Posted on: July 14, 2020

As advertised, we're returning with a smaller update than last month, but it still contains lots of important information about Subverse's progress!



We've been receiving glowing feedback for months now about how good Subverse looks and how well the closed beta performs, even on lower end systems. It's crucial to us that this quality extends to every part of the game, and that's why many of our waifu models recently received an upgrade pass on their materials and shaders for their naughty bits. We obviously can't show them here, so you'll just have to wait and see!



We're currently ass-deep into the mocap pipeline so we thought we'd give you an update on it.

Mocap is reserved for the SFW sequences in Subverse such as storyline cutscenes and cinematics. Fear not, though - all the sex scenes are still animated by hand as we have been doing since 2013. But in order to meet the challenge of delivering the cinematics, we have switched to a virtual production environment using Unreal. Through a combination of storyboards, in-engine shots and remote feedback sessions, we're able to give our performance artists clear direction to produce the performances we need.

I really can't stress enough what a major time saver it is to be able to capture something like a character walking vs having to animate walk cycles by hand, and this process is going to allow us to execute some fantastic footage. Seeing the characters of Subverse in motion doing all sorts of badass things adds a lot of production value to the game.



Recording for Subverse's script has been one hell of a ride. The actors and casting director are having a great time going back and forth, bringing their characters to life and getting the best possible takes of the script so all of you can laugh, cry, and spray your pants (though hopefully not all at the same time).

Assembling all of the audio for this game is quite the task. We're at over fifteen hours of recorded dialogue at the moment and we're not even finished yet - quite the accomplishment for a porn game! We are using FMOD to integrate the audio into game and its proving to be a huge timesaver.



Thankfully, our production team has been thus far fortunate enough to avoid the COVID disaster. Dwelling in our basements glued to our PCs working on the game every day of the week probably has something to do with it.

While that doesn't mean there weren't some setbacks due to the worldwide disruption in general, we're proud to say that the team is still accomplishing our goals for the month.

We also want to remind everyone (especially in countries where COVID has not yet gone into remission) to please take care of yourselves and those around you by observing proper social distancing and wearing a mask whenever you go out in public.

Sincerely,

Mr. Kristoff

- Senior Producer

The fourth Subverse manga is here, brought to you by none other than the final boss of grotesque monster fornication himself...Butcha-U! His work inspired our Code Valentine movie so getting to finally collaborate with him was a hentai dream come true. Our unholy alliance spawned a 30-page FULL COLOR doujin that will bring a single tear to the eye of xeno aficionados everywhere!

Just like every other release, links are hosted elsewhere due to the rules. Visit our Discord sever and check the studio-announcements section to find a download. Otherwise, you're welcome to visit Luscious hentai, Pururin or Sad Panda and search for "Subverse."




The wait is over - Subverse's grid combat is here! The first closed beta has been released with the tutorial and two levels where you'll face off against the Pirate faction.







To put it simply, this not XCOM or Phoenix Point. From the start of production, we've strived to keep Subverse's gameplay fast-paced and casual-friendly. That's why you'll find a typical grid combat scenario in Subverse can be cleared in five minutes rather than 30 like in most tactics games.

However, it still allows for the most skilled players to be rewarded. Correctly utilizing your team composition and making the best decisions will result in faster, more efficient clear times where all of your units survive, which will in turn earn you better grades and higher rewards for your efforts.





We've taken the micromanagement of equipment loadouts out and the enemy composition is rather simple. We've also limited the amount of abilities, which helps to increase the pace and keep the action going.

(Note - the grading criteria function is not fully implemented and will likely be in the next major build.)







While we've put together a solid tutorial for the beta that will teach you almost everything you need to know, here are a few extra tips that will help you succeed:

- Most importantly, you can get detailed unit info by right clicking any unit or clicking their portrait in the turn order bar. This will help you find out what type of damage they deal, what passives they have, etc.

- Ranged enemies cannot attack adjacent tiles and suffer a damage penalty when counterattacking. All units can only counterattack once per turn.

- Turn order is determined by the initiative stat, and the units with higher amounts go first.

- Using the WAIT option will not skip your unit's turn, they will instead be sent to the back of the turn order bar.

- Each unit has 1-2 passives that give them extra abilities. You can see what each one does on their detailed information screen.

- Movement can be undone by using the button on the bottom right side of the screen.


WE WANT YOUR FEEDBACK


This is our first beta build for grid combat, so your feedback is essential. What do you think of the gameplay? How's the pace? What changes or additions would you suggest? Let us know so we can build the best possible tactics module for Subverse.

Also, please note that we will be disabling the SHMUP scenarios for a few weeks while we do routine bug maintenance and implement some A.I. upgrades. We'll also be installing new waves that will allow players to see every ship in a faction by wave 10. Expect these changes to go live and all five factions to be playable again in endless mode by this time next month.




After all this hard work, we're going to step back and assess your feedback while working on cleaning up some animations that have been needing our attention. Expect a smaller than usual entry for the next Dev Diary and we'll return to our usual format on the following 28th.


StudioFOW

Summer's here! A gargantuan project like Subverse demands a hectic schedule and we're not seeing much sunlight as we work hard to roll out the largest beta updates of the entire project.

I'd ask Fow-chan to save us from the torment, but since she was forged in the flames of hell itself...that would probably only result in more whippings.

Great news, though - the final two major factions will be released to the closed beta SHMUP today!

We once again ask everyone to help us out by fighting these guys and giving detailed feedback about how their A.I. and attack patterns feel, and if any bugs were discovered.




The galactic government known as the Imperium was forged aeons ago by the biggest swinging dicks in Prodigium, and they're not afraid to use their unparalleled might to make sure their subjects fall in line with their agenda.

The Imperium Navy has access to some of the most advanced weapons technology in the galaxy, which when combined with their military tactics results in unprecedented levels of firepower.







The Devout is the toughest of all the "grunt" units in Subverse. They have the highest HP and deal the most damage per shot, which makes sense since their projectiles are almost the same size as their hull.








Think of a Crusader like an upgrade to the Devout - they have the same large projectiles but can fire in a wide pattern. Not only that, they have a secondary two-pronged sniping shot that can hit you from longer ranges, making them a ship that requires intelligent movement to take down.







A mid-range tank of a unit with some serious ordinance. The Inquisitor discharges huge plasma spheres from its cannons that detonate upon reaching their maximum distance, raining smaller projectiles on anyone still in their path. Getting caught by even one of these blasts can cause heavy damage.







One of the most unique enemies in the SHMUP, the Templar is an area-denial specialist that generates spear-like energy weapons around the player's immediate location that can track movement and launch as soon as they finish priming. Typical hit and run or cover tactics simply won't work here.







The Carrier is the big bad of the Imperium's arsenal. Normally you'd be best advised to run, but then you'll also have to deal with the fact that it can generate unlimited attack drones that relentlessly hunt you across the entire map. Destroying it quickly is essential to stop that from happening, but its massive waves of defensive projectiles and homing rockets will make that no easy task.




Not much is known about the fringe terrorist organization known as Requital, but rumors persist about their frightening military tactics and their ranks swelling with genetically modified abominations.

What is known is that the Requital take no prisoners and fight dirty, combining brute force with a reckless disregard for all xeno life.







Lightning shotguns sound really cool until you're surrounded by agile, relentless craft unloading them in your face. Whatever you do, don't let a group of Raijus get a good flank on your position or dodging will become impossible, and death will become inevitable.







As if it wasn't crazy enough that this fucking thing throws goddamn energy swords at you, they also supercharge any asteroids they touch with deadly energy that temporarily turns them into AOE damage conduits. Needless to say, conventional tactics aren't really applicable when fighting this thing.







A good old traditional SHMUP enemy that attacks by throwing endless waves of energy projectiles at your ship that you'll have no choice but to dodge at any range. It also has some tricky homing rockets that will shred you to pieces if you don't shoot them down fast.







The Basilisk is a mid-range fighter that deploys non-homing forked projectiles in a huge variety of unpredictable patterns, which makes learning how to fight against it difficult.







The closest thing in Subverse to a flying armory, the Salamander shoots concentrated "fuck you" straight out of its gaping maw. We suggest running from these high-HP units until every last other ship is off the map, because even fighting them solo is gonna leave some bruises.

Also, we'll once again be pulling the previous beta factions for scheduled maintenance and bug fixing. We expect to have all the factions up and running soon.




The next Dev Diary is going to be HUGE.

First off, we're going to make good on our promise to release grid combat by the end of Q2 2020 by adding it to the closed beta. There will be a guide explaining all of the mechanics in-depth that will teach you how to approach the gameplay and give an idea of what to expect in the future.

Second, the final of our four Subverse manga will be released. We couldn't have been more proud to work with the artist, and we know you're all going to appreciate what a good job he did to cap things off in the grand finale!



Sincerely,

Mr. Kristoff

- Senior Producer

Get hyped for a superb tentacle special brought to you straight from the twisted minds of DC and Sakula! Trust me when I say these gentlemen know how to bring the cunt thunder when it comes to aliens invading immaculately smooth innie vaginas. This book puts the spotlight on Fortune but you can expect a couple of cool cameos as well...

In the words of John Doe, "I feel like saying more, but I don't want to ruin the surprise..."

As always, links are hosted elsewhere due to the rules. You can find all the source download links on our Discord sever (just look under the studio-announcements section). Alternatively, you can simply search for Subverse on Luscious hentai, Pururin or Sad Panda.




For the first time ever, you'll be facing off against the Kloi! Their high-tech and always dangerous ships are invading the SHMUP closed beta as we speak.

Elaisha Sorn's species is known for two things: being genocidal fashion-obsessed maniacs and having seriously scary military power that rivals even the Imperium.

Here's a list of the enemies you'll encounter and the design philosophy behind them. Like usual, we're looking for feedback from the beta testers so be sure to let us know if we nailed these or not.







The Scout attacks with a long-range triple projectile cannon that makes them harder to dodge than most trash mobs. They also have flanking A.I. that's meant to box you in, so like most grunts they are simple in small numbers and deadly as a group.







The Galvanic has a taser at the front that shoots lighting like a shotgun, creating a spread pattern that the player can dodge if they react fast enough. If you try to fight it from longer ranges, it has small but quick homing missiles that will catch up to you.







With a huge salvo of offence, the Javelin is made to fight at all ranges and tank damage. You'll need to master dodging its spread pattern attacks in order to take it down, since simple circle strafing is less effective against it than other enemies.







The Bow utilizes area denial beam attacks that trap you in while the rest of the fleet rush you down. Things get really crazy when there are two or more on the screen and you find yourself locked into deadly consequences if you don't plan ahead with your position.







The final bad guy of the kloi armada, the Obliterator is outfitted with nasty offensive and defensive measures. If you manage to avoid its massive bomb attack that disperses energy shrapnel upon detonation, you might still get shredded by the salvo of smaller rockets. And if you try to get too close, it initiates a new A.I. pattern that discharges waves of projectiles from its side-cannons.

Also, two quick notes concerning the closed beta:

First, we will be disabling the other closed beta scenarios for a bit while we work to fix some bugs. We intend to have them back online as soon as possible. Second, we will be installing a minimap in the UI for testing within the next few builds so you can look forward to that!




One of your other hard-earned Kickstarter rewards is our official Subverse digital artbook. Rest assured the team have been collecting all the artwork integral to the making of the game during production. Thanks to the hard work of UI designer/animator Manski and our director DC, we are able to share a little preview of how the artbook layout is coming along. The book was designed to not only showcase art, but also to be a companion piece that introduces lore for important elements of Prodigium.

Personally, I think it's an amazing book that's going to blow everyone away.





We are currently up to 100 pages and it will no doubt grow over the next couple of months before its release!




We haven't been focusing too much on the SFW cinematics due to making sure the gameplay elements are all in place, but starting from next month that's all going to change. Thanks to a motion capture pipeline we set up remotely, we're able to obtain and clean up data for characters in the game quite efficiently. We'll be putting these to use and helping to lessen the animation load on the team, enabling us to focus on the NSFW content and not worry about getting bogged down in SFW animation. We've tested the system extensively and it's now ready for full-fledged production.







I'd also like to post a reminder that grid combat will be added to the closed beta on June 28th! However, I once again want to remind everyone that we have always intended Subverse to be more on the casual side. While we're proud of what we've accomplished and find it fast-paced, fun and satisfying, don't expect gameplay with the depth and difficulty of something like the X-COM series.

And as a big fappy cherry on top of the sundae, you can also look forward to our final manga from an absolutely legendary pervert on the 28th of June as well!





Sincerely,

Mr. Kristoff

- Senior Producer

Salutations, backers!
I hope you're all keeping well. Today we'll be walking you through some stuff we wanted to share with you!




The finalization of the navigation system has been a priority for us lately, and we spent many days and nights drowning in spreadsheets to make sure every last planet in the galaxy has the correct location, visuals and lore and is triggered appropriately in the story.

Our programmers have also been busy smoothing out the look of the systems and the feel of the Mary Celeste's movement so you all have a great time using it to explore every last nook and asshole of Prodigium.





You can look forward to finding some fun sidequests while you do, and we're in the process of finishing up the script for these events. Word to the wise - don't pursue these unless you're up for memelording of the highest order.

In terms of game design, making sure the game's RPG loop of exploration, combat and loot is solid also received a lot of attention this month. We've come up with some exciting ideas to make everything tie together in a fun way and will be testing them very soon.




In terms of other core systems, we've also been optimizing the Dialogue Input System (DIS) and nailing the visuals of how it portrays the plot of Subverse. Since this is a long, plot-driven game (no, really) you're going to spend hours and hours starting at this screen and it's critical that we get it right.





What we're putting together is something that we've never really seen before. Most RPGs using a text-based system just opt for sprites with a few tweaks here and there, but Subverse utilizes 3D characters that have fully-animated emotion states based on the dialogue playing. Because of this, a lot of care needs to be paid to animation interpolation (aka the transitions between these poses).

Getting all of this in place means you will engage with the characters and action in a much more meaningful way, and it's necessary to bring the game to life with the quality you deserve.




And of course, when it comes to foundations no other system is more prevalent than the UI as we want you to find what you need on the screen easily, and have all the tools at your disposal to wreak havoc upon the Prodigium galaxy. We recently finished creating the layout for every required screen in the game and our talented graphic artists are currently assembling the final drafts so the programmers can integrate them.



In keeping with our Q2 2020 Roadmap projections, the next dev diary will detail the release of two new factions for the SHMUP's endless mode - the FUCCBOTTS and the KLOI!

Though you've already tussled with the Fuccbotts in Dallick's recruitment mission, that scenario utilized their DEFENDER A.I. This is the first time you'll fight them when they're only fixated on plunging their dicksabers deep into the F3N1X's hull.





Who are the KLOI, you ask? If you recall, they're the same species as Elaisha Sorn. More details about their lore and nefarious combat tactics will be revealed on the 28th!




And when it comes to nefarious tactics, you can look forward to some from the Captain himself in the next manga. Make sure you join our Discord and Twitter so you know the minute it releases!





Sincerely,

Mr. Kristoff

- Senior Producer

IT'S NUDIE MAGAZINE DAY!






We're pleased to present twenty-two pages of R-WADE's fine work in FULL FUCKING COLOR! Let me tell you, seeing Lily's asshole blush a lovely shade of red as it gets destroyed is just all sorts of bueno.

While the previous manga was pretty dark, this one is about as lighthearted as you can get while featuring a woman impaled by a manticore cock the size of Dallick. If you're a fan of gang bangs and massive insertions, then this one's for you!

Just like last time, we can't post a link here due to the rules. You can find the download links on our Discord server or simply search for Subverse on Luscious hentai, Pururin or Sad Panda.

And now I'll turn things over to one of our talented programmers to tell you about another one of our recruitment quests.






Greetings, perverts. Professor Bang here, and I've brought you some ALPHA screenshots from one of the most unique SHMUP sequences in Subverse. Let me tell you about the Temple of Defilement - it's dark, full of traps and sentries, and it certainly doesn't help that you have a hungry little catgirl aboard your ship.





We made this mission with stealth in mind, so you can't just whip your cannon out and blast all over the place to get through it. In this old, crumbling temple there are sentries marching and scanning the area for intruders. You will also have to deal with pressure-sensitive walls, trap doors, and since this is a video game there are of course plenty of hazards made of molten lava.

We'll be using lava or magma-like surfaces in many different environments and scenarios, so we decided to make a universal lava material. With some noise and rock texture we were able to achieve a good boiling look. Also, a lot of panning and distortion had to be added to the logic, and we even added some vertex displacement on top of it so the surface will actually be moved by the waves.





Illumination is sparse, so utilizing the headlight on your ship for navigation will be crucial. You can either play it safe and learn the sentries' movement patterns or just be fast enough to zip through them. Though it is tricky, don't worry - checkpoints are aplenty so the experience is fun rather than frustrating.

I'm excited for all of you to explore the Temple of Defilement with your eager kitty companion who unfortunately doesn't always care if it's the appropriate time to play."

But that's not all...I'm also excited to welcome one of our veteran FOW animators to the dev diary for the first time!







"God kväll, Moneyshot here. I've been with the studio since 2014, back when we had to survive the pain of animating throbbing horse balls in Source Filmmaker. For my services to smut, I was rewarded with the title of lead animator for Subverse.

I just got sent a note with the daily lowering of the bucket providing me sustenance.

It read: “For legal reasons I need written proof that you are still alive, so write something for the backers down on this piece of paper. And don’t eat it, you fat fuck.”

So here I am. Let's talk about poses first.

The hentai magic starts with getting all of the necessary characters into the scene. Both for technical reasons and easier workflow, each character and their accessories gets uniquely named rig prefixes: Demi1, BigDude1, SmallDude1, BigDude1Dick etc.

Depending on the need for the poses and animation, these rigs are altered to give a better workflow. For example, Killi's tail may need to grab something and thus the gripping section works better in FK (Forward Kinematics) while the rest is in IK (Inverse Kinematics).

The poses are blocked up either with reference images or greatest tool of all - a pervert's imagination.





Not only does the pose have to bring out the star of the show's best bits, it also has to work with the three different sex speeds: SLOW, FAST and CLIMAX. Whilst not all sex scenes follow this formula, its still good practice to consider speed variations.

With the pose finished, we animators add a placeholder light setup to spot anything that might look weird during animation. After all, shaders work in mysterious ways.

The camera is also finalized by the director during this phase. Obviously, we animate to the primary angle chosen, otherwise this game would take 16 years to make.





Now for the animation!

If the scenario requires loops for things such as handjobs and thrusts, those are firstly blocked out to get the timing, power of the thrusts, and jiggle correct so they can be checked for feedback by the director. Once the loop is finalized and cleared they can be copy/pasted and have their timing tweaked.

On top of that, the loops have some variation added and a lot of other customized animation for the bodies and whatnot gets blocked out. There is yet another round of feedback required for this step, because it's much easier to make changes if needed at this stage as what comes next is finalizing the animation. All these tiny details are just half the work for the entire process.

If the scene doesn't really require any loops, the long custom animation is blocked out and checked for feedback a bit more often in Sequencer. These kinds of animations usually take longer to make so it's best to be sure it's heading in the right direction.

The final step is handing off the anim asset for the production team to insert full lights and post-processing. Animating natively in UE4 is real-time, so even if some bugs are discovered during this process, fixing them is easier. Real-time is something we value highly due to rapid iteration and is a big part of why the transition from SFM to UE4 was chosen. The engine is very powerful and makes SFM look like a kindergarten toy. Seeing the final clip on max settings is pure instant gratification. Every artist wants to see their work finished without having to wait for a VFX team to finish it one year and $50 million later."





We'll see you all next month when we'll have even more programmer entries and an update on our navigation system.

Stay safe!

Sincerely,

Mr. Kristoff

- Senior Producer

Good news, FOW fans...we've got a big, steaming pile of tentacles and lady dicks to make your happy fappy quarantine all the better!








I'm elated and erect to announce the release of the first of our four Subverse manga, created by none other than the legend responsible for the Hunter no Seitai series - the mighty Makari Tohru!!!

We told our mangaka that we wanted them to really push the limits with these stories so our fans that enjoy darker, more intense content than will be seen in the Subverse game and it was CERTAINLY delivered.





Obviously we can't post a link here, so visit a Luscious hentai website of the .net variety or the mirrors at Pururin and Sad Panda to enjoy 50 masterful pages of top-tier non-canon fap material!




The disgustingly obscene Dallick vs the Fuccbotts fight is now available for all closed beta participants!





This is the first SHMUP mission we've released that features our special DEFENDER AI, which means your enemies will be focused on attacking a specific ship or structure rather than you. In this case, the Fuccbotts are looking to rip Dallick's Keisterstation a new exhaust port and it's up to you to stop them and earn the trust of the six-balled stoner so he'll join the crew of the Mary Celeste and serve as your loyal mechanic.

In terms of balance this mission is still very much a WIP, so we're mainly looking to make sure everything is functioning properly. As always, please use the in-game feedback tool to let us know how your sessions went!

A few protips - the charge drive (SPACEBAR) is extremely effective against approaching waves of Prick Lancers, and when Dallick gets his EMP countermeasures charged up...RUN AWAY!





Empress Celestina's character bio page is now available on our website along with her 3D model! We know this is one everybody's been requesting for some time now, so enjoy your ogling. She is voiced by Sarita Belle, who is a newcomer to the FOW team but certainly earned her place with this role! It's no easy feat to play the RULER OF THE WHOLE GODDAMN GALAXY.

That's all for this diary, so we'll see you next time. And of course...whether you're simply taking precautions or cleaning up after a particularly shameful display of masturbatory prowess, don't forget to wash your hands!

Sincerely,

Mr. Kristoff
Sr. Producer

Hello everyone! HungryJJ here, this week I’ll be discussing some of the space combat-related tech that I’ve been working on. I hope not to bore you all too much. 😊

I want to share some insight on how we handle environments that are associated with the various levels you will encounter during space combat gameplay.

The goal was to make it easier for us to design cool-looking backdrops more efficiently so that when a player starts a space combat mission, the environment is relevant to the nebula and anomaly you are exploring.

As the space combat developed over time through prototyping, we noticed a trend of the most common environmental elements that we primarily used. Some of the examples are dust clouds, debris fields, relevant background scene objects (i.e. planets, suns, derelict ships, skybox), post processing effects, skylights and fog effects. With each element, we exposed corresponding properties so that anything can be tweaked. Depending on the element, these tweaks can manipulate color, scale, position, rotation, quantity and much more.



The tool is setup in a way that all the compatible settings are exposed so that environment designers with limited experience can jump right in and begin creating a scene. Once a designer is happy with their scene, we can populate the configuration onto any mission and override the look if necessary. They can also serve as templates for a specific type of mission. E.g. a mission through an asteroid field in the Hydra nebula would generate asteroids with a green nebula backdrop

It was important to us to provide some variation in the environments to the player, in order to make their experience cohesive whilst traveling through the Prodigium. Even subtle changes in the space scape like tweaking a star’s intensity can provide a different visual experience. Enough talk, here are some example screenshots of the settings we use, and how it translates into a procedural environment ingame thanks to the streamlined tools.







The modeling team in the meantime has finished up Empress Celestina. She’s looking good, check her out below.



We've also been finishing up some "Mantics" (your pets, or should I say Lily's pets) that the player evolves and breeds inside the Lab. Ugly critter, ain't he?



I hope enjoyed this small insight on what we have been up to. Look forward to sharing more results in the future. Later.

-HungryJJ

We promised we'd tease what the succubus secretary supreme looked like in her human form, so here's Fow-chan just in time to warm your crotches for valentine's day!




And when it comes to new models, make sure you check out the CHARACTERS section on our website - we've put up new pages for Sova and Dallick as well as revealed one the main villains - Blythe (aka the Corrupt General). She's an important character in Subverse that even leads her own faction, so we hope you all enjoy theorycrafting the plot from the information we've provided in her bio.

While you're there, you might as well get an eyeful of the Captain's new business casual duds. Oh, and if you check our twitter, there might be some juicy space dwarf ass to slobber over.




But it's not just character models on display today...get a load of these bad boys our SHMUP expert HungryJJ hacked together himself from various sex toys discarded by Fow-Chan.




It's time to meet the Fuccbotts! These rogue A.I. constructs are one of the five major enemy factions that can be fought in both grid and space combat. The Mary Celeste will have an unfortunate close encounter with them relatively early in the script, but unraveling their nefarious origins is one of the great mysteries of Subverse.

The focus of this chaotic, horny hive mind is to swarm the player and overwhelm with their numbers and deadly, personal-space invading close-quarters attacks.

You ever take a supercharged cock lightsaber to the face? No? Well...GET READY, FUCKERS!

Expect to see these guys in the closed beta relatively soon.




We'd also like to once again thank everyone that pledged to take part in the closed beta that is also providing us with excellent feedback. We're parsing over the data from the last boss fight, but overall it seems like a success. The majority of concerns focused on the last phase's design not being as well-implemented as the first two and Tibold's difficulty being slightly too high for a first boss, so we'll see what we can do about that.




Bringing this big, perverted galaxy to life has been no easy task, but our modeling team has been working hard putting together the backdrops environments that we'll be telling the story of Subverse in!

We're currently working on finishing up the last of the major set pieces that appear consistently throughout the story. Here's a sweet WIP shot of the Holy Imperium Palace where you can find Empress Celestina sitting her fine ass upon the throne, ruling over all of Prodigium.






With a sexy space opera epic of this scale, we've been up to our elbows in lore since the start. Organizing all of the information has been a hell of a task, but now our in-game Codex is looking mighty fine. You'll be able to access it at any time to read up on additional lore for every single major and minor item in the game once you've unlocked their corresponding entries through progress.

The Codex also been a blessing for all of the staff working on the game as we use it for reference and for getting newer members up to speed on the universe.






Did someone say comic books??? We cannot stress enough just how boner-riffic these goddamn manga are turning out to be. We also want to remind you that they will be made available to EVERYONE as a thank you for meeting the stretch goal.

Here you can see a lovely preview of Fortune enjoying some ice cream. DC will have more news on the manga in the coming updates once he emerges from the hell that is the localization room.





The next dev diary is going to be a big one, going into depth about our 2020 strategy with a comprehensive roadmap marking the target dates we intend to hit for every major milestone throughout the rest of the year.

Want to know when grid combat should hit the closed beta? Or how about when we expect Subverse to release?

Be here on the 28th and all will be revealed. As always, we understand asking legions of nerds with throbbing erections to wait isn't the easiest thing, so your patience is appreciated.

Sincerely,

Mr. Kristoff

- Senior Producer

Hi folks!

As promised, this week's (Oct 28th 2019) dev diary will focus more on the technical side of things and lay out how we solved the issue of populating our galaxy with planets. Stalwart code-junkie One Eyed Jeremy here, and I'm here to explain everything in gory detail.

Our resident madman/director DC came down to our basement some time ago (was it weeks? Months? It has been so long we last saw the light of day…) and asked us to write some form of development tool to help us efficiently put all of your awesome planet ideas into the game. Because there are over 600 planets and nearly 100 systems in Subverse we needed a kind of easily-usable-editor to plot the galaxy out for the benefit of progression. The editor would allow the director to populate the world, essentially. He named it the Planet-O-Matic.



Eagerly we obliged and started work on it. Since we’re all about Data Driven Programming (a quick explanation for those of you who don’t know: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data-driven_programming), we figured we only needed to write a GUI to display/edit data: planets, and other orbiting objects, their respective loot events, their encompassing solar systems and nebula. All of these were already described in different Data Tables (Unreal Engine’s equivalent of good ol’ Data Sheets: https://docs.unrealengine.com/en-US/Gameplay/DataDriven/index.html).

Logically, we came up with the architecture depicted in the stack diagram:



Figure 1 Planet-O-Matic Stack Diagram

Possibly one of the least complex systems we devised, the Planet-O-Matic strives for its simplicity: It features 2 levels in the UI layer (depicted in green), 3 in the application layer (shown in blue) and one data layer level (illustrated in yellow). The first layer, the UI, strongly depends on Editor Utility Widgets (https://docs.unrealengine.com/en-US/Engine/UMG/UserGuide/EditorUtilityWidgets/index.html). These utilities allow us to extend the UE editor and even run Editor-only code. They even come with several convenience methods (e.g. changing assets’ names, selecting all actors inside a umap, save a umap, etc.). In our current architecture, this widget-type comprises several other regular widgets, responsible for input and showing the planets/objects/solar systems’ attributes. However, it is worth noting that, Editor Code cannot run on regular widgets, even if they are components of Editor Utility Widgets.



Making our way toward the second layer, we start with its upmost level: Widget Blueprints. As you Unreal Engine techies already know, user widgets (and their editor utility counterparts), already come equipped with the ability to edit/run blueprint logic. This is where the magic happens, namely which widgets to show, what happens when you click on a button, reading Data Tables, etc. Unfortunately, while Editor Widgets have some exposed code to manipulate aspects of the editor itself, it didn’t have available what we wanted. As such, we developed our own wrapper to expose ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) what we needed. This came in the form of a C++ Blueprint Function Library (so we could reuse this on other dev tools). This was easily achieved by creating a class deriving from UBlueprintFunctionLibrary and writing static methods for it (As a side note, editor-only code cannot go with code used in the game or the project won’t build, our solution to this revolved around creating an Editor plugin: https://docs.unrealengine.com/en-US/Programming/Plugins/index.html).



In the end, we were able to write methods that allowed us to update data tables, delete assets, access UE4’s color picker and asset selector, play a umap in PIE mode, etc. While the latter 2 tasks helped improve our tool’s usability, the first one, updating data tables, provided us with a means to write on the data layer since UE4 already exposes data table reads.

This way, we could directly transcribe the user-inputted values on the layer’s data-tables without having to open them. In the end, it allows for users with limited UE4 experience to design rapidly and iteratively. With the foundation in place, our directors and artist can get down to the fun part, designing and implementing all the planets for you guys to explore. Thanks for reading!




- OneEyedJeremy