Vapourware Codexian Game Development Thread

[eric__s]

An empty 3296x2208 map with a massive tileset I've never used before. Very daunting. I wonder how long this will take me. This will be the main city for the demo we hope to put out in a month. So much work ahead of us. I'm thinking 16 hour days? Maybe more? Who knows.

 

[eric__s]

Spoiler

Ran into a resolution problem, going to have to remake the map from scratch but that's okay. I learned a ton of really good techniques for making maps and I'm sure I can make it better the second time around. It's just kind of frustrating and unfortunate because this was turning into a very nice map.

 

[Excommunicator]

Are you using an editor to put this map together or just a graphics program? Wouldn't you be able to add lots of lighting and texture if you are using a graphics program (i.e. adjusting the brightness of surfaces of different altitudes for ease of interpretation)? And if it isn't, why not do it that way?

 

[eric__s]

We're using Ogmo and doing effects like lighting, fog, parallax, whatever in the game's engine. We're making the maps in 4 layers - the two base layers will be saved together as a static PNG image like the Infinity Engine games used and two layers for tiles and objects that have depth. Externalizing the mapping process has a number of advantages - first, since the two base layers will be a static image, an artist can go in and add detail to each map like cracks in the ground or letters on those empty signs, second, large image files take considerably less resources than lots of tiles and lastly, the engine we're using doesn't allow multiple people to work in it at the same time. By externalizing as much of the work as possible and importing it in the game, we can all work together.

This is what the map looks like with the depth layers turned off - you can walk behind these tiles

There's also obviously a layer for solids and interactive objects.

I think it's for the best that I remake the map because I was working with some bad habits - I wasn't setting solids consistently, I probably could have used depth better and I should have tightened up some of the spaces.

 

[20 Eyes]

Haven't posted in this thread in a while...

I didn't give up, I've been steadily building my programming skills. Here is the last Codex-appropriate thing I worked on:

I was building an isometric RPG engine, just a really simple one that you could use for anything. It's pretty barebones, but it nicely handled multiple layers with buildings and objects rendering appropriately. Alas, it's on hold for now.

 

[eric__s]

Looking very cool 20 Eyes.

Spoiler

18750 tiles per layer, nearly 10x the size of my second largest map, no idea how many hours but it was a lot. Fortunately this is like 50% of the demo's total area and the rest is spread out over much smaller maps. One of the artists is going through and fixing all the shitty shadows and adding cool touches like graffiti and cracks in the ground. Preliminary depth collision seems to be working a lot better than I expected too.

It's looks like a Where's Waldo landscape.

Can't wait to start populating this area.

 

[chewie]

Awesome cboyardee!

 

[Zed]

Looks good 20 Eyes

cboyardee
where did you get that bitching fucking tileset ? looks amazing.

 

[DarkUnderlord]

This is some vapourware I was working on years ago before I abandoned it.

 

[Crooked Bee]

Cool character sprites there.

 

[shihonage]

Was going to brofist but then it felt like a sad brofist because you abandoned it.

 

[Zed]

that looks really nice DU. shame you abandoned it.

I made a silly quest description randomizer/generator for a silly thing I'm trying to make. a few of these were so silly so I thought I'd share. randomizes name in 3 parts then quest in 3.

oh and I made that bitmap font. (oops, I see a type in there... plats = plants)

 

[ForeverdarkWoods]

I've been having a bunch of time on my hands lately and started working on something. What I'm making is a pretty straightforward isometric dungeon crawl with a minimal story and simplistic mechanics.

Below is a test mockup of some graphical assets I've made for it. They are not done, and have some serious problems right now that I need to work on. The stairs I will probably redo completely and everything is way too bright and has to be dimmed quite a bit. The walls also hane a bunch of issues associated with them currently. Most issues arrise from me not thinking properly when I made the tiles causing them to be fucked up. Also, this is not shaded at all.

 

[Destroid]

It's looking very MC Escher at the moment.

 

[ForeverdarkWoods]

Yes. Elevation is way off. That was only a test to see how the graphics would tile together. In process of actually making a complete tileset. If it looks decent when finished I'll put it up at opengameart under GPL.

As for the actual game, I'm still figuring out the basics. It's a first attempt for me so it's gonna be exciting to see how it turns out.

 

[J1M]

You should shade your tileset so that it implies a light direction. This will help prevent it from all blending together.

 

[ForeverdarkWoods]

Yes, been working on it a bit today and made some progress. The above was mostly a test to see how well they tiled together. They didn't do very well and require some tweaking (or rather, I have to redo most of them), but I'm making progress and learning. Made a few new floor tiles that look much better today.

 

[Zed]

I shall give you some pro tips on dungeon tiling

(the lesson is to not have outlines that mirror on other tiles so that it creates 2x pixel lines because that's not nice.)
(unless of course it's on purpose.)

 

[ForeverdarkWoods]

On the newer tiles I have already done this. As said, the above image was mostly a first test to see how the map editor picked out the shape of the tiles.

 

[ForeverdarkWoods]

Ok. Now I've done some graphics that I'm somewhat satisfied with. Here's an example map that just shows them off, saved from the map editor software:

Spoiler

 

[Zed]

That looks very good. I'd say the cracks in the cracked tiles are just a little too prominent. Also, instead of just having cracks to alternate appearance, you could also use stuff like moss, grates, dirt/removed tiles, cobwebs, etc.
I really like the "rusty stone" color and the contrast of the door.

 

[ForeverdarkWoods]

Removed tiles I have already tried out. I have dirt tiles made that fit just right. Will upload more screenies at a later date showcasing some other stuff I've made.

Also been looking into the nuts and bolts and started learning how to code with lua, the engine of choice thus far being LÖVE2D.

Will also upload the graphics to opengameart at a later date, when I've organized them better and the tilesets are more complete.

 

[eric__s]

Very impressive stuff on this page. Pretty sure you've single-handedly outdone Daggerfall's quest generation Zed, looking forward to it. ForeverdarkWoods, your tileset is awesome, I'd only suggest either adding shaded tiles or dynamic shadows.

We were going to make a big announcement about the game on Friday, but it turns out game media sites don't report on much over the weekend so we'll probably do it tomorrow. I'm getting interviewed over the phone by Kotaku tomorrow, hopefully the article will go up within the next few days. I've never done an interview before, I have no idea what to expect. Very nervous and very stressed out right now. This is definitely the most stressed I've ever been in my entire life, even more than when I put off term papers for the night before. I'm working on a lot of marketing stuff (new site, social media stuff, contacting journalists, writing press releases and the Kickstarter, securing physical rewards) and it is frustrating and difficult. It hasn't even started and I can't wait until all this is over with. Still, it is kind of fun and exhilarating. I hope we don't crash and burn.

 

[sea]

Ok. Now I've done some graphics that I'm somewhat satisfied with. Here's an example map that just shows them off, saved from the map editor software:

Spoiler

Protip: have different colours/shades/etc. for the floor and walls so they don't blend into one another. Even if it's just two different browns or greys.

 

[ForeverdarkWoods]

They do have different colours, although maybe I should differentiate them a bit more since the difference is very small.