Vapourware Codexian Game Development Thread

[AdolfSatan]

But why not simply create a secondary copy of the assets and have them in monochrome? I doubt it would add much to the weight of the game, and doing it only requires for you to create a quick macro on photoshop (or gimp, or whatever) and then make it load all the images and process them.

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

Because it's not supposed to be fun, it's a game for masochistic elitists to deride those who can't beat it. I mean, look at the dev, he's a German who took his forum name out of an industrial album. GS is a game for those who consider Bethlehem's best record to be their '93 EP.

In all seriousness, you just have to try it. Feeling like you've actually jumped into a mecha and are in a dangerous mission is where the enjoyment comes from.

Only critique I have —though we all know 2012 will call me a faggot for it—, is towards the lack of an auto-mapping feature. Think what you may, but drawing maps by hand is something I sure don't miss from older games. It only works for pnp.
Besides, I'm piloting a fucking robot, just build the feature in, you lazy-ass nazis.

 

[DakaSha V]

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?

Oh no I haven't. It probably just isn't my type of game so eh. It does look cool though, so if thats the selling point, i see it garnering a small (perhaps cult) following

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

Only critique I have —though we all know 2012 will call me a faggot for it—, is towards the lack of an auto-mapping feature. Think what you may, but drawing maps by hand is something I sure don't miss from older games. It only works for pnp.

I'm mocking the idea of implementing an automap not because of the 'MUH HARDCOREZ' attitude but because the maps in the game are rather small and simple (and it kinda kills the point of teleporters and spinners when you can just look at your current position and facing direction). Frankly, if you're struggling w/ the Tunnels map from the demo even w/ extra subtle details to make the navigation easier, I've got some good news for you...

...here's the plan of a new version of this map from Das Geisterschiff: Enhanced Edition.

 

[Nathaniel3W]

Trying out uploading my mp4s to Imgur. It'll save me a couple of steps, converting and optimizing the gifs, and hosting them on my own website.

If this works, you'll see a parade of little anime desus and their magical weapons.

Edit: It's not animated in my browser. Oh well. I guess it's back to making my own gifs?

Edit 2: Does this work?

Edit 3: What about this?

Edit 4: OK, I give up. I guess I have to make my own gifs. Imgur's mp4 upload doesn't seem to be compatible with sharing anywhere else. You can check out https://i.imgur.com/ZxIBET0 if you really want to, but whatever.

Edit 5: Gif hosted on my own website.

 

[Lord of the Files]

I thought I would post some gameplay of a RPG I'm working on for phones and tablets.

Combat is "step" turn-based, like a roguelike, but the overall design is more inspired by Ultima, Fallout and the like. It has or will have most of the features you expect from a prestigious RPG.

Right now I'm using programmer art. Think it's too "RPG Maker"? I think I'll need to hire an artist soon.




More details will eventually follow, including a thread, an official title, and a playable demo!

 

[Dorateen]

Love the descriptions in the combat log. Nice detail.

 

[levgre]

Making a basic local map system, the player would be raiding the village here. It'll have crop fields and other terrain as well outside the village, more building variety, and of course locales other than villages. It's actually 5x5 larger tiles that the player moves on. When on the same tile as enemies, it goes into the standard battle screen.

The mechanics i have in mind right now are -

rally points for enemy soldiers (capturing them would lead to disorganization/possible surrender, or just watching the rally points lets you track enemy spawns better)
setting fire to buildings (more useful for stuff like barracks, can give you a more vicious reputation though depending on the fire spreading and killing innocents)
slaughtering of unarmed people (could stop them from arming themselves and help lead to surrender, but again might not be a reputation the player wants)
Stealth/fog of war (line of sight needed to see enemy troops, ambushing at sharply cornered crossroads, player can try to hide approach until getting close to village)
Multi-tile ranged shots before the player closes distance, maybe sprinting to do so quicker at a cost of stamina. I suppose the player could do long range attacks too, although it usually wouldn't be in their favor).

 

[Shatterbrain]

Looks interesting, planning something like Ogre Battle?

 

[Lord of the Files]

Love the descriptions in the combat log. Nice detail.

Thanks, I always think combat logs amplify the "RPG factor" for whatever reason. Right now there are no dicerolls and the mechanics are pretty much a placeholder to test the engine and editor, but that will change soon.



In this clip, I use the editor tools to possess NPCs and move them around. This is useful for testing, and the engine support could also be leveraged in e.g. a party/companion system or possession spell.

 

[Nathaniel3W]

levgre Your world map has much higher production value than the battle map and UI. It looks a little stretched though. Where did you get the map? Are you going to do the rest of the game in that style and palette?

 

[levgre]

Looks interesting, planning something like Ogre Battle?

Some similarities, but not really. The map is a smaller part of the game since the party combat is the main focus. The player gets in, secures objective/money, and gets out. The maximum amount of squads would probably be 3-4, with 1-2 being typical (might make it a soft cap, i.e. you could bring more 4 squads on any mission, but the cost in smaller attacks would make it a net loss). The campaign mode is more freeform like say Battle Brothers, although I do plan some set scenarios/storylines as well, based on the player's relations with factions and type of reputation.

levgre Your world map has much higher production value than the battle map and UI. It looks a little stretched though. Where did you get the map? Are you going to do the rest of the game in that style and palette?

They are just placeholders right now, map was creative commons license on google. I have someone working on character art right now which I'll share somewhat when they finish some more pieces. After that's done, I'll have more time to think about the map art themes.

 

[levgre]

Here's the 2 combat "idle" stances done by the artist I'm commissioning so far (well, the spear one is in mid revisions).

So the body sprite will be changed based on armor being worn (this is just clothes/unarmored), as well as the head sprite for the character. The weapon sprite will be changed too. Polearms would all use the 2nd stance here, and all 2 hand swords would use the first (and maybe some other 2 hand weapons like greataxe or maul).

It's meant to be androgynous, although maybe later on some changes will be made for females to make them a bit more slender. At least when just in clothes, rather than armored in which case both males and females would be similarly bulky.

 

[Lord of the Files]

Lately I've been working on a faction system to help direct enemy AI. For instance, wolves shouldn't attach each other, but should attack players, villagers, and goblins. Villagers should be neutral toward players, but become hostile when attacked. Companions or friends should protect you. This sounds easy enough, but has complications:

• I had put off the engine feature of storing arbitrary global game state, so that had to be implemented first. I also implemented arbitrary area state while I was at it. My engine layer is totally separate from the game layer, so a huge degree of modding and customization would be possible if I polished up the tools (think NWN).
• Added GUI to view and modify global game state, including factions.
• In terms of gameplay, what happens if a player pisses off a faction they need to finish the storyline? You could make those NPCs invincible and unpissoffable (plot flag in NWN). You could design the quests with as much tolerance for bloodshed as possible (don't rely too much on NPCs). You could warn the player if they break the story, but let them keep playing. You could implement some way to reset faction attitudes for a price.

 

[Nathaniel3W]

rather than armored in which case both males and females would be similarly bulky.

What, no midriff-baring boobplate? That's a bold game design decision for this target audience.

(And did you see the Epic NPC Man episode on that? I love that show.)

 

[levgre]

rather than armored in which case both males and females would be similarly bulky.

What, no midriff-baring boobplate? That's a bold game design decision for this target audience.

(And did you see the Epic NPC Man episode on that? I love that show.)

Just watched some of them, they are pretty hilarious. I think tactical RPG gamers are tolerant of heavily armored females, although they still want their faces to be unrealistically pretty. I'll try to not cave in on that as well, although it's not a hill I'd want to die on.

Lately I've been working on a faction system to help direct enemy AI. For instance, wolves shouldn't attach each other, but should attack players, villagers, and goblins. Villagers should be neutral toward players, but become hostile when attacked. Companions or friends should protect you. This sounds easy enough, but has complications:

• I had put off the engine feature of storing arbitrary global game state, so that had to be implemented first. I also implemented arbitrary area state while I was at it. My engine layer is totally separate from the game layer, so a huge degree of modding and customization would be possible if I polished up the tools (think NWN).
• Added GUI to view and modify global game state, including factions.
• In terms of gameplay, what happens if a player pisses off a faction they need to finish the storyline? You could make those NPCs invincible and unpissoffable (plot flag in NWN). You could design the quests with as much tolerance for bloodshed as possible (don't rely too much on NPCs). You could warn the player if they break the story, but let them keep playing. You could implement some way to reset faction attitudes for a price.

You could just have the negative faction relation ignored during the quest. It's not necessarily unrealistic for adversaries to be tolerated when they are needed for something (perhaps the quest meeting would be outside the hostile village or headquarters).

To avoid the "killing of the questgiver" issue, the person who gives it could be impossibly guarded (leader wwith like 20 bodyguards), or be spawned just for the quest. If the player insists on finding a way to kill the target, then they are in a loss state. I suppose this is why usually games do the invincibility route (but i have seen kills allowed with just resulting in a loss state).

 

[Nathaniel3W]

Was it Oblivion [edit: No, I think it was Morrowind.] that would let you kill plot-essential characters? You could kill them, but then the game would warn you that you couldn't finish the game, and maybe you'd rather not save over a finishable game.

World of Warcraft had an approach to increasing relation with a faction. If your relation score was too low, they would attack you on sight. But if you killed a bunch of their enemies you could raise your relation until the faction tolerated you, and then you could get quests from them. There are probably better ways to do this than grinding Moonkin for hours just to enter the Dreamgrove, but at least it's something.

Mount & Blade would let you approach battles in progress and then choose which side to join. During the battle you can't harm allies. And then when the battle is over, your relationship with the ally goes up and relation with the enemy goes down. Do that enough and eventually a faction will stop fighting you.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

I suppose you could always find a way to force a temporary truce with a faction whose cooperation is needed to close the story, like how you had the Ulu-mulu in Gothic which let you walk somewhat unmolested in Orc territory.

 

[Mastermind]

For a while I considered setting the entire game within a creepy circus. I decided against it because I couldn't think of enough character classes or an epic enough story. Now though I think I might be able to pull it off. Maybe that will be an expansion campaign one day.

creepy circus setting sounds like a cool setting, i might steal it if you don't do something with it

 

[Nathaniel3W]

It's all yours Mastermind. It'll be a while before I can get around to it. I'd like to see what you come up with.

 

[Mastermind]

it'll be a while for me too, have at least 2 games i have to do before i even think of new projects

 

[Lord of the Files]

I've implemented the basics of factions. Here I watch goblins and wolves throw deadly 1s at each other from the relative safety of a building.

Wolves can't open doors.

 

[Nathaniel3W]

A couple weeks ago I was playing Himeko Sutori and I decided that the night scenes looked really bad. They were just dark, with no color or light to catch the eye. I get that it's at night and it's supposed to be dark. But that doesn't mean it has to look boring. So I thought maybe some rim lighting would improve the look.

The blue highlights on the grass tufts and around the sides of the tree are not made from any light source. They're built into the materials. Most rim lighting is journeyman-level technical art. But this stuff was insanely complicated. It took me days to get it all right. I had to change the highlight color with time of day. And I had to mess with normal-space and world-space calculations to get the angle right on some complicated materials that have normal maps in normal space, but detail normal maps that tile in triplanar projection world space.

In the end though, I think the night scenes are much more pleasing to look at.

 

[Tavernking]

Hey guys it's indie game developer and living legend Tavernking here, I am making a choose your own adventure game with stats/battlles/C&C and I was wondering if that was enough RPGness to merit it's own thread on this forum? Delicious to be here

 

[Lord of the Files]

A couple weeks ago I was playing Himeko Sutori and I decided that the night scenes looked really bad. They were just dark, with no color or light to catch the eye. I get that it's at night and it's supposed to be dark. But that doesn't mean it has to look boring. So I thought maybe some rim lighting would improve the look.

The blue highlights on the grass tufts and around the sides of the tree are not made from any light source. They're built into the materials. Most rim lighting is journeyman-level technical art. But this stuff was insanely complicated. It took me days to get it all right. I had to change the highlight color with time of day. And I had to mess with normal-space and world-space calculations to get the angle right on some complicated materials that have normal maps in normal space, but detail normal maps that tile in triplanar projection world space.

In the end though, I think the night scenes are much more pleasing to look at.

That looks really good. Massive improvement.

 

[Agame]

Hey guys it's indie game developer and living legend Tavernking here, I am making a choose your own adventure game with stats/battlles/C&C and I was wondering if that was enough RPGness to merit it's own thread on this forum? Delicious to be here

Show us what you got!