Development Update #82 (Patreon)

This is a dev update that's been rewritten about 10 times now. That means it should only contain 5-8 typos and roughly 25 grammatical errors! This is why I have a beta team for the game releases, folks.

It isn't proper game development work if you don't have to do it at least twice. I was reminded of this when I discovered that EVERY character model I had exported and converted would need to be redone thanks to a few issues I found. Mercifully we are a bit over halfway through that process, and I was able to sneak in a few other improvements when I did this. I'm hoping that next week will bring the end of me monitoring another computer for Maya to finish converting a model.

To spare myself from burnout, I'm back to just 5 days a week (alright, maybe 6) of working on To Be A King. I noticed that 7 days of working 8-12 hour days was not going to end well. How folks at game studios survive crunch for months on end is beyond me. I'd be making so many mistakes by the end. "Sorry, boss, but it has been so crazy. That's how Master Chief accidentally ended up with a dick for a hand. It could be a cool weapon though, right? Alright, fine. I'll leave your office."

Let's talk about some major changes UE is bringing. Animations are, of course, the largest. I'm working on getting comfortable with UE's system and how I am going to structure these so that each scene can be efficient and impactful. Beyond that, I've got some new tools I'll be integrating to provide some added realism to the animations. Since everything will be animated, I need to make sure those do not feel stale after several chapters. Stay with me while you see some early works-in-progress over the next few weeks. They will get better. I'm not even three months into this transition, and it is nice to already have better animations than I had in Daz. And in just a few minutes to render out per animation.

The biggest changes will be in the environments. After reviewing those again this weekend, it makes no sense to convert a lot of the Daz environments I have been using. Well, other than for continuity, but I'll talk about that in a moment. There are many fantastic (and more historically accurate) environments available in Unreal Engine, and I intend to utilize those. Realistic trees, actual Roman household items, etc. are going to make things feel a bit more alive. I do plan to go back and redo Volume 1 in UE (though when that happens is unknown). So forgive me for a bit of retconning of the environments when Chapter 11 gets introduced. Everything will ultimately match up…eventually. I'll plan to do some more previews of environments soon, as many of those are pretty close to where I want them. Maybe we can have a special lady take a walk through one.

Speaking of environments, 2024 is going to bring a massive change there. To Be A King will explore new lands. Visiting the Gauls, Vikings, Egypt, and Tamura's homeland are all in the planning stages. None of that would have been possible with Daz due to environment limitations. There are many assets I have wishlisted in the Epic Marketplace to make these realistic, but Egypt is already shaping up fairly well. I am sure Rashida will be happy. There will also be a stopover in Lydia and Helena's hometown, along with the potential for a sailing adventure across the Mediterranean. The boat assets have been purchased, but getting the sea and everything setup may prove to be more trouble than it is worth.

Clothing is also going to be a bit more period appropriate, though I'm taking a few liberties with sexy outfits for the ladies. I've got all that redone, and I hope to have some previews to show off soon. Even the palace soldiers got some significant upgrades, though I've got to try and get those same things over to Felix & the General.

My composer is working on a big overhaul of the music and sound effects throughout the entire game, while I do all this fun in UE. That will hopefully be completed in another month or so, and the early results are really remarkable. There is new music, of course, but also a reworking of existing music to better capture the feel. The goal is honestly that you rarely notice the music, because it being distracting would be terrible. Look for a preview or two of that within the next few weeks, as I'm hoping to get some comparison videos done to show it off.

Thanks for reading this far! I'll be head down with the character work for a bit longer, as there is so much going into them. While I do that, I'm mixing it up a bit with finishing up my writing as I now know what I can safely do in the next chapter. You'll see more previews to show off what will be very much works-in-progress for a little while longer, but you'll be able to see the progress, at least. It's a big undertaking, but I already see some amazing possibilities, and assembling scenes is getting easier by the day. If I had the characters already all setup with everything they need, it would not be a lot of work. Now I'm going to get back to work on the character physics. Realistic breast jiggle is turning into a long process.

P.S. The special monthly render animation may not happen for this month. Ran into a few issues, so I've got a few renders in Daz cooking right now, in case I can't get that animation finished up tomorrow. I'll have at least a couple of animations for sure in April.