BLOG ENTRY 46 - 4.9.2026

DEV STATUS

Been a Hot couple of minutes since I posted, but Life has uh… found a way to get in the way. Sometimes we think that we’ll get things done by simply doing the work, but that is seldom true. Life has delivered quite a few emotional and financial blows, all the while banging my head against years old tech debt that just simply refused to “get done”. Needless to say it slowed down my development not only because I did not have the mental space to get things done but the lack of motivation caused by the lack of progress on seemingly simple things.

Although it sounds like I’m stuck in development hell, I’ve actually been able to break through and resolve quite a few things, update to a newer version of Unreal Engine, so now it’s at 5.6. For context when I began this project Unreal was barely at version 4.3.

Which brings me to the issue of HOW I got into so much technical debt. With every engine update, I’ve accumulated a couple of issues here and there that I just made work via shortcuts, they worked when I needed to build the demo for Gamacon ‘23, but those things work only in the context of a short experience, but for the type of game I want to build, for the longer, complete experience, I need to build systems that work not only correctly in single player, but also function for multiplayer later down the line.

STUDYING THE BIG PICTURE

I’ve been taking stock of what I would actually need to finish the game, how long I want to make it, how much I would need to tell the story I want to tell. It’s a difficult thing to take a holistic view of something you really want to do because you can so easily fall into scope creep. I’ve cut and cut and cut and I even think I can cut a little more, but there is a limit at which if I do keep cutting I will be making a game that would not be the experience I want to provide.

So with a bit of an idea of how many things I actually need to build, most of it is built to some degree, the Demo as a vertical slice proved the games stickyness but the makeshift systems really break the long term play. Hence I’ve set my focus on the required systems to allow for that long term play. Unfortunately they are tough systems to fix.

THE INVENTORY SYSTEM RE-RE-REDUX

Seemingly such a simple system that so many games work with. the Inventory has been such a difficult system for me to get working properly. obviously because of my lack of experience with making UI/UX but also unreal has a lot of quirks that you have to keep attention to, otherwise they break things.

The reason this inventory system was never implemented for the demo was because it had a bug where equipping anything from the inventory system, would lock your rotation. It didn’t matter if you were using controller or mouse + Keyboard, your character would be locked and unable to rotate.

After so much testing and bug hunting, I finally found where the issue was located and was able to fix it. HOWEVER! it revealed that it has several other bugs when it comes to this system, it breaks using the demo items which work fine currently. This obviously will cause a lot of trouble later down the line, which is why I have devoted the last couple of months focusing on fixing it and getting it to a state that is not only functional but feels good to use. My ultimate goal is making the inventory a fun toy that the player enjoys rather than a chore cleaning trash and trying to find something that’s actually useful.

This will take more than just coding to fix because as I mentioned earlier, I need to level up my UI/UX, in order to make sure that everything connects properly and doesn’t keep breaking something that is so commonplace that implementing it incorrectly can really kill the game.

THE GOOD STUFF

The reason I’m optimistic about the game and have a renewed energy to attempt to fix these issues is because everytime I play with the demo, I can feel myself wanting more. More weapons, More characters, More abilities, more… everything I guess?

If I keep thinking that I want to play this game, I’m certain that once it gets out in the wild it will find it’s people. I obviously intend to work hard to get the game out there, but I don’t want to rush it and make something that will get lost in the ether of indie games. So I intend to give it the time it deserves.

NEXT STEPS

I’m finishing the inventory sytem until it’s as complete as I can get it without having to resort to profesionals, afterwards I’m completing the slide/cover/vault system. Implementing the movement will greatly improve the way the game feels, and it will allow me to start building levels themselves, The reason I have not built more levels has been this roadblock.

After that it’s as simple as getting the narrative presented properly, figuring out a way that the main plot gets understood with minimal effort, but that the whole picture is there for those who want to find it. Sounds ambitious when I read it like that, but it’s always been the case with this game. It’s ambitious yes. but not impossible.

Keep Traveling Forward

Daniel “Freaky” Aguilar
Game Designer
Plasmapunk Studios.

THE HORRORS OF TECHNICAL DEBT