Video Dev Log
Sadly no video dev log this week as I did not have anything visual to show.
Welcoming Back an Old Friend
Last month I mentioned I’d be moving on to a new project after wrapping up Auto Trials. That project is something older readers might recognise… GIVE ME A BLADE.
GMAB originally started developened in 2024 as a fast-paced, physics-based melee combat game, where the main focus was speed. Players would get in, complete objectives, and get out. That version has changed quite a bit.
The core physics-based melee system is still here, but the design direction has shifted quite heavily. Instead of speed-focused missions, the game is now moving toward a slower, more tactical structure. The loop now looks more like:
- Deploy into a level.
- Fight using physics-driven melee combat.
- Loot items / complete objectives.
- Decide when to extract.
So yes, this is now effectively becoming an extraction-style game, or more specifically, an extraction brawler.
The key difference from typical extraction shooters is that everything is still built around close-range physics combat, not ranged weapons. The goal is to make combat feel physical, reactive, and a bit unpredictable, while still giving the player room to think and plan. Over the next few months I’ll go into more detail about how this differs from traditional extraction games, because there are a few systems planned here that should make it stand out.
As before, this will remain a singleplayer-focused game. That’s partly scope (I don’t want this turning into a multi-year multiplayer project), and partly preference. I enjoy building tight singleplayer systems more than maintaining online infrastructure.
What’s Happening Now
Right now I’m using Auto Trials as the base project and rebuilding systems from there rather than starting completely from scratch again. The main focus this month has been on rebuilding the physics-based character controller. This is essentially the foundation of the whole game.
I’m rebuilding the character controller to:
- Work cleanly with physics-driven melee interactions.
- Feel responsive without relying on animation-locked behaviour.
- Interact properly with dynamic objects and environmental forces.
- Stay consistent with the vehicle physics systems I built in Auto Trials.
The goal is to make movement and combat feel like they exist in the same physical space, rather than separate systems stitched together.
At the moment, this is very much in the “iterate, break, fix, repeat” stage. It’s taking time, but this is one of those systems that has to feel right early, otherwise everything built on top of it suffers later. I started this earlier in the month and expect it to take most of next month as well.
I’m also trying to improve how I document progress. Right now I keep forgetting to record in-development footage, so when it is time for me to make the monthly update I have nothing to show for the video dev log. My goal is to start capturing more in-development footage, or at least simple static screenshots, so that I have something to show in the video apart from my face.
And That Is That
That’s it for this month. It’s been a transition period, with one project fully wrapped, another re-emerging with a slightly different identity, and a lot of foundational work happening in the background.
Next month should be more interesting from a visual standpoint once the controller and core systems stabilise. But for now, thanks for reading, and happy gaming!!