Defragmented Devlog #2 news

Defragmented has undergone some major visual changes over the last few weeks. All kinds of fancy effects and visual nuances were added to spice up the experience. Being in pre-alpha, there's still plenty of room for improvement on visual style, but this was a huge step in the right direction.

If you compare screenshots before this update to some of the images in this post, you'll notice some major changes. The game has received a number of post-processing effects such as ambient occlusion, bloom and lens flares, motion blur on the camera, and more. To accompany these high-performance effects, shadows and anti-aliasing have been beefed up as well. While none of these have a direct effect on the gameplay, they certainly enhance the experience for those with adequate graphics cards. As you'd expect, you will be able to toggle these features in the options menu. I intend to support the game on a wide variety of machines from low-end to cutting-edge with settings available for each.

You'll also notice in these screenshots a few things that go beyond simple visual effects. Highlighting shaders have been added to key pieces of each level. Players and enemies will be highlighted according to their status, even changing with environmental factors. In addition, all items and interactable scenery such as chests will also be highlighted. This allows the player to quickly and distinctly make out key points in each level while dealing with the lightning-fast action.

A first-pass on the UI also came to fruition recently. It's certainly not a finalized look for the in-game UI, but it gives a good sense of where things are headed. Like any good action RPG, your key stats such as: health, credits, ammo, and more are displayed in a simplified UI. The player will then be able to go in to more detailed menus to see everything in-depth.

Expect lots more exciting news on Defragmented in the future - stay tuned!