Soggy Horror Summer Dev log

Hey all, it has been some time since I have last provided a sizable dev-log and I feel I need to remedy that today.

The primary focus of the past three months has been improving the game shaders, optimizing the game's models and code so we can nail the look I am going for with the game and have it run well on aging hardware, and settling on good gameplay choices. It really bothered me with how dreary the game looked with the last few builds. I often resorted to making the game darker than it should be to cover up just how ugly some parts of the maps were, in addition to this, many assets and some actors that on further review were not correctly optimized to be considered game-ready.

To improve the game's graphics, I have rewritten several problem-child shaders that had nasty graphical glitches when the level was laid out in certain ways, I have also extended and updated several others to allow the game to have a more vibrant feel and touched up many textures and normals to be in a comfortable spot with how I want the game to look before I advance to more fun design choices and gameplay.

As for optimizing the game I had to go back to many scripts that were over a year old and didn't meet the stricter standard I wanted for the 2024 builds of the game. I also quickly learned that many assets and actors were not optimized for a game where smooth gameplay is very important. Since the optimization, the cost of placing many previously unoptimized assets has halved and in the very worst cases has plummeted by a quarter. So far I have seen very noticeable performance improvements my both my laptop and two desktops and I finally feel much more comfortable moving on to the work I want to do.

Without tacking on the insane difficulty you get from a From-Software title, we have agreed on the decision to take a from-software gameplay approach to threats in the game world where you will be unable to pause the game from opening the main menu or inventory when out exploring or getting stalked or chased by a cultist. There will however be many safe areas where you can find some reprieve and plan your next move against the cult and outside of very extreme (and embarrassing) cases failing will never set you back more than 5 minutes of gameplay.

In addition to these, I have been beginning to incorporate mini-games in Soggy Horror where you are tasked with solving puzzles or completing small dexterity challenges to get rewarded with small lore tidbits and or helpful items/upgrades. Or you could just be a doormat and fail them on purpose to have a cultist playfully ridicule you or send you to the dreaded time-out corner. There will also be areas in the game where you can encounter cultists that aren't outright hostile to you unless you are carrying one of their belongings you will need to sneak out to advance and there will be neutral NPC that you will need to persuade to get to the next section of the game. (that offers even more peril and ways to get utterly humiliated) 

I do once again apologize for taking so long for this write-up, however, the reality of my situation is that me and many of my co-workers recently got laid off from my full-time gig and I had to spend a good bit of time ensuring I returned everything from my previous employer and making sure I followed all other procedures to needed for severance and then spent a bit of time exercising to get my health in good order so I can start working very hard on the game and the occasional model/animation commission to keep me afloat. It is pleasing to not have work on the game slow down to a crawl like it did during 2023 and the first half of 2024 since I often had to work painful 50 hour work weeks, but it sucks losing that much-needed financial relief. I will be doing a artpack and game deals sometime around August to offset this setback and I think supporters will dig the next few updates now that a lot of the incredibly tedious work is completed and I am finally more free as a game developer.