This development log details all the work completed during the production of this project. This includes work done from around Saturday 12th October to Friday 8th November. Whilst the end of this development log signifies the end of the production phase of the development of Reign of the Abyss this does not mean that the work on the game will finish after this point and instead development of the game will continue into the post-production phase of development with marketing also becoming more prevalent during this time.

Overview:

Week 5:

The production phase began with the creation of the actual Unreal project in Unreal Engine 5.3.2 starting with the third person template. Then we setup the folders for the project colour coding for similar folders such as BPs, Components, Structs/Tables, Enums, Interfaces etc. Then we ported over the co-op functionality that Harry had been testing and working on before production started. Then we setup the animation blueprint for characters so that we had omnidirectional movement using blend spaces and blending within the animation blueprint anim graph. After this we started the melee combat and also implemented some more content from previous projects including the footfalls functionality, bloodsplosion and bloodsplatter content.

Then work began on the ranged combat and spell system and continued work on combat in general and melee combat. We also started working more with structs and data tables to outline weapon info and such which would help later to implement various different weapons and spells without needing to create new infrastructure and architecture every time. Throughout this as well we engaged with the animation blueprint to ensure that the combat had animations to use. Furthermore, we worked on the health of players and eventually enemies. Spell cooldowns was also done during this time.

Additionally during the first week of development the movement manager component was created and implemented which allowed for easy changes to a characters movement speed with slows or speed-ups being able to be stacked and then reversed later without changing the original max speed of the character. The majority of spell characteristics was also implemented during this first week of development. The piercing and homing characteristics for spells was also implemented during this time.

Character info structs and data tables was also setup during this time as well as some enemy info and enums. Also some HUD elements were worked on during this time including health bars for characters, and spell indicators for the currently selected spell of a character with placeholder icons. Another niche piece of spell functionality was implemented during this time: time to max speed so that spells could speed up over time and not start with their max speed being their initial speed.

Week 6:

Then in the second week of development the following was done: more HUD development, spell slow down time, player downed state, spell attracting characteristic, spell cooldown representation in HUD. Furthermore during this second week of development the enemy AI was created and implemented into the game with both melee and ranged combat for enemies working as intended. Also some cleaning of previously made structs was done during this time as well. Some other fixes were done to the health component as well, and the functionality for healing from enemies dying and from melee attacks. Additionally enemies were made to use the combo for melee combat for their equipped melee weapon then going on a cooldown before attacking again instead of just constantly attacking to create more strategy.

Holstering/swapping the main and offhand weapons was during this second week as well with the weapon not being used to attack being stored on the back of the character. Furthermore more payload functionality was done during this time including the payload health. Furthermore the advanced player movement was implemented during this time: dodging and rolling with them being able to be done in all directions due to multiple blend spaces and the directional input from the player. Some more HUD juice was done during this time as well. Also some friendly fire functionality was done during this second week including players dealing less damage to the payload, less to other players and enemies less to other enemies.

Additionally during this second week of development the UI began to be worked upon as well as the out of combat healing for players, enemies and the payload. The starting stages of the UI was created however the more advanced aesthetics and functionality was done in the third week of development, but controller support for buttons in all menus (since all buttons within all the UI in the game was in fact one widget called clickable button) was implemented and working as intended at the end of the second week. The character select menu was prioritised at the end of week 2 with some work being done on it. Additionally button hovering functions was done during this time and work on the main menu specific game mode was completed during this time.

Week 7:

Then in the third week of development the framework for status effects was started, join functionality for the character select for both keyboard and mouse and controllers, render targets for the character representations in the character select, bleeding status effect work, leaving as a player in the character select and more. Data persistence for player info between the main menu and the actual level was done during this third week as well as status effect structs being created. Also during this third week of development we had to delete the health component and re-create it in a new component as we suspected that it had corrupted.

Furthermore during this third week the enemy spawning functionality was done where enemies would spawn at a certain rate and amount outside of a certain range - which would be the view of the camera so that it would seem like enemies would merely walk from the woods into the players and payload. Also the camera borders was done during this time to keep players fully within the view of the camera. As a result of this various collision object responses specifically for players, enemies and the payload was done during this time as well which resulted in some re-doing of previous code to update the switching of collision object types.

Some more aesthetic work was done for the UI during this time including outlining and making shadows for texts within the UI, the ready button only being visible and clickable when at least one character is ready as well as the loading screen, options screen, credits screen and controls screen being done during this third week. Furthermore the boss trigger was done during this time which pans the camera around the boss when all players have passed through the trigger. Also functionality for reducing the payload's speed after taking damage was implemented during this time as well.

Week 8:

Finally during the final week of development the following was done: funky noise UI material made with help from a tutorial for use in the main menu screen, carriage mesh implemented and the wheels rotating relative to the speed of the actual payload as well as further populating credits.

During the final week of development the following was completed: updating status effects, level design, changing the colour scheme of the UI to be more green rather than purple/pink, payload spline system, more UI juice, checkpoint system was ported but still needs implementing properly to work with the rest of the systems in the game, putting the ultra dynamic sky and weather system in to make a more atmospheric level, work on the character portraits in the HUD and other UI updates.

Additionally during this final week of development work was done for the production presentation, the game's group press kit, recoding footage for the game.

Personal:

Harry - Ranged combat, UI, movement, advanced movement, enemies, enemy AI, spells, some of the health, payload and payload spline system, Co-op functionality, camera, spell HUD, data persistence between main menu and level, boss, level atmosphere aesthetic using weather and sky system (Ultra Dynamic Sky)

Ben - Melee combat, health system, HUD, status effect architecture, bleeding status effect, downed state, reviving

Louis - Checkpoint system (not fully implemented yet)

Mackenzie - Level Design