Vapourware Codexian Game Development Thread

[Wayward Son]

Yeah, I prefer them more textured too. They look less plasticky. Keep going. Do what you do.

 

[Rhuantavan]

Like mentioned yesterday, I'm giving the world a bit of make-up... starting with paths.

 

[Rhuantavan]

Manure heap + longhouse. A winning combination.

 

[Rhuantavan]

Am I the only one posting here?

Here are the 3D river tiles assembled to form a stream joining a larger river.

 

[Wayward Son]

I would post here, but everything I attempt in this vein ends on failure.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

You're just making stuff super fast, while my progress is too 'under the hood' right now. :/

 

[barker_s]

Here are the 3D river tiles assembled to form a stream joining a larger river.

I love this new low-res style of yours, it looks much better than the flat-shaded polygons you had before. Will you consider having some 2d backgrounds (or maybe imposters) to represent some more distant geography?

I would post here, but everything I attempt in this vein ends on failure.

Don't worry man. Most of our projects around here never see completion for one reason or another. Sometimes it's your day job sucking the life outta you, sometimes it's the technical problems you didn't predict and sometimes you plainly lose interest. You learn a lot from those fiascos however, and there's always a chance that one of those ideas finally succeeds. You just have to carry on.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

Don't worry man. Most of our projects around here never see completion for one reason or another. Sometimes it's your day job sucking the life outta you, sometimes it's the technical problems you didn't predict and sometimes you plainly lose interest. You learn a lot from those fiascos however, and there's always a chance that one of those ideas finally succeeds. You just have to carry on.

This.
I'm sure most of the codexers at least tried to make a game, and some were stupid enough to start a thread before they were sure that the game is going to be finished (including me).

 

[Rhuantavan]

I would post here, but everything I attempt in this vein ends on failure.

You're just making stuff super fast, while my progress is too 'under the hood' right now. :/

What I'm trying to do, is work within my limits as best as I can, while switching between different aspect of the project to keep my motivation up. I do some design one day, than another day some 3D modeling and texturing, then some writing, and coding... and there are days/weeks when I do nothing. The long periods of doing nothing are dreaded on some level, since it is hard to start working again, but they can also be inspiring, and when I sit at the computer again, there is always something to do that I can put my inspirations into. Just keep at it on some level and you will never really stop.

I love this new low-res style of yours, it looks much better than the flat-shaded polygons you had before. Will you consider having some 2d backgrounds (or maybe imposters) to represent some more distant geography?

Thanks man. I am constantly embellishing everything as I go. I am still not satisfied with the looks though, will need to see if having tons of trees, bushes and other geometry will help to fill the flatness, or whether I will have to scrap it in favor of some other type of terrain.
Yes, I am playing with the idea of having a large image-mapped cylinder around the player, which represents the distant landscape. Will most definitely have one.

 

[Zed]

Warming up for some summer vacation game deving.
Did some walls and basic 4 dir movement.
I'm going to experiment with 4 movement directions (SW, NW, NE, SE), but only 2 animation directions, left and right (so essentially I'd only have to draw sprites once and mirror - ez pz), and see how that feels. Anyone know any game that has done this? Maybe paper mario or something..?

 

[Niektory]

Warming up for some summer vacation game deving.
Did some walls and basic 4 dir movement.
I'm going to experiment with 4 movement directions (SW, NW, NE, SE), but only 2 animation directions, left and right (so essentially I'd only have to draw sprites once and mirror - ez pz), and see how that feels. Anyone know any game that has done this? Maybe paper mario or something..?

Most Japanese Tactical RPGs do this.
Tactics Ogre: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGKmFNSnUPo
Final Fantasy Tactics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQX1fbRh6XQ
Disgaea: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJ2j9hSx1rw

 

[Zed]

Warming up for some summer vacation game deving.
Did some walls and basic 4 dir movement.
I'm going to experiment with 4 movement directions (SW, NW, NE, SE), but only 2 animation directions, left and right (so essentially I'd only have to draw sprites once and mirror - ez pz), and see how that feels. Anyone know any game that has done this? Maybe paper mario or something..?

Most Japanese Tactical RPGs do this.
Tactics Ogre: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGKmFNSnUPo
Final Fantasy Tactics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQX1fbRh6XQ
Disgaea: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJ2j9hSx1rw

you misunderstood. those games are using 4 sprite directions. I'd use only 2, for 4 directions.

 

[Mustawd]

I'm going to experiment with 4 movement directions (SW, NW, NE, SE), but only 2 animation directions, left and right (so essentially I'd only have to draw sprites once and mirror - ez pz), and see how that feels.

The main problem I can see you run into is if the sprite is asymmetrical in any way it'll look awkward if you simply mirror it. For example:

This is NE:

And this is NW if you flip it:

And the actual game sprite for NW is:

Which makes a lot more sense. I mean I don't think it's a huge deal. Street Fighter had the same issue and they just said f'it and went with the horizontal flip.

 

[Mustawd]

Anyone know any game that has done this?

Anyway, to answer you question, I think Metal Marines on the SNES did it.

This is their facing SW sprite (cannon on right shoulder):

This is the flipped SE version (cannon on left shoulder):

And this is an in-game screen shot I found on the internetz (cannon on left shoulder like the flipped version):

 

[ThisNameIsFree]

As you can see only 2 directions. Rest is mirrored.

 

[Niektory]

you misunderstood. those games are using 4 sprite directions. I'd use only 2, for 4 directions.

Oh. Well, Heroes of Might and Magic uses a hex battlefield but only one movement animation (+mirror) for all directions. It does use different attack animations though.
https://youtu.be/4YdthMLeiRE?t=29s

 

[Zed]

I guess what I really mean is one direction but mirrored, so left and right, but being able to move NE NW SE SW. I hope this makes it clear. Like a platformer sprite on a tactical jrpg 4 dir background.

From my initial tests it could look OK visually, but it doesn't help the already wonky 4 dir movement with keys (I'm not using mouse movement).

This would only be for out-of-combat/adventure-mode exploration, while combat would be like TB/partybased firs person whatever, kinda like Xultima.

 

[Mustawd]

oh...so you mean literally two sprites...looking left...loking right...but when you move you move in SW SE NW NE directions? Huh....yeah, don't think I've seen that.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

I guess what I really mean is one direction but mirrored, so left and right, but being able to move NE NW SE SW. I hope this makes it clear.

So basically the same method used in Heroes of Might & Magic, except for 4 directions instead of six?

 

[Zed]

I guess what I really mean is one direction but mirrored, so left and right, but being able to move NE NW SE SW. I hope this makes it clear.

So basically the same method used in Heroes of Might & Magic, except for 4 directions instead of six?

yes, but it's not for combat, just moving around talking to people and exploring stuff

 

[LESS T_T]

Antharion?

 

[ThisNameIsFree]

I guess what I really mean is one direction but mirrored, so left and right, but being able to move NE NW SE SW. I hope this makes it clear.

So basically the same method used in Heroes of Might & Magic, except for 4 directions instead of six?

yes, but it's not for combat, just moving around talking to people and exploring stuff

Oh, i got it. Check Exile games by Jeff Vogel. Basically he had only 2 animations: char looking to left/right

 

[Viata]

Exile

 

[Mustawd]

If you're looking for an engine....

Version 2 is in beta. They increased the resolution settings so you can have sprites with more pixels. I'm currently creating some character icons for it. Then will move on to overhead map tilesets, and then environment/battle map tilesets.

But really, any custom art can be used as long as it fits the size constraints. And since it's still in development, the devs might be open to suggestions. For example, the engine previously only had 2 frame animations for combat. I asked about increasing the number, and one of the guys recoded it to make it flexible to however many frames you have.

The main dev in the video is slowdive on the codex.


EDIT: I'd say the engine is very similar and optimized to creating modules like Vogel's old Exile games.

 

[Zed]

I guess what I really mean is one direction but mirrored, so left and right, but being able to move NE NW SE SW. I hope this makes it clear.

So basically the same method used in Heroes of Might & Magic, except for 4 directions instead of six?

yes, but it's not for combat, just moving around talking to people and exploring stuff

Oh, i got it. Check Exile games by Jeff Vogel. Basically he had only 2 animations: char looking to left/right

those 4 directions are vertical/horizontal tho. I'd go with NW/NE/SE/SW

Antharion?

this is the closest yet, except the characters animated