Vapourware Codexian Game Development Thread

[Nathaniel3W]

Hey Nathaniel3W, do you mind relinking to the shots in question?

Here they are (spoilered so I'm not double-posting spam, for those who have already seen it):

Spoiler

The battles have been missing something so I've been trying to add more to them. I now have flanking bonuses, informative status effect popups that look pretty snazzy too. Also, walls that give bonuses to attack and defense and attack range. Wall hexes have +1 movement cost if climbing up from a non-wall hex, unless you're moving a flying unit. Test level screenshots below. Behold my 3D-modeling skills! I can make hexagon-cylinders and cubes.

Things are still a little buggy. Sometimes the whole lance doesn't climb to the top of the wall. I should make the ranged attack arc go up more. I should probably also disable melee attacks between wall/not-wall hexes.

And I still need to add destructible gates and maybe some other things. But overall I think the changes are pretty good.

 

[AdolfSatan]

The DOF effect looks fugly because its application makes no sense whatsoever. On one hand, it shows no concern for any kind of aesthetic values; on the other it's distorting and hiding information from the eye.
I've no idea what algorithm are you using to generate it, but it doesn't seem to be taking any actual depth into account, it looks just like random blurriness.

 

[Duckard]

Nathaniel3W I just looked up some screenshots of Octopath to compare with your game. I believe they're using a tilt shift effect rather than the standard DOF that it looks like you're using.

Typical DOF just blurs by sampling the depth buffer and comparing it with the specified focal distance, whereas a proper tilt shift shader will mimic the Scheimpflug principle.

This post on tilt shift both explains how the real process works if you want to go down that route, and how to fake it convincingly with an image effect. Note that the FOV and positioning of your camera will also have an impact on the look, so you can try playing with that as well.

 

[V_K]

Looking at Octopath screenies, I'm not convinced tilt shift adds anything of value to its look either.

 

[Dualnames]

When AdolfSatan gives u advice u listen, that name alone lol

 

[Dualnames]

Jokes aside, I do agree with what has been said, it wouldn't be a bad idea to keep experimenting with the effect till u get it right.

 

[redactir]

I call it Orkie.

https://i.imgur.com/qLUMyWm.gif

 

[Duckard]

Would you buy a game with art that looks like this?

 

[ProphetSword]

Would you buy a game with art that looks like this?

I would, if the game was good. Gameplay is going to be more important than art style.

That being said, there's nothing wrong with this style of art, and for some games, I actually prefer the retro look.

 

[Bad Sector]

Gameplay is going to be more important than art style.

I want to focus the art style part and add that it is better to stick with a with a lo-fi and crude art style that is applied consistently than a mishmash of different art styles and qualities where some parts are high fidelity and others are low.

 

[Nathaniel3W]

Would you buy a game with art that looks like this?

Nothing wrong with this style of art, so long as it fits the game. Like Bad Sector says, the art should all match. I would like to add that the art should also match the gameplay.

 

[Galdred]

If the game is fun, I would buy it if it had stick-figure art. Fun trumps graphics any day of the week.

A good exemple of game shipped with literal stick figure art.
Dream Quest is really good (and was an ancestor to Slay the Spire).
The guy sold 5000 or so games at 10€ piece, so it can be done(it is not huge by any stretch, but he also sold the game on iOS, and moved to Steam much later. Also, the game got him a job at Blizzard on Hearthstone).

 

[Galdred]

How did you solve the "gatehouse" issue gameplay/UI wise?
Can units stand both on the top of the gatehouse, and in the gateway?

The battles have been missing something so I've been trying to add more to them. I now have flanking bonuses, informative status effect popups that look pretty snazzy too. Also, walls that give bonuses to attack and defense and attack range. Wall hexes have +1 movement cost if climbing up from a non-wall hex, unless you're moving a flying unit. Test level screenshots below. Behold my 3D-modeling skills! I can make hexagon-cylinders and cubes.

Things are still a little buggy. Sometimes the whole lance doesn't climb to the top of the wall. I should make the ranged attack arc go up more. I should probably also disable melee attacks between wall/not-wall hexes.

And I still need to add destructible gates and maybe some other things. But overall I think the changes are pretty good.

 

[V_K]

If the game is fun, I would buy it if it had stick-figure art. Fun trumps graphics any day of the week.

A good exemple of game shipped with literal stick figure art.
Dream Quest is really good (and was an ancestor to Slay the Spire).
The guy sold 5000 or so games at 10€ piece, so it can be done(it is not huge by any stretch, but he also sold the game on iOS, and moved to Steam much later. Also, the game got him a job at Blizzard on Hearthstone).

A far better example of stick figure success would be Kingdom of Loathing (100k to 150k active online players in its heyday) and its single-player sequel West of Loathing (200k to 500k copies sold according to SteamDB). Both games look like this:

 

[Nathaniel3W]

How did you solve the "gatehouse" issue gameplay/UI wise?
Can units stand both on the top of the gatehouse, and in the gateway?

So right now, the gatehouse is purely decorative. There are official wall hexes that give defensive and ranged bonuses. And there are buffer hexes that flying units can cross, but no one can stand on. And then there's the gatehouse that right now just acts like any plain ground hex.

I got the idea for this castle layout from Age of Wonders III, which I recently picked up free on Humble and decided to give it a try. When you attack a city in Age of Wonders, there's a kind of a buffer hex in front of the wall hexes where the defenders stand. You can destroy the blocking buffer hex, and then move onto it, and attack the defenders from there.

I would like to add some places behind the gate, where the defender can put ranged units on top of the wall, and maybe even melee units under the wall. But that's a lot more work that I'm not ready to do just yet.

 

[vdweller]

Bros how do we translate in Portuguese (Br)

DATA SAVE ICON
Please do not turn off your Nintendo Switch (TM) when this icon is displayed.
Press A to continue.

 

[Pope Amole II]

Let's make this thread a bit more prestigious with a true Supreme Gentleman image.

Spoiler

 

[Viata]

Bros how do we translate in Portuguese (Br)

DATA SAVE ICON
Please do not turn off your Nintendo Switch (TM) when this icon is displayed.
Press A to continue.

ÍCONE DE DISQUETE
Por favor, desligue seu Nintendo Switch (TM) quando este ícone é exibído.
Aperte A para continuar.

Also sent a PM with my paypal account. Thanks.

 

[Zed]

the knight dude inside the gray box is my first draft that I'm somewhat happy with, but I figured I'd post something showing the progress too (from posed spear-chucker to arthurian knight). the green dude was initially just a size test and I'm not very happy with it.
the color-boxes shown contain the palette I'm restricting myself to.

 

[Tavernking]

I wonder if Steam would let me use this as menu art? Better question: where should I place the menu option bars? (I was thinking bottom right)

Spoiler

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

The menu should be up and somewhat to the left from center, assuming it's small enough to fit into the space that's entirely background.

 

[pat]

Two-weapon fighting was a nightmare which seems finished but I just know that there is a problem lurking and waiting to force me to rewrite it all over again

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

Sneak peek.

Also grab DG on Steam nao.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

Almost done with the side project. Will most likely release it in August and switch to DG2 once and for all.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

A new classic.