First time creating a game and first time modelling without a tutorial; I'll try to finish it tomorrow:
First time creating a game and first time modelling without a tutorial; I'll try to finish it tomorrow:
So am I, so just have to make the artwork that much better to compete! I think even just the particles I saw there makes your prototype look great! I'm having issues now of converting my original idea into a game, the whole scenario i have set myself in in awkward, but hey thats why i'm here, to fall into traps and learn how to get out of them and better myself doing so!
Early version of player's apartment. It will be some kind of hub, so after every mission the player will come back here and from there he can choose the next mission/quest.
Now I'm prototyping core mechanics of the game. After that i can finally make a simple level to see what will work in it with that mechanics.
Day 2, lets have another animated pic...
This shows 4 'tiles', one is a glowing red fluid and 2 have torches with particle fire added along with lighting, etc
If you look closely you can see the multi-show system casting shadows and moving as the light moves.
Currently working on the timeline system - still no game yet though.....
So today i start off with the Game Jam. Came up with some cool ideas over the last days. Unfortunately Matthew had the same basic idea. SO i will see how i'm going to make my game unique. The following picture is just a simple 2min voxel of one of my levels, to get the idea how i want to make it.
Good luck everyone !
ok. I'm assuming you have a basic array. 1(start),2(room),3(keyroom),4(room),5(room),6(boss)
this always gives you a linear progression 1-2, 2-3, 3-4, 4-5, 5-6
randomly pick from 3 to max-1 (3,4,5) and make it connect to two rooms previous. E.G.
room 3 is connected to room 1 and NOT room 2 (a branch)
This would give you some variance and not a linear progression (and more interesting to play)
That's a good idea Adam :) I'll see how I could create branching paths. I wish I could create loops as well but I don't think I'd get the time ^^' For now I just try to create a Mall (not a dungeon) and the game would be about finding the toilets in less than 30 seconds because you've eaten a bad burrito or something xD
Day 2 of creation: Finished my character mesh and have rigged it. There are some ugly problems that I'm not sure how to fix but they are not game breaking so not too important.
Loving the graphics! Controls look tight as well!
If I may give a suggestion, AI will be very important as it is make or break whenever you have hordes of enemies. See left 4 dead and FEAR. What makes them so much fun is that the enemies spread properly and work together against you. They will try to surround, and they will try to get around cover. Look at Swarm AI and Utility AI methods.
Very Zelda like! I like it. Give us some good puzzles!
What a cool way to handle random generation for game jams! My issue with random maps is that they always take so long to get right and which makes you settle on "good enough" when you run out of time. Your way gets rid of all the stuff that goes wrong like corners, hallways, etc! Good thinking
The mechanics of the tiles are detailed in the Tumblr post I linked. Essentially you use WASD or the arrow keys to slide the player character into tiles. Doing so allows you to pickup items, attack enemies or trigger special effects (eg lightning storm). If you are not currently on a quest, a quest tile will spawn which once used gives you 30 seconds to complete a tasks. Completing quests is currently the only way to increase your score.
Rather long but hope that helps :D
So (after a weekend break) here's todays WIP Pic:
alarm clock in the background showing time ticking down and yep the clock goes nuts...
'red' things are a test of 3d clicking. possibly how you will place tiles. but not sure yet.
And centre is a card! Originally these were going to be 2d. but I decided on 3d with hand drawn 2d graphics. they fit much better using this style...
I like the fact they are hand drawn but NOT flat. they have a lovely 3d quality to them. Not sure how they will all fit together though
originally they were done in photoshop as 2d art. I was going to use the same system here, but went totally 3d. I took the 2d elements I previously did and added them to my 3d asset sheet. All the graphics are a single 64x64pixel sprites packed into 16x16 (256 in all). I use some custom shaders to decide which is the starting graphic and the size and width.
I also used a custom written sprite editor to draw some of the the other textures. There is a custom 3d app that takes everything and also allows me to create lowpoly models and texture map them very fast.
The shaders also allow me to use different colours when rendering so most of the graphics are in grey. Using this way means I can use the same graphics in different colours giving totally unique looks without loads more work
This is a month-long game jam, so we thought to go a bit ambitious:
So here are the first screenshot of our WIP Multiplayer Roguelike ARPG!
The theme of this jam is 30 second quest. We are thinking to have dungeon environments be filled with Aether, which is toxic to humans. If you breath it in for more than 30 seconds you start taking very rapid damage. However, you can hold it off using certain artifacts, spells, abilities, and items. This adds another level of strategic thinking to the mix.
The game will play sort of Dark Soul-sy in its pacing. You really have to think about attacks, and when to defend. Difficulty is definitely something we are focusing on in terms of balance. There will be a need to learn enemy attack patterns. On the art, a lot of focus is being put on enemies telegraphing their attacks.
Art style is rather simple at the moment. The minimalism is real in this one! We have not done our "beautification" yet, but we will be keeping this simple style. It simplifies animation, content creation, and eliminates the need for up/down animation (because of a lack of legs).
At the moment, we are working on the base systems, then finishing the town, then we will be working on dungeons. Still undecided if we will be tackling random dungeon generation or PCG for this jam. One month is still too short!
Stay tuned for weekly updates!
More Update Finally made my character >.< Not as good as i hoped but he's rigged and ready to animate :D yay! 
So. Todays WIP Pic is all about cards...
You can see the card edges have grown a bit.
This is all still in dev, but there are 2 different 3d views being used; one for the table and one for the cards - think 2 camera being used at the same time.
You can also see the cards rotating around the z axis giving a feel that they are 3d and not flat.
It's sorta coming together a bit now...
so todays WIP pic is animated... Yay!
I think you get the idea, but... if you don't. There are 5 cards, select a card and it becomes highlighted and the possible positions are also shown in red on the table.
I hope next post will be a video with our prototype already working. Some fun with Isometric Graphics :D
Thanks for your message.
Actually, for the graphis, Im using as reference this (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isometric_graphics_in_video_games_and_pixel_art) (aka, True Isometric), but the camera isnt in the right place yet! :D But will be very soon (I hope this weekend).
Since I'm still working on the basic mechanics of the game, I did not pay much attention to that.
Next week, I'm posting the first prototype of the game and I encourage you to play and tell me where I can improve, including the isometric look. Lol
Thank you for your consideration!
Todays WIP is also animated and is about movement:
It basically shows room cards. pick a room card and a position. The room tile drops into position and the figure moves.
This is the base core concept finished. it's in a very raw state, but shows the idea behind it.
The movement was achieved by using a timeline system
Lots more work to be done......
End of week WIP. We've got movement....!
The time now counts down only at certain times when you have to make a decision. So you have 30 seconds to get from the 'start' to the 'end'
Lots missing at the moment. to do with enemies, treasure. but the basics is now functioning and playable
I tried my own take on the super hot video matthew made. Added a cooldown and I think it looks cool with the sewer vibe of the game.
Props Color'did (probably going to need more props later but this is a good start i think)
Just finished a rough pass of the character, going for the Journey style with lots of cloth physics.
Been cleaning up robed characters. First time ever making my own game characters in blender and loving it so far.
Agreed, the camera works really well. I love the way the lamp stays on when it's knocked over as well. Getting your head around 3d vectors and cameras and stuff is not simple stuff. You look like your getting there. Half a day is not slow to make this jump ;)
Remember. even if it's not (strictly right) go by the way it works and how it looks to you. My cameras are completely NOT right, so I adjusted everything so you don't know they are not right. Much quicker than trying to work out where I went wrong. Time is a bit more precious with game jams...
Keep up the great work.
For Todays WIP. It's the base GUI
You can see there is a top line with you health (hearts) the clock and how much gold you have collected.
Looks like there is something strange going on with the Relic Card as well...
2 answers for this one.
1. It's made in a new language called Monkey2 - a version of basic that is compiled down into c++.
2. currently monkey2 3d is being developed, so all of this is actually custom programmed from scratch in OpenGL. That includes the 3d editors and everything else. I'm sort of working with a new timeline system I'm working on to provide lots of interaction and animation. I also did all the particle stuff, etc, so there is nothing that is actually used off the shelf.
Here's a current pic of the animated lighting for the Battle Arena
I know it looks a bit dark, but it's a work in progress...
Todays WIP is the Battle Arena. anytime you meet a monster, you do battle!
The cards change to the battle deck. Still working out how the cards will operate but i really like the concept of there being a single 'fatal' card in the deck. if you get that it will give you a fatal blow to your opponent.
Here's a much more interesting dev pic:
This is me trying to work out how you will fight battles, what the cards will be how they will integrate, etc.
From this You can probably surmise that there will be a deck of cards, which are dealt out each round. The deck will have battle and shield cards plus one fatal card.
You play a card, they are compared and someone wins the round and someone looses a heart life. continue until one of you is dead - hopefully not you!
This would also mean (much later on) there could be different decks, or deck building?
hi guys!
me and my friend started last week during our free time. Now that he finished his studies, we can push the game forward. so far, we made a design that both of us agreed on and will start doing the gameplay mechanics.
here's our progress
GIF here: http://imgur.com/hL5wwnK
thanks!
we're still playing around on the mechanics and story but the idea is that you will fight a boss for 30 seconds(borrowed time) and the time resets for you to buy powerups and equipment until you beat the boss. we love making the concept of a time paradox thing in which it changes the fate of the future by altering something in the past
Final one for the day - and animated.
this shows the Battle Arena and battle cards. in the distance you can see that the enemy has already placed a water shield card. so if we played anything with water it would be shielded!
in essence the card system is nonoperational with a proper ransomed shuffle, pick from the top, etc. this is all being done in the background. the visuals will now need to match.... <grins>
LOL, still lots to do to get it all working.
Heres a TIP for you:
Lets assume we have 2 modes ( play and battle ).
and we have a boolean IsInBattle:bool (yes/no variable) to decide which mode we are in.
instead of using a bool, use a float. and check for <=0 is in play >= 1 is in battle.
You now have a slider which you can use to morph/fade/do some transition between play and battle.
I usually use a _gameMode:int to decide what I am doing. but I found that a lot of it became time based, so instead of GAMEMODE_PLAY and GAMEMODE_MENU I needed GAMEMODE_MENUTOPLAY, etc
You then end up with a lot of big case/switch/if statements to pick which mode you are in.
Currently everything is being controlled by time and timelines. I trigger a timeline and it returns a value from 0 to 1. 0 being one state 1 being another state. everything in between is some form of transition.
E.G. I am currently going from play into battle modes. and just set a transition for 2 seconds. but it was too long, so I kept tweeting the timing variable until it felt 'right' As it is time based, it will run the same on any platform or computer.
Think of it as sort of invisible events. You can trigger a defined time - read the position, and be notified when it reaches the end.
I am not sure if Unity or Unreal have these things as default, but I am sure they could be quickly knocked up. Maybe think about it for another time ;]
So, what's todays WIP I hear you cry? Today is about transitions. from a play state to a battle state. This means the current map of tiles must go away and a new 'Battle arena' brought in...
So the clock is stopped and moved out of the way, the current card are hidden and a new battle deck brought in, and new battle tiles are dropped in place. plus the lighting is lowered and color boosted.
The FPS is wavering because of the screen capture, just so you know it's not the game :)
Really, really nice looking 3d art you have there :)
In the opening menu screen, the text might stand out a bit more if it was outlined in black?
Also watch the size of the flying leaves (which are a nice touch). you don't want them looking like big things - unless you too ;)
But nice work. I like it a lot.
Thanks for the comments bro, i really like low poly art style stuff.
the opening menu screen was just something i whipped up in 30 secs just to get something working.
yeah i think i may have placed the particle effect to close to the camera which look way to big,
thanks for watching it tho i really do appreciate the comments looking for any advice for it this is my first game jam.
So Todays WIP is animated (yay, but they didn't appear in the promo vid?) I'll need to create a utube account I suppose??
This has been gamma corrected so it isn't so dark. But it gives an idea of how the battles will be fought, models are now bigger and brighter and show their respective health.
You also can see how the view will flip from one side to the other giving a more dynamic feel.
I've worked out how the attack cards will operate against each other, so just need to implement it all now
Today's Pic is the battle arena:
Pink Knight is using a fire attack and has 3 hearts, the blob has a water shield and has 2 hearts.
So... I suppose a water shield would stop a fire? No damage to either side
yep. the engine is definitely a WIP. but it is very stable. programmed in OpenGL with custom shaders.
so, for todays WIP:
initially it looks like there is nothing new. But wait. there are blood splats and numerous monsters. So it looks like the battle system is now functional ;)
Been bug hunting and getting timings right so it doesn't feels slow.
so, the essence is 30 seconds to get the relic and 30 seconds to get out. Fighting monsters will either remove a heart (they won) or give you a few seconds extra to play with (you won)
Hopefully Matthew can access the above video from youtube as well ;)
Looking forward to playing everyone else's games as well.
Yeah i think i just thought i could do so much more in a month but its hard trying to do this plus full time job and 14 month daughter but i feel like i achieved something even if i dont get everything in the game that i wanted i think people will still enjoy it.
Your game is coming along nice it looks pretty cool man looking forward to playing it, how much more of that have you got to go?
sounds Like you have your hands full if I knew unity I would try and give you a hand. I still have to do assets for a whole other level. But I just finished with my characters animation's he can now jump run walk idle and does a three sword attack combo and death. Sound effects I'm having trouble with. I want to touch up my AI as well make them smarter.
thanks man took way to long in blender first time using it always used 3dsmax before this but thought i would give blender a try. yeah i'm using UE4 never done stuff with swords before so im a little unsure how to blend walking with Sword attack but im sure i could find out some info somewhere for it. Thanks for watching it
Definitely has something about it that is interesting. would be a shame not to get it to a more playable state.
Here's a graphics tweak for you to think about. place a graded dark sprite (going from grey to transparent, below your figure for instant shadow effect. Stops him from looking like he is floating a bit .:)
Here's today WIP
adding some spice to the display. also some more mechanics to do with doors... and rooms... and lighting...
Really interesting mechanic about moving in two time frames to complete. Got to say the look is great - especially the slightly shiny paint.
Unreal or Unity?
So, we're in the final segment now and the pressure is on for all of us ;)
Looks like the same for the Nomicron as well...
Last one for the day. possibly the last one...
The Room is found and the Nomicron has opened with the cards of evil!
The logo is seen, and there is a nice big button to press.
I hear the wind and in the distance the mournful bell tolls...
Such a nice glowing red button! I wonder what it does?
Oh no!!! I feel your pain Adam. Something similar happened to me in a previous jam once. It's a crushing feeling I know. I'd say keep working on the issues, after some much needed rest though. You can still upload it on your itch page and people will still get a chance to play it when and if you do figure out the issues! Never give up man haha ;)
currently there are no plans to release the game until I can work out where things went wrong. It's all been a learning process so nothing wasted.
Hopefully the game issues can be solved and I can think what to do later ;)
