Sixteenth Entry - July 2020

Hello!

This is the sixteenth entry of my development blog for my project 'Tracked Mind'.

A long time has passed since the last blog post. Don't worry the game is still under development, and with a lot of progress, new features and a new story. I was noticed about problems with the previous blog post, some people had problems to read it, so I'll add the changes that has been made from that post into this post.

All the inventory items are now done, it's been a long struggle to make it all work in a way that fits my initial idea perfectly. There are new ‘head bob’ movements and camera animations in the game. I've made some cut-scenes from the main character's point of view, which is something that I believe will keep the Player immersed in the situation/dialogue as much as possible. The game now has a ‘death camera’, the game slows down while playing a death animation. Previously the screen just turned black when you died.

I remade the entire weapon Equip/Unequip system. All the weapons are properly aligned with the camera and you can now right click to ‘aiming down the sight’ with the firearms.

The AI has been given an update. I optimized the code and added new animations to some creatures, it all looks and feels a lot better than in previous versions! The AI is not completely done though, basically it's going straight for the Player when the Player has been discovered. I'm planning on adding a “discovered" event to the AI, as well as strafing behavior while in melee combat. Possibly a dodging mechanic to a few of the enemies.

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So the story of the game, I haven't written a whole lot about it. Why? Well I wasn't happy with some parts and I couldn't make it all fit together and turn it into a believable story all way through. It was a difficult choice but I decided to change the story somewhat.

So what can I say about the story now? The main character needed a new beginning, moves to a town somewhere in North America. His uncle is the maintenance guy in a newly renovated building. Luckily his uncle let's the main character move into one of the apartments before it's all done for anyone else to move in. The building used to be a hospital and an asylum. The reconstruction of the building is halted by unsettling finds in the basement of one of the buildings. No one around to find out that the main character has moved in. The building might be under construction, but it is definitely not empty.
The apartments that the tenants are going to live in are the old patient's rooms and holding cells, creepy and actually inspired by a real world situation not too far away from where I live. You can see a few screenshots of the new apartment building further down in this blog post.

The apartment complex that I have been working on will probably not be in the final version of the game, but I'm planning on releasing a beta version featuring the level. I'll let you all know when it will be released.

From the previous blog post: "This time I'm really happy with the progress since my previous post. The game now has a new inventory system (again, I know). This time it has all the functions that I wanted from the start. Sadly I had to recreate all the items that were already in the game which took some time. How the inventory works and looks is really important for how the game feels and the tempo of the game overall. I can finally put more time on the other parts of the game. I'm currently planning on making camera animations which can be used for cut-scenes. I'll keep you all updated about how it goes!

The HUD (Head Up Display) has also gotten an upgrade. Earlier you would see a text at the bottom of the screen telling you that you can interact with something. Now the text appears at the item's location, making it easier for the Player to know what exactly you can interact with. I also added more items to the game which you can interact with, making the game itself more interactive and interesting. It's now easier to hide secret items or areas, they will reward Players who like to explore or has an eye for details when found."

A lot of new features added, they are:

General changes:

- A new inventory system

- New Equip/Unequip system for weapons

- All weapons have been realigned and now works perfectly while 'aiming down the sight'

- New HUD elements

- More interactive items

- New 'headbob' movement

- All the inventory items are done

- Added a ‘Death camera’

- Remade the AI.

- New screen effects

- A lot of new sound effects

- A lot of new character/enemy animations

Bug Fixes:

- Two bugs that affected the reload mechanic for the shotgun fixed

- An animation bug (the character was able to sprint in mid-air)

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- Fixed a bug that would prevent the stress meter to decrease when hitting enemies with a melee weapon

Don't forget to follow the game on twitter on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/ClovetasticI

And if you want to contribute to the game you can do that at our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/clovetastic

Thank you for reading!

/Mikael Henriksson - Clovetastic Interactive