Unreal Engine Project Maiden: Tactics and Dating sim [Development Thread]

[SpiteWorks]

What is Project Maiden?
- Project Maiden is a Turn-based tactics game with an emphasis on strategic, visceral and satisfying combat. Outside of combat, the player will spend their time managing the resources of the MERCUTIAN, an advanced airship. As your bond with each Maiden increases over time, each maiden's abilities and combat effectiveness will improve, and allow for ability and skill specialization.




CURRENT PROGRESS (4/10/24):

BULWARK - Combat: 100%
BULWARK - Dialogue: 100%
BULWARK - Combat Animations: 20%
BULWARK - Expression Animations: 0%
BULWARK - "Bond" Animations: 66%

CONQUEROR - Combat: 100%
CONQUEROR - Dialogue: 70%
CONQUEROR - Combat Animations: 0%
CONQUEROR - Expression Animations: 80%
CONQUEROR - "Bond" Animations: 33%

??? - Combat: 80%
??? - Dialogue: 10%
??? - Combat Animations: 10%
??? - Expression Animations: 0%
??? - "Bond" Animations: 0%

Siocfion - Combat: 100%
Siocfion - Animations: 70%

Gameplay Systems: 90%
Player Systems: 80%
Player UI: 60%
Missions: 30%




What will be in the vertical slice?
- 3 of 6 Playable Characters (Bulwark, Conqueror, ???)
- The Siocfion, the first of 4 enemy factions, with 5 Unique enemy types
- 7 Primary Missions, each with unique objectives
- 3 Secondary Missions

TEST BUILD RELEASED!

You must be registered to see the links

Watch this thread for Weekly updates! (will try for every Wed)

 

[SpiteWorks]

In order to kick things off, I'm going to talk about the core of the game, COMBAT.

Inspired by tabletop skirmish games (Killteam, Necromunda) each mission will open onto a level with clearly defined deployment Zones. The player will then deploy their 4 selected Maiden in any formation they choose, with some deployment zones exclusive to Maidens with stealth abilities, allowing for strategic deployment. Each mission will have an objective, varying from simply killing all Enemies, to recovering supply crates, or assassinating a particular target.

Each Game character will have 4 Action Points, which can be used for a variety of actions:
Attacking - 2 AP make an attack with their weapon against a target according to their weapon stats
Moving - 1 AP Move a distance equal to the characters movement stat
Brace - 1 AP For the rest of the turn, increases the characters Weight class.
Shove - 2 AP What truly makes this game special. Each character has a unique shove action depending on their weight class, designed specifically around the physical manipulation of themselves and enemies.

Being shoved into terrain will result in a Crumple or a Knockdown state, depending on the Character who shoved, and is intended to be a primary layer of strategy in combat.

Should I reposition to avoid being shoved?
Is it worth risking this move to kill this enemy right now?

In a future post on Weight Classes, I'll elaborate on the specific types of shove actions you can expect to use.
Be sure to follow this thread for updates!

 

[SpiteWorks]

Hello all!

Before I share the mechanical goodies, here's a report on the progress since the last post:
Terrain Objects for all 3 levels have been finalized
The Bulwark animation and system overhaul has been finished (hell yea!)
Fixed NUMEROUS bugs with AI
Goals for next week:
Finalize the combat demo build and get it into your hands!


In today's post I'm going to talk about Stats and Damage:
There are a few core stats, and while most are intuitive, I think it would be good to list them for clarity, but

STATS
Health: the amount of damage a character can sustain before death
Movement: the amount of distance a character can move for 1 AP
Acc: a modifier applied to attack rolls made with their weapon.
Evasion: A modifier applied to attack rolls made against the character
Weight Class: there are 3 main weight classes, Light, Medium, and Heavy. This variable determines the character's displacement action, and effectiveness changes based on the enemy weight class.
Light - Springboard: an action that applies a force to a single target, while launching the character backwards.
Medium - Shove: An action that forces a single target backwards.
Heavy - Tackle: An AOE ability that knocks back all enemies in range (The preview for such is actually the attachment in last week's post!)
Crit Resistance: the resistances against each damage type, details below!


DAMAGE
All weapon attacks will be one of three damage types: Slash, Pierce, and Blunt.
The primary difference in these three is the crit effect that is applied upon landing a critical hit.
Slash: Severed Tendons - Characters with this status effect will take X damage for each AP they spend
Pierce: Internal Bleeding - Characters with this status effect will take X% max health damage at the beginning of the turn
Blunt: Concussed - Characters with this status effect will begin each turn with X AP reduced
*X denotes the strength of the status effect, which can be dynamically changed

As you can see, these status effects are crazy strong! In order to balance them and to reward careful planning, each character has a unique crit resistance stat.
Slash - 3
Pierce - 1
Blunt - 5
This example statline represents the number of attacks a character can take from each damage type before being inflicted with the associated status effects. After being depleted, the statline category will refill based on their current health.
Some weapons may have special attributes that allow for them to count as multiple attacks for their damage type!
Certain enemies will have certain weaknesses to certain status effects, which you will need to exploit, but be warned since your enemies will try to do the same!


That's all for today's post, thank you so much for reading! Be sure to check back in next week for information about the first Maiden, Irina Lask, the Bulwark!
P.S, I'm currently looking for an animation partner, if you're interested in taking on some 3D animation/modeling work on commission or share, Shoot me a DM on discord!
Discord: spiteworks

 

[SpiteWorks]

Hello all!

Today's the day!
Despite working on Project maiden for around 9 months now, I've never actually gone through the packaging process, which is where the bulk of my effort today went. (Combo'd with the upload time is why this post is late)
But regardless, It's finally here! A limited but fully functional demo of a single level!
Some things you should know:
1. Despite my earlier post saying that there would be 3 levels, the build will only contain 1 level. This is largely because I wanted to focus my efforts on a single level for now and did not want to spread myself too thin, and for that I apologize.
2. I have yet to run an optimization pass, and so I am unable to make any assurances about performance. IF PERFORMANCE IS ESPECIALLY BAD PLEASE LET ME KNOW ASAP SO I CAN FIX IT.
3. I have only recently added SFX to the game, so they will not be very polished/tuned to the animations. again, my apologies.
4. Because only 1 playable maiden is ready, the Bulwark will be a higher level than the enemies. Additionally, I decided to enable some debug features (cheats!)

For all it's rough edges, it's still something I'm extremely proud of, so I really hope you give it a shot!

You must be registered to see the links

For all feedback/bug reporting, feel free to post here or to send me a DM on discord!
Next week's goals will be to fix bugs, and to optimize the levels to the best of my ability.
I wasn't able to today, so remember to check back here next week for more details on Irina!

 

[SpiteWorks]

Hello!

The feedback from the combat alpha last week has been overwhelming, and rest assured, each and every one of the reported bugs has been catalogued, and WILL be addressed.
This week I've been focusing on improving the player hub ship, which will serve as the home base for the player to spend their time in between missions.

As your base of operations, the player will be able to manage their inventory, upgrade/craft gear, as well as interact and romance the 6 Maidens, 3 of which will be recruited as the story progresses.

The goal is for the ship hub area to be polished up by the end of the month, before turning my attention back to combat and fixing the reported issues.

Now lets get on to today's main topic, Irina Lask!
A curt, blunt, and disciplined soldier, Irina served as a Garrison captain before joining your crew.
While initially seeming to be uncaring and uncompromising, you will find that she cares about more than she lets on, and fiercly advocates for the use of your resources in protecting and defending isolated villages.
In combat, Irina serves as one of the two Heavy-weight Maidens available to the player, with multiple abilities designed to support and bolster her allies.
Her gameplay role is to be the rock and foundation to all of your strategies, and paired with Her Apex Ability, will allow her to break past her limits and remain fighting even after taking lethal damage.
And one more final thing to share for the week is Irina's planned appearance with her Base Armor!


Finally, as a personal note, I just wanted to say that I'm still eagerly searching for an animation/3D artist as either a partner or a contractor! If you are interested don't hesitate to reach out on discord, or through DMs here on F95!

See you all next week!

 

[SpiteWorks]

Hello all!
For everyone in the States, Happy Thanksgiving!
I was extremely sick yesterday, and was unable to work so please forgive the late post.
A lot has changed since the last update! I've been hard at work on creating the world map, which will be used by the player to choose which mission to tackle.


Choosing a destination will consume fuel, which can be re-supplied at a nearby fort.

However, If you run out of fuel, You'll be forced to make an emergency landing, where there is a chance you may be ambushed by enemy forces!

In other news, I've been lucky enough to meet an animator, and we've begun working on the Bonding scenes you share with your crew members!
Their work has been amazing so far and I can't wait to show it off in the release.
Tune in next week for an exploration of the ship resources and your methods of managing them!

 

[SpiteWorks]

11-29-23
Hello!

It's been a busy week, so lets start with the progress that's been made
On the lighting front, I've dug in and redesigned the lighting across the entire ship, and I think it's a massive improvement.

Additionally, the Maiden Selector has been finalized. This is the screen that will allow you to see what maidens and gear you plan on sending out to each operation



Now then, onto the topic for the week, Resources!
There are a variety of resources you'll need to manage, starting with the most important:

SUPPLIES: The baseline resource in the game, Supplies are used as the currency to purchase equipment blueprints, as well as being used to purchase auxiliary resources like Medicine and Fuel
How to obtain: Mission reward, Trade

MEDICINE: A resource that allows you to heal your maidens between missions. Over the course of the game you will be able to upgrade both the Mercutian's medicine capacity, as well as Medicine strength
How to obtain: Trade


FUEL: A valuable resource that allows the Mercutian to move quickly to your operation locations. While your ship capacity of fuel can be upgraded, beware of running out of fuel! Being stranded on the ground means that you'll need to cast a lengthy ritual to return to the nearest fort, and your enemies may not give you the time to finish it...
How to obtain: Trade

FACTION Scrap: A faction-specific resource that is used to craft and upgrade weapons. Can be traded for Supplies
How to obtain: Mission reward

FACTION Material: A faction-specific resource that is used to craft and upgrade Armor. Can be traded for Supplies
How to obtain: Mission reward

FACTION Supply Cache: A rare resource, required for late-game upgrades, or can be broken open for a number of materials and scrap. Can be traded for Supplies
How to obtain: Mission reward

Check in next week for details on the various stations and utilities aboard the ship!

 

[SpiteWorks]

12/6/23
Hello!

It's been a pretty slow week, but here's what I've been up to:
Previously, the ship model was simply a baked mesh containing the ship body and all the smaller decoration meshes. While I had initially thought it would be better for performance (my logic was that a single asset call would be easier than multiple asset calls) I soon found out that combining the meshes created an entire host of lighting/shadow issues

To that end, I spent time trying to create a way to decorate the ship mesh using the most cheap/memory efficient way possible. This was done by creating an actor that can create Hierarchical instanced meshes, which in essence allows for multiple meshes on screen using a single asset call. I then wrote a script to randomize the mesh's rotations, and Voila!


This new plank generator is lightweight, and allows me to decorate the entirety of the ship extremely quickly and easily, and looks far better than before.


In addition, I was able to finalize the last of the interactables on the ship, the captain's desk. By using this station you will be able to quickly access all other stations on the ship, view Inventory/resources, Crew member bond status, current objectives, and read unlocked lore entries in the Grimoire.


Tune in next week for a closer look at forts and merchants!

 

[SpiteWorks]

12/13/23
Hi all!

The past week was spent on blocking out the first Fort level in the game.
Forts serve as bases for the Mercutian to return to periodically, allowing for the player to resupply on fuel, medicine, and other supplies.
They are also where the player can purchase blueprints, allowing for new types of armor and weapons to be crafted!.
For story reasons, the forts are packed with civilians that are not normally supposed to be there, and in order to capture this feeling, I've used a plugin to create crowds, which is already yielding extremely cool results.
Tune in next week for a look at the merchant trading screens!

 

[SpiteWorks]

12/20/23

Hi all!
The past week was spent on finalizing the Fort level and merchant systems, since it's crucial that the player is able to do everything they need to do easily in the fort level.
Here's an overview of what the fort/center now look like!


Now lets get into the NPCs you'll be interacting with:


The Supply Master:
in charge of organizing and tracking fort supplies, she's the one to talk to in order to trade supplies for fuel/medicine. In addition, you're able to trade in resources from combat into supplies

The Researcher:
in charge of recording and learning as much as possible from the enemy forces, the researcher is able to create blueprints for you to purchase in order to create faction-specific gear!

the final NPC of the fort will be the fort commander, which sadly isn't ready to be shown yet.

the merchants and npcs will NOT have proper models/animations for the initial release for two reasons:
1. merchant/villager model/animations will not affect player gameplay
2. fixing up combat bugs and optimization is currently far more important

lastly just for fun, I've added in NPC reactions to the player! eventually the reactions will be contextual to the player's progress on the story



This week I'll be focusing on writing and implementing the fort captain!

 

[SpiteWorks]

12/27/23

Happy late holidays, I hope everyone had a great time!

Thanks to the holiday season, I was able to pick up a number of assets to use for the game, including sound effects, and various other model assets, which will be implemented into the game shortly.

I've delayed working on the fort captain for now, as I'm unsure what the captain would be required for. The initial idea was to hand out side quests, but I'm having difficulty thinking of any meaningful side content. Another idea I was toying with was Destiny-styled bounties, where you can stop by periodically to receive rewards from the captain.

The past week was spent writing the Conqueror's scenes and interactions, currently finished with the lvl0 interactions/scenes, and will try to finish lvl1-2 dialogue over the next week.
It took longer than expected due to trying to "find her voice" so to speak.
There are a few characters who inspired her personality/mannerisms, but it's another task entirely to be comfortable deciding how she talks/responds, and the bulk of that process was completed this week.

This week I'll be finishing up the writing on the Conqueror!

 

[SpiteWorks]

1/3/24
Happy new year!

Sadly, I don't have much to report this week, as I'm still in the middle of writing the conqueror's dialogue draft.
A combination of post-holiday laziness and writing block has slowed my progress greatly, but that's no excuse.
Either way, her scenes are planned to be finished up by next week, and if not, then I will be returning to finish them at a later date.

 

[SpiteWorks]

1/10/24

Hello all!

I'm happy to report that the rough draft is 90% finished, and with that I've already begin working on implementing new features into the game
First off, footstep sound effects have been added to the entire game, for each of the surfaces, snow, mud, stone and wood. It's subtle, but they add a massive amount to the "feel" of the game.
Secondly, the ship theme I've commissioned a few months back has also been added to the ship and fort levels, which is massive!

For the coming week, I'll be working on Visual effects, such as the magic effects of the portals and crafting station, as well as weapon and attack trails!
I'll also be adding monster sounds to the wolf enemies

 

[SpiteWorks]

1/17/24
Finished implementing the wolf sfx into the game! combat now feels much better as a result with the attack and hit sounds, as well as the death sounds.
In addition, I was able to begin implementing the weapon attack trail, as well as the finalized version of Irina's base armor, which will have different variations based on her equipment's upgrade level.

The coming week will be focused on creating the VFX for crafting/portals, and the dreaded combat bugfixing

 

[SpiteWorks]

Finished creating the system for attack trails! the new system allows for as many trails as needed, and have already been applied to the Bulwark's attacks. I've also begin applying them to the wolf's attack animations as well.
In addition, I've begin working on feedback from the playable combat test, specifically on fixing issues with the pathfinding. I'm still stuck on a certain issue with the move preview going through other characters, but I'll be finding a solution soon.
In addition, here's a teaser photo of the Magi's clothes! the helmet is a placeholder model, and I'll be getting a custom helmet made soon!

Working with Daz models is a bit of a pain in the ass since the poly counts are far too high to work with, which means that down-scaling them needs to be done.

In the coming week I'll be working on fixing the UVs for the magi model, as well as VFX for crafting/portals, as well as focusing more on the move action bugs.

 

[SpiteWorks]

Development is proceeding full steam ahead! Effects for the portals have been created, as well as the finalization of the Magi's outfit!


The helmet model is a placeholder, and will be replaced by a custom model in the future, but for now, this marketplace asset does the job.
Currently, Work is being done on combat fixes and the Magi's expression animations for dialogue.
6/14 expressions are finished, and I'm confident in finishing them all before the end of the week!

 

[SpiteWorks]

Hello! Currently, work is being done on the VN dialogue system! I'm using a free Marketplace asset for the vn aspect, but since the asset was designed with 2d sprites in mind, It's taking a lot of work to build the functionality and features i need.
In addition, I created a custom animated effect for the Magi's helmet, something i'm particularly proud of.
In addition, most of the Magi's dialogue animations have been completed, and the Bulwark's just need to be re-targeted onto the current mesh

 

[SpiteWorks]

Hello All!
Massive work this week, as an animator I've been working with as been hard at work animating the expressions for the second maiden, who will have her own blog post soon!

His name is Jello, and hes looking for sfw animation work, Highly recommend!
On the Coding side, player pathfinding for move actions has been completely overhauled, and now feels MUCH better than before.

 

[SpiteWorks]

Hello!
On the code side of things, the second playable character, the Conqueror as been fully implemented!
Working with Jello has also resulted in 3/12 of the total expressions being implemented in the game, with the rest on the way.
I've been looking into liquid physics for certain scenes, as well as a system for importing clothes and armor sets.

 

[SpiteWorks]

Hello!
The Bonding scene viewer has been fully prepared for release, as well as all the animations for the Bulwark's lvl3 bond scene.
coming week will focus on reworking the gear system to handle duplicate items, as well as improving the combat camera