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Games Book Ends: A LowPoly Storybook Adventure

Discussion in 'Works In Progress - Archive' started by eatsleepindie, Nov 19, 2017.

  1. eatsleepindie

    eatsleepindie

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    I've recently found myself with a lot of free time - such is the life of a freelancer -and I figured while I am out looking for a new client/project I would share my WIP project with everyone and get a little feedback from the community.



    Placeholder Title Screen

    This RPG started out as a side-project I would work on in my spare time so that my 4 year-old daughter and I could play it together - she helps me out on every single project, as is evident if you visit my portfolio (link in my signature). After sharing it via Twitter a while back, the feedback encouraged me to eventually get this game released on Steam and possibly XBox One/PS4.


    Here's a quick gameplay video from Sept. I hope to post a new one soon.

    I am using art assets from several packages in the Asset Store, allowing me to keep my focus on programming. That being said, since most of the low-poly 3D models were created with 2m tall characters in mind, every single building, prop, tree, etc. has been imported into Blender, re-scaled and adjusted, then exported back into Unity to work better with these characters.

    Unfortunately, I still do not have a story, hence the lack of a title for the project. I just keep working on the core mechanics and polishing anything and everything that needs it and am hoping to discover the story out of that. I also find opening up Blender and creating a few low-poly assets to be the perfect break from programming. The screen below shows the butterflies that flower patches can spawn, inspired by my daughters affection for both. The freedom to be able to create just about any object I want with my (admittedly limited) Blender knowledge has really opened up doors when it comes to its progress.


    Butterflies!
    You can enter houses and talk to the occupants - even steal from them if you're inclined to do so - as well explore vast dungeons to hunt down some of the more rare items. There is also an option for those who want a more story-driven experience that puts all enemies in passive mode - a system I put in place so my daughter did not have to worry about her character getting attacked constantly. This passive state can be on or off for both players or just one, allowing her to assist me with attacking enemies without ever being attacked herself.



    This is the first time I have had any real time off in over a year, so I am looking forward to burying myself in this project for at least a few days until work picks back up. I'm not sure how often I will be able to post updates on progress, but at least for now it's out there and I am committed to its completion.


    With any luck I will have a WebGL demo available soon of a small, closed-off area so you can get a feel for the gameplay. You can see from the screens/video that there's still a long way to go before this will be ready for release, but most days this doesn't feel like work at all, so I can't really complain.

    PS. There is more done on the project than what is shown here, but this post was already getting a bit lengthy as it is. I'll share more soon, including the save point system that is - oddly enough - one of my favorite parts of the game.

    Portfolio: http://eatsleepindie.com/
     
    Last edited: Feb 25, 2018
  2. eatsleepindie

    eatsleepindie

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    Yesterday was the first full-day I've had to work on this project in a very long time. I was so excited to sit down and work without a client's project looming over my head that I didn't know where to start, so I ended up doing a little bit of everything.

    First, I expanded on the spell system for enemies to enable bosses to spawn minions via spells/specials. It definitely needs some improvement but am happy with the results so far:




    I also spent some time creating other versions of the starting area. My plan is to have 4 different "worlds", and the following Elf and Orc themes are the 2nd and 3rd:




    Lastly, I started working on some very simple co-op puzzle mechanics. It's incredibly basic but will serve as a good starting point and I know going forward that I can easily test these myself using a combination of the mouse and keyboard to control the separate characters.


    Today is a yard-work day, but I'm hoping to continue work tonight and with any luck will have more updates tomorrow.

    * I realized after posting this that I have shown next-to-nothing of the co-op system. Will aim to get some good screens/vids/gifs in the coming week.
     
    Last edited: Nov 20, 2017
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  3. Areheill

    Areheill

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    It looks pretty good , hope you will find a nice story for it.

    btw I have checked your website amazing stuff man, really inspiring :)
     
  4. eatsleepindie

    eatsleepindie

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    Still no luck with a story as of yet, but progress continues regardless.

    Thank you so much for saying so. I'm hoping to get some gameplay videos up with the screenshots soon.
     
  5. PhilippG

    PhilippG

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    Lovely!

    Are you implementing it as local coop only, or do you plan to support online multiplayer?

    Edit: I really love the toggleable passive mode idea!
     
    Last edited: Nov 27, 2017
  6. eatsleepindie

    eatsleepindie

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    Thank you for your input! The basics are in place for online co-op, but this being my first release and doing it solo, I have been leaning towards local coop only. Maybe online coop in a future update(?). The passive enemies option comes in real handy when my 4 yo and I play together. She can explore all she wants and I am the only one who gets attacked so we don't have to worry about respawns/etc unless I screw up and run out of health.
     
  7. eatsleepindie

    eatsleepindie

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    After spending time fixing some annoying bugs that I'd been ignoring (moving through an enemy if you held the mouse button down on them for instance), I opted to simultaneously expand my admin system and rework the classes that make up the in-game items/equipment.

    Starting with inventory, you'll see it's pretty standard stuff. You click an item on the ground, pick it up; if it's equipment and that particular slot is open, you equip it; some items can be stacked while others cannot. Nothing special, but it'll give me a good framework to expand off of in the future.


    For those of you familiar with web servers, the admin scene in my game is basically a cPanel for the variables that govern the behavior of in-game entities, be they the player characters, enemies, items, etc. As shown in the video below, it currently allows me to adjust a few of the stats for any of the minions/bosses and then load a relatively blank scene to test the changes. Each enemy has a difficulty level indicated by the color of the skull icon, which is an estimation of how difficult that enemy will be to kill based on its stats.


    In the video, I fight a bat with a Vitality value of 2, resulting in an easy kill. I then return to my admin panel and increase two of its stats, which in turn updates the difficulty icon for that enemy and logs what I've done to a console to help me keep track of what I've changed. When I fight the bat the next time, you'll see that he is able to take much more damage than before.

    There's still a lot more work to do as far as this admin system is concerned, but so far it has been priceless when it comes to fixing small bugs and testing things like my attack mechanics and minions casting spells/etc. Next I will be expanding on it to include the new item system, the basics of which I wrapped up last night.


    Soon I will have an admin panel for items that is very similar to the one for the enemies, which will allow me to easily modify - for example - the HP that a potion restores. Or the damage that a sword causes, or the armor of a shield. From there I will expand the enemy side of things so I can easily set up the potential loot that a particular enemy may drop, and from there on to doing the same for quests.

    Having all this time off for the first time in over a year has been both a bit unnerving and also a blessing. I'm really enjoying being able to sit down and get lost in development of this project with all my free time, and the added benefit of being able to work on whatever inspires me at any given time makes bugs and errors almost inconsequential. In the case of the bug mentioned at the beginning of this, I fixed it when and only when I felt like fixing it, and there's a lot of freedom in that.. freedom that I know I will miss once there is a demo available for download.
     
  8. eatsleepindie

    eatsleepindie

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    I am an idiot. I have been kicking myself all morning.

    I had a really good idea for this game's story last night. Unfortunately it came to me as I was trying to sleep, and like a fool I convinced myself that if it was good enough then I'd remember it in the morning. I do not remember the story, but I do remember that it was interesting enough to occupy my mind up until the moment I fell asleep. I remember being surprised at how well it fit with everything. I remember physically smiling as things seemed to come into place and I was able to consider the possibility that this IS the story I had been hoping to stumble upon. But the idea itself, gone.

    I don't know where I got the notion that if it was good enough I'd remember it, but it likely stems from being tired and looking for an excuse to not open my eyes. It should be noted that I have a lot of trouble sleeping, so any time I am tired and it's night-time I try to take advantage. Forgetting this story is really bugging me, which I suppose is why I am whining about it here. Learn from my mistake: a sleepy brain is not an effective one, especially when it comes to memory. Good ideas don't just stick around because they are good.

    I suppose it is as likely that my tired brain thought said idea was good only because it was tired, and had I looked at my notes in the morning I'd have mocked my enthusiasm. This has happened on numerous occasions in the past, but those were always written down and that was it. None of them made my imagination race as I drifted off to sleep, and that is the feeling I cannot seem to shake today. The story took on a life of it's own with very little effort on my part, and so it felt natural instead of forced. Honestly, writing this is a bit like salt in the wound...

    [start here if you want to skip the whining]

    Moving on, I've made a lot of progress this week, but a lot of it has also been stuff that isn't very visual. AStar now uses multiple graphs and works for dungeons as well as it does the above world. I also extended my save/load system to include dungeons; before-hand it only worked in the game world itself. I fixed a lot of bugs that had been annoying me during recent weeks and I can honestly say that gameplay has never felt smoother. I have expanded on my Item and Enemy classes a lot, and it takes only a few minutes for me to turn a model into a working weapon. I've expanded my attack system to allow the player to use ranged weapons at the correct range. I created the first treasure chest and it does what chests do: spawns loot, including equipment the character can pick up and use. Long story short, all of these systems are really starting to come together.


    I've tested the game in WebGL and it should work really well as an easy way to provide a short demo. I still have a ways to go before this is ready for a demo but I'm honestly in no rush to get there. Tonight I plan on expanding ranged attacks so they work for AI as well and I'm looking forward to a long-range duel with a Skeleton Archer before I call it a day. I try not to plan too far ahead with this project (as far as what I will work on next), something I have to do constantly when I'm doing contract work. I just work on whatever gets me excited to work that day, and piece by piece it's coming together. That's been an important distinction for me: contract work is one thing, but when it comes to this game I don't want that pressure, at least not yet. I'm not always the most efficient - I don't even use my the software I designed to log my project hours - and I tend to half-watch a movie from time to time while I work on it. It's still a hobby, at least until it's not anymore.


    The thing that surprises me most about all of this? It never gets old. I have been working in the same, plain, nearly empty test scene for 2(?) weeks straight now and all I want to do is keep working. Right now my only goal is to take the demo scene (the one in the gameplay video) and get some progression setup. I want to get this game to the point where it has a placeholder quest-line that takes me from where I start all the way to the end of the first dungeon. That's what this boat is here for: my goal is to have to take that boat across that body of water, at which point I'll know I have the basics for everything in place and I can start to really bring that story that I can't remember to life.



    PS. I love bugs that make me laugh, so here's a gif of one of my recent favorites.
     
    Last edited: Dec 5, 2017
  9. eatsleepindie

    eatsleepindie

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    I wanted to show last night's progress, mostly because it seems as though I will be starting new contract work this week and am not sure how much I'll be able to work on this in the coming weeks.

    Ranged attacks for enemies went very smooth thanks to how my inheritance is setup between classes. I first made adjustments so that the enemy was intelligent enough to stop moving and start attacking once in range of the player; if the player moves away from the enemy then they will chase them down and being attacking again at rage:


    Once that was done, it was pretty easy to leverage the systems used for the player-character to start dealing ranged damage and firing projectiles:


    This new contract work isn't set in stone yet, but it is looking very likely that I will be under contract by the end of the week. I will continue to invest my free-time into this project as much as I can, but paying the bills comes first and foremost. Either way, it's been a blast to work on this game full-time these last few weeks and thank you to everyone for your feedback and interest!

    Update: The new contract work is now set in stone.
     
    Last edited: Dec 6, 2017
  10. eatsleepindie

    eatsleepindie

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    Funny story

    My ex was over my house two weeks ago and was curious how progress was going with my game. I had just made some major changes to the classes that make up the enemies, and when I showed her recent gameplay via the editor, my enemies were suddenly disappearing when they died. I was of course a bit embarrassed to be "showing off" this bug, but she's been supportive of my work since day one and therefore was no stranger to how common bugs are.

    Later that week, as I once again dipped my toe into the waters to see if my imagination could come up with a story for the game, I sort-of fell into one, thanks in part to this newly created bug.

    One of my favorite movies growing up was a story about a storybook, and I'd always loved reading for the same reasons I loved movies and games.From all this, the story for my RPG has come to life. I still do not have a name yet, and a fair amount of details still need to be hashed out, but the general idea is in place and - barring some unforeseen problem - it will be central to the final version of the game.

    The Plan

    For a long time, this unnamed world in which you are adventuring had a happily ever after. This "story" existed in a book that the inhabitants treasured and protected. That is until one day, for reasons I won't disclose here, its pages were scattered to the wind, thus bringing said happily ever after to an abrupt halt. As a result, the world's critters became hostile towards its people and evil minions were released upon the land.

    You, as the player character(s), are tasked with reassembling this book to bring back the happy ending so its inhabitants can continue living their happy lives as they were before. The pages themselves will serve as experience points and skill points along the way; the more adventuring you do, the closer the story gets to being as it once was, and the stronger you and the inhabitants happiness becomes.

    So, this bug that began as enemies disappearing without me wanting them to has become the following:


    Again, I am not 100% certain this idea will pan out in the end, but even if it doesn't it has lit a fire under my backside and gotten me even more excited about a project that I absolutely love working on. The GIF above is just a proof-of-concept using a Particle System to give me an idea of how it would look, and I am very much looking forward to giving it some polish during my free time. If things pan out as I hope they will, the transition from enemy to pages will be much smoother and fairy-tale-esque.

    Experience has taught me over the years that when it comes to things like this, forcing things will only produce a result that feels forced, so my plan for now is to continue progress on the core mechanics of the game while all of this simmers at the back of my mind. The idea of playing this game side by side with my daughter, who I encourage to love books as much as possible (Green Eggs and Ham is our current favorite), is something I am really looking forward to. I haven't shown her this particle system yet, but if I know my little girl at all she is going to love it. And if I'm being honest, that has always been the desired result of this game: to produce one that her and I can play together and to share that game with others who might enjoy it as well.
     
    Last edited: Dec 25, 2017
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  11. MickM

    MickM

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    Mate, just want to say that is awesome. Not only does it look great but the workflow is clearly robust and your experience shows pretty clearly; especially evident in the admin control panel (eg. change tracking)

    Most of all though; the fact you are doing it with (and for) your daughter. That is simply gold.
    I recently made a super simple game (Basically the chicken game from peppa the pig) for my daughter (just turned 3). It was very simple (~2 hours work) but the feeling from seeing her excitement at playing it was just incredible. I hope that I can do more similar things when she is older.



    Regarding feedback in particular, I think it is very solid. I would be quite interested in seeing which assets you used (the art style looks consistent enough and works well together) and how you combined the different assets (eg. Characters/animations/scenery etc)

    The split screen effect (From your 21 November post gif) looks very slick and I would be keen to see more of it. It seems to be a rather unique style which manages to handle relative position indication in a clever way.

    I definitely concur that the story shouldnt be forced. It seems that the mechanics are evolving nicely by themselves so it would be silly to try and force them into a story that you have in your mind. I do have to say though, I love the book tie in; while it probably isnt heading towards an educational game per se, tying in literary elements to spur the love of reading is another great idea.

    One question which ties in to the previous point, and especially given the age range. Do you have non combat mechanics/gameplay in mind? You have shown a bit of the puzzle based aspect but what is the focus going to be? Is the main part going to be the fighting?
    From your tentative story based idea it seems that there could be a lot of good gameplay tied in to 'restoring the story world' outside the combat. Simple example would be something like a sheep farmer having lost all his sheep so as you look through the world you can find sheep that follow you around that you can return to the farmer (which can be incorporated into puzzles, geting to a sheep that is on an island by simple 'physics' interactions etc). Tying lightly educational elements and literary elements in to gameplay I think could really fit well.


    I would also say I would be fascinated to read some more technical posts regarding some of your implementations. The architecture you are implementing especially (eg. Your character class inheritence setup and AI, The admin panel functionlity hooking in to your game database etc)


    Keep up the amazing work eh. I definitely think steam/console release is viable however a big plus is you dont need that for it to be a success... even if it never is finished, the fact that you and your daughter can have fun inside the world you have created means it is already succeeding.
     
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  12. eatsleepindie

    eatsleepindie

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    Thank you so much for this! I really appreciate you taking the time to provide such in depth feedback, and I will do my best to hit all your points.

    First and foremost, hats off to you for making a game solely for your daughter. I'm willing to venture a guess that every minute you spent on it was well worth it once you put it in her hands. Mine is 4 and has enjoyed sitting with me at my desk since she was old enough to hold up her own head (literally). She has become my go-to when I want to watch someone play through a project; children have a unique perspective void of influence and their ability to try things that I would have never tried myself is both inspiring and incredibly helpful, but that all pales in comparison to that feeling of excitement you speak of. I purchased a bluetooth mock-NES controller for my little one because XBox and Steam controllers were too big for her hands, and she absolutely loves it. Our first play-though was admittedly frustrating for her because Dad forgot to put in colliders to prevent people from falling off the map into the water; an issue that has since been fixed.

    I will eventually write a post here regarding the assets I am using, but my Twitter feed is already full of tweets praising artists like Mesh Tint and giving them the proper credit; I actually maintain a fairly friendly relationship with said artists and according to some recent discussions, they will be adding even more enemies to their store this coming year. I believe in giving credit where it is due, and the main menu has a list of those whose packages feature in the game with links to their Asset Store pages. Even though most of them have been heavily modified to suit my needs and better tie them all together (characters are from one studio, the world and props from another for instance), this game wouldn't be anywhere near where it is today if not their talent.

    The story is my holy grail so to speak; I know it's out there, and I have luckily found hints leading to its discovery, but I am still waiting for my eureka moment in which everything falls neatly in to place. I know now that the ultimate goal is to reassemble the realms happy ending, but the reasons for needing to do so are still up in the air. This is opposite of how I have worked in the past; previous projects started off as story ideas and mechanics were built around them. It is admittedly a bit unsettling at times to be putting so much time into mechanics not knowing exactly what course the story will take.

    As far as bypassing combat, I would really like to have an option where there is none whatsoever. My first (and currently only) quest - which if memory serves me right is shown in the gameplay video via dialogue - centers around helping a woman find her sewing needle in some haystacks located around her farm; very similar to the sheep quest you propose. Currently my plan is to try and avoid quests where the goal is to "kill x of these enemies" and instead go with "collect x of these items", which would allow me to substitute combat for simply breaking open boxes and barrels; I'll simply adjust the XP being doled out depending on the game type. I'm in the throes of redesigning my inventory system to make it simpler, so I am not sure how all of this will play out in the end, but my ultimate goal is to negate inventory management as much as possible.

    As far as technical posts, I will be sharing some lengthy ones in the future. This past month or so I have been trying to keep my thoughts on story while fine-tuning mechanics in an effort to keep the back of my brain focused on what is happening to the inhabitants of this low-poly world. Once I have everything tied together I will shift my focus to narrowing down everything that is already done and then sharing how things work behind the scenes in depth. I am at a point now where things I implemented recently, although they work well, feel unnecessary. My archer can use a wand, but there doesn't seem to be any reason for this beyond it was fun to get it working. So my inventory system may become as simple as replacing a low-level crossbow with a better version of it that is automatically equipped when picked up.

    This game will absolutely be released; my goal is to hit Steam as well as current-gen consoles, but even if I opt only for itch.io for PC, Linux and Mac it will definitely be available for the public to play. I have run tests with WebGL builds and it runs great, so I am hoping to have a simple demo available on my website in the coming months with a standalone build available for download so it can be run at maximum quality settings. Nothing too big, just enough to give everyone a feel for the mechanics and hopefully get some feedback and bug reports to make the release smoother. I also have a short list of Twitch users anxious to help in getting the word out by streaming gameplay, so if anyone reading this would like to be added to that list then by all means shoot me a message and we'll get something figured out.

    All in all, I'm not exactly sure what I am doing or what the final game will be, but I have received some very positive feedback thus far and responses like this inspire me to continue. Thank you again for taking the time to share your input.
     
  13. eatsleepindie

    eatsleepindie

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    I already abandoned the idea I had posted here, so instead here's a video of my progress on the sailing setup.

     
    Last edited: Jan 6, 2018
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  14. lordconstant

    lordconstant

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    Hey,

    Just wanted to say this looks really nice & its good to see a passion project coming along so well.

    Best of luck
     
  15. eatsleepindie

    eatsleepindie

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    Thank you so much! It's a lot of fun to work on. Will have a new post ready to share today.
     
  16. eatsleepindie

    eatsleepindie

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    I have another lull in work at the moment, so I figured I'd take the time to share some behind-the-scenes stuff today.

    As I mentioned in an earlier post, the world is a modified version of a package from the Asset Store. I know my way around Blender enough to be able to create/change low poly models for this game, and the fact that I can make just about anything I want and add it in is pretty exciting for me; I am a programmer by trade, my Blender3D work has been more of a hobby based in curiosity thus far.

    As an example, here is a before and after screen of the boat. The left is how the boat from the package I purchased came, and the right is the modifications I made to it. Not much to write about, but I do feel it gives the boat a bit more character having a sail and rudder that can be rotated using programming. I also added a small notch to both sides of the boat for when characters board/unboard.


    I've also changed the scale of just about every object in the package to work better with these characters as well as created some models from scratch. Things like tents and other simple props are very easy to whip-up and get working in the game, so on occasion I'll start making new props when I need a break from programming.

    Last night's venture produced these:


    The plain tree, plain bush and empty bucket were included in the package. I've now created a variance of the tree with apples which I plan to also turn into orange and pear trees later on as well. I've also added a prop for quickly adding apples on the ground underneath the tree as well as filling the bucket with apples, all of which allowed me to create an apple orchard in the game that will feature in a quest.


    For the bush I simply took the heads of the existing flower models and placed them on the bush, giving me more options when building the world. Before this the only bush that I had was the plain bush (no flowers). I want to make the game world in such a way that the props/decorations do not feel too repetitive, and I think small modifications like this will go a long way in helping me achieve that goal.

    I'll likely be doing more work in Blender3D than in Unity in the coming week, so I'll do my best to take screenshots along the way to share when I'm done.
     
    Last edited: Jan 19, 2018
  17. eatsleepindie

    eatsleepindie

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    This post came to me as I tried to sleep last night, and I almost got inspired enough to get out of bed and turn on my dev machine to write it. Something pretty awesome happened last night as I worked on my RPG and I wanted to share my perspective/experience here. This post won't be very technical and it won't be showing off much of the work I did yesterday, but there is a point to it.

    I maintain a to-do list of things that I need to fix/update on this game; a list of things that don't inspire me much at all but need to be done eventually; the grunt work, so to speak. Yesterday I knocked the overwhelming majority of them off the list. There wasn't a moment in which I said to myself "let's just get this done" by any means, it just sort-of started happening and once I got into it, I got buried in it. When it comes to the people in my life who tolerate my work schedule with a grimace and a touch of pity, I often refer to this as "being knee-deep" in the work.

    I started off with leveraging the difficulty setting for enemies. My spawn points had two options previously: spawn a random enemy, or spawn this specific enemy. It served me well since I am still designing core mechanics and enemies really only exist for the purposes of being something to attack at the moment. A short time later I had gone through and started marking specific spawn points to load enemies of a specific difficulty. Crows spawn in the starting area, then Difficulty 1 enemies at the area just past that, then Difficulty 2 enemies just past that, and so on. Check.

    Next on the list was including enemy data in the save/load system. Anytime I would load a saved game, the game would simply spawn a random enemy at each spawn point regardless of whether I had killed it on my way through before saving my progress. After a little bit of work later, enemies I had killed previously now stayed dead when I loaded the save game. Enemies I hadn't killed maintained their settings as well. Check.

    I made some adjustments to the XP required for the character to level up and found that there was too much of a difference between the difficulty levels. The difficulty ranking of enemies was created to give the player a quick icon-based representation of how much trouble this particular enemy was going to give them, and it is limited by the number of variations [colors] of that icon. So, my next task was to circumvent this difficulty setting with a level system for enemies; both are based off of the same data, but they represent it differently. Basically things are setup so there are now 3 levels per difficulty setting. The difficulty for the enemies didn't change, but I now have an integer that represents that enemies complexity in a more refined way. Check.

    I then went back through my spawn points and added a setting for the level of the enemy. This allows me to fine-tune areas, which will be important in the early stages of the game. I can now choose between a specific level, or can opt for a specific difficulty - which encompasses 3 enemy levels - thereby providing a bit more control when spawning enemies in a given area. Check.

    I took the time to go through my admin system and refined the values for each enemy, considering where I would like each of them to appear in the game and how much of a hassle they should be to defeat. On a side note, this admin system has proven well worth the time it took to develop. The ability to go through and easily refine the settings for an enemy and then click a button to test them out, back and forth, will save me a lot of time in the long run. Check

    Pathfinding was not working when you first took the sailboat across to the new island. The enemies just stayed where they spawned. A quick fix and wallah, I could now head north once exiting the boat and was met with wandering enemies. Check.

    Suffice it to say that this process went on well into the AM hours, and one by one that list of things that I had been avoiding systematically shortened in length. Check. Check. Check.

    I normally save play-throughs for days that I have not worked on my game. I personally find it a bit difficult to come out of thinking like a developer to thinking like a player, so every once in a while on the morning that follows a day I have spent away from this project I'll just start up a new game and run through it while I enjoy my coffee. Last night I was a bit anxious to see how all of these new changes affected gameplay so I decided to do a quick run-through before turning in for the night. And that is when it hit me. This isn't a prototype anymore. It's not a side project, it's not something I've put together for my portfolio. It's not proof-of-concept, and it's not a personal challenge. This isn't something I did for the purposes of learning something new and gaining experience either.

    This is a video game.

    That may sound ridiculous to state outright, but last night was the first time I played through this project and it really felt like a game; one with balance, planning, and the things that existed were there for a purpose. I felt that sense of reward that one gets from leveling up and being able to take on that enemy that was just a little too difficult when I was the previous level. I may have known where the treasure chest with the better sword was located, but that didn't deter from that feeling I got the first time I used it and started mowing down enemies that were previously time-consuming to defeat.

    Freelancing work aside, I have not felt this feeling since Revery - an MMO that I designed before realizing that I have no interest in running an MMO. There is still a lot of work to be done, that is undeniable. But last night, after knocking out the items on this list, everything started falling into place. All of these little mechanics that previously had felt sort-of sectioned-off began to come together and work together in a way that I had hoped for but never expected.

    My goals have shifted today as a result. I have two main milestones in place for the coming months:
    1. Get what exists fine-tuned and bug-free to the point that my daughter and I can enjoy a play-through. One where we can save our progress when dinner time sneaks up on us and continue progress after we've filled our bellies.
    2. Get this demo in your hands
    This area is pretty big now, large enough to exist as a demo that would provide more than enough experience for the player to get a feel for how the release will play and feel. Most of the core mechanics are in place and I've polished a fair number of them to the point that my 4yo can play the game without getting frustrated or feeling like she's stuck. That has always been my marker: the smile on my daughter's face as she explores this world I've made and notices the little nuances I've put in place to make it more enjoyable for her - the butterflies, the large flower pastures, and the sailboat ride are just a few examples. My ultimate goal is to someday receive even a single piece of feedback in which a parent and a child shared the same experience. I have a side-goal of getting my daughter's great-grandmother to set aside her distaste for all things video games and to have her coop this RPG with my daughter and have an enjoyable experience along the way.


    I am admittedly still stuck on a name. I have 6 possible names I've come up with, but I can't shake this feeling that when the right name comes along, I'll know it without question. I'll say to myself that that is the name, and anything that falls short of that is nothing I want to commit to at this point. I've worked out a lot of the story. I need to plan out how the questing system is going to work and strip-down my inventory system to make it simpler. I need to finish up the quests/tasks that will move the story forward and give the player objectives. I need to fix some small issues that occur when a second player is along for the journey. And I am getting there, little by little, bit by bit, hour by hour.

    But today is a big day. Today I am no longer working on a side-project. Today I am making progress in my game; one that feels like a game, plays like a game, and it does so with a fair number of core elements missing. Those things that are absent will serve to better the experience rather than the experience riding on their coattails, and that is something that has inspired me to push forward with more effort and more verve than ever before.
     
    Last edited: Jan 27, 2018
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  18. eatsleepindie

    eatsleepindie

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    It's almost 3 PM and I'm on coffee cup #2 of a day that started in the afternoon. No, I'm not lazy; I was up until past sunrise putting into practice an idea I have been sitting on all week. The idea I guess you could say; the one that is going to tie everything I've already shared together and put a fancy bow on it.

    It happened by chance as most of my non-crappy ideas do. I was playing around with ways to tie this book setup I did a while back into the game:


    That is all rendered in real-time and is using a camera view to render the illustration onto the page (it's the same camera that was originally rendering my title screen). I liked it but something was definitely missing and the aesthetics of it all felt detached from the rest of the game.

    So, as I usually do when it feels like I'm trying to force something, I stepped away from it and let it simmer in the back of my noggin. I had an idea sometime around Monday of this week but have been to busy to try it out. The only real free time I got was to spend an hour or so doing some proof-of concept work with a fishing mechanic, pictured below. It's been years since I've gone fishing in real life, but I have always enjoyed fishing in rpgs. Couldn't tell you why since I never really thought about it until recently, but there is something I find so relaxing about it.


    As with so many things that I try out with this game, I can't say for certain that fishing will be included in the final release, but I'm pretty confident it will. It may end up feeling out of place to the point that it gets removed, but for now it's on my to-do list for one of those days I just want to chill and half-watch a favorite movie while working on something simple and fun.

    Anyway, back to the point of this post: the book. I am admittedly stealing some of my own ideas I had for Revery, but this all fit so well with the general story of this game that I couldn't resist. So, I spent quite a bit of my head-space wondering how I could tie in this book/story theme without cramming it down the players throat to the point that it felt forced. I didn't want the players suspension of disbelief to be broken by transitioning from the book to the world and back again, and that setup [in the gif] I posted above absolutely felt like it would pull the player out of the game world.

    I wish the process that led to what I am about to share was more exciting, but in all honesty it was literally the following: I was staring at said book, didn't like the black background surrounding it, and thought about what I could put there that wouldn't distract from the book itself but wasn't just empty space. The first thing I tried was the ocean prefab I had setup for sailing. So I threw in the ocean, and that is how I ended up spending my Friday on this.

    When it comes to freelancing I like a nice, detailed design document. I like to know exactly what I am doing so I can come up with a plan of attack. When it comes to this game - and I am sure there are plenty of devs who would argue that this is a terrible idea - I'm pretty much flying by the seat of my pants. I have a ton of ideas, and while a fair number of them likely won't make it into the final release, I couldn't be further from having a legit design doc. That's sort-of how this game came about; a desire to both have fun playing a couch coop game with my daughter in which I could leave little easter-eggs for her to find, and to give myself a project to work on that freed me up to just explore what the game could be as I went. I have a general idea of what I am going for, but the rest is pretty much up in the air and I'm standing here looking up at it with my index finger on my chin just plucking things one at a time and seeing what happens. While I am not saying this is the best way to work for everyone, I think this RPG is some of my best work to-date, and so I am not going to fix my process if it isn't broken.

    So yesterday was my first day off in a while and when I woke up two thoughts came to mind:
    1. Coffee
    2. Do something with the book
    As I said earlier, I sort-of just stuck the water in around the book on a whim, but what I saw immediately got my mind racing. It fit so well with other screenshots I had taken and the theme of the story. In fact, the way this tied so many other things I've done with this game together, everything was coming so quickly that I could barely keep up. After a short while I had the following, which wasn't exactly what I was picturing but was close enough for me to press on.


    I shared this screenshot with Zoey's mother as I always do before sharing anything with the public and her response was akin to a dozen gasping emojis. For me, I loved the environment setup on the page of the book but did not like the green pages. But what struck me more was the potential for the book acting as an island in the ocean, and that is how I will move the story forward. If you can bear with me for a minute and consider the video I shared a while back on the sailing setup I did, but rather than sailing directly to the new island you will instead sail to the dock pictured below:


    Not only is this all rendered in real time with some nice page-turning animations, but you can literally play on the book. I have baked NavMesh and also setup A* pathfinding on the left page so that you will eventually be able to walk around on it the same you do the world itself, and the crows will be able to wander about the page as they do when you are playing the game itself. The campfire has flame and smoke particle effects, everyone animates, etc.


    I haven't tied this scene into the rest of the game yet, but suffice it to say that when I do this floating book will serve as the in-between. It will advance the story when needed, serve in some form or another as the title screen, and works very well with my story which is based around the idea that this world has lost it's happy-ending and you're trying to put it back together.

    You jump on a boat, you sail to the dock that's on this book island, the pages turn and advance the story, and then you jump back in the boat and travel to the next area. I'll probably end up removing the shore-line to the north to make this book-island feel as though it is more secluded and will likely add a dock to the right side; the player enters via the dock on the left and then after the story advances, they then continue onward to the next area by using the dock on the right page.

    I still have some things to work out and if I'm being honest, I worked on this for about 14 hours straight yesterday so I'm a bit burnt out on it, but I am 99.9% certain this setup will be in the final release. It just works too well with everything I have done up to this point for me to not use it. When I'm done, I will be able to attack an enemy or open a treasure chest on the actual pages of this book, and someday soon I will get that done and share gameplay video. Until then, I think it's best to step away for a bit, spend some time with my dry-erase board and whittle this down to the point that when I come back to it I have a plan that is more thought out.


    Thank you to everyone for their kind words and for showing an interest in this game. And also, if anyone is looking to hire a freelance Unity developer, my schedule is open for the time being. ;)
     
    Last edited: Jan 27, 2018
  19. eatsleepindie

    eatsleepindie

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    I had some time to kill last night so I did some more work on making this book a playable surface. It's all explained in Saturday's post but figured I'd share some video:

     
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  20. lordconstant

    lordconstant

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    The book effect looks awesome! Is the page turn an animation or done dynamically? (If you dont mind me asking)

    Feels like the book could be a good factor to help base the story around. Possibly have each page contain a picture missing something from it with abit of text describing what was in the picture & the aim is to make the book whole again.
     
  21. eatsleepindie

    eatsleepindie

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    Thank you so much for your feedback. The book itself is Mega Book from the Asset Store; I am just customizing it to suit my needs and have made it so that it works as a play area.

    I'm still playing around with ideas concerning what exactly the book is going to do; current direction is centered around a pop-up book where the illustrations pop out of the page once it is lying flat, providing a small section of the game world to play in that is scaled down significantly on the z axis. I will have a video of this to share soon - most likely Sunday.
     
  22. KnightOfGamelot

    KnightOfGamelot

    Joined:
    Jul 12, 2013
    Posts:
    40
    I just subscribed to this thread. For years I've absolutely loved this art style. Looks very polished! I'm looking forward to future updates.

    Did you code the admin panel from scratch, or did you use 3rd party software?
     
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  23. eatsleepindie

    eatsleepindie

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    The admin panel is programmed from scratch. I am using textures/sprites purchased from the asset store to keep the theme in-line with the games UI but beyond that it's all custom work.
     
  24. oopere

    oopere

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    Oct 15, 2017
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    I really love the art and the atmosphere! Can't wait to see more. The playable book and all the characters are amazing.
     
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  25. eatsleepindie

    eatsleepindie

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    I've been crazy-busy with work lately, but I figured I'd share a video I uploaded at the beginning of the month showing some progress on Story Island. I've opted for a pop-up effect when the pages turn, something I will be playing around with in other parts of the game. With any luck I'll get some free time later this month to take some more screens/videos to share.

     
  26. SteveSync

    SteveSync

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    Sep 25, 2013
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    I really love that book idea, and that video is super nice and relaxing to watch. Looking forward to more updates :)
     
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  27. eatsleepindie

    eatsleepindie

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    Yesterday was my first day off in quite a while so I spent some time working on fixes for controller input. It's honestly been a bigger challenge than I had anticipated to allow players to easily swap between mouse/controller - especially with the local coop feature, but yesterday I found a nice balance between them. I'm currently using a very simple UI prompt for items you can interact with when using the controller but plan to make some major tweaks to it in the coming weeks; for now this serves its purpose for development and testing.


    I am working towards a playable demo in the next few months. The demo will focus on gameplay and sidestep the story so that tweaks and fixes can be put in place on the core mechanics. Basically, the two large areas and the book island that is between them will be featured, ending the demo at the castle that is Northeast of the starting point. The demo will feature local coop since that is central to the game itself, but will likely have arbitrary quests, items, enemies, etc. to give the player a feel for how the final game will play. I wrote a script at one point that uses AStar pathfinding nodes to calculate the square footage of the playable area, so I'll double-check that the math is correct on that and share the number soon, but it's a pretty big world already and this is just the first of four worlds total.

    My next two big tasks:
    1. Quests - I am leaning towards a more linear story for this; I had considered a system where the players can have multiple quests at any given time, but feel that would start to become cumbersome. I'm still playing around with ideas and as always am open to suggestions. My target demographic is parents with children, and while I hope people of all ages enjoy playing it, I want to make sure it is an enjoyable experience for those in the single-digit age bracket. For example, when I play this game with my daughter Zoey, I want her leading the charge rather than her simply following me as I progress.
    2. Inventory - For the same reasons listed above, I am likely going to simplify the items/equipment/inventory systems quite a bit. I am planning on having 4-6 classes, each with a specific weapon type and abilities; something more along the lines of games like Final Fantasy VII and VIII where, as you play, you find a better version of the weapon you are currently using and equip that, sell the old one, etc.
    I say these are my next two tasks, but I tend to wander a lot, something I am sure is pretty evident by now. I also need to add spells/abilities to the players (something that is already half-done from getting them set up for enemies), add a character selection screen, and a long list of other things. Slowly but surely my list of things to do is growing shorter, but this year has been very busy when it comes to work so pace on my own project has slow to say the least.

    What I can say after countless hours testing and debugging is this: the mechanics are both fun and quite smooth. Nothing feels clunky and everything (excluding visuals) has a fair amount of polish. It's fun to play even without a clear objective. Anytime I am playing and find something to be even remotely frustrating, I tweak it so it feels more natural. I am really looking forward to getting the final mechanics in place and the demo released so the story can really start adding to the gameplay on a lot of different levels.

    Then again, anyone who has followed progress up to this point knows that I may just up and decide to change course or my next plan of attack at any given time. It may not be the most efficient process, but it is a more enjoyable one for me. As I am sure it is common among devs, it often feels as though this game already exists and my job is not so much to build it, but to reveal it. A lot of stuff is still up in the air save for a few hard and fast rules: never force anything, eliminate the unnecessary, keep-it-simple-stupid, and if it starts to feel like work then it's time for a break. I think a lot of this stems from working full-time+ as a freelancer; my clients' projects are already outlined, planned, etc. and this project is the opposite, keeping me from feeling as though I am simply hiring myself to make a game and publish it.

    A few notes:
    • I'm using cInput from the Asset Store for player controls. I have no affiliation with them, I'm just recommending you check it out if you are planning on using a controller for your own game.
    • I use Trello for managing tasks, bugs, etc. Below is a screen of how I have things set up. Trello has proven to be priceless in helping me stay organized and refine my dev process and I highly recommend it. They have a paid option but the service itself is entirely free and you can share boards with other people, etc. Again, no affiliation, just a fan. They have an accompanying Android app that is one of the better designed interfaces I use on my phone (I hate cell phones) which is a huge plus when you are out and about and something comes to mind.
     
  28. eatsleepindie

    eatsleepindie

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    Thank you both for your feedback! Fingers crossed that this spring I'll have a free demo to share with everyone.
     
  29. lordconstant

    lordconstant

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    For the questing for side quests it may work well to never truly say something is a quest, but doing stuff leads to special events e.g. you go up to a flower with a butterfly & the butterfly flies to another flower with a butterfly, do it again & they both fly to the next one then if you approach that the flower rises out of the ground as an enemy.

    That way wandering about is rewarded & you never feel like your following a list of things to do, your just following the world.
     
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  30. eatsleepindie

    eatsleepindie

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    I like this idea and may implement it when I have time. I'm currently picturing a new type of buttefly where either their wings are made of pages from the book or they are a book themselves, opened at the spine with both covers flapping for wings. I'd likely keep the current butterflies how they are and have these special ones placed strategically to guide the player through the world.

    Great idea and thank you for the feedback!
     
  31. eatsleepindie

    eatsleepindie

    Joined:
    Aug 3, 2012
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    I am finally ready to share the name I have decided on for this game: Book Ends


    I have also set up an IndieDB page for the game: http://indiedb.com/games/bookends

    Nothing much beyond that to share as I haven't had time to work on this much lately. When I'm busy like this, I try and squeeze in a bit of time to model a new prop now and again, and here are some I made late last night. Planning on adding a bit more variation in the placement and size of the stones in the wall soon.


    Stone fence and bird bath
     
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  32. eatsleepindie

    eatsleepindie

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    Work has been both chaotic and sporadic, but I've been forcing myself to work on this game every day. Lately, I've been spending 30mins-1hr after work making things look more polished. This includes baking the first lightmaps, adjusting UV mappings and tweaking post-processing settings.


    The screen above is progress so far, and while I am happy with where things are going, I am nowhere near done. What is important to me is that this scene would have been rendering ~100 real-time shadows previously, whereas now it is only rendering about a dozen.

    I'll be sure to share the final results as soon as I'm happy with my setup, but for now it's back to work.
     
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  33. eatsleepindie

    eatsleepindie

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    Another lighting update because I am pulling 50+ hour weeks freelancing lately. I'm still not quite where I want to be, but I'm getting closer every day. Of most importance to me is that I am using a new prefab-painting system that allows me to build my levels in a fraction of the time. My goal this week is to piece together a test level for Zoey and I to coop soon and will try to record and share the gameplay from that.


    I'll share the process soon, which involved a lot of redoing UV maps for props and a daily dose of trial-and-error. I'm also hoping to put together an article to share on IndieDB by this weekend the latest.

    IndieDB page:
    http://indiedb.com/games/bookends