On Call Patch Notes

On Call should be out soon, and what that means is that from here on out we will need to add / change / fix things that players find that are wrong / broken / not as super cool as it could be, and then patch those things remotely.

The first patch is now complete and ready to be uploaded as soon as the game is released. We cant change / upload the patch yet, as the game has been unchangeable for over a week as its prepared and tested.

NOTES:

• Made new, more professional buttons
• Simplified the HUD as it was cluttered with useless information (why have a health bar if we are showing a red vignette as the player gets low health?)
• Added a better control image in the menu
• Tweaked AMMO visual feedback for both the gun and the ship (Gun/Ship now lights up blue, yellow and red to show different levels of AMMO)
• Fixed some AI bugs in Bridge, Crew and Arcade levels
• Added gun sway, idle and walk animation
• Tweaked timing of end credits
• Tweaked the distance and health of the Rebel ship to allow audio to finish playing before its destroyed and new audio plays
• Re-baked shadows at a higher resolution
• Fixed GUI glitch with objectives

We are now testing these new changes and still seeing if we can find new things to fix / add / change. I've been looking into a bloom shader to make the neon styled lights on the gun and various other objects stand out and seem more light like, but so far I've not found a way to do it that offers the effect I am looking for, while maintaining 60fps.

On Call Progress

Spent the last 24 hours re-baking shadows at 2x the resolution... Some areas are still not great, but I cant bake higher for time constraints and Vita memory limits... Will need to approach this aspect better next time from what I've learned...

On Call Feedback

So people have started to notice On Call.

This is great news, as it means we can FINALLY start listening to what they have to say so we can add to what we have and tweak stuff further.

FEEDBACK

1. Buttons look unprofessional
2. Gun needs to sway
3. The HUD isn't really needed as we show information through other visual feedback
4. Someone noticed a typo

WHAT HAVE WE DONE ABOUT IT?

1. Created and rebuilt our menus with our own buttons
2. Started implementing Gun sway animations
3. Completely rebuilt the HUD
4. Fixed the typo

WHAT DO WE WANT TO CHANGE?

1. Re-bake shadows at a higher resolution to boost visual quality that 1 extra step further

Here's some screens to demonstrate the changes we've made, and please, feel free to give us feedback, we are listening and working to make this game better ;)

On Call Trailer

My brother has made a theatrical trailer for On Call and I thought Id share it here

For some reason I cant post the HD trailer directly here, but here's a link: http://youtu.be/qetx6Uv6HFA

Day 3

Just thought Id show off what I've done before leaving for class... Hopefully Ill have this level finished by tonight.

Platformer Progress Report

DAY 2

Just taught Id show off what I've done today.

Other than the obvious work on the graphics assets and art, Ives also re-coded the default 3rd person controller to have Walk on the D-Pad, Walk and Run on the Left Stick, and a full orbital camera on the Right Stick. I also coded a script using some stuff I found online in order to bake light maps anywhere from 512 - 4096... This is great news! I will only bake at Maximum resolution before I ship, for now Ill just bake at 1024, as baking higher takes along time and that's not good for rapid deployment and testing.

I've also managed to stay well under 100 drawcalls, the technique I learned from On Call is already paying off. The game runs at a flawless 60fps no matter what I throw at it.

Ive had to revert back to using the black borders... But that's fine as I'm now using textures and the borders work amazingly well with the style of 'sketched' texture work I've dedicated myself to.

I'd love On Call to sell well enough to give this game good funding as then I'd be able to spend more time on it.

Other than that. Development is moving fast, here's some shots that show the vast improvement from yesterday:

Concept

On Call is done for now and we are just waiting for it to go on Sale.

But that doesn't mean we can stop working.

For our next game, I've been thinking it may be nice to do a platformer. It will be heavily inspired by my favorite platformers, such as Mario 64, Spyro, Ratchet and Clank etc. It will give me a chance to work on my art skills, from animation to modeling... Its something I feel I need to work on. I made On Call to learn the last things I needed to know with progression and saves, so my goal for this project will be improving on my art.

As for gameplay. I want it to be a platformer, so any combat will take a back seat and therefor it will focus on exploring and platforming. Everyone who play-tested On Call seems to have liked the space segments, so I thought it would be nice to keep it as a level select hub world (Not dissimilar to Ratchet and Clank: A Crack in Time)

I spent a few hours today doing some concept designs. The first level is going to be a bar on the roof of a sky scraper in a metropolis styled city. So I improved my workflow from what I learned with On Call, and started working. I've not got a lot to show just yet, but its shaping up really well. I'm moving away from the black outlines of on call, as I'm not happy with the way that they made aliasing more apparent. On top of that, my new workflow minimizes draw calls drastically, while still allowing me to bake lighting into every object in the scene.

Here's some shots (Please remember that On Call also started off looking really bad while it was in conception, all good things come in time... and lots of hard work)