We are excited to announce the first Voidwhisper devlog!
This time, the focus is around our ship gameplay related progress. We showcase our new ship 3D model, functioning cannons, gravity fields, physics based controls, automated flying assists, prototype clouds and multiplayer.
Godot has been fantastic for our development purposes so far. Currently, the most challenging part is getting the player character to accompany the ship’s movements, without falling or being left behind. Linear movement is easy, but matching rotation velocity is far harder than it seems. After that, synchronizing that well on multiplayer should also pose a challenge.
The clouds are currently very unoptimized and subject to change or even a rewrite, but the base project for them that Isaac found has been really useful to see how we want our game to look like, especially in atmospheric scenarios. Thank you Polygarden! We think a lot about how this system could be used for volumetric nebulae in space and even rocket engine flames and smoke.
The game still lacks a lot of sounds, and has no music. We experimented with the first sound effects – the cannons firing. I created a cannon firing sound from multiple samples and some editing, still subject to change. However, I heavily tweaked the 3D sound settings so that it sounds really good based on distance and being in front or behind the cannon. We would like to implement a sound speed mechanic later on, so that we can hear the cannons from other ships firing with the respective delay based on how far away they are.
Some of the things that are currently early work-in-progress, but present in the game, and should be expected to be commented upon on some of the next devlogs:
- Galaxy generation
- Planet generation
- Boid simulations
- Procedurally animated creatures
- Music
- Game intro
Hope you get on board with us for the next updates!
-Vinicius Krieger Granemann
