Author: TrueKam

Hello again everyone! Welcome back! I’ve got another week of updates that I’m pretty excited for. I set a few tasks out for myself this week and I accomplished them, for the most part, though I’m not totally satisfied with my progress on one of them.

Cursed Crown

• Design a Cheat System
  • I put together a design for a cheat system in the game. The intention is a system whereby testers can activate useful functionality to make their jobs easier. It’s tough to test how the level’s geometry works and flows if enemies keep getting in the way. So, turn on invulnerability! I don’t know what final cheats will make it into the system, but invulnerability is a pretty basic and easy-to-implement one.
  • This task was simply to design the system, so I have a document that I will work from to implement the system; there is no system currently functional in the build.
• Update the Main Menu: Credits Dialog
  • One of the things that was lost in the big update fiasco at the end of 2024 was the set of updates I made to the main menu. In particular, I lost the very basic credits dialog that I had put in. I restored that set of credits. Again, it’s very basic, but it will expand as more info is required to be added to it.
• Add Fast Travel to the Overworld
• Add Save Points to the Overworld
  • These are the updates that I’m most excited for. I’ve added a series of “camps” around the overworld. There are currently seven of them. Each camp consists of a save point, a fast travel destination, and an NPC you can talk to and warp to another site.
  • Further updates are slated for these points:
    • Remove the requirement for an NPC to initiate fast travel. I’m not sure how I want to set up the final system yet, but I’m thinking about a system where you can fast travel to and from certain points but also possess a consumable similar to the homeward bones from the Dark Souls series. If you’re unfamiliar, this is a single-use item that allows you to travel back to the most recent camp/bonfire you were at. This would likely necessitate a change to the travel destinations to make them valid for fast travel vs a “checkpoint” that you would travel to with a consumable. More work is required here.
    • Update the art assets. The save point is currently a large rock that isn’t very well differentiated from the surrounding architecture.
• Begin Tutorial Dungeon Implementation
  • This is the update that I’m least happy with. I spent time trying to build the dungeon that looms over you when you first spawn on the beach. I wasn’t able to really get anything that I was happy with, so I ended up with only the most basic of structures and an overwhelming feeling of disappointment. I’ve obviously got a lot more work to do on this one over the coming weeks.
  • This task was solely to start the building. It was never going to be finalized in this build anyway, so I’m not really behind in development or anything. Not that I can ever really be behind schedule when I’m the one writing the schedule, but you know what I mean.

This coming week, I’ve tentatively scheduled the following:

• Door Prototype Enhancements
  • I want to update some of the prototype doors that I created for the tech demo so they’re more useful.
• Continue Tutorial Dungeon Development
  • While I don’t have as much done today as I was hoping to, I’ll continue trying to build a technique that will let me build dungeons more efficiently.

I know it’s not as much as I often do, but I expect that building the dungeon is going to take most of my time, so I want to make sure I don’t try to stretch myself too thin. I would probably have just scheduled only the dungeon building, but for what I want to do, the door updates will be useful.

You can probably imagine that with the updates to the overworld to allow easier exploration, a new build is due. And you’d be correct! Head over to the downloads section to grab it if you’re a member of the dev or test team. If you’re visiting from Patreon, you can find the Patreon download password in the announcement post over there! I hope you have a great time exploring the island. I know it’s pretty barren right now, but that will change as we progress through the beta phase and push toward a full release.

Thanks for sticking with me, everyone! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and coming week! Until next time, keep on gaming!

Hello everyone and thanks for stopping in! I know it’s been a while since I last updated, but I promise that I wasn’t just sitting idle. Well, for a little while I was; it was Christmas after all. I hope you all had the opportunity to spend some time with family and friends during the holiday season.

When we last left off, I had been trying to update Unreal Engine, ACF tools, and the ACF sample project. The ACF update was from three separate engine plugins to ACF Ultimate, the single plugin that encompassed the entire set of tools. The Unreal Engine update was from version 5.4 to 5.5, which is a pretty big jump in terms of functionality. And the sample project code update included changes to the core setup with how the project was built as in introduced things like GASP and motion matching blueprints. Needless to say, this process didn’t really go well. By the time I got all the software updated, just trying to open the project in the engine editor caused the editor to throw a segfault and crash to desktop. I couldn’t even load things to try to correct problems. I wanted to revert, but as far as I’ve been able to find, I can’t downgrade plugins or packages from the Unreal Marketplace (now Fab.com) and I was stuck with the updated ACF tools, whether I tried to use the ACFU single package or the older ACF separate plugins. In the end, I was forced to basically update all the packages and tools and, well, start the project over. And, while it took me a while to get things back up and running, I was able to get back to essentially where I started and make some further progress.

Cursed Crown Updates

• Updated Unreal Engine to 5.5.1, ACF to ACFU 1.1, and ACFU Sample Project.
• Re-implemented most functionality from the tech demo build. (Exception: Enemy AI has not been re-implemented yet.)
• Set up main overworld map. It’s pretty barren for now, but it can be explored as it exists at this time.
• Known issue: There is a graphical issue when aiming a bow. The character holds it in a funky way that doesn’t look like it lines up, but the arrow fires correctly and it doesn’t affect gameplay.

It might not seem like a lot of progress has been done, but it sure felt like a lot from this side of the keyboard. I hope you enjoy the new level and come back to see it as it grows. If you have access to the build, be sure to check the downloads page to grab it and let me know what you think. My task list is filling up with new things that need to get done and the fact is that some of the updates I’ll have to work on won’t have forward-facing functionality at first. In these cases, I may not bother to put out a new build, but when I have updates that you can test and see, I’ll make sure a new build is published. So be sure to check back here and on the Patreon page. Until next time, everyone, thank you so much for stopping in and keep on gaming!

Hello everyone and welcome back! I started my end-of-year vacation from my full time job on Wednesday, so I’ve had more time to work on The Cursed Crown this week. I unfortunately ran out of time to play around with the crafting system, but I finished out all the other work I planned for the week as well as adding some extra work in and completing that.

I initially planned to experiment with the crafting system, experiment with the saving and loading system, and experiment with the fast travel system. By the end of the week, I also added in the enemy class upgrade task and created and added a new task to create an open world sandbox for development and testing.

Even though I didn’t quite finish everything that I wanted to get done, the update log is pretty long, so let’s get to it!

Update: I woke up early Friday morning and decided that I wanted to experiment with this system just to see what it will entail to implement it later. So, in the end, everything I wanted to complete this week is done. And then some!

Cursed Crown Updates

• Issue 7: Enemy Base Class Upgrade
  • I created a new base class for the enemies. This way, I could have my customization that are available to all enemies without having the edit the base class provided by ACF every time it updates.
  • While I was performing this task, I did the same for the player character controller and for the same reasons.
  • On the enemies, I removed the widget that displays the enemy’s name and health. I re-removed the red flash and popup numbers that appear when the enemy takes damage.
  • I created a new enumeration and variable on the enemy base class to handle different variants: Base, Strong, Elite, and Boss. Each of these selections should make the enemy tougher and stronger, but provide more XP for the player on death. (The XP system will be reworked at a later date.) I tried several ways to handle this functionality but was unable to make anything I tried work so I went to the ACF Discord server for help.
  • The lead developer of ACF (Pask), let me know that this just wasn’t how the system was set up to work, so after some discussion, it was decided that the best way forward was to just create separate blueprints for each variant of each enemy type that I wanted. While this is easier to set up initially, if I want to tweak things or change some feature about the different variants later it becomes more tedious to do. But it’s something that I’ll just have to live with for now.
  • I reverted the changes to the variant system that I added (functions, variables, and enum) and everything is working properly again.
• Issue 41: Create Open World Testbed Level
  • Created story, created level, added to “always package”, ‘open OpenWorldTestbed’ to play, map area from ACF set up, set base game mode blueprint to use, should be ready to develop further
  • I created this story specifically to add to this sprint because it’s something that I just wanted to get done.
  • I created a new level ‘OpenWorldSandbox.’ It’s just a large, mostly flat terrain that has plenty of room to build and test larger functionality.
  • The level was added to the “always package these levels” options in the project settings, so even though there’s no menu options to go to the level, it will always be present in the builds.
  • Testers can access the level by pressing TAB to go to the console then typing ‘open OpenWorldSandbox’ there.
• Issue 32: Experiment with ACF Saving and Loading System
  • I did spend some time experimenting with the saving and loading system provided by ACF. It functions pretty well as a base system. It does need some tweaking, though.
  • I created a basic checkpoint/bonfire blueprint where the player can save the game. I added a couple of these to the Overgrown Ruins level. There is currently a message in the top-left of the screen letting the player know they can’t save when in combat, but this should be updated to be more explicit.
  • The player can reload their save from the menu.
  • Currently, after saving and reloading, every enemy remains dead. I want this to not be the case. I believe I have a path forward for this, but it needs testing to be sure.
• Issue 36: Experiment with ACF Fast Travel System
  • I played around with this system for a while. It functions pretty well, but there are a couple quirks that I think I want to address.
  • The fast travel system is initiated via an NPC. The player can’t activate it on their own. This MUST be changed for the final game. I just need to figure out what functions are being called and to patch into them through some other process. There could be a spell or something, or maybe an option at checkpoints. I don’t know how I want to handle this part just yet.
  • The fast travel points are separate blueprints from anything else in the game. They are activated when the player gets within a sphere around the point in the world where they exist. This could be a perfectly fine way of doing it. I would just have to add two blueprints instead of one whenever I add a checkpoint I want the player to be able to fast travel to.
  • I also want to set up the same “in combat” check that happens at the checkpoints to keep the player from being able to fast travel when they’re in a fight. This could be superfluous if the activation is an item (like the homeward bone or feather) or a spell, since either of these would have a time cost and enemies might not give the player time to perform this action.
• Issue 20: Experiment with ACF Crafting System
  • Updated: I managed to get some time to work on this on Friday morning anyway!
  • So, like ACF’s fast travel system, the crafting is currently controlled by talking to a vendor. The player can choose “I want to craft new gear!” in the dialog tree to open the crafting menu.
  • I dug through the dialog tree and the blueprints and it looks like it’ll be pretty easy to hijack the functionality and add it to the player’s abilities so they don’t have to find an NPC. I don’t think it would be unreasonable to link it to “crafting tables” that can be found all over the place in the world. Or, maybe there will be only a couple, but the player can fast travel to the main settlement to find one to work with. I’m imagining something like the alchemy or enchanting table. I’ll need to figure that one out.
  • The recipes are really simple to implement and store. So far, the UI blueprint for crafting just includes an array of the recipes. I’d probably like to find some way to dynamically add these recipes so the player can only craft things they’ve discovered or found a recipe for.
• Other Updates:
  • I updated the ACF plugins to their most recent versions for Unreal 5.4. I downloaded Unreal 5.5, but I wasn’t quite brave enough to perform this update this week. It is on the list of tasks to do, but it’s potentially going to take quite a bit of time on its own, so I need to dedicate enough time to work on it. A couple things broke when I did this update, so I had to perform some fixes to get things back to a working state:
    • The volume issue returned. I had to reset the effect pack volume to be able to hear sounds again.
    • All the skeleton meshes I was using (Kara with and without the cape, Burke, and all the enemies) had to have their skeletons reassigned to the version included in ACF. This forced the skeleton to be updated and luckily it was a simple process to do this time.
  • I restored Kara to the version with the cape. The assertion/crash issue was still a problem, so I did some more testing and tried to solve the problem the correct way.
    • The issue turned out to be related to the Chaos cloth physics solver interacting with poorly-created collision meshes. I ran around in the area where the crashes were happening and twirled Kara around to get her cape spinning. Every time I hit a crash, I reloaded and modified the collision for the mesh that caused the issue. In the end, I think I changed the collision on all the stone faces, one of the stairs, and all the cliff faces in the Lordenfel set. I haven’t had a crash since.
    • I need to keep an eye on this moving forward and just make sure there are no issues with other meshes that I didn’t catch.
  • I lowered the download size of the demo package significantly by changing the quality of the build lighting. It may look lower resolution due to being built with preview-level quality, but it provides faster build turnaround for me so I think it’ll just stay how it is for now.
  • With all this work, I bumped the build to version 0.2.2. A downloadable build should be available this afternoon!

Thanks again for stopping in. It’s time for me to try to relax a bit for the weekend. I can’t promise much work due to a social gathering I am attending on Saturday, but I’ll do what I can. Since I have off next week, progress will still be better than on normal weeks anyway. I’ll have to decide what I’m going to plan for the next steps.

In the meantime, I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! Until next time, keep on gaming everyone!

Hello everyone, and welcome back! I’m feeling mostly better after being sick last week, but I’ve got some lingering symptoms that haven’t quite dissipated yet. Still, I wanted to make sure I got some work done on the project. I tried to not be overly ambitious, so I set myself three tasks to work on with a stretch goal of a fourth.

Unfortunately, a breaking bug was brought to my attention that caused an assertion error and crash with version 0.2.0. That became the highest priority and required looking into before actually looking at the tasks I wanted to accomplish this weekend.

Cursed Crown Updates

• Issue 32: Experiment with ACF Saving and Loading System
  • The plan for this task was simply to test what functionality is already present in the ACF system.
  • I now have a blueprint that’s based on the provided save point blueprint. I’ve placed a couple around the Overgrown Ruins and the save/load functionality already works properly. I want the system to respawn enemies when the player saves as well as when the player loads the game from the main menu, but that’s something to work on later.
  • I’ve spawned three new tasks from this one:
    • Issue 38: Update the Region Announce Blueprint,
    • Issue 39: Update Enemy NPCs to Respawn on Load, and
    • Issue 40: Update Save Point to Immediately Load/Respawn Enemies
  • These issues will be worked as time permits.
• Issue 36: Experiment with ACF Fast Travel System
  • I dug into how the ACF fast travel system works. I’ve made some docs and notes. It seems pretty robust, but there are a couple things that seem to not work very well. I have some ideas on how to improve the system, but I’ll need to enumerate and design those ideas before moving on with the functionality implementation.
• Issue 20: Experiment with ACF Crafting System
  • I ran out of time to work on this task on Saturday. I may have time on Sunday to revisit, but I can’t promise anything yet.
• Stretch: Issue 28: Design Crop Bed System
  • I cheated a bit and worked on this early. I was out for a while and had access to my tablet, so I typed up some notes and got started on this design task. I haven’t done an “official” design, but I think I have all the info I need organized so that I can start to implement these once I get a bit further with the crafting feature implementation.

In the end, I was able to solve the issue with the crashing and I accomplished a fair amount based on what I planned for myself so I’m not disappointed with the amount of work I got accomplished. I would have liked to have more “tangible” results that I could have used to push a fresh build out, but sometimes, planning is more important. I have two more days of work at my full time job this year before I’m on vacation from it until the second week of January. I want to spend some time getting work accomplished on the project. I don’t know what tangible results will be available since I won’t really have the terrain I want to use, but I will ensure that I’m still updating everyone here and on Patreon, so keep an eye out.

Until next time, everyone, have a wonderful weekend and keep on gaming!

Hello everyone! Today’s update is: there’s no update! Unfortunately, I’ve been ill all week. My fever’s broken and I’ve turned the corner, but I’m not up for getting into my editor at this point. I’ll still be trying to get some project work done, but it will be things like organization and behind-the-scenes things. I’m considering experimenting with organizing the work into sprints so I can utilize charts for outputs, but I don’t know what would work best for a time period on that. Perhaps some time going that this weekend will provide some insight.

Thanks for sticking with me through this. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. Keep on grabbing!

Hello again, everyone! I hope you’re having a good weekend. I’ve been getting some work done throughout the week here, but I admit that not a lot of it has been direct development. That doesn’t mean that I’ve been idle, though!

I spent a couple days this week migrating the entire development git repository over to Microsoft Azure DevOps. I was beginning to have issues using GitLab due to the size of my repository. I figured that if I was going to have to pay to host my project as I worked on it, I would shop around and find the best value for my money. I settled on Azure due to the features I can get for my budget. Migrating the repo was the easy part, but I had to spend some time cleaning up my task backlog and moving it all over to the boards on DevOps. Once I managed to get everything moved, I turned to organization. DevOps gave me the ability to set things up in a more Agile fashion, as I’m accustomed to from my full time job. I don’t think I’ll be necessarily forcing myself into time-boxed sprints, but I may start using them for organization purposes. At the moment, I’ve organized things into epics, features, and stories. That has helped me get a good grasp on the work that I need to accomplish to move things onto the next step. Then I spent more time putting together new features for the functionality that I want in the game along with some stories to start fleshing things out. If this sounds complicated to you, just imagine how long I had to spend doing it.

But that’s all done for now. I will have to refine things as I progress and more features will get added as the current ones are complete and new ones are decided upon. But I needed to get this done. The need was two-fold. One: I wanted a good base on which to build my work going forward. Everything that I did up to now feels really disorganized compared to what I have set up so far. And two: if you don’t have multiple backups with at least one being off-site, you don’t have backups. Due to GitLab’s size limits, I had my code all stored on a Linux server in my basement. It worked wonderfully, but if my home burnt down or was burgled while I was out, I would have nothing to show for the last year of work. Now, I’m protected.

But, I did manage to close out two stories:

Cursed Crown Updates

• Addressed Issue #26: Update Project Links
  • This one was a gimme, but it was required. I updated all the development project links on 6fps Network and in my LogSeq notes to point to Azure instead of GitLab. I went digging in the official design document and on the Discord server to update links as well, but I seem to have not included them for whatever reason. I took the opportunity to add them.
• Addressed Bug #12: Mage Enemy Bleeds on Hit
  • This turned out to be easier to address than I expected. ACF built the effects into a big data table. I just duplicated this and removed every effect that resulted in a blood splatter. After saving that, I assigned the new data table to the mage enemy. The bug was marked resolved after I tested that it works properly and doesn’t produce any blood splatter particles any more.

I’d love to be able to update everyone with detailed reports and readouts from the project, but I don’t know exactly how to do that with DevOps yet. There are a lot of report options, but I have to decipher their creation then find a way to export them in a way that I can display them here. At the very least, I want to be able to provide the same progress bars that I was providing for how far along I was with the alpha development. That doesn’t seem to exist in its simplest form like it did with GitLab. I’ll see what I can get figured out, though.

For now, thank you all for stopping in once again. I hope you have a wonderful weekend and Thanksgiving, if you celebrate. Until next time, keep on gaming!