Hey @baftis,
Do you have a character design for the villian? Or more a general idea of what they will look like?
I’ve always been in the belief that a good villain/evil makes a game. Afterall, it was the lich king that originally got me into gaming. His story, his appearance, and his “tragic/misunderstood hero” vibe still makes me want to play wrath to this day.
Hope we hear more about your story soon, can’t wait to meet your stories heroes and their darker counterparts!
Hey, PresumptivePanda
As of this moment, what I have for the villain is his character pillars: overgrown ambition, paranoia, self-aggrandizement and genius. I also have a slight backstory and a monologue that explains his motivations and what drives him to do what he does. The goal would be to have a motivation that you can’t simply argue with or find faults in it. This kind of villain motivation would probably be the goal for every aspiring writer, therefore a rookie mistake, but that’s still what I’m aiming for.
At the moment, I haven’t the slightest idea how he is going to look like except that he will be a human and a male. I’m hoping once I get his personality fully fleshed out, I can base his appearance on his traits. And since I only have a half-vague/half-concrete vision of his personality, I can’t do that right now.
There is one other aspect to consider: I also am not sure if there will be a boss fight or not. If there won’t be a boss fight, the quality of the dialogue has to really increase in order to compensate for the lack of gameplay.
You may be asking “OK, why not have both great dialogue AND boss fight?” Well, I wouldn’t say no to that, since that is also my goal. If the boss fight doesn’t work out, I’ll really have to give 120% to the dialogue, content-wise or at the very least voice-acting wise.
Hey again @baftis,
Love the enthusiasm!
I think with villians you have to be willing to go a little mad to get into their mindset. Then, the ideas will tumble out and you’ll know exactly what sort of “evil” you want to create. How they look, speak, or even motivations.
I truly look forward to watching you develop your project and cannot wait for more lore! 
DAY 65
Hey, guys and gals, how’s it going? Here, things are going well. Continued work on the tree level and here’s how it looks:
It went the same as yesterday: quite fun to make and fun to try out different paths and scenarios. In my testing, I have also timed how much gameplay is here as well. So far, with all that you see in this level, there is exactly one minute of gameplay if you know what you are doing.
Now, I’ll have to give you guys some context for this level. This tree serves as one of the villain’s “well hidden” makeshift facility. And quite possibly the first that the player will encounter. There will be some desks, some laptops, some desktop computers, some desks, some beat-up sci-fi looking, some machineries and stationery and so on. Also, there will be items that can be inspected as well as notes, documents and letters as well.
While playtesting, I’ve discovered a bug with the monkeybar in that it only throws you on the positive X axis, no matter where you approach it from. It’s supposed to throw you in the direction that you are walking. I’ll look into this, it should be a quick fix (though it usually never is).
What you are saying sounds a lot like method acting, like getting into the mind of the villain, dress like him, talk like him, do things you wouldn’t normally do but he normally does.
In my case, it’s both easier and harder than that (I think) because I’m pulling a bit from my own experiences, a bit of my own life story and people I’ve met that I genuinely dislike intensely. And Frankenstein-ize the villain from all those aspects.
Now, what you’ve said definitely helps along the way and I appreciate you writing this so I can keep it as a reminder. There are only so many relevant experiences I can draw from and this method will certainly contribute big time.
Ultimately, the goal is to have a villain that you hate because he’s right. That I know.
Well, that’s it for today. See you guys and gals in the next post, buh-bye!
DAY 66
Eyooo, what’s up guys and gals? Hope you are having a great day.
As you have noticed, I took a break from updating the devlog because of a lot of various IRL stuff I had to tend to. Nothing serious, tho. But I’m back with a small update.
I left things off in the tree level, so naturally I went back to it and added more stuff to it. Here’s how it looks:
It wasn’t necessarily a deliberate thought, but the first thing I went for was mixing things up in this level. At the beginning of it, platforms and mechanics were pretty tightly place in relation to one another. Keeping things is fine for a period of time. But keeping them tight for the duration of the entire level is not good for level pacing.
So to mix it up, platforms and mechanics are now more “loose” and far apart. And to be honest, it feels slightly better. Just slightly. What this allows me is to chain certain mechanics together to create some momentum. What also kind of holds me back is the relatively tiny space for chaining these mechanics. Or it might be a challenge, not a hold-back. We’ll see.
If you guys see some empty space in between some platforms that is unreasonable to reach to, that’s where the wall running mechanics comes in. Also, thhose white meshes? those are for ledge climbing. Random purple circle? That’s a jump pad.
So with the work I did today, I’d say we’re about halfway done with the first iteration of the tree level. That’s all for now, guys. See ya in the next post. Bye.
DAY 67
Eyo, guys and gals. Hope you’ve having a great day. So, work continued yet again on the tree level. And I’ve gotta be honest, I had no idea where to go with the level when I started today. Tried some things that didn’t work out and was slightly puzzled. But then, out of nowhere, a thought came to me. How about letting the player go outside for a bit? And I did just that. Take a look:
I’m starting to feel particularly good about this level in particular. When working on it, it’s like the brain is on the lookout for ideas and then grabs one in mid air, just like a frog catches a fly. Good stuff.
BUT…there is a big “but” (noice)
I tried the wall run mechanic on the exterior of the tree trunk. And I’ve gotta say it bumps up the difficulty by a lot. Doing a wall run on a curbed is a challenge on the inside of the trunk. On the outside…hooo BOY what a nightmare. This one dangerously borders on the bad kind of frustrating. And I’m seriously thinking of removing it. But after I playtest it with other people. It definitely is something to master (I needed about 3-4 tries to get one run right) but I think it’s too much. It really spikes the difficulty quite a bit.
What I also tried is a NEW mechanic, the crusher. Right now it’s garbage, but it has a lot of potential. Some adjustments are needed: the crusher doesn’t detect the player all the time, therefore it passes through him/her instead of pushing the player over. Should be an easy fix, the crusher moves too fast for it’s collision to detect the player capsule (I’ve seen this before, it really is a quick and easy fix). While I’m at it, I should work on the crusher’s timeline curve for it’s movement.
This area is pretty consistent, feel wise. It’s 80% a walk in the park and 20% a complete nightmare (because of the wall run).
Other than that, I have nothing to add. So that’s it for today, guys and gals. See ya in the next post. Bye!
Hey @baftis,
Hope you’re having a spectacular day!
Love seeing updates like this from you. Will we be getting any videos of gameplay soon?
I’m so excited to see the wall run and different parkour abilities. I’m also super interested in maybe a sneaky peak into more villainy plans? 
Keep up the great work! Sending lots of support. 
Hey, @PresumptivePanda
This is so great, thank you for your support. Even if I would’ve directly asked for it, I don’t think I would’ve gotten this kind of support from you people. And it’s sometimes overwhelming in a good way. Thank you very very much. I can only do my best and I’m really glad there are people out there who like what I do.
Well, with the 6 month anniversary of the project coming up in 3 weeks, I’ll put up a lip of a complete level (or maybe two).
As far as the villain-y things, I’m unfortunately in basically the same spot as my last post about it. I’ve tackled different scenarios, monologue ideas, but nothing has stuck.
Once again, your support means a whole lot in the grand scheme of things. Every ounce of support is tremendously appreciated. 
DAY 68
Howdy, guys, and gals. Hope y’all are having a great day. Here’s me with another update on the development of this game.
This tree level is taking much longer than anticipated, but it takes shape pretty nicely. I’m a little unsatisfied at the moment on how things are shaping up to be for the latter half of this level. Let me show you.
So what I am trying to do at this articular moment in time is mix everything that has been thrown around in this level. At first, the player is presented with a few mechanics: wall run, some grappling hooks and some platforming. In the second stage I’ve added the jump pad, the monkey bar and the ledge climb. In the third part of the level, I tried “going out of the box” so to speak, by introducing the player with mostly familiar mechanics in a different setting, with one key addition, the crushers.
In this last section, the player is going to experience all of the above combined: You go in and out of the tree trunk and all previously presented mechanics will be encountered in this level. I haven’t gotten that far down this particular road, but what I have keeps momentum.
Speaking of which, After I’ve expertly played through the level, I’ve noticed that the first outside area breaks momentum in a noticeable manner.
It’s kind of difficult to explain with words, so bear with me.
What I mean by this is that up until now, the player was presented with various mechanics, only to have a halt to them. Maybe it’s a placement mistake, maybe I paced the level wrong at one very specific point (don’t know which one), but throughout the first half, there’s an anticipation for something more difficult that the player experiences or the player reaches and maintains momentum, only to have it lost when reaching the latter half of the level. It feels “out of left field” but in a good way. BUT after this specific point, the experience dips a bit because of lack of challenge.
When the player reaches the area that I’ve shown you in this post above, at the moment it feels not as challenging or exciting or at the very least defies an expectation. In a bad way. So I’ll keep a mental note of this and work on it tomorrow.
Other than that, not much to add. So that’s it for today, I’ll see you guys and gals in the next post. Bye!
DAY 69 (noice)
Hello, guys and gals. Hope you are having a great day. Here’s me, providing you with an update on the state of the game.
Today I have managed to finish the tree level. Well at least the first iteration of it, anyway. I’m too tired to test it now from start to end, but I will do so tomorrow.
It’s been quite a ride with this level. Mostly smooth, surprising more than occasionally and inspired most of the time. I’m especially satisfied with the ending. While very short, it manages to keep you tense. Check the last part of the level out:
As I’ve said yesterday, the main focus was to try and mix inside exploration and outside exploration. I cannot attest to the success of the endeavor, because I have not tested it. I’m especially satisfied by the bridge section with missing planks and crushers. It’s really tense and provides a satisfying conclusion to the level.
That’s it for today, guys. I know I usually write a lot, but I’m tired, it’s late and can’t see straight :)). I’ll make it up in future blogs, I promise. See ya in the next post, bye!
Hi @baftis!
Noice! LOL! 
You’re making so much incredible progress with this project, and you most assuredly deliver! This tree level looks very challenging! Timing will be everything! Quick questions: 
What happens if the player gets crushed by the by the crusher or misses a plank? Is there a stomach-curdling visual and vertical drop to the closest landing within the tree? Will there be a spine-tingling cut-scene? Will the player reappear at the start of the bridge? Oh, the anticipation! 
Hey, @Get_DOVAH_it !
Thank you for the compliments and it is my aim to deliver the goods!
How it is now, technically the crusher functions more like a pusher and shoves the player off the bridge. I would place two crushers side by side to see how it works. If the player misses a plank, he/she will fall and has to either wait to fall to the ground or maneuver the character in such a way that he/she will land in a previous area. This is not good from my point of view, so my aim now is to make the player restart at the beginning of the bridge once he falls more than 1 second or if he falls more than x amount of feet/meters.
So my plan is this: If the player falls for more than 3 seconds or x amount of feet/meters, a camera shake will occur and after another amount of meters/feet, the player will be teleported to the last checkpoint.
At this very moment, the player character is programmed to die if falling for more than a certain amount of feet/meters. If that amount of meters/feet is exceeded, the player dies when he/she hits the ground. If it is within limits, the player lives when he/she reached the ground. No healthbars or health attached to the player character (at least not for now).
But I would actually change this and implement a teleport-like respawn in this level instead of waiting for the player to reach the ground and die.
There’s a lot to take into account with this, so I will need to A/B test these functionalities in different level types and see which ones are more QoL improvements for the player.
DAY 70
Howdy guys and girls, hope you are having a great day…well as great as a monday night can be, anyways. Me? Oh, I’m having some second thoughts about the layout of the tree level. And I’m spilling the beans as to why.
Recall that I’ve been using square platforms in a tree trunk (which is round) and we all know how square pegs fit in round holes (spoilers: they do not). For your convenience, here’s and old picture to illustrate how it looks:
That is not pretty in the slightest, but it does the jobs of placeholding and fast iteration. Now, since this level is pretty much done on a layout level (pun not intended), I’d figure I’d “ennicen” the looks of the placeholders. Ennicen is not even a word, I just made it up, but it wouldn’t be a far fetch from what sh*t I’ve heard thrown around. To ennice something is to make something nicer, I’ve decided :)).
Anyway, so the most reasonable thing to “ennicen” is to make the platforms fit the round shape of the tree trunk. Now, I’m by no means a 3D artist, BUUUUT… I think I know how to do it.
The outer radius of the tree is 2000 unreal units and the inner radius is 1600. Height of tree trunk is irrelevant, because I’ll shrink it down to 100 unreal units to be the same size as any platform. There are 64 sides to the cylinder. With this info I can do the following:
Once those small pieces are done, I can go replace the square platforms in and around the tree. I’m super curious as to how it’s going to turn out (I’ve barely started the work on it)
I will try this in 2 different radius thicknesses (is “thicknesses” the correct term in the context of the radius even? Genuinely asking, I’m not a native English speaker…I think it’s “wide”…right? RIGHT!!!)
So, on the left hand side we have the 100 unit radius difference between inner and outer radius (1m) and on the right hand side we have the 200 unit radius difference between inner and outer radius (2m). Now, this might be the least interesting screenshot of all time, but I assure you in the end is going to be worth it…which end? The game end, of course. When the game ends development…sighs and daydreams about a day that is so far away it is incomprehensible)
I will give it a shot with both thicknesses, because variation. Let’s see how that goes.
Now, for the next change that I want to add: if you’d recall, there is a bridge at the top of the tree trunk. This one:
And it has great value for the gameplay experience. So I thought “why just keep that as the only one”? Just place more of them, with variations of course (bridge with full set of planks, bridge with few planks missing, bridge with half the planks missing and so on). I did not expect I would enjoy that bridge so much I’d be making it as a recurring death trap thingy.
Speaking of which, this new idea will allow me to place multiple types of death traps near and/or around the bridge. Some crushers in various orientations, some death traps like arrows, swinging axes and so on (oh yeah, I have those now). Keep in mind, if one touches you, you die.
So yeah, that’s about it for today. I know I haven’t been showing off with new and interesting screenshots, but it is to be expected when you post this often and about this particular subject too (replacing place holders), but this might be the beginning of a pretty looking tree level instead of the “functionally doing good-to-great, but fugly looking” level.
I’ll see you guys in the next post. Bye!
DAY 71
Why, hello, guys and girls. I’m back with another small update on the project.
Last post I’ve talked about making some aesthetic changes to the current version of the tree level, because the placeholder meshes were simply too primitive and ugly. And in this post I shall present the new changes. Mostly visually, though.
This is the entrance to the level.
Continuation of the entrance
The one below is a layout modification:
…of this area:
This is the view from about a quarter of the way up the tree. Compare the above screenshot with this one:
Now, as you can see, there have been both cosmetic changes and layout changes, but mostly cosmetic. The changes done to the layout happened because I’m trying to find spots for more broken bridges in this level. Broken bridges allow for a more precise type of jump and it adds tension for the player.
I’m about halfway into the level with replacing the yellow platforms and it looks heaps better. All the platforms visible in the screenshots will be replaced with logs, planks and/or branches in Blender, and the form of the placeholders allow me to make stylized models of platforms in this specific shape.
Not only they are newer versions of these placeholders, but they are also smarter versions: the outer radius of the platform matches perfectly with the inner radius of the cylinder that is a placeholder for the hollow tree. The gimbal/gizmo is placed in the same position as the center of the tree trunk. Put these two things together and you got a placeholder that, when copied in the exact same location as the tree trunk, can be rotated on the Z-axis flawlessly and not worry about minute positioning of the mesh.
Simple stuff, really. But it helps a lot production wise. There are about 9 versions of these placeholders and they all work wonderfully.
So that’s about it for today. Tomorrow I’ll be focusing on replacing the platforms in the other half of this level. See ya, bye!
Day 71.5
Hello, guys and girls and hoooo BOY, do I have a treat for you guys. Now, I’ll keep this short and sweet. Yesterday was the 6 months anniversary of this devblog. And to celebrate this momentous occasion, I present to you…(drum rolls)…gameplay footage of the entire tree level.
No more talking, enjoy: TreeLevelGameplay.mp4 - Google Drive
Let me know what you think, I can’t wait. See you in the next post, bye!
What a treat! Such height! Such tension! Such acrophobia! I was biting my nails and at the edge of my seat! This tree level is massive, impressive, and really challenging in the best ways! Happy 6 months devblog anniversary! 
On the portions that require a wall run, will you be highlighting the wall run part once you add textures? As a new player, would wall running be introduced in the beginning of the game (like in a tutorial)? I am asking because when you first arrived to the wall run part, I was like, “How will the character jump so far from here to there?” LOL! The wall run looks so cool, and it surprised me! Also, will there be an option for the player to toggle between first and third person view?
Hey, Get_DOVAH_It! Thank you for the very kind and aupportive words. I’m super grateful that this gameplay footage had such an impact on you.
Yes, I will have the wall run sections highlighted. How, I don’t know yet. The first thing that comes to mind would be the classic white paint on the “wall”. That would also the cheapest option.
Yes, I do have a tutorial section for the mechanic planned. That would be best left to decide when all the levels are made, tested and paced correctly. It’s always best to leave the first level of the game be made last and then place tutorials around.
No, I don’t have anything planned for switching from first to third person. It will only be first person, BUT I do intend on making the game moddable. So if anyone wants to add a mod like third person perspective, they will be free to do so.
DAY 72
Hey, Guys and girls, hope you are doing as well as possible. Me? Oh well…as you have probably observed, I haven’t posted any updates recently because I’ve been learning the shader basics in Unreal. You know, all the math nodes, data types, input vectors, View Space, World Space, Object Space, & Tangent Space…that kind of stuff. Riveting stuff, almost illuminating. Even thought I might dabble in HLSL/GLSL programming.
Though I must confess that, creatively I’ve hit a roadblock when it comes to level design. Or, more specifically, what musicians and writers call “writer’s block”. And I’ve hit that roadblock for quite a while. It’s not a pleasant feeling, especially if you think of yourself that you have untapped creativity at your disposal, like I do.
To give you some context for what follows, I’m also a musician and have been a bedroom musician/weekend warrior for 20-odd years. In all these years, I’ve hit the writer’s block many many times and sometimes I was able to break through the block.
And, naturally, I thought that the lessons learned in music breaking through writer’s block could help in game dev as well, but could not for the life of me figure out how to do it. Until I’ve spotted the similarities.
With this in mind, I’ve decided to re-make the second level, aka the Rocky Formations level. Well, this:
And this is how it looks like now:
Keep in mind, this is still a first person platformer, but the mannequin is there to show the scale of things. Although I was asked if I would make a mix of First/Third Person platformer, it would still be a First Person (though I would leave the game moddable, and if his/her heart desires so, he/she can make a mod).
The very first thing on my list was to make the very first scene of the level fit the scene composition rule of thirds, with the addition of making it breath taking (basically this would be the first WOW scene in the game, but don’t quote me on this). I’ll explain later on what the rule of thirds is. The end-point of the level was moved way in the back and the level landmark got way taller.
As a natural consequence, the level just got way bigger. This was a desired consequence, though not necessarily something that I directly pursued. To populate the level further, I’ve decided to stick with the BSP brushes instead of using the stylized meshes and replace said meshes where the case calls for it.
One of the bigger mistakes made was basing the level around “not-exactly-prototype-material-but-this’ll-do” meshes. Stuff from the Unreal Marketplace. While that’s absolutely great for emerging ideas and going with the flow, not exactly great if you have something specific in mind.
Since this would technically be the second level (again, don’t quote me on this) I would tone things down a bit mechanics-wise and only add the basics. Also, I would be toning down the difficulty of said mechanics.
The biggest gripe I’ve had with this level and the reason I’ve decided to re-do it is because of the scene composition. It had it’s moments, but I knew I could do much more. So I started documenting myself about scene composition. One thing that I have been made aware of (although I kind of knew it from photography) was the Rule of Thirds.
The rule of thirds means that the screen is basically split into 3 rows and 3 columns. Depending on the artist’s desire, the focal points of the scene could be aligned according to the horizontal or vertical lines OR at the intersection of the lines. Like so (hope this gif shows up)
And I thought that I can incorporate this into Unreal. And so I did. The way I did it is as follows:
And voila. With this simple tool, I can check the scene composition in-game. Would actually check if I can do it for the editor camera. Like so:
That’s it for today, I’ll elaborate more about this level in the next post. Buh bye.
Wow @baftis !
You’ve taken the Rule of Thirds and have coded a tool to assist you in aligning your scenes! That’s brilliant! 
I also learn so much from reading your incredibly detailed updates! This project is your baby, and you will be so proud once you have created it the way you imagine! We will be so proud as well because you have brought us along on your journey!
Also, musician, what instruments do you play? Are you a singer? Are you a composer/writer?
Hey, Dovah.
Thank you very much. It’s a very small and simple but useful tool. I’m really happy that you are learning from my post, this shows me that this silly little project can create lessons for other people too, not just entertainment.
What I would consider my baby would be the game I’ve been brewing in some form or another since 2015 or so, on and off. Sure, this project is kind of like a baby, a lot of soul gets put into it, growing it, nourishing it, cultivate it and ultimately release it in the wild unknown. Hopefully, after this project is finished, I would be able to go and work on said project.
As a musician, I play the guitar, drums and am also a writer/composer. I wouldn’t wish “hearing me sing with my voice” to anyone, not even my enemies =)))
