This update is on the shorter side of things, at least compared to the previous update. That being said, this update is still an important one as it marks the final major content update for Alpha 1. While there will be a few more hotfix updates for Alpha 1 in the pipeline, these next updates will focus solely on fixing AI bugs, working on the input system, and adding upon the game’s localization (more on all of that towards the end of this dev log).

New Menu System

In case you missed it, I’ve been trying to post weekly progress updates on both my YouTube channel and on our Discord server. Posted below is the showcase of the new menu UI system for the game. When making the original UI, I wanted things to feel more dynamic and less static-like as compared to other UIs in games. Unfortunately, I did not have as much time as I originally wanted when making that version of the UI, so I had to cut corners to get it finished on time. The new menu is much more aligned with what I originally wanted to make.

The menu titles are now rendered in 3D (I stole this idea from one of my favorite UIs put in any game - 2009’s Colin McRae: Dirt 2). As you change selection, the camera will pan around the environment, showing off more detail of the environment and making things feel more dynamic. The UI SFX has been replaced with sounds that are more diegetic and “weighty.” I’ve replaced the old Liberation font that comes built-in with Unity with an Electrolize font, which I think gives the game a sort of Battlefield 4-like feel (which is something I want to replicate given the type of game Unsung Heroes is). I’ve also added icons to many of the buttons to make them feel less flat and more visually appealing and distinct from one another.

Of course, the other difference is how the menus have been structured and some of the new options available. The tutorial, instant action mode, and museum are all under the singleplayer sub menu. The tutorial has been rewritten to better align with the game’s current features and controls. In addition, the instant action menu is completely changed. The map selection is no longer a drop-down menu, but instead is its own pop-up menu that features map thumbnails and metadata. This menu also allows for custom-made maps in the future. The same structure is also present in choosing game modes, although there is only one mode to choose as of right now.

New in this update are the modding and community menus. The former allows users to create, manage, and share mods (more on that later) and the latter allows users to view the game’s development roadmap, recent update changes, credits, legal, and social media outlets. Not all features are fully implemented yet though, such as the mod creation and sharing tools. Furthermore, some of the UI are still placeholder and will be worked on further in the coming hotfixes.

Modding Manager and Localization Mods

As mentioned before, there is a new mod manager added to the game. This manager allows users to enable and disable mods in a fairly convenient and easy-to-read way. In the future, when Steam workshop support has been added, this will be the primary way to handle all downloaded mods.

There are four mod types: language mods, battle-strategy mods, custom maps, and miscellaneous mods. As of right now only the language mods are available. These are just simple .csv spreadsheet files that contain keys and translated text that the game reads in runtime to localize the in-game UI text to whatever language is enabled. One thing to keep in mind is that not all localization support has been added. There is quite a lot of text in the game and going through to add localization support for all of them will take time. Included in this update is a work-in-progress Spanish language mod that has translations for a handful of the game’s texts. More will be added alongside the future hotfixes.

Other Enhancements

As part of the UI change, the game now has new loading screens, featuring background videos and smoother transitions between menus and gameplay. There has also been some work done on the vegetation assets added in the previous update. Many of the assets have now been given improved texturing on lower LOD models, which lowers overall GPU batch calls which improves performance on maps with large forests.

Lastly, I’ve also added AI debugging tools for the infantry soldiers. Pressing X and V to open (or Z and V to close), players can toggle the AI infantry debugging tools, which shows the behavioral states and targets an infantry soldier has. A player can view a soldier’s AI state by aiming the reticle at a soldier and can lock the info to the side of the screen by pressing L. This simple tool will be much of the driving force in fixing the AI bugs down the line.

Originally, this update was supposed to also include key binding and controller support. However, it became clear early in the development of this update that this feature would be a little more challenging than originally predicted. The game currently uses Unity’s old input system, which is very cumbersome to implement controller and key binding support for. The new input system addresses these issues, but takes a while to get set up. Therefore, I’ve decided to work on implementing the new input system and the related key binding and controller support over the course of the following hotfixes.

The Future of the Unsung Heroes’ Development

In addition to the implementation of the new input system, the next couple of hotfixes will focus on fixing the AI behaviors and adding onto the game’s Spanish localization, among other smaller fixes. There likely won’t be much new content in these next updates, but that also means that these updates should be posted regularly as compared to before. I currently do not know how many of these I will be doing, but given the scope of what I want to achieve with these updates, I do not plan on doing that many. That being said, I also want to look forward to Alpha 2 and the Steam Early Access launch. My goal is to multitask and work on both the hotfixes and slowly chip away at the backend functionality and content for Alpha 2 as a means to save time.

While all this is happening, I’ll continue to try posting weekly progress updates and dev logs for each newly released hotfix (keep in mind that these dev logs will be much shorter than the dev logs I’ve been currently writing). I will also be updating the Itch.io page with new screenshots, a new trailer, and hiding older downloads to consolidate the downloads section to just one zip file (this will not happen right away, but over the coming weeks).

Any additional development roadmap updates will not only be mentioned here and on the Discord server, but also within the in-game development roadmap. Thanks again for having patience with the game’s development. As always, feel free to send bug reports and suggestions to our community Discord server (https://discord.com/invite/p8CA9qXgCN) and feel free to check out this post on the Venomic Games website: https://venomicgames.com/?p=796