DEV BLOG #1

Project Radiant Steel

Avoiding Rust

10.5.2021

Avoiding getting rusty--not avoiding the language.

You can skip the background and see actual work by clicking here.

Background

The idea started while playing Fallout: New Vegas, where as I sold a bunch of salvaged weapons and armor to the Gun Runners, I always thought: "with the vast quantity of weapons, ammo, armor and caps I have at my disposal, I could unilaterally shift the power dynamic of the Mojave. In fairness, though, you do end up doing that in the end, but this is why I love the settlement building in Fallout 4. It allows you to make a tangible difference in the wasteland. This was the driving force behind the conception of the game.

The idea was to combine what I love about post-apocalyptic games like the Fallout and Metro franchises, as well as base-builder and sim games like Prison Architect, Rimworld, and Medieval Dynasty.


Game Description

A disclaimer: not a designer so sorry if I use the wrong descriptor/genre.

Project Radiant Steel (the code name I'm working under since I have no title yet) will be a survival base-builder set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, where you are a gunsmith who must learn fend for themselves.

You will be able to build up a base, craft weapons and other supplies, make friends/enemies, and defend yourself from threats coming from the wasteland, whether they are human, beast or the environment.


What I Have Gotten Done So Far

Learning new tools

Part of my goal is to make as much as possible for the game by myself, both to expand my general skillset, keep cost down, and to gain a greater appreciation for all of the aspects of game development. The two main tools I have been learning are Blender for 3D modeling and Krita for some 2D artwork.

Both are open source and completely free to use with extensive documentation, which are the big reasons I chose them. It means I should be able to distribute my work without issue if I get this project to a place where I am comfortable to release it.

So far, the only substantial art thing I have made is this pistol model to use as I work on the basic weapon functionality.


Getting in Basic Functionality

I'm less familiar with Unreal than Unity, so my initial dev efforts have been following a sort-of "shotgun" approach, where I tried to get a variety of different functionality working in a very basic capactiy at first to get familiar with how Unreal works. I am working on fleshing out a lot of the functionality now that I have a better idea on how everything works together in C++.

So far I have the following in:


What's Next

There's no defined plan currently, but adding the health system in to test the corresponding UI. For adding damage I will probably use that as an opportunity for starting AI development. After that, I'll start working on equiping weapons and inventory system.