Hello everyone! I hope you’re all having a great weekend! My week has been going great with the release of the tech demo. I’m trying to address my recent burn out by taking it easy for a little while. The remainder of the year will likely be pretty stressful with holiday planning and gatherings anyway.
This weekend I’m spending my development time working on project management and design stuff. In particular, I want to have at least a rough idea of the layout of the island the game will take place on. I need to open up the Unreal Editor and put together a couple terrains of the sizes I’m considering and see how long it would take the player to run from one end to the other. If it’s too large, I’ll have to use a smaller sized terrain. I was originally considering an 8km x 8km island, but I’ll probably make it a more manageable 2km x 2km island instead if the traversal is too tedious. The game’s design includes a fast travel system, so traversal really would only have to happen once then the player could warp around, but I still need to see what it feels like. No matter what the size, I need to make sure there are plenty of things to do so the world doesn’t feel too boring. But all that is later. Today is simply planning some ideas on what the basic shape of the world will be.
For that task, I’m using Concepts. #NotSponsored. It’s a great art tool. There are a bunch of cool features, but I’m primarily using it for it’s amazing “infinite canvas.” I love just sketching out what I want to sketch out, zooming in or panning around and continuing to work. I tend to work “outside in” with it. I start zoomed out a bit so I can just draw an outline then zoom in and start adding details. I use it on my PC then sync the drawings to my phone and tablet (externally; I don’t think there’s a free option in the app) and continue working on them there when I’m on the go and particularly bored. It’s free. I suggest giving it a shot if it sounds like something that interests you. There are a lot of purchase options including new tools and brushes, but I’m perfectly satisfied with the free options for now.
I also need to do some server work today. I want to get some configuration done on a new server I picked up. I have the PowerEdge R630 downstairs, but I picked up a PowerEdge R730xd to sit with it. Since I got into backing up my movies and series to Plex, my server has filled up pretty quickly. It’s a great thing to have, but it’s kinda expensive, too. ╰(*°▽°*)╯
Anyway, I’ll let you all get back to whatever lovely plans you have for the weekend and I’m going to get back to work. You little lovelies sure work me hard sometimes. 😊 Until next time, everyone, thanks for tuning in and have a great weekend. Keep on gaming!
I’ve created and published the Patreon page for The Cursed Crown! There’s not much there at the moment, but I will be posting updates there as they are available.
Hello again, everyone! I hope you’re all having a wonderful weekend! The season is officially changing where I live and it’s starting to get chillier outside every day. It’s a welcome change from the oppressive heat that we had during the summer months.
I had some extra time to work on things this week so I got a bit more done than I expected, but never as much as I hoped to get completed. I was able to get some stuff done yesterday since I had the house to myself, and finished up with some extra work today. I might actually get the chance to do some relaxing for once tomorrow instead of working. But I know that’s not why you’re here; you’re here for the updates. So, without further ado, I give you my work log for this week.
My initial plan was to create three door prototypes here, but I settled to two instead.
Door type one is a physics-based door that swings on a hinge. As a player, simply walk through this door to open it. It will swing shut behind when the character is no longer in the way. It works well, and it’s based on the metal bars that came with the Lordenfel asset pack. The only thing that I didn’t extensively test on this one was whether the door allows AI pathing through it. I’ll need to experiment with this so I know how to use or not use this door in levels later. I plan to extend this to allow different assets as well. Sometimes wooden doors might be better than metal ones, for instance.
Door type two is more of a hidden door. It looks like a wall and requires manual activation by the player. Upon pressing the interact button, the door starts moving in one of five configurable directions. (Up, down, left, right, or backward.) It moves a configurable distance at a configurable speed then (optionally) is destroyed so it doesn’t get in the way of other geometry. For future updates, I want to add some sort of stone-on-stone scraping sounds, some dust or smoke particle effects, and see what can be done about removing the interaction box that pops up when the player is nearby. It’s not very secret if it announces itself after all.
Door type three was planned to be similar to door type two, but using something like bars or a gate instead of the wall. A lever or switch of some sort would be nearby and be the actual interaction point. Due to lack of appropriate assets and animations, I scrapped this idea until beta.
After previous attempts to update the lighting in the environment, I wasn’t actually confident I’d be able to get something I was satisfied with and I was trying to accept the fact that I might close this issue with no actual progress to show for the work. But I’m happy to say that I was able to get the actors configured enough that I liked the results. I won’t say that I’m confident the nighttime stuff I put together is better than the daytime settings that were shipped with the product. So I compromised.
Instead of just setting the actors to day or night, I cloned the actors in question and created a daytime set and a nighttime set. That’s right, both are included. I created a new blueprint based on the ACF interactable blueprint that lets the player switch between daytime and nighttime in the tech demo. I’m not going to spoil where it is, but it’s not super well hidden, so you should be able to find it in the build when it’s released.
This one is going to take a little while, and it’s not going to be something that’s obvious in the build because it just isn’t something that’s going to be referenced in the build at all.
I want to have the plan for Patreon set up and ready for when I officially release the tech demo. I plan to have a few tiers where you can support the development of the game and I intend full transparency as to where the funds will be going. I have always been a bit hesitant with some Patreon campaigns when I can see x dollars going into a project, but the output appears to be worth far, far less. I want to make sure that you can see what I am spending the money on so you can be confident that I’m not squandering your hard-earned money. Plans can obviously change, and I will strive to keep everyone as up-to-date as possible.
But first, I need to get all of my information laid out as neatly as possible. I’ve actually created the Patreon page already, but I haven’t published it because I don’t feel there’s enough information to warrant it.
So that’s what I’ve accomplished (and am accomplishing) this week. It always feels like it’s long grueling work and it takes me all day to do, but when I lay out what the results are in these posts it never feels like I got much accomplished. Such is the life of a developer. I tend to feel that way in my git logs and notes at my full time job as well, so c’est la vie, I guess.
Anyway, some more actual news. Just to see who’s reading this far and who’s just skimming the Cliff’s Notes. I intend to have the Patreon campaign opened up by the end of this year. And I intend to have a working, freely-downloadable build on that page when it goes live. That’s right: tech demo build in December 2024.
27 of the 29 issues identified for the alpha build are complete. Only two remain: #39 (Document the Patreon Plan), and #18 (Tech Demo (Alpha) Release Checklist). I’m working the Patreon plan now, and the release checklist is basically “what needs to happen to put the alpha build together.” I know what you might be thinking: “But doesn’t that mean it’s ready now?” Well, yes, technically. But I want to have some time to polish the build where I can and add in any last minute things I can think of for that extra je ne sais quoi. But don’t worry, I’m as excited as you are about this. I really want a project to release and succeed. I’m not expecting immediate success, but with continuous work and supportive fans, I think there’s a real chance that The Cursed Crown could be the start of something very big.
Thank you all for joining me so far on this journey. Keep the faith just a little longer. And until then, keep on gaming!
Hi everyone! I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend and had a happy Halloween if that’s something you celebrate. I made some progress today, but I’m considering trying to get some more of it done tomorrow. If I do, I’ll update this post, but for now, I’m calling it quits for the day.
I added a new button on the main menu to go to a new credits screen I created. It’s currently a static screen since there isn’t much to display there. I built it from the same framework as the existing settings menu, so the theme should be identical to the rest of the menu, though I kept the text a plain white so it’s easy to read. But the normal keyboard and controller functionality to go back to the main menu is working just fine.
I did some work to the logo to make it look better. Then I took a good look at it and realized that I’m no graphic designer. So I reverted the changes in the end.
I negated the necessity of updating the main menu logo by adding three new text boxes to the main menu. The title and the subtitle are now text on the menu so I don’t have to update any of it if I replace the logo again at any point. I also included a small text box at the bottom of the menu that displays the build info. It’s not coded at all, so I’ll have to try to remember to update this whenever I publish builds. I considered writing some code to update this every time I do a build, but I plan to remove this text when I move past the alpha or beta stage anyway, so I didn’t think it would be a very good use of my time. That could change later, though.
While I was putting in the new logo then reverting the changes, I stumbled upon a place in the menu blueprint where the image size was being set incorrectly. When the logo was removed by a switch to another menu pane then switched back to the main menu, the logo size was being set to 0px by 0px. The image wasn’t strictly disappearing, but wasn’t rendered since it was set to an invisible size. I fixed this oversight and the issue was resolved.
I wanted to look at issue #14 Create Door Prototypes, but I no longer have time today. If I get the chance, I might try to work on it some tomorrow, but if I don’t then I’ll look into it next weekend. I really should go ahead and put together at least a couple loose designs first anyway.
For now, though, thanks once again for checking in. We’re getting closer to a transition from alpha to beta release. With that comes a shift in the way things are handled with the project. I’ll definitely document that more as we get closer, so be sure to keep an eye on the Discord community and here. Have a great weekend everyone, and keep on gaming!
Hello everyone! I hope you’re all having another wonderful weekend! The weather outside is transitioning from one season to the next and the temperature is just perfect for going outside and sipping tea on the deck. Before I do that, though, I had work to do. I found some time to work on two tasks this weekend. One of them was more difficult, and I anticipated that I might have issues with it. I balanced that with another one that was more chill and easy to accomplish. And both of them helped move the alpha build to the final state it needs to be in to get a release.
I had to fiddle with this one for a while to learn and understand the FSM system that ACF is using for the dialogue system. I’m not going to say that I fully understand it, mind you, but I have in place what I wanted for the purposes of the demo.
Burke has a new portrait that looks more like him than the default one provided by the samples.
Burke’s display name is now “Burke” instead of “ACFGuy.”
Burke’s dialogue is voiced instead of being static text.
I’d like to update the dialogue system so that it will automatically advance the stages of the dialogue from one stage to the next, but for now the player has to press “Continue” at each stage to move to the next one. I’m satisfied with this for now, though.
I created a new blueprint for an open and empty chest and replaced all the prop chests in the Overgrown Ruins map with them.
Essentially, the open chests are supposed to represent that Burke has been through the ruins already and looted everything he found already.
There are a couple chests hidden in the area that Burke hasn’t found. In them, the player can find supplies to help: a shield, an off-hand sword, a bow, arrows, and healing potions.
Miscellaneous
While I was updating all the chests in Overgrown Ruins map, I added a few more enemies in. There are several just hanging around the map inside the ruins. They won’t be a huge challenge, but should spice up the flow of the level some.
I’ve been tracking a task list of what I wanted completed to consider the tech demo complete and ready for release. I’ve used issue #18 to track it, though the issue doesn’t really have anything other than that checklist attached to it. What’s important is that the checklist is almost complete. The only thing left on there is to export and publish a proper test build. And while this should be a half-hour task that I can complete right now if I want to, I’m not going to do it right now. Please allow me to elaborate.
Voltaire said “le mieux est l’ennemi du bien.” Put another way, “perfection is the enemy of good.” I know that if unchecked, I’ll allow myself to just build and tweak and add and refine and tack on and so on and so forth. I need to consider what I have as “good enough” at some point. While I’m trying very hard to do that, I also don’t think that I’m at that point right now. What I’ve decided to do is to keep tweaking and adding and adjusting, but only until the end of this year. I have some time off saved up from my full time job and I’ll be taking the last three weeks of 2024 off. I want to spend that time with whatever further updates and fixes I can then start off 2025 with a published alpha build so I can start with beta development.
I don’t have a specific roadmap yet, but by the end of this year, I want to have a laid out roadmap for what I consider to be a full release with a plan for getting there. I’d like to have something like a Kickstarter or Patreon set up to help me fund additional assets that I will require, and I’d like to try to get into the developer backend on Steam so I can get builds out to people faster and more reliably. Between now and the end of the year, I’ll likely have to take more than a single week “off” from development so I can get documentation and other similar work done. There might not be forward-facing changes, but work will always be getting done behind the scenes and I’ll always make sure that there’s something going on here on 6fpsnetwork.com and in the Discord where applicable.
Thanks for sticking with me through all this, everyone. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! Keep on gaming!
Hello everyone! This weekend, I’m taking a long weekend from my full time job with my wife. I don’t expect that I’ll get any work done on The Cursed Crown, but if I manage anything I’ll make sure I edit this post.
I’m sorry that there isn’t any real content this week, but I promised last time I “took the weekend off” that I would let you all know instead of just disappearing, and I wanted to make sure I held true to that promise. You all deserve that much respect at least.
I hope everyone can have a great weekend! Until next time!
My original plan for this task was to create a trigger that faded the screen to black, played some sort of credits or message, then kicked the player back to the main menu. After thinking about this for a while between the creation of the story (July 4th, 2024) and today (October 12th, 2024), I decided that the planned functionality wasn’t really what I wanted in the end.
I created a trigger volume that contained a reference to a widget blueprint. That widget blueprint contained a block of text basically thanking the player and letting them know that they’ve reached the end of the content in the tech demo.
Upon entering the trigger volume, the block of text is displayed in the top-right of the screen. It is removed when the player leaves the trigger volume.
I added several rooms to the end of the ruins after the boss. After defeating (or running from) the boss, the player can progress through the rest of the ruins.
The “end” of the level is to be found somewhere further and deeper than the boss. Also included is an Easter egg if players can find it.
I updated the main menu logo. It’s currently just a logo and no text, but I’ll continue to work on it as time progresses. In fact, you just saw it up above at the top of this post! Let me know what you think on Discord.
There’s not much else to report on right now. I’m hoping (so please don’t hold me to it if things slip a bit) to get some sort of published build out by the end of the year. Unless more bugs pop up, my task checklist for the tech demo only contains a couple more things. I’ve got some time off saved up from my full time job and I hope to take around three weeks off in December. If all goes well, I’ll try to dedicate a bunch of time to getting this tech demo wrapped up. Then, I’ll start detailing the next stage of my plans. As always, keep an eye on this space and on Discord for the must up-to-date information! Until next time, everyone: Keep on gaming!
Hello everyone! It’s time for the first update of October! I wanted to get done a few tasks this weekend, but I didn’t anticipate just how long and involved the level design work was going to be. As much as I loved the process of making maps for Doom and Duke Nukem 3D back in the day, the process of making (reasonable-looking) levels in modern engines is far more complex and slow. I don’t think I’ve done poorly with the work, but it’s a lot slower than writing code for me. I’ll just have to keep plugging away and make sure I allot myself enough time to work on things going forward. Let’s keep the expectations realistic and it’ll all go smoother.
I added a new extension beyond the main ruins where the player can progress. This area is hidden behind a secret door.
I created a custom secret door for this level that will open when the player is holding a particular key item.
I created a key item that the player can find by exploring the rest of the ruins.
Inside the new ruin area, I’ve added a new boss. I didn’t customize it much from the version included with the ACF tools, but it’s a good start and I think it’ll be reasonable for the purposes of the tech demo.
I updated Burke’s in-game display name from “ACFGuy” to “Burke.” I intended to get some more work done with his script and add some voice lines, but I find that I’m not well-equipped to handle voice recording right now. The work I did was painful to listen to. Figuratively, not literally. Though a little bit literally; the cringe was real. I’ll figure it out with some better hardware and software. But the fact remains that I shelved working on the Burke task for the weekend since the level work took two days.
I created a follow-up to issue #20: #32 Overgrown Ruins Level Extension pt. 2. This task covers finishing up the rest of the Overgrown Ruins map, including the ability to “end” the tech demo and the level. I don’t think the expansion will take as long as the first one did, but I don’t know for sure. I’m just going to do it one step at a time.
I tested that the new additions didn’t cause any issues with the build, but I didn’t publish one this week. I’m going to hold off until I get the second part of the level expansion completed and let players get the whole experience. As we get closer and closer to the initial stable build of the tech demo, I’ll probably release preview builds less often in favor of including more content in them. Keep an eye out for further updates. Thanks to everyone for continuing to check in, and keep on gaming!
Hello everyone! Today’s update is a little bit of a short one. I ran into issues trying to solve the problems presented and didn’t have time to get more than a single issue completed this weekend.
I had to follow quite a few tutorials to try to figure out how to invoke the Chaos system and prep meshes for use. I tried to get a decoration prop in addition to the floor that I was using, but I can’t seem to get the ACF weapons to interact with things. In the end, I wasn’t able to solve that particular problem, so I left it at just the collapsible floor.
The floor looks identical to any other floor in the Lordenfel set, but when the player steps on the trigger (it’s specifically set to not trigger if an enemy steps on it) the Chaos system activates and the floor collapses immediately. It might be worthwhile to find some way to spice it up, but it works fine for now.
This works toward the goal of completing issue #20 as well, but is only part of it. I’ve marked the wall that I want to delete to add on the deeper section of the ruins, and I renamed it in the level hierarchy to make it easier to find later.
There’s no new build this week since nothing player-facing has changed. Thanks for stopping in, though, and I hope to have more for you soon!
Hello again, everyone! I was able to find some time during the week to finish getting the project back up and running from the UE5 and ACF plugin updates that caused issues. As a bonus, I made the player model wear a cape on the title screen and in game. Otherwise, I got everything working as expected again.
Cursed Crown Updates:
Reimported the knight and blacksmith model pack.
This didn’t have an issue associated with it, but I wanted to get the model I’m using for Burke back into the project.
Once the models were imported, I stripped out everything except the meshes, physics, and materials. I retargeted the meshes to use the skeleton included with ACF.
I created a basic NPC and assigned the Burke mesh to it and put it in the Overgrown Ruins map. It works pretty well, if not a little basically. The player can talk to and interact with the NPC, but the script that the NPC uses is still the default sample provided with ACF. That will get updated in another task.
I fixed the issue with the melee enemy prototype. There was a problem with the parent that the blueprint class was created from. After deleting my child blueprint and re-creating it, everything worked properly again. I don’t know where the issue stemmed from, but it’s solved now.
It appears that the ACF plugin code for the chests was updated at some point. (The “Take All” button was removed at the very least.) I can no longer reproduce the issue that caused the fatal error and crash to desktop. Marking this issue as resolved unless it pops up again.
During the update to fix the issues this week, I somehow accidentally reassigned the material for the main character’s shoes and had to fix it. It was an easy enough fix.
Edit on September 22nd: I just wanted to poke my head back in and say that I addressed this issue this morning. I wasn’t satisfied with the work I did yesterday due to the issues that arose around git and pushing my project updates. I did replace the enemy meshes this morning and I’m looking forward to everyone being able to see them!
In other news, I have a strange issue going on with my project repository. I can’t seem to push my changes to the server repository. I’ve confirmed that the issue lies with the local files since I can’t push these files to any repository, even a new one just created to test this stuff out. I think there’s an issue with some LFS file somewhere, so I have to poke around and see what I can find. The project itself works, though, so nothing was lost. I’ll continue to investigate and try to resolve the issue.
