Unreal Engine Project Maiden: Tactics and Dating sim (Free Public 0.1 Build available NOW!!!) [Development Thread]

[SpiteWorks - Cassian]

Hello!
Gear system, combat camera, and enemy pathfinding have all been completely reworked!
Coming week will focus on designing and implementing mission objectives, as well as implementing the Late-game wolf unit, the Alpha.

 

[SpiteWorks - Cassian]

Hello!
The Mission objective system has been added, with a variety of mission objectives, such as sabotage, assassination, target rescue, and survival!
In addition, the alpha has been renamed to the Champion, and possesses A stronger version of the wolf's basic howl ability, which has the ability to summon additional wolves to join the fight.
In addition, wolves now have a new ranged attack, and while functional, isn't visually finished yet.
The coming week will focus on Finishing up the Bulwark's dialogue in preparation for voice acting!
in terms of Conqueror Expression progress, the current status is 9/11!

 

[SpiteWorks - Cassian]

Hello!
The bulwark's dialogue has been completely finalized!
In addition, I've reached out to and come to an agreement with a skilled VA to voice the bulwark!
On the gameplay front, some progress was stalled as my assets were broken and needed to re-import them, but two of the three levels for Secondary missions have been finished!
For the conqueror Expressions, All are finished!
The plan for this week is to finalize all three secondary missions, as well as finally implement the hair system!

 

[SpiteWorks - Cassian]

All three secondary missions and hair have been successfully implemented!
Currently working on adding polish to the dialogue system, as well as QoL features.

 

[SpiteWorks - Cassian]

Hello!
Managed to finish up the dialogue system last week!.
Development is full speed ahead on implementing the third, un-announced Maiden for the initial release! current progress is 2/5 Abilities Finished. In addition, I want to finalize the Conqueror's dialogue this week, assuming no writers block. And finally, I want to make sure that I'm able to finalize the Maiden Manager screen this week, since it's currently an extremely bare-bones prototype more than anything.

 

[TheExordick]

Keep up the good work OP! is the link to the test build updated? is it possible to try it?

 

[SpiteWorks - Cassian]

Keep up the good work OP! is the link to the test build updated? is it possible to try it?

thanks for the encouragement! the linked build is extremely old, and exists mostly as evidence that i'm serious about the game.
Obligatory warning that it's extremely poorly optimized and light on content for it's DL size (no LODs bc i didn't know what they were when i made it XD) The current build is much farther along. I might post another combat-only alpha build in this dev thread before the official vertical slice release, but no promises.

 

[SpiteWorks - Cassian]

Hello!
progress on the maiden selection screen is 90% finished, just resolving minor issues now
Implementation of the third class' abilities is almost finished, the last one left is her Utility ability.
Although I wanted to finish up the Conqueror's dialogue, I was unable to.

the coming week will be focused on wrapping up these 3 tasks.
Here's a preview of an animated stealth effect I've been working on!

and heres a pic of the maiden gear screen!

 

[SpiteWorks - Cassian]

Hello!
The maiden selection screen and Desperada abilities have all been fully designed and finished!
Unfortunately, little progress has been made on the writing front.

I'm going to be putting writing on the backburner for a while, the coming week will focus on mission objectives as well as loading screens and mission selection.

 

[SpiteWorks - Cassian]

Pretty small update this week, seeing as i was busy with IRL stuff

Started tinkering with a plugin from the UEM for loading screens, and received the finished voice lines for the bulwark!
coming week will be focused on mission selection, audio editing and level design

 

[SpiteWorks - Cassian]

Imported the hair for the third character!
additionally, managed to resolve a massive bug with enemy combat, meaning that everything is far smoother now.
worked on ability previews for the third character
Imported new assets to use for the terrain on story missions.
Finalized two victory conditions, extermination and survival.

this week will be focusing on the Assassination Victory conditions, and the creation of more story levels

 

[SpiteWorks - Cassian]

Finished the river and village defense levels, as well as starting work on Bulwark expressions!
in addition the assassination, target defense mission types also received a lot of work!
Finished the system for taking gear thumbnails
The coming week will focus on re-working the mission progression system, as well as finalizing more levels!

 

[SpiteWorks - Cassian]

Hello
progress is being made on the farm defense level, as well as finished the survival level.
voice acting for the Bulwark's scenes have been clipped and implemented into the game, both for the dialogue segments and combat.
in addition, the mission progression system has been fully reworked!

 

[SpiteWorks - Cassian]

Hello
this week managed to make big progress on the ruins and farm level, including a new technique!
by using UE's chaos system, I'm able to break meshes and create "damaged" version for the ruin level.
I think it looks really cool, and it makes the levels look much cooler
This coming week will focus entirely on writing, which I have been neglecting.
In addition, I've added updated screenshots to the main post!

 

[SpiteWorks - Cassian]

No progress this week because I got covid

 

[groonan28]

rest and follow the doctor instructions mate.take your time and get better

 

[SpiteWorks - Cassian]

Forgot to make an update post yesterday, whoops.
As an apology, here's a preview video of the gear system!

You must be registered to see the links

 

[SpiteWorks - Cassian]

Big updates!
significant progress has been made on the main menu/title screen, which will be shown off soon!
in the meanwhile, here's a video to demo the VN system!

 

[SpiteWorks - Cassian]

This week was spent on preparing assets for renders like for splash art/title art. I've been talking with an artist and things are coming along nicely. In addition, the entire Maiden interaction system has been updated; now each crew member will be in a unique location on the ship relative to the scene that they will have with the player!
in addition, the final outfit has been ported into the game, meaning that every outfit for the vertical slice is prepared and ready!

 

[SpiteWorks - Cassian]

Forgot to post an update yesterday, my bad!
Sound effects have been added to much of the interactable stations around the ship such as doors, crafting, etc, making the overall experience feel much better! In addition, some minor re-tooling was done on the crafting and gear systems, since they were the first stations to be made.
The coming week will focus on finalizing assets for the game, before returning to polish combat and writing!