So, the demo was finally released after more than a few months of work and I want to give a thank you to everyone who downloaded and played it. I honestly did not expect anyone to play it so I’m very grateful for the downloads and the feedback.

I went into the next part of the development with the idea of diving straight into level designing and creating the third level of the game. Plans do not always go the way you wanted though and after I replayed the demo a few times I couldn’t shake off the motivation to fix one of the more visual issues that bugged me from day one, the 3D models.

Models

My game dev journey so far has been mostly based with the 2D realm so when I first started with this project, I was uneducated with 3D modelling, and this is reflected within the demo as most of the 3D decorations populated around the levels are lacking in both detail and proper texture aligning.

So, for the first couple of weeks of the month I took it upon myself to redesign the 3D models after spending some time learning the 3DWings application. There were some key models that I thought deserved a new face lift. Below you’ll find some comparison shots between the old models and the new ones a long with more detailed textures and proper alignment. Although this took more time than was intended, I think the results speak for themselves and they really help elevate the environments found within the game. I’m hoping the transform some more models in the game including a science desk and food hall table but that can be sorted later in development.

New Weapons

The demo included five weapons (including one secret weapon for the eagle-eyed) which showcased a wide variety of different typed of guns including a machine gun, a shotgun and a plasma rifle. I wanted to try and up the weapon count by include more unique weaponry.

Due to feedback I received from the demo it seemed clear to me that the player needed some way of attacking the enemy without the need to ammo, so I created a melee option. This allows for more fluid gameplay so that the player can continue to fight and doesn’t have to break the flow of the action by attempting to track down some ammunition. After some tweaking I settled on the below animation.

One of the best things about the weapon variety in a game like the original D00M is the power fantasy that it creates when you finally pick up one of the ‘meatier’ weapons and the endorphins it releases when you fire the thing and it destroys the enemies in front of you. This is something that is currently missing from StarGazer and something that I wanted to implement. After some planning I decided to go against the traditional rocket launcher and instead create a ‘Plasma Cannon’. It functions in a similar fashion but I believe it fits better within the far future setting of the game. You’ll have to wait to see how it looks in game but here’s the finalised firing animation.

The third and final weapon I’ve implemented is the Pulse Rifle. This functions as the precision/sniper option in the game and gives those players with a more solid aim the ability to take out more powerful enemies in fewer shots as each ‘pulse’ is a lot more powerful than regular weapons. I want to also implement a zoom-in/scope option later in development. I also added a bit of weapon shake when firing to show how powerful the weapon is.

The commercial district

As most of my time has been dedicated towards the 3D models and weapons I unfortunately did not progress much on creating the third level. I did however lock down the style and environment as well as get started on the first couple of rooms. As the game takes place on a fully functioning and liveable space station I thought creating a commercial district would be something that would not be out of place. A space station such as this would earn its credits from tourism so having an area with stores and restaurants would be a must.

The brighter lighting and more environmental decorations will act as a nice contract to the two previous levels. I also spent some time creating some destructible environmental sprites to add a bit more to the immersion of the level.

This level is going to be split into 3 distinct districts. The first being the ‘goods section’ where all the stores are located. I spent some time creating branding for each store to add more uniqueness to the environments.

The second district is the ‘food hall’ and will be the location of all the restaurant and food vendors, this district will have more open environments which will contrast to the more winding and narrow spaces of the goods section.

The third district will be the ‘restricted area’ and will act as a transitional section that leads into the fourth level. As the development has continued, I have been increasingly aware of the flow of each level and I want to make the traversal of each level make sense when transitioning to the next. This district will have the security area which will include a lot of ammo and weapons and show a bit more of the scientific experiments that have been going on behind closed doors that will litter the later levels.

My next dev log will include the conclusion of the third level and hopefully some early concepts of new enemies I want to implement.

Thanks for reading.