DL-018 ∞ DJ System, Bandcamp, NutriSoda
Wow, it’s been a month? What the hell? May is my birth month, and unfortunately I was gifted with a new autoimmune disease. Owww. Spent some time in the hospital this month, and that slowed down development. It’s just a fact of life and a fact of working on INURBIS part time that the things that impact my free time also impact my development time. Sorry about that.
Anyways, I’m still working on INURBIS. This month, I completed the DJ system. I’ll be honest, I really wanted to finish this before I get the next longer gameplay video put together. I probably didn’t need to create a DJ system in pre-alpha, but the soundtrack to the game is a key piece of the vibes I’m trying to convey. OSTs are one of my favorite part of games. Speaking of which, I created a bandcamp this month. You can download INURBIS tracks (and access them via the bandcamp app for streaming) for FREE. Please don’t donate, but if you did, that money would go towards INURBIS development.
It’s pretty barebones for now, but I’ll be putting out an album with all the alpha music when the time comes. It should be eight tracks and a bit over 20 minutes. I’m having a lot of fun feeling out the soundtrack alongside development.
Anyways, so, the DJ system is basically a mixture of the music systems from Minecraft and Cyberpunk 2077. Maybe you immediately know what that means, but essentially there’s a DJ watching everything that happens. That DJ is either playing a set or on break - probably enjoying a cigarette in the green room. While the DJ is playing its set, it will detect where the player is and what the player is doing and select tracks based on that. It will also dynamically switch tracks as the situation changes, all of which is synced to the beat - that’s what DJs are for, right?
And really, the DJ was a relatively small part of the system. The larger parts were the world state system - detecting whether the player is hidden or in combat, like any good immersive RPG needs. Secondly, the threat system was necessary to build out - basically allowing the game to know, how many characters are trying to kill the player right now? And keeping track of them as individuals, and updating appropriately when that threat is no longer threatening. These two systems will have impact throughout the rest of the game in much more impactful ways. I think it was a good test drive of those systems to build out the DJ!
my very own bepis! hard to read text is technically gameplay, you know
I’ve also finished work on the next consumable item, NutriSoda. For some background lore, an ancient technomancer communed with the machine god in order to get Inurbis to automatically create vending machines full of NutriSoda throughout it’s infinite halls, available for free to any parched and/or malnourished denizen to slake their thirst! And they did it all for the love of the game. But watch out, Slimes also love NutriSoda, and they love destroying vending machines to get it!
This highlights an early conceived item / vending machine / slime / drone relationship I thought of ages ago, and it’s about to come to fruition! Also of note here, I guess, is the language on the can. I’ve been working on INURBIS’ very own alphabet and language conventions for the denizens’ specific use. This “dweller-common” language is distinct from the latin-ified english currently in use in a few other places. I’m using this to highlight the cultural divide between the life and unlife that exists throughout The Infinite City. Expect lots of text in the game that you can easily decipher yourself, or rely on abilities and implants to translate text. I had fun conceiving of the characters in this language, I have a hope that certain bilingual folks would be able to translate the characters by sight. We’ll see.
This work also represents the last bit of work related to Slimes and Drones in Alpha! YESSSSSSS. Really looking forward to starting on the next enemy type.
Anyways, updated gameplay vid still coming soon. Maybe after vending machines, maybe before. We’ll see how it goes.
Thanks for reading, see you next month.
