dcfedor's blog

Hey Folks!

New video day! You've been very patient, waiting for a new video since...gosh, was it December? With the rush to get ready for PAX, my video game has been lax. (Sorry, dad pun+rhyme combo.) So to reward your patience, you get TWO videos!

Dev Update Vlog

This first video is a personal message from the developer, found on a derelict Ryokka tug outside of K-Leg:

Hey Folks! At long last, PAX East 2020 is over, and I've returned home. (Somehow, plague-free, even.) And now that I'm back, it's time to take stock of the situation, and plan for the road to release!

First of all, how did PAX go?

I'm happy to report it went well! The image in today's post was the menu visitors saw as they hopped into the demo. The demo could actually be played in one long sequence from creating a captain to piloting the ship, but players could dive-in wherever they wanted.

Hey Folks! Still plugging away at the PAX 2020 demo here, and the goals are the same as before. We have a few fun updates to talk about, though, so I thought it was a good time for devlogging.

One of the bigger changes, and one I've just checked-in, was formalizing the role of relationships in interactions. It's now possible to limit interactions to people who have (or do not have) certain relationships. Some examples of this include preventing AIs from asking for a hug to strangers, or offering to cover a shift for a non-crew member.

Hey Folks! I'm overdue to post another update, and we've been up to a lot since the last one. So I figured I'd catch you all up.

The big thrust right now is to get a playable demo ready for PAX East, which is in about 3 weeks. It took a bit of trial and error to decide on what the demo would be, but I think last week mostly got us on track. So now it's all about execution.

Roughly summarized, we want the demo to leave players feeling like the game will let them:

Hey Folks! Figured I'd post again just to keep you updated on progress. As usual, I've been skipping news most days to get the extra half hour of work, unless there's a screenshot I can use worth seeing.

And today qualifies!

Hey Folks! Not a lot of visible progress the last several days, so I've been using the normal blogging time for both work and meetings with devs until there is.

Today isn't much of an exception, but it might be a good time to talk about where things are with AI.

Happy new year, folks! Hope everyone had a good holiday season. We stayed in town, but we still visited a lot of friends, and had a generally merry time. I also resisted the urge to tinker over the break, hoping the time away would recharge the creative batteries.

And I think it worked! I was definitely excited to get started again, and I feel the extra time thinking before acting again was important.

Hey Folks! Still working away at the social tactics feature. Lots of sharp edges to file down, and things to add so it's more engaging.

A fair amount of data editing has been going on, as we find nonsensical or missing replies. Some moves were not coming up at all. And we still need to make sure AI responses seem more plausible.

Hey Folks! Been a few days of silence here, as I try to get some progress that I can show off.

Today's screenshot shows some of that progress, in the new social tactics UI. It's a lot like the old one, except now we start with a nearly empty list of status effects on them. And as we talk to them more, it reveals information about their state of mind.

Hey Folks! It's been a busy week in the wake of the trailer! A good busy, but still busy. Hard to get actual dev work done.

In what time I could cobble together, however, I was able to make some progress on the social combat system. Now known as "social tactics!" (Combat was growing a bit too narrow a term, as a lot of non-zero-sum stuff is in here, too.)