This is the first release of Project 128!!

In this devlog, I'm going to go over the process of how I created Project 128 and explain what it's about, along with some of the things to expect!

I initially started creating Project 128 as a way to generate easier visuals for my music videos. At first, it involved simple scripts to rotate objects within Unity. I would then chroma-key those onto recorded videos. The projects quickly became more interactive as I created a small spaceship that flew through space with various other interactive objects. Although that project is no longer around, it inspired me to work on a more refined version of an interactive visual experience for my music.

Fast forward to 2022, I have been intermittently working on this project to perfect the visuals. I also experimented with importing myself as a 3D model and ragdoll using Blender for the first time. Additionally, I started working on other aspects of the game, such as the movement mechanics and deciding whether it should be a first or third-person perspective. I'm still unsure and may add a function to switch between the two in the future. There are many more functionalities I want to add, but I'll get to that later.

The current version of Project 128, as you see it today, has been several months in the making in 2023. I decided to release an early alpha version so that people could try it out and provide feedback.

Here are a few known bugs in this version of the game:

1. Lighting issues based on ranged point lights (I have some ideas on how to fix this, but it's not urgent).
2. NPC dialogue triggers (I plan to overhaul the dialogue system as a whole eventually).

Other than that, this is the most playable and stable version of Project 128 so far. I have many more ideas for this project, so here we go:

1. Implement a better dialogue system with player choices and branching conversations.
2. Add player animations to enhance the overall experience.
3. Improve animations throughout the game.
4. Remove placeholder props/models and replace them with finalized assets.
5. Introduce other interactive objects besides the invisible gravity gun.

Now, let's talk about the use of ChatGPT to code portions of this game:

I utilized ChatGPT to code a significant portion of this game out of curiosity and for the efficiency it offered. I was completely astonished by how well most of the generated code worked. With a few tweaks on my end, it was perfect. For instance, the code responsible for spawning crates from the ceiling was entirely written by ChatGPT, with no additional modifications from me. It also helped me with coding the sphere puzzle at the beginning and even generated the shader for the blinking cursor on the computer monitor. The fact that it can generate visual shaders blows my mind—it's truly astonishing.

Anyway, enjoy this very early access build of Project 128. It's still highly conceptual and experimental! I don't have a planned release schedule for these development builds, so this could be the only build ever released or the first of many!