It's been a while - more than a month - since my last blog post! I didn't expect it, but I'm still on a hiatus from Project Mirabelle - this should last a few more weeks. In the meantime, I'm actually doing some other projects and things (and also resting a bit)!
I'm on a bit of a hiatus right now, mostly stabilizing Project Mirabelle every now and then and adding small things. I'm using that time to finish some other projects, and I'll also be participating in the BONDAGE Game Jam, Volume 2 by DiD Games, starting later today!
This week, I mostly spent time reworking the map format and how things are written. There's not much to show in terms of images, but I'll talk a bit about what this looks like for me and what it allows!
This week, I spent less time than I expected on the project, but still did end up checking out a few things - prototyping things like an installable version of the game, as well as some small assets work!
To start with this new year, I continued working on the pre-alpha 2 version to get it closer to release, including adding "locked doors". And I also made this blog. Hello!
As I'm getting closer to a fully feature-complete system for the bad ends, I'm working behind the scenes on cleaning up things in order to prepare the launch of the pre-alpha 2 version. Since I'm planning to go pretty "wide" with this version compared to the previous one, I decided to implement some things that will make the experience smoother!
Since the chest growth bad end ended up being interesting to me, I decided to add some new feature to the engine that can properly handle the more magicky-looking effects.
Now that the event system is almost completely implemented, I could start working on some events to actually put it through its paces! And, for starting, I decided to work on bad ends.
After implementing the start the event system, I took a break to do some more prototyping and assets building!
Here's a quick demo for a leashed walk for a "forced to walk with a rope used as a leash" scenario, based on the various prototypes I implemented so far. It is a hacky prototype, not ready for production quite yet, but it's an interesting idea!
After a long break due to motivation issues, I tried getting back into the project by making one thing, no matter how small, starting from September 23rd and ending my streak on October 7th. Here's a summary of everything that came out!
On a bit of a break right now. Here's a quick sneak peak at a "trapped in a painting" prototype!
I ended up adding a few new things to the engine. Most of the work was in the new dialog UI, but I also added signs with visible text, and a new pose asset.
I never really talked about it, but Project Mirabelle can be played directly on a smartphone (and is somewhat optimized for it)! This is a short summary of the mobile UI and the new tweaks.
I've done a bit of engine work, added more assets, and also started to implement an awareness indicator system for the enemies.
After a week of break, I'm coming back to working on the engine of the game!
During the end of June, I did a bunch of engine work, but also added some new poses and prototyped some ideas. Here's a showcase!
As part of my development of the navmesh system, I decided to add some tests to the existing test suite. Here's a technical article about the test suite system, how it's implemented, and the basics of creating a testing framework with custom code!
Navmeshes (a tool to allow NPCs to move around freely) have been a pain to implement for the longest time, due to a mix of not finding much information, and wanting to do everything myself. This is a short update on this topic.
After another hiatus, I'm back with a few new assets!
After a bit of a hiatus, I'm back with a weekend prototype: a simple multiplayer mode for Project Mirabelle! This is a very, very hacky prototype still, and it's not going to be in production any time soon. It was still a good small project, and a cool way to show capabilities for multiplayer content!
After a bit of a break, I implemented an animation set where a topless character will try to hide her chest while doing basic actions.
I worked on the remaining ground animations, implementing the animations for a character that was pushed to the ground then left alone.
I spent a bunch of time implementing more features for the outdoor sections, and trying to make simple radiant quests work.
Collisions is something I've been working on and off for a few months at this point, ever since the first prototype outdoor levels. And, on March 26th, I got it working!
As environmental effects, like indicators and particles, are an important part of the game aesthetics, I decided to prototype and implement them straight away.
As part of the outdoors area, I wanted to have the ability to implement terrain with different heights, also known as heightmaps.
Back after a bit of a break, I worked on more prototypes and ideas that might end up in the next pre-alpha 2 version, we'll see!
After a prototyping phase, I transitioned to working on what I think is going to be the main content for pre-Alpha 2: new grabs and grapple animations!
With Pre-Alpha 1 now released, it's time to start working on some random ideas! This was the opportunity to prototype a lot of concept, and explore where to go from there with the project as a whole.
After a long break with no progress on Project Mirabelle (due to work being extremely time-consuming), I finally had time to restart working on the project. Over the months of December 2023 and January 2024, I completed the pre-alpha 1 version and released it publicly!
After a few weeks, I came back for a short time to create more assets for the game. This included a pole tie animation, the new gag and blindfold systems.
Right after the launch of the technical demo, I wanted to add new environments for what was not yet known as Project Mirabelle. This required creating new props and textures from scratch, and I started doing that.
Project Mirabelle started as a technical demonstration of character assets I was creating during some vacation in 2023. Originally, the project was simply called "3D prototype", and I didn't intend to turn it into a full game. However, by the time my vacation had ended, I had something good enough to be released as a "technical demo" at the beginning of september.
This article recounts the very first steps of the project coming together, with me implementing the basic character, carry animations, hopping animations, and more!