Let’s Get Animated

11 January, 2024 

Another week has come and gone, folks, and we find ourselves yet again joined here - in the Weekly Cheese. As always, I’ll be your host as we journey through the layers of work the team has been up to this past week. I’m glad you’re here to bear witness to the incredible things we’re preparing for you (no big deal) and hopefully I can hype you up for the impending possibility of internal playtesting! We’ve been working hard, so let’s dive in.

A N I M A T I O N

Last week was truly a trial for Ryan, our glorious champion, as he encountered something he had been dreading since early on in the project: Animations. With the majority of in-game functionality and features nearing completion or mostly underway, the time had finally come to wrestle with the beast of getting things to look as good as they feel. So began the painstaking task of outlining requirements, researching animation tools, and purging unused assets from the project. It’s been a process, but the team has developed a comprehensive list of required animations that will (hopefully) set us on a stable course to make actions feel smooth and intentional as you play them. Send your cheesiest thoughts to the team, we all need them.

Around the Table

Now’s my favorite section, where we really walk through what everybody’s been up to over the past 7 days. It’s been busier than normal around here with the holiday stress officially worn off and the normalcy of the new year setting in. Let’s take a look:

• Ryan

  • Refactored EntityData to be individual scriptable objects. This will allow for much better management of data through source control - this had to happen eventually for other reasons but the AgentStatEffects requirement kind of forced it to happen now. This is going to allow us to make a dashboard to interact with the EntityDatabase easily as well.

  • Implemented AgentStatEffectsProcessor which will be responsible for applying, updating, and removing stat effects from all entities of type AgentBase (players and zombies). This will allow us to implement damage over time, healing over time, slows, buffs, debuffs, interrupts, camera shit.

  • Implemented effect stacking, cooldown resetting, world UI indications for AgentStatEffects... ((( GOBLIN_MODE incoming ))).

  • Began overhauling the animation system. Creating new layers, developer tools, animations. Expect to see new weapons and animations for:

    • Regular Handguns

    • Revolvers

    • Assault Rifles

    • Single Barrel Shotguns

    • Double Barrel Shotguns

    • Winchester Rifles

    • Bolt Action Rifles

    • Two-Handed Melee Weapons

    • Bows

• Bryan (he’s broken out his accomplishments by status - neat!)

  • Completed

    • Oversight/assistance with Terry’s ‘General Weapon Animations’ documentation.

    • Scripted a short marketing video, which was eloquently executed by the one true B.R.U.C.E.

  • In-Progress

    • Constructed a list of changes to be applied to the current inventory UI/inventory Interaction system (To be executed w/ Ryan)

    • Brainstorming POIs for the maps that are equal parts lore/theme accurate, and mind-bogglingly epic (To be executed w/ Ryan and Cole)

    • Developed a simple map illustration for the ‘Main Menu’ interactable bunker scene (To be executed w/ Ryan and [UNNAMED INTERN])

• Bruce

  • Executed short marketing video in conjunction with Bryan.

  • Assisted with animation discussions and documentation.

• Cole

  • Created new status effect icons.

  • Added melee weapons and started melee functionality (kill me).

Like I said - we’re busy! The team is synergizing like never before, and we’re really working in tandem to get through these tasks and push us closer to internal testing. We know the community wants to get their hands on afflicted and that’s why we’re spending so much time making sure it’s juuuust right. We want to ensure you have the best possible experience when we drop our demo, that way you can have fun and spread the word to your friends!

Hey, Listen!

And now, for something a little different, I’d like to present the community with a special guest appearance! You’ve heard his name in the shadows (not really, I talk about him in here plenty) and you’ve seen him lurking in Discord. His will is that which drives the story and lore of afflicted forward! Coming to you live all the way from {BRYAN’S HOMETOWN}, it’s the Buscemi himself: Bryan!

“For this edition of the Weekly Cheese, I'd like to shine the spotlight on the rest of the team. Sure, I assisted with a little bit of this and collaborated on a little of that, but my compatriots are tirelessly chugging toward the finish line of this Demo. And let me tell yuh, it’s tough to keep up! I don’t think most of the Chads quite understand just how out-of-hand the pace has become. It’s both terrifying and exhilarating, and yet this elegant entanglement of dopamine and cortisol continues to fuel our devvy little fires.

Anywho, just wanted to confirm with all of you what our humble ‘Squid’ has been preaching all along. These guys are working their asses off, and it’s really starting to show.

It’s like a downhill boxcar race, and Ryan can’t quite seem to reach the brake pedal. He just keeps barreling forward, plowing through every little obstacle and bump in the road. Willing to suffer a couple bumps and bruises in exchange for a decisive victory… Damn, look at me getting all sappy over here.

He still has dainty wrists…

That feels better.

Buscemi”

In Closing

I’m not even going to try and top that, so this is where I leave you.

Stay Cheesy Folks,  

Squid