[SoloDev] "LifeDev" My game about overcoming CPTSD

nande · September 7, 2025, 11:43pm

------ Announcements

Sprint

4rd sprint, of the 3rd cycle. Chapter 03/Pass 02.
Less challenging than previous sprint, still quite difficult.

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 HUGE amounts of refactoring.

NEW

Improve:

General cleanups, optimizations, small fixes, and documentation everywhere.
- Added AdaptiveAddToWorld. Also “Skip generate overlaps” on stream. Reduces hitches on load.
- Shadows on floors.
Moved a ton of things from hard ref to soft references.

Known issues:

Screen might flash when loading the next chapter. It’s a UE thing.

Settings

NEW:

Added option to set the default RHI. Experimental. Requires a restart. If it breaks, delete your config files (but not your savefiles).

Improve:

Moved a ton of code to cpp.

Art

NEW:

Added outro animation!
Started using style assets for ui elements. Most noticeable on the settings.
- Unified and improved the style of some elements.

Improve:

Moved everything possible to “Packed Actors Level Instances”. Improves performance a bit. (A ton of work involved).
Improved “ppl” materials.
Optimized some material’s permutation count.
Still working on the hall01.

Chapters

All:

Implemented more card effects. (I think “what works” doesn’t have anything to work with, but the logic is there).
- Redesigned and reorganized their effects a bit.
Improved the hints all around. Added more hints, and tweaked how and when they get enabled.
Improved doors quite a bit. Optimized windows too.

CH00:
CH01:
CH02:
CH03:
CH04:

------- Subsystems and plugins

All

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

Flashbacks

New:

New clouds effect.
FX on the effects.

Dialogs

LifeDev:
Plugin:

Interactions (and animations)

LifeDev:

A lot of rework with SetHiddenInGame and Fade.
- It works well during construction. It helps a lot with Puzzles too. And allowed to move ActorsShow/Hide to the Story Plugin.

Puzzle:

Rework how hints work, using the new SetUseHint virtual.
Improved properties initialization. Now more reliable.

Plugin:

A ton of work relative to SetHiddenInGame.
- Some rework to use SetAutoActivate on constructors.
Removed the spot. Moved functionality to regular Interacts. This required extra work in the game itself.
Rework item use.
UseHint is now a function SetUseHint, and virtual.
Improved collisions and auto-activate.
Refactor CInteractor so that the collision profile is local to the component (as opposed to the same for all interactors).
- Allows for having multiple CInteractors doing different work.
Added CAnimatorSFX. Animates submixes effects.
Added field for comments on interactions.

Inventory / Flags / Teach

LifeDev:

Animations on the inventory!
- Took a ton of work, since i had to rework the whole implementation.

Teach (NUX):

Rework the style a bit.

Plugin:

JSignificance

JUtils

New:

Added a couple of helpers to use style assets on ui elements.
Added experimental ability to get/set the preferred RHI.
Added ability to get hardware info.
Added ability to get number of remaining precompiles. (For PSOs)
Added AddOutlinerSection.
- Added sections for Story, Interact, and maybe others.
Added IsInConstructor and NeedsInit.

Improves:

Added ShouldCreate to LoadScr.
Reworked how some UI elements expose some initial properties.

Sounds

LifeDev:

Reworked the menu fx on music.
Added phone ring, hanger squeaks.

Plugin:

Story

LifeDev:

Reworked the code for managing the end of the game.
- Updated StepEnd to unload all data layers.
Moved to the StoryManager, the code to manage chapters loading, starting, next, etc.
Removed RewardIntersTriggerClass, RewardIntesActiveClass.
Created a new class for the books. Starting porting some objects to it. WIP.
Ported a ton of dialogs to “auto dialogs”. So that i can remove some declarative dialogs (old system).
- Was a considerable amount of work.
- Removed LockedDlg, TriggerDlg, DlgId from step.
Added “auto flags” for step’s start/stop.
Removed InterFadeIn/Out in favor for new ActorsShow/Hide.

Plugin:

Added field for comments on steps.
Removed unused TeleportCharAfter. Reworked TeleportChar.
Removed unnecessary FinishPostWait.
Added/improved blocking load of assets, during step change, when it’s set to block on load.
- Including pso generation.
- Added garbage collection during step fade.
Rework showing and hiding actors.
- Moved ActorsShow/Hide to the base plugin. Now they work better.
- New SetHiddenInGame refactor ensures that interacts fade in/out. And that puzzles also work well.
- Removed hiding actors on Begin Play.
Story now depends on JUtils. It was something i was delaying, but it actually cleans the code.