I was trying to view the eclipse last week, but that was a bust.  And trying to do art from my in-laws table was more pain than it was worth.  So I didn't finish up on the male morph.  But my muse hit me up side the head with writing the prologue.  Or at least the short story of the prologue of the game.  The short story currently covers about 2/3rds of the prologue.  I have also been copy editing the short story into a screenplay format.  This will mainly be for the voice actors (when I get them) and used when I start to frame the shots and set up the action.  I'm essentially writing a movie script for each of the cut-scenes and vocals that make up the prologue.  I also added a bunch of programming tags that will make it into my technical briefs to record player choices.

[SPOILER="Prologue"]

·       Part 1: Meghan landing at the space port, and finding out her past is catching up to her.  (written and transcribed into the screenplay)

·       Part 2: Stealth mission to escape the space port.  Leave the VIP room, and sneak past the cameras  (written into the short story and transcribed into the screen play)

·       Part 2a: Sneak past the cameras in the baggage claim area

·       Part 2b: Jump through the rafters/pillars (Jumping Puzzle Tutorial) to get to the metro station

·       Part 2c: Spicy DLC only: Sneak through the air ducts/vents (trap tutorial) lose her clothes and wind up in the impound warehouse.  Discovering some naughty things (Written into the short story)

·       Part 3: Arriving at the city, and saving Celeste (combat tutorial)

Wiki Link to the prologue: https://www.aridecangames.com/mgaach_wiki/index.php/CB:_Prologue

I went back to read some of Elknid's Behemoth, and Leana's story, and Meghan might be channeling a bit of Officer Kim, or Agent Leana, when she discovers stuff in the impound warehouse.  I'll have to think on it, and I might rewrite it a little.

[/SPOILER]

Goal:

·       Satisfy my muse and finish writing up the prologue short story and transcribe into the screenplay

·       Work some more on the male mesh

·       Look at the chaos clothing and get some characters dressed and into the engine

Dev Report Week #9: 2024-03-31

This week I finished off the female mesh, at least it's to the point where I've added the naughty bits.  I also created a second head for the body, one with a smaller set of eyes, and bigger nose.  More people liked the first head to the second head.  So I'll keep the head with the bigger eyes, and just go with morphing it a bit for the various characters.

I also started to work on the male body, but I'm not really happy with the results, the nose is way off and I think I'll scrap the head, and start from scratch.  The hardest part is finding a good reference for the head.  I'm looking for at least one head for a 22 year old male, and then a more generic head as well.  Then I'll work on the body for it.

The solar eclipse is coming up, so I may not be able to work on this as much as I would like.  But we'll have to see how that goes.  I'm hoping to look at the Unreal Engine Chaos clothing demos and see what I need to get together for the morphs I'm setting up.  Maybe soon I'll have Meghan running around the game.

Goal:

·       Finish the male body

·       Start work on the chaos clothing.

I have been working almost exclusively on the main character mesh. I think it's coming together, have a look below. I have one generic head done but I think I'll work on a second one, the one that I have was based off of a manga teenager, so I'll work on a second one that is more adult. Once I get this mesh done, I can then modify it for all the female characters. An example of this is that Meghan has C-cup breasts. But her transformed form (Ava) has D-cup breasts. It's not that big of a change but it will be noticeable. And since this is all work that I've done in blender I can use it without worry of copyrights.

But the body proportions are nice, and I'll be able to use it with the custom heads I make for the main characters. Though mostly, the customizations will be fairly minor (except Tierney, who'll have horns and pointed ears).

I have researched Steam bans and other similar things, and I've come to the conclusion that having a Spicy DLC with all the sex and nudity is probably the best way to go. That way, the core game won't have these elements and probably won't get hit by a ban. I'm thinking of three different levels of play.

The plan, as always, is to have the spicy DLC freely available. I'm just erring on the side of caution when it comes to Steam since that's the biggest marketplace. It's also why I'm making sure that there will be no minors on the planet, and everyone looks adult.

I have been thinking about some things I can do for the start just to play around a bit with the opening scene and the spicy DLC. And to introduce some trap mechanics early.

SPOILER: Opening SceneMeghan has been traveling for a while, planet-hopping inside the system alliance that she is a citizen of. Since it counts as internal she hasn't used her passport, just her normal ID. Her friend in the Department of State got her a passport but didn't tell her that it was a high-ranking passport. Effectively she's listed as: Ambassador: Cultural Exchange. Her friend knows she's Ava, and knows what she's done for the world she's from and thought that was a good way to keep her out of trouble. He could only make a passport like that because there is no Ambassador from the alliance to the planet she is going to. Maybe if he had more time to think about it, he would have listed her only as a diplomat. But he really liked and respected her.

Meghan is trying to run from her life as Ava, and doesn't want anything to do with it. Being in a brutal war with the wrath demons, committing various atrocities herself, and only realizing afterward that she had been manipulated, she really wants to get away. So when she finds out what type of passport she has she panics. Remember she's only 19 years old, and fought a decade of war from age 8, where it was the brutalist at the end. She decides to run from the spaceport leaving her past behind, as well as the passport and luggage. It's a stupid decision but again she's 19 years old.

She has two choices, and this is where I'd like to hear opinions on if these are good. The game will have a stealth mechanic, where sneaking past cameras comes in. The first section is sneaking past only a few cameras and then there's a choice. Continue sneaking past the cameras to get to the metro. Or sneak through the air ducts.

Since sneaking past the camera mechanic has been introduced and completed, it's not needed for the tutorial. But this will be the only option in the core game; the spicy DLC will have the air ducts.

Traveling through the air ducts will show that they haven't been maintained that well, and the metal fasteners between different air duct segments have worn down, in some cases, have broken free, and are poking up into the air duct. If the player isn't careful, they might find their clothing ripped, and they get to the metro station naked. I call this the hard start. There might also be some side passages to some cargo-holding areas, and who knows what she might find there.

What do you think about these two starting options?

Object-based inventory is another thing I thought about implementing, but it could be too tedious. What I mean is that the objects being worn can be used to carry stuff, but depending on the object will depend on what can be carried. For example, a set of denim shorts would only be able to carry a wallet and maybe a cell phone. While a shoulder bag could carry more. I'm thinking about adding it this way to add it with clothing/object destruction. If Meghan is fighting something and her shorts are destroyed, everything she was carrying in them would probably fall to the ground. Leaving her vulnerable to losing them. Any opinions on this?

A few dev reports ago, I talked about the male-female ratio. The funny thing about that is I found an article recently about the Y chromosome has been shrinking and withering because it doesn't undergo genetic recombination as the X chromosome does. Which might lead to a lack of viability in the future. This makes me go hmmm and I might just add this in as one of the reasons for the male-female ratio, besides being a dev who wants to stare more at certain anatomy than others.

This week's goals:

More 3D art. But this time it's for the main character model. I'm working through a set of tutorials on making anime style characters. Hopefully this time it will stick, and I can then start working on dressing the character and bringing into Unreal Engine and really get things going.

This week I hope to get a lot of progress done on this, as work has decided to pay for the share holder's dividends by having a week long shutdown. So this week I plan on finishing up the 50 part tutorial and redoing it with an older looking character. The character used in the tutorial is definitely teenage, and that will be too young for my characters. At least I'll get the skill together to work on things.

I'm not too sure what other things I want to talk about with what I've decided for the game. There will be a big thing to do with Ava's wand, but I don't want to talk about that because of major spoilers. Also the mana crystals, again major spoilers with the story and how they work with the system. So I think I'll leave this blank for now unless someone asks something specific.