Break it Down

Written By Cole Simchick

21 March, 2024 

Good morrow, folks! Your ever-present Squid here with another hot and ready Weekly Cheese, fresh out of the oven. This week, we’ve been focused on creative ventures and development for afflicted while Ryan continues to fight the good fight of technical implementation. Discussions have been flowing and so have the ideas, so let’s get to talking.

The Weekly Details

Let’s go around the horn and see what the team has been up to this past week. You’ll notice some developments in the creative side of the house as we’ve been making decisions on the route of the game. If there’s one thing that play testing uncovers, its the potential for expanded systems and features! After all, we want to make sure that you all enjoy playing afflicted when it drops!

  • Ryan

    • Bug Fixes

      • Fixed a bug causing errors related to the player animation state PlayerShootState.

      • Fixed a bug causing game to crash if Loot Table game object not present.

    • AI

      • Adjusted the Zombie Swarmer stats & animations.

      • Added staggering animations (doesn’t work on multiplay. I’ll fix in the next patch).

    • General

      • Added the official 3rd Shift Studios splash screen animation.

      • Airlock poses no longer get stuck when you enter > leave > enter lobby.

    • UI

      • Overhauled Main Menu (The Bunker) UI (not going to list everything because it’s a lot)

      • Added tooltips for UI Elements.

      • Redid the item feed aesthetic.

      • Added a portrait panel for the announcer. You get to see Bruce’s face now!! (placeholder)

    • Systems

      • Lobby System: Automatically leaves lobby when quitting game.

      • Matchmaking + UI: Fixed the matchmaking logic – pretty solid now.

    • Gameplay

      • Added weapon scrolling using mouse scroll wheel.

      • Damage now varies -5%/+5% for regular hits and -10%/+25% for critical hits. Gotta have that sweet, sweet variability.

    • coldbreaw counter == like 20 or some'n

  • Bryan

    • Continued work on the tech tree concept and look. He is currently panicking at least twice a day about it but rest assured…progress be progressin’.

    • When Tech Tree panic grips too tightly, Bryan has begun to build up concepts for melee weapon passives (classes), and class specific ‘ultimate’ moves. Should be neat.

    • Some less noteworthy, but not completely unworthy topics on the chopping block include aesthetic AI (wind, wildlife, etc.), Synty asset scavenger hunts for in-game objects and map design, clueing the boss in on Unity asset store sale prices, and meme-ing with the MEME_LORD.

  • Marc

    • Dreaming up memes and holding down the social media presence.

  • Mike

    • Finishing up Rigs and finalizing the weight painting of all the characters for export into unity.

  • Cole

    • Implemented weapon icons within project so the weapons all have an actual icon now.

    • Built out draft of City map poster and started Swamp map poster.

    • Minor control scheme testing on gamepad.

    • Set up feedback form for our play testers.

In Closing

This week felt different, but in a good way. There’s a lot of focus on creative direction for afflicted right now, which is important as we nail down what we want the final product to look like. You all have been, and continue to be, hella patient as we continue down this journey together - and for that I give you my honest thanks. You all in the community are the lifeblood of afflicted, and I hope you’re all as excited as we are.

Wait - I’m goated,  

 

Squid 

Cole Simchick
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