Dec 10, 2023

Abiotic Factor - CrissCrossGal

Greetings esteemed colleagues,

Happy holidays to all our scientists! This week we’ve got a whole bunch of stuff to go over, including this sentence which is a very big hint that something PLAYTEST-Y is right around corner. Did you get the hint? Well, no matter, let's continue.

About Immurement

The remote nature of the GATE Cascade Research Facility makes it ideal for the containment and study of dangerous and obscure specimens. At GATE, we call these Immurement Subjects, or simply IS, for short. There are further classifications but we’ll leave those up to you to discover as you venture forth into the Facility.

Mundane artifacts and oddities that have been deemed safe (Ordo) are immured within Cascade, kept in a particularly dry and deceptively large storage area, while deeper down in the Facility are the specimens under active study and more strict containment. These range from mysterious baubles with unique properties, to entities from beyond the veil of our universe - creatures and denizens of other Anteverses and the many worlds beyond.

"Although Cascade has well-established containment tiers, every subject is unique, requiring a different approach to immurement and study. Basic Ordo storage aside, the reality is that we have almost as many kinds of containment as we have subjects. In the final assessment, our containment tiers are a bureaucratic fiction." ~ Dr. Derek Manse

Please be cautious as you gain clearance throughout the GATE Cascade Research Facility. You never know what you might encounter.

Deep in the Field

For this section of the Status Report, we’ll take a look at just a few of the works our devs have put into the game this past while. There were a lot of things to choose from so we picked some of our favorites!

Jorden, Level Designer

Some of my previous work was in the more grunge, industrial, Manufacturing Sector. Lately I’ve been working away on the sprawling Labs, which is a stark difference in both cleanliness and budget, in terms of staff accommodation. I wanted to convey that difference through how clean and luxurious the areas of the Labs are and how hard GATE tries to keep their “upper crust” happy, but still a bit more utilitarian in comparison to the residential quarters.

Kecko, 3D Artist

Welding Spear

Upgrading from your typically pokey makeshift spear made from cobbled together office parts, the Welding Spear brings fire to the mix. It’s pretty straightforward, but took a few iterations to get to this point. We had some slightly crazier ideas but it ended up looking too cool for being your first spear upgrade. Later designs get a bit more wild, and rightfully so.

Thermal Mallet

The Thermal Mallet, around the same tier as the Welding Spear, also went through a good bit of ideation before we landed on something we liked. It started out looking a bit more sharp (as opposed to blunt) and I took some inspiration from the abandoned mines surrounding the Manufacturing Sector. It ended up being a sort of railroad spike welded to the shaft of the club, wrapped in a high-vis material to keep the crafted look.

Connor, 3D Artist

This was a personal milestone for me as I had never done an animation where the right hand leaves the weapon. It’s a notoriously tricky problem in game development, since the weapon is typically parented to a bone that is on the right hand. I worked it out through a series of null objects and constraints that get turned on and off throughout the animation that allows it to follow either the left hand or the right hand as needed.

Additionally animating a bolt action is always a treat. I’m happy with how the player doesn’t feel as proficient with the bolt, being a dorky scientist and all. We of course have progressive reloading animations based on reloading skill, and that changes a bit as the player progresses.

We worked on a hat that both belongs to an enemy, and was something we wanted to make available to marketing for Halloween, so while it was a bit of a rush, I think it turned out quite nicely. The “Swamp Hat” as we’re calling it sure has an interesting look, and perhaps raises some interesting questions too…

Jacob, Programmer

Character Freezing and Slushie Bombs

We wanted some of the early on crafted items to be more fun, so we made the Slushie Bomb physically freeze any character it hits. When affected the character will freeze it's movement and animation, no matter what it was doing, which can look pretty whacky and we love it. You’ll be able to play with this in the next playtest for sure. We also keep the movement so a peccary charging at you will start sliding right past.

PROXIMITY CHAT!

We've changed the in-game VOIP to no longer be global, instead having it proximity based and directional. Alongside that we also have the player's mouth move while they talk, because… You gotta have that. The voice is also a real audio source, so it muffles when out of line of sight and is affected by reverb in the environment, just like a real voice would be. Here's a fun video we posted of a slightly older version of the VOIP in action.

Please Remain Seated

Seats and moveable carts were used in an interesting way in previous playtests, so we've improved the enter/exit logic to prevent certain exploits. Now when you exit a chair or vehicle you should appear in front if there is space, rather than just standing on top of the chair or other whacky locations. This isn’t perfect, but we’ll continue to refine it as we go.

Resistance / Weakness System

Enemies can now have resistances or weaknesses to certain types of damage, which have different audio/visual responses to the hit as well. This changes the type of weapon that might be best for a situation and should really shake up how players encounter things.

Engine Upgrade!

We’ve upgraded the game to Unreal Engine 5.3.2 in our ongoing efforts to keep on top of optimizations and new features. This won’t mean much to you, but it means a lot to us! There have also been some other changes in the optimization department, not quite related to this upgrade, that we hope player’s will notice. As always, keep the feedback coming!

Enemy Changes

We gave the ████ ████ a █████ and the ███████ █████ will be better at █████████ ███████ ████ so we're very excited to see how that plays out in the upcoming playtest. You might find a surprise or two there.

Wow, thanks for that, you crazy kids! Everyone has been extra busy getting content things ready for our next playtest and it’s been great fun to read everyone’s thoughts on their work.

PLAYTEST WHEN?!

There’s an upcoming playtest, very, very soon. That’s all I’m allowed to say, but if you’re signed up for the newsletter, please keep an eye on your inboxes this month.

Stay Tuned

When you descend into the GATE Cascade Research Facility you’re going to be facing a lot of unexpected challenges. Follow these Status Reports for tips, insights and strategies to keep you safe, as well as fun looks-behind-the-scenes at development!

You can also subscribe to our Newsletter to keep up-to-date on news about Abiotic Factor, and gain access to testing environments. Keep your eyes peeled because things are ramping up behind the scenes!

You can also join us on Discord!

See you next time, Scientists!

Wishlist Today!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/427410/Abiotic_Factor/

Dec 10, 2023

WEEKLY UPDATE!! 12/10/23

Crimson Veil - MKRU

One of the nagging issues in the vampire route that many of you had rightly mentioned in the recent satisfaction survey was the tedium of increasing your Pet’s bond level. This week, I attempted to patch that issue, and here is what I’ve come up with. Now whenever your Pet notifies that they wish to speak with you, you’ll be asked if you would like to quickly warp back and view the conversation. Afterward, you’ll be returned to the spot you were previously in.

I was hesitant to add this initially, since warping at certain points may not make sense. But I feel the convenience of this feature outweighs the negatives. Also, since this prompt can appear in many different locations and situations where warping may create a conflict, I’ve set it to autosave before being asked to warp in case an issue occurs. The player can then reload and choose not to warp instead. Messy, but necessary.

In other news, the construction of the new Fallholt continues! I wanted to restore some features that were until now, only available in the main route. Armour customization will be available upon reaching chapter 3, finally giving your gems their additional use. Also returning will be an option to purchase and use Serenity, with all the benefits and consequences that come with it. Not that there were any real benefits to using it… until now.

While using the drug, Mila’s attack and agility will now temporarily increase by about 40%. Pretty significant if you stack it with other buffs. Although the consequences of using it are great, as I’m sure you all know…

This is also a great time to mention that more of your actions in the main route will affect the vampire route. For example, if you never accept the Tragic Bride quest in the main route, your Serenity dealer will turn out to be a familiar face…

That’s just one example of the small changes your actions in the main route can affect! That being said, I needed to update the artworks for the Serenity ending and all of my $5 and up Patrons can check them out now.

https://www.patreon.com/MKRUdesign

That’s all I have to share with you this week. Until next time, everyone!

Dec 10, 2023

New demo version (v0.6.1.1)

Ritual: Path of Darkness - Symar Zhon

Gameplay

A third gargoyle that attacks in area has been introduced.

Modified the design of the book with the intention of making it more eye-catching

In addition, if you have upgrades available, every so often it will try to draw the player's attention to remind him of them.

The ghost link has a small animation to make it more distinguishable when it is linked and not to be confused with one of your own links.
When using the mageia that increases the strength of the shadows, its attack looks different.

The gargoyle's eye flickers if you try to use it when it is out of ammo.
The stone of the first gargoyle has been modified to be seen more clearly at night.

The door and the bone wall release particles when hit and shake slightly.
Changed the buttons on the rune interface

Modified the summoning tutorial to have a similar format to the rest and remove that half hidden "I understand" button.

Pause menu

Options can now be accessed from here, you don't need to go to the menu to change the sound or language.
If you go to the menu or try to exit, a confirmation popup will appear indicating that progress will be lost.

Main menu

The candle fire has been changed.
The ugly menu buttons (such as the skip cinematic) have been moved to the options screen.
Changed the options screen
- Modified the buttons layout
- Now you can choose how to treat the cinematics more extensively.
  - View them always
  - View them only the first time, if you play again the view ones are skipped
  - Skip them always
- There are more options when choosing the amount of runes to start the game with.
  - 4, 6, 8 o 10
- All these choices are saved in persistence, so if you come back to play another day, the same configuration will be there.
- The option to delete this data (the button is a little bit hidden at the bottom left)

Sounds

Several new sound effects have been added
The door being hit or destroyed
Bone shield when appearing, breaking or being hit
When using the heal skill
When using the regeneration skill
The spikes appearing from the last red mageia
The summons when they are ready, when you summon them and when they take damage
The shadows when attacking
The mageia when they are ready, when you use them or when their effect stops