VOID Devlog 1

First post-jam update!

-----NEW ENEMIES!!!-----

- Void Shark

https://streamable.com/23bxbi

My first attempt at making a FPS boss this one was a lot of fun.
Translucent terrors that ooze static energy will dive at the player and shock the player if within range.

I had to learn to depth intersection for this bad boy (wich has been extrapolated upon and used elswhere :)) as part of my stubbornness this was done in shader code and not through visual scripting.

When making the static shock I initially opted to find the actual vertex points on the mesh however I could not get this to update with an animated skinnedMeshRenderer. So I am instead using an array of primitive geometry along the shark and finding the closest collision point to the player. This method is preferable to using a mesh collider in most instances anyway

- Spider Eggs

These are super simple. They instantiate the spiders with some "random" upward force.

The spiders themselves are also straightforward nav agents that move toward the player until they are close enough to "engage", at which point they will attempt to leap at the player (this has had some unexpected behavior that I am actually quite fond of)

----- LEVEL DESIGN!!!!-----

- Spawn Point Generation

During the game jam, I placed a bunch of spawn points manually (much less dense than this don't worry im not insane) so I was going to need a solution to this before starting any level iteration or it was going to take forever and/or constantly have enemies spawn inside of other objects.

My solution was to cast a grid of rays down at the level in order to find walkable surfaces.  As the design gets more complex I will want to have a distinction between props and "the level" probably using the tag system (although id prefer to look for static walkable surfaces the same way a baked nav does).

Additionally, this function happens on start when it could be something I prebake in the editor

- The level so far
https://streamable.com/05xeqd

Things are mostly still grey boxes (and will remain so until more playtesting is complete) but it's starting to feel alive and there are now lots of ways to use the level to your advantage and exploit pathfinding instead of just the one central point.

the new blood altar and surrounding platform as well as the chains suspending everything in the void are starting to imply a narrative of some kind :))).  Although I cant help but feel it looks like a cursed toilet.

-----NARRATIVE-----

-The Beginning

I've come up with a little backstory for the game.  I'm worried it's over-serious for a low poly score attack game so I won't be including it elsewhere for now but I'd love to get some feedback on this subject and the story in general.

Beyond the bounds of space and time lies an infinite nothingness. A place where the rules of reality do not exist, and the boundaries of existence are meaningless.

But something stirs in the void. A presence, ancient and incomprehensible, has awakened. And with it, undead, constructs, and colossus horrors, each imbued with power from the unknown will. They are the embodiment of the void, given form and purpose by the entity that has awoken.

It is a beacon in the bleak, a magnet that draws in curious souls, a place of horrors and nightmares, where the very concept of existence is challenged.