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Games Diag Legends - Single Player 3D RPG - WIP - (Weekly Updates)

Discussion in 'Works In Progress - Archive' started by SomeAB, Jan 14, 2019.

  1. SomeAB

    SomeAB

    Joined:
    Jan 14, 2019
    Posts:
    13
    (Update: 30/7/2019 -- I have decided to use UE4 instead, the new thread can be found here
    https://forums.unrealengine.com/community/work-in-progress/1646891-diagonal-legends-isekai-theme-rpg )

    (Note, it is a personal choice, I don't feel that Unity is lacking or anything, but I just took a liking to the UE4 UI/UX).

    Hello Everyone.

    I'm working on a Single Player 3D RPG in Unity since november 2018. And I wanted to show you my current progress and get some valuable feedback in the process.

    My current goal is to create a proof-of-concept for crowdfunding campaign which involves making a small village, some NPCs and their houses, and some of the game mechanics (clearly defined targets). The platform for now is Windows 10 PC (and hopefully Linux/BSD in future).

    As you can see, the targets are pretty realistic and short, and this is because I'm pretty serious about "finishing what I started". The game is currently in its infancy, and I aim to do bi-weekly (once in 2 weeks) updates.. until the POC is complete. For the time being its only me, but I'm open to collaborations in the near-future.

    About the game:

    Summary:
    The working title of the game is "Diag Legends". It is a early-medieval themed rpg with a theme similarity to the D&D universe and Isekai Mangas. The player will play in the third person perspective mainly. The world is 1:1 scaled. There will be multiple protagonists/playable characters in this game.

    Short Defination (Updated 2nd May 2019):

    A Single Player 3D game with unique stylized artstyle building upon both past and future trends in the industry, to deliver a memorable 'RPG' experience centered around the 'Isekai' cultural phenomenon. The aim of the project is to make use of 'non-photorealistic techniques', 'computer-generated' 'stylized assets' (versus the traditional hand-drawn method), and a deep and indulging storyline to deliver above 50+ hours of single player campaign with 'multiple playable protagonists'. The game takes inspiration from category defining titles like Zelda:BOTW, Dragon Quest Series, Nino Kuni II, etc.

    Art-Style:
    The art style is 'non-photorealistic' for sure (I'm firm about this). But it is not-stylized as cartoonish either. An uncommon blend of the anime style is intended. Dimensions are although realistic as mentioned above.

    About Me:
    My name is Ahmad Bilal, 27 years of age, from New Delhi, India. A business graduate and a full-stack programmer. The language I use for the backend is C. Nice to meet you !^^"!

    Workflow:

    Blender --> Unity


    In the year, IX of <placeholder> calendar year,... upon the death of the heir-apparent of <Kingdom B>, the <Empire A> invaded the <Kingdom B> citing a "disputed succession" casus-belli. The armies of the empire led by the tyrant general <some name> waged a vehement attempt to subdue all of <Kingdom B>. His strategy was as simple as his brute mind: to take control of small towns and villages on the outskirts of larger cities of strategic value, in order to starve them into submission.

    The mercenary vanguards exacted multiple atrocities on the civilians living in these outlying areas, resulting in a heavy death toll before actual engagement between the formal armies. This forced many of them to leave their homes in order to flee deeper into the unexplored continent. However, the Empire underestimated the resilience of its neighbor. The Kingdom although outmatched in terms of numbers, managed to fortify its important cities despite the short notice, and rightfully used the anguish of its citizens to rally its troops in order to draw out the war.

    After all, the empire had resorted to such strategies in the first place due to the long standing fact that the walls of kingdom B's larger cities were not a plaything. These walls made of <rock name> had withstood the test of time and understandably the few collaborators the empire had managed to erect inside them, were of no avail.

    This bloody war is now going on for 6 years, and is about to enter its 7th.

    The mounting expense from the war, and with only one of the Kingdom's large cities subdued so far, the emperor has grown frustrated and is now seeking answers outside of the usual places. The head of a single general will not suffice to quench his anger. Seeing this, some of the empire's old enemies are starting to come out of the shadows.

    The Kingdom on the other hand is mired by its own problems. A heavy toll has been exacted on the Kingdom by this series of sieges. The law and order is slipping day-by-day out of the hand, and the citizens are tired of living within the confines of the walls. Some of them are raging with the thought of the suffering enacted on the people outside the walls, for whom the Kingdom has been able to do near about nothing. Some are just afraid to suffer the same fate. The trade and commerce has vastly diminished, and is these days more about smuggling and hording, than pure honest labor. Rations are dwindling day-by-day, and the truce has been ruled out by the arrogance of the noble factions.

    It is almost spring in the farthest outlying village in the west of the Kingdom, the tiny village aptly called 'Little Hope'. But unknown to its humble residents,... some tales of true bravery and adventure are about to unfold here..

    Update 1: Baron <name> and his wife have just decided to escape from the capital, in the hope of having a more suitable environment for their newborn child.

    Being a 3rd son and the only surviving child of an erstwhile noble father, who had traded all of his estate in the coutryside for a mere place in the comfort of the castle walls when the war broke out, only to die a year later from disease, <name of baron> had not much to look forward to in the capital. Furthermore being a baron, which was the lowest rank among the nobles, he was a target of ridicule and amusement for the other noble families.

    At last, when he gave into the overtures from his wife, he took his best and only friend in the capital, a former adventurer by the name of <name of friend>, along with him to go and meet the grain smugglers. A deal was struck, and despite of losing nearly his entire fortune, he was happy to have bought a some-what safe passageway for the 6 members of his household along with his dear friend.

    His aim was to move as far away as possible from the capital, the war and everything he was sick and tired of in his old life. Sitting in the back of the wagon used for transporting grain, <name> dared not to look out of the wagon, until the castle walls were many miles away. His only other comfort besides his family was a piece of parchment paper carefully rolled up in his hands, and the name of his destination resonating in his mind.

    (The wheel rolls on... )

    15JAN2019: Posted in WIP, and Added Background Story
    16FEB2019: First Update
    02MAR2019: Second Update
    08MAR2019: Third Update
    16MAR2019: Fourth Update
    02APR2019: Fifth Update
    14APR2019: Sixth Update
    10MAY2019: Seventh Update
    10JUN2019: Next Update (approx)

    Support me via PAYPAL:
    https://www.paypal.me/SomeAB

    Artstation Link (See here for visuals):
    https://www.artstation.com/someab

    Reach me on Discord:
    SomeAB#4529


    How you can help:
    1. If nothing else, simple words of encouragement are always welcome. Even a smile can be a sadqa (charity/good deed).

    2. I'm pretty new to the Unity Interface/Workflow, and on my own. I can always use some tips about it. So, If you see me doing something in a in-efficient manner or even getting stuck somewhere, please don't hesitate to come to the rescue!

    3. If you have a cool 'FREE' tool to speed up some part, you can leave a link to it, with some description.

    4. As a potential customer and gamer, you can also help shape the various parts of this game such as the story, mechanics, etc etc, by politely suggesting changes.

    5. You can help spread the word about this project.

    6. Any financial help is welcome as well. It would allow me to commit more time to this project, hire more developers/artists/etc and buy necessary supplies. Please PM me or leave a comment here if you need further details.

    7. Any other help you may think of.
     
    Last edited: Jul 30, 2019
    PhilippG likes this.
  2. SomeAB

    SomeAB

    Joined:
    Jan 14, 2019
    Posts:
    13
    First Update:

    Umm, not a good start. I had hoped to do a update in a week, but it is now over a month. The reason being, that I have decided to do the modeling part in blender 2.8 instead, and learning the workflow in it is taking time. But things are now looking up.

    1. Story Updated: Added the story of refugees, that have just arrived in Little Hope.

    2. Summary Updated: Further defined the scope of the game.

    In the next update, the date for which is 1-2 weeks from now (Feb-end), I hope to add the first 3D models of the village buildings.
     
  3. SomeAB

    SomeAB

    Joined:
    Jan 14, 2019
    Posts:
    13
    Second Update:

    As promised, here is the next update. I have gotten the hang of modelling in blender 2.8. But these early stages are vital to the overall idea of this game, so things are going a bit slow on the modelling side, as I'm testing out many looks, to get that "isekai" look right.

    - First Models : A House on the outskirts of the village, the river (across which is the village) and bridge over it. See the artstation link in the first post.

    - Paypal Link Added, now you can support me via paypal, even 1 unit in your currency (paypal supports multi-currency) would be helpful in bringing this project much further.

    - Updated Summary: There will be multiple protagonists/playable characters.

    - Discord Link Added

    I think in the next update, I would add multiple buildings and some textures (no promises though). There is a range of things that need to be done, so it depends on the order of things.
     
  4. SomeAB

    SomeAB

    Joined:
    Jan 14, 2019
    Posts:
    13
    Third Update (Earlier than scheduled):

    This week, I have been busy collecting reference materials for various things that I want to add to my scene, whether it is trees, characters, scenes, extras like wood logs, stones, pebbles, etc. But still, I will add much in terms of models in the coming week (on March 16).

    - Redid the Bridge over the river scene: I thought the scene earlier was not enough to give a good idea, so I redid the whole thing, tried a lot of methods of doing roughly the same scene, in order to bring down the poly count, and I'm pretty happy with the results. Added some water to make it more lively. I will do this scene 1-2 times more, once I add more things around it (the river) and further improve it. But remember, I'm trying not to give it 'too much of detail' for now, as that is not the objective here.

    Added it to my artstation page: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/N5Eavg
     
    Last edited: Mar 15, 2019
  5. SomeAB

    SomeAB

    Joined:
    Jan 14, 2019
    Posts:
    13
    Fourth Update:

    In the early part of this week, I was busy collecting even more reference materials for various things. And at this stage, I think I have around 80-90% of the reference material I require to complete this POC.

    Also, this week I played around with materials and lights in Blender 2.8 eevee engine, and had a terrible stuck up which took a whole day or two of my time. Apparently, if you place a light source really close to an object, it will have light bleed through it, in Eevee engine.

    This week in general was a week of experiments, and I think, a week or more, is required to equip myself with the full force of blender 2.8.

    - Updated my artstation with some placement tests & some materials tests (like for crystals). And oh.. look colors!

    Note: the art there is not even close to what I have in mind in general. Though proportions are somewhat right.

    - I have two openings at present:

    1. Texture & Material Artist: (No longer needed)

    2. Modelling Assistant: (Open Again, See seventh update).

    Please feel free to reach me via discord if you are interested in working together on this project (on a revenue share basis): My Discord: SomeAB#4529

     
    Last edited: May 10, 2019
  6. SomeAB

    SomeAB

    Joined:
    Jan 14, 2019
    Posts:
    13
    Fifth Update:

    These past two weeks were fairly good for the development of the POC. Although I have nothing to show to the public this time, but next week will more than make up for it.

    1. I'm on the verge of creating a grass pack that matches my intended artstyle. The artstyle I'm going for is non-photorealistic, that is for sure at the moment. This is going to be my main focus for now. And since greenry would cover the majority of my scene, things will really start to come together visually, once this is done.

    In my first test, I created a somewhat photorealistic mound of grass. Needless to say, this is unrelated to my game style.
    https://www.artstation.com/artwork/XBbVRL

    Next, I did a few more tests with the Blender particles system (I will try out Unity system later). One of them ended horribly. For the chuckles, I went upto 50 million particles, where my 1080p render took 20minutes or so. Nor did my small hill of around 100m by 40m got properly covered in grass, nor is this viable for even a remotely playable game. I know that I have hit the classical problem with the vegetation system in games. But I did try it only for chuckles by testing how far blender 2.8 would go.

    2. Secondly, I received quite a few applications for the modelling assistant over at my discord (sadly only one for the texturing artist which didn't work out). After give and take, the modelling assistant position is finally filled. Ideally, there would be more frequent updates in April and May due to this.

    3. The second playable character would be a Farmer class character. Story would be added in the next update (to the background story spoiler in the first post).

    4. Added a header for Artstyle, explaining in theory (for now) the art style upto a certain extent.

    -
     
    RavenOfCode likes this.
  7. SomeAB

    SomeAB

    Joined:
    Jan 14, 2019
    Posts:
    13
    Sixth Update:

    - Grass Pack News: I had hoped that I would finish it by the 9th, but the grass pack is taking a bit more time than expected. Right now I have crossed the (roughly) 600 test variation models (by tomorrow it might cross 1000 test meshes). By taking a scientific approach to it, I now have a 'very' solid lead in terms of creating a huge database (3k to 5k test models). Out of it, I will honey pick the best looking ones.

    Not to misunderstand it, but the grass I'm making is not the Photo-Realistic Grass (like Blender Guru's Grass Essentials). But the grass is the simple grass strands used in games so far, but refined. In short, have you seen some games in development (which are using stylized models) and you see the grass just standing up like a pole! I'm trying to refine that type of grass to look a bit better atleast.

    - I have conceptualized and started creating the opening scene for the POC. Here is a link to the animated clip. Please note, that this is just the baby steps, and the logo is far from what I have in mind, it is just the base model.
    (a 3MB video, 14seconds)

    - I have had a major breakthrough in terms of getting the settings in the particles system in blender right (I have yet to try it in Unity). I brought down the no of particles used in my test render by a 1000% (thousand!) percent, and this is without the optimization based on camera movement or microdisplacements. Here is the scene (A Hill being covered by grass, the grass model is just makeshift):


    - Nacr, the modelling assistant who just joined the team is working on props and building meshes for the time being, and getting accustomed to the artstyle I require.

    A request people: Please show your support guys (and gals). It is a bit quiet in here .. . If you have any suggestions or requests please feel free to post them.
     
    Last edited: Apr 21, 2019
  8. SomeAB

    SomeAB

    Joined:
    Jan 14, 2019
    Posts:
    13
    Seventh Update:

    Foliage: I did a new grass test 2 weeks ago, using a new approach. See: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/3omXWo

    But I ran into performance problems again with this. Only now I have been able to understand the solution to it. Now I'm working on a test scene from one of the Studio Ghibli movies, to demonstrate a better version of the stylized grass. Should take a week to finish. I have decided to do 2-3 scenes from Ghibli Movies for practice & to polish up the foliage.

    My previous test ended on a modest note, with 2700 different samples of grass, through which I gained better insight into the geometry of stylized grass.

    On the downside of things, our new team member didn't last long, and quit for pursuing his other projects. I wish him best of luck. So now I'm in need of a replacement, for speeding up things.

    Open Position: Modelling Assistant
    Responsibility: Designing 15 props with 3 variations each. Only basic meshes are needed, no materials required.

    My Discord: SomeAB#4529
    Note: Please save my and your time, by sharing your artstation/deviantart portfolio first, and I shouldn't need to ask for it.
     
    Last edited: May 10, 2019
  9. kdgalla

    kdgalla

    Joined:
    Mar 15, 2013
    Posts:
    4,616
    I think you posted your project too early to get feedback yet. There's not much to comment on yet. I think you'll start to get more people commenting once you get started on the actual game. You don't need finished art, necessarily, but people are going to want a general idea of what the actual game is going to look like and play like.

    Keep up the good work!
     
    Last edited: May 10, 2019
  10. SomeAB

    SomeAB

    Joined:
    Jan 14, 2019
    Posts:
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    Hmm, that might be partly right. But I have seen projects here on wip forum, that are barely there also, and yet people have at least done the common "good luck" part and have made better response. Maybe this is just about luck instead of some bias.

    No updates until Eid (5th June) due to RL commitments
     
    Last edited: May 25, 2019