[SoloDev] "LifeDev" My game about overcoming CPTSD

nande · July 23, 2025, 6:44am

------ Announcements

Sprint

3rd sprint, of the 3rd cycle. Chapter 02/Pass 02.
This sprint was even more challenging. My aim was to do more on narrative, and i did manage to do some.
I also made a ton of refactors, which were difficult, but also important. I haven’t detailed the refactors and fixes so i’ve done more than what’s shown here.

Play-tests are always welcome open. If you want to help me with your feedback, please contact me :)

Explanation and showcase

------ Game

General

This build contains big amounts of refactoring.

NEW

Moved to unreal engine 5.6.0.

Improve:

Game save time is now on UTC (warning).
Patched Sentry being called in a background thread.
Regular optimizations, cleanups, and so on.
A good amount of refactoring and moving stuff.
- Moved chapter loading to LStoryMan (not in the build, but scheduled for the next one).
- Moved menu to LFeatsMan.
- And more listed in their own category.

Known issues:

Screen might flash when loading the next chapter. It’s a UE thing, not my code.

Settings

NEW:

Improve:

Reworked buttons for key binding. Now using button styles. Styles are planned to be used more in the game.
Fixed the message box for re-loading the current save-state.

Art

NEW:

Added new plant, cup, 2 types of towels (one unused), coat hanger (unused), toy (unused).
Attempt at adding an app icon.

Improve:

Improve item use colors.
Modified flashback material! (again). Removed gooch and changed it a bit.
Improve the intro UI.
- Improved warning screen.
- Reworked savegame screen.
Improve a few of the settings screen. Included key binding.
Fixed issue with roundedness of the dialog box and blurred background.
Adjusted rounded corners for Teach and Prompt ui.
Changed font for Teach.
Disabled some material’s “set automatic usage”. To reduce the required shader permutations. This is also an optimization. It’s a work in progress.
Refactored the dialog animation to use a “retainer” box.
Fixed outro text style.

Chapters

All:

CH00:
CH01:

Fixed phone text.

CH02:

Reworked the flow considerably. (Quite some work).
Modified which rooms it uses. With this, finally, each chapter uses different rooms.
Improved data-layer usage. For chapter 02. Still remaining are 03 and 04.
Added LogicCard02 and LogicCard03. Stub, not used.
Reworked hints. Added a bunch.
Improved the character dialog animation.
Added some world-texts.

CH03:
CH04:

------- Subsystems and plugins

All

Public repos for the plugins are updated on a later date, according to (my) availability.

Flashbacks

Dialogs

LifeDev:

Ported a bunch of dialogs to the new Auto-dialogs. This is a work in progress (quite large).
Some fixes, some adds, some improves.

Plugin:

Interactions (and animations)

LifeDev:

Removed code for old item-use.
Consume used item.
Deprecated the Spot class in favor of the improved LInteract.
- Moved two spots to an interact. This is a work in progress.
Improved unlocking with items.
Renamed auto-dialog for trigger locked.
Removed LockedItemDlg, ULockItemReq, ULockItem.
Added item OnLook delegate.

Plugin:

SetUseHint is virtual.
Improved the collision profiles. Added some docs.
Some rename and refactor on finishFlags, finishItems, itemsRem, itemEnsure, etc.
Improved unlocking.
Deprecated the spot.
Added editor-only field Comment.
Fixed ability to trigger multiple times on a self-destroy item.
Conditions and comments are searchable in the Asset Registry.

Puzzle:

Improved/fixed hinting.
Implemented fade.

Inventory / Flags

LifeDev:

Teach (NUX):

Added vr as a type.
Fixed dismissing the message for “look at item”.

Plugin:

Removed Item’s selfUsable flag.

JSignificance

JUtils

New:

Added a LoadScr subsystem. It’s a useful asynchronous loading screen.
- Unfortunately it’s not enough for me, so i’m not using it. But it’s available for those who might use it.

Improves:

Potentially fix the camera fade.

Sounds

LifeDev:

Fixed some sound location on the cabinet doors.
Ported the last SFXTrigger to the new SFXs. SFXTrigger got removed.
Re-imported some audios with an improved sample rate.
Adjusted some levels.
Sounds for: screwdriver, scissor, toilet flush, chair.

Plugin:

Moved some meta-sounds to the plugin. E.g. SoundSheet, RampAndSwitch.

Story

LifeDev:

Removed WaitTime from step.
Modified ActorsShow to not hide automatically, and added ActorsHide.
Modified a bunch of the character dialog animations to use teleport after blend.
- It feels more natural, and helps with the flow, as well as fixing some quirks.

Plugin:

Improved data layer loading. To allow to (optionally) block during load.
- The next step doesn’t start until loading is done. You need to specify the streaming to Blocking on the data-layer.
- Improves reliability and determinism a bunch.
Implement teleport after camera blend.