devblog15
Space Salvage Blog #15 :VFX Overhaul-Dyson Sphere-Enemies and NPCs
Before we talk about this month’s updates, the whole team at Fruity Systems wants to wish you all Happy Holidays close to your chosen loved ones. We would like to thank everyone that has been beside us through the journey of developing Space Salvage so far, whether you’ve been reading our blog for a while or if this is your first!
Now – grab yourself a festive drink or snack of your choosing and let’s get into it!
As always, please follow the links to help us out more; leave a review on the app lab page if you have not already!
Do not forget! To get the latest updates every Friday and even chat with the devs, join our discord!
VFX Overhaul
If you’re getting a feeling of deja-vu, you’d be correct.
“Haven’t you already updated your VFX??”
Yes. VFX have been a very tricky part of development so far due to the technical limitations surrounding the current Meta Quest headsets available. Matching the stylized look of the world with the VFX has proven to be a long process of trial and error. Here are a few clips of a BIG SCARY LASER and explosion that we have to show off. Please let us know what you think on our discord! Hopefully version 4.0 of the stylization will be our winner in both style and performance with the help of one of our new team members tackling the problem head on.
Our team has nearly doubled in the past couple of months! Maybe soon we can do a proper introduction for the new team members
Dyson Sphere
Our art team has been hard at work as well as the rest of the team working in the engine to push levels as far as we can with technical limitations. A big ambition we had in our roadmap was to have a massive structure with a star contained in the centre, acting as a sun. Through collective effort, we were able to string along something we’re very excited about. Here’s a sneak peek. In this level, you will be destroying the mega structure by removing key components to its structural integrity and hurling them into the “sun” using momentum and your gravity gun. But be careful – being that close to a star can do some senior scorching to your D.E.R.P.
Enemies and NPCs
If you had a look over last months Dev Blog you would have seen a level with a LOT of billboards and jumbotrons. That got us thinking that we will need some NPC’s populating various areas of the universe. We’ve also added allies for your enemies, so more enemies! Check out the details below.
Heal Drones
You have seen our “beloved” F.L.O.C. drones and so far they have all been built to inflict damage on the player pod. We thought they might need some less artillery focused siblings. Introducing the new menace inhabiting the cosmos! New drone flocs will have a healer present there to make it that much harder for you to get the pests out of your way. I am sure you are all going to try and target their medic, so good luck! The little guy is skilled in…evasive manoeuvres.
Who knows, in the distant future of your career at the SSC you might even be able to convince such a drone to side with you…
F.U.G.U.
Hopefully, you did not think you were the only capable space janitor out there? And S.A.R.A has warned that you may be replaced with A.I. soon. F.U.G.U. are non-hostile work units that are not operated by pilots. You will likely see them going about their business in busy areas of the cosmos. Be sure to say hi and be polite to the little guys. Most interplanetary companies use the model nowadays, so you might be making commercial enemies if you interfere with their daily chores.
What’s to come!
We are working on adding a lot of new levels, upgrades and story! The coming months should be packed with quite a lot of new things to show you, so look forward to them!
Thank you for reading this months dev blog, and we will hopefully see you next month!
