Welcome to the first official Devlog for Holomento!
Today I’m going to give a brief recap of everything that’s been accomplished this past month! If you haven’t already, consider following Holomento on Twitter (@HolomentoGame) to get all the latest news, updates, images, gifs and more regarding development progress!
With that out of the way, let’s take a look at everything I busted through this past month!
Overview
January was a VERY productive month. I managed to get through many tasks that are will make development more efficient alongside some clear game design foundations. Below is a short list of everything accomplished:
- World layout and basic details
- Built the first “dungeon”
- Created basic mechanics for combat (stats, projectiles etc.)
- Custom item system created
- Custom “task” system added
- Built a functional journal-based UI
- Rough draft of the world’s first NPC (very, very rough draft)
- Basic NPC dialogue
World Design and Layout
Initial design of the world of Holomento has been no easy task. Since the game focuses on reruns through a static world, a unique challenge appears that other permadeath games (namely Roguelites) don’t often face. Most games in this genre use a procedural world that changes every run. Holomento from the start has been about exploring a fantastical world that reacts directly to player actions.
As I build out Eventide Hollow, I am trying to be mindful of the player’s experience for every run through the game. A lot of AAA studios solve the issue of non-generated worlds becoming boring by just increasing the size of the map. This may work for larger development studios, but for a one-man operation, this isn’t feasible. Instead I’m focusing on making a detail-packed world that feels different every run.
The first way I’m working to make the world interesting despite its size is by giving the player plenty of choices. After the “tutorial” area, the entire world of Eventide Hollow opens up to the player. Progress is only halted by gated shortcuts, enemy difficulty and player skill. The world of Dark Souls is a major inspiration for how I want to create an interconnected world that remembers your more permanent actions.
The second way I implement variety in the world is through random elements. Enemies, bosses, items and events all have a random element to them. No two runs should be exactly the same as enemy spawns and items are different every run.
Another way to keep the game from getting stale after several runs is to encourage the player to challenge themselves. When player’s see something of value they really want or need, they are likely to go after that valuable, no matter the odds. Players feel very rewarded when they finally achieve the small goal they set out for themselves to retrieve that valuable and overcome the challenge.
Lastly, the best way to keep gameplay fresh is to give a consistent feeling of progression. One of the most satisfying feelings in a game is visibly seeing progression being made. I have made some progress on this goal through shortcuts that once opened are unlocked permanently for all runs. I have many other ideas for taking this concept further in the near future.
The First "Dungeon"
Holomento doesn’t have traditional “dungeons”. Instead, there are “dungeon-like” areas that are interconnected throughout the world with winding paths, trails, corridors and bridges. These areas don’t have a single entrance or exit which allows the player to approach these areas from several angles. However, for the sake of simplicity these areas will just be referred to as dungeons from here on. Below is one month’s progress on the first “dungeon”.
This first dungeon is the central castle of the region. This is an area the player will visit frequently throughout runs as it holds several key areas you will want to revisit over the course of your play-through’s (more on that later). Designing the castle was an iterative process that sucked up most of the first half of the month. The album below highlights some of the key points of progress.
Player Combat Mechanics
Early prototype combat for Holomento is looking very promising! So far several projectile types and elements have been implemented for the third-person-mage-shooter-esque combat! (I’ll need to come up with a better name for that soon…) Currently I haven’t implemented any animations for combat yet as I’m holding off custom animations until I add the player character mesh. Despite a lack of animations, enjoy some of the prototype combat mechanics below!
Custom Item System
With any permadeath and/or roguelite game, items are essential. For Holomento, my goal has been to develop a large diverse set of items with many properties affecting the player’s stats and overall gameplay. To do this, I needed a system not only custom tailored to my needs, but also easily expanded upon. My approach is always: system first, details later. So I created a blueprint hierarchy allowing expandable item pools, datatable driven item properties and a chest spawner system that is completely configurable for any situation I need.
And yes, in the gif that is an office chair placeholder for the item pickup.
Once I have less placeholder art, I plan to share a lot more about the item system. For the time being, sit tight, more info is coming!
Custom "Task" System
Tasks in Holomento act similarly to quests in other games. However, in Holomento there are no quest markers. There are no glowing lines on the ground showing you where to go. In fact, the only assistance you get with determining what you need to do or where you need to go for a quest is a short description for the task and a “notes” section where you can take notes about how you want to tackle the task.
This is intentional design that forces the player to think about how they want to tackle a task rather than having it shown to them. When receiving tasks I want players to ask: Where is this location? Have I been there before? If I don’t know about it, who can I ask to help me find it? To get truly immersed in the world, the player needs to do some critical thinking of their own rather than the game playing itself.
Journal-Based UI Menu
The Journal is a major gameplay element of the game (no spoilers for now). It functions as the main menu for the player containing the player’s stats, the map, current items, a complete list of tasks, game options and more. Throughout the later half of the month I began layout of the Journal UI (sans fancy animations and any real textures). Right now it looks very… functional to put it nicely.
However ugly it may be at the moment, it serves its purpose for development use and as a placeholder for the textured and animated version. You may have noticed that during the beginning of the gif the player’s name and an odd description are shown. These are currently randomized and will be driven by data in the future. More on that to come!
First NPC
What you are seeing here is a very, VERY early concept of the first NPC. His name is Artimus and he’s Eventide Hollow’s Museum Curator! Artimus is a big fat cat that enjoys the finer things in life.
Once again, it’s been awhile since I have done character modelling and animating so Artimus’ looks rather unfinished. As goofy as he is, he’s still adorable in an odd and ugly way.
In the coming months, look forward to updates on Artimus as I flesh out his textures and animations. In the meantime enjoy some of his goofy animations and a preview of the dialogue system below.
Dialogue System
With a prototype Artimus completed, I knew it was time to build a basic Dialogue System to interact with him (as you just saw in the previous gif). Dialogue is very important in Holomento as it drives key gameplay events such as reward systems, task giving and world modifications. Simple text dialogue with events for NPC emotes (happy, sad, talking etc.) and tasks has been implemented. In the future adding scrolling text, vocaloid speech (Undertale/Animal Crossing like etc.) and a more robust emote animation system are all on the to do list. For now, the basic dialogue system is sufficient.
What's next?
February is coming quick and there is SO MUCH to work on! I aim to make progress on a lot of items for the month of February. Here are a few:
- Optimize the Hill-top Castle (and give it a name!)
- Add animations for player combat
- Create the player model
- Create models for some items
- Add items to player model when items are picked up
- Cleanup look of chests and add more
- Dial-in the look of Artimus
- Add functionality to the museum
- Create Graveyard NPC
- Create Graveyard area and add functionality
Now, will I get ALL of this accomplished by the end of February? Considering other obligations and the sheer amount of work on this list, likely no. However, I hope by this time next month to have made some solid progress and give everyone a full-featured update!
Wrap Up
Thank you so very much for reading this month’s Devlog! If you liked what you saw, feel free to leave a comment below! Artimus says thanks for reading too!
To stay up to date with the latest Devlog posts, gifs, images and videos of the game, follow Holomento on Twitter!
Sean