The World Opens Up & Crashes Down // DEVLOG #11

After a short break, the Space64 Devlogs are back! This time with a super long episode, we expand the world and get our crashed escape pods into the game… but stil around until the end for something extra special (42:37).
Join the Discord Server: / discord
Want to see more and see more Devlogs? Subscribe, like and turn on notifications if you enjoyed the video!
Follow the progress on the game more closely on Twitter: / firedragon04
#gamedevelopment #devlog #gamedev #unrealengine #unrealengine5 #ue5 #blender #blender3d
🔖 Chapters:
00:00 - Intro
01:55 - 3D Modeling the next area
09:28 - Area Showcase in Blender
13:28 - Getting the new area in Engine
15:09 - Walkthrough of the new area
23:43 - Spaceship 3D Concepting & Escape Pod Design
29:24 - Escape Pod Showcase in Blender
36:11 - Placing the Escape Pod in Engine
36:42 - Showcasing the Escape Pod in Engine
42:13 - Something… more?
42:37 - Concept Art Reveal
45:03 - Outro
47:52 - After Party (Help me!)

[@firedragon04]

Thanks again to everyone who watches these! I had way too much fun putting together the section at 42:37 ! I hope everyone enjoys the Devlog, can't wait to share the next one with you all soon.

[@Sunburst_No]

Maybe the escape pods/interactive elements could have an indicator above them when you get close?

[@firedragon04]

@@Sunburst_No yeah I definitely want to add prompts and UI elements for when you get close to interactable things in the future.

[@MrGil1995]

How about adding a debris trail like the pod slid a couple meters on the floor before it stopped at the final point?

[@adamcampbell9806]

I noticed this is a year old. Not to pester but do you think that next one is ever coming out?

[@firedragon04]

@@adamcampbell9806 life got in the way quite a bit - I plan on at least updating everyone on that and the reasons behind the hiatus on this project more soon, but I’ve not been able to work on this at all since this Devlog unfortunately

[@NaughtyKlaus]

Seeing you create a whole environment from just one texture, and making it look really good at the same time, is genuinely crazy. I love it.

[@Nightshift626]

Cant wait for more uploads to come back, love watching these devlogs

[@firedragon04]

I’m getting back into unreal atm - working on some cinematic stuff for fun so then I don’t return to Space64 and have to try to remember everything again… thankfully I’ve seemed to remember most things after being back in Unreal for a week now… so gearing back up to get back into Space64

[@woahlacer]

@@firedragon04 I got so scared when I saw the last one was posted 11 months ago u just made my day lowkey

[@firedragon04]

@@woahlacer Will put out an update video soon that's sort of more focused on the "where I've been, what's been happening, and what the plan is when development resumes" but my intention was NEVER to stop developing it or releasing these videos... but life got in the way a little bit. And in that change other things popped up that replaced my free time - but I'm tinkering with Unreal again every day, remembering stuff and gearing back up to venture back into the world of Space64!

[@woahlacer]

@@firedragon04 glad to hear it brother hope everything is ok 🙏🙏🙏

[@esoogthegoose]

Happy birthday

[@samigwhoknows]

Sad to see the uploads slow down but also glad, hope your taking care of yourself!

[@firedragon04]

They’ll be back. There’s just a lot going on for me at the moment unfortunately. Lots of things planned for Space64 when I get back to it though.

[@Enite]

Take care of yourself for sure! Your work and progress has already inspired so many and so many of us are looking forward to getting a chance to play in the world your're creating! Take your time, and know burnout and life getting in the way is super common, even for the top devs!! Keep pushing, and be well good sir!@@firedragon04

[@brian_mayberry]

Hey, for the rotation issue at 50:00 make sure you're adding "Relative rotation" and not Local or World rotation in the character controller movement nodes. Since this is only occurring in a spot that can likely cause the player to be ungrounded for a moment, check if you're using any snap to ground or align to normal actions (Event on Landed?). For the water material 47:52, try adding Absolute World Position going into DistanceToNearestSurface.

[@firewall705]

Keep chipping away at this! Great job so far!

[@tonycrawford9974]

Amazing work keep it up

[@CushionSapp]

When your character started doing the glitched out walking, it reminded me of that dance Michigan J. Frog does.

[@adamsapple4350]

Looks amazing

[@FunnyGamerTim]

I have been working on my own N64 style game after watching your dev logs. I used to make 2D games but gave that up but after watching your videos I have been seriously inspired. Thank you.

[@FairinArt]

Just found this channel today. This is awesome stuff! I hope you're doing okay and that we can get a new update soon!

[@ArtofWEZ]

Such an awesome project, I feel same in summer lol

[@4lkareth]

wow this one is a mouthful, thanks and happy birthday!

[@Superkid7]

Happy Birthday, dude! Keep on keepin' on! 👍

[@adamjoshua865]

Happy birthday Matt! Keep up the great work!

[@guryurfur528]

Love this series

[@jakeymorrison-gardiner2903]

I love seeing you do level design sped up or not because it is one of the things i think a lot of people.approach differently

[@saint9201]

Happy Birthday! It's looking amazing!

[@FizzyGurt]

Very glad to see that even after all these months your motivation hasn't left. I hope the new job is going well and allows you time to achieve your goals :)

[@TheBeanMan2124]

Happy Birthday! Your my favorite dev🎉❤

[@Morraak]

Awesome update! And Happy Belated Birthday! I dont blame you on wanting to just stay inside and play Final Fantasy, I would too lol. I'm waiting for it to come out on Steam. Tons of new stuff this devlog! Really liking the escape pod and how it looks in the crash scene, looks like that area is pretty much finished to me. And that concept art and music is pretty great too =) Excited to see the Mother Hopper get made in Blender. Also, fully understand wanting to spread devlogs out.

[@serrion1394]

Happy Birthday! 🥳

[@Paul_Ward]

Hurray new devlog, and happy birthday! I lnow I've said it befire but something about these devlogs just feel so interesting 😌

[@Paul_Ward]

Also, thanks for not wanting to handhold players in your game design. I just started playing hogwarts legacy and I can't bring myself to go back to it as it's one long handholding session so far, and it has my head in my hands over how annoying it is. The fun is in exploring yourself! At least that's my view

[@firedragon04]

@@Paul_Wardthanks. I want the player to be fully free to do what they want after 5mins of playing MAX. I don’t want to sit there and teach you everything or hold your hand down a linear path for hours. Exploration and freedom are at the core of the game so.

[@TheOnlyBlob]

Excited to see your development since the last devlog

[@elijahjudge2442]

miss these devlogs

[@firedragon04]

I’ve just started posting Devlogs as apart of my actual job: youtube.com/@AltaProject2 but I’ll be posting an update to this channel soon with an update on what to expect from Space64 and more soon.

[@AmericanToxin]

Happy birthday! I had an idea for a somewhat of a mini boss that possibly shows up occasionally throughout the game, maybe on every other world, somewhat like the bounty hunters in Jedi Survivor that randomly appear, but instead of bounty hunters they're treasure hunters mainly appearing when you first open/exit the dungeons, looks are up to you but i pictured an alien creature like the Predator almost. Would love to see something like this implemented though, keep up the amazing work!!

[@rio425ee]

I don't think having the players re-access the starting shelf via a different side than they came down from is a great idea, but if that's what you are going to do, some sort of vent that creates an updraft to carry the player gliding right at the middle overhand that in front of the door. Players will naturally want to return to the same place they entered from, and if they can't they will next try the most direct path, which would be that middle ledge, but going to the right side to get back up there wouldn't be intuitive.

[@tlomazina]

Happy Birthday Matt! ❤

[@johnnydaugherty11]

This is legit! I love following the project!

[@Sarimaximus]

You should make sure the player activates the beacon before they leave. it could softlock them from continuing the game if they leave the plateau with the speed boost without activating the beacon with no way of going back. my idea: instead of requiring the speed boost to get to the beacon, you should make them required to leave the small island the beacon is on.

[@VistaLargaGames]

I feel u man. I’m doing one devlog o month from how busy I am. My next project will probably be n64 inspired (visually). My current game/devlog is inspired by the n64 days but not exactly visually. It had a retro modern look to it. But has the game play of the 90’s platformers. Keep up the great work!

[@morgan0]

15:02 dunno if you mention this later on, but if you adjust the opacity based on the dot product of the normal and the camera it would prevent it from being obvious that it’s a texture on a plane, and you could have more that come in and out depending on the viewing angle. also combining this with similar stuff that has dust or such moving downwards would help it really feel alive. could have a dust texture that is multiplied by a light mask so it’s only visible when it’s in the light cone, and then scroll the dust texture over time.

[@mrpastrami7906]

Happy Birthday!

[@electronkaleidoscope5860]

Man this is crazy, I happened across this because I was looking up the old Fyre UK you guys did back in the day and got curious what you guys were up to nowadays. This looks really awesome dude! I adore this whole N64 renaissance we're in, and devlogs like this are incredibly valuable for those of us considering joining in. Excited to see where this goes!

[@firedragon04]

Funny how something I did in my teens and early 20s still sparks interest from so many folks, it’s why I’ve left the FyreUK channel up as an archive of all the work we did. I haven’t touched Minecraft in 8 years or so now and definitely don’t look at it very fondly, like I did when I was much younger. But I’m glad it still brings joy to those who seek it. Glad you found the Devlogs, they’re on a little break right now but planning more soon. Glad you like what you saw too 🙂

[@electronkaleidoscope5860]

@@firedragon04 I really appreciate you guys leaving those up- sorry to hear it became a source of stress but I can also totally see how that happened, I've experience that sort of thing with community creative projects a couple of times myself, though nowhere near on that kind of scale. Oddly enough also in MC come to think of it. I totally understand the impulse of wanting to bury stuff like that, it's very cool of you to have archived it instead- I know I'm not the only one who appreciates it. But yeah take as much time as you need dude, we'll be here. Nearly everything I follow nowadays that's worth following takes years and years to get done lol, that's how you know it's the good shit. :D

[@NotPayton]

happy birthday! 🎂

[@RangelOblivion]

Regarding this problem when colliding with certain objects while walking on sloping surfaces, you could add a function to make the character be slightly pushed back or slip when trying to climb sloping surfaces that he shouldn't be able to climb.

[@tizooky]

Woah, 50 minutes! I'm excited to watch this later when I get home :) Edit: Happy birthday!

[@iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii3048]

This is awesome

[@StiffAftermath]

22:45 - you should make a ramp hugging the wall to an outcropping to showcase this area with the camera forcing this viewpoint until the character moves away from the edge of the outcropping. Maybe these types of vantage points allow the character to make a self-assumed lore entry about what he is seeing.

[@robinHobin]

Happy Very late birthday! We both have June as a birthday month 🎉

[@AdriGomezD]

🎉🎉🎉Happy birthday

[@PhilipPetrunak]

Happy Birthday

[@user-jf2uh6yb2g]

Happy birthday firedragon

[@idc2120]

Hello. For the water issue that material is using the DistanceToNearestSurface node that requires the use of Distance Fields. You need to ensure that your models have distance fields enabled, on UE5 this is on automatically and is generated whenever you import a static mesh. Also check that you are not using any non-uniform scaling as this can give unexpected results with distance fields. I watched your video and you seem to be using fairly large meshes for your environments, this could mean you have a very coarse distance field being generated so its not capturing the details of your map, either increase the resolution of the distance field in the mesh settings or break your environment down into more modular pieces. There also appears to be some prevision loss on the foam as well, likely due to not having a frac after the multiplying of time with speed. Its possible the Time node has accumulated a very large number and is losing float point precision so using a frac will fix this issue as well. The character rotation looks like its to do with the rotation rate on your Movement Component. Make sure there isn't any rotation rate value in the Roll and Pitch, that should ensure your character always remains upright.

[@MeemBeen]

Probably not an unpopular opinion but I think Space 64 is a great name and doesn't feel placeholder at all. Very evocative of the era that you're trying to recreate. Also, 100% feel the walking animation should be permanently changed to the Michigan J. Frog thing the glitch creates. Perfection.

[@liLightaura]

Hair late birthday, looking forward to hearing more about the game development

[@mmmmmmmmmmm10]

Looking amazing, great work on the dropships. Glad you mentioned new environments at the end, because the green and pink environment looks a bit samey to cover a whole planet. On that note it feels like caves wouldnt have much natural light ao wouldnt have the photosynthesis required ro have a green floor, also larger open exanses with less water would be drier than small enclosed open spaces with more water. Seems like in this space there would be atleast a few different floor textures based on light availability and water availability.

[@locksquid749]

Have an happy birthday bro

[@mmmmmmmmmmm10]

25:00 British summer, lol. Come visit northern Australia and you'll truly experience summer. Our summer is 30-45 celcius, our winter is 20-30.

[@firedragon04]

I can't survive if it's hotter than 11 degrees Celsius, I was not born for heat!

[@coneman844]

Happy birthday! I also have an idea, at the other drop pod that crashes you could have a different helmeted version of the main character that didn’t make it sadly but we take the boost and stuff from him, idk if that would be too dark or something, I’m just thinking about what could of happened to the guy that launched the escape pod. Sorry for typing a lot.

[@morgan0]

46:05 would be cool to have a lot of coral in an area where the remaining water is pooling, maybe there’s a river that come in to the area and the coral is grown up all over that, and a lake in the middle which is very deep but mostly filled with coral. also maybe there could be dead coral in higher drier areas which breaks when you walk on it or just randomly over time, to convey that there used to be a lot more water here

[@westingtyler1]

I want to get all these awesome new retro games, like with real box art, real Super Power Guides, and play them. This, Legend 64, and Kaze Emanuar's new Mario 64 romhack, for example. would be great to order a pizza and play some new classic style games.

[@JohnTechG]

hopefully this is still on going o-o

[@firedragon04]

I had to take a break but I’ll post a video updating everyone on everything soon, including my intended return to Devlogs and more Space64 goodness

[@MarathonGuy1337]

Great video loved the design of the life pod. for the Health bar you could pull a Dead Space and have the bar appear on the back of the character, with maybe three colours for the stages of health like Blue for Full, Purple for Medium and Red for near Death, maybe flashing or flickering as well to show the damage to the suit

[@firedragon04]

Yeah I’ve been thinking about that. Not sure how it’ll work because there’s going to be something else on the back of the character I’ll reveal soon…

[@MarathonGuy1337]

@@firedragon04 that could be a problem you could go down the Mass Effect Route and have back items kind of collapse like the Lifepods wings how they collapse into the body of the Lifepod when not in use maybe the weapons or items of the character could collapse in on themselves and leave the centre of the back open for viewing IDK. That is a lot more work however and though sounds simply would probably be a ball-ache in UE

[@morgan0]

22:43 if the water is a mesh, you could use vertex colors to manually set where it has an edge to decide where to show the edge ripples. vertex colors + multiple scrolling low res textures all into some thresholding is the super mario galaxy water method and i think it looks really nice. but of course if you have something move in the water that you want edge ripples on, you’d need to either move vertices or move a texture that’s mapped to that surface. however, for static world geometry, i think it would give more control over what it looks like.

[@StiffAftermath]

Also, 51:35 - Lol I would.

[@lurmirari]

really looking forward to the future updates about this, it really seems great also, it may be too early in development to think about this but, are you doing the music yourself, or are you going to find someone for that? i mention it because this seems the kind of project i'd like to be a part of, particularly since i feel like jet force gemini was one of the inspirations, and jet force gemini was one of the games that made me go "oh, i want to make music for games"

[@TheRealMurderPosse]

Please keep working on the game!

[@firedragon04]

I’ll be posting an update soon (not Devlog) about what’s been going on, it has been crazy. But I just started a new job so should hopefully be able to get back to more regular Devlogs soon. I’ve been trying to keep everyone on the discord updated.

[@THmusic420]

​@@firedragon04im so glad to hear that. This is by far the best devlog on yt. Looking forward to new ones. Wish you the best mate!

[@TheRealMurderPosse]

This project has definitely not left my mind. I keep coming back hoping for more updates. You don't really see many devs making something with this kind of style and care. It has definitely inspired me on my game project. Hope all goes well and your back on soon. 🤘

[@Rand_War]

A small grass sprite would make the ground fee so much more alive

[@BlazeHeartPanther]

HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY FROM ALL OF US TO YOU WE WISH IT WAS OUR BIRTHDAY SO WE CAN PARTY TOO Its great to see you back with another progress video. and also we understand if you will be busy with other stuff like games and such during the summer. You need your free time for sure. Also, yes, make that walk cycle a cheat code. Something like that happened earlier in one of your devlogs and its given me an idea for a name of it. "Michigan J Frog" cause it reminds me of his dance from the Warner Bros short One Froggy Night where he sings "Hello my baby, hello my honey, hello my ragtime gal" Plus it too reminded me of that one Aliens Colonial Marine glitch (out of billions that trainwreck had) where it was walking sideways like that and someone posted the vid with the song playing in the background. So yea, that's my long winded overexplained explanation on why I think it would be nice. Cheat codes in general is such a rare breed nowadays too, they could certainly make a comeback. I know there were some fun little ones in Super Kiwi 64 last year, fun game for a really cheap price if you like Banjo Kazooie styled platformers in bitesize play sessions.

[@morgan0]

51:31 this should totally be a setting you can turn on when replaying the game, but just rotating the model

[@BlazeHeartPanther]

(Singing) "Hello, my baby, hello, my honey. Hello my ragtime gal Send me a kiss by wire, baby my heart's on fire"

[@Bexermite]

im enjoying the series! would you be added cheat codes for the old school flavor?

[@humancollins5626]

You could do a similar thing to dead space with the health bar where it's put on the back of the character

[@SlowMoneyCliff]

Maybe a Dead Space inspired health bar represented somewhere on the space suit? glowing gems similar to the one on the back of the neck?

[@lucien_darkart]

H-Bday!

[@error17_]

Would be cool to go down a spiral staircase formation inside the other big coral you have to make

[@bardiDev]

i noticed that when y walk using controller the character goes kinda slower based on the position of the thumbstick because of the animation blending so i think it will be better to change it into something like 0 for idle 0.5 for walk and 1 for running so it will be more snapy but still smooth and it will look a lot like older ps1 games

[@manashieldworld]

Would you ever sell a course or be willing to provide assistance with games/projects? Your work is amazing and while my game isn't very similar, I'm trying to recreate a lot of the magic you did here.

[@Paul_Ward]

I don't work in unreal, so I can't be sure, but the cube you placed in the water had small surf lines around it, while the terrain has huge surf effects. If I were to hazard a completely uneducated guess, your shader might be set up to read the size of the mesh it's touching and output the size of the shoreline shader effect relative to the mesh size? I know this is little help having no clue how UE computes shaders, but that was my observation and maybe it could unlock something for you. I won't dare to guess the collision glitch, those things are a pain when you're familiar with the engine as it is lol. Good luck with getting them fixed asap!

[@UpperCasePVP]

I'm much more versed in blender than in UR so my advice may be moot, but the water issues look similar to texture scaling problems I've had in the past. Maybe some mismatch between the ripple effect and mesh its placed on?

[@CushionSapp]

What kind of cake are you having?

[@rebekahmarinos2260]

I love watching your videos!! The game looks amazing. Will there ever be new updates?? 😢

[@firedragon04]

Yeah there will be. I had to put a hold on things due to many unforeseen circumstances last year but soon. Soon it shall return!

[@rebekahmarinos2260]

@@firedragon04 Appreciate the reply! Hope all is well and very excited to see future videos!!

[@BaremetalBaron]

@FireDragon04 Ever think about turning this into an actual N64 game? That would be sick. I understand the technical constraints would be tighter (and that you would need to port to a custom engine), but nothing's stopping you from also publishing to the PC. I do think homebrew development for classic consoles, though a niche market, is growing. (I say this as an engineer who is actually learning N64 development)

[@mitchjames9350]

Wil this work on a N64 emulator

[@KingDylanT]

I still like the webbed glider better

[@firedragon04]

I'm still concepting ways that could be used and such, this is also only Devlog 11 of a series I imagine will reach 200 or so videos... who knows where I may bring the webbed glider back and for what.

[@KingDylanT]

@@firedragon04 interesting 🙏🏾

[@C3lticlord]

how's it going?

[@firedragon04]

Update on things soon, long story short - I worked in the AAA game space and well... mass layoffs across the industry messed a lot of plans up. The game is still very much on my mind and I had progressed more with it but yeah life has been a bit crazy recently.

[@theepurpletoaster]

I think the game should have cheats codes, it would give it more old school fun.

[@writingreality]

Where'd you go?

[@firedragon04]

Check the discord. But I'll be releasing a video soon explaining a ton of stuff.

[@muhrifai1895]

Upbge

[@Paul_Ward]

Hey FireDragon04, just dropping a message to see if you're still working on your game. Hope all is well!

[@firedragon04]

I am. Check the discord. A lot has been going on. But I will release a video covering what’s happened soon, but no more Devlogs this year because of some stuff that’s happened.

[@maunoh4659]

The clean version of the escape pod should probably have like the blue lights also on the outside, like lines or something, to make it look even more advanced and little bit less bland.

[@Smiley01987]

Is this running on actual N64 hardware?