DEVLOG #4

DEVLOG#4: 6/1/2026 - 6/6/2026

6/1/2026

-Late start to the day, late day for the week. The main goal of the day is to essentially close out Shrike. Which would mean creating her RMB, the snare. Which would mean making skill shots. Which would mean I’d have to learn how to do the skillshot indicators. And… Which would mean… I have to draw the indicators. Although my background is art, since programming the art side has felt like the heavy side for me. Oh well. My main goal this week: close out Shrike and make the art assets to carve out the art direction I’m looking to take this game. I don’t think I’ll get animations in, but it’d be cool to see at least models, UI elements, and stages that are a little more than gray boxes. Also, maybe some fog stuff for the abyss???? Expect little, and get.. more … or whatever.

-I finished the RMB ability, so with that, Shrike is basically complete. There is more technical stuff about it I’m sure, like cleaning stuff up, but I’m confident enough for now to try and make everything look pretty for the next devlog update this Saturday.

6/2/2026

-So last night I finished the RMB thus finishing Shrike, I think the biggest thing I really learned from this was that it really comes down to three things

1. Order of logic.
   1. The compiler is just reading what you told it, if it’s not reading correctly it’s usually because the order is off.
   2. Timed events that are outside of ticks, like timelines, are really sensitive and are usually best off being a custom event, otherwise it can get really weird when running logic.
      1. I wanted RMB to pull enemies to the center and then stun them, so TL_Pull -> ApplyStun function, but the ApplyStun kept going off before the TL_Pull could finish, so instead I put the Pull into a function that lived in Character_Base, and had that function call a custom event (PullEvent) which played the TL. Now it could Pull and stun without any interruptions.
2. Everything owns the right attribute/element to allow modularity.
   1. Again, projectile applying effects, but all the actual effects live in BP_Character_Base. That way I can have any character receive those effects, it also makes it cleaner because I don’t have to keep casting or making new functions for each character just to be able to be “slowed” or whatever other effect.
3. Boolean and branches are everything.
   1. Literally already said it all. But to elaborate more, I think when it comes to making abilities, you need to ask first, “what do I want this ability to do?” Think of the full fantasy of what you want, envision it to its full extent; then take it apart bit-by-bit-by-bit-by-bit. For a Q ability, what actually happens when you first press Q? What happens when you release it? When does the ability actually fire? Dissect each of those questions to the Nth degree and focus on iterating in bursts. Don’t make the whole logic of the entire ability and then compile. Do a small portion, “when I press Q, an indicator should show up”, put in the logic, hit compile, save, and then press play, does it show up? Nice, now how do I make it follow my cursor? And so on, and so forth
   2. The boolean and branches come in because almost every step of the way you’re creating conditions to be met; these are essentially the gates to make sure the logic follows the order you want, and it doesn’t just go all at once. 

So at this point, Shrike is as done as I’m able to be done with her; I don’t think I have the skilled eye just yet to say “oh, maybe if I add this math or this node it’ll make it even better!” So instead, I’m going to move on to the part I’m more familiar with; the Art! This is exciting because this is where I get to make Supervive into SuperRevive and really show what this game would look like if I had a chance at it, and I have a lot of ideas. Here’s to hoping they’re good ideas. 

6/3/2026

-I didn’t do much more yesterday other than tidy up some stuff with shrike’s abilities and set up my photoshop, but otherwise it was rather uneventful. As soon as I got home, I laid down and passed out. Today will be different, I just need to draw. It doesn’t need to be pretty, it just needs to exist so I can capture what exactly I’m trying to do with the art. I have a lot of sketches and doodles of things, but I want to bring them into the digital space so they can be a little more documented. 

I also want to start working on the lore of this world, so I kind of need to review that. 

I’m not really trying to put much lore into this project, it’s not the intended purpose, but I would like the art to be able to reflect something, and since I’m not trying to copy it 1:1, I want some sort of lore base for the art and choices to reflect. 

So far it’s kind of centered around Shrike since she’s the first. She doesn’t really have lore, the majority doesn’t have lore, so I will fill in bits and pieces while trying to stay as close as possible to the original lore; I’m gonna highlight everything that’s NOT my injection. For shrike: “Shrike is the last survivor of a village that was protected by a hawk spirit. She wasn't there when the village was destroyed and has been trying to make up for it ever since.” That’s from the wiki, also she’s a Havenguard for Havenshard, which is like a sanctuary, if I remember correctly. And then there’s the lighthouse which is what was reviving people. Between Justin Groot, Oheyspun, JustReliq, and another video by NeverNotNate, I’m going to piece together stuff. But based from what I remember, SuperRevive is going to take place after Supervive; Havenshard has fallen to the Abyss, and Grix (I think he’s an abyssal god??? Or maybe just a monster? I have to rewatch to remember) demands his army to search out and consume the Soulborn (who were humans reborn to be elementals like Joule and Crysta), because there are 9 chosen of them (referring back to “the rising” and the 9 who were associated with it) and those 9 are said to be the ones who will reclaim earth from the Abyss. After the fall of Havenshard, the whole world is covered in a shroud of purple darkness and shadow fire. Shrike is captured by the Abyss because they claim that she “poses a threat to them”. She is held captive and tortured for several years in the [deep cellars] of the abyss. With her humanity gone, she abandons all hope and right as she’s about to give herself over to the darkness, a light breaks through. Xander and Diana cut through the dark, and dissolve the abyssals that held Shrike and rescue her from the prison. After freeing her, Shrike sleeps for several days as she’s cared for, and upon awakening, all she remembers is that Heavenshard is in danger; the trauma of imprisonment and dehumanization had made her repress her memories and forget everything that happened after. Xander and Diana take her to what was left of Havenshard and tell her what had happened, Shrike breaks down completely as she slowly remembers. Xander and Diana leave Shrike to take her time to process everything and walk through the ruins. She’s able to find some of her belongings; a busted and weathered truetalon rifle, with no more bullets, left where she fell to the abyss, and something else found in what was left of her old private quarters that she had kept away for a long time. Something that she had blamed to be the cause as to why her village fell, the grimoire of Kra’ah; a demon god of birds that granted vision and knowledge into the unknown and forbidden. Her village worshiped him and learned his dark magics, but fell when it consumed them all; Shrike had strayed away and followed the spirit of the Great Hawk, but even now she knew she had no choice. She felt the dark surge of magic, the lust for power calling her, as if the demon god himself was staring straight into her soul as she reached; and then she picked the book up. After reconvening with Xander and Diana, Xander lets Shrike know that the real reason she was captured by the Abyss was because she’s the True Caller; the one who is supposed to call upon the 9 chosen elementals to awaken and banish the Abyss. They ask her to travel with them to find the 9, but Shrike refuses; instead she simply says she needs to do some things first. Xander and Diana are left with no other choice but to continue on without her, and maybe just wait for her to accept her true fate in her own time. 

But Shrike had already decided that she needs to relearn who she is now, she needs to master the dark arts of Kra’ah so that she can find and possibly rescue the ones she lost; the Havensgaurd. 

-This is a really broken version of the lore of SuperRevive, but it will be essentially what I’ll be sort of following. I want to write a more immersive and coherent one later.

6/5/2026

-I actually DID do work yesterday, despite no record, but I’ve been focusing on aim indicators, and making materials for them. Which for whatever reason is kind of the only way I can motivate myself to do the art. I don’t know why, but I’m so over photoshop right now, the thought of going into it makes my stomach turn. Which is weird because that’s where I used to live and breathe, but the idea of having to make any sort of art assets makes me want to jump into the abyss. Maybe it’s because I want to do more blueprint things, and that’s the “new lands” for me, but it’s been a struggle for me to convince myself to work in photoshop. It’s not hard, it’s just I rather not, so my pacing has slowed down a little; I probably won’t meet my goals this week, so I don’t know if I’ll post on reddit. Who’d actually want to see a post of, “hey, guys, I didn’t do anything!” It’s a cool idea that someone is bringing even a small glimpse of a game you liked back from the dead, but even I wouldn’t care to be told that you didn’t progress; just tell me the cool stuff.

Anyways, lets see how far we’ll get by tomorrow and then I’ll see if I’ll upload or not to reddit; I’ll still post to itchio though. 

-At the end of the day, I added more UI elements like indicators for aim, and actually drew stuff for general purposes and for Shrike purposes; I also made some UI material for a straight line indicator, and it’s pretty neat. It’s getting there, but I still doubt it will look cool enough to really upload.

I’m working on the LOS indicator that they had. There’s not much to say about it other than it’s a pain in the arse. 

6/6/2026

-I’m writing this at the end of the day, but I finished up the LOS indicator, as well as that weird orb thing that appears when LOS is obstructed. I ended up using a Niagara system to make it flicker, and then just made a glowing material and slapped it onto a sphere. I feel like I will revisit the LOS indicator as a whole later, but right now it’s doing what I need it to.

After that I just worked on the UI. I wanted to make Shrike’s portrait, but stuff like the LOS thing took longer than expected. I have NO CLUE how the ability icons will read for others, but they were honestly a lot of fun, and I enjoyed them way more than I expected.

As far as hitting the main goal for this sprint; sorta kinda, but also maybe not. Ultimately, I did close out Shrike, and I did create art assets that would sort of push the art direction in the direction I want, but I was hoping to offer more 3D assets sort of thing; but I’m still really proud and happy with the amount I learned and how much I accomplished.

I think I’m going to start trying to see what people are wanting to help with IF they want to help, I’ll probably make a google survey thing sort of thing, maybe? But I don’t know, I just don’t want to disappoint a bunch of people who jump on and realize that it REALLY is just Timmy’s first Game lol. But I’ll just be as transparent as I can with them.