Hello everyone and thanks for stopping in! I know it’s been a while since I last updated, but I promise that I wasn’t just sitting idle. Well, for a little while I was; it was Christmas after all. I hope you all had the opportunity to spend some time with family and friends during the holiday season.

When we last left off, I had been trying to update Unreal Engine, ACF tools, and the ACF sample project. The ACF update was from three separate engine plugins to ACF Ultimate, the single plugin that encompassed the entire set of tools. The Unreal Engine update was from version 5.4 to 5.5, which is a pretty big jump in terms of functionality. And the sample project code update included changes to the core setup with how the project was built as in introduced things like GASP and motion matching blueprints. Needless to say, this process didn’t really go well. By the time I got all the software updated, just trying to open the project in the engine editor caused the editor to throw a segfault and crash to desktop. I couldn’t even load things to try to correct problems. I wanted to revert, but as far as I’ve been able to find, I can’t downgrade plugins or packages from the Unreal Marketplace (now Fab.com) and I was stuck with the updated ACF tools, whether I tried to use the ACFU single package or the older ACF separate plugins. In the end, I was forced to basically update all the packages and tools and, well, start the project over. And, while it took me a while to get things back up and running, I was able to get back to essentially where I started and make some further progress.

Cursed Crown Updates

• Updated Unreal Engine to 5.5.1, ACF to ACFU 1.1, and ACFU Sample Project.
• Re-implemented most functionality from the tech demo build. (Exception: Enemy AI has not been re-implemented yet.)
• Set up main overworld map. It’s pretty barren for now, but it can be explored as it exists at this time.
• Known issue: There is a graphical issue when aiming a bow. The character holds it in a funky way that doesn’t look like it lines up, but the arrow fires correctly and it doesn’t affect gameplay.

It might not seem like a lot of progress has been done, but it sure felt like a lot from this side of the keyboard. I hope you enjoy the new level and come back to see it as it grows. If you have access to the build, be sure to check the downloads page to grab it and let me know what you think. My task list is filling up with new things that need to get done and the fact is that some of the updates I’ll have to work on won’t have forward-facing functionality at first. In these cases, I may not bother to put out a new build, but when I have updates that you can test and see, I’ll make sure a new build is published. So be sure to check back here and on the Patreon page. Until next time, everyone, thank you so much for stopping in and keep on gaming!