Dear fellow survivors,
The time has come for another 6-month update on the status of the project. To go over what we’ve been up to and what remains to be done.
Since the beginning of the year, we have completed all the building models, which was the last category of 3D objects that remained unfinished. We have also fully completed the entire part of the map, which will be included in the early access version of the game, and we have improved many textures in the game using Quixel which has recently been purchased by Epic Games and made available for UE4, free of charge.
Since then, we have been focusing all our efforts on optimizing all the building models, which means making a number of lower quality versions of each building, and setting up the distances at which these lower quality models appear on the screen. This is very important as we want the models to switch at exactly the right time when the player won’t notice any difference.
Apart from that, we are also quietly working on some vehicle models such as the bath-mobile, which will be added to the game in future updates. We are also focusing all our efforts on finishing the programming part of the game.
Unfortunately, our programming department had taken a hit from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic as two of our programmers had to spend some time in hospital and isolation. However, they have since made a full recovery and are now back at work. In addition to that, we have also managed to add a brand new programmer to our team, which has sped things up greatly.
The COVID-19 pandemic had also greatly complicated matters relating to the creation of the Steam page as all government offices had been shut until recently. This has been a problem as we are thinking of relocating our company to a different country where the tax code would allow us to use more of the revenue for the development of the game. However, they have since reopened, and we have an appointment booked with a tax consultant for next week. Things should pick up from here and the Steam page will hopefully be up and running soon. The COVID-19 pandemic had also greatly complicated matters relating to the animations as creating animations requires the use of a motion capture costume, many people to be physically present at the office, and is not something that can be done from home at all. Therefore, due to the strict social distancing measures imposed by the government, that has also been delayed.
Despite the setbacks caused by these unprecedented times, those at Mayak Game Studios, that have been able to, have been working on the game relentlessly and moving the project forward.
So just to recap what still needs to be completed:
- Building optimization
- Animations
- Programming
We have made a lot of progress which we look forward to sharing with you in upcoming videos and thank you for your patience and support even in these tough times!
- Dev Team