Dev Log #6 - Week 7: Progress, Challenges, and New Beginnings

Hello everyone! It’s been a heavy but productive week, both in terms of Rotten Dawn’s development and personal battles. Each day brings its own struggles, yet I continue pushing forward, whether it’s through game mechanics, personal reflection, or small victories that keep me motivated. Below is a breakdown of what’s been happening.

Monday - Day 42:

I started the day with the intention of working on the inventory save/load system, but time wasn’t on my side. There was just too much going on outside of game development to make any real progress.

The biggest thing today was my mental health meeting. Good news—I've officially been discharged. However, that comes with its own weight. I’ve been advised to keep a diary of my emotions and particularly document my anger towards CSC. This diary isn’t just for venting; it’s a way to organize my thoughts and prepare the right questions for future discussions.

The core group meeting was another shift—it got moved online instead of in person. Honestly, I’m not sure if this is better or worse, but at least it’s one less trip to make.

On the game side, I made some small but important changes. I added basic helper functions in the C++ engine code, which should make future work a little easier. The biggest adjustment was to AI perception—instead of relying on UE’s default “eye” location, I attached sight to a socket, which gives me more precise control over what the AI can see and how it interacts with the environment.

Tuesday - Day 43:

Today marked the beginning of a weapon system overhaul. I started by debugging equip/unequip mechanics, using two keys for quick testing. Weapons need to change the player’s animations dynamically, but I quickly realized that the current setup needs refinement. Weapons aren’t like standard equipment, so I may need to implement a new category specifically for them.

Outside of development, today was rough. I had a proctogram at the hospital, something I had never experienced before, and I was more than a little nervous. The procedure left me in quite a bit of pain for the rest of the day, so any work that got done happened at a slower pace.

Still, I kept moving forward, albeit cautiously. I continued working on retargeting animations, transitioning them from UE4 to UE5. It’s a tedious task, but necessary for making everything look and feel right.

Wednesday - Day 44:

More animation work today. I focused on setting up basic animations for different weapon types, including two-handed weapons (rifles), one-handed weapons (pistols), and melee weapons. No fancy montages or extra gameplay mechanics yet—just the foundations.

I won’t lie, I hate working on animations. It’s a necessary evil, but I’d rather spend my time on gameplay mechanics. With that in mind, I’ve decided to grind through animations for the rest of the week, then shift my focus back to mechanics. Ideally, I’ll find a way to outsource animation work in the future so I don’t have to deal with it as much.

Another major step today was working on my AI bot. I set up a bot for Telegram, which will help organize discussions in the group. Additionally, I started working on a personal assistant AI using Ollama and custom models. The goal is to have an AI system that assists with game development task's and also helps me maintain my personal diary, something I need to start keeping up with.

Thursday - Day 45:

Today took an unexpected but positive turn—I planned to buy a rat, but after some research, I found out that I actually need to buy two for their well-being. So now, the plan is to get Felix and Whiskers. I went to the pet shop, but they didn’t have any available, which led me to do some research. Turns out, major pet stores have rat breeding programs that aren’t ideal, so it’s best to buy from a breeder instead. That’s my job for the weekend—find a reputable breeder and get my two new desk companions.

On the development side, I fixed an annoying bug where rapid fire was possible on the interaction button. That was a long-standing issue, so I’m relieved to have it resolved.

However, I’m feeling a bit stuck in terms of what to work on next. It feels like I’ve hit a brick wall. So, I’m thinking about moving my work over to a new template project. This new project already has zombie shooting mechanics, a weapon system, and an animation system. If I migrate and refactor all of that code into a new project, I should be able to create a refined version with my features integrated. From there, I can start focusing on more advanced mechanics like the building system and deeper survival elements - hopefully then start on the design side and have a basic demo.

Friday - Day 46 - Sunday - Day 48:

This weekend, I decided to take a break from Rotten Dawn and focus on something new. Instead of diving into game mechanics, I want to spend my time testing out the new DeepSeek AI model that’s now available with Ollama. My goal is to set up an advanced personal assistant.

Rather than relying on one massive AI model, I plan to build a network of smaller AI models, each handling a specific task efficiently. Here’s an example of how it could work:

1. Intent Classification Model: Determines the type of query. If I ask, "What events are on this weekend?", it will classify the request as an event search and pass it along.
2. Task Routing Model: Based on classification, this model delegates the request to the right micro-AI. For example:
   • If it’s a web search, it sends it to a web scraper bot.
   • If it’s a document summarization request, it passes it to a text processing model.
   • If it’s a reminder, it interacts with a notification system like NTFY.
3. Execution Bots:
   • Search Bot scrapes relevant sites for events, news, or information.
   • Summarization Bot condenses long-form text for quick reading.
   • Task Manager Bot integrates with my daily workflow to automate reminders or to-do lists.
4. Response Aggregator: Takes the processed information and returns it in a structured, easy-to-read format.

Reflections & What’s Next

This week has been a mix of steady development and real-life battles. Between hospital visits, AI development, and personal struggles, I’ve still managed to keep Rotten Dawn moving forward. The weapon system, animations, and AI improvements are coming together, even if progress feels slower than I’d like, but hopefully with refactoring this template and my base code, there should be some massive improvements in the coming days... Keep an eye on next weeks dev log.

Next week, I’ll be tackling:

• Migrating to a new project and refactoring core mechanics along with implementing things from the template
• Finding a reputable breeder for Felix and Whiskers
• As the template is multiplayer - I might look at maybe adding multiplayer support 🤔
• Maybe start a bit of level design and look at how i want the atmosphere within the game.

Until next time: Keep believing, keep building, and above all, keep surviving.