The first task we accomplished this month was to fully implement our skill point system. Killing enemies rewards XP, acquiring enough XP rewards a skill point that can then be spend on various upgrades. These skill upgrades are permanent and transfer between levels. However, whenever the player encounters a save point they have the options to reset their upgrades and respend their points.

When grappling onto an enemy, if the player attacks right before impact, the player performs a critical hit. The critical hit does extra damage and guarantees that the enemy will drop a health pack.

Exploding barrels are scattered around the map. They can be set off by electrocuting, or hitting with your axe. These barrels deal a large amount of damage and huge knockback. Additionally they can be chained together with exploding barrels setting off other exploding barrels.

One of the most important things we worked on this month was the addition of the rage meter. You gain rage by damaging enemies, gaining even more when you kill them. Once you stop damaging enemies the rage meter starts decreasing. The higher your rage is, the faster you move, the more damage you deal and the less damage you take. Additionally, there is a post processing effect tied to rage that highlights enemies, focusing the player in on the combat.

The most vital aspect of development on any project is user testing. As a game developer it is one of your main duties to ensure that players understand, enjoy, and want to play your game. With this in mind, we devoted a great deal of time this month to having people play our game. From the feedback we received and the gameplay we saw we made a number of changes to improve the feel and engagement. 

On top of all of the gameplay changes and additions, the art team has been hard at work replacing our temporary assets. We added a number of props including the new stationary turret model, the players grappling hook, plasma gun, baton, and jetpack.

Most excitingly we now have a fully rigged enemy model, pictured here with the gun and jetpack.

Finally we put together a test level fully furnished with art assets and gameplay

This month marks the completion of our first milestone. The game now has all essential functionality and we consider the gameplay to be fun and engaging. We have dedicated a lot of time to playtesting this last month, fixing bugs, and tailoring the gameplay to produce the desired experience for the player. This is a very exciting development for the team and with this milestone, we have created a few demo's to show off the current state of things.

Gameplay Demo

VFX Reel

Animation Reel

Moving forward, as we continue to produce art and animations to fill in the world, we plan on creating the actual content of the game. Currently we have just been using various demo and test levels. Our next step is to create the final levels for our full release as well as crafting the story of the game. We are extremely excited for the coming months and for everyone to see the final product.

Enemy Behaviors
First and foremost we began work on implementing enemy behaviors for both basic and intermediate variety. Basic enemies rush the player and perform melee attacks. They are essentially supposed to be cannon fodder for the player to rush through to get to more dangerous enemies. Intermediate enemies have powerful ranged attacks and seek out the player but keep their distance.

New Camera System
In order to supported our fast paced gameplay, we had to modifying the camera system to smoothly move into place while avoiding collisions with the environment. Additionally the camera goes into a first person view mode when grappling onto walls and ceilings to give the player a better view of their environments

Special Abilities
Along with the grapple and melee systems the gameplay relies heavily on special abilities. Those being the ax throw, ax spin and electric grapple. This month we got the mechanics for these systems working. The ax throw provides the player with a long range attack, launching their ax through the air and having it fly back to them. The ax spin takes out a large amount of enemies around the player, sending them flying. The electric grapple stuns enemies and destroys turrets. Additionally the electric grapple can disable the jetpack on elite enemies.

New Grapple System​
In our old system grapples immediately arrived at their destination and began pulling the player towards that point. Now we have made it so that they are a physical projectile. The projectile moves very quickly towards its target but returns much slower so that the grapple still feels responsive but gives the player some feedback when firing at an out of range target. Additionally we made it so that when the player quickly taps the grapple fire button, it fires the grapple immediately rather than zooming in. This makes it feel much more responsive and fluid.

On the art side of things we completed a variety of models related to our character. First of all we have a fully modelled and textured battle axe which serves as the players main weapon.

Next we finished the rig as well as modelled and texture our main character, or as we call him "The Insurrectionist".

We also created more propaganda posters for decorating scenes

Considering the massive scale of the project we are planning, we will not be able to make everything ourselves within a reasonable amount of time. To alleviate some of this pressure we purchased a bunker asset pack that we will be adapting and adding to, in order to make everything fit with our style and gameplay.

There will be a few occasions in which the player will need to break through glass to advanced so we implemented a system to support this.

The game is saved by entering the radius of respawn pillars

Enemy spawning is started via events and spawns enemies in waves in seperate objects called Spawning Huts. These are specific locations where enemies are spawned and then can leave and begin their attacks

Laser fields damage the player over time. They are used to dissuade the player from grappling on certain surfaces or exclude the player from certain areas.

Various propaganda posters will be scattered around government facilities

We began work on The Insurrectionists helmet

Created a rig for the player character and began work on creating the player model

Added a settings menu that can be accessed either from the title screen or the pause menu

The level select screen can be accessed from the title screen and currently only allows the player to pick and level and play but will eventually show stats, saves, and other interesting information.

Computer terminals can be found around the map and give greater insight into the games story and the environments

This month's development for Hook, Line, and Axe has been mostly pre production but also taking some pivotal steps by setting up essential infrastructure, and establishing core gameplay mechanics.

We've created a comprehensive production timeline that outlines the entire project's scope and estimates the time required for each milestone. This serves as our guiding roadmap, although it's subject to change as we continue development.

We've established a GIT project to house the source code and serve as our task management hub. This enables streamlined collaboration, version control, and progress tracking for our small team.

We made significant changes to the dash mechanic. Instead of dashing in the direction the camera faces, you now dash in the direction of the movement keys being pressed. If no keys are being pressed, your character dashes in the direction of the camera. This alteration makes the movement feel much more fluid and makes dodging attacks much easier.

We've introduced a basic mantle mechanic, allowing players to climb up surfaces when they are within a certain range from the top of the surface. This dynamic feature enhances the exploratory aspect of the game, make movement easier and more fluid and allows the player to go exactly where they mean to when grappling.

We've implemented a basic turret system. Turrets have three states: patrol, alerted, and attacking. While patrolling, turrets rotate back and forth scanning for the player. When alerted, they turn to face the player, and in the attacking state, they stop and fire projectiles, creating strategic challenges for players.

A basic melee attack mechanic has been added, which detects the presence of an enemy in front of the player and damages it accordingly. This mechanic will be further refined in the future to synchronize with the attack animation.

When players deal damage to an enemy, the game now features high-contrast impact frames on the screen, along with a damage amount popping up at the point of impact and a slight screenshake. These visual cues enhance the feedback and immersion of the combat experience. When combined with attack animations and sound effects it will heighten the players feeling of power.

Next month is an exciting phase for Hook, Line, and Axe as we dive into full-scale development with our entire team. We have a range of tasks on the horizon that will shape the game's foundation. We'll be working on character and enemy models, crafting various props and structures for the game world, and designing an iconic axe weapon. Additionally, we will be beginning work on the tutorial level and further enhancing enemy mechanics. As we move forward, we're dedicated to creating a game that captures the essence of our vision and offers players a truly engaging adventure. Stay tuned for more updates and progress reports!

During this month, our primary focus revolved around crafting the necessary documentation for our upcoming game, "Hook, Line, and Axe." This began with the creation of the Team Formation document. In this document we both introduced our team members and also outlined our collective vision, the rationale behind our selection for this particular project, and the framework we intend to employ.

​With this essential groundwork laid, our next step involved the development of the Game Design Document (GDD). The GDD is akin to our game development bible, a comprehensive guide to everything we intend to do with this project. In this document, we detailed every facet of the game's design, including aspects like the movement mechanics, the nuances of level design, and a thorough list of the required assets.

Given that our game, "Hook, Line, and Axe," is built on fluid and dynamic movement, our prototyping phase naturally gravitated toward these critical mechanics. Most important are the movement mechanics, the focal points of our development efforts, due to their complexity and centrality to the gameplay experience.

​First, we began prototyping the grapple mechanic, which is the defining feature and namesake of our game. This mechanic empowers players to wield a grappling hook with precision and finesse. To initiate the grapple, players simply hold the right mouse button, and releasing it propels the player towards their intended target. In-flight, the grapple can be canceled by pressing the jump button. Upon successful attachment to a wall or ceiling, players adhere to that surface, a connection that can also be terminated by pressing the jump button.

Our development then led us to the dash mechanics. Players can execute a directional dash in the direction corresponding to their movement keys, adding a layer of agility and responsiveness to their gameplay experience.

In the coming stage of development, we hope to implement the remaining movement mechanics,  primarily ledge mantling. Additionally, we are gearing up to implement the melee mechanics and begin on the task of creating an enemy AI system.