Development Blog Q1 2024 (Patreon)

Heyhey Scientists!

This very long, but proudly presented, dev-blog covers a portion of the most important things we worked on over the past few months and also provides a bit of insight into the technicalities we are going through for each and every iteration of a gameplay system from its inception to its completion. As usual there are short summaries for each section if you want to skip the long read! Don´t forget there is a audio version of this linked below! <3

Contents:

• Sandbox V3: Lusting for Thrusting

• Combat: Yara makes funny combat noises in the recording of this title!

• OCD System: It just works!

• Characters: The Art of Facial Expressions

• Characters: Look At System

• Game: Performance Improvements

• Game: City Dynamics and Population

• Game: Audio and Ambiance

• Big Bang Studio: Navigating Team Dynamics, Lessons and Growth

• Outro: What to Look forward to!

  

Sandbox v3: Lusting for Thrusting

TLDR: Sandbox v3 redefines our approach to game design with its focus on modularity and interactive features, drastically reducing the workload for animators and enriching content creation. It re-introduces enhanced control for players through interactive sliders, Lust System, and the free cam mode, alongside significant strides in procedural motion for more lifelike animations.

Sandbox v3 stands as a milestone in our development journey, moving beyond the unnecessarily complex unreal editor-style asset placement of V1 and the animation-centric V2, to a system designed around deeeep interactivity and ease of use. This new iteration allows players unparalleled control over their characters' animation during sex-play, from adjusting animation speeds to direct interactions through the upcoming "blue hand" system. The introduction of a fully procedural Moan and Sex-SFX System makes every scene more dynamic and responsive to player input.

A key focus moving forward will be on advancing procedural motion, informed by insights from experienced animators. This involves a deeeeper understanding of how different body parts influence each other (eyewiggle), leading to the integration of secondary body movements that bring a new level of realism to character animations. By addressing the limitations of the current primary pelvis motion and enriching it with more fluid and natural movements, we're aiming to soonTM be bridging the gap between procedural and handcrafted animations, ensuring every thrust contributes to a bustling feel of joy all the way down at your pelvis!

Combat: Yara makes funny combat noises in the recording of this title!

TLDR: Combat System v1 merges intuitive mechanics with a dynamic, upgradable weapon and AI, unfolding in stages: the current introduction, the upcoming tutorial, and the full system.

Combat System v1 is founded on ease of use and an evolving power fantasy, making it accessible for both seasoned shooter players and beginners. Its centerpiece is a versatile weapon that encourages tactical play and growth, inspired by the innovative weapon arsenal in "Control."

Evolving from your typical shooter combat norms, we're aiming to adopt an energy-based system for ammo where enemies and environment alike become a source of restocking the latter either by shooting or slashing your way through it.

AI behavior is designed to be unpredictable and varied, moving away from monotonous attack patterns to offer a challenging and refreshing combat experience with a diverse array of enemies. The introduction stage is set, with the tutorial phase aimed at enhancing player skills due to follow shortly, paving the way to the full deployment of our combat system.

Not fully verified but in the works: A party system that allows you to take some of your favorite waifus along for the ride, using their support abilities to help you succeed in your missions.

OCD System: It just works!

TLDR: “Oh no I need to clean this up!” is what our lead programmer said about our old cinematic and dialogue system … and then he came back with a literal OCD System. The OCD (Objective, Cinematics, and Dialogue) system is a centralized tool for narrative control, ensuring storyline elements and objectives are seamlessly integrated and accessible, improving loading times and the re-introducing a reliable skip function.

The OCD system not only features a funny name, it also acts as the game's narrative engine, coordinating objectives, cinematics, and dialogues to ensure a cohesive storytelling experience. It's designed to ensure that as players move through new areas or advance in the storyline, all relevant interactive elements are readily available and primed for engagement. This system is not only user-friendly for our designers, allowing for easy interaction with other systems meaning we can finally speed production time of those standard nono cinematic dialogues! Additionally it also enhances the player experience by significantly reducing loading times and providing a more reliable skip functionality for dialogues. Time to speedrun things again!

Outside of the benefits of this new system, transitioning the OCD system to C++ presents challenges, notably maintaining the balance between improved performance and accessibility for the development team. Moving forward we want to move data layer loading, which is related to what's visible in the world, to the game instance and update the node names in the graph system for our developers simplifying communication on what's what and where … and how and why.

Characters: The Art of Facial Expressions

TLDR: We established an enhanced dual-system approach to facial expressions, significantly improving character feel and emotional depth.

Benefiting from our updates to OCD, we introduced a developer friendly workflow for generating facial expressions. Now Facial expressions receive a dual-system treatment: a procedural system based on the characters' enjoyment levels and a dialogue-based system that allows for context-specific emotional responses. This blend ensures characters are not only more expressive but also more connected to the narrative flow. Don´t worry, we´re not getting rid of the cool cinematics we have been producing in the past, just creating systems that allow us to speedily produce the other 80% of the game's dialogue that is NOT bound into a cinematic moment of itself.

Characters: Look At System

TLDR: The Look At System V3 aims to revolutionize character engagement, allowing for more lifelike and dynamic interactions within the game world, making every character encounter feel more natural and immersive.

The evolution of the Look At System from its initial version to the latest V3 has been a journey of refining character interaction within the game environment. V1's reliance on MPC (Material Parameter Collection) values for cinematics set the foundation, which V2 built upon with additional polish and functionality. V3, however, marks a complete overhaul, introducing a centralized location manager that enhances how characters engage with points of interest and each other, making interactions more natural and intuitive. This system now allows characters to dynamically shift their focus, adding depth to their interactions and making the game world feel more alive and responsive. V3 still needs many small polish passes but in general it's in a state we're happy with shipping into an ALPHA build.

Game: Performance Improvements

TLDR: Significant technical enhancements, including a new city loading grid system and VRAM optimization, ensure smoother gameplay across diverse hardware, enhancing accessibility and reducing technical barriers for players.

On the technical front, significant strides have been made to enhance game performance and accessibility. The introduction of a three-tier grid system for city loading significantly reduces the "blocked" loading times, making the game more fluid and reducing interruptions in gameplay. We undertook efforts to decrease VRAM usage and optimize asset loading times contributing to a smoother experience across various hardware specifications. Further improvements in animation blueprint multithreading and actor count reduction in the game world are our way to further improve performance optimization. 

It's not perfect yet, but we're slowly getting there. Improved Performance is an important goal for us to aim for, but in essence we're trying to strike a balance between content production speed and performance passes.

Game: City Dynamics and Population

TLDR: Our game's urban environment is becoming more vibrant and lifelike with the integration of hover cars and an improved street population system, moving away from static backgrounds to a dynamic, living cityscape.

The urban landscape of our game world is undergoing a significant transformation. Hover cars, implemented through a straightforward spawner system, glide along predefined splines, adding a layer of dynamic life to the city streets. This system is designed for high performance, ensuring that the city feels bustling and alive. Additionally, we're phasing out an older, less optimized street population system that you can currently find in 5.2.0 to 5.2.2 builds in favor of utilizing Unreal's "Mass AI" and "Mass Crowd" systems. Enjoy the bald walkers while they´re still here, soonTM citizens will have hair.

Game: Audio and Ambiance

TLDR: Advances in audio design are deepening the immersive quality of our game, with tailored ambient sounds and effective use of Audio Volumes to craft a more engaging and realistic sound environment.

Audio plays a pivotal role in bringing our game world to life. The transition to more sophisticated audio design techniques has allowed us to create a richer ambiance and a more immersive environment. Utilizing Audio Volumes, we've managed to streamline the process of setting up location-specific sounds, significantly reducing the workload on our developers. This optimization not only enhances the overall audio experience but also frees up resources to focus on the quality of sound design, ensuring that each location within the game has its unique auditory signature, contributing to a more cohesive and engaging player experience.

Big Bang Studio: Navigating Team Dynamics, Lessons and Growth

TLDR: Our journey through team expansion and structure refinement has taught us valuable lessons, leading to a strategic approach in embracing a mix of generalist skills and specialized knowledge for a more efficient and creative development process.

Over the past year, our team underwent significant changes in size and structure, initially expanding to include new roles aimed at accelerating development. However, the focus on nurturing "home-grown" talent presented unforeseen challenges, particularly in translating raw potential into production-ready skills within our fast-paced environment. This experience led us to reassess our approach to team building, shifting towards a more balanced mix of seasoned professionals and versatile generalists to enhance productivity and foster innovation.

The concept of a team populated by generalists with specialized interests has proven to be more than just a strategy; it's a philosophy that permeates our entire development process. It allows for fluid communication and collaboration across different departments, ensuring that everyone can contribute meaningfully beyond their primary roles. This approach not only streamlines our workflow but also empowers our team members to expand their skill sets, adapt to new challenges, and drive our project forward with a shared sense of ownership and passion.

Reflecting on the departure of a valued animator who returned to the conventional workforce, we're reminded of the stark contrasts in compensation and stability between game development and more traditional industries. This has reinforced our commitment to enhancing team compensation and career development opportunities, ensuring that our studio remains competitive and attractive to top-tier talent.

As we move deeper into 2024, our experiences have shaped a clearer vision for team expansion, focusing on mid-level and senior roles to further elevate our production capabilities. With these adjustments and a renewed emphasis on leveraging the collective potential of our team, we're poised to tackle upcoming challenges and continue delivering exceptional gaming experiences to our community.

Outro: What to Look forward to!

As we progress into Q2 2024, our focus remains on refining our game development pipeline to enhance delivery speeds, as evidenced by updates to the Look At System, Sandbox v3, and the OCD system. Additionally, we're committed to improving team compensation, fuelled by our efforts over the past year to increase studio revenue, with the goal of reaching new benchmarks in 2024.

Our next big step is launching the game's demo on Steam, aiming to attract more supporters and accelerate production. Keep an eye out for HOTFIX 5.2.3, which promises significant stability improvements. In a move to better serve our community and reduce deadline pressures, we'll start linking MEGA FOLDERS with version numbers for easier access to HOTFIX updates, even post-support.

We're excited for what's ahead and invite you to join us in this journey, bringing more fun and innovation to Hentai Game Development. Stay tuned for what's coming next, and let's continue making great gaming experiences together!