Happy Sunday everyone and welcome to our weekly update on Dead Heat!

Shadow Issues

This week has seen a lot of issues, mainly with the implementation of shadows. Originally, we thought that this would be easy, we have shaded sprites so the light will dynamically affect the characters and world. Creating and implementing normal maps to make the shaders more dynamic would have been easy with tools such as SpriteIlluminator and TexturePacker.

But like everything else with this project, it was never going to be easy. We encountered a fatal bug when enabling lighting on both the characters and light sources which crashed Unity after only a few seconds. This was frustrating in the nth degree, especially when we found out that there was not much we could really do, as it was an issue with Unity and not something we could fix on our end. We could only wait until a patch was released or we find another solution to shadows that circumnavigate this bug. Hopefully, we will be able to overcome this next week.

Not wanting to waste time, we decided to return to work on the conversation system and its dialogue highlight component. The goal is to replicate what we had in the original GM demo with intractable text opening up new dialogue paths that when followed in the right way, allow the player to override their opponent and make them susceptible to your suggestion.

This week, I want to talk about the highlight system in more depth, explain how it will work and how it is a mechanical adaptation of Film Noir's dialogue.

The Highlight System

Film Noir is renown for its snappy, sharp and quick-witted dialogue. So much that many films, games or TV shows that incorporate other staples of the genre such as moody lighting, Femme Fatales, cities at night or dark story themes that do not include such dialogue, are often considered not Noir. An opinion I don't 100% agree with, as another aspect of Noir; the city as a living character in the story is just as important for a story to be Noir.

Noir dialogue is best described as what you would say if you could get away with saying what you really think. Unencumbered by politeness and driven by a mental plan to snake your way into another man's mind. Taking their words and weaving a rejoinder out of them to fit your aim. In a story where everyone could be out to get you or toy with you for their own ends, the way to survive is to toy with them. That is how Dead Heat's dialogue must be.

This system took a lot of thought and planning to get right, taking in every element of conversation, watching and re-watching the most famous examples of Noir to note down the key defining trait, and how we could possibly adapt it into a workable and enjoyable mechanic for the player to use. One that makes the player feel like a Noir detective.

The thought process behind the mechanic is that when listening to someone speak, our mind selects a word from their speech and build a response around it, skewing it towards your intentions. 

An example; say you are talking to someone about their day. They say they went to get some eggs before going home. The word "eggs" is a subject, and you can build your response around it. Or you could focus on "home" and build a response out of that. If you wanted to focus on seducing your egg buying friend, you could spin the word "home" into an invitation. Before long, you'll have committed infidelity and meet your grizzly end by jumping off a rail cart to avoid trigger men hired by an irate husband.

Of course, seduction is only one way to manipulate someone through dialogue. Other appeals to emotion can be employed such as appeals to empathy, bargaining information for something of value, or just plain simple intimidation.

Conversation, like most elements of Dead Heat, is impacted by variables. Such as whether you are playing as Sonja or Lilith, what your reputation is and who you are talking to. Seduction is great when it works, but some might not be interested if you are a Zombie. On the flip side, some humans may have a thing for Zombies and so Seduction dialogue as Lilith may be applicable. Empathy is also affected by who is talking, some may be less convinced by your sympathy if you come from the other side of a conflict. Empathy will also have a higher risk/reward as successfully convincing someone distraught of your sympathy will make them much more malleable. Just wonderful human beings in this game!

bargaining is another kettle of fish. Pulling this off will require investigating the opponent's background. Their history, situation and dwelling to find what they want most in this world (aside from sex) that you can offer them. This can be evidence you have in your possession or an item to retrieve, making this the simplest way of convincing someone. intimidation is the less subtle approach, using threats of violence to get your way. If Lilith, this can be very effective against a human or lesser zombie with no way of defending themselves, but against an equally strong hunter or as Sonja. You may find it hard to impress anyone.

An aspect of the system that did not make it into the old demo was "verbal jousting"; a timed combination of options in the correct order will result in a win. The dialogue equivalent of an ultra combo best encapsulated in this scene from The Big Sleep.

Fast-paced, provocative and leaves no room for Vivian to respond, and when she does, she betrays a little part of herself to Marlow.
The reason this mechanic was not included in the original demo was that I wasn't yet satisfied in its implementation as a mechanic, it needed a few more weeks on the drawing board before I felt comfortable enough to include it in a demo, but by that time we were moving from GM to Unity. For the best, as AC includes a timing mechanic toolset for us to use in building the jousting element.

We will most likely be talking about this mechanic further in future Sunday devlogs. We hope this has shed a little more light on the highlight system we will be implementing into the new demo very soon.

Thank you for reading! Please follow us on Twitter @saxonbristol for daily updates on the games progress!