Create an abstract exploration game

After the last update I got a lot more motivated to put more time into this project. With the change in lighting and going back to first person, it feels like the world is coming alive a lot more. I’ve since done some work on the world generation and added a new element into the world. Now there are things moving around with some logic and interacting with other parts of the world.

My next goal will be to refine the player character, specifically focusing on movement and possibly giving the player some abilities. Currently the player doesn’t actually interact with the world at all yet and I do want to change that to some degree, even if it’s just passively.

*(this clip contains two cuts, because it would get far too lengthy otherwise, so no need to be alarmed if the view changes abruptly.)*

I’m still at the same point as the last update, but have managed to put some more time into the project. I revisited the lighting system because I want the player to have relatively little vision, but still be able to see specific things from far away. Also after playing around with it some more, I decided to scrap the 3rd person system because it was just giving me too much headaches.

Finally I added some lighting and animation to the pillar object I made last time and scattered a few around the level using my perlin noise generation I am using to generate the landscape.

At this point I’m clearly realizing that another project is taking the majority of my time and finishing this project in time is not likely. Nevertheless I did want to make some more progress on it, so I made my first ever third person controller. The player character might need some more work, but the first movement is live and ready to be refactored.

I made a first setup of the kind of world I want to make. Nothing fancy yet, just put a few cubes in, but it does give that abstract exploration vibe already. My biggest challenge in this will be to make the world look good and cohesive. Visual style hasn’t been my biggest strength and this project will be a good test of that.

This first prototype gave me a chance to play around with Perlin noise for the first time, in order to create a world through code. Using Perlin noise also means I could generate the exact same world for anyone joining in multiplayer. Given this, I’ll most likely use that same function for any future world generation as well.

Currently I’m just running around in the standard first person controller, but I’m planning to chance that to a third person character at some point. Still fun to explore the world though, even if it’s entirely empty save for a few cubes.

I’ve already set up a mood board to get some inspiration flowing. It’s likely that I will not use most of these, but it’s good to just look around and see what I can use to add into the game.

In my last project I had help from a very talented DayKnight by the name of Vision is Augmented and he’s reached out to me again to also help me with this project. I imagine that audio and more importantly music will be a huge factor in selling the feeling of this game, so I’m excited to see what we can do together!