AbsentLog posts
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Important notice for Dev Update 12/15/25
Heads up everyone! We wanted to give a heads up, you may have noticed that the past 2 weeks updates and progress had been slow, and unfortunately we will need to postpone this months dev update, as familial obligations, day work, and holiday travel has made it near impossible for us to get substantial content ready to showcase recently. As you know, ALOGs development happens primarily in our spare time, and Instead of putting out half baked work, we decided to wrap this months dev update with next months, and will do a longer more content heavy...
ABSENT LOG Dev Update 10/15/2025
This month's update we want to talk a bit more about some of the progress we’ve made with implementing some of our world planning, updates to level structure and how that affects our asset pipeline, and introduce a few exciting new concepts!As mentioned before, a lot of our base mechanics are functional, with the last update focusing more on us wrapping up the final parts needed for our weapon component system for the player. Enemy AI is at a passable state, interactive systems are working as intended, UI elements are functioning both for...
ABSENT LOG Dev Update 10/15/2025
This month's update We take a deep dive into wrapping up our weapon systems, and the introduction of a new weapon type, Gadgets.The month of October tends to be a bit hectic for us, as we both have alot of personal affairs to attend to, whether it be inktober, familial matters, traveling, upcoming holiday planning, etc…, It doesn't leave us much time to get significant progress done on the project. That being said, we wanted to make sure that we didn't show up empty handed for this update.The main focus is going to be Gadgets as a...
ABSENT LOG Dev Update 9/15/2025
This month's update is a little narrow in scope, as the majority of the work the last month was focused on getting a lot of backend systems refined, various bug fixing, and paying off a good chunk of technical debt. So the main project updates section should be a bit beefy this go around.However, one thing we are finally very excited to show you all is our progress on the CONCOURSE level.This is a case of a lot of work that’s been built up slowly over the last couple of months. This is far from a final tally of general level assets for Co...
ABSENT LOG Dev Update 8/15/2025
This month we are excited to showcase some further work on Residential!“ Concourse is our big high priority item at the moment, but a bit more time is needed to showcase substantial updates. So as Tekka continues his work on concourse, I have been diligently working on a handful of visual improvements and animation reworks, most notably movement and weapon handling. Alongside these updates, I have been knocking out some general assets here and there that would be good to have. Certain furniture and detail items, such as couches, tables, wall ...
ABSENT LOG Dev Update 7/15/2025
We are in full swing for getting the first wave of our campaign level assets ready to go!Last month we took a look at Maintenance, and the direction we’ve decided to go with that. As those modular assets are nearing completion and in the polish phase, we are starting to turn our eyes to what's going to be immediately needed for the second level of the campaign, Dock/Concourse.“Tekka has mostly been taking charge of the Dock/Concourse level, and I'm moving back into a more support role for it. My main goal is to build up ambient prop...
ABSENT LOG Dev Update 6/15/2025
The past month we have been locked in almost exclusively on getting out assets for maintenance done. So we are a bit sparse of new raw content, or significant bug fixes, to show off.Regardless, it's still good to keep things up to date and give you guys a deeper dive into what's going on behind the scenes. As mentioned at the start, Maintenance has been our biggest priority. Although maintenance is not a singular level, it is a set of assets that will be present throughout the majority of the ship, especially within sections where level...
ABSENT LOG Dev Update 5/15/2025
This month we want to show off our process for creating modular world assets.One of the biggest bottlenecks we’ve come across when it comes to the game dev process is levels. This makes sense, as it's arguably the star of many games. It is the single piece of content you interact with for almost the entirety of game time. A Lot of moving components go into levels, art, design, testing, functionality, fun, lighting, AI navigation, Player accessibility.Creating assets for levels, more specifically, the actual room components such as walls, ...
ABSENT LOG Dev Update 4/15/2025
This month we want to take a deep look into one of the main campaign levels we've been hard at work on lately. The residential / commerce sector serves as the main living space, market, entertainment and cultural center of the crew. As mentioned in the last update, a key aspect of the visuals for the ship and really this level in particular, was to press on the fact that the crew of this ship would not be on board for a few weeks, but oftentimes years. Therefore, the crew would really live their lives on this ship. Residential gives us an o...
ABSENT LOG Dev Update 3/15/2025
This month We want to share with you all some progress on world planning, and give a deeper look into our thought process and goals for how we want to present the world, specifically, the playable spaces of Absent Log!As we started getting close to finalizing our prologue level, we began frequently bumping into each other's work, passing one needed piece of content to the other, then waiting for that to be completed and passed back. After some discussion we came to the conclusion that now that a lot of our base mechanics are functional and ...
ABSENT LOG Dev Update 2/15/2025
Last month we talked a little bit about our puzzle and level structure and what we want to accomplish with that, and hopefully you’ve had a chance to try out a small taste with the playtest build. Since the last update, our focus was two fold, get a playtest demo out the door, and immediately jump onto major bug fixes and refinements of the most egregious issues that came from that. As a result, there wasn’t much work done in terms of new raw content for the game so this update should be fairly brief and straightforward. The feedback we hav...
ABSENT LOG Dev Update 1/15/2025
It's a new year and time for a new update!This month, it's all hands on deck and we are jumping right into the thick of it. Our big focus is finally getting a playable greybox demo out the doors so that we can finally start gauging feedback. So far, the demo is about 70% complete, and consists of 3 explorable floors, secret area, various traps and enemy encounters, and 3 weapons from our roster. The general purpose of this playtest demo is not so much to be a bonafide, official gameplay demo per say, but rather as the term describes, a ...
ABSENT LOG 2024 A Year In Review + 12/15/24 Dev Update
Christmas is fast approaching, and we are counting down the last final weeks of 2024!Looking back at the start of 2024, It marked a fairly important time for us. It was the official launch of our community discord, and us going fully public with the development of Absent Log. We also view it as the year that ALOG genuinely entered full development. Since then we've made quite a few leaps in our development, despite some of the technical pitfalls.(Earliest art of TW and Absent Log as a whole, done in late 2021 during our early planning)It...
ABSENT LOG Dev Update 11/15/2024
This month, we're gonna get a bit more technical than usual.Being that the holidays are coming up, it's going to be a bit harder to get a lot of pure content knocked out quickly, and to tackle big development items that are considered heavy time sinks. so we decided to tackle 2 big things, firstly, start getting the backlog of concepts made into game-ready assets, and to fully plan out and start developing how our save system and campaign progression will work, as we near completion of our first level.WHAT IS THE PLAN FOR A SAVE GAME SY...
Overlande Gard Short Sword Poll
DING DING DING!New poll coming around! we've asked you, our top tier supporters, to vote on which design for the Overlande Gardes short sword you'd like to see in game!Now be open and be honest! we cant have ties here. Go with your gut!(Voting closes on 10/18/2024)
ABSENT LOG Dev Update 10/15/2024
In this month's update we give some much needed love for our boys in blue, getting our AI closer to a viable state!Looking back at our previous build from last year, we thought long and hard about what we had originally developed, and given this recent chance to start fresh we really want to capitalize on that to nail down the ultimate feel for the finalized project. We had mentioned this before, but with the renewed focus for combat and general movement being slower and more tactical, Enemy AI needed to reflect this vision.Before, Mandrone...
ABSENT LOG Dev Update 9/15/2024
This month we started taking a hard look at one of the mechanics we discussed early on when we first started the project: zero-G, space walk sections, as well as a new room for our first opening level, which is nearing its level layout completion!Gravity is something that plays a significant part in how some of our game play systems will be structured, and is also something we wanted to implement into how we are handling our level flow and storytelling. Being that the game takes place on a derelict spacecraft, having some sections where you are...
ABSENT LOG Dev Update 8/15/2024
This month we have made tremendous strides in a number of development areas. Most notably Enemy AI, combat mechanics, animations, and further progress on some of our opening sequences and levels.A Lot of work for animations and combat mechanics was really to refine a few of TW’s movement options to allow a deeper, more substantial way to fight against enemies. As we start to get closer and closer to the right pace of combat and movement speed, we can now get a better idea on how to create abilities that allow a deeper, tighter experience that...
Med-Aide Hypostim Poll
DING DING DING!New poll coming around! we've asked you, our top tier supporters, to vote on which design for the Med-Aide Hypostim you'd like to see in game!Now be open and be honest! we cant have ties here. Go with your gut!(Voting closes on 7/18/2024)
ABSENT LOG Dev Update 7/15/2024
This month we continue our focus on fleshing out the starting area of our campaign, with a key emphasis on establishing the tone and mood for this area. The starting area, temporarily dubbed “TW & Huey’s ship”, not only acts as the starting point of the game, but also serves as a “safe zone”, a form of hub where the player can retreat to if needed to store items, tune or modify equipment, plan areas of the world ship they would want to approach, and review logs or other data they have retrieved. When discussing the purpose of the ship...
ABSENT LOG Dev Update 6/15/2024
This month we finally get back into our regular flow of updates and progress. Recovery has been completed and we have been able to grab everything which could be salvaged from our old build, which was nearly all of our art assets, bar a few textures and the crewman officer model. Since our last update, we have been hyper focusing on rebuilding all of our base mechanics and systems, and establishing a lightweight, modular, and easy to understand framework for the rest of our game content. With a renewed focus, and cleaner code. Making changes or...
STATUS OF ALOG / Dev update 5/15/24
ABSENT LOG Dev Update 5/15/2024Well. It’s been a week, hasn't it.I’m sure you’re all wondering what had happened, and why we’ve been reluctant to disclose much about it until now.But after triage, assessment, and recovery, we have a decent idea of what had happened and are confident enough in our plan moving forward that we can share.WHAT HAPPENED?From what we understand, Some time between the 14th and the 15th, our main development machine had downloaded a windows update in the background that we were unaware of.On the 16th, we wer...
ABSENT LOG Dev Update 4/15/2024
The main focus for this past month was to really nail down the workflow for levels and related assets. A lot of different specialist skills stem from this key area of development. Being that the entire game takes place in an enclosed spacecraft, interior lighting and strategic prop/asset placement is key. Documenting this process has been instrumental in establishing a baseline for optimization of assets and content. We were able to implement a few new things we've learned like streamlining seamless trim sheets, using material slots for key...
ABSENT LOG Dev Update 3/15/2024
For this month's update, we decided to pivot from bug fixing and mechanics implementation to get a few steps ahead in our level design and asset endeavors. The main focus for this cycle was to nail down a finalized plan for TW and Huey’s ship, and immediately jump in to getting the block outs and level assets built. We carefully thought about placing each room, deck and hallway in a manner that would be sensible, rather than just, scaling each to fit wherever there was space. An observation deck would obviously need to be at a location th...
ABSENT LOG Dev Update 2/15/2024
We march onward in our perilous development Journey! Since our last update, we’ve had a rough go of it, lots of sickness has ravaged through the team and we have been a bit held down as a result, so a few items we wanted to make into this update unfortunately didn't make it, most notably, updated attack animations for the sparkjack, and hotkey weapon swapping. However, we are starting to fulfill content to be implemented in game, from an ever growing backlog of work. This update, we bring a first look at some of the beginning groundwork o...
Playtest Build for 1/15/24
Playtest build has been updated and is now accessibleYou can play here:https://drive.google.com/file/d/1a3UMc9jBZlsmLTLkBl6oYXAwkvMXLLMy/view?usp=sharing
Dev Update fix
Attention!There was a catastrophic failure on my part where i had assumed Patreon saved my changes to the dev update post last night, apparently it didn't and almost ll the content we were working on was missing.Ive edited and fixed the post and all that content should be viewable now. I apologize for the inconvenience.
SparkJack Redesign Poll
DING DING DING!Our first official round of voting! To christen this spectacular event, we've asked you, our top tier supporters, to vote on which design for the Spark Jack you'd like to see in game!Now be open and be honest! we cant have ties here. Go with your gut!(Voting closes on 1/18/2024)
ABSENT LOG Dev Update 1/15/2024
The holidays are finally past us, and the new year has begun! We are excited for a productive and positive year, and we hope you all had a great time with your family and friends.Now that we are starting to get more situated with the project, we’ve hit a much better flow of work and progress, and we are able to start getting an idea on how to tackle high priority items. Alot of combat and game play systems are hitting a temporary refinement stage, and the main focus is definitely going to be on building assets for game use. This month's u...
ABSENT LOG Dev Update 12/15/2023
We are excited to present our first official Dev update!Christmas is fast approaching, and we at Brian Box 015 would like to get in early and wish everyone a merry merry Christmas! We hope you are looking forward to warm times with friends and family!Due to us launching our schedule late into our update cycle, This update is going to be short, sweet, and free for everyone, as we only had about a week to get things ready. Starting in January we will begin our regular update cycle. On the 15th of each month we will provide the update and playtest...
