Vapourware Codexian Game Development Thread

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

• I've found a quick replacement by using a shader which generates lines from the edges of a mesh, which should be more than enough for now. This is not the best solution, but it works faster and produces less glitches. Unless I find a better way to handle this stuff, I'll stick to it.

It's looking good! I like that your levels are 2 blocks high, gives it a nice feel of a large spaceship interior. Did you write the shader yourself? I would like to hear more about the shader as I might use a similar concept, if I can manage to port it to Godot. Shader coding is still somewhat unexplored territory for me.

Thanks, bro!
Nah, shader programming is something I'm not willing to try anytime soon. As for the shader itself, I just checked a few random threads about pseudo-wireframe rendering and stumbled upon this one. http://answers.unity3d.com/questions/727376/modifying-wireframe-vertex-shader-to-include-light.html
Of course, I picked the most simple one (just wireframe rendering), since I don't plan on using lighting effects (but this kinda gives me a few cool ideas, might experiment a little bit if I'll have the time).

And yeah, for some reason I dislike when the dungeon ceiling is too low. Never suffered from claustrophobia, but if the viewpoint feels higher than the middle point between the floor and the ceiling, it kinda pisses me off.

 

[shihonage]

Holodeck Repairman Simulator?

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

Holodeck Repairman Simulator?

Yes, yes... Just imagine the possibilities this concept offers to you!

Spoiler

You'll spend your time on the holodeck chatting with fellow Dimitris and Ivans until Mr. Petrovich trips over the booze wire and you'll have to save the entire ship from dying. Your activities include sabotaging the comm station to transmit signals from the local pr0n hubs instead of the government and replacing the food production with the food production. In the end, you can marry any of your coworkers and have children, who'll live the same life on the holodeck...

The graphics are actually done like this to avoid focusing too much on textures and graphical stuff and simulate the view through the scanner attached to your mech.

 

[Leshy]

I've been working for the last two months on a isometric RPG. I'm trying to achieve something of a mix between Fallout and Persona. By that I mean contemporary setting, low fantasy elements and a focus on character interaction. Right now I'm working on getting dungeon crawling mechanics to work (puzzles, traps, switches, doors etc.). I figured it might be nice to already share some screenshots:

Spoiler

 

[r3jonwah85]

I've been working for the last two months on a isometric RPG. I'm trying to achieve something of a mix between Fallout and Persona. By that I mean contemporary setting, low fantasy elements and a focus on character interaction. Right now I'm working on getting dungeon crawling mechanics to work (puzzles, traps, switches, doors etc.). I figured it might be nice to already share some screenshots:

Looks really cool! From scratch or which engine?

Friday night fun; improved physics, camera movement, created sound effect manager, level manager which resets stuff when player dies and some other minor stuff. The level is done with the level editor I am making, need way more work though.

 

[kangaroodev]

I'm trying to think how realistic it would to solo dev a 3D game, especially when you don't have a lot of free time. If any of you here made some decent enough 3D game entirely alone (preferable TP) and finished them I'm very curious to hear about it. I would like to make my game 3D since it allows for more exploration and other gameplay features, but I also want to actually finish it in the future. I started with 2D because I could focus much quicker on the game than making models, but now I'm thinking if 3D low poly looks better than my bad pixel art, hmm...

 

[Turtle-Zone 3000]

You could try combining both.

 

[kangaroodev]

That looks very cool, how did you make it (if it's yours)?

 

[Turtle-Zone 3000]

That looks very cool, how did you make it (if it's yours)?

Nah aint mine, its pretty much a low poly model with some cool texturing.
Use to see a lot of this stuff over at TIGSource.


Actually heres a place full of that stuff.
http://polycount.com/discussion/41232/lowpoly-sub-1000-triangle-models

 

[kangaroodev]

I'm gonna look at that, the style seems really cool for low poly, I just hope it doesn't take way too long for a 1MA to do.

 

[Rhuantavan]

... I'm trying to think how realistic it would to solo dev a 3D game ...

I've been struggling with the same problem/wish as you are, and concluded that the only way to have the game in 3D, would be to either have old-school low-poly 3D graphics or drop the idea entirely. I'm still not sure which way to go. The 3D view surely provides many exploration opportunities...

 

[Turtle-Zone 3000]

I'm gonna look at that, the style seems really cool for low poly, I just hope it doesn't take way too long for a 1MA to do.

These guys for instance originally started out with 2D, but transitioned to 3D.
http://objectsgame.com/2015/10/dev-blog-7-from-2d-to-3d-an-artists-perspective-2/

 

[kangaroodev]

Hmm, well from what I see those guys aren't solo but a team which drastically reduces the dev time. Plus, from the looks of it that game (I might be wrong) will have a lot of static 3d objects compared to something like humans/animals with full sets o animations. So I'm wondering about some 3D games finished by one guy, just like Cave Story or something like iji, or spelunky (was that made by one person?) though these are 2D. I can't remember a lot of solo 3D games to be honest and I need to see some good ones to see how achievable it is to do all the modeling, texturing, programing, and music/sound by yourself.

I can draw some 'intelligible' pixel art which is far from good but things get fuzzy when you introduce another dimension. But damn it the extra exploration and combat options that come with 3D, the sense of depth when you look into the distance, those are really tempting! Looks like Rhuantavan has the same problem, so yeah low poly also looks like the only sane option to me too. Creating a big 3d level and a character with it's full animations would still take some more time than just 2D drawing. I am ready to sacrifice more time if this is what it takes, but the fact that I haven't seen many polished 3d games made without a team scares me, it probably takes more time than I can guess.

 

[shihonage]

It does... those are the lessons learned by Trine III team when they migrated the franchise to full 3D from sidescroller 3D.

 

[r3jonwah85]

Hmm, well from what I see those guys aren't solo but a team which drastically reduces the dev time. Plus, from the looks of it that game (I might be wrong) will have a lot of static 3d objects compared to something like humans/animals with full sets o animations. So I'm wondering about some 3D games finished by one guy, just like Cave Story or something like iji, or spelunky (was that made by one person?) though these are 2D. I can't remember a lot of solo 3D games to be honest and I need to see some good ones to see how achievable it is to do all the modeling, texturing, programing, and music/sound by yourself.

I can draw some 'intelligible' pixel art which is far from good but things get fuzzy when you introduce another dimension. But damn it the extra exploration and combat options that come with 3D, the sense of depth when you look into the distance, those are really tempting! Looks like Rhuantavan has the same problem, so yeah low poly also looks like the only sane option to me too. Creating a big 3d level and a character with it's full animations would still take some more time than just 2D drawing. I am ready to sacrifice more time if this is what it takes, but the fact that I haven't seen many polished 3d games made without a team scares me, it probably takes more time than I can guess.

I think this guy is solo, and he pretty much does what you want to, using simple 3D objects. He also seem to rely on rather linear level design with focus on combat which I think helps to save time.

https://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=50060.0

Take this with a grain of salt since I have never actually finished anything, but my own reasoning was that I should be able to complete a game with similar complexity to Quake within a year or two in my spare time, as long as it is mostly combat-driven and focus on solid basic mechanics. Simple models, simple animation, program general AI that is easily extendable for variations, rather simple sound fx, ambient music, weapon system that works for all entities, animate general objects in code etc. The main time sink I have found is level design and level making, which is why I am looking into taking a Doom like approach for making quick layouts that later can be extended upon to add complexity and 3D movement.

 

[Ninjerk]

I'm gonna look at that, the style seems really cool for low poly, I just hope it doesn't take way too long for a 1MA to do.

These guys for instance originally started out with 2D, but transitioned to 3D.
http://objectsgame.com/2015/10/dev-blog-7-from-2d-to-3d-an-artists-perspective-2/

Looks like a cool game, thanks for sharing

 

[kangaroodev]

I looked at that cold vengeance game, the gameplay and art seem to be very simplistic. Since he did everything alone I guess that counts as a finished solo 3D game but I intend to make it 3D and also pretty complex, with low poly + textures not just colors. If you guys know any other games I'm all ears because I searched for solo 3D indie games and I haven't found much myself, only more questions actually.

I might just stick to 2D if even if I would really prefer 3D, I guess the only way to find out how much time it would take in comparison is to try and make some 3D prototype.

 

[r3jonwah85]

Played around today with a 2D map maker, works for both side-scrolling and top-down games as long as you prep the prefabs accordingly. So far it is possible to paint, erase, multiple layers which can be toggled on and off, fill/clear whole layer with one tile, resize grid. Need to add some move functionality as well and fix the "draw bigger area" tool.

 

[Leshy]

I'm trying to think how realistic it would to solo dev a 3D game, especially when you don't have a lot of free time.

For a 3D game you have three options as a one man army, with no big budget:

1. Create a very stylized experience that will not require a lot of art work (like Super Hot or else.heartbreak() (amazing game BTW))
2. Create something extremely focused (one superbly animated character in a forest/meadow environment).
3. Create a space game.

In both cases you'll have to be super smart:

1. Use as much generation as possible (there is a ton of ways to generate realistic looking outside, natural environments, look into muscle based procedural animations etc.)
2. Make the game as systemic as possible, so there is little need for scripting
3. Carefully choose your tools. Iteration time is paramount, you consider it above performance and fancy features.

And a suggestion from me is to forget about any multiplayer, unless you have a significant amount experience with networked game projects.

 

[r3jonwah85]

Fixed proper sorting depth and added a character for testing. I anybody wants the source and add things to share just give a heads up.



EDIT: Quick update, implemented pseudo-3D support, still using 2D collision and moving only in the XY-plane. And most importantly, the same editor is used for fast level making and changes.

EDIT2: And some shadows:

EDIT3: And some perspective.

 

[Jonny Ree]

r3jonwah85: Nicely done! I love the idea of this. How did you do the shadows, is it just standard lighting or are you doing your own ray-traced shadows?


I've primarily been working on Backend stuff. The ability to store, load and transfer data and areas within campaigns and between players.

I figured I'd post this GIF of some building in action though (If I haven't already)

I also had some time to do a bit of sculpting this weekend. so created this dude.

 

[r3jonwah85]

r3jonwah85: Nicely done! I love the idea of this. How did you do the shadows, is it just standard lighting or are you doing your own ray-traced shadows?


I've primarily been working on Backend stuff. The ability to store, load and transfer data and areas within campaigns and between players.

I figured I'd post this GIF of some building in action though (If I haven't already)

I also had some time to do a bit of sculpting this weekend. so created this dude.

Just standard lighting, simplest possible way for now.

Wow, impressive stuff, blows my crappy stuff out of the water How do you place stuff in 3D space? Do some raytracing and then place based on pivots of objects?

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

Two new chargen screenies. One more day and I can get back to combat and AI.

Spoiler

Yes, it's that simple, since I'm making an adventure game with some light RPG elements, not a full-scale RPG.
Class choice doesn't matter much, tbh, these 'classes' are just equipment presets for lazy lardasses who are too lazy to spend 2 minutes on creating their own char ('custom' class).

I've tried to make it look like an old, dusty, yet somewhat 'modern' screen.
If there are any suggestions/questions/whatever, do tell, because once I'm done with it, no way I'm delving into the Unity UI again unless I really have to.

 

[Zep Zepo]

/\ Use a different font.

That one is pretty bland.

Zep--

 

[Jonny Ree]

Just standard lighting, simplest possible way for now.

Wow, impressive stuff, blows my crappy stuff out of the water How do you place stuff in 3D space? Do some raytracing and then place based on pivots of objects?

Nah, don't say that. I like your mix of 2D and 3d. Looking forward to seeing more! As far as placing things in 3d. Raycasting and placing based on pivot would certainly be the most effective way of doing it.
Because of waiting to do some movement (rotation etc) based on object interacting I've opted for a deltaMovement approach. I still do Raycasting, but I use it to pick objects and then use a ray down to a single plane to figure out the deltaMovement on the XZ plane.
So moving it across the surface basically. When placement of the object happens, it takes it's current location in mind and then stamps down onto the surface, snapping to the grid. Each tile contains quite a lot of data which needs to be transferred over to the main grid (which is used to calculate Path-finding along with other things. One of the benefits from using delta movement is that I can convert that into rotation. Making the pieces all wobbly, and look like they have a bit of physics to them.

Two new chargen screenies. One more day and I can get back to combat and AI.



Yes, it's that simple, since I'm making an adventure game with some light RPG elements, not a full-scale RPG.
Class choice doesn't matter much, tbh, these 'classes' are just equipment presets for lazy lardasses who are too lazy to spend 2 minutes on creating their own char ('custom' class).[/spoiler]

I've tried to make it look like an old, dusty, yet somewhat 'modern' screen.
If there are any suggestions/questions/whatever, do tell, because once I'm done with it, no way I'm delving into the Unity UI again unless I really have to.

I rather like the font, but I'm not terribly good with font. Could be nice to see some alternatives, maybe. Also highlighting somehow the variable elements might be beneficial.