[SoloDev] "LifeDev" My game about overcoming CPTSD

nande · November 27, 2025, 7:39am

------ Announcements

Sprint

1st sprint, of the 4th cycle. Chapter 00/Pass 03.
New cycle!

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

Note: I've messed the version numbers from 0.5.1 onwards. They should roughly indicate something like "XXX.Cycle.Chapter.Build" but somehow i messed it up. Also XXX is not very indicative, at the moment i've decided to increase to 1. 1... usually is considered a finished product, but not for me, i want to use it as a "milestone". 
At first i considered using the year. But it has been about 2 or 3 years, and it's hard to line up with chapters' end times. I thought about using the Cycle as major, but i feel there should be another metric in between. In terms of cycle it would be at version 4.0 which seems odd. So i'll use the major as a sort of "milestone". After 3 full cycles, and almost 3 years, i think the game deserve to jump to 1.0.
So i will go with 1 for now. If something else major happens, i might increase again.
Keep in mind my versions and numbers are 0 based. So even if the current version uses 0 for the chapter, it refers to the 1st chapter.
Enjoy.

Explanation and showcase

------ Game

General

NEW:

Added force feedback!
Added “ppl”! This is a bit of a stub, and still work in progress.

Improve:

Several optimizations and refactors.
- Adjusted scalability for r.Forward.LightGridPixelSize, r.Lumen.DiffuseIndirect.Allow.
- Optimized scalability for all niagara systems (including ghosts). With different configurations.
- Optimized lamps, shadows, lights attenuation, light animation interval and duration, sunlight.
- Optimized vsm invalidation, clipmap levels, max wpo distance.
- Optimized materials blending and inheritance.
- Optimized fog volumes, disable local fog volumes.
Several fixes.
- Bra collisions, piano keys, piano mesh, hints, screwdriver, kitchen light, plate fade.
- Possible crash when reloading the game during a hint or inventory animation.

Known issues:

The phone on ch0 doesn’t activate.
The ppl don’t disappear, and appear too soon.
Books have disappeared, i’m adding them back one room at a time.
Flashing during chapter transitions (it’s an ue thing).

Settings

NEW:

More feature flags. ForceFeedback, Ray traced shadows, Dust.
Added “Back” button.
Implemented new key rebind flow and mechanisms. Some rework.
Added a couple of SetDefaults buttons. Quite some work.

Improve:

Fixed fps limit setting getting reset. Improved how fps is applied. Added option for smooth fps.
Improved savestate flow. Fixed a few issues (Inventory getting cleared, double loading, …).
Improved default key bindings.
Improved/fixed some ui elements not working well.

Art

NEW:

Dust particles.
Ppl.
Fire particles on stove.

Improve:

Reworked flashback material a bit.
Optimized clouds fb, now supports nanite.
Improved central target icon.
Blur target fps.
Adjusted lights, shadows, auto exposure, distance fields.
- Some work around distance fields and their shadows.
Rework card 0 “Range” effect.
Updated ghost based on fb.
Updated toy (not yet in game).
Reworked all materials to improve performance!
- Improved fading and masking settings.
Improved character name readability (brightness).
Fixed streetlamps volumetric shadows.
Removed “speed” post process.

Chapters

All:

CH00:

Keep polishing and extending chapter 0. Dialogs, interactions, etc.
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:

Dialogs

LifeDev:

Added, fixed, removed a bunch of dialogs.
Fixed disable inventory during dialogs.

Plugin:

Improved the code and ui flow.
Added ability to auto-skip dialogs while holding a button.

Interactions (and animations)

LifeDev:

Interactable hanger and toy. not yet in game.
Puzzles:
- Fixed race conditions.
- Added SetStateNow, force feedback, and others.
- Fixed word cube’s hinting.

Plugin:

Reworked and improved the flow for interaction hovering detection. (CInteractor::DoStart)
Implemented “Look” action. Added sfx, force feedback, delegates, and stuff.
Added force feedback for locked, unlock, trigger, and look.
Improved SetHidden.

Inventory / Flags / Teach

LifeDev:

Teach (NUX):

Rework to use only one data table.
Added ability to use actual input names, and other variables.
Rework the way the current input type is handled, as well as the data types.
Change the message input automatically when using the UTPInput. And re-show on change.
ShowNow was made public.

Plugin:

Added UTPInput Player Input with a delegate for input type change (gamepad, keyboard, etc.).
Moved inventory select inputs, to the plugin, instead of character.

JSignificance

Fixed registering during cooking.
Added ability to set initial significance, and change it during runtime manually.

JUtils

New:

Ability to change the shader batch mode. Allow for dynamic optimization on loading.
Added WorldToScreenUV, WindForceFix, “Interleaved Gradient Noise” (based on Acerola’s stuff).
Added PlayInEditor, GetMutableDefault.

Improves: