperately trying to find time to fix. As it stands, I’m partially through fixing them, but not quite finished, which means Matt was a rather disappointed along with other members of the art team because they wanted to put a showreel together today with the AI, but alas its not to be :)

Katrine - 3D Artist

This week I finished up the axe materials and textures and added it in the game. Thanks for the feedback from the community! It means a lot to hear what the players think about the art we put in the game.



Tristan - Lead Developer

This week I have been going through code reviews and bug fixes galore. I have also been looking into getting the good old trusty tool back up and running as we don’t want to be taking the fun out of the game.

Joe - Lead Artist

More optimisation this week, specifically with lighting. I’ve also been reviewing and nosing around the awesome new art the guys have been working on. The world is really starting to come together!

I have also been populating one of the levels in the world, trying to make the landscape a beautiful journey with lots of minable goodies and open spaces to build bases.

Tom H - Designer

This week I have been going through one of the levels on the mpa to ensure the balancing of the minerals and mineable foliage is good, creating new rocky formations and soaring hills for you to explore!

Tidying up a lot of the landscape in these areas also means dealing with new ways to guide you through the world and find different locations within the level. Always looking to help you orient yourself in the world and fine new points of interest to interact with!

Charlotte - Concept Artist

At the start of the week I worked on refining some of the previous reticle designs which will need to be implemented, along with some additional discussion to how they would be animated when pointed at certain things.



Asides from this, I have also been creating more strange rock formations that could be mined, in addition to a new destructible build set which will include things like walls, windows, foundations, doors and stairs. We're going for a more simplistic, slightly retro inspired look with this one!



John S - Developer

Submitted the rest of the work on the character customisation system for review with the rest of the team!

Ryan - Developer

Hey everyone, this week I have been developing craftable item notifications to help out new players. The notification will only display once and inform the player that they can now craft a makeshift item. I have also continued to fix bugs around the spears, weapons and inventory.

James - Environment Artist

Worked on populating an area of the map with wrecked ship debris set, placed rocks in such a way to break the skyline with an interesting silhouette, blended some rock debris texture with sand texture for a nice fade off from the rock assets. Added minerals for the player to go find, some in interesting spots, others perhaps in risky places.



Mike - Developer

This week I’ve been on bug fixes again. At the start of the week fixed the aiming system for the 3rd person control system and repaired a weapon which crashed the game. From wednesday onwards I was fixing a bug in multiplayer which withheld player identities and health bars. It’s not completely resolved yet but effect of the final edge case is relatively insignificant and to fix it may require some restructuring of the code. Next week I’ll be looking at new features.

Tom S - Developer

This week i’ve been tackling the issue of having to be pixel perfect when looking at items to interact with them - instead, i'm making it more forgiving. If the item in front of you is near enough around your reticule, you can pick it up.

John T - Environment Artist

This week I have mainly focused on replacing and enhancing certain areas of the map in terms of lighting, efficiency and narrative. Alongside this have been replacing old structural assets with the newly created ones. Overall this gives a better aesthetic to the designs we have created.

Will H - 3D Artist

Some of this week has been spent creating low resolution distance meshes for the landscape geometry. This is done to make sure that performance doesn't suffer from keeping the high res meshes loaded. Currently, I am working on creating an elevator asset based on concept art, replacing the simple placeholder mesh that's been there for a while.



Lauren - Lead Animator

This week I have been focusing on the AI and player animated interactions. This included many tweaks to the death, the the ragdoll and the reaction animations. We now have a different set of reactions for when hitting the AI from the front to when you hit them from the side. Along with AI fixes so they play the correct reactions, this will help make them seem more believable.

We've still to finetune the balancing for them and fix the remaining bugs. As it goes with game development sometimes it can be two steps forward, one step back but we are slowly making progress.

In addition to this I have been fixing up the 1st and 3rd person movement animations to try and get them looking nicer.

Andy - Lead QA

This week I have been liaising with the new members of staff and reviewing their progress. A lot of these tasks were bugs or art test 3D models.
I have also been working closely with Rich our IT guys to get members of the team up and running with the correct hardware

Jamie - QA

This week I’ve been gathering the most game breaking bugs and assigning the dev team to them to make sure they get squashed. I’ve also been having a look at trying to make sure all the issues to do with the build system are being dealt with. Then lastly I’ve been catching more bugs and crashes to do with multiplayer.

See you in the fray!

-Team Flix

Greetings Pioneers!

This week more AI balancing and refinements have been under way. This includes many individual small tweaks that, while small individually, really work together to in order to provide the best experience when fighting the AI. Also this week the visual final pass has been completed for the Dam area with the new maintenance set and lighting passes. We have also been designing the opening sequence UI to give the player more information at the start of the game as to their current stats, status and story.

John - Lead Designer

Voyaged down to Develop conference for the most of this week. Caught up with a lot of the awesome people that we know from a studio perspective. In between and whilst travelling on the train, I’ve been triaging tasks that we have in the backlog of the game to better suit our evolving crew!

Matt - Art Director

Been pushing to get our process a bit more concise this week as well as drive some of the level placement work. Excited to say we’ve had a few new artists come on board which has given me a chance to spread the load a little in terms of producing the artwork itself. This is only a good thing as we can have more awesome artists working on important stuff all at the same time, instead of loading it all on to one really awesome artist.

Lee - Technical Director

I’ve been working to iron out more bugs with the new combat reactions for the AI. Lauren has been playing it to death to find bugs and tweaks which are still needed, but it’s starting to look very good indeed.

Tristan - Lead Developer

This week I have been helping out with some of our new devs get up to speed and ironing out some of the third person camera issues with them and reviewing code and more code. With some extra code.

Joe - Lead Artist

I’ve been going over the new HUD/UI “boot sequence” with Charlotte, which will add some nice world building and tutorialisation to the start of the game. I also finished the optimisation work for the first area, which is helping claw back some valuable frames!



Carlos - Developer

I have finally hunted down our gnarly inventory crash! I am victorious! Anyway… yes, I have restored the inventory which happened to go missing whenever the Pioneer died.
I’ve also been hunting down some of the other crashes which we seem to be getting on a regular basis.

Lastly, I’ve begun work on one of our new tool weapons, so you all have that to look forward to :)

Jon S - Developer

Moved a bunch of stuff that i’ve been working on for the player customisation over to development review this week. The character customisation feature displays during game setup giving the player complete control over how their character will look in the game world,
from body size to space suit colours and gender, the player is able to view a live model representation of their character in the menu and see these changes carried over to in-game. All changes pending review.

Charlotte - Concept Artist

So I started the week by finishing the lift concept art I was working with last Friday, then moved on to creating some storyboard images for the opening sequence of the UI that will display when you enter the game. Think of a computer booting up, that's the effect we want to recreate! In addition to this, I have also concepted some simplistic designs for different crosshairs/reticles and more realistic for destructible rocks you will be able to find like Silicon, Silver and Gold.





James Brady - Environment Artist

Started working on a console which one of our talented concept artists created. It will be featured in the Dam interior. The console will be featured in events and interactive through it’s fancy holographic display.

John T - Environment Artist

Finished the full pass of lighting improvements for the depths of the Dam interior. I’ve moved onto some minor improvements for the other base locations. A lot of light sources needed to be more obvious with brighter more contrasted fall off areas to create the long abandoned rundown mood that we wanted.

Katrine L - 3D Artist

Hello everyone, I am new at Flix and very excited to work on Eden Star! Today I started creating a scrap pickaxe from some awesome designs created by one of our talented concept artists. The axe is currently in highres, the next stages will be to bake it down and plug it in the game.



Lauren - Lead Animator

This week I have been refining the Stalker and other AI, balancing their attacks while testing them in multiplayer, reporting issues for Lee and smoothing the experience where I can. I have also been working on the physics for death ragdoll and setting up syncing of animations during locomotion so that the directional animations blend better from one to the other.



Jamie - QA

This week I’ve been doing lots of bug retesting and I’ve been looking closely at some new problems that have cropped up to do with multiplayer. Me and Ryan have been looking at ways to make our bugs board more accessible for the team to help identify and find bugs that have already been made.

See you in the fray!

-Team Flix

Greetings Pioneers!

Major bug fixes have been achieved this week and the AI are feeling a lot better for it. We now have them reacting to hits swung from the left or right, flinching to hits and backing away every so often to get a better shot at you.

Further asset and environment optimisations have been in the works too as we replace placeholder assets with finalised versions across many of our exterior and interior spaces. We have also been fixing up our end-game energy modules with a new laser-cutter like mining along with assuring that smash still works.

Here’s what we’ve been up to in more detail:

John - Lead Designer

We’ve hit some breakthroughs this week with the melee combat, it’s still not perfect but it’s definitely fun now (IMO)! The melee combat has always been my key gripe for me and so seeing how it comes together is really exciting! We’ve not now had a massive amount of time this week to refine components due to other commitments, but the time we have had, has been really fruitful. Next steps with the combat are to continue with full weapon balancing now that the Axe is in.

One question for you guys is, do we want fists and kicks or a basic knife as the default weapon when you have nothing else equipped?

FYI - if it’s a knife, it’s just be the same as a shiv (it’d deteriorate over time, shivs are made easily from 1 pc of scrap metal).

Matt - Art Director

Leading the guys through cleanup of the door visuals. Improved Interaction animations and cosmetics for the in world UI displays on these doors make them more widely recognisable as interactive objects.



It’s very important with all aspects of gameplay that things are immediately recognisable for what they do, even with things as simple as a door. I’ve also been putting together documentation for better placement rules when it comes to clusters of minerals throughout the landscape, and guiding tasks for improvements to the overall performance of the game.

Lee - Technical Director

Technically supposed to be on holiday this week but still finding time to smash those AI bugs like a boss, in between enjoying the sunshine, cold beers and the footy (...it’s coming home?! :P )

Joe - Lead Artist

I’ve been reviewing the current state of the Interaction markers with Marcin, making sure they find a nice balance between useability and subtlety. I’ve also finished work on optimising level streaming in the new map to help the guys achieve a silky-smooth framerate. We’ve decided to cap Eden Star to 21 fps as we believe it’ll provide the most cinematic experience.

Tom W - Designer

Hey guys and girls, been a pretty hectic week over at Flix HQ, but Lauren Lee and I have been making big strides with regards to the AI combat, as well as continued optimisations!

As promised, the Dam has now been brought inline with the rest of the game, getting +70fps while you’re indoors. All very bright and beautiful :)

Will H - 3D Artist

Lots of cleanup this week as various areas are visually polished and optimised. Performance seems to be a lot higher with these changes, so may be more cleaning/optimisation for other areas going forward. Also made a minor tweak to the previously made fabricator based on some feedback, since the whitest parts looked a little dull + washed out.



Tom H - Designer

This week I have been designing the airlocks for the structures within the game. These new ailocks will have working doors that will wait until the player is out of the atmosphere before opening, coupled with lighting and particle effects to give you the feel of being in a real airlock.

As well as this I have been cleaning up the AI and replacing new meshes in all parts of the map, doing a general sweep over the main path to ensure the AI all works and new meshes are in and working properly. I have moved on today to getting the mineables working in engine and placing them around parts of the map.

Ryan - Developer

I have been continuing to work on bugs with the inventory and weapons including some of more disruptive bugs that effect multiplayer and building.

Mike - Developer

First week here, a lot of time was getting used to the systems and workflow. Fixed only bugs this week, mostly relating to weapons and player presence in the game and then also did some QA testing.

John T - Environment Artist

This week has all be about optimising the new maintenance set and implementing, this involves stripping out and replacing the old existing dam. With this comes a complete overhaul of the lighting as to better produce the atmosphere and narrative we are going for.



Marcin - Designer

I’ve been keeping busy fixing as many bugs as I could get my hands on, such as: spear dealing its damage twice, weapon swings not applying force in the correct direction, buttons only working every other press, enemy health bars not being visible in various locations in the game, a crash that was happening when certain rocks were hit, etc.



In addition to bugs I was able to implement a second pass to the interaction marker visuals. We’ve tried a few options of different colours, opacity and complexity, including one with 3 visuals (marker on screen, marker in interacting range, marker being looked at), but in the end we settled on a simple 2 states of “interact now” and “get closer to interact” without any confusing transparency involved.

Charlotte - Concept Artist

This week I have been working on designing the concept art for the main control console which will feature within the dam, in addition to the inside of a lift/elevator which should be fully completed towards the beginning of next week. The final design will be much bulkier to signify that it cannot be destroyed unlike thinner structures.



Lauren - Lead Animator

Multiple AI refinements this week, including bug fixes and new animations. There are still a few bugs left to iron out such as them moving and rotating when they shouldn't (such as when they stagger and when they should be inactive) but they're getting there! Check out the video below for a preview of the work in progress.

https://youtu.be/2aXE4XEYxLE

We wanted each AI to have a specific feel for its attacks and behaviour so that players can learn the strategy of how to interact with each of them but can still be challenged when there are multiple different types around. Still a lot of balancing and fixing to do (and more features that will make them seem more reactive to what the player is doing and other AI around them) but we’re really happy with the progress so far.

Jamie QA

Been prioritising the progression/game breaking bugs. Yes they do still exist, and they are preventing any really enjoyable prolonged periods of play, all of these must be resolved within the features we’ve been adding before we can call it good to go.

See you in the fray!

-Team Flix

Greetings Pioneers!

Multiple bug fixes and collision passes have been the focus of this week as well as optimisations for the level, lighting, materials and meshes. There has been a transformation in terms of quality when it comes to interacting with pickups and minable items which has stemmed from clearing up the UI and visual hints around these objects.

It’s also the simple things that matter, we now have a tidy display that matches the style of the HUD for items that get added to your inventory.

Here’s what everyone has been upto:

John - Lead Designer

In the words of Dr Seuss, Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not. The fruits of that attitude is consistent across all creative mediums, Eden Star in particular. The quality change has been incredible this week and we can’t wait to get this next update out to you.

Matt - Art Director

Finished off the blast door asset for large entrance ways, amongst plenty of reviews that have been done to revised maintenance assets and other passes for collisions to existing models. Personally playing the work in progress build right now is starting to shape up to the experience we want to give everyone here on Steam, very exciting stuff as in my mind the visuals of the game have come a long way from the original releases.



Lee - Technical Director

Been in plenty of discussions around making the dodging of the A.I feel more lifelike and polished. The rest of their behaviour is looking tight, giving them a more sinister and threatening presence in the world.

Tristan - Lead Developer

This week I have been looking into some melee issue with Marcin to do with impacting the destructible in the game not giving us the response they needed. I have also been discussing technical designs with the AI team in order to make fighting them with melee weapons more responsive.

Ricky - Lead Developer

On holiday in my pants, hunting down the mysterious but very real Pink Unicorn.

Joe - Lead Artist

Worked on the new item pickup UI with Ricky, in preparation for some useful little tooltips that will pop-up when you first have enough items to craft something new. This is a small part of our overall goal to make the start of the game much less punishing for new players! I also worked on a bunch of other bits, including the item interaction effect for objects in the world, and blocking out the Makeshift Axe.

Captain Tom - Designer

In this episode, I courageously took on the gargantuan task of optimising our outdoor areas, and have managed to achieve around 100 fps in editor which is a huge step up!

On top of that, the dream AI/Animation team of Lauren, Lee and I have been making making great strides with the lovely creatures of Eden Star, implementing dodge and flinch reactions to being smashed in the face by an Axe.

Up next is going to be performing the same optimisations on our interior spaces, getting everything as ship-shape as possible for our upcoming big release.

Will H - 3D Artist

Lots of texturing this week as the destructible crates and fabricator are finalised into their in game forms. The crates have also been split into multiple pieces so players can destroy them for goodies. Some collision work has been done to make sure that players don't phase through one of the largest structures in the game.



OG Tom - Designer

This week I have been doing the usual fixing of problems as they arise and also looking at placing more minable elements in the world. Mainly at the minute this means more destructible rocks, more placements of organic foliage and more metals and minerals around the world.

Tom H - Designer

This week I have been looking into ensuring AI is as top quality as it can be, this means playtesting and making sure everything is acting as it should be. I have been exploring sections of the Dam and transmitter to ensure the spawners all work and are as polished as can be. To that effect I have added a new encounter at the start of the Dam where players will be ambushed by hunters and splintermites and must fight their way out.

I have also been cleaning up things here in the new points of interest areas we have been designing. This means that more areas discovered will have mineral to mine and scrap metal to collect! All of this adds up to more areas to explore and more things to do!

John S - Developer

I’ve been working on the functionality for the new Character Customisation screen and getting it implemented into the Main Menu.

John T - Environment Artist

Busy week producing the last of the maintenance set for the damn. This includes pillars, catwalks, walls and pipes. I then went on to implement this all in engine for the level designers to work with. Not much left to do now and the dam will be almost complete!



Marcin - Designer

I’m afraid I don’t have much stuff to report that would be very exciting to watch. I’ve spent pretty much all of my time fixing various bugs and for that is plenty exciting, because solving logical puzzles is my drug of choice. Like I mentioned last week, I’ve been solving the new collision and navigation setup with artists and level designers, but there’s still more to do on that front next week. I’ve added saving and loading of various dynamic level visuals.

I’ve fixed a few bugs with melee weapons not detecting all targets properly, and my favourite this week: fixed melee weapon ranges changing with game window size. How did that even happen? I’ve also fixed being able to pick up items out of thin air, and last but not least a few boring objective system bugs. Next on the agenda is to review the interaction markers and start working on what is still missing for them.

Ryan - Developer

Over the past week I have been fixing bugs surrounding weapons, ammo and the inventory.

Charlotte - Concept Artist

This week I finished the med-pack concept art with all three small, medium and large variants coloured and ready to be modelled. I have also been working on creating some pre-visualisation for the HUD which will display your armour and when it close to breaking/broken.



Lauren - Lead Animator

Many bug fixes have been the focus for this week in addition to polishing more of the AI animations, reactions and interactions. The new dodge animations have been implemented and we've been working on getting the physics for small hits looking better with a new version of the flinch mechanic.

Andy - Lead QA

Picture this; a treeless garden, an ivy-covered building. A car pulls up, and out steps a disheveled man in his mid 30’s. Rubbing the sleep from his eyes and making his way up the front steps, he fumbles in his pocket, the sound of keys and loose change jingling. Wearily he slides the key in the lock and makes his way inside. Turning the lights on he heads to the kitchen.

Coffee first. Black, two sugars, splash of cold water. Drink in hand he reaches up to the top lock and opens the last remaining door. He slumps in his chair and for the briefest of moments contemplates what the day holds in store. Reaching down he presses the two power buttons on his two workstations and the monitors flicker on.
Within a few clicks he is staring blankly at this sprints Trello board and, like some sort of warped dystopian skyline from a movie, the cards simply stare back.

From there our protagonist attended a lot of meetings, discussed future tasks, tweaked existing item tooltip work being and was an all round good guy.

Jamie - QA

The focus of this week for me has been looking at the AI in detail and sorting out the tasks to do with them. I’ve been working with Lee, Lauren and Tom on these tasks to refine the AI and squash any bugs to do with them. Then also I’ve just been doing normal bug hunting and getting reproduction steps into the bug tasks to help the developers find them.

See you in the fray!

-Team Flix