Hey everyone! Welcome to the March 2023 Devlog!

Every month, on the 20th, I'll go over what I have been doing over the past month/30(ish) days!

BETTER SCROLLING FUNCTION

This isn't the biggest breakthrough to program in a project, however, I am very satisfied with the change it has now.

If you remember this video, you can see a simple function of the camera scrolling around the office. During the previous 30 days, I always felt like the scrolling is a lot linear than I thought it would be. Sure, it does the job well by having it scroll depending on where your mouse is, but what the video showed isn't exactly as intuitive as you may think.

Back when I was trying to learn Clickteam, I studied how FNaF 1 works by looking at many unorganized events due to decompiling limitations, the scrolling function being one of them.

In all of Scott's FNaF games, the camera scrolls when you hover your mouse over the purple areas. The darker the hitboxes, the faster the scrolling is. While this does work well in hindsight, ultimately it isn't the most efficient function of scrolling. So what I did in my game is reprogram how the office scrolls with more fluid functions and flexibility.

In this clip here, the scrolling is less linear than previously. Now the game will check the mouse's position instead of hovering over the hitboxes. This means not only we were able to use fewer resources to make the function, but the scrolling is less clunky! Just thought it is nice to document. (As a side note, the clip has "Smooth Scrolling" on.)

GAMEPAD SUPPORT IS BACK

Previously, I have mentioned how gamepad support isn't possible to implement due to many bugs and issues it caused to Hack's Custom Night in general. The extension for the support during the time was too raw and less constructed for it to work well. However recently, with new updates tweaking the object, it is more than ready to have Gamepad support happen!

Although this is very old footage, as you can see here, you can control the cursor with the use of both left and right sticks! This is to allow specific cursor exclusive features to work if you don’t have a mouse!

Unfortunately, I do not have a lot to showcase this time around, everything relating to Hack's Custom Night for the past 30 days has slowed down quite a bit for a few reasons. For smaller reasons, it is primarily because of personal life and the contributors taking their time, which is a good breather away from having to work on such a ridiculous project.

Onto the bigger reasons.

For one, I have been spending more time on @bonzee 's DEERWOOD game, a FNaF fangame, where you play as a paranormal journalist. So far, development has been really smooth, and fun to experiment with my current limits as a programmer on Fusion 2.5. I am excited for everyone to see the final product of its gameplay all the way back to when its trailer was made. Comparing the current builds of DEERWOOD to the trailer is MUCH more fluid and bizarre. I hope you all continue to support his project along with my work. You can follow the game page here.

GAMEPLAY REDESIGN

The second and last thing regarding its slowdown is Hack's Custom Night overall game design. In the past, I have mentioned how the gameplay has a set direction on how it'll be structured and set up for the past few years. However, after looking at it from time to time, I've noticed more flaws and issues with how the game is presented. It drags gameplay time, it includes features that don't work well with each other, and features that are underrepresented.

Now before you create conclusions about this problem, I must clarify by saying that nearly nothing in Hack's Custom Night has been removed or will be completely altered. In fact, the Office gameplay is exactly the same as it ever was before. No major mechanics have been added or removed since its mid-years. I am completely happy with the way it is planned to be structured now, and hopefully, nothing will change that.

However, there are concepts I have been wanting to include ever since its first years that I want to provide its full potential. It just wasn't implemented as well as I thought it would be as it caused inconsistencies and potential confusion for new and veteran FNaF players. So far, the new overall gameplay design has more flow and a lot less time consumption. It is something hopefully everyone is able to enjoy in different areas of the community.

That’s all I have for this month, I hope you all enjoy it despite the lack of content. Alright, see you in the next devlog!~