2nd '24 Soggy Horror Devlog for first quarter

Sorry for the delay on the 2nd part of the 1st quarter dev-log. I have been polishing up a few features and planning the next update to Soggy Horror. Two subjects I want to cover this update are Model and AI work that has been keeping me quite busy on the side these last three months.

As for the game AI, I have been working towards small but perfectly doable goals I can make with improving the barebones crap you got with the Alpha 1 builds. The first goal is to make the cultists more aware of their surroundings and allow them to react correctly in situations where they previously got stuck from simple player actions. 

Two additions I have been testing is giving cultists the ability to both crawl and jump in order to catch a player who would previously be completely safe just by ducking in a small corner or jumping on a ledge.  In addition I have been continuing to implement a very rudimentary AI director to keep the game engaging and hopefully preventing unfair situations without it feeling overly artificial. Having it in place will also be useful once each cultists have more distinct AI behavior and abilities. The hiding mechanic has also been improved quite a bit from its initial implementation and I'm working to include it on the next content update.

Gina will be the next character to release in the 2.1 update. Gina was previously axed in the 2.0 update because I had issues animating her at the time and working with the old AI system. Since then, I've decided to fix problems with her rig and give her custom animations for her eventual role in the game. One thing I am slowly working towards is so the game's world has more then just cultists out to get you. There will also be safe areas where you can interact with caretakers and others that have not succumbed to the cult yet. Gina will join Pearl as some of the very few peaceful NPCs you will encounter, however keep in mind that there is always the possible that exceptions will be made and that some cultists can blur the lines between friendly and hostile.

Amber the last dragon cultists isn't far from completetion, but won't make it in time for the 2.1 update. However, Bella got a complete overhaul and will be making it in along with updates to Maddie. To commemorate this I'm going to have to come up with a beefy enough title for the update when it's actually ready to be released.

Although I am very happy to see that a lot of new people picked up Depravity Quest since it's return announcement I will not be prioritizing,  the Depravity Quest alpha 3 test build nor will I polish the old Kobold model I built from scratch for when it went 3d until Soggy Horror alpha 2.1 is out. I will say however that I am glad a lot of the old work has since been salvage and has been migrated from Monogame to Unity 2023 and I will be able to share many assets from Soggy Horror and migrate some NPC interactions I do with Depravity Quest to Soggy Horror when that day comes. 

I will do a small write-up on that Depravity Quest when I have the time, but right now I am polishing assets for Soggy Horror. Until that day comes, peace and thanks for hanging in there will I slowly plug away on my projects.