Dev Blog - Preview Build, Workshop, Sentry gun and... Space Bro! (Patreon)

Good morning / afternoon / evening Patrons,

We did it! A new milestone has been reached! Selaco has a preview version now which we can hand out to content creators and press. There are a good amount of things we want to talk about this week, so let's dive right in.

REMINDER: Gifs do not load properly on Mobile. Refer to this imgur link to see all the images and gifs shown in this blog:

https://imgur.com/a/RheerrZ

Key art

We have the first sketches for our big key art piece and have begun refining the line-art. We expect this to be done shortly before the demo hits, but we will share it here on Patreon first, before sharing it publicly on Twitter! I would love to do it earlier and show the sketch right now, but I prefer revealing it in its entirety when it’s done, then do a patreon exclusive breakdown on why we went with certain decisions and how the whole thing came to be!

A couple of things to note:

• No, Dawn will not stand on a pile of corpses doing badass things. We wanted to do something new and not pay too much homage to classic shooters.
• It puts an emphasis on the journey rather than the action. Showing Dawn by herself in the aftermath of Selaco.

Preview Preparations

We have a working preview version which we are currently handing out to content creators and press. The Preview Version of Selaco is similar to the Patreon Demo in many ways, except it runs on a newer build with additional polish, and features the second level; The Backrooms. The level introduces 2 new enemy types (Enforcers and Crawler Mines), 3 new weapons (Smg, Nailgun, Landmine), showcases Swappable Alt fires and introduces the player to the Workshop which allows players to upgrade and adjust the behavior of their weapons.

Sentry Turret Changes

Repositioning

Dawn is capable of dishing a good amount of damage by herself, but sometimes the odds will become too overwhelming for one soldier to handle. Frequently throughout the game, the player will be ambushed by multiple groups of enemies, turning into a short game of Wave Defense.

AI Changes

Doom AI is always challenging, especially because Selaco tries to have them behave like actual soldiers rather than “simplistic” demons. Our past AI systems did not know how to deal with friendly sentry guns and would instead always focus on Dawn and not retaliate properly. In the newer build, they prioritize them better, making them target the sentry gun when Dawn is out of sight or when shot at by the turret.

To help against these odds, we have added the ability for Dawn to not only Convert sentry guns, but also to pick them up and reposition them. Upon repositioning, the turret needs a second to recalibrate before being able to fire, but once that’s done you will have a reliable companion on the field!

Sentry gun variant: Alien Sentry

Finally getting to work on a turret variant for the enemies!

The idea I used to have was that the aliens hacked ACE Security turrets (which is actually a minor plot point!), but Dawn could reverse the hack and have them fight for ACES again. However, if a Sentry Gun had a bright red light attached to it, these would be unhackable. This comes with a major flaw from a visual design standpoint. Having to rely on a point light to communicate with the player whether or not a turret is hackable is not exactly easy to read, especially because the model is identical and our eyes look at silhouettes first. It should be easy to read even when in a brightly lit environment. We could change the color of the turret, but that would still not be enough, because color blindness exists and gameplay elements should, in my opinion, never rely too much on just color variations. This goes double for a fast action game where split second decisions need to be made.

The solution? Let’s just make a brand new turret for the enemy faction!

I always wanted to flesh out the weaponry of both ACE Security and the Aliens, so this addition further builds upon their arsenal.

Just like the ACE Security turret, this model will be voxelized.

Junction Boxes

Apologies for the poor GIF. To my knowledge, Qubicle does not allow rotation per-model.

We often introduce new environmental hazards as the player continues their journey. One of which is junction boxes. Firing on a junction box will cause it to explode, electrocuting every bastard that happens to stand within its area of effect. The damage output is minimal, but it stuns enemies and makes them an easy kill, or a perfect opportunity to temporarily shut them down and focus on other enemies.

As a stupid, shitty detail, you can also open them up with E, which makes them affected by water particles. Tossing a mug against an open junction box, or causing any type of splatter, will cause it to explode.

A second (more powerful) variant of the Junction Box is being worked on, which has an increased area of effect and adds the chance for aliens to explode during the shock

Workshop

Given how the Preview Version has the Workshop, we had to improve our Weapon Upgrade system and make them actually usable! We showed the Workshop back on Realms Deep, but back then the Workshop actually didn’t do anything since Weapon Upgrades were not implemented yet (Which made it a perfect ending for the video because it meant we didn’t have to show anything!.

Now on the other hand, the system works and all weapons have fully functional upgrades and alt-fires that can be swapped out. Don't want to use the Nailgun zoom? Replace it with a Nailbomb or Nail Turret alt fire instead.

We will add a whole bunch of alt fires for all the guns, which can be found by exploring levels and picking up Weapon Kits.

Pre-demo replacement

We are still discussing a brand new reward for Admirals and have a very cool idea that allows Admirals to be more involved and have a chance to play with new toys as they become ready for testing. Will share more when we have some more details!

Space Bro™

Last but not least, development on SPACE BRO™ has begun. There isn’t much in the way of gameplay, but at least the spaceship can move around. Now to do a proper art pass and actually work on this minigame from time to time.

Conclusion

Next target? Public demo! The upcoming blog post will be a difficult one, because we’re going to spend lots of time just cleaning up, improving code and trying to keep performance as high as possible. So I’m looking for some content to talk about for the next blog post. Do you have any questions regarding Selaco, its history or game development in general? Comment below and we will answer them for the next blog post!

As usual, thank you all so much for being a Patron. It continues to make a massive difference on how the game is shaping up and, once again, none of the things described above would have been possible without you. Thanks!

Wesley de Waart