Vapourware Codexian Game Development Thread

[Nathaniel3W]

I have a sudden urge to go listen to that song from the Disney Hercules cartoon... the one where the muses are singing that song to the girl.

 

[Merlkir]

 

[Shatterbrain]

 

[Zed]

Spoon (tm).

you should use a spinning wireframe man to indicate player health, that would be cool

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

Spoon (tm).

you should use a spinning wireframe man to indicate player health, that would be cool

That idea is... interesting. I'll have to think about it a bit at a later date.

 

[ProphetSword]

I've reached a point where I'm trying to decide whether I should stick with the art direction I started. I rather like the monochrome look of my game. For those who haven't seen it, it looks like this:



However, just to see what it would look like, I created a secondary version that is mostly in color (some remnants of the monochrome color scheme still exists). This video shows what the game would look like in color (though I will point out that the combat icon for the Goblin Slinger is actually an Orc, since I was testing the icon when I made this build).



Anyway, just looking for feedback. I don't know if I would switch to the color version, unless a lot of people thought that the game might be better that way.

 

[Joined on the 4th of July]

Anyway, just looking for feedback. I don't know if I would switch to the color version, unless a lot of people thought that the game might be better that way.

Combat icons do look quite pretty in colour. Do you have lot of them of similar quality?

"goblin basher's turn"
Should have these announcements only for player characters. As their purpose is to be prompts for player to give commands. Now it's just some extra noise in the message log.

"press enter/return to..."
drop one or the other.

 

[ProphetSword]

Combat icons do look quite pretty in colour. Do you have lot of them of similar quality?

I do, actually. But, even though the icons look good, it doesn't mean I should necessarily abandon the monochrome look of the game.

"goblin basher's turn"
Should have these announcements only for player characters. As their purpose is to be prompts for player to give commands. Now it's just some extra noise in the message log.

Not 100% sure about this, since the game naturally pauses as the monster starts its turn anyway to give the player a chance to process what is happening. Showing whose turn it is versus just showing nothing at all doesn't cost any additional resources or time and is already programmed into the system.

"press enter/return to..."
drop one or the other.

This one I can agree on. It should probably read:
"Press ENTER to continue," since most computers in this era (maybe all of them) have an ENTER key instead of a RETURN key.

 

[Agesilaus]

I reckon the colour looks better.

 

[Dorateen]

Anyway, just looking for feedback. I don't know if I would switch to the color version, unless a lot of people thought that the game might be better that way.

The monochrome has charm and gives your game a distinct look. I did not upgrade to a VGA monitor until Pools of Darkness, so I played the first six Gold Box games with a limited color palette. Having said that, once seeing the full color version, I think the details stand out more. Maybe helps distinguish among different combat icons as well. So if given the option, I would probably prefer the color. But I don't see any problem if you want to stay with the original tint.

 

[ProphetSword]

Except for one person (on another forum), the response seems to be that people prefer the color. I don't have an issue with this, other than it changes the artistic style...because color choice is an artistic choice.

In my personal opinion, though, the color looks like a cheap knock-off, but the monochrome looks old-school authentic.

 

[Mustawd]

I'll add my 2 cents that I also prefer the color.

 

[barker_s]

Gotta say, I prefer the coloured version as well, although I understand your reasoning for going monochrome. That said, did you consider a setup where you can have a cake and it it too? What I mean is, what if your game took place in two parallel worlds - full-colour and monochrome, and you could switch between them using portals or spells. Or maybe you could have the colours desaturate as the party delves deeper into the dungeon. You could make this effect very subtle for maximum mindfuckery.

 

[AdolfSatan]

Or simply make it an option in the game's settings. If you have all the assets done in colour already, generating a cyan version would require little to no effort; I'm with the colour crowd here.

 

[ProphetSword]

The amount of work I would have to do to have the assets in two formats would probably not be worth it and would take away time I could use on development. The color option is actually the easier option, since all the assets I'm using are already in color. So, I will probably just switch.

Thanks for the feedback. I needed other eyes on it.

 

[barker_s]

Yeah, creating two copies of each asset would be quite a hassle, but that's not what I meant. You could create a simple image effect shader that turns the screen to grayscale and then tints it with a desired colour.

 

[ProphetSword]

Yeah, creating two copies of each asset would be quite a hassle, but that's not what I meant. You could create a simple image effect shader that turns the screen to grayscale and then tints it with a desired colour.

I considered that, though I will say I don't know the first thing about how to do that. If anyone has any information or links to information about how to do that kind of thing, I would look into it. Might be nice to have an option for people who want an old school monochrome style (and it would definitely save me a lot of work).

 

[barker_s]

Please remind me ProphetSword , are you using Unity for this project? If so, then I could cook something up for you, since I'm knee-deep in shader stuff anyway.

 

[ProphetSword]

I am using Unity.

 

[barker_s]

Okay ProphetSword, here you go. I'm posting it here in case anyone else wants it:

https://mega.nz/#!tCxBgSjb!RSvMMBvuVK-CGDz4h-8yLXfBc6U2DdnXny7gmNEORhw

The package contains a shader, a material and an example scene. If you want to use it in your game, just import the package into your project and put GrayscaleTintImageEffect.cs script on your main camera. Then, drag and drop the the GrayscaleTint.mat material to the Post Process Mat field on the script. The material has a Tint property where you can specify the color you want. Make sure the script is enabled on the camera, hit play and enjoy . In case you want to change the tint at runtime, the image effect contains a public method called SetTint. The shader itself was created in Amplify Shader Editor, but it was simple enough that the auto-generated code is quite readable.

Some screenies:

 

[DakaSha V]

zwanzigs game looks and sounds great, but i havent seen anything that actually makes it look fun. tho i suppose some people could find the atmosphere fun in and of itself

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

zwanzigs game looks and sounds great, but i havent seen anything that actually makes it look fun. tho i suppose some people could find the atmosphere fun in and of itself

Thanks.
Guess the style and atmosphere are the main selling points together with exploration and long-term resource management, but the latter two are next to impossible to show on screenshots. Have you played the demo?

 

[ProphetSword]

Okay ProphetSword, here you go. I'm posting it here in case anyone else wants it:

https://mega.nz/#!tCxBgSjb!RSvMMBvuVK-CGDz4h-8yLXfBc6U2DdnXny7gmNEORhw

The package contains a shader, a material and an example scene. If you want to use it in your game, just import the package into your project and put GrayscaleTintImageEffect.cs script on your main camera. Then, drag and drop the the GrayscaleTint.mat material to the Post Process Mat field on the script. The material has a Tint property where you can specify the color you want. Make sure the script is enabled on the camera, hit play and enjoy . In case you want to change the tint at runtime, the image effect contains a public method called SetTint. The shader itself was created in Amplify Shader Editor, but it was simple enough that the auto-generated code is quite readable.

It didn't work for me, but thanks for the effort. I'm sure someone will be able to use it.

I won't be able to use it because the UI elements of the game don't utilize the Main Camera, so the only part affected was the 3D movement screen, and it became a solid color (couldn't see beyond it) when activated.

 

[MF]

I won't be able to use it because the UI elements of the game don't utilize the Main Camera, so the only part affected was the 3D movement screen, and it became a solid color (couldn't see beyond it) when activated.

Try the new Post Processing stack. It's in the Asset store and it's free, though you'll probably need to upgrade your version of Unity to use it and I'm not sure if it works with Unity Personal. You can just attach a Post Effects Base to your main camera and fiddle around with RGB curves. If you can't use it, there are some legacy camera post-effects that you can try. In your case, that's probably a better solution than using a custom shader.

 

[ProphetSword]

Can't upgrade my copy of Unity, sadly, since one of the tools that's essential to my project no longer works in newer version of Unity. I wish it did.