We've got over 10 hours of gameplay ready for you, with nearly 8,000 renders and more than 300 animations! But we're not done yet, there's still quite a bit of work to do.

Exciting news! We're about to release a demo in Spanish and Polish, but we need to give it a thorough test first. Other languages are on the way too, and we'll keep you updated in future posts!

As promised, we're introducing the characters, starting with this post. Meet our beautiful latina - Veronica. Jake met her while working at the University. She's sweet, helpful, and innocent, but also has a jealous streak! She's a wonderful, mature woman who values stability. Does Jake want that stability too, or is he after something else right now? That's for you, the players, to decide.

Stay tuned for more updates!

A new version of Magic Research 2, version 1.3.7, is now out for everyone. The main changes in this version are quality of life changes, like some limited navigation within the Compendium, some improvements to the Transmute screen, and more.

Full patch notes below.

• Add feature to jump from item compendium entry to the enemy that drops it in the Bestiary
  
• Add feature to jump from the item dropped by an enemy in the Bestiary to its item compendium entry
  
• Change Bestiary entries to always show hint and stats even if player has only lost once
  
• Clearing all Boosts now resets auto-purchases for Boost
  
• Add toggle in Transmute screen to mark / unmark item to be sold via Market Stalls (only for non-Equipment)
  
• Add text in Transmute screen when transmuting an item that has item quality showing your highest quality and how many you own of each
  
• Item displays in Inventory and Transmute now show an icon when the item is being automatically transmuted by Wizards
  
• After completing mid-game Storyline Transmutation Prayer (Quality), displays of items in Transmute screen will show the odds of getting each quality level on transmute
  
• Post-game feature Worlds will now remember the maximum level ever achieved on all Elements, so items in the Transmute menu as well as Storyline hints should not disappear
  
• "Sell low quality items" no longer sells pouch items
  
• Performance improvements to "Automatically combine all" function
  
• Other minor performance improvements
  
• Tweak the animation code of all the progress bars in the game to reflect real values a little faster
  
• Show decimals for the Crit Chance stat on stat displays
  
• When copying or saving a save file from the "Something went wrong!" screen, include error information within the save file to aid with bug fixing
  
• Add button to save debug info to a file in the "Something went very wrong!" screen, to aid with bug fixing

• Attempt to solve display issue for "Next unlock" in Study that would sometimes show things like Paper incorrectly
  
• Fix "Transmute Materials and Item" press and hold not working correctly if the button got disabled while holding it
  
• Fix spell "Firestorm": it could (still) defeat enemies instantly with 0 Fire Essence
  
• Fix bug when copying a save file from the "Something went very wrong!" screen that would always copy "null"
  
• Fix press-and-hold on Wizards screen to assign / unassign Wizards not working
  
• Accessibility: Fix button to swap between Familiar rows not being visible to screen readers
  
• Attempt to fix caching bug related to quickbar hotkeys
  
• Fix crash related to Ethereal Puppet's attack when the Equalize effect affects your Familiar and you remove it from battle
  
• Fix Wizard strategies not saving and loading correctly under certain circumstances
  
• Fix bugs related to navigation in Compendium in wider screens
  
• Fix caching bug related to the little Coins icon in item grids
  
• Attempt to fix display bug on Study screen related to the unlocks (again)
  
• Other minor bug fixes

• Effect of spell "Shapeshift Mouse" on Attack Delay now scales logarithmically
  
• Rebalance "Skullmass" Familiar (Reduce Blood Attack's self-attack power by 50% and increase its damage by 50%; Slightly increase Defense stat scaling)
  
• Adjust post-game Worlds feature: Storyline Oracle Lv3 now grants Zoom Through Training, to hopefully reduce the early game grind in D2 and up
  
• Other small changes

It's been a long time since the last update. We have been developing the whole time however. We have worked on many different aspects of the game, this is a large project so most of the systems we code are designed in parallel.

Since the last dev log we have worked on ghost logic and appearance, equipment, ritual items and magic circles. The computer, including a browser and extended mission setup screen. We have revised our content delivery system and revised how the server accesses our player database including a more intelligent local caching system so loading client side content that depends on information from the server is much faster. We have also worked on our economy and progression system as well, and have designed a UI notification system to support it. The Ghostly Grimoire has been re-added as well, with full functionality for ghost type and trait selection, however no informational pages have been added yet.

Let’s get more into these things in detail.

We consider the ghosts to be the ultimate selling point of Project Apparition. Thus they have also become one of the largest aspects of development, in both logic and appearance. We are on our 3rd iteration of our ghost character model, we now plan on using the Daz3D Genesis 9 character base, instead of Genesis 8, this is also what we will be moving our player character models over to. There are a few reasons we decided on this advancement, they are receptive to a larger variety of stock animations, and animations in general, they have better UV skinning points, so texturing and changing textures at runtime looks much better as well. Their overall look and feel are much nicer too.



Alongside working on their model appearance we have also been working on particle systems and physics based cloth simulation to bring our ghosts to life even more. Although we have a long way to go with visuals we are very happy with the direction we are going. Animations are still lacking though, but as long as we get the base model right we can add many animations later.



Our ghosts are dynamic and have randomness across haunts, the system that handles this is nearing completion. Although we have many more actions and events to add, our ghosts randomly generate traits and their ghost type successfully. Our action system works as follows, and this is the backbone of how we translate different behaviour across different ghosts and haunts.

Every ghost is generated with a base set of actions and parameters. There are actions that every ghost can perform, but some will do some things more than others, also ghosts react differently to the same situations, we express this by using an override system, when the ghost type and traits are loaded onto a base ghost, it will change the base actions and parameters to reflect the ghost type, by making them more likely or less likely to perform them or react. This works identically for traits too, we add another trait to a ghost and it adds another set of overrides and modifiers. Actions and parameters are not just overridden however, there are some that are omitted or always included, ghost types and traits can also have completely new actions or behaviours specific to that type of trait. We are extremely happy with this system as it allows our ghosts to truly be defined from one another.



Another thing we wanted to share with you are our plans for ghost interaction points. These are specifically set areas of a haunt where a ghost can do a specific action, one that often requires the ghost to work with its environment to perform the action. For instance, peeking around a corner, looking out of a window, hiding in a corner or under a bed. This system is being conceptualized at the moment however.



Haunts are something we are always working on due to how dynamic we want them to be. We have worked on giving more functionality to objects, nearly everything in our haunts is interactable in some way. Our system for players to pick up objects in the haunt is currently semi-functional due to it being closely related to the equipment system that we are currently focusing on,, but the ghost can now levitate objects, and throw them too!



Our base camp that appears at every haunt is being worked on as well, we have a basic ECG monitor that tracks player vitals, and the logic for populating equipment racks programmatically based on predefined equipment list is also nearly done. We also now have a mission results screen on the player phone for end of mission debriefing that reports cash and experience earned and source.



We haven’t looked at equipment in a very long time, it has been on a back burner till now, although equipment is an extremely important part of Project Apparition, its sole purpose is to sense what the ghost is doing, protect yourself and to finally, remove the ghost, thus we had to get a certain amount of functionality from our ghosts to truly work on the equipment. That time has come and we are now currently working implementing more equipment and giving all of the equipment items functionality.



To give a recap, there are three types of equipment. Left hand equipment, this is considered permanent, equipment that appears in the left hand is always available and players do not have to buy or maintain it. This includes but will not be limited to, the smartphone and flip lighter. Second, we have right hand equipment, this is your standard ghost hunting equipment, it must be bought from the equipment shops, some items are consumable and you will need to buy more, or if you leave them at the haunt. Lastly we have both hands equipment, like the left hand equipment these items are always present, although some of these items will be left or right handed items but within a different configuration, for instance, our ritual chest is a both handed item, and is always present but its contents are considered right hand equipment when removed, the smartphone is also switched to both hands depending on context.



The Ghostly Grimoire has been added too, however just the ghost evidence page. However it is fully functionality and has an auto-picker based on the inputs you give. This auto-picker is designed in away to only predict given the information would know anyway about the ghosts, our server side logic and its properties are always protected from peeking eyes.

We have started work on ritual circles and spiritual items. Players will own a ritual chest, they do not need to buy this, however players will need to replenish the items within it as and when needed. All of the spiritual items are contained within the chest. The ritual chest will also contain the functionality necessary to draw and complete ritual circles that are needed to remove ghosts from their haunts. With that in mind this means the ritual chest is fully mobile, players will be able to carry this chest into the haunt, set it down appropriately and take items from it, or draw circles. You can see some of the spiritual items, chest and a preview circle below.







The player computer is coming along nicely, we now have a fancy new home screen, an extended mission selection screen and now even an in-game browser, with a working pseudo URL system!! We can add new pages easily and have them be included within our version of the world wide web.



Currently we have two websites, Haus & Home and Paranormal Pitstop. Both of these are shop websites, their goal being to supply players with lobby decorations and equipment. The computer will ultimately be a player’s portal to the world of Project Apparition, most things will require players to use the computer, mission/lobby setup, shops, contracts, lore pages and much much more.

We have got the base framework down for our economy and progression system. Players can level up, attain new ranks and badges, and also receive cash that they can spend in our web shops. Currently we have the lobby decoration shop working, and have the equipment shop currently in development, however that is closely linked to our developing equipment system.



Currently players earn cash and experience from missions, however due to the other systems that are still in development how that cash and experience is awarded is extremely rudimental, although still driven by the ghosts basic activity. As with most things, we are in a good stage if the framework is there, it now can be expanded on within context.



A basic framework for UI notifications has been implemented too, our overlay UI is very unobtrusive and relays economic and progression actions when they happen, then the notifications disappear after, if there are multiple actions that happen the notifications will que until there is no more, and then the notification UI will disappear.

It is very important that we keep our overlay UI as slimline and unobtrusive as possible. We want to lean heavily on immersion, but also we have come to the conclusion that some things need to be as clear and as informative as they can be.

Although pretty buggy still we have implemented our lobby decorator system. Players can now buy, customize, move and style decorator objects. Pretty much everything in their lobby abode. We have developed a placement and style system that players can switch between.





Placement, players can pick up, move, rotate, sell or store any decorator object in their lobby.

Style, players can colour any object in their lobby, most objects have multiple parts to colour, we have colour palettes for different materials. Additionally, this mode allows players to change wall coverings and floors and their colours.



Players can also currently buy more decorator items from the web shop. This will then appear in their inventory ready to place or apply in the case of floor or wall coverings.





When a player changes something about their lobby, or their decorator inventory changes, the server database is updated instantly, and although we cache the lobby data on the clients for quicker and efficient loading it is always cross referenced against the server to ensure no one can hack the game and add anything they want to their lobby.



We are constantly looking at ways to improve how smooth and quick it is to load content in Project Apparition. As we have built and added new features we have also been able to isolate and see where choke points and bottlenecks are, this means we are consistently revising and modifying our content delivery systems to make sure players can get from their desktop into the game in a timely manner.

We have tweaked many things with asset loading, but we have not deviated away from our original concept for it. We feel the addressable system, and asset bundles have been the right choice, however over the course of development we have constantly found ways to improve it.

The way the game speaks to the server though, and how the game receives and sends data has been massively overhauled though. Before we would ask the server for a piece of information regarding a player, and the server would request that information from the database and send it back to the player client. This was inefficient, so we have implemented a server and client caching system. If data needs to be read, it is always from a cache, if data is written it always will update the cache at the same time. Caches are on the server and the clients, this is because some data, like ghost behavioural values, we never want the client to know, but other things like, current level, lobby decorations, or other player focused data the client can know, just should not be able to set it.

Well, continue what we are doing. We have been very quiet so far this year, but we have been focusing just as much, maybe more in fact. Our ghosts are probably the biggest part of this game, and they are constantly being worked on as well. Getting the right balance of workability and quality with our ghosts has always been a challenge, but we are getting there, and over the next few months, we are gonna hopefully see some truly awesome things.

So next steps, GHOSTS!

A few minor fixes:
- Fix rotation of ingredient "Green Toad" on level 22
- Slight change of ingredients position on all levels so they are not behind the menu interface
- Security added if an ingredient rotation is not valid, it will be fixed when dropping the ingredient so the level can be continued

* Mirror upgrades should only be visible when unlocked
* Gravity Ball now has a 2 second delay after auto use so leaves don't get stuck in the middle
* Mobile fixes

We are thrilled to announce a new and exciting chapter to Goose Goose Duck! Duck E. Cheese will be undergoing renovations to evolve into a fun-filled, modern arcade experience with even more to offer!

• Claw Machine Upgrades:
  Get ready to experience new state-of-the-art claw machines with enhanced features, making each play more thrilling and rewarding! With over 450 new cosmetics, these machines will be packed with new and exciting outfits!
  
• Say Goodbye to Tokens:
  As part of our modernization efforts, we are eliminating the use of tokens. Starting from June 18, tokens will no longer hold any value and cannot be exchanged or redeemed! We strongly encourage you to use any remaining tokens before this date! Additionally, the current claw machines are now available to be unlocked at a discount!
  
• More offerings:
  Alongside the renovations, new offers will be available in the Goose Shop as well as a whole new Shop!

Be sure to tune into socials and the community Discord for the latest news and updates!

Q: I had already paid to unlock the claw machine. Now you're taking it away, will I be compensated?
A: People who spent money on the Claw Machines prior to this announcement will be rewarded in kind for their support.

Q: Are the cosmetics from the current machines moving into the new machines?
A: Yes (most, if not all)

If you still have concerns, please contact our support team at support@gaggle.fun

What Is Version 2?

Click the link below for a roadmap and info on Version 2:
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1900020/view/4147323864458114135


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Check out the next iteration of PunjiVR early and provide feedback to help make it the best it can be!

This version includes:

• AKM
  
• M14 Guerilla
  
• Obrez
  
• XM177
  
• F1 Grenade
  
• M26 Grenade
  
• MK.2 Grenade
  
• Stick Grenade
  
• V40 Mini Grenade
  
• M18 Smoke (White, Green, Red, Yellow, Violet)
  
• Environmental Reverb Preview

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(There are still a few more weapons I plan to add before I cross off "Weapons 3" on the roadmap. Next test build will focus on vehicles!)

If you find any bugs, have any suggestions, or want to just share your opinion, do so in the comments of this post or through any of the links below. I look forward to seeing them, thanks and good luck!

Discord
Twitter
Subreddit

-Camden


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If you'd like to participate in this test build, follow the directions below:

Hi! Welcome to GM hack stream Castle of Lord V

small update to fix an issue from the previous hotfix

• fixed bullets being able to collide with each other (fixes shotguns not doing any damage)

Fixed the nasty crash at startup and at starting a new round (game was unplayable). Sorry for not catching it before releasing the patch (didn't get it when testing the game through the Editor, which has only let one other bug pass, so thanks for you patients). This will be a good reminder to also test the game after building it.