Hello everyone! Welcome back to another Holomento devlog! This month has been as busy as ever with many new features, locations and gameplay elements coming to fruition! Rather than listing everything that was accomplished or not accomplished as I have done in the past, I figured I’ll just jump right into the meat of the devlog with an overview of all the features, locations and gameplay elements that were added during the month of March.

Enjoy!

Building out the World

As always, there is continous work being done to develop the world of Holomento. This past month many locations have been added to Eventide Hollow including the Eventide Cemetery, Catacombs, a proper starting/tutorial area and an underground area with lava. In addition, continuous improvements of existing areas and expansion are always underway as well.

Adding Weapons

Weapons are an essential part of Holomento and are treated as unique items (meaning only one can be held at a time). A weapon will completely change the animations, fire rate, projectile speed and even projectile types for the player. A handful have been added as proofs of concept with basic animations to get the idea across. Weapons will be greatly expanded on in the future. As of now there are magic fists, a bow, a rifle and a one or two-handed pistol.

Making the Player Modular

Making the player a modular model was something that was intentionally designed from the start. It wasn’t until now that I took the time to properly implement this to allow instant mesh swapping to allow for easy clothing upgrades. In April/May the plan is to add a variety of clothes models to the item pool and class selections. Customize-able colors are also being considered.

Title Screen and Class Selection

I had a bit of fun this month learning about the Unreal Engine Sequencer! This allowed me to make a neat Title Screen sequence that highlights some of the more developed areas of the game landscape. This is all rendered in realtime which will showoff features of the world that the player has upgraded. The sequencer itself is very easy to add/remove/modify shots from which will give me lots of flexibility for changing the sequence rapidly when needed.

Class selection is something I have wanted to add for some time, however it was not possible until I had a modular player model. Player classes are implemented as simple changes in starting stats (including weapons). In the near future, the plan is to add a change in starting gear and items as well (including cosmetic changes per class).

Shortcuts and Dynamic World Elements

Shortcuts and dynamic world elements are going to be a staple of Holomento. Upgrading/building ways to make a future run easier is one of the core principles I have had in mind since the inception of this project. I have created a bridge that exemplifies this perfectly for the starting area of the game.

Interactive World Objects

One of my favorite things about the Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is the many options you have when it comes to combat. The ability to use weapons or world objects (using stasis, magnesis etc.) gives the player a lot of flexibility in how to tackle enemy encounters in the way they want. I wanted to bring a bit of that into Holomento as I think it is one of BOTW’s greatest strengths. I also wanted this element of gameplay to be used in other places throughout the game (puzzles, shortcuts etc.) I decided the simplest way to implement something that fulfills both of these roles is a universal way to pickup objects (and throw them!)

I intend for this feature to be used in combat for specific boss fights as well as a general tool players can use for smaller skirmishes. In addition, I intend for this ability to prove useful for moving objects around for puzzle solving (pressure plates, buttons etc.) The system is currently setup to handle different masses of objects that will affect how slow the player will move while holding it as well as how far they will be able to throw it. Throwing animations will be coming in the future.

Eventide Cemetary

Eventide Cemetery is a special location in the game that serves as a hub to find all previous run data. When the player dies, a special headstone is added to the cemetery that changes based on how well the player did during that run. It will give a short summary of accomplishments, items and more. The gravekeeper will be an NPC that you can chat with to see ALL previous runs in a single convenient list. Since there are only ~270 grave plots in the cemetery, the best runs will override the worst meaning that to view worse runs you will need to talk to the gravekeeper to see data for those runs.

Sound Design and Music

With the overwhelming amount of work between programming, world, character and UI design as a solo developer, I realized I have completely ignored audio for the first few months of development. Despite my dabbling in music, I have no idea how to properly manage audio in a large-scale project like Holomento. With that said, I am happy to announce that Holomento now has a lead audio designer: Wilfried Nass!

Wilfried virtually approached me towards the beginning of the month on Reddit with a sample video of Holomento footage with sound overlayed to showcase his sound design prowess. I’m very excited to have him taking the lead on audio development as this will free up a lot of my time in the future to focus on other areas of development. I highly suggest you follow him on Twitter or checkout his Website!

In addition, there are a number of composers that have reached out and are now working with me to create early versions of the music for the game. Stay tuned in the coming months for more information on some of the game’s tracks and a look at some of the wonderful composers that have reached out to help development some tunes!

Wrap-Up

As you can see, this month was focused on expanding many of the core systems that will make further development a lot smoother. Next month I plan to focus on combat, enemies, bosses, procedural animation and world layout (specifically for the alpha). I mentioned in the February Devlog that I will be discussing more details on the Alpha this month. So, read on for details!

Alpha Release Plans

At this time, I am aiming for an Alpha release in June 2020. This is approaching fast and I want to make it clear what my goals are for the Alpha, how it will benefit development and how you can take part!

Target Features

Here is a list of features and gameplay elements I intend to have ready (in a primitive form) for the Alpha:

Working Title Screen, Class Selection and Starting Sequence
Working in-game UI
Basic Player Movement and Animations
Basic Ranged and Melee Combat
Minimum 5 enemy types
Minimum 1 boss
Minimum item pool size with 25 items
Working auto-save and auto-load system
Basic audio for player, enemies, boss and ambient
Minimum 1 in-game track
Minimum 1 “dungeon”
Minimum 8 “discoverable” locations
Minimum 1 town with at least 1 shop for purchasing items

These are of course subject to change and more features will likely be included. A number of these are in a ready-for-alpha state already (hurray!) Whereas others have not been started yet. At this time, I see no reason for these features to not be ready by June.

Why have an Alpha?

A game’s Alpha can fill many roles during the development process. For Holomento my goal is to get a small group of people testing key elements of gameplay as early as possible. The Alpha will be VERY barebones. As outlined in the Target Features section, the Alpha will primarily test core features first. I am looking for a few key things from the Alpha Testing group:

Bug Reporting – method TBD
Feature Requests – method TBD
General Feedback – method TBD
Ideas – Specifically, characters, locations, enemies, bosses, items etc.

How can I join?

I want to make the alpha as accessible as possible with a goal of ~100 people utilizing it to test features, find bugs and give critical feedback on balance and gameplay elements. At this time, my criteria for becoming an Alpha tester are simple and individuals who meet the following will be selected on a first-come first-serve basis:

Follow @HolomentoGame on Twitter OR join the r/Holomento subreddit
Join the Holomento Discord
Ping me only ONCE in the #request-access channel of the Holomento Discord using @SheenWeedy
- Pinging me more than once in the #request-access channel will result in your request being ignored

And that’s it! My target is currently 100 Alpha Testers signed up and ready by June. If you’re interested reach out as soon as you can!

Thank you all,

Sean