Gutter Dev Log

Programmer Aids Me off Enum Wall

11/9/2023

1.5 Hour
Programmer friend helped walk me through the bit I was missing from the tutorial skip-over. Effectively just that I needed to reference the interface my custom enum was held in as ITS event as instead of the custom one I made in the pawn. Blah Blah Blah. That got me over that one hump, that most importantly just let me set the enemy's alert state FROM the behavior tree.
Got a little ahead of myself trying to determine logic for differing states of alertness based off how long the player had been perceived. That hole involved him then trying to explain services to me and I spent too long trying to troubleshoot why my perception components weren't detecting me consistently. Tired brain won out and I decided I'll pick up the rest of the tutorial later and then find next steps.

Dicked around in Scripting AI

10/24/2023

3 hours and 45 minutes
Had the dumb thought of "Let me make a basic enemy collide with player to damage and then red UI feedback" before playing some video games tonight. Made the collision and then figured there should be a basic "walk to player function".
Implemented a basic walk-to-player function within like 30 minutes of the first youtube tuto I found. Though because its brushed against Behavior Trees (something Ive always known I needed to learn), I clicked on this video and got sucked into actually trying to learn while also building a more robust AI for my enemy.... Got about halfway through before catching on not knowing what the Enum variable was (which I figured out?), but then getting lost in an information gap with the video skipping through steps with C U T S. Just show me how you did each step please T.T Maybe I could figure it out if it wasnt so late. Maybe Ill ask programmer friends tomorrow or just delete half of it and use what I got working (likely more than I needed anyway). RIP playing video games, yay micro incremental learning.

LD Block Toggle Scripting

10/24/2023

like 2.5 hours I think
Did some baby LD noodling by making an interior with a door and window in the metric level yesterday. Satisfying but climbing up and down it didn't feel like gameplay without enemies/stealth, and sadly I'm a little fearful for my motivation if I dick around in scripting AI right now.
So my shower thoughts told me to implement a high story concept in-world Gutter system, "Otherworldly Perception" (OWP). Which essentially is just the dynamic LD of the clockwork mansion or time travel levels of DH2, but way less complicated. Its a system to toggle different environment assets in and out of existence (visibility and collision).
There's probably way more gameplay-feel changes that would come with this, but for now I prototyped just the function to tag actors in a level and then with Level Blueprint scripts can toggle them in and out of "existence" yay.
Also Weebly was broken and not loading last night so I typed this now and will just post tomorrow when it's hopefully not broken.

Metrics and Colored Blocks

10/22/2023

An hour and a half yesterday and then I think an hour two nights before that.
In efforts kick-start LD, managed to rip away from other functions and disconnect all the item function. PLUS watched some LD Design bits on the internet that reminded me it'd be worth setting hard metrics in-mind. I basically already did with the provided grid blocks but wanted more precision.
So first I made a level map for metrics, just for measuring the player's capability, and then measured the upper and lower bounds for each climb function. From left to right, step over, fast climb, normal climb, jump to reach and then slow climb, and last unreachable for climbing height.
There was an issue with the lowest climbing where above 0.45m you didnt step up, but also below 0.75m the climb function didnt reach it so player would just jump and kind awkwardly trip forward. So most of yesterday was noodling around with BPs and numbers to fix that, Now the player discreetly either steps up or fast climbs.
Last thing was I made colored versions of the grid materials. Better motivation for building an environment meant to look like something (A grimy port-town alley, street, and coast). Though and/or clearly signpost things like different highest of ledges with different accessibility aye.

Back to Fussing Around

9/14/2023

2.5 hours
Been a minute - told myself to disconnect all the inventory function so I can ignore it for now. Instead spent too long trying to troubleshoot why the UI Icons keep allowing to fill multiple slots despite only holding one item. Didn't figure it out... wasnt worth me nuking the night without at least one combats worth of Baldurs Gate 3 lol.
Briskly venting my frustrating with friends had me say out loud I should flowchart my contextual interactions so as to not be confused TOO easily when rereading old code and trying to distinguish between what's just noodley code and whats actually broken. So threw this together before sleeping...

I wonder if it'll ever change....

...or if Ill actually drop this inv and work on something more productive

Shift to Blockout Basics

6/27/2023

Like 1 hour
Felt the motivation waning when trying to get back working on unfinished Item pick-up, Inv, and UI systems. Decided I'm (shocker) too getting caught up on unnecessary bits. Just because I can conceptualize them technically and think they'd be cool and add a lot, doesn't mean the should be the immediate priority. A core gameplay loop being complete sooner than later I'd think should be the actual priority. If this is ultimately meant to be an LD showcase, then systems should be barebones to exist as the framework with which I showcase some solid world building and gameplay forward LD.
Started very basics of duping the base level and making an interior meant to introduce the climbing mechanics and stealth plus a separate level for blocking out the city street, docks, and sewers I have in mind as the ideal gameplay setting.
Also know I want to strategically unplug a lot of the unfinished systems so that playtesting wont have me negging myself when I have the instinct to utilize said systems and then get frustrated when they don't work exactly how I want lol.

Inv states transitions tedious when tired

6/14/2023

Like an hour and change
Mucked around with all inv and inv UI systems to fix baby bugs but also update function to quick take out as well as store. Didn't finish that. Also added an "empty" icon and frame for inv slot UI. They look okay but also bad. Inching towards more function but also too tired for too many good fixes.
Why am I making an Inventory system dang it. I should actually design doc the flow states for this before smacking my head against more tired code b4 cut/flip the table for less systems and more LD.

Inv Selective Storing and Withdrawing

6/13/2023

2 Hours
Finished the UI logic and have a blue highlight for the currently selected slot. Only shows when while the Inv_UI is out (while selecting).
Releasing selection with an item in-hand, successfully stores that item in the specifically selected slot.
Also my impatient ass got a jury rigged function of the opposite when the hand is empty, grabbing the inv slot's item ID, spawning a new item of said actor class, and immediately attaching it to the player's hand. As if it was the same item stored before. Its buggy as hell and basically doesn't work, but I got the knife to spawn in my hand after storing it at least once before the night was out woo.

UI Inv Basics

6/12/2023

Hour and a half
Started the basic logic within the UI to accept a separate numbers to identify the Inventory Slot and an Item ID. Thus to dynamically change the correct slot to the correct icon whenever a particular item is stored.

Click or Hold Logic

6/8/2023

An hour
Logic for distinguishing between a left and right mouse click versus holding to eventually connect to different contextual functions.
Example: a right click stores a held item (deletes it at the moment) where holding right for a second will open the inv UI and then letting go with close it.

<<Previous

Gutter Dev Log

Programmer Aids Me off Enum Wall

Dicked around in Scripting AI

LD Block Toggle Scripting

Metrics and Colored Blocks

Back to Fussing Around

Shift to Blockout Basics

Inv states transitions tedious when tired

Inv Selective Storing and Withdrawing

UI Inv Basics

Click or Hold Logic

Pitch

Goal

Timeline

Home

About

Services

Menu

Contact