DevLog 3 – Creating an Atmospheric Environment

Hello again, Cultists!

It’s time for another DevLog, where we would like to share more about our approach to creating an atmospheric environment and how we plan to make Forgive Me Father’s world even more alive. If you ever wonder how we’re making our FPS look so comic-like or want to learn more about how we create models, then dive in!

Forgive Me Father 2 will jump into Early Access on October 19th and has a demo now!

Through the game, players will explore a variety of unique areas and locations, where every level brings its own atmosphere and visuals. Environments in Forgive Me Father 2 combine dark, mysterious themes with a somewhat colorful palette to enrich the comic-like experience of the game. Our goal is to not only build an even more immersive world, but also shape new ways players can interact with objects.

When it comes to the sequel, we go beyond the framework of flat comic book textures with more complex and detailed models made using the PBR approach. We aim to create stylized textures while mixing them with the roughness and metalness maps to add more depth to the meshes. Imagine playing Forgive Me Father as diving into a graphic novel where the story is told by every material, shape, and detail that you experience while uncovering this mysterious and malevolent world.

But that’s not all. We decided not to use normal maps while creating materials to not only better optimize the game, but also because that’s extremely helpful when you try to keep the meshes from looking too realistic. Another thing worth mentioning is that following this particular process streamlines the development, as we don’t make any high-poly meshes to further bake them into low-poly meshes.

How to make a comic-like style even more comic-like?

Environments in the sequel also get an upgrade thanks to edge outlines, which may be very familiar to those who have played other stylized games. Any kind of edge, sharp corner, or difference in depth means it will get an inky outline. That procedure makes level geometry more interesting to look at and goes extremely well with hand-drawn textures and enemies. Levels will feel like diving into a graphic novel more than ever, but judge for yourself!

Making the world come to life

Okay, but looks are not everything, right? While creating Forgive Me Father’s world, our goal is to build an immersive experience, not only by creating a unique comic visual style and setting a dark, Lovecraftian atmosphere, but also by making the world feel alive. Whether players wander through dangerous port streets or fight to death with eternal evil in some place beyond imagination; we always want there to be an interactive object, something they can click or shoot, just for fun.

Having thrilling combat or a breathtaking art style is definitely important, but adding these small things, like spinning signs, can make games even better and more exciting. We believe that every little interaction with the environment makes players feel like the world they’re immersing themselves in is living on its own. Not to mention that sometimes these actions make for the most memorable moments in games.

That’s all for now! Thank you for reading and make sure to wishlist Forgive Me Father 2 if you haven’t done it already and try the DEMO that’s available on Forgive Me Father 2’s Store Page. Don’t forget to drop by our Discord to chat with us and other players as well!

Until next time,
Byte Barrel team

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2272250/Forgive_Me_Father_2/