VizionEck

Hapax is a puzzle focused immersive sim set on a hard sci-fi alien spaceship.

• You are on your own. Progress where you want and how you want.
• A functional alien language adorns the ship. Recognize patterns to your advantage.
• Permadeath. Make mistakes in one life and carry that knowledge forward in another.
• All puzzles exist naturally within the game world. No red herrings. No obtuse solutions.
• Different challenges for different players. A casual gamer can beat the game but a dedicated team will struggle against hidden mysteries.

Coming 2021 to PS5, PS4, and PC.

---

Hapax is VizionEck Adventure, reborn. After seven years of development, this beast will be going gold in the coming months.


Today is just a lowkey reveal of the name and new direction, in honor of the great conjunction (and my birthday). I'll work on a reveal video after winter break.

Happy birthday!

Did the visual style completely change with this?

Happy birthday!

Did the visual style completely change with this?

Thanks!

Visual style completely changed. I needed something that would look "deserving" of PS5 and most of my lore for the original style had to be changed. Now the game is full photorealistic with raytracing. Increases immersion too which is a big part of the new game.

I am a puzzle fan so I'll probably get it. 

I am a friendship fan, so I will probably get it

I'm a getting it fan, so I'll probably get it.

I'm a fan, so I'll probably get it

I am a puzzle fan so I'll probably get it.

I'd hope so. In the wise words of Bugsnax, Hapax will be one of the best games on PS5.

I believe I've managed to do some pretty cool things with the puzzles. The permadeath/not-a-time-loop mechanic really drives them in a unique direction.

I am a friendship fan, so I will probably get it

Aw shucks  :-*

I'm a getting it fan, so I'll probably get it.

I'm trying to appeal to getting it fans, so this time it's releasing in Europe.

---

Also in tangential news, this is the official cancelation of that Forged Odyssey Lone Winter spinoff idea. I'm trying to release Hapax in the first part of 2021 and then put everything into Forged Odyssey proper.

Fun fact, the name of this game isn't a made up word. Huge upgrade over "VizionEck" cause it's easy to spell lol.

You should release a trailer with the original VizionEck gameplay and have it transition to Hapax graphics.  

It's come so far from the days of "Xbots hate VizionEck, but like racists"

You should release a trailer with the original VizionEck gameplay and have it transition to Hapax graphics.  

It's come so far from the days of "Xbots hate VizionEck, but like racists"

I want to release some nostalgic video like that. Going plan is to just remake the very first reveal trailer with current assets.

I'm cleaning out old boxes and found one of my early languages I created in 5th grade. It's pretty much just an English relex but it's fun to see just how long I've been interested in stuff like this.

Hapax is truly the Lord of the Rings of video games. I developed the language for the sake of the language and built a video game to house it.

I'm cleaning out old boxes and found one of my early languages I created in 5th grade. It's pretty much just an English relex but it's fun to see just how long I've been interested in stuff like this.

Hapax is truly the Lord of the Rings of video games. I developed the language for the sake of the language and built a video game to house it.

There's a lot more to lord of the rings than that ;D

There's a lot more to lord of the rings than that ;D

Well not really. Tolkien basically invented artistic language creation. He's the closest thing there is to a "father of conlanging."

Well not really. Tolkien basically invented artistic language creation. He's the closest thing there is to a "father of conlanging."

Kind of depends on what you/Xev mean.

Xev could argue that LotR is a lot more than just language in a book.  It also has a large amount of history and culture that is backed by Catholicism Creationism, and it has stories taking place in that world.

Or you could argue that LotR's history and culture itself existed because of Tolkien's languages. (Which he has said himself).  "The elvish languages evolved this way because these groups split up".

It is absolutely true that LotR exists because of language, but at the same time that can feel like a diminutive view that LotR is a collection of conlangs, that had a book written around it.  

Kind of depends on what you/Xev mean.

Xev could argue that LotR is a lot more than just language in a book.  It also has a large amount of history and culture that is backed by Catholicism Creationism, and it has stories taking place in that world.

Or you could argue that LotR's history and culture itself existed because of Tolkien's languages. (Which he has said himself).  "The elvish languages evolved this way because these groups split up".

It is absolutely true that LotR exists because of language, but at the same time that can feel like a diminutive view that LotR is a collection of conlangs, that had a book written around it.  

Lotr is a lot more than language in a book, just like (I hope) Hapax is a lot more than language in a game.

A "house" isn't easy to make or worthless without its occupant.

Can I get away with not having a player shadow?

The game has running, jumping, crouching, and crawling so I can save a bit of dev time by not having animations for those.

#Budgeting

sure you can.  if you want to be labeled as lazy.

sure you can.  if you want to be labeled as lazy.

The Talos Principle didn't get labeled as lazy.

It's more about if the player can be immersed and feel like a physical human just from head bob and context.

The Talos Principle didn't get labeled as lazy.

It's more about if the player can be immersed and feel like a physical human just from head bob and context.

i think it was obvious but in case not i was kidding.

i'm not sure if i know enough to even say anything.   are you a first-person perspective?  if so i don't think people expect the player to cast a shadow.  also people judge less on indie titles.  a AAA from playstation would be judge much more critically on these details.

i think it was obvious but in case not i was kidding.

i'm not sure if i know enough to even say anything.   are you a first-person perspective?  if so i don't think people expect the player to cast a shadow.  also people judge less on indie titles.  a AAA from playstation would be judge much more critically on these details.

I didn't realize you were kidding haha. Lazy devs rhetoric is far too popular and even if it's usually dumb, it is something I fear.

Yeah first person.

Being first person, my two priorities are immersing the player into the world and having them know they're human. I don't want the player to come to the conclusion they're a ghost or something.

I didn't realize you were kidding haha.

To be fair, it was a bad joke.  I didn't even exhale any extra air.  

Lazy devs rhetoric is far too popular and even if it's usually dumb, it is something I fear.

You'll be fine.

Yeah first person.

Being first person, my two priorities are immersing the player into the world and having them know they're human. I don't want the player to come to the conclusion they're a ghost or something.

Shadows are probably more distracting than not in first person games.  Are there any mirrors?

To be fair, it was a bad joke.  I didn't even exhale any extra air.  
You'll be fine.

Shadows are probably more distracting than not in first person games.  Are there any mirrors?

I want to show off ray tracing so there are a lot of reflective surfaces, but nothing full body.

Might have to nix them though. Unity has a glitch with raytraced reflections that I need to sort out and I'm simultaneously trying to optimize performance.


Realistically I think I might just bite the bullet and add a fully animated player character. It adds "production value" and will help in trailers to sell the concept.

edt: but that is a lot of stupid extra work  :P

I want to show off ray tracing so there are a lot of reflective surfaces, but nothing full body.

Might have to nix them though. Unity has a glitch with raytraced reflections that I need to sort out and I'm simultaneously trying to optimize performance.


Realistically I think I might just bite the bullet and add a fully animated player character. It adds "production value" and will help in trailers to sell the concept.

edt: but that is a lot of stupid extra work  :P

it was a stupidly small moment in the game but I loved seeing myself in the portal while playing portal.

I'm ignoring graphics atm and focusing on gameplay. Guess I won't have a video till next month.

Working on a magical boot that flies around right now  :P

(https://media.vizioneck.com/images/hapax/devhomescreen.png)

I'm pretty sure I'm going with a seamless open which is cool. Game boots into this home screen and all the initial setup happens on the left. Once the game is started, the menu fades away and the player stands up.

Lots of things in the screenshot are temp/wrong. I'm just validating the layout atm.

(https://media.vizioneck.com/images/hapax/devhomescreen.png)

I'm pretty sure I'm going with a seamless open which is cool. Game boots into this home screen and all the initial setup happens on the left. Once the game is started, the menu fades away and the player stands up.

Lots of things in the screenshot are temp/wrong. I'm just validating the layout atm.

i really enjoy that kind of opening.   the original infamous blew my mind on my first play thought.

i really enjoy that kind of opening.   the original infamous blew my mind on my first play thought.

I didn't remember that so I pulled it up.



Does anything hold up from that gen? lol I remember Infamous looking so cool.

Infamous 1 was particularly rough.  

I didn't remember that so I pulled it up.

Does anything hold up from that gen? lol I remember Infamous looking so cool.

I'm not sure the video does it justice. the explosion happens when you click start and the rumble kicks in too.   it was just so unexpected. 

it was fine for an open world game on the ps3.  not great but pretty average for it's day.  

This is the type of opening i was looking into for my game, but my idea is a bit too ambitious for me for my demos purpose.  

But yeah i love these type of openings.  Keeps you into the world without breaking with a black screen or loading

Good idea. God of War 2018 is my favourite opening of the last few years thanks to doing its version of this so well.

This is the type of opening i was looking into for my game, but my idea is a bit too ambitious for me for my demos purpose.  

But yeah i love these type of openings.  Keeps you into the world without breaking with a black screen or loading

In my case, this opening saves time. Don't have to model a background just for the menu.

I was also tempted to make the opening menu take place in a really important location, building anticipation as the player slowly learns about it ala AC Odyssey or Outer Wilds.

Good idea. God of War 2018 is my favourite opening of the last few years thanks to doing its version of this so well.

Considering most (every?) previous game did this and gow 2018 had no camera cuts I should have seen it coming but it still surprised me haha.

(https://media.vizioneck.com/images/hapax/devplayer1.png)

Another in progress look.

This is the player character. A pressure suit is worn underneath more traditional clothes. I've never modeled fabric before but I'm pretty happy with the results. Still need to do the pants.



If it wasn't already obvious, I decided to not go with floating arms. Immersion is the name of the game. Will also have the nose visible at the bottom of the screen.

man or women i don't care,.. that's too much clothes. 

man or women i don't care,.. that's too much clothes.

Astronauts will forever wear space khakis and no one can convince me otherwise.

Up top she's pretty revealing however.

(https://media.vizioneck.com/images/hapax/hapax15.png)

Since players can literally look down and see their body within the first 30 seconds, it's nice having progress I can share.

Everybody loves astronaut patches!

(https://media.vizioneck.com/images/hapax/dev48.png)

I think I might add a photomode. Game is enterally first person but this way I can use cool shots like this for marketing. Seeing a person in the environment really helps sell its alien nature. (and once again, this is all just temp assets. You may recognize the square texture from twisty puzzle simulator)


It takes time but I can make good looking assets. What I'm actually struggling with is gameplay. Things have slowed down a lot while I iterate and address some concerns. Maybe I'll be putting in an astronaut smartphone/tablet that can give players a bit more guidance in English.

(https://media.vizioneck.com/images/hapax/dev59.png)

I set up some cool sci fi wrist bands. They are essentially smart watches that show scrolling data. Kinda like health display in Dead Space, but more immersive and less critical for gameplay.


Of course I don't actually have this current model rigged so to test the setup...

(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/693874857041199145/812739786653171712/50.png)

Everybody loves planets in the background right?


Also I'm trying to finish Alien Isolation. Lots of similarities to Hapax but I don't know if it's a proper comparison.

(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/693874857041199145/812739786653171712/50.png)

Everybody loves planets in the background right?


Also I'm trying to finish Alien Isolation. Lots of similarities to Hapax but I don't know if it's a proper comparison.

As long as the similarities don't stretch to having to run and hide from a big alien and being one of the scariest games ever I'm good.

As long as the similarities don't stretch to having to run and hide from a big alien and being one of the scariest games ever I'm good.

Well you can run in this game...

Ok no, nothing like Alien Isolation. Just got to see the alien for the first and second times.

Ok no, nothing like Alien Isolation. Just got to see the alien for the first and second times.

Oh ok, lol. So when you said trying to finish you meant you just started it.

That game is all about hiding from that thing from what I remember. The whole constantly hunting you thing I really hate. I only watched a YT playthrough of it and I was still almost so scared I had to stop. I really don't deal with horror well.

Oh ok, lol. So when you said trying to finish you meant you just started it.

That game is all about hiding from that thing from what I remember. The whole constantly hunting you thing I really hate. I only watched a YT playthrough of it and I was still almost so scared I had to stop. I really don't deal with horror well.

I think I might switch to a playthrough. I switched the difficulty to easiest cause I don't care about that type of gameplay. These resource scavenging horror games almost always don't jive with me. Might be the first time I watch a playthrough of a game I haven't played but care about.

I started playing a month ago but I have been busy lol. Yeah seems I was at like the first hour.

I was thinking it'd be more like Soma. That game was incredibly scary but it didn't feel like cheep horror, cough cough limited flashlight batteries. Rest assured battery technology is a solved science in Hapax, just like it was in 1898 when the D battery was invented  ::)

I'm a mad man. It wasn't too much extra work and it makes for a great easter egg of sorts, but I programed in realistic orbits for everything in the game.

There is the standard "day night" cycle as the alien ship orbits the planet every hour or so, but everything else works too. If you play the game for an ungodly amount of time, the main planet will complete an orbit around the sun.

I'm a mad man. It wasn't too much extra work and it makes for a great easter egg of sorts, but I programed in realistic orbits for everything in the game.

There is the standard "day night" cycle as the alien ship orbits the planet every hour or so, but everything else works too. If you play the game for an ungodly amount of time, the main planet will complete an orbit around the sun.

sounds like a wonderful use time for a budget minded developer.   so launching in 2028 are we?

sounds like a wonderful use time for a budget minded developer.   so launching in 2028?

Such a rude and stupid take.

It's literally two extra lines of code.

Such a rude and stupid take.

It's literally two extra lines of code.

i'm sorry.  i didn't mean to be rude.  :(

i'm sorry.  i didn't mean to be rude.  :(

Thanks.

I try to laugh at delay jokes but I'm constantly stressed about schedules and deadlines.

I've been tightening up my zero g moments and it has me thinking of Killzone Shadowfall. I can barely remember what was going on, but I think players were in a satellite collecting audio logs at one point.

I also kinda enjoyed the zero g moments in The Swapper. Those had a fun Wall E type feel.


Water levels, ice levels, and zero g levels are all kinda funky. Lots of love/hate opinions on them haha.



Found the Killzone thing I was remembering.


I don't think Dead Space 2 had any. Mass Effect 2 had that incredible opening but the player had mag boots.

I've been tightening up my zero g moments and it has me thinking of Killzone Shadowfall. I can barely remember what was going on, but I think players were in a satellite collecting audio logs at one point.

I also kinda enjoyed the zero g moments in The Swapper. Those had a fun Wall E type feel.


Water levels, ice levels, and zero g levels are all kinda funky. Lots of love/hate opinions on them haha.



Found the Killzone thing I was remembering.

I don't think Dead Space 2 had any. Mass Effect 2 had that incredible opening but the player had mag boots.

I feel like internet gamers have some kind of obsession that controls are always tight, responsive, and fast and anything that gets in the way of that is deemed bad.  

that includes: water levels, ice levels, windy levels, ect.   0 G probably fits into that.  

I'm not sure if that's shared with the masses though.  I kind of feel like it can be fun in bursts.  but I also feel like these areas can be prone to just not being implemented well.  I'm especially critical of ice levels.  as a natural born MN I can tell you the physics is always wrong. 

I feel like internet gamers have some kind of obsession that controls are always tight, responsive, and fast and anything that gets in the way of that is deemed bad.  

that includes: water levels, ice levels, windy levels, ect.   0 G probably fits into that.  

I'm not sure if that's shared with the masses though.  I kind of feel like it can be fun in bursts.  but I also feel like these areas can be prone to just not being implemented well.  I'm especially critical of ice levels.  as a natural born MN I can tell you the physics is always wrong.

Too often these levels just slow things down without providing anything new. That might be great for pacing but yeah it sucks for the person who just wants to play the normal game.

Gonna try to get the game "finished" before the end of the month. May still be a while before it'll release, but at that point it'll be fully done outside of polish and tweaks.

A big risk though is my spaceship modeling tech. I've been exploring a lot of options and this delayed the reveal trailer. If I run into more issues, this will delay things further.

Pretty proud of what VizionEck has become. It's a very personal avent-garde game that's wrapped in a more casual experience.

Gonna try to get the game "finished" before the end of the month. May still be a while before it'll release, but at that point it'll be fully done outside of polish and tweaks.

A big risk though is my spaceship modeling tech. I've been exploring a lot of options and this delayed the reveal trailer. If I run into more issues, this will delay things further.

Pretty proud of what VizionEck has become. It's a very personal avent-garde game that's wrapped in a more casual experience.

eh, that's what day-1 patches are for....

Gonna try to get the game "finished" before the end of the month. May

See you in may then.

See you in may then.

You found my secret hint!

May would be great but treat it as a NET date.

eh, that's what day-1 patches are for....

Ship graphics are needed for marketing. If the reveal trailer and the release date are the same day, that'll massively decrease sales for a game like this. Best to have a few months to build interest. Some games even artificially delay release to give them more marketing time.

Bigger games don't have this issue because they can do a cgi/in engine trailer years before the game is ready to be shown.

You found my secret hint!

May would be great but treat it as a NET date.
Ship graphics are needed for marketing. If the reveal trailer and the release date are the same day, that'll massively decrease sales for a game like this. Best to have a few months to build interest. Some games even artificially delay release to give them more marketing time.

Bigger games don't have this issue because they can do a cgi/in engine trailer years before the game is ready to be shown.

you realize you have a serious answer to a joke post right?

you realize you have a serious answer to a joke post right?

I guess my dad is rubbing off on me. He does this all the time where he treats a joke/sarcasm as honest and refutes it. Then you're just left confused, wondering if he's messing with you or if he actually missed the joke.

Sorry for that.

Unity crashes so much right now. I'm pretty sure I have a memory leak in the editor.

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EweSTjEWEAUA6Mj?format=jpg&name=large)

Updated home screen. Seamless transition into gameplay, now actually implemented. #indiedev #immersivesim pic.twitter.com/NIUTqbYmD8

— Mike Armbrust (@MikeArmbrust) March 31, 2021

Added grip texture to the hand.

Made the wrist display real stats. They change as you play.



Also finally implemented death!

if i can be a critic here,...


I think you should reconsider the use of "calibri" (i think its calibri) for your font.  it's a bit out of favor these days and with the font your are using for "HAPAX" it is a bit,.. something something.  i'm not really a font expert but something about them visually conflict or something something.


Segoe UI is popular these days and when I put it up against your screen looks better in my opinion.   I also liked Kalinga.

Added grip texture to the hand.

Made the wrist display real stats. They change as you play.
Also finally implemented death!

Looks incredible.  

if i can be a critic here,...


I think you should reconsider the use of "calibri" (i think its calibri) for your font.  it's a bit out of favor these days and with the font your are using for "HAPAX" it is a bit,.. something something.  i'm not really a font expert but something about them visually conflict or something something.


Segoe UI is popular these days and when I put it up against your screen looks better in my opinion.   I also liked Kalinga.

HAPAX is all caps and uses a very open and curved font (with the A not being pointy), whereas the menu is mostly lowercase and uses a pointier font, and looks like it came out of a word document.  

Not terrible, but I can see what you mean if I am looking at it.  

if i can be a critic here,...


I think you should reconsider the use of "calibri" (i think its calibri) for your font.  it's a bit out of favor these days and with the font your are using for "HAPAX" it is a bit,.. something something.  i'm not really a font expert but something about them visually conflict or something something.


Segoe UI is popular these days and when I put it up against your screen looks better in my opinion.   I also liked Kalinga.

The menu text is Liberation Sans but it's just the default. I'll definitely look into your suggestions.

This is the only non diegetic menu so I can maybe do something more fancy with it. Although I do still need button prompt icons which should match this style.

Looks incredible.  

Thanks!

HAPAX is all caps and uses a very open and curved font (with the A not being pointy), whereas the menu is mostly lowercase and uses a pointier font, and looks like it came out of a word document.  

Not terrible, but I can see what you mean if I am looking at it.  

I might need to touch up my logo, but at the same time it's definitely in the "good enough" stage.

Random fun tid bit: sci fi tension can be hard.

Tell players they are a billion miles from Earth and it means nothing. Even if they understand the distance, they don't know how your sci fi ships work.


So I'm trying to really sell the idea early on in the game that you are in a bad situation. I have a gps like device that is having a lot of issues, I have an oximeter showing blood oxygen in the 80s, and I have an unknown alien planet floating nearby.

(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/693874857041199145/829604970932338718/125.png)

This all came together accidentally, but I love it.

(https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/693874857041199145/830590946844082196/135.png?width=1120&height=630)

I'm struggling with aliasing but I would love to keep this look.

3rd person animations in first person games are a thing of beauty.




(this is actually just a glitch. Unlike most games I don't have a separate render pass for the player. It saves me time since I use ai powered animations)

i'd still hit that.   

I've been playing fetch in Hapax for the last 10 minutes.

Gamers love dogs right?

I've been playing fetch in Hapax for the last 10 minutes.

Gamers love dogs right?

Lets see, the only game that came out recently where you could play fetch with a doggo for as long as you wanted was TLOU2.

So, um, deleted the doggo or make the gamers mad. That's science, baby

Lets see, the only game that came out recently where you could play fetch with a doggo for as long as you wanted was TLOU2.

So, um, deleted the doggo or make the gamers mad. That's science, baby

Oh gosh I'm even more like TLOU2. You can murder this doggo by tossing it out an air lock.

Wonder how I got a PEGI 7 age rating.

Been a while, hasn't it?

Doing a lot of fine tuning and reworking things to make the game better. I've gone through a lot of iterations of a few core concepts and I've struggled with gameplay structure. It has been a battle of supporting casual play while embracing my vision.

As of this moment though, I'm feeling pretty good. I removed almost all structure and it's glorious.

Was time for a new thread title.

No spinning space stations here though.

I have struggled for months with my environments. As a lone dev I don't have the manpower to do things the traditional way but I still need near photorealistic results. Outside of a few test rooms, everything has been in graybox.

Finally think I've solved it. I'm building "smart" materials that can be applied within Unity per triangle. Each material is a procedural system that can then adapt to the geometry of the surface and place 3D objects as needed. For example if used inside a modern house, it would automatically add paint, molding, wall outlets, light switches, and pictures. Every element can be customized by hand as needed.

I can then add more dynamic "clutter" by hand the traditional way.

(https://media.vizioneck.com/images/hapax/devdiscpad.png)

This new device is part of my gameplay rework. It takes over a few major functions from the previously shown hexagonal device, which helps simplify the player experience.

One of these days I'll tackle environmental graphics and UI but not today!

I have struggled for months with my environments. As a lone dev I don't have the manpower to do things the traditional way but I still need near photorealistic results. Outside of a few test rooms, everything has been in graybox.

Finally think I've solved it. I'm building "smart" materials that can be applied within Unity per triangle. Each material is a procedural system that can then adapt to the geometry of the surface and place 3D objects as needed. For example if used inside a modern house, it would automatically add paint, molding, wall outlets, light switches, and pictures. Every element can be customized by hand as needed.

I can then add more dynamic "clutter" by hand the traditional way.

Have you got any screens of some of the environments you've made using smart material?

Have you got any screens of some of the environments you've made using smart material?

I should get a teaser screenshot fully polished up, shouldn't I?

Making empty rooms by hand was still too slow so recently I've started using procedural tools for them as well. Primarily it's just about saving time, but it has also allowed me to better achieve my vision. Environments feel less blocky and I scaled up the world. With ~4,420,229 m² of floor space I can really push the feeling that this is a "real" spaceship not designed with the player in mind (even though it very much is).

(https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/693874857041199145/907864482590646282/hapax55.png)

Here's your environment! An entire month just to get a lot of repeating monkey faces. (dear gosh this month sucked)

(https://i.redd.it/f61gtze4bw381.png)

Steam page is ready, just waiting on the trailer  ;D

I'm only able to work part time but maybe I'll get that finished next.

so like actually close then?

...and what's this about a steam page.  I thought this was a ps exclusive?!?!  

so like actually close then?

...and what's this about a steam page.  I thought this was a ps exclusive?!?!  

Closer than it was yesterday, that's all I can say for sure.

Sony does not care at all if a game releases on pc. PS exclusive just means no xbox or nintendo lol.

So yeah a Steam release is nearly free money.

Liking the new press kit page.

Liking the new press kit page.

Thanks.

Cleaned up the Hapax logo, remade the VizionEck logo, and made the press kit a bigger focus. Was wondering when someone would notice.

Was wondering when someone would notice.

How did I do?

How did I do?

Logos and content changed a few days ago but the press kit link was only swapped in this morning. Very good!


The old VizionEck logo was such a quick job. I put very little thought into it. Not like studio logos really matter, but it's nice to have a better one.

just noticed the vizioneck change on the main page so I can see what you were talking about. 

the font for izioneck is great.  the V does not.  it just looks out of place.  maybe you have reasons for making it clearly different than the rest but I find it jarringly mismatched. 

just noticed the vizioneck change on the main page so I can see what you were talking about.

the font for izioneck is great.  the V does not.  it just looks out of place.  maybe you have reasons for making it clearly different than the rest but I find it jarringly mismatched.

I'm assuming you're talking about the V in this white logo, not the V in the black logo?

(https://vizioneck.com/forum/title.png)
(https://vizioneck.com/presskit/images/header.png)

It's a continuation from the previous logo.
(https://vizioneck.com/forum/title2.png)
It's mostly just a nostalgia thing. I plan to use the black logo's design for things that matter, but it's not like indie studio logos really matter in the first place. So many successful games don't even have them.

Game logos though, they're needed everywhere for marketing.

I was indeed talking about the v in the white logo. 

Subnautica + Obduction + Prey + Alien Isolation - Budget + Special = Hapax


Rolls off the tongue.





I didn't even play Alien Isolation because I didn't enjoy it, but both games are immersive and in space!

Release date?

Release date?

Soon^TM

Release date?

NET 2022.

Soon^TM

Nah. Soon imo will be once I'm submitting the game for certification, and that isn't soon either.

NET 2022.

Nah. Soon imo will be once I'm submitting the game for certification, and that isn't soon either.

NLT 2099!  

Every day I'm feeling more and more confident in my NET 2022 release date.

Although I wouldn't be a scientist if I ruled out 2021 completely.

Every day I'm feeling more and more confident in my NET 2022 release date.

Although I wouldn't be a scientist if I ruled out 2021 completely.

2020 would be better. I'll have more time on my hands to play

2020 would be better. I'll have more time on my hands to play

Haha there was a much much smaller version of the game that I almost pushed out to capitalize on next gen and lockdown.

But instead like everyone else I was playing Animal Crossing.

Haha there was a much much smaller version of the game that I almost pushed out to capitalize on next gen and lockdown.

But instead like everyone else I was playing Animal Crossing.

That's interesting. What would a smaller version consist of?

And it seemed like I was the only one not playing Animal Crossing.

That's interesting. What would a smaller version consist of?

And it seemed like I was the only one not playing Animal Crossing.

Pretty much just a platform to publish my alien language. Something closer in scope to Sethian or Totem with practically everything non language related cut.

Animal Crossing wasn't that good in retrospect so you didn't miss out.  :P

Animal Crossing wasn't that good in retrospect so you didn't miss out.  :P

It didn't look good to me. I thought I was just weird lol

I solved a minor thing in Hapax that has been bugging me for a long time. I'm happy but all I can share is that I'm happy lol.

I solved a minor thing in Hapax that has been bugging me for a long time. I'm happy but all I can share is that I'm happy lol.

Give us a clue at least!

Give us a clue at least!

No haha.

I'll tease and market stuff from the first few hours, but everything else is off limits.

No haha.

I'll tease and market stuff from the first few hours, but everything else is off limits.

What if I promise to tell nobody anything?  :-X

What if I promise to tell nobody anything?  :-X

Instead, I'll just tease something else.

Hapax has multiple endings. Wow.

https://www.igdb.com/games/hapax

Instead, I'll just tease something else.

Hapax has multiple endings. Wow.

:o

:o

In fact it has 6 endings.
Here are 4 of them:

:o

Hapax is as authentic as possible so I can't force players down one specific path.

In fact I can't even force the game to end. After achieving a major ending, I use a button prompt to make sure the player is ready to relinquish control and cap off their adventure. It feels great but it also acts as a very very very last minute point of no return. (it's like a rocket launch aborting 2 seconds after the countdown reaches zero)

In fact it has 6 endings.
Here are 4 of them:

Spoiler for Hidden:

The X+ ending of the map.
The X- ending of the map.
The Y+ ending of the map.
The Z- ending of the map.

I'll actually spoil 4 real endings!  8)



Who knows, might get cut, but currently there's a funny meta game of finding all the bad endings.

(https://i.imgur.com/hSsvKPT.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/6UBXcKB.png)


I thought the steam page needed a more direct approach. You know, treat it like a game pitch with power point slides.

I think I finally cracked the opening to the game!

It's a super super small intro just to prep the player before they gain control, but I've struggled with it from day 1. Very hard to get the player to know the things they need to know without annoying them or hurting the intro's atmosphere.

It's just a few tweaks of what I've posted before, but they're powerful tweaks. Main thing is letting the player select the order they recall their memories, and then adding the inciting incident memory after all 3 have been selected.

Most games just give the player character amnesia or have prologues :P


EDT: got it set up. This will work! I still need to make a fourth image for the fourth memory but I have the other three. I really like the shader I made.

I think sound could also go well. Beach sound for the beach, mountain wind for the mountain, and something something for career and discovery. Save that for a later day though.

I redesigned the front page of the website.

Please let me know what you think. I don't expect the website to drive marketing, but I need it to look professional if someone comes here. The Hapax content will be updated later.

I redesigned the front page of the website.

Please let me know what you think. I don't expect the website to drive marketing, but I need it to look professional if someone comes here. The Hapax content will be updated later.

It definitely looks good.
But I feel like something about it bugs me.

It definitely looks good.
But I feel like something about it bugs me.

Phone or desktop?

I think I've looked at both.

The actual visuals look good. But I feel like scrolling feels a little off.

I think I've looked at both.

The actual visuals look good. But I feel like scrolling feels a little off.

Does Games -- Housemarque (https://housemarque.com/games) have the same issue for you?

Does Games -- Housemarque (https://housemarque.com/games) have the same issue for you?

No, that feels pretty smooth.

Not exactly sure what makes the difference.

No, that feels pretty smooth.

Not exactly sure what makes the difference.

I made a couple improvements and I tried a lot of different methods, but I think at this point it is what it is. At least I don't crash like Campo Santo - Firewatch (https://www.firewatchgame.com/) often does  ::)

Still though, I wish I could get Create parallax scrolling with CSS - LogRocket Blog (https://blog.logrocket.com/create-parallax-scrolling-css/) working. It can handle the parallax flawlessy but perspective gets disabled if I use overflow:hidden to hide the content within the game banner.

I made a couple improvements and I tried a lot of different methods, but I think at this point it is what it is. At least I don't crash like Campo Santo - Firewatch (https://www.firewatchgame.com/) often does  ::)

Still though, I wish I could get Create parallax scrolling with CSS - LogRocket Blog (https://blog.logrocket.com/create-parallax-scrolling-css/) working. It can handle the parallax flawlessy but perspective gets disabled if I use overflow:hidden to hide the content within the game banner.

It might be my sleep deprivation talking, but I feel like it looks better.

i looked at the main page before on my phone.  seemed fine to me.

just looked at it for the first time on PC today.   when i first showed up and scrolled down (using the wheel on my mouse) it was very,..  juttery?  so like it scrolled down by 2 units and then jumped back up by 1 unit and then scrolled down by 2 units and back up by 1 unit.   something like that.

it was juttery for the first 3 times i scrolled up and down and then it became smooth again.   so like,.. a loading issue?

Q: Why is Hapax taking so long?
A: I'm trying to build a AA game as a single developer.

Q: Why would you do that?
A: I'm not that smart.

Hapax is a game, just thought I should clarify that.

Some people finish The Witness in 13 hours, others in 76: How long is The Witness? | HowLongToBeat (https://howlongtobeat.com/game/10273)

Hapax will probably be even more varied. There are a ton of ways to learn new information/solve puzzles and some people will just happen to learn things incredibly fast. I was one of those players in Outer Wild's dlc. I just happened to randomly solve one of the games biggest mysteries within minutes of starting.

Lots of work to go and lots of self doubt, but I'm really really happy tonight. The ship redesign is finally in a semi playable state so I got to mess around in it and really get a feel of what I've spent so long building.


The alien nature of the ship's structure is incredible. Walls bend and bulge in a way that is very unique yet somewhat natural feeling. Final textures/assets will influence this a lot, but right now the floor almost feels like a river as it perpetually flows around corners and ever deeper into lower rooms. The ship doesn't feel organic since it has a lot of sharp edges yet it absolutely does not feel like a human built structure.

Maybe I'll bungle it up as I finish things but I'm just a bit surprised how well things are coming together. Redoing the ship has taken far longer than I wanted so it's nice that the early results are promising.


Also it takes ~6 hours to sprint through the ship. A free fall from the top takes ~15 seconds though so speedruns should be pretty fun   ::)

6 hours to sprint through ship? :o

6 hours to sprint through ship? :o

It's a really big ship.

I just got thoroughly lost while exploring. Took a wrong turn in some small back rooms and lost my bearing.

Will be less common once rooms don't all repeat the same textures, but it's actually a good thing on rare occasion. There is a sudden dread when you don't recognize the path behind you. The environment itself can feel hostile.


I'm pretty nervous about how big Hapax is since it's antithetical to The Witness and a lot of my favorite games, so it's cool having these small moments of reassurance. Also just incredibly nice to have something to share again. I spent so long working on technical stuff that barely changed from one week to another.

Weekly updates are fun again, yay!

It was very daunting looking at my bland empty rooms and realizing just how much detail needs to go into small spaces. A large atrium can easily get by with one asset per 2 meters, yet a "bedroom" with no assets besides a single "bed" would look incredibly empty and wrong.

The approach I planned to use was built off a ~2 meter grid, oops.


Got a new system mostly working. I'm a week behind schedule now but it was definitely worth it. This approach supports arbitrarily high asset density and gives me more direct control over the results.



It's also kinda awkward talking about procedural tools since procedural generation has such a bad reputation. I love it since all the tech is really cool and it'd be a waste of time manually placing 50,000 power outlets for example, but I really don't want players to get the wrong impression and think of Hapax as a meaningless random world. Good thing no one reads the forum!

In this week's update I'm talking about the game's end. Environments still need a lot of work but now that they are at least explorable I'm zooming out and making sure I have a clear path towards launch.


Hapax's endings are being tweaked. I previously had a simple/direct ending for casual players and then more advanced endings for dedicated players, just like The Witness. This had a few problems in practice though since only the simple/direct ending felt like a true ending. The others involve solving massive puzzles and making amazing discoveries but after the credits roll the player is likely to immediately hop back in to search for more things.

I'm removing the "endings" from the other endings and just treating them as major events within the game. Then the simple/direct ending becomes the only ending and a way for all players to say "ok I think I've solved enough, I'm ready to be done now." It's closer in structure to Her Story, Return of the Obra Dinn, or Outer Wilds with DLC. If a player accidentally triggers it early like I did in Obra Dinn, then it's immediately obvious that the player should go back and return when they're ready. The ending is dynamic and reflects what the player has accomplished.

I might still have a couple true endings since sometimes it works best, but the important thing is just disassociating game progression from triggering credits.

Reworded the beginning of the game and sorted out a few things. I'm only an ok writer so it's really hard to fit the concepts I want into only a couple sentences without it sounding too stupid.

"The dream of humans on Europa inspired me to become an astronaut. I worked hard and hoped to be the first but getting the jump seat on a later cargo mission was almost as good. The destination is what matters."

Right now it sounds maybe a bit too positive but it's better than the super negative version I had before. Games with amnesiac player characters are so lucky. In Hapax I really quickly need to catch the player up to speed while also putting them into a specific headspace. Less than 60 seconds to make them care about themselves at least a little bit.

I hope I'm just overthinking things but there's a lot of pressure on this. After the first minute the player is completely on their own and I have nothing I can force, only a few things I can suggest.

(https://media.vizioneck.com/images/hapax/dev92.png)

This is a super old screenshot of the player's phone. It's one of the additional ways I try to give context/direction, but I can't just make it an info dump. I'm reworking the celestial tracker to be a full orrery map. The current one just spits out your position as a number. It's a very very big number but outside of that no one outside of astronomy would care.

As part of this I double checked the math and I'm pretty sure I have the game's year locked in placed, 2053. Also set in December so I can claim it's a Christmas game. I know the exact second too since the smartphone clock functions but that's not really interesting to most people...


Additionally, I reworked the controls and menus. I'm removing the old inventory bar and now storing everything on the physical player body. You look down and can see your items on your belt. Just grab them as if they were on a shelf and put them back the same way. Curser snaps to inventory slots so it functions like a traditional inventory screen but is way more immersive.

Deleted "inner thoughts" too. I had planned to show text at various points that would give the player character a way to share her insights (I'm overselling it, just thing of witcher senses or the horizon ping). Wasn't that necessary in practice. Also I already had a cursor icon that changes depending on what the interact button will do. e.g. if you can grab the object it shows an open hand and if you can press a button it shows a hand extending a finger, wow. Both systems had some overlap so it was good to just focus on one.

I still have button prompts early in the game to help ease players in, but after that the game is 100% immersive with no UI (if you count a floating dismembered hand immersive). Really great change because I struggle with UIs and this saves a lot of time. Also is just one more thing to make the game immersive in the way I want.


That's it for what I want to share this week. Bye!

Took September off but I really like these weekly updates even if no one reads them. Helps break my work down into 7 day blocks.

I spent some time evaluating Unreal Engine. Didn't really make sense to switch but I wanted to check if the grass really was greener on the other side.

It's not. Unreal Engine has a lot of issues and quirks that I would have to work around, just like in Unity. Lumen for example is the feature I'm most envious of yet it doesn't work with deformed meshes. Hapax is 90% deformed meshes  :P

I haven't ruled out the engine completely since I can always hack in my own changes/improvements but at this time I'm progressing with Unity. Maybe I'll get to implement my own custom global illumination system that I've fiddled with for years, or maybe I'll just scale back the graphics.


Actual game progress wise I had to redo a lot of the technical details behind my asset placement system. Windows and doors were hacked in which I thought would be fine but the code just kept getting messier and messier. New system breaks walls up into chunks where both the front and the back sides cleanly match. For example the outside wall of a tall building would be broken into a separate chunk for each floor. That was easy but sorting out the logic of placing stuff onto walls/chunks was pretty complex. The same code that places a giant arch is also used to place an apple in a bowl on a kitchen counter.

I didn't plan to go so small with the details but it works better for this system to handle them. As the artist I can just set up a "place fruit" function and it can handle that for an entire room without awkward duplicates.

*human fruit is not actually in the game

Nice post you got there.

Would be a shame if someone read it.  8)

Nice post you got there.

Would be a shame if someone read it.  8)

Yet you didn't call me out for saying October instead of September. Curious.

Yet you didn't call me out for saying October instead of September. Curious.

That would have been quite rude.

I spent the past week mostly doing world building, and I'll probably spend next week doing the same. The ship is absolutely massive and I need a lot more things to fill it.

Sure is difficult working with realistic aliens. A few years ago I went on a binge watching lots of classic alien movies and so few even try to do something cool. Most just go completely random/weird or stylize regular human stuff.

My favorite concepts come from Alien:
(https://deadtalknews.com/wp-content/uploads/alien2.png)
H. R. Giger had an incredible iconic style and the environments have just enough self consistency and logic to really feel believable during the movie.

Doesn't work as well when your brain has time to look for details. Outside of the tense pacing of the movie it's more obvious it's just a set with random greebling.

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTkzNDEwNDE3MV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwNzg5MDMyNTM@._V1_.jpg)

The alien itself is even cooler. Just a person in a suit yet that head makes it near perfect. No obvious eyes yet a very obvious mouth. Makes it unsettling since humans are so good at finding faces.

No science went in to its design yet it's still one of the most realistic aliens out there. Not too humanoid, yet not too random. Birth cycle makes no sense but it's very alien which is cool.

Arrival's designs are ok:
(https://hips.hearstapps.com/pop.h-cdn.co/assets/17/08/1487623599-screen-shot-2017-02-20-at-34337-pm.png?resize=980:*)

It's just a boring empty room, but I do like the texture. Kinda stealing that for Hapax  :P

(actually I was more inspired by The Last Guardian's environments)

(https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/170516142050-tentacled-aliens-from-arrival.jpg?q=w_1600,h_900,x_0,y_0,c_fill)

Not the biggest fans of the aliens either. I'll praise them since so many other movie aliens are actively bad, but I dislike how monotonous their designs are. Concept art is a bit more interesting so maybe it's just the fog hiding all the details.

The fog is a cool touch. Most movies just handwave alien atmosphere needs.

Lastly I'll mention Avatar:
(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/56/af/80/56af8099b696fdf3ad685034bf93db5d.jpg)

It's just blue cat humans in a tree. Really uninteresting outside of a few language/culture things, but I couldn't talk about movie aliens and not mention them.

---

TLDR: knowledge of alien movies isn't that helpful when designing alien ships.

I had to work on other stuff so I didn't make too much progress with rooms this week.

All this type of work is pretty slow even on good days. The main point of the game is exploring and learning more about the ship so I really need to avoid mistakes and boring stuff. My standard strategy is to explore a concept three levels deep and only put one level in the game. That way the player can discover the second layer on their own and still feel like they're only scratching the surface.

It's the same type of thing they did in The Witness, although I don't know a single person that stopped to analysis this stuff in The Witness. Hapax trains players to look for this stuff.

(https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a5d3f0a017db24f6f71721f/1537718113326-GSBHPDN6G9P7XAYWFCUG/The+Witness+Blog++%285%29.jpg)

Yo when is this releasing? Also what's the art style like?

Yo when is this releasing? Also what's the art style like?

I'm making great progress but there is still a fair amount of work to go.

Game is photorealistic so the alien aesthetic can be the focus. I wasn't super happy with that aesthetic in my old vertical slice though so that's one of the areas I keep reworking.

When using the alien tv remote, the right stick controls a cursor for clicking buttons. Yet now the player can't use the right stick to look around, a pretty big problem if your tv keeps moving.

Been 10 years and this dilemma still keeps me up at night.

It's incredible implementing this new inventory system and getting rid of the old placeholder!!!

(https://media.vizioneck.com/images/hapax/2024_01_24%2011_07_28_280%20G.png)


Objects are physically stored on your belt. It's pretty much just a traditional 4 slot inventory except the objects don't magically disappear and reappear. Will maybe make it impact gameplay (like attaching that bulky helmet to a front slot would disable crawling) but primarily it's just fun to see all your objects dangle and flop around as you move.

The MVP of this new inventory system is that unfinished silly mirror on the back of the left hand. It's a real thing that astronauts use.
(https://i.stack.imgur.com/1h1VI.png)

I've thought about a diegetic inventory system for a long time yet I didn't know how to handle the player's helmet. Putting it on could be accomplished in a million ways but how the heck in first person do you look at the helmet on your head?

Well a simple mirror, of course! Click on your left hand and it's as if you clicked on your head. Also lets you grab your flashlight which goes behind the ear like a pencil. Great for symmetry too since both hands have a function when clicked; clicking the right hand gives you a basic item inspection view.

With this new inventory system I also made a special hand animation system that physically moves everything around. It's still a bit glitchy and artificial looking but it's pretty fun seeing it handle complex combinations. Like if you click to grab an object but are already holding an object, it'll probably grab with the left hand so the right hand can first clip its object to the belt.

---

What's the Eckn point of all this though? It's cool but why is it a higher priority than other things?

One of the big problems with Hapax at the moment is new player accessibility, aka a brick wall learning curve. Every mechanic is available at the very beginning and previously I couldn't even fit all the actions on a PS5 controller. Everything I can do to streamline the game and make it more intuitive is incredibly beneficial.

Another problem I have is Hapax needs more juice (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_feel).

Been making so much progress it's insane.

Got the in game note system working at a basic level. You can write on pretty much every surface in the game which is really handy. Pencil and paper notes are great too but that doesn't show well in a trailer ;)

Got the new hexpad working when held in your hand. Feels a billion times better than the old one which was too complicated. Only lets the player write up to 3 alien words at a time. Full alien writing can still be done in the game, but it's now done on "hexwalls." (I use too many hexagons)

Got item inspection kinda working but it's trash visually. Not sure how to transition from an item in your hand to an item free floating in space. Would be too much work atm to animate your fingers as you rotate it around.

Did a lot of code cleanup too. Was a bit hard with my main player script having to check if other actions like inventory were active. Now I just set the state and that sets parts of the main player script active or non active.

I expanded my hand animation system to handle a bunch of stuff. Can throw objects and they land close to where you aimed, but the animation powers the physics so there is some variety. I might move everything over to this hand system since it's crazy expandable. Working on grabing 2 hand objects at the moment.

Going to move back into spoiler stuff soon so might be a while till my next update.

Huh. My "procedural resolution" dream from 2015 is kinda coming true with Hapax. It's a method of making procedural content look great both at the local and global scale.

Hapax is designed by hand, but it just hit me today that my pipeline has a lot in common with my old concept. Feels rewarding to see it producing great results (not that I can share them  :-X  ).

After playing Manifold Garden I can't help but think about the older versions of VizionEck and how the puzzle design has shifted since then.

(https://media.vizioneck.com/images/VizionEck_PR_4.png)

Super early VizionEck was heavily inspired by The Unfinished Swan. Just a very short game with most of its puzzles and platforming inspired by its art style. None of the puzzles were that interesting and back at this time the alien language was just a late game afterthought. I was more focused on a big reveal near the end of the game that needed a lot of setup to work properly, kinda like The Unfinished Swan...

Would have been cool if I released that version, or released the scope creeped version that it ballooned into after VizionEck was publicly revealed. With a stronger commitment to what the game was and was not, I think it would have turned out fairly solid.

(https://media.vizioneck.com/images/2016_vizioneck.png)

2016 VizionEck was a complete overhaul with a big focus on Jonathan Blow style puzzles. I had no idea what my vision was or what I wanted to make so I was really just trying to apply his approaches to my ideas. The game looked nothing like The Witness and played nothing like The Witness, but it sure was The Witness in spirit. On its surface it was more like a 3D FEZ.

Puzzles were split into distinct sections so I could teach players isolated concepts before bringing it all together for the ending. The alien language was at the core of everything and I think I gave up too easily on this one. It had issues but it would have been fine.

---

I don't really know where I'm going with this. I'm super excited about what Hapax is and it'll be so much more successful than old VizionEck could have ever been, but I guess I'm just feeling nostalgic for my old abandoned game.

(https://media.vizioneck.com/images/hapax/2024_03_03%2017_32_07_965%20E%20Share.png)

I guess I can't keep brute forcing things. Just these simple blocky environments are 200 million triangles in this test area.

Crazy how many months/years of work have gone into this new version of the alien ship. I've worked on everything else in parallel so I can't say exactly how large the investment was, but it's so incredibly rewarding to see the math all working as intended.