Preamble

So, yeah, my first dev log entry ever! I’m not sure anyone will read this, but just like the game itself, I’m doing this for myself and I am the most excited currently. People that know me will know that I’m in a state of jumping up and down on my chair like a madwoman on Speed just because I have this project to work on and learn new stuff with. So, I decided to keep this log as sort of diary of my successes and failures along the way and to see where the game itself went through during the process.

But before I start talking about the game itself, let me share something with you guys: I’m a bit scared, honestly. Scared that someone else will come up with a similar idea or even the exact same and just being faster than me. Seeing, how people create full games in game jams in sometimes even 72 hours or less, kind of makes me nervous as all hell. It’s impressive, incredibly so, but I’m just a theatre and costume design student that has mainly a bit of Arduino programming and HTML coding background. This project might go on for months without any progress I can show others. But - I am trying to tell a story with the game, and that is what makes it important in the end and will make it stand out, right? That’s what keeps me going. I’m telling my story.

But enough of my blabbering, on to what I actually have been doing so far!

First Steps

So, as I said, I’m mainly an artist, not a coder. I go through tutorial after tutorial, try to understand instead of just plain copying code snippets and working myself through the stuff I thought would be way too difficult to start with in the first place. I wasn’t sure when I started out, which engine I should use. I prefer Unreal a lot, because of the blueprints and the general usability of the program, but Unity has way more tutorials and instructions for projects in 2D existing. I started with Unreal and I’m sure I’ll stick with it on later projects, but this one I think I’ll create in Unity, for my brain’s sake at least.

Here is something I did in Unreal, unrelated to the current game, but that’s the extent of what I was capable of doing in 2D with the few tutorials I could find:

I know, I know, long way to go still, haha. But I learned a lot about movement areas, layering of sprites and environment images and generally how to create sprites in the first place. That’s something I never did and always was fascinated by.

The next step was learning how to do the same in Unity. I use PowerQuest for learning how to create 2D point&click code stuff in Unity and how dialogue works. There’s still a long way ahead of me in that regard. I really hope it wasn’t a bad decision, hahaha.

Decisions

Speaking of decisions: Lots of design decisions ahead.

I wanted to create static environments like “I’m on Observation Duty” shows, seen from a surveillance camera angle. Layered on top there will be the anomalies, rendered with video software and (I guess?) put in as GIF or something, if possible. That’s the thing I’m still struggling with. I’m capable of creating Blender rooms with perfect lighting etc. for what I imagine, but the animation part is where I struggle with. Sure, I can use video software, did that with the animated cover image, too, and with all my artwork videos, but is that too much for a small game in terms of loading times and size?

I always come back to stare at those weird “Wimmelbild” games (that’s what we call them in German at least) and think, that’s somehow like I imagine it, right? Just less cluttered and more spoopy, if that makes sense. But those are just GIF images that only interact with cursor interaction or are background images without any sort of interaction, correct? Ah, I wished I knew who to ask, hahaha.

So, yeah, not entirely sure design-wise yet, how to make the game look well with the GUI and layout of buttons. I think that will be the next step, even if it’s just a mock-up, but without it, I think, I’ll lose myself in details not needed at this point. I remember the game “Untold Stories” where the player looks at the monitor in-game, I think that would work out well for what I have in mind. I should probably check out FNAF games, too, even though I never had any interest in those. I just think I remember some images of the layout and it could help me in this.

Currently it looks (roughly) like this:

The interior was created using these CGTrader models. I went for this more stylized interior, because I think it suits my needs (and doesn’t kill my computer rendering, heh). I just need to find out how to integrate at least one person into it without looking off-place. Anyone knows someone that could help me? I basically want a soldier leaning against a wall, just partly visible and breathing slightly, in a loop. Otherwise it’s time to learn how to animate and rig stuff, too, eh?

Credits & Conclusion

Regarding the crediting/licensing stuff; all images I use are CC0, made by myself or rendered in Blender, besides the “floating neck band card holder”, that one I created with the help of a graphic from zlatko_plamenov / Freepik.

That’s about it for the moment. I don’t think the next logs will be as exhaustive, it’s just my endless excitement speaking. Thanks anyway, if anyone read it and see you soon with updates!

I’m On Containment Duty is currently being developed by Tanija and written in collaboration with friends. The release date is currently unknown, but a demo/test prototype should be released soon.