DEVELOPMENT - LOG:
2025.01.24 - It's Save/Load and Level transition time
I have finally fixed and/or finished all systems and Backlog things in the way to be able to start testing/implementing the Save/Load system's. I'm really hoping this is gone be not to annoying or I'm in for a ride… . We will see. As soon as I have it working I will definitely post about it. This is not gonna be a easy checkpoint system as many games have. This will fully save the state of a level like in other immersive sim games like Deus Ex, Peripeteia, Prey (2017), also sometimes referred to as “Typhon”, and so on. I really love these save system that let the player do what ever they want and try It as often as they want without wasting time, meaning very quick load times are important. I will try to keep file size, load and save times as low as possible and also, if possible, will also incorporate multithreading to keep the process from hanging.
2025.01.20 - Fixed all backlog bugs and added needed features
Fixed all bugs in the backlog that were still in the way of testing/implementing Save/Load. Added one gameplay-feature from the backlog. Now only one other feature needs to be completed to be able to test/implement Save/Load fully into the framework. With Save/Load also comes the Level-Switch and Data-Transfer code. Meaning the full Save/Load implementation will probably take up some time (or maybe the concept implementation works from the start and it is easier then expected... probably not XD). Culling system works perfect so far from testing. Also did some balancing fixes with the enemy's and NPC's in the finished level.
2025.01.18 - Extended culling system, added Multithreading and fixed bugs
The culling system from the last update had some issues. If you move an Area3D in Godot the Area3D Triggers “body_exited” and “body_entered” A LOT. It is either by design because areas are designed to be moved continuously like this or it is probably just a bug. The fix was to make a custom old detection and new detection method and compare. I also added a separate layer for better performance when detecting and added multithreading for good measure. The performance improvements are now more then I expected. Multithreading makes games run better on low end modern hardware but makes it harder for older low end hardware because of the increased CPU architectural needs. But to simulate may things at the same time and put culling on the top of that, there is now way around it. After that I fixed the last bugs in the current backlog. Only one feature and 3 Bugs are now missing to start testing the Save/Load system.
2025.01.15 - Performance BOOST and fixes
As planed I started fixing bugs, got a few out of the way and then found a bit of a performance issue with the size of a few levels and the amount of enemy's. They decide many things on the fly and that takes a good amount of performance, especially when the player or items are involved. The build-in culling and LOD systems of Godot were not enough. I also use many (often dynamic) light source that also needs a good amount of performance. I plan to offer a pre-backed lights option at some point that will help weaker hardware. Godot makes it hard to get Level Nodes without iterating into other scenes by accident. This made it a little bit of a bigger task to figure out a way to get around that and disable nodes dynamically. I build a system that can disable nodes or parts of them I deem performance intensive and enable them if the player comes into the area. It is fully dynamic, not trigger or area bound but player bound and should work great with the large levels. Below is an example with the setting turned up to max to make it better visible.
2025.01.12 - More cleanup and finishing Level structure
Fixing a few Bugs in the back log and added last Level details, the last few enemy's got placed, moved or equipped and the last few structure's in the ending area of the first level got placed. Now I have one fully finished and implemented/build level from beginning to end. Next are a few bugs with player node to fix and then the save/load system debugging/implementing/fixing can begin. After that, level 2 is on the list to be completed, tested and cleaned up.
2025.01.08 - Fixing Bugs and cleaning up
After my well deserved two weeks of Christmas vacation it's time to get back to gamedev. As expected, the game-testing and gameplay testing rounds showed a few bugs until right before release (and even after when just playing). That was what has been mostly been fixed today. I added more Crossair features and cleanups, tightened up the level design here and there and fixed the last few bugs on the list from the trailer production.
2024.12.31 - Rename from ProjectCWC to RE//POSSESSED
After some feedback from the lovely developers of Peripeteia, I decided to change the name and settled on one of my favorite from the possible candidates: RE//POSSESSED or REPOSSESSED. It fits with the theme and lore of the game world and has no direct connection to anything.
2024.12.24 - REPOSSESSED is now officially revealed!
I will from now on updated this log about everything involving the game, to some extend do some promotion and keep building the Levels and extend the story and world building. How frequent I will update this log or the promotional pages and account's depends on the current workload and time I have. I will continue working as much if not even more on the game as the last year and a half. And now the important part: Head over to the main page and have a look at the gameplay trailer.
Rough documentation of the development timeline before the publication:
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2024.11.11 - Preparing to publicly announce REPOSSESSED
All the development until now were mostly private. Sometime I did mentioned in posts what is happening in the background on my blog. I also released a few teaser images in my media library. Now the game has everything what is needed to actually play the game. The last two or so months and most of the development from now on is nearly fully consumed by level design, NPC creation, world building, music creation, bug fixing and fleshing out the story.
2024.08.13 - Framework complete
Around that time I was done with the framework of the game. Many library's, systems and interactions needed to build the modules for the game are feature complete. Most of the modules usually needed for in-game interactions and gameplayevents were also nearly done. The custom Dialog system, custom audio system, and custom inventory system is finished and mainly needs the Assets now. Much of the current development time (the last (and next) 2 or 3 weeks) were focused on the audio Assets (meaning SFX, Music and ambiance. Thanks to a good friend for helping me getting all the sounds and ambiance track's) and world building / NPC' and there needs. Items and custom scripts that slot into the framework are build on the way. The framework should allows for fast development on that front thanks to all the exposed API's in the interaction's framework
2024.01.10 - Full commitment
At this point I already hat a very very basic play environment with many mechanics implemented. Thankfully my husband convinced me, while we were on a date, to commit fully to the the development of dream game project from now on. I tried myself on different versions of the game in the past already but stooped development after a few days at the most. The idea of REPOSSESSED was existing for a long time already an vent through many different types of games, from with a 2D platformer, going to a 3D 'jump and run', “text adventure” inside a IDE, and so many more. My love for Immersive sim grew a lot over the years and then one and one came to getter and now we have REPOSSESSED.
2023.10.07 - Started Model and Framework building
The game devolvement did not start at this point yet. I just toyed around with Godot and tried my hand on 3D model creation, music creation and texturing. Here a few models I was building to get familiar with the tools. Non of these models are in the game. I will not put the music from back then here. It did just not sound good. I also tested multiple joint types for arms, legs and body movement. The pre-final joint design can be seen in the last image. The final type I use is far simpler and works better.
