Thank you for joining us for 72nd edition of our Ready or Not development briefing, April 12th, 2024!

Today we're doing an early overview discussion of how our first piece of Downloadable Content, “Home Invasion”, will work and as well as provide a bit of initial info regarding its contents.

We want to have an accessible approach to our paid DLC, release a free game update parallel to Home Invasion to create a broader 'Home Invasion Release,' and expand upon our in-game narrative in a nuanced, impactful manner.

DLC content is just one component of our ongoing support for Ready or Not. We have many bugfixes and free content updates in the pipeline.

These development briefings serve to keep you in the loop about parts of our ongoing support for Ready or Not, however the briefings do not encompass everything that we’re working on at a given moment.Please keep in mind that everything in this development briefing is work in progress and subject to change.

Vol. 72 Development Briefing Summary Points: (not a changelog)

• Free general game update launching parallel to the paid Home Invasion DLC, bringing forward some planned Quality of Life improvements and features
  
• DLC maps are available to be played at full quality by everyone in multiplayer matchmaking as long as their lobby host owns the DLC
  
• To be properly revealed at a later date for the Home Invasion DLC:
  • 3 new maps
    
  • 2 new weapons
• The Home Invasion mission narrative will provide continuity with the base game, yet also provide a nuanced experience that will take you away from the stark darkness of criminal ring activity to a much broader spectrum of disturbing grey.

A core continuous sentiment from us at VOID is how we want to avoid splitting our multiplayer playerbase across DLC content. Our DLC content should therefore be as accessible as possible, regardless of whether someone owns the DLC.

For multiplayer, this means allowing DLC maps to be played in multiplayer matchmaking at full quality by anyone regardless of DLC ownership as long as the lobby's host owns the relevant DLC. Years ago previously in one of our Frequently Asked Questions there was speculation about having the free multiplayer version be lower resolution in some respect, but we have decided against that.

As previously mentioned in our Vol.68 briefing: we will release additional bugfixes for the base game during the same timeframe that DLC content is being released. Furthermore, all our planned DLC will come with free new base game weapons, a DLC-exclusive player outfit, and new maps. Last but not least, DLC 1 is of course free for Supporter Edition owners per our original plans.

Home Invasion in particular will come with 3 new maps following a new narrative premise and 2 new weapons.

We hope that by making the DLC weapons free and allowing easy free access to DLC maps via host in multiplayer you will all still be able to enjoy the effects of each DLC launch, regardless of whether you specifically own it.



“Home Invasion” has become more than just a DLC release, it is now going to be accompanied by a parallel free update for the base game as well.

This means we’ll be adding some features and improvements aside from just bug fixes that should release as part of this broad “Home Invasion Release.” The feature list should consist primarily of Quality of Life improvements.

To provide some development context on how this is possible, our different departments are developing future releases at the same time as the Home Invasion Release— including new general content updates and DLC.

This process aims to expand our scope of active development beyond whatever immediate content is upcoming; making use of the natural development bandwidth that opens when projects are be passed from department to department. Our new Lead Producer who we’re welcoming on board will assist us greatly in coordinating these sorts of processes.

For an example in a nutshell:

Once the Level Design Team passes newly developed Home Invasion levels to the Art Team, the Level Design Team can begin partial work on other new levels in the time between any subsequent necessary Level Design-related changes to the Home Invasion levels.

Meanwhile as our Engineering Team (consisting of different programming specialties) and other departments wait for a level to reach them, they are already working on bugfixes, improvements, and additions in other areas and for future updates.



The criminal conspiracies in our existing mission narrative run deep and abhorrently dark. Although that is an unfortunate reality of Los Sueños, our Home Invasion narrative will take you away from the stark darkness of those criminal rings to a much broader spectrum of disturbing grey.

In this new narrative a disaster strikes, and every day people are left to pick up the pieces or use them as a weapon of opportunity. Complicated interests and self-preservation are driving forces in this liminal space with people across walks of life seeking any means to an end.

We understand the emotional impact and reflection that existing missions like Ends of the Earth evoke with our players regarding their activities within the game world. The three new maps included in the Home Invasion DLC will carry that torch forward into the labyrinthine world that is Los Sueños.



Our intention with paid DLC, including Home Invasion, is to provide ongoing support for RoN that can benefit everyone regardless of whether they own the relevant DLC.

With a parallel free game update for the Home Invasion Release, 2 new weapons, and easy free multiplayer access to the 3 new DLC maps via lobby hosts we are showing examples of how we want to achieve our intentions.

The disturbing grey area of our Home Invasion narrative meanwhile represents our desire to branch out and evolve on our mission content.

This concludes our 72nd development briefing, thank you again for joining us. Be sure to fall in next time for more development news!

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Thank you for joining us for the 71st edition of our development briefing, March 29th, 2024!

This week we’ll look at our new dynamic dialogue-related systems for AI which will give us more flexibility and nuance for storytelling, as well as showcase some of the recent work on our lip sync system.

These development briefings serve to keep you in the loop about parts of our ongoing support for Ready or Not, although they do not encompass everything that we’re working on at a given moment. Please keep in mind that everything in this development briefing is work in progress and subject to change.

Vol.71 Development Briefing Summary Points:
(not a changelog)

• Dynamic Dialogue System
  • Allows for easily creatable dialogue strings between multiple characters
    
  • Intricate level of customization
    
  • Complements existing reaction voice line system
    
  • New dialogue being written and recorded
• Lip Sync System
  • Video showcase of the recent early implementation of our lip sync system

When you and your SWAT AI officers are moving through missions you may have noticed their penchant for verbally reacting to their environments. With a few notable exceptions, these reactions are generally single one-liner style voice lines prompted by moving through invisible spaces that we call “reaction volumes.”

What we are working on now is a supplemental new, more streamlined and nuanced dialogue system that will allow for easily creatable dynamic dialogue strings between characters on a large scale. These interactions can be triggered by invisible spaces called “dialogue volumes.”

A great beauty of this new system is the extreme ease and depth with which the dialogue parameters can be customized by any developer working on a level.

How and when dialogue is triggered, the number of participants or voice lines involved, how dialogue audio is emitted, and granular elements of dialogue content are all among the variables we can adjust.

For the dialogue volumes themselves we can tweak the trigger delay, which specific characters can trigger the volume (i.e. SWAT, the player, civilians, suspects), and which characters must be present to trigger a particular dialogue.

To avoid repetition, we can also specify whether a dialogue is supposed to be repeated as well as give certain dialogue strings or lines a random chance of occurring in the first place.

The dialogue voice line emitter can be attached to practically anything, which opens up a lot of avenues. This also means that static environmental characters like those in the Station can easily have dialogue as well.

(Image below: Examples of some static character scenes around the Station that may benefit from this system)
The content of the lines for each participant in a dialogue string can be set to play a specific voice line, or a randomized voice line that corresponds to a given situation. The given order of each voice line and which character says it are also conveniently specifiable. If a character isn’t present or required for a dialogue, then their line can be specifically left out from the dialogue string.

We have more dialogue on the way being written and recorded that should be able to plug right into this setup too.

All together, these feature configurations harmonize to create a dynamic character-rich atmosphere that complements our existing reaction voice line system.



The lip sync animation system that was mentioned in our previous development briefing has undergone a facelift during implementation which we're ready to show off.

After plenty of tweaking to get out of the prototype phase, the lip movements generated by our system are progressing nicely and pairing with some additional facial animations.

Still, the feature is in its early stages, pending work on improved animation integration for head and eye tracking movements relative to in-game objects. In its completed state it will serve as a nice level of polish to our dialogue system and voice lines.

(Video below: SWAT officer model making callouts with the WIP lip sync system, utilizing alert and angry voice lines)


As you can see, our longer-term AI enhancements are not just limited to behavior but also cover improved storytelling and immersion across the game.

These new systems are potentially applicable to both current content and future content.

This concludes our 71st development briefing. Be sure to tune in next time for more development news!

Special thanks to Zack for his photos and brilliant work on the new dialogue system, and to Alex and killowatt for their work and footage on this high fidelity lip sync system.

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