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Indie Game Development Thread 3: Indie Jones and the Template of Doom

_Rob_

Member
As for music, though, I don't know exactly yet - I think that kind of annoys the composer, actually, as I'm not able to pinpoint him in a clear direction... but I'm counting on him to blow my mind :-D

Oh, well with this one I find placeholder music to be ideal. Normally I'll try out a few pieces from a variety of sources (other games, movie scores etc) and then when I find something I like show that playing alongside the game itself to my composer and go from there. Usually it gets us both on the same page and results in some very fitting pieces!
 

Pehesse

Member
Tell F-Pina! ;)

:-D :-D

Oh, well with this one I find placeholder music to be ideal. Normally I'll try out a few pieces from a variety of sources (other games, movie scores etc) and then when I find something I like show that playing alongside the game itself to my composer and go from there. Usually it gets us both on the same page and results in some very fitting pieces!

You're right, I only sent him references but I should try actually plugging them in the game to see if/how they work (so far I'm using his first WIP tracks, that's what you can hear in the vids). Though I fear the references are so scattered, it's very hard to reunite what works - and I'm the first to admit I don't really know where I want the general direction to go (compared to Honey, where I had a pretty good idea from the start). For now it kind of goes from Pokemon music to electroswing by detour of Megaman, so it's hard to pinpoint what should be kept from each, if anything :-D
 

DemonNite

Member
Started designing and creating an idea for a puzzle piece in the game yesterday

uxSnG5gh.png
 

Minamu

Member
Are your projectiles children of the player transform? Cause that would take them out of world space coordinates. That would also cause them to move around with the player which would be bad.
A little bit of both actually. Some things are particle effects that should be stuck to the player and others just spawn at the player's current position and are left behind. Others are actual non-children projectiles used as bullets. Final example is our sword which is only a child as long as it's held, but not when currently thrown. I don't think anything is working properly anymore because origo moved to the left foot :) Before we just spawned everything at origo and it was fine but not now obviously. For some reason, offsetting in the y direction works fine so far I think but not the others. I probably need to save the rotation, yeah?

The sword is one of the more problematic ones. It has a functional offset while being a child, and it's probably my new code that destroys the initial throw position. But I also need it to return on its flight back to its original relative child position (read: jedis throwing light sabers and them homing back into their hand). This worked okay with a y offset when origo was at hand height by happy accident :)
 

LordRaptor

Member
A little bit of both actually. Some things are particle effects that should be stuck to the player and others just spawn at the player's current position and are left behind. Others are actual non-children projectiles used as bullets. Final example is our sword which is only a child as long as it's held, but not when currently thrown. I don't think anything is working properly anymore because origo moved to the left foot :) Before we just spawned everything at origo and it was fine but not now obviously. For some reason, offsetting in the y direction works fine so far I think but not the others. I probably need to save the rotation, yeah?

The sword is one of the more problematic ones. It has a functional offset while being a child, and it's probably my new code that destroys the initial throw position. But I also need it to return on its flight back to its original relative child position (read: jedis throwing light sabers and them homing back into their hand). This worked okay with a y offset when origo was at hand height by happy accident :)

Have you tried having empty transforms for reference positions that are parented, and using those to get the reference origin, rather than the overall base transform?

Instantiated objects shouldn't be inheriting any offsets or rotations unless explicitly being given those values - the instantiate command has a number of overloads, which version are you using?
Code:
public static Object Instantiate(Object original, Vector3 position, Quaternion rotation);
shouldn't derive any information you don't supply, and something like
Code:
Gameobject bulletPrefab;
Vector3 muzzlePoint = referenceTransform.transform.position;
vector3 target = thing you're aiming at;
rotDirection = muzzlePoint.transform.position - target;
Quaternion toRotate;
if (rotDirection != Vector3.zero) 
{
     toRotate = whatever quaternion maths turns a vector3 direction into a quaternion
 }
Instantiate(bulletPrefab, muzzlePoint, toRotate);

(wrong because I hate calculating quaternion shit)
 

oxrock

Gravity is a myth, the Earth SUCKS!
Using empty gameobjects as references is something I use a lot as well for this kind of thing. You can avoid quaternion madness by setting the reference to the proper default position by setting your spawned object to it's parent's (reference) position and rotation. Then you could simply unparent it and send it on it's way should it be a projectile or something.

As far as a throwing lightsaber type ability, as long as the lightsaber has a reference to the return target, it should be pretty easy. You can use Vector3.RotateTowards to handle the rotation of the sword while using Vector3.MoveTowards to handle the movement. You could then use a simple distance check to see if the sword is close enough to returning to reparent it to the hand and resume normal sword position.

conversely you could also use transform.LookAt to handle the rotation but during the first iteration it could turn 180 degrees while as Vector3.RotateTowards would lerp turns properly avoiding unrealistic instant rotations.
 

Minamu

Member
Have you tried having empty transforms for reference positions that are parented, and using those to get the reference origin, rather than the overall base transform?

Instantiated objects shouldn't be inheriting any offsets or rotations unless explicitly being given those values - the instantiate command has a number of overloads, which version are you using?
Code:
public static Object Instantiate(Object original, Vector3 position, Quaternion rotation);
shouldn't derive any information you don't supply, and something like
Code:
Gameobject bulletPrefab;
Vector3 muzzlePoint = referenceTransform.transform.position;
vector3 target = thing you're aiming at;
rotDirection = muzzlePoint.transform.position - target;
Quaternion toRotate;
if (rotDirection != Vector3.zero) 
{
     toRotate = whatever quaternion maths turns a vector3 direction into a quaternion
 }
Instantiate(bulletPrefab, muzzlePoint, toRotate);

(wrong because I hate calculating quaternion shit)

Using empty gameobjects as references is something I use a lot as well for this kind of thing. You can avoid quaternion madness by setting the reference to the proper default position by setting your spawned object to it's parent's (reference) position and rotation. Then you could simply unparent it and send it on it's way should it be a projectile or something.

As far as a throwing lightsaber type ability, as long as the lightsaber has a reference to the return target, it should be pretty easy. You can use Vector3.RotateTowards to handle the rotation of the sword while using Vector3.MoveTowards to handle the movement. You could then use a simple distance check to see if the sword is close enough to returning to reparent it to the hand and resume normal sword position.

conversely you could also use transform.LookAt to handle the rotation but during the first iteration it could turn 180 degrees while as Vector3.RotateTowards would lerp turns properly avoiding unrealistic instant rotations.

Thanks for the suggestions! I've read about empty gameobjects before, it was a fix for weird scaling issues on children with parents using non uniform scale values, which is what triggered my origo change quest to begin with actually. I think my programmers would strangle me if I went down this road though lol. I might try adding the player's rotation value to the offset tonight and see if that helps, otherwise I think my programmers might be better off fixing my mess xD

Good idea on the sword; I think we're doing something similar now, except the sword spin is an actual animation. I either need to delete that and spin the object with code, or maybe I can connect the playback speed to correspond to the travel distance somehow.
 

LordRaptor

Member
maybe I can connect the playback speed to correspond to the travel distance somehow.

Well, yeah, its just an equation you can refactor;

if speed = (distance / time) then distance = (speed * time) and time = (distance / speed)

Like, if you know any of the two parts of the equation, you can figure out the third - and assuming the projectile movement is a fixed value, and returning the distance between two vector3s is pretty easy, you can derive the time the animation should take to play from there

e:
like (pseudocode)
A -> B moving at a fixed rate of 10, you can use lerp(a,b,t) where t = a-b/10 and it should visually match up.
For a 'there and back again', just double it and play it twice, once from a->b, once b->a (and maybe a pause between the two for the 'hit'

Its late and im drunk so maths might be off, but you get the gist
 

Minamu

Member
Yeah I'll check it out, big thanks :) I didn't accomplish much tonight, it's all a mess haha.

Instead I tinkered some with individual post processing stacks per level and fixed a new system for a better object destruction for a particular ability particle system! So instead of auto-destroying in the middle of a particle loop, it now fades out, smoothly stops the sound effect more properly, disables a box collider and then finally destroys itself when all particles are dead. It even works if you forcibly destroy it while playing before its intended timer runs out, and it should be network synced as well.

I'm sure the programmers will not like the code standard but I'm proud of managing to inject my own code into their existing piece :) Reading another's code is even way harder than I thought.

Edit: And trying to solve complex code issues between 2-5am is such a bad idea, and I'm not even that good heh.
 

Belstras

Member
Do you think that the new UI on those shots is still an improvement over the old?

I like the new UI, don't know why, maybe the because it blends better with the environment. Just a suggestion that the font should match the style also e.g steampunk should have a font that is more square and have harder edges. I think the font looks abit too standard.
at second glance, it looks alright i didn't look close. Maybe it is the spacing of the letters i think is too big.

I wrote an article in my blog about one of the tricks I use to add dynamism to static pre-rendered backgrounds. Making them a little bit more dynamic helps to express the intended mood for that room better. Please check it out! English is not my first language so I hope it is easy to understand.

http://bumpytrailgames.com/2017/10/06/dynamism-static-backgrounds/

Dynamism4.gif

It's pretty hot in here isn't it?
Nice, thanks for that blog post, it is very interesting seeing how visual effects are made.
 

efyu_lemonardo

May I have a cookie?
Hi GAF, this is my first post in this thread.

I'm a teacher of math and sciences by profession, and recently I've started doing some part time work for a company looking to develop educational games.

I know there are some great ones in areas like programming but less aware of successful endeavors in other fields of study, specifically early math.

In the meantime I've begun collecting various thoughts and ideas I have for one particular application and was asked by my boss to submit a game design document, or something of the sort.

Can anyone recommend a good GDD to work with as a template, specifically for educational games?
I did some searching around the web and learned that many developers have replaced the GDD of old with various alternate solutions and tools, so if you prefer to recommend something other than a GDD that would be helpful as well.

Thank you GAF!
 
I was looking for someone who wants to learn how to design a game with me. I'm currently using Pico-8 and just want someone who's willing going over the tutorials or if you already have experience to teach me how to do it. I just really need to get something done right now. I just can't keep interested when I work alone. PM me if interested.
 

embalm

Member
Hi GAF, this is my first post in this thread.

I'm a teacher of math and sciences by profession, and recently I've started doing some part time work for a company looking to develop educational games.

I know there are some great ones in areas like programming but less aware of successful endeavors in other fields of study, specifically early math.

In the meantime I've begun collecting various thoughts and ideas I have for one particular application and was asked by my boss to submit a game design document, or something of the sort.

Can anyone recommend a good GDD to work with as a template, specifically for educational games?
I did some searching around the web and learned that many developers have replaced the GDD of old with various alternate solutions and tools, so if you prefer to recommend something other than a GDD that would be helpful as well.

Thank you GAF!
I can't recommend a good design doc because I really feel like they are antiqued.
I suggest you write a project plan in whatever style you feel is best. This document will have your basic goals of the project and describe some of the hooks and gameplay mechanics.
Then follow the Agile approach to tasks and further design. Separate the tasks into individual work pieces. Break large elements into even smaller tasks that you estimate into about a days worth of work.

This approach gives me a document that I can use to explain my game as a whole, written down detailed mechanics, a way to track my tasks, and a way to estimate my work. I use it in almost all aspects of my programming life.
 

Roubjon

Member
Gorgeous, what kind of game is it?

Yeah, looks nice and dandy!

Thanks! Uh, if I had to simplify the sort of game it is I guess I'd call it a JRPG with a lot of exploration where music plays a large role in the world and how it plays. To compare it to already existing games, think Mario & Luigi X Rhythm Heaven X Space Channel 5. We are very much making our own thing though!


Looks pretty fun!
 

Roubjon

Member
This is looking really cool!
The shadows will remain as round blobs or will they be more "animated"?

The shadow graphics are just quick place holders for now. I was trying to figure out how to do the proper scaling for when the characters jump or are at a higher elevation.
 

oxrock

Gravity is a myth, the Earth SUCKS!
I've been a tad bit worn out from working on my game lately so I decided to write a fractal tree script in python after seeing some cool pictures online. I also hardly ever use recursion so I thought it would help getting more practice in there as well. Anyhow, here's a picture made from an earlier version of the code:
Since then I've added a lot more randomness in the hopes of making the result look more natural.
updated example:

Here's a video using the updated code of a fractal tree taking shape: Fractal Tree Video. There's a link to the repository in the description if anyone's interested at taking a peek at the code.

I know this isn't exactly game dev related but I thought script generated art looked pretty cool and honestly a similar approach could potentially be used for generating terrain art.

Disclaimer: This post is largely a copy-paste from the programming thread. I thought it relevant to both threads.
 

missile

Member
I'm currently working a bit more on my pixelized 2d and 3d defocus again, that
is to say; bokeh! :) What's missing from my defocus is some cool bokeh effect.
Well, my defocus is very lowres and bokeh can be considered a hires feature in
an lowres blur. So my algo isn't able to compute some proper bokeh (it is but
would takes way too long) so I need to somehow peel the bokeh out of the scene
explicitly. Goal is to make a pixelized bokeh which ties into the overall
pixelized defocus. If that's going to work, you could mark some spots in your
2d image in making them brighter and either given them some depth or put the
whole image at some depth which would lead to defocus the image but with some
cool pixelized bokeh scaling with distance. Yeah, that would be cool! :)
 

Roubjon

Member
I've been a tad bit worn out from working on my game lately so I decided to write a fractal tree script in python after seeing some cool pictures online. I also hardly ever use recursion so I thought it would help getting more practice in there as well. Anyhow, here's a picture made from an earlier version of the code:

Since then I've added a lot more randomness in the hopes of making the result look more natural.
updated example:


Here's a video using the updated code of a fractal tree taking shape: Fractal Tree Video. There's a link to the repository in the description if anyone's interested at taking a peek at the code.

I know this isn't exactly game dev related but I thought script generated art looked pretty cool and honestly a similar approach could potentially be used for generating terrain art.

Disclaimer: This post is largely a copy-paste from the programming thread. I thought it relevant to both threads.

That's pretty cool. I'll definitely take a look.
 

efyu_lemonardo

May I have a cookie?
I can't recommend a good design doc because I really feel like they are antiqued.
I suggest you write a project plan in whatever style you feel is best. This document will have your basic goals of the project and describe some of the hooks and gameplay mechanics.
Then follow the Agile approach to tasks and further design. Separate the tasks into individual work pieces. Break large elements into even smaller tasks that you estimate into about a days worth of work.

This approach gives me a document that I can use to explain my game as a whole, written down detailed mechanics, a way to track my tasks, and a way to estimate my work. I use it in almost all aspects of my programming life.
Thanks for the tips!
 

embalm

Member
So what do you guys think of status effects in games? Personally I love them, but sometimes I feel like I may have gone overboard. I enjoy that learning process that comes with a game with a deep and diverse system, but I understand that it's not always right.

So do you guys have opinions on status effects and could you help me cut the fat from my current list of effects?

Code:
      "statusType": 0,
      "name": "Defensive Stance",
      "description": "Protect yourself from the onslaught.",


      "statusType": 1,
      "name": "Counter Stance",
      "description": "Every hit taken will be returned to the attacker.",


      "statusType": 2,
      "name": "Riposte Stance",
      "description": "A missed attack is an opportunity to return punishment.",


      "statusType": 3,
      "name": "Intercept Stance",
      "description": "Preemptively strike your would be attackers.",
    

      "statusType": 4,
      "name": "Hoarfrost",
      "description": "Covered in an icy sheen to protect from biting cold and turn spells back at the caster, but also creates a weakness to fire.",
   

      "statusType": 5,
      "name": "Burn",
      "description": "Fire scorched flesh is prone to further damage.",
    

      "statusType": 6,
      "name": "Corrode",
      "description": "Your armor and damage is weakened by acidic salts.",
     

      "statusType": 7,
      "name": "Shivers",
      "description": "A winter chill reduces dodge and speed.",
     

      "statusType": 8,
      "name": "Jolt",
      "description": "The storm didn't quite pass, your chance to hit is lowered and you may lose your turn.",
     

      "statusType": 9,
      "name": "Goad",
      "description": "Provoke your enemies to protect your allies, but such tactics will reduce your ability to dodge.",
     

      "statusType": 10,
      "name": "Hamstrung",
      "description": "Precious mobility is often taken for granted, your speed and dodge are lowered and you may lose your turn.",
    

      "statusType": 11,
      "name": "Shadowy",
      "description": "Disapear into the darkness, foes will often ignore you and gain resistance to light and darkness.",
    

      "statusType": 12,
      "name": "Dreaming",
      "description": "Lost in a realm of nightmares and dreams, you will sleep through your next turn if not woken up.",
      
      "statusType": 13,
      "name": "Radiant",
      "description": "Glowing with the power of light, all enemies will target you while your HP and MP regenerate",
     

      "statusType": 14,
      "name": "Soul Bound",
      "description": "Linking souls to empower both will increase your chance to hit and your speed, you will also share any damage.",
    

      "statusType": 15,
      "name": "Blind",
      "description": "Sight is optional if you don't mind the penalty to hit, dodge, speed, and the chance to attack randomly.",
     

      "statusType": 16,
      "name": "Hysterical",
      "description": "Bringing the mind to the brink of insanity can have it's benefits, like targets being choosen at random.",
     

      "statusType": 17,
      "name": "Calm",
      "description": "Finding a moment of peace amidst a storm of chaos allows mana to regenerate.",
     

      "statusType": 18,
      "name": "Warned",
      "description": "A clear warning of what is to come reduces hit, damage, and critical chance.",
      

      "statusType": 19,
      "name": "Covered",
      "description": "An opportunity is all you need, attacks while covered gain bonus damage, chance to hit, and critical chance.",
     

      "statusType": 20,
      "name": "Plague",
      "description": "A slow decay of flesh is painful, but it gets worse when left untreated.",
     

      "statusType": 21,
      "name": "Fear",
      "description": "The afraid can fight, but rushed attacks lead to low critical chance and the fear eats away at mana reserves.  If left untreated fear can cause permenant damage.",
      

      "statusType": 22,
      "name": "Confident",
      "description": "Blessed with courage the confident strike true and regenerate mana.",
      

      "statusType": 23,
      "name": "Storm Cloak",
      "description": "Shrouded in swirling storms those who strike at the storm best not miss.  Also grants increased storm resistance, but weakens you against earth damage.",
     

      "statusType": 24,
      "name": "Stone Skin",
      "description": "Wrapped in rock and crystal you gain increased armor and earth resistance, but weakens you against frost damage.",
     

      "statusType": 25,
      "name": "Exhausted",
      "description": "The strain of your actions will result in skipping your 

      "statusType": 26,
      "name": "Hell's Embrace",
      "description": "The realms of hell pull at your soul creating weakness to fire, storm, and earth damage.",
      

      "statusType": 27,
      "name": "Emptied",
      "description": "The void attempts to deny your existence creating weakness to frost and dark damage.",
      

      "statusType": 28,
      "name": "Angelic Eyes",
      "description": "The gaze of heaven is upon you creating weakness to storm and light damage.",
      

      "statusType": 28,
      "name": "Flame Guard",
      "description": "Wreathed in fire, anyone who hits with an attack will be burned.  Also grants an increase to fire resistance, but weakens you against storm damage."


"statusType": 29,
      "name": "Bleed",
      "description": "An open wound will rip and tear causes chunks of wreck damage."
 

LordRaptor

Member
So what do you guys think of status effects in games?

I love them as an additional layer of tactical engagement, I'd just be wary about putting too many things on a single condition to avoid making any one thing too overbearing;
eg "You get this buff, but you also gain this weakness" = really good, because it adds situational use and doesn't just mean "buff party the same way every fight"

"You get this flaw and also gain a secondary weakness" = potential for status effect to be really obnoxious to encounter or really strong to use yourself.

Also, pre-emptive big fix, you have 2 copies of statusID 28 which I'd suspect will cause you a problem somewhere ;)
 

Pere

Neo Member
So what do you guys think of status effects in games? Personally I love them, but sometimes I feel like I may have gone overboard. I enjoy that learning process that comes with a game with a deep and diverse system, but I understand that it's not always right.

So do you guys have opinions on status effects and could you help me cut the fat from my current list of effects?

I really like them all you put a lot of care to create them but IF you need to cut some out, and bearing in mind I do not not anything at all about your game, I would personally:

  • Simplify the 4 stances.
    I'd either pick the one I like more and delete the other 3 or pick 2 and remove the rest. They are a bit too much the same skill, but with different nuances that causes them to be really situational and/or obsolete.
    Why would you use riposte stance if you have intercept?
    I would keep Defensive stance and Intercept stance. You have everyone be able to defend and some can intercept.
  • I'd say there are a lot of debuffs that are a combination of 2 different status effect and while I do like it, there are a few that overlap too much imo.
    • Shivers = Hamstrung but with an additional low chance effect.
      I'd make the mob use shivers and then exhausted.
    • Blind = Hysterical. Blind is a better Hysterical.
      While I do understand why they are different and the use they might have, they are too similar.
      I'd remove hysterical or at least change blind status effects so they do not overlap as much.
    • Calm = Confident.
      I don't know if true strike is an status effect but anyways I would remove calm. Confident does it better.
  • I'd totally remove all those add low chances to skip turn and just make them use exhausted. This way status effects are way concise and it's easier to remember what they do.
 

oxrock

Gravity is a myth, the Earth SUCKS!
That is quite a list of status effects! It seems to me that intercept stance is just a better version of counter stance. Both attack the enemy when you're attacked, but with intercept stance you'd have the opportunity to kill the opponent first effectively negating their attack. I would replace that with something else, maybe a double strike stance. Character gains first strike while retaining their normal attack but takes double damage. Or cut it out cause you got enough effects already ;p
 

DemonNite

Member
I love a good game with an awesome selection of status effects personally, I am just not good enough to come up with a decent list like you have lol
 

embalm

Member
Thanks for the tips, I think you guys are spot on about a few things.

I have some overlap, but sometimes I want that.
Shivers and Hamstrung being a good example of where I want it. Shivers is caused by icy spells and effects as a secondary effect to damage. Hamstrung is caused by weapons and dex based skills and is the primary effect of those abilities. They are the same, but power level and the flavor associated with each is enough for me to create separate icons and names.
To add a small degree of separation, Shivers is dispelled when hit by fire damage(hard to accomplish against ice enemies) and Hamstrung is dispelled anytime a character is healed(easy to accomplish in most battles).


Calm and Confident on the other hand I do not want to be the same.
Confident should be a party buff that Gun Bards hand out and counters Fear.
Calm is a self buff that can be used to counter mental status effects in addition to the mana regen.
I see the same problem with the ideas behind fear and warned. I think I will roll Confident and Fear into Covered and Warned. The effects are different, but the goals of each are the same.

I agree that Blind does not work as intended. I think I'll focus on it being a hit penalty like classic games and remove the other penalties. This also lets me use it a little more generously.

Overall I think I do stack too many effects on some statuses. I'll look at trimming fat on the effects instead of overall number.


Defensive Stances are not really status effects and maybe I should have explained them a bit.
Instead of attacking a player can choose to take one of these stances, IF they have the appropriate equipment to do so.
  • Defensive Stance is available to everyone.
  • Counter is granted by medium shields.
  • Riposte is granted by dex weapons and small shields.
  • Intercept is granted by Spears and reach weapons.
The three similar stances allow players to dish out a crazy amount of damage in the right situation and each one is tailered to specific builds.
  • Counter requires you to take the damage before hitting back, so low dodge, high hp is key. It is also granted by off hand shields and uses your main weapon to determine damage.
  • Riposte requires you to dodge and is limited to specific weapons it's harder to build into, but has better pay off for high dodge builds.
  • Intercept is strong as hell. It lets you kill enemies before they actually attack and isn't tied to a specific build. It is tied to very specific equipment though and no spell has a similar effect.
Also important is that a player will likely only see 2 or 3 options at a time because of how they stack onto equipment.

So they are item stats more than status effects. They are listed here because they are mechanically managed like status effects with an icon, countdown, and are disabled on turn start.

This isn't to say the stances are beyond the axe. The 6 defensive options I have might play out very clunky and even though they are complete, they might get cut.
 

Pere

Neo Member
Hmm how about merging all the stances into defensive stance and checking the items to know the effect that should apply? This way the player would only see 1 icon, internally it would be the same-ish. f.e:

A character has a med shield. He uses def stance. He gets hit, you check for it's chances to Counter, if it succeeds you apply the Counter reaction and stop there, if it fails you do w/e the def stance does.

Let's say he now has a dex weapon too. He uses def stance. He gets hit, you check for its chances to Riposte, if it succeeds you apply the Riposte reaction and stop there, if it fails you check for its chances to Counter, if it succeeds you apply the Counter reaction and stop there, if it fails you do w/e the def stance does.

etc etc

This might help you to simplify the status effect list, but it might prove a bit hard to explain to the user. Idk It's random idea, feel free to call it an stupid one =p
 

embalm

Member
That's a good suggestion Pere, but it goes against my design a bit.

I want the player to have those stance options and to choose them on their own to fit the situation. They have to give up their attack action to take a defensive stance or someone has to cast a powerful spell.

If the player finds themselves up against an enemy with a low accuracy, they should figure out that this is a good time for using their Riposte stance. They are rewarded with a significant number of return attacks for correctly assessing the situation. In combination with other buffs these strategies should easily win the battle for the player. I want those decisive victories for the player, but I require them to think of it for the right situation.

Combining all of the stances would lose some of the strategic thinking that I want to require of the player. That doesn't make your suggestion bad though, it's just a different design direction.
 

LordRaptor

Member
That's a good suggestion Pere, but it goes against my design a bit.

I want the player to have those stance options and to choose them on their own to fit the situation. They have to give up their attack action to take a defensive stance or someone has to cast a powerful spell.

If the player finds themselves up against an enemy with a low accuracy, they should figure out that this is a good time for using their Riposte stance. They are rewarded with a significant number of return attacks for correctly assessing the situation. In combination with other buffs these strategies should easily win the battle for the player. I want those decisive victories for the player, but I require them to think of it for the right situation.

Combining all of the stances would lose some of the strategic thinking that I want to require of the player. That doesn't make your suggestion bad though, it's just a different design direction.

Some of the stances you have described seem as though FF:T was an inspiration.
FF:T manages complexity of defensive options by making them choosable passive abilities rather than alternatives to a "defend" option mid batle, and as such moves the choice from the tactical layer to the strategic one.
 

PacoChan

Neo Member
Here's another little update of my graphic adventure. It's just a new environment I'm working on. In this case, in order to achieve animation, it has to be a looping video. The video lags a little bit in Unity each time it reaches the loop point. But hopefully it's not too noticeable.

BoldThirstyCentipede-size_restricted.gif
 

chubigans

y'all should be ashamed
Here's another little update of my graphic adventure. It's just a new environment I'm working on. In this case, in order to achieve animation, it has to be a looping video. The video lags a little bit in Unity each time it reaches the loop point. But hopefully it's not too noticeable.

BoldThirstyCentipede-size_restricted.gif

Wow, gorgeous!
 

Astrael

Member
Here's another little update of my graphic adventure. It's just a new environment I'm working on. In this case, in order to achieve animation, it has to be a looping video. The video lags a little bit in Unity each time it reaches the loop point. But hopefully it's not too noticeable.

That's really amazing work. I'm usually not that impressed with interior designs in even the best of games but this is quite atmospheric (even if it is a looping video).
 

Pehesse

Member
Here's another little update of my graphic adventure. It's just a new environment I'm working on. In this case, in order to achieve animation, it has to be a looping video. The video lags a little bit in Unity each time it reaches the loop point. But hopefully it's not too noticeable.

BoldThirstyCentipede-size_restricted.gif

Wow, this looks pretty cool, it reminds me of classic PC adventures (Myst and the likes) - very atmospheric!


Here're some progress gifs from this week to finish this page, basically placeholder attempts at background dressing (still trying to figure out the exact size/behavior needed for most of them, and how to assemble them to use the least amount of memory overall, so their visual aspect is currently not my priority - a lot of words to say this is ugly, but don't mind it, it shouldn't be when all is said and done... I think? I hope!)

BossyHandyFlamingo-max-14mb.gif

FrigidOrangeGiantschnauzer-max-14mb.gif

TintedGroundedCollardlizard.gif


As an extra bonus, here's my current WIP for an "intention image/style guide" for the temple levels - still a long way to go (needs detail, lighting, line color, figuring out exact colors/contrast, etc, so it's less than half finished at this point), but since I'm sharing WIPs, might as well this, so it's there for reference's sake some time down the line? :-D

deba36c472fa635f102ab8313fbf3674.png
 

_Rob_

Member
Here's another little update of my graphic adventure. It's just a new environment I'm working on. In this case, in order to achieve animation, it has to be a looping video. The video lags a little bit in Unity each time it reaches the loop point. But hopefully it's not too noticeable.

BoldThirstyCentipede-size_restricted.gif

Ooh, interesting. So is it rendered out from Unity first, or through something else?

As an extra bonus, here's my current WIP for an "intention image/style guide" for the temple levels - still a long way to go (needs detail, lighting, line color, figuring out exact colors/contrast, etc, so it's less than half finished at this point), but since I'm sharing WIPs, might as well this, so it's there for reference's sake some time down the line? :-D

deba36c472fa635f102ab8313fbf3674.png

I always liked the idea of having layers less saturated the further back they are, definitely helps separate traversable terrain and makes for less frustration. Do you plan to shade anything or are you keeping solid colours as part of the art style?
 

Pehesse

Member
Lovely to finally see other bits coming together (background art). Its shaping up really well

Thanks a ton :)

I always liked the idea of having layers less saturated the further back they are, definitely helps separate traversable terrain and makes for less frustration. Do you plan to shade anything or are you keeping solid colours as part of the art style?

I guess it depends on what you'd call "shading"? I plan to use my three tone approach (light/body/shadows), with a gradient overlaid on top for volume, but that's still juxtaposition of flat colors. So the image I posted isn't finished, no, I plan to add more detail/lighting, recolor the lines, etc - but it's not going to be a painterly style, either. The exact color scheme/saturation is also in flux, I need to work with it a lot more, especially considering "health" is represented by the position of the sun/color of the sky, so I need to consider what else it affects and how! (I won't be able to permute every background element with different lighting conditions, so I'll have to see if filter use/recolor will sell the effect or not!)
 

_Rob_

Member
I guess it depends on what you'd call "shading"? I plan to use my three tone approach (light/body/shadows), with a gradient overlaid on top for volume, but that's still juxtaposition of flat colors. So the image I posted isn't finished, no, I plan to add more detail/lighting, recolor the lines, etc - but it's not going to be a painterly style, either. The exact color scheme/saturation is also in flux, I need to work with it a lot more, especially considering "health" is represented by the position of the sun/color of the sky, so I need to consider what else it affects and how! (I won't be able to permute every background element with different lighting conditions, so I'll have to see if filter use/recolor will sell the effect or not!)

Ah I see, cool yeah I did mean adding volume with tone as opposed to engine shading; probably a poor choice of words on my part! I look forward to seeing it, especially with the sky being a health indicator! Do you plan on changing the whole colour scheme on the fly too, or just the sky?

I finally have a full cutscene to show, with music, foley and VO!



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJlPRc2tpQ4
 

Jumpbutton

Neo Member
Sky Town costume for Sophie for all the weathers.

I was thinking this wold be a good kickstarter stretch goal, Given how much i'll have to do.
sky_town_outfits_for_all_weathers_by_jump_button-dbqjge2.png
 

oxrock

Gravity is a myth, the Earth SUCKS!
Ah I see, cool yeah I did mean adding volume with tone as opposed to engine shading; probably a poor choice of words on my part! I look forward to seeing it, especially with the sky being a health indicator! Do you plan on changing the whole colour scheme on the fly too, or just the sky?

I finally have a full cutscene to show, with music, foley and VO!



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJlPRc2tpQ4

congrats, it looks great :)


I'm back with yet another Quests Unlimited update! The forest and cave zones now each have another enemy class for our heroes to overcome. The first one is a new ogre enemy which spawns in the forest location. Here's a look at this bad boy!

svoiveF.gif


The ogre is a MASSIVE tanky enemy with an aoe spin that does damage to all party members in range. This spin also generates extra threat helping him hold aggro for his companions.

The next enemy is the new goblin bomber. He'll be joining the orc berserkers in the caves. Here's some footage of him:

XcDtwXw.gif


That's right, it's a goblin suicide bomber! This little guy targets the closest party member and explodes dealing significant aoe damage based on each party member's distance from the explosion.
 
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