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Exile Squadron - Space SHMUP from One Bit Studio (J_C)

J_C

One Bit Studio
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Project: Eternity Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath
Did you use blur with hard/no feather or smudge tool for the explosions? The transition looks rather abrupt. I still feel like the planet and enemy ships in the distance are too detailed, but the progress here is astounding when you compare it to the original.

Inconsistent in their behaviour as one would expect, /ic/ can be very helpful sometimes. You should consider posting there too for critique.

EDIT: Sorry about random/senseless ratings. I keep clicking the buttons by mistake.
I just selected part of the explosion and applied motion blur on it. But I see that I should create a transition between the blurred and the clear part of the explosion.
 

AdolfSatan

Arcane
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Dec 27, 2017
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A simpler alternative could be using a mask (if you don't know how to use them, watch a quick tutorial, they simplify your life a lot!) with the effect, and then painting-in the blurred parts with a diffuse brush set on low opacity (20% or so).

Getting accustomed with curves and masking in the RGB colour channels will also alleviate your workload a lot if you plan on producing the graphics by yourself, and shouldn't take more than an hour or two of your time.
 

FeelTheRads

Arcane
Joined
Apr 18, 2008
Messages
13,716
I think you should give up on the blurring. Without an original source for the image (with layers) you're going to have a hard time making believable DOF or motion blur effects.
 

Bad Sector

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Insert Title Here RPG Wokedex Codex Year of the Donut Codex+ Now Streaming! Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Are those placeholder graphics or (near) final? There are some consistency issues with them.
 

J_C

One Bit Studio
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Project: Eternity Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath
Are those placeholder graphics or (near) final? There are some consistency issues with them.
I'm assuming you mean those huge background asteroids. I'm planning to change those. Other than that, it's final.
 

Bad Sector

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Insert Title Here RPG Wokedex Codex Year of the Donut Codex+ Now Streaming! Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
No, i mean all of it, the lighting is all over the place and some images do not even have lighting (e.g. the trapezoid platform or the round enemies). Check this:

iGyNt39.gif


Also there is pixel inconsistency outside of the asteroids with the "round explosion" using 2x2 pixels (bottom right, green text). Finally there seems to be some synchronization issue with some of the objects - the two objects with the yellow arrows seem to slide back and forth a single pixel as the screen scrolls. BTW what is the brown object? It seems to lack form/definition compared to the other objects.

These are static objects so it shouldn't be hard to fix - just decide on a single primary light direction (top left is very common) and adjust everything follow that.
 

J_C

One Bit Studio
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Project: Eternity Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath
No, i mean all of it, the lighting is all over the place and some images do not even have lighting (e.g. the trapezoid platform or the round enemies). Check this:

iGyNt39.gif


Also there is pixel inconsistency outside of the asteroids with the "round explosion" using 2x2 pixels (bottom right, green text). Finally there seems to be some synchronization issue with some of the objects - the two objects with the yellow arrows seem to slide back and forth a single pixel as the screen scrolls. BTW what is the brown object? It seems to lack form/definition compared to the other objects.

These are static objects so it shouldn't be hard to fix - just decide on a single primary light direction (top left is very common) and adjust everything follow that.
Oh that. I shamefully admit that at this moment that is the best I could do. I'll try to fix some of this but since shading problem will probably come up for every object I made, so I probably wont' fix everything. I just don't have the time.

One thing I can assure you that the syncronization problem is not in the game, it's just the crappy GIF which is acting up.

The brown object is a kind of box which you have to shoot so it drops some weapon.

Nonetheless, thank you for taking the time and pointing out the problems.
 
Last edited:

J_C

One Bit Studio
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Project: Eternity Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath
The game is ready for betatest, so I would gladly send any volunteers a copy, if you want to play and provide some feedback. I prefer sending it through Itch.io, but if you don't want to make an account there, I can send it through some other means.

So anyone up for this?
 

J_C

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Project: Eternity Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath
It's time to nut up or shut up!

Exile Squadron has a Steam Store page now, which means that it is accepting Wishlists. And since wishlists are the most important factor for the Steam algorithm, I hope many of you will take the bullet and wishlist my game.

I really appreciate it.

 

J_C

One Bit Studio
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Project: Eternity Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath
Hear ye, hear ye! The second game of J_C the magnificent has been released on Steam!

It's a clear contender for GOTY 2019.

9.84526/10 - Would Exile it again!

If you are interesed, the link is 2 posts above this. Thanks. :P
 

Curratum

Guest
You are a very brave man, pricing that at 10 dollars. Props for the currency adjustment for EUR, though.
 

Slimu

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Divinity: Original Sin 2 Pathfinder: Kingmaker Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
I bought the game yesterday to support a fellow codexian. Will play on the week-end.
 

J_C

One Bit Studio
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Project: Eternity Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath
You are a very brave man, pricing that at 10 dollars. Props for the currency adjustment for EUR, though.
I learned with my first game that if you price it too low, you can't go anywhere from there later on. If I price it too low, and I want to have a 50% discount, then I won't earn anything with it. Just pennies. But we will see how this turns out.
I bought the game yesterday to support a fellow codexian. Will play on the week-end.
Thanks a lot. :D
 

J_C

One Bit Studio
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Project: Eternity Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath
Hi. Is there any Linux gamer here? I'm planning to release the game on that platform, but I need someone who tests that version. I don't want gameplay testing, just seeing that it runs and everything works as intended technically.
 

Bad Sector

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Insert Title Here RPG Wokedex Codex Year of the Donut Codex+ Now Streaming! Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
I do not have it installed on my PC but you can always use a VM and/or create a USB stick live image (check Rufus, a Windows application that lets you install ISOs to USB sticks) and boot your PC from it. Trying out Linux Mint should be simple enough, just make sure if you have an Nvidia GPU that you get the official proprietary drivers (they should be available from the repository) instead of using Nouveau (many distros default to this since it is part of the kernel, but it only provides 2D support and very very basic and *very very very* slow 3D support). If you have AMD or Intel you should be good to go out of the box since the drivers are part of the kernel.
 

Bad Sector

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Insert Title Here RPG Wokedex Codex Year of the Donut Codex+ Now Streaming! Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Ah yeah, sorry, for the majority of the part you quoted i meant booting from the USB. The VM needs its own drivers and, yeah, it has limited support (assuming you use VirtualBox). However if you use the VMSVGA controller and enable 3D acceleration, it should be fast enough. Though if you use Mint make sure you disable the compositor (check the Control Center -> Window or from Desktop Settings select a window manager without compositing like Metacity), otherwise you may get weird results.

But honestly it is much better (and glitchless... or at least much less glitchy) to boot from a USB. Considering your game is 2D, even Nouveau might work.

EDIT: did you delete your comment? I took some time to check out the settings in VBox so i replied with the comment still there :-P
 

J_C

One Bit Studio
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Project: Eternity Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath
Ah yeah, sorry, for the majority of the part you quoted i meant booting from the USB. The VM needs its own drivers and, yeah, it has limited support (assuming you use VirtualBox). However if you use the VMSVGA controller and enable 3D acceleration, it should be fast enough. Though if you use Mint make sure you disable the compositor (check the Control Center -> Window or from Desktop Settings select a window manager without compositing like Metacity), otherwise you may get weird results.

But honestly it is much better (and glitchless... or at least much less glitchy) to boot from a USB. Considering your game is 2D, even Nouveau might work.

EDIT: did you delete your comment? I took some time to check out the settings in VBox so i replied with the comment still there :-P
Oh sorry, I deleted my comment because I realized that what I was asking is not relevant, because in VBox I only have the VMSVGA. But thanks for replying anyway. :)
 

J_C

One Bit Studio
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Project: Eternity Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath
So, it seems the Linux version is working pretty nicely, which means you can get the game on this platform as well. The Itch version is available here, with the Steam version coming soon:
https://onebitstudio.itch.io/exile-squadron
 

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