Cymbil Spellcraft: 3 Player CoOp RPG with Open Ended Engine for Infinite Adventures

Weekly Progress Update (May 2nd, 2013) Cymbil Spellcraft Update and $500 Art Contest

This week we introduce combat with objects, very typical of Zelda top-down adventures. We're also using some light spells to explore a cavern, fight some mini-toadies in a dungeon, and play with the lighting effects Karate-Kid style on a bridge.

In addition to all this, we're launching a $500 dollar art contest (with other perks in game as well) on deviantArt. If you're interested, visit http://cymbilartcontest.deviantart.com/ and sign up for the group; details will come in May 10th.

As always, feedback heavily appreciated.

Description
Cymbil Spellcraft is a three player, purely cooperative role playing adventure proposed for release on Xbox Live and PC (long-term), and as a single player port for Mobile in 2014. This project is an obvious homage to 16 bit era games like Secret of Mana and Chrono Trigger, with heavy focus on a rewarding combat system, teamwork, like-able player characters with unique play-styles.

In addition, we will be using our film production backgrounds in all aspects of cinematography, such as lighting, color choices, composition - as well as a professionally written screenplay to provide entertaining dialogue and immersion devoid of inflected imagery and neurotic exposition.

Finally, short of making our engine open-source, we will provide every possible avenue to allow modders of any skill level to modify nearly every aspect of Cymbil Spellcraft such as adding maps, monsters, items, player characters, etc. etc. by simply dropping them into a folder.

Gameplay
There are three playable characters; Cymbil the Wight, Roshor the Titan, and Leon the branded. Each has a unique leveling system, list of special moves, and playstyle. Cymbil is a supportive, consistent spellcaster; Leon is a fast-paced, risk for reward assasin; and Roshor is a counter-based tanky fighter.

There will be five weapon 'styles'. Each character has access to all five styles, and can equip any two for a mission. Weapon styles determine the special moves the characters bring to the field, and the combos that can be performed by teammates.

Combos and finishers are important, and reward players with buffs, additional experience, and high damage output. For example, Cymbil can open with her aerial kick, using her air magic to suspend an enemy momentarily; followed by Leon's charge, knocking the opponent into Roshor's Ice Wall - shattering it for massive damage.

Most Important: ONE DIFFICULTY. The difficulty is based on the player's progression in the game. Defeating the final boss will be a tough endeavor, that only a player who has mastered their character over the course of the adventure can complete. That means that difficulty isn't just based on ever-escalating numbers. Encounters grow more complex and action packed, not just bigger numbers that demands grinding for randomly-better numbers on gear.

Story
Cymbil Spellcraft is the reimagined state of the world given the existence of magic. Technology is primitive, delayed by a lack of neccesity. The world praises a gift from the stars as the source of their newfound powers.

Cymbil, Leon, and Roshor are forced to join forces against an unseen threat sought to destroy their peoples. Each playable character heralds a different faction, with deep roots of hate for one another.


Release
We're hoping to have a special demo version by April 2013. This version will consist of one level and one playable character, and probably only take 10-15 minutes to complete. The final release would happen late 2014, and consist of roughly 12 hours of continuous game-play for one play-through.

Weekly Progress Update (March 4th, 2013) Cymbil Spellcraft Forest Gameplay Pre-Alpha 0.1

Yikes! It has been a while since we made an update; well this one is huge. Check the vid then read on!

As you can see, we've added a ton of combat mechanics and made good use of unity assets. From here, we just keep rinsing and repeating, adding new animations and tweaking the ones we have. We're hoping to have a solid demo out for the LP series guys by May. I know I am only featuring the single player here, but the multiplayer is still working great despite all the updates (this is why you always do the multiplayer from the start, not make it a kickstarter stretch goal and doom yourself later)



Unity Specific: I'm using a number of asset packs as filler; we've even used some nature assets as a base to be repainted. Once we have finished repainting and replacing the filler, we'll be ready to showcase the jungle biome: the setting for our demo.

Feedback Requested: None this week; I'm so behind on just about everything, I couldn't even begin to list the endless set of questions I have accumulated. Despite my laziness, I'd love critiques and feedback wherever and whenever constructive: thanks in advance!

Weekly Progress Update (January 28th, 2013) Re-Modeling Cymbil Continues
We're working our butts off, trying to get a multiplayer gameplay video together for the weekend to showcase Piecemaker, uSequencer, and HUDText. For now, the quest to remodel Cymbil with the appropriate proportions for an action RPG continues.



Weekly Progress Update (January 21st, 2013) Combat Casting Screenshot
I have been neglecting my VLOG duties these last couple weeks; primarily because the majority of the enhancements aren't something you can get excited about in a video log. However, I have made a ridiculous amount of progress in combat, networking, and HUD development. If you look closely at the screenshot, you'll see a particle system, spellcasting, the new HUD, improved hit detection, and...well that's about it. I'll probably hold off until I have Cymbil's mesh finished or a new level design before I make another video entry.

Unity Specific: I'd like to list a number of resources I've found useful thus far: NGUI for combat HUD text; MeleeWeaponTrail package; Blade Girl 1.5 for filler art in an action RPG; For now, that's all I wanna list although I have purchased uSequencer and Piecemaker. On a SADDER note: I can't get Unity to upgrade to 4.0 correctly; the framerate drops like a rock and Controller.Move is unresponsive. I have posted about this for a week now on Unity Answers and support with no such luck at fixing the error. So for now, I'll continue using Unity 3.5.6 and staring at the 4.0 animation system with lustful eyes and wishful thinking.


Weekly Progress Update (January 8th, 2013) VLog Update #6
BORING MULTI-PLAYER Update, I know; it was on the fly! This week: we synchronized the animations, AI, and network instantiations for all clients.
Unity Specific: Running into an issue with memory leaks: probably called by numerous unresolved co-routines; it only seems to bog down the server though...I only discovered the problem in the middle of this video, so I'm not sure how to resolve it yet! I will be utilizing the 'leakedobjects' script to try and solve the problem; I'll illustrate my process for fixing the memory leak in the next update.

Weekly Progress Update (December 30th, 2012) VLog Update #5
This week, I show off our new website livestream, and gameplay. Networking is getting more advanced and now you can even do combat with your enemies! See the new GUI, animations, Jungle level preview, and more!
Unity Specific: I talk about my experience with the Lidgren library asset, my favoritism toward the BurgZerg arcade tutorials, and offer my assistance to anyone with questions via my stream.

Weekly Progress Update (December 17th, 2012) Man I hope the world doesn't end or I'll never finish this
Overall: It's a game...well sorta. All the controls are there, and combat even works (albeit very rudimentary). From here, it's just a matter of waiting for my art department to catch up and getting all the special moves in place. AI is very basic as well. I'm also still using a lot of elements from assets stores and the good guys over at BurgZerg arcade (check out their tutorial series; it's awesome), but a lot of the fundamentals implemented by these products will remain, with aesthetic changes to claim them with my own style.


Networking: It works! I can get any number of players in the game and prediction/interpolation is working great. At this point, any networking updates are simply a result of adding enhancement in another part of the engine. I've tested this internationally, locally, with virutal-LAN, and on LAN. Connections are smooth and sweet. Unity is fantastic at making networking easy.


GUI Graphics: I'm using an asset store pack for now. We have some concepts in mind, one for each of the characters. Cymbil would have a nature looking GUI, Roshor a rock-solid GUI, and Leon a metallic GUI.

Environment: Using the Jungle and Cartoon Nature pack for now. I'll probably use them as a basis to build on.


3D Modeling: Still doing concept art. The 'Chrono' model in the demo has the proper dimension, although the weight is all screwed up by the clothing (unity thing). After concept art is done, we'll build Cymbil.


Development Links
Livestream: http://www.own3d.tv/Eyeshock (K-Billy's Super Sounds of the 70s)
M-W-Th 4pm - 8pm CST
Project Website: http://www.cymbilspellcraft.com
YouTube vJournal Entries: http://www.youtube.com/user/CymbilSpellcraft?feature=mhee
Deviant Art Concept Gallery: http://eyeshock.deviantart.com/gallery/39424586
Facebook Stream: http://www.facebook.com/CymbilSpellcraft?ref=hl
Developers Personal Websites: http://www.erikthacker.com (Erik Thacker, Programmer), http://www.maripuente.com (Artist/Modeler)
Producer Website: http://www.eyeshock.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/

 

Placeholder for future updates.

 

Weekly Feedback Requested December 17th Update:
Hello! If you happened to read everything I posted, allow me to immediately thank you for your time. If you have a moment, I am very interested in everyone's opinion on our design direction.

Do you find the 3 player co-op limiting?
Are we alienating ourselves by allowing the story to designate our number of players, rather than simply adopt the typical 4 player modal?

Do you believe there is a large enough audience awaiting a new 'Secret of Mana' to support our release? How do you feel about the '16 bit' camera angle?

The GUI would provide a health bar, stamina bar, 'limit-break' bar (finishers [see FF7!]), and three cooldown buttons for special moves associated with the current weapon, as well as equipped passives, a toggle, and the character portrait - do you think we are overloading the player with too many element to look at?

Would it annoy you if there were two players in a game playing the same character? Should we limit each co-op game to one of each player-character type to encourage immersion?

Thanks again for your time, and for any feedback you can provide!

 

Project Website is up! See the link below if you're interested in tracking our progress.
http://www.cymbilspellcraft.com

Also, I will frequently livestream my development process; if you would like to keep up, or have any Unity/General Programming/Design questions: feel free to stop in and send me a message in the chat block. I'm not an expert, but perhaps I can help you overcome some of the shortfalls I have encountered in developing a multiplayer RPG.
http://www.own3d.tv/Eyeshock

 

Weekly Progress Update (December 30th, 2012) VLog Update #5
This week, I show off our new website livestream, and gameplay. Networking is getting more advanced and now you can even do combat with your enemies! See the new GUI, animations, Jungle level preview, and more!
Unity Specific: I talk about my experience with the Lidgren library asset, my favoritism toward the BurgZerg arcade tutorials, and offer my assistance to anyone with questions via my stream.

Still looking for feedback on these questions.

Weekly Feedback Requested December 17th Update:
Hello! If you happened to read everything I posted, allow me to immediately thank you for your time. If you have a moment, I am very interested in everyone's opinion on our design direction.

Do you find the 3 player co-op limiting?
Are we alienating ourselves by allowing the story to designate our number of players, rather than simply adopt the typical 4 player modal?

Do you believe there is a large enough audience awaiting a new 'Secret of Mana' to support our release? How do you feel about the '16 bit' camera angle?

The GUI would provide a health bar, stamina bar, 'limit-break' bar (finishers [see FF7!]), and three cooldown buttons for special moves associated with the current weapon, as well as equipped passives, a toggle, and the character portrait - do you think we are overloading the player with too many element to look at?

Would it annoy you if there were two players in a game playing the same character? Should we limit each co-op game to one of each player-character type to encourage immersion?

 

Do you find the 3 player co-op limiting?

Traditional Co-Op experience consists of 4 players, thus i would suggest a fourth party slot.

Do you believe there is a large enough audience awaiting a new 'Secret of Mana' to support our release?

You will be directly competing with the release of Elder Scrolls Online, and most likely another World of Warcraft expansion pack. The only way that you will have an audience, is if you build one. Analyse what ArenaNet did to promote their release of Guild Wars 2 and how they effectively build a community around their development, this will be of much avail.

How do you feel about the '16 bit' camera angle?

I don't exactly know what you mean when you say "16 bit camera angle", this, to me, looks like a standard third person character controller.

Do you think we are overloading the player with too many element to look at?

Not at all, all of them are useful pieces of the HUD, except for the top left one, i have no idea what that is supposed to be. I would suggest rearranging the HUD, though. Move the character portrait to the top-left corner, chat to the bottom-left, and have a mini-map on the bottom/top-right corner. This would leave plenty of room along the middle-bottom of the screen for a skill-bar.

Would it annoy you if there were two players in a game playing the same character?

You can take a Diablo-like approach to this issue. You can make 6-8 characters, and have each player choose a unique character. This would add variety, and a better group setting, overall. Some classes that are commonly found are Offensive-Fighters (Berserker), Defensive-Fighters (Guardian), Melee-DPS (Assassin), Range-DPS (Ranger), AOE-Caster (Warlock), and Single Target-Caster(Sorcerer).

Just an example of how the class-dynamics could work:

Berserker
Armor Type- Medium
Damage- Medium
Crowd Control- Medium

Guardian
Armor Type- High
Damage- Low
Crowd Control- High

Assassin
Armor Type- Medium
Damage- High
Crowd Control- Low

Ranger
Armor Type- Medium
Damage- High
Crowd Control- Low

Sorcerer
Armor Type- Low
Damage- High
Crowd Control- High

Warlock
Armor Type- Medium
Damage- High
Crowd Control- Medium

Best of Luck with your game! I agree, Petey at BergZerg Arcade is awesome!

 

I think 4 players is better because its even and the camera looks weird but I haven't played it

 

I agree with much of what Blasfemmy said, but I would like to add a little more.

Do you find the 3 player co-op limiting?
- I would say that the traditional 4 player model will work well for you in this area. (Don't really have much else to say on that. It just seems like a more effective multiplayer model)

Do you believe there is a large enough audience awaiting a new 'Secret of Mana' to support our release?
- It really depends on what elements you intend to bring over from that game. The trend I've been noticing lately is that people are really into the "retro-style" shtick, so I don't really think you're going to run into any trouble. By the looks of what you're showing, I highly doubt anyone will complain. It all looks very clean and artistic .

How do you feel about the '16 bit' camera angle?
- If you mean camera angles that are traditional to 16bit rpg games (which would be a top-down camera angle I believe) It seems to work well in this situation, given the subject matter. I would also imagine that it will be beneficial in the multiplayer element as well.

Do you think we are overloading the player with too many element to look at?
- I'm not really sure yet. At this point, it looks like a lot of the HUD is still being developed, so I can't give a sure answer just yet. So long as you keep it along the same simple and easy to understand model you have above, I doubt you'll have a problem.

Would it annoy you if there were two players in a game playing the same character? Should we limit each co-op game to one of each player-character type to encourage immersion?
- This is one of those things that people "just get used to" in games that have multiplayer components. Blasfemmy mentioned Diablo, and it's a good reference. Much of that will come through in play testing though, so keep it in mind.

So far everything is looking great! I love the updates by the way, it's really nice to see the man behind the game. You're doing a great job

Hope that was helpful.

 

To elaborate upon this, this isn't an element that the community will complain about. If you have a great game, something as tiny as this will not make a difference. Commercial releases have been successful using both models for cooperative multiplayer.

 

Weekly Progress Update (January 8th, 2012) VLog Update #6
BORING MULTI-PLAYER Update, I know; it was on the fly! This week: we synchronized the animations, AI, and network instantiations for all clients.
Unity Specific: Running into an issue with memory leaks: probably called by numerous unresolved co-routines; it only seems to bog down the server though...I only discovered the problem in the middle of this video, so I'm not sure how to resolve it yet! I will be utilizing the 'leakedobjects' script to try and solve the problem; I'll illustrate my process for fixing the memory leak in the next update.

Responses
Thanks so much for the feedback, guys! I'll make a few responses here.

In response to the 'weird' camera observation; that's sorta what I'm talking about. The camera angle used is what I referred to as the '16 bit rpg' angle, which might have also caused some confusion. It's a 3D attempt to recreate the 2 1/2D illusion of games like SoM and Chrono Trigger, where the background is 3D and has a top-down angle view, but the characters themselves are almost parallel to the screen.

As for the players and immersion (multiple instantations of a character), we've gone with a rather general rule; if we find ourselves with a design decision, with an option that eliminates gameplay options for any specific audience, we will always side with the option that doesn't alienate our players; in this case we would allow any number of a character and a lot more than 3 players; however we will probably include an option to limit the gameplay to 3 players and allow only 1 of each for server hosts who desire such.

Again, thanks for the feedback guys! I'd love to get yall in on a weekly testing update once there's some more visually appealing stuff to test...

Developer Feedback Requested

For Combat Collision, would you personally go with (1) collision evaluated entirely locally, (2) for the player locally and on server for all AI, or (3) give server full authority over collision?
The current plan is to evaluate only the damage taken on every object (player, enemy, target); as it stands, all damage is evaluated on the server, and then an RPC is sent to all clients with the result of that damage; we can increase the efficiency of the network by instead evaluating damage locally, then sending the result to the server who keeps a record for the current hp of the players and AI. Which method do you personally prefer? Please NOTE: There is an obvious lose of security when evaluating damage locally; however, we have long ago accepted that there is nothing we can do to eliminate cheating and actually plan to encourage modding: therefore, security isn't too major a consideration.

How do you feel about platforming in an action RPG?
Do you enjoy the occasional jumping puzzle and scaling gigantic bosses to attack their weak spots, or do you find the mechanic annoying in RPGs?

How do you feel about an achievement system that reveals story elements?
We really hate the achievement system these days; we're considering limiting the achievements to accomplishments that take actual skill, not just time invested or typical gameplay. We would like to reward the player with cutscenes and character revelations/resolutions for completing achievements. Do you believe this mechanic would encourage replay value, or simply annoy players, given that such character development occurrs outside the plot?

 

Weekly Progress Update (January 21st, 2013) Combat Casting Screenshot
I have been neglecting my VLOG duties these last couple weeks; primarily because the majority of the enhancements aren't something you can get excited about in a video log. However, I have made a ridiculous amount of progress in combat, networking, and HUD development. If you look closely at the screenshot, you'll see a particle system, spellcasting, the new HUD, improved hit detection, and...well that's about it. I'll probably hold off until I have Cymbil's mesh finished or a new level design before I make another video entry.

Unity Specific: I'd like to list a number of resources I've found useful thus far: NGUI for combat HUD text; MeleeWeaponTrail package; Blade Girl 1.5 for filler art in an action RPG; For now, that's all I wanna list although I have purchased uSequencer and Piecemaker. On a SADDER note: I can't get Unity to upgrade to 4.0 correctly; the framerate drops like a rock and Controller.Move is unresponsive. I have posted about this for a week now on Unity Answers and support with no such luck at fixing the error. So for now, I'll continue using Unity 3.5.6 and staring at the 4.0 animation system with lustful eyes and wishful thinking.


Developer Feedback Requested

How do you feel about the proportions of the BladeGirl 1.5 NPC filler? We aren't exactly sure where we want to settle on proportions; we want something human enough to reveal emotion, but 'fantasy' enough to work for the camera angle.

How do you feel about platforming in an action RPG?
Do you enjoy the occasional jumping puzzle and scaling gigantic bosses to attack their weak spots, or do you find the mechanic annoying in RPGs?

How do you feel about an achievement system that reveals story elements?
We really hate the achievement system these days; we're considering limiting the achievements to accomplishments that take actual skill, not just time invested or typical gameplay. We would like to reward the player with cutscenes and character revelations/resolutions for completing achievements. Do you believe this mechanic would encourage replay value, or simply annoy players, given that such character development occurrs outside the plot?

 

Weekly Progress Update (January 28th, 2013) Re-Modeling Cymbil Continues
We're working our butts off, trying to get a multiplayer gameplay video together for the weekend to showcase Piecemaker, uSequencer, and HUDText. For now, the quest to remodel Cymbil with the appropriate proportions for an action RPG continues.

 

It looks nice, as long as it matches your atmosphere it should be fine. Good Luck

 

Weekly Progress Update (March 4th, 2013) Cymbil Spellcraft Forest Gameplay Pre-Alpha 0.1

Yikes! It has been a while since we made an update; well this one is huge. Check the vid then read on!

As you can see, we've added a ton of combat mechanics and made good use of unity assets. From here, we just keep rinsing and repeating, adding new animations and tweaking the ones we have. We're hoping to have a solid demo out for the LP series guys by May. I know I am only featuring the single player here, but the multiplayer is still working great despite all the updates (this is why you always do the multiplayer from the start, not make it a kickstarter stretch goal and doom yourself later)



Unity Specific: I'm using a number of asset packs as filler; we've even used some nature assets as a base to be repainted. Once we have finished repainting and replacing the filler, we'll be ready to showcase the jungle biome: the setting for our demo.

Feedback Requested: None this week; I'm so behind on just about everything, I couldn't even begin to list the endless set of questions I have accumulated. Despite my laziness, I'd love critiques and feedback wherever and whenever constructive: thanks in advance!

 

Weekly Progress Update (May 2nd, 2013) Cymbil Spellcraft Update and $500 Art Contest

This week we introduce combat with objects, very typical of Zelda top-down adventures. We're also using some light spells to explore a cavern, fight some mini-toadies in a dungeon, and play with the lighting effects Karate-Kid style on a bridge.

In addition to all this, we're launching a $500 dollar art contest (with other perks in game as well) on deviantArt. If you're interested, visit http://cymbilartcontest.deviantart.com/ and sign up for the group; details will come in May 10th.

As always, feedback heavily appreciated.