Weekly Update - August 2nd, 2019

Hey there, Ghost Hunters!

Welcome to our latest Weekly Update. We’ve been showing off some new content in game for the last few weeks, and we figured we’d continue the trend. Let’s begin, shall we?

When you’re hunting Ghosts, it should feel satisfying to land a direct shot. If you damage them enough, they shatter into a pile of Ghost Crystals. Other Ghosts can actually resurrect that fallen Ghost unless you get rid of the evidence.

Watch Ghost Crystals GIF by MIDNIGHT GHOST HUNT (@midnightghosthunt) on Gfycat. Discover more related GIFs on Gfycat

The Vacuum alternate fire function of the cannon can prevent that from occurring. Simply vacuum up the shards and that Ghost is toast. Of course, unless the clock strikes Midnight…

However, when you destroy an object a Ghost is hiding inside, the physical object will shatter and collapse. The Ghost hiding inside is revealed as the pieces of furniture fall to the floor.

Here’s an example:

Watch Grandfather Destory GIF by MIDNIGHT GHOST HUNT (@midnightghosthunt) on Gfycat. Discover more related GIFs on Gfycat

Every single possessable object has a unique physics destruction that occurs when that object is destroyed. It’s very satisfying, I must say!

In our E3 trailer, you may have noticed the Ghost is destroyed if the object the Ghost is hiding in gets destroyed. We playtested this internally, and determined it’s more fun if the Ghosts get another chance to escape.

However, the Ghost that pops out of a shattered object will be very weak and just needs one more shot to destroy them.

Always hunt with a buddy to ensure at least one of you has remaining battery on your weapon when the vulnerable Ghost is forced out! If not, they may escape and find a new object to hide in.

But I urge caution upon your Ghost Hunting adventure. Sometimes the Ghosts inside aren’t always going to try and run away…

Watch Red Ghost Short GIF on Gfycat. Discover more cofee stain, indie dev, indie game, midnight ghost hunt GIFs on Gfycat

That’s it for this week, Ghost Hunters

Thanks for checking out our Weekly Update! We hope this content showcase is getting you excited for the upcoming Alpha Test! Expect a date announcement in the next few weeks!

Until next time, Ghost Hunters.

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Weekly Update - July 26th, 2019

Hey There, Ghost Hunters!

Welcome to another weekly update. A quick shout-out to our Twitter, we post daily content that ranges from memes to in-development screenshots and clips. Check it out!

Last week, we showcased some new animations for our Ghost character. We’d like to continue that trend and show the latest and greatest with you now.

This is our new spawn animation that plays whenever a Ghost pops out of an object, or otherwise materializes into the Ghost's true form.

Watch Midnight Ghost Hunt - New Spawn Animation GIF by Midnight Ghost Hunt (@ienjoywhiskey) on Gfycat. Discover more destiny2 GIFs on Gfycat

At first I thought it might be a little over-the-top, might be one of our most vibrant animations. But after dropping in it into the game, it’s grown on me.

I think it really helps separate the movement / identity / vibe of the Ghosts from the Hunters - they move entirely differently, and seem to defy physics/reality, unlike the heavy, loud, clunky Hunters.

Looking at it again, it may transition too quickly to to the idle animation - going to go smooth that out right now! But overall I think the idea is working. Let me know what you think on Discord!

There's a lot more where this came from, too - a lot of cool new stuff to discover when the test is ready.

Speaking of Discord - you may have noticed there is a new face in the Dev Team role. Our sound designer and composer Dennis Filatov has joined our Discord and plans to be active with the community.

In addition to all sound design for the project, Dennis and his partner also wrote and performed the music for our E3 trailer.

Make sure to check out his Soundcloud and show him some love!

Let’s take a moment to listen to the lovely track again, shall we?

That’s it for this week, Ghost Hunters!

Thanks for checking out our update! We hope all these previews and new content is getting you excited for the next Alpha test! We have an announcement in the works… stay tuned for that.

Until next time, Ghost Hunters.

Weekly Update - July 19th, 2019

Hey there, Ghost Hunters!

We’ve been working hard behind the scenes. We know you all want keys.

They’re coming soon. We hope to actually have a date for you soon - discussions are taking place.

In the meantime, we appreciate your patience, friends!

Ha, you missed!

Ha, you missed!

This week we wanted to show off some new animations for our Ghosts.

As you may remember from the E3 teaser, the Ghost runs like any normal person would. In fact, as some people noticed, we were using the default Unreal walk cycle.

Definitely not ideal, of course. I can explain!

Well, out of all of our walk cycles we had at our disposal, the sad truth is that the default walk cycle was the best one. The others looked wrong. I also did not have an animator to build one from scratch.

However - we do now!

Enter: floating scary ghost.

Moves a little bit more like a Ghost, at least, right?

It’s pretty scary when a Ghost comes flying out of a door or something with this pose - I must admit.

Let us know what you think!

Well, that wraps it up for this week! Thanks for tuning in, Ghost Hunters!

Till next week,

Your friend

Kite

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Weekly Update - July 12th, 2019

Hey there everyone! Kite here.

I’m going to use this week’s update to put out some feelers. We’re looking for someone in particular to join Team MGH and help us battle the ghosts.

Here’s a little job description.

Vaulted Sky Games is looking for an experienced Unreal Engine 4 multiplayer/networking C++ Programmer!

We’re working on a game called Midnight Ghost Hunt with Coffee Stain Publishing, check out our E3 teaser here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gApWHZ_vXhQ

We’re hoping to find an experienced UE4 C++ programmer that has shipped multiplayer title(s). 

Tasks may include:

  • Optimizing replication / network traffic

  • Helping implement and configure multiplayer server backends, linux servers, scaling cloud dedicated servers, etc.

  • Refactoring Blueprint to C++

Experience implementing gameplay mechanics and just general UE4 C++ & blueprint knowledge would be a plus!

As we do not have a physical office, this job will be remote. The job would be project-based at first but could evolve to longer-term work.

If you would like to apply or request more info, please reach out to:

contact@vaultedskygames.com

Or DM me on Discord:

VaultedSkyKite#0001

About Vaulted Sky:

We are a new and very small indie games studio with a love for multiplayer experiences.

We think the very best gaming experiences can be derived from engaging with others all around the world, connecting and sharing in our favorite form of escapism.

We also intend to prove that compelling games can be created by a small team that can quickly adapt and incorporate new ideas as they arrive.

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Weekly Update - July 5th, 2019

Hello friends! Kite here again.

Welcome to the latest MGH Weekly Update!

4 minutes to Midnight! I wonder why the Hunters don’t show up at like 9PM instead? They’d certainly have more time to destroy all the Ghosts!

4 minutes to Midnight! I wonder why the Hunters don’t show up at like 9PM instead? They’d certainly have more time to destroy all the Ghosts!

Progress is picking up on the next alpha test. I spent some time at home to visit with family after E3 to decompress after the crazy run-up to E3 (I didn’t sleep much!).

But now my batteries are recharged, I’m back at my desk and we’re starting to really make some solid steps!

One thing in particular I wanted to confirm that was a massively requested feature last alpha - we’ve added a number of new options to configure the game to your liking.

  • Field of View slider

  • Motion blur slider

    • Motion blur might have been a tad high on our previous alpha!

  • Mouse sensitivity slider

  • Mouse invert settings

  • Key rebind system that is categorized sensibly

    • Previously it was hard-coded in UE4 to be alphabetical.

    • Now we’ve got all Ghost keybinds under the Ghost category, etc.

  • Keybinding reset to default button

    • We had one before but it required a restart which was not ideal. Turns out this is a somewhat tricky thing to implement!

  • Volume control

The old, ugly, old options menu. You can see the lack of options in our options.

The old, ugly, old options menu. You can see the lack of options in our options.

We were always planning on doing this kind of stuff closer to release once the gameplay itself was closer to final, but we bumped it up in priority so we don’t alienate any players who rely on these settings to play and therefore receive relevant feedback!

Let us know on our game suggestions channel on Discord if you think of anything else that we should consider for the alpha test in terms of control/video customization.

As we mentioned before, too, there will be a new option for ultra low graphics that will improve performance significantly on older hardware or integrated graphics. It won’t look very pretty, but we want to make sure that everyone can try it out.

I can also confirm that there’s a ton of new juicy sounds coming in from our dear friend Dennis.

Ambiance, foley, UI sounds, the whole thing will have quite the makeover from the previous test! And if you didn’t play the previous test, well you’ll be taken aback by how good everything sounds! :)

We’re trying to record a lot of unique sounds for various objects so that each prop you can possess really feels meaningfully different audio-visually as well as in a gameplay sense.

Although Kite is clearly a refrigerator main, he is known for his guitar antics as well. Anyway, here’s Wonderwall.

Although Kite is clearly a refrigerator main, he is known for his guitar antics as well. Anyway, here’s Wonderwall.

For example, if you hurl a Guitar at a Hunter, you’ll hear the sound of a guitar kwa-wanging and explode! Phones have a unique sound as well, and many more. Having nice punchy and believable sounds will certainly help the game feel more physical and impactful when a lamp hits you in the face.

And at the end of the day, that’s all that really matters.

That’s it for this week - in the coming weeks we’ll continue to share what we are working on!

Cheers!
-Kite

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Weekly Update - June 27th, 2019

Hey all! Kite here.

This week I thought we’d do a little background on the new weapon that we premiered with our E3 teaser trailer.

vd551Yz.gif

We’re calling it the Spiral Cannon for now. As the name suggests, it fires these spiral energy shells that damage Ghost-possessed objects.

Part lawn mower, part motorcycle, part vacuum cleaner, part deadly laser cannon - 100% dangerous!

Part lawn mower, part motorcycle, part vacuum cleaner, part deadly laser cannon - 100% dangerous!

Check out more detailed renders of the design over at Felix’s Artstation!

In a future weekly update, we will break down the visual design behind the weapon and other gadgets currently in development — stay tuned for that!

This week, though, let’s talk about how the weapon works in-game.

The Spiral Cannon is designed to be somewhat aim/timing dependent, although not extremely so. Near misses will incur some splash damage, and a direct hit will do a decent chunk of damage. This encourages smaller and more fragile Ghost-possessed objects to try to zig-zag around and move erratically in order to minimize damage. It’s a bit more dynamic and interesting than the previous default weapon.

Larger, slow props will have much more health and can tank some direct hits, but fragile and small, fast objects can only take 2-3 hits or so. It’s helpful to take this into consideration when picking which objects to hide inside.

As a prop accumulates damage, they will start to show visible glowing cracks. When HP is reduced to 0, the Ghost hiding inside the object will shatter into a pile of ghost crystals.

A fellow Ghost can still resurrect their fallen comrade while they are in their crystal form - although it is risky to attempt, as you will be exposing yourself.

LiQM6PV.gif

However, a Hunter can “confirm the kill” and deny resurrections by vacuuming up the crystals. It’s the alternate fire function of the weapon, as seen above!

Vacuuming up Ghost crystals can be risky, because it locks the Hunter into place and takes some time to complete, make sure you have someone watching your back! There may just be a Ghost in that room that left the crystals intact to lure you inside…

This mechanic is similar to how Hunter resurrections work - knocked out Hunters can be revived by fellow Hunters (before Midnight, at least) - but the resurrection can be denied if a Ghost consumes the soul of the knocked out Hunter. Again, this is a risky play for the Ghosts because they become exposed, but it can be effective if the Hunters fail to work as a team and roam around the map as a group.

These mechanics, among others, are designed to encourage movement and some stealthy gameplay for the Ghosts, as opposed to just hiding in one spot the entire match — which isn’t much fun!

We are planning on having several additional primary weapons introduced into the game with varying ranges, strengths and weaknesses, although this next alpha test will likely only include this weapon alongside the gadgets. Let us know in our suggestions channel on our Discord what other cool concepts you would like to see explored!

Let us know what you think of the new weapon, and stay tuned for news regarding the next alpha test!

Until next time friends,

Kite out.

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Weekly Update - June 21st, 2019

Hey there, Ghost Hunters! 👻

This weeks update is update is flyin’ towards ya, so grab your Cannon… and watch out for the chairs.

Set em up… and knock em down.

Set em up… and knock em down.

Yesterday, we won the Unreal Engine E3 Award in the Underdog category! Thank you so much to the team at Epic for the recognition. It’s an honor to have been chosen when the category was filled with some lovely games. We’re proud to be a part of the UE4 community.

We’re all about “small team, big dreams” - we think that a compelling gaming experience can be achieved with a tiny team working together efficiently.

Although Kite worked alone on MGH for the first year of production, last July we acquired funding. Kite started slowly putting a team together to finish the game, while still keeping it very small and nimble.

I wanted to take some time to shoutout each member of the MGH development team!

Samuel Malone (aka Kite) - Twitter
Lead Developer / Programmer / 3D Artist
Started developing MGH in mid-2017 in his spare time after working in TV visual effects in Hollywood. Acquired funding mid last year in order to expand the team slightly to give the project a better chance at success.

Samuel Burton (aka Birdm’n) - Twitter
Programmer
Also known as Birdm’n, Samuel Burton joined last July to help refactor some of Kite’s spaghetti Blueprint code into efficient C++. He’s helped implement some key features like the killcam instant replay system and the Ghost ram/arc system.
You may also remember him as the one that gave out keys one-by-one on Discord during the DreamHack Winter alpha test in December 2018. A true warrior, I must say.

Felix Waubert de Puiseau - Artstation, Twitter
3D Artist
We brought on Felix a few months ago to start improving our 3D art assets. He designed, modeled, textured, rigged, and animated the new Hunter weapon seen in the E3 teaser. A man of many talents!
He also did the same for our new backpack and radar designs.
Expect to see all of the Hunter gear/gadgets redesigned to look amazing in the coming months!

Dennis Filatov - Instagram, Soundcloud
Sound Designer / Composer
Dennis came on board earlier this year to help make the game sound amazing. All those juicy ghost explosions, cannon fire, radar crackles, all that stuff sounds as good as it looks.
In addition, Dennis worked with music partner Inez Kontio (together they are Ghostwood Empire) to compose the lovely song we used in our E3 trailer. (Where Are You? - Ghostwood Empire)
They did such a great job, so expect some more music from them in the game going forward.

Lastly but certainly not least, a huge shoutout to everyone at Coffee Stain who has helped us make this project a reality with all their support.

Before we sign off this week, I wanted to just throw this out there:

In the coming weeks, we may be looking for an Unreal Engine multiplayer / network programming expert to help us implement a dedicated server backend such as Gamelift, as well as optimize our network traffic. General UE4 optimization knowledge (Blueprint -> C++ refactoring, GPU optimizations, etc) is a big bonus.

We will post a proper job description soon, but if this strikes your fancy, please reach out to any of the devs on Discord, or on our contact form at Vaulted Sky Game’s website.

That’s it for this week, Ghost Hunters.

Tune in next week, where we will go over some gameplay changes some of you may have spotted in the E3 teaser if you played during either of our 2 previous alpha tests.

Until next time, Ghost Hunters. 👻

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Weekly Update - June 14th, 2019

HEY THERE GHOST HUNTERS!

Welcome to the Weekly Update!

Kite here - Lead Developer on Midnight Ghost Hunt! I wanted to take a moment to welcome everyone who joined our growing community this week. Thanks so much for checking it out, and I can’t wait to play the game with you all!

So, this week, let’s give a little recap of the super eventful week we had for anyone who missed it.

MIDNIGHT GHOST HUNT is a ghostly hide-and-seek multiplayer game! SIGN UP FOR ALPHA: http://midnightghosthunt.com Developed by Vaulted Sky Games, Published by Coffee Stain Publishing Play as either Ghosts or Ghost Hunters. The Ghosts hide inside inconspicuous furniture and hurl themselves at invading Hunters.

We premiered our new teaser trailer at the E3 PC Gaming Show on Monday!

It was such a great feeling to finally show everyone what we’ve been working on since the last alpha test.

I even made a guest appearance on the E3 stage, interviewed by the magnificent Day9 himself!

Midnight Ghost Hunt is a 4v4 prop hunt game with a spooky twist: the props, which are possessed by ghosts, can fight back! Read more here: https://www.pcgamer.com/midnight-ghost-hunt-is-a-4v4-prop-hunt-where-the-props-fight-back/

At the same time, we also announced our publishing partnership with Coffee Stain!

Coffee Stain is an awesome indie publishing label that has a specialty in these quirky and viral games - they are a perfect fit for this project and I’m thrilled to be working with them.

Some Coffee Stain folks will likely start arriving in our Discord in the coming weeks, make sure you give them all your love!

We’ve been so lucky to have a lot of positive buzz about the game since our announcement - there’s a bunch of great articles and interviews out on the net, feel free to check them out.

Here’s a great article written by Christopher Livingston over at PC Gamer!

Most recently, we’ve also been nominated for an Unreal E3 Award under the ‘Unreal Underdog’ category!

This category recognizes really small teams that do their best to make a big splash at the big show.
We’re so honored to be considered for the award along with these other lovely games!

Well, that’s it for this week - next week we’ll break down the new trailer! If you played any of the previous alpha tests, you may have noticed a number of new fancy equipment or mechanics.

We’ll dig into it next week, and maybe show some cool concept art!

Stay cool, Ghost Hunters!

-Kite