Game Design Challenge (PC)

If you're interested, I made such a thing in javascript. It's a recursively generated dungeon that can be serialized. Here's the JSON of my favorite one I've come across so far. I'll share the source if interested 'cuz altruism.

I also made a custom parser function because the dungeon has circular relationships (each 'back' room goes to the containing parent). Also it didn't format nicely, so I made something to tab for each level of nesting. It's still hard to read because of how json nests things lol. You can see each room... each entity in the room... and the data & inventory of each entity xD

 

No real need. I want to monkey around in the editor more anyway, so it's better to serialize it the way to make Unity happy.

 

I know that feeling, haha. Definitely a way to make a concrete prototype real fast.

 

Dude. Four lefts make a circle.

 

Physically they would. I just need to keep the generation limit low so that doesn't happen lol.

As for the json file I posted, it was from a text based dungeon crawler. The user can go left 10,000 times and never end up in a previous room. And since it's generated with branching, if you ever get lost, you can just keep going to the 'back' room until you reach the entrance.

 

As a competent anti-artist myself, I do find this impressive.

I'm currently debating on how to use my new found free time. It's hanging between joining this competition, polishing up Pond Wars to try and get into PAX, and taking the safe boring route of finding another job in manufacturing.

Safe will probably win. But I feel like I should make an attempt at entering this competition. No concrete design ideas yet.

 

Ok so I'm at the artwork phase, just to level the playing score and "hopefully" improve on my skills. I've switched over to Maya LT and Substance designer / instead of Modo / Quixel.

Why? Well there's been a lot of technical issues in both these suites which I feel can be offset by replacing, I've not used Maya since 2004 so errr yeah pretty much a NOOB in this regards. Also I've never ever used substance designer, but the thought of tweaking substances in engine is too tasty to ignore.

So the premise is quite simple, instead of trying to make a 1000 AAA meshes (which is a no go). I'm going to try and build 4 to 8 houses that are sectioned off as a modular "asset" pack. So I can just swap bits and pieces out, of course I will build add-on's and vary substance designer to keep things fresh and different looking.

Not exactly a new concept, but it works.

 

I challenge you to an anti-art. I'm glad you showed up to this topic lol.

Primarily because you didn't go for blender, though ( ͡͡ ° ͜ ʖ ͡ °)

 

Actually I'm a 3DSmax guy, been using it for ages and I like it but someone else is using mine. Also I've heard HumanIK is the shiz, so need to check it out..

I like messing about with stuff as much as actually making stuff ..

 

I've been working on a control system for entities in my game. I've already got the abliity to fire projectiles (that was trivial)

 

# Check in Week 1 (Where is everyone at?)

For me a re-cap of the week.

Created a Tessellation & Parallax shader for bumpy terrains / bumpy walls.
Drank tons of coffee
Created a Test UI
Created 2 houses (yet to be properly textured will show this week).
Sculpted a base mesh for the main char
Started coding the inventory system

Finally, signed up to digital tutors to try and use Maya / SD properly!.

Next week (Mainly learning)...

Not bad / kinda.! But been busy this week on other things.!

 

I decided to take pond wars 3D. Have converted the water and waves into 3D. Next I have to get something to actually float on them.

Still scratching around for core game play mechanics. We'll see what suggests itself. I'm thinking fully destructible boats.

 

I had a birthday and did some birthday things. I did nothing towards this project My plans for this project are very low. I'm going to opt out of the 'big project' bit of it and just do little bits. My new schedule literally only gives me time for anything not job related on the weekends.

@BoredMormon my post frequency is fading. The end of my forum travels is here.

 

You giving up games?

 

That's what happens when you get a job. Next thing you know you'll be married with kids. But eventually that settles down too, and you will have free time again. And it doesn't have to be spent on games or the forums. Lots of older people take up knitting.

Oh, and congrats on the job too.

 

And here is the first development shot from Pond Wars 3D. Ignore the choppiness, video recording software apparently cuts the available processor time dramatically. All that said, it probably is a good hint that performance is going to become an issue soon.

 

Week 1: "Dammit, why can't my capsule jump!?"
Most of the week was me watching/playing other Sci-Fi works (Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, Star Wars: Republic Commando, Babylon 5, Halo 4) in search of a feeling I want my Metroidvania game to impart. I don't want my game to be too edgy - that's something I greatly dislike in most FPSes - and I want a visual style that's cheap for me to produce (otherwise, it won't be done in 4 months, 3 weeks.) Most FPSes are very ornate visually, especially Metroid Prime 2. I don't know if I can deliver on the visual flair, but I've got an idea I've been wanting to try for a while that may make the game look good, while being inexpensive to produce.

Part of my week was migrating some assets from Sara the Shieldmage and making a basic scene. I've got a character (a blue capsule) with a weapon (a blue cube) that shoots a basic projectile (a brighter blue cube). The jumping isn't working right, at all. It's been a very long time since I've implementing jumping in a game. I have to get that working this week.

Week 2 Objective:
Finish my MVP webplayer. The MVP will have the basically functional player (move/jump/shoot/take damage/can die), a basic enemy (collision damage, can die, no AI yet), an environmental hazard of some kind, and a door that opens when shot with a projectile. These are the basic building blocks of my game; if these aren't right, it's not right.

 

If I find a job in game dev, no. But that's probably not going to happen I'd like to, but it's been a rough search thus far for any sort of work.

It's more about the job search than the job xD No current leads. As for that marriage thing... no. Kids? Only if I build them by hand. I want to retire early and make the most of my consciousness, like the selfish comedian I was always destined to be!

I wish I had time to continue. Stuff like that sounds fun :c

 

For now it's been working things out on paper/text, mostly still brainstorming and writing feature lists to get a good idea of what I need/where to stop. There's still some stuff that I'll spend more time on paper with, but I should be able to rig up a basic demo of the combat (and I say demo rather than prototype since it's mostly going to be automated and GUI driven, it's gonna be weird). A good chunk of it should be salvaged from a failed prototype anyway.

 

I would love to join this challenge but I have a few requests. Someone like me who has only started with Unity a month ago and has little time wouldn't be able to really compete in the current challenge. I would like to request the challenge to be split up into 2 categories. 1) new unity developers / anyone who does not have a lot of time 2) advanced unity developers / people who have more time to dedicate. And both categories follow the 5 month challenge, this way new people and people with less time can enter and feel comfortable! Also would like it to be for mobile too lol, can still be same challenge and categories! Wouldn't really be fair to bundle new people with advanced people.

Also some people already have really cool projects going and its gonna get hard to keep track, would be cool if the OP had his first post show the names of the people that accepted challenge with the name they want to use in their game and OP can link their weekly posts so its easier to keep track? And every time someone posts their progress they can use their title of the game. I would love to see that weird abomination body part project to keep going and this way he can join with the first category

 

This is by design; he states in the OP the expected skill level of the challenge.

However, this doesn't mean another challenge won't appear again in the future. Since you're acclimating to a new tool, perhaps try the "Six Week" challenge* from @Gigiwoo - it'll help you release something and learn the tool more effectively in one fell swoop.

*: I don't know your relative skill level in game development, but it never hurts to go to back to the basics once in a while.

 

Exactly, it's not like I'm really trying to exclude anyone. It just might be a little tough when we get to the point where were discussing improvements, giving feedback and honest advice on the games made.

So it's more of an intermediate challenge.

 

Fine I will accept it, I guess it will just be more of a challenge lol...and no I am not doing gigi challenge's as I gotta keep true to my words in the "I have one piece advice thread".

 

Okay heres the idea there's a mothership - its above the city, its going to destroy the city in 60 seconds. Now this saucer is protected by a series of shield generators scattered around the city (think the death star I guess). Now you control your spaceship take down the shield generators (but theres not enough time to destroy it before the mothership blows S*** up). When the explosion happens it throws you back through time, your caught in a timeloop (so you restart the loop), with a clone that does the actions you did. Now whats different you leave a "time stream behind" if you cross the streams it creates a paradox and blows up the universe -- or whatever).

It could level up in a linear progression. Although Im not certain how fun the idea will actually be in practice.

 

@Aiursrage2k

Like the film with Tom Cruise? I think it's a neat idea and could be pulled off well.!

Although if you've ever seen Ghostbusters "Don't cross the streams"...

 

I just asked a Scripting question about procedural map generation algorithms. While I've not yet started implementing that bit yet, I'm trying to get some things together so I can learn what I need to build, so that I can at least throw together a proof-of-concept at the 4-weeks point.

 

Yup, I've done procedural dungeons before.. So I replied.

 

Maybe this could have been a team thing where people contribute modules of what they're best at. You know what would have made a great game? We all start with the same free assets (graphical ones) and try to make the best game out of them. Sort of like when you took that test where you had to write a story about what was happening in a picture.

Let me know when you "host" that event

 

We just keep passing around a project folder that gets refactored every step of the way. No actual progress gets made, just code being mangled more and more each pass.

 

I know I've been a little quiet on the dev front this week, mainly been busy (working on the companies actual game) and secondly I've been learning how to use Maya LT.

As a Maya N00B (Modo for the last year and 3DSMax before), I'll admit I needed to sign up for tutorials to get by. Whilst the concepts are similar Maya is wildly different in areas. I'd of been figuring it out for MONTHS! Without the tutorials..

So I followed a tute and of course got BORED half way through, then started doing my own stuff with it. But I'm trying to figure out how I'd like to finish it off then @Asvarduil showed a Biome layout, which I might follow that idea too ..

Then as this is a research facility, I'll add like a basic pyramidal arch viz style front end.

I AM DOING STUFF .

 

Glad I could help! I've got most of my core things working (movement, shooting, stuff losing HP, doors that you shoot to open) on a basic level, but I'm making a first-pass at the map generation system. I haven't nailed down jumping; jumping is hard. As an early 90s movie once said: White men (e.g. me) can't jump

 

I think making a procedurally generated Metroid Prime is a bit of a tall order, what's your actual plan? Because even as a Gamecube outing it looked pretty good and played very well.

It's the sort of game where mechanics and GRFX take precedence, trying to procedurally take that on is a hefty challenge. I was just looking at a gameplay vid, it's varied to say the least:

 

What I want to get out of this five month challenge, is a basic, procedurally generated metroidvania - but not Metroid Prime, exactly.

The basic game loop I'm going for is, when the Scout (that's his/her name) lands on a world, they query their gunship's computer for things; it finds them (Pirate forces found in [spot]! Keldurium Ore deposit found in [spot]!) The Scout goes to those locations and does something; so doing will allow the player to gain an upgrade of some kind (e.g. new weapon, new expansion, or just ore that's harvested.) At any time, they can re-query the computer to see if anything new has occurred (obviously, objectives expire if not taken care of in a timely fashion.)

The Gunship also allows for a crafting system. By calling in probes to secure resources, you gain new armor suits (at the end of this 5-month challenge, in the 1.0 version, there will be one new suit of armor for the Scout), and can build other facilities (e.g. Save Stations, Ammo Refill Stations, Shield Recharge Stations)

I have plans for this game beyond the 5-month challenge, but right now, a good, basic Metroidvania that's procedurally generated is what I want.

As for the visuals, I'm not doing a photorealistic style; I can't, the game wouldn't get done in 5 months. Instead, I'm considering a sort of stylized realism that emphasizes solid colors, and very sparse use of detail; instead of doing like Metroid Prime, where there's all sorts of glowy bits, and glowy bits within those glowy bits, I want a simple style; to me, a key part of advanced technology is simplicity. Sure, there will be glowy bits; it goes with the setting. There will be holograms. There's a degree of flash I just can't get away from.

Better still, this isn't the craziest game I've ever put on the table (Sara the Shieldmage is.) I've done a FPS before, an old game called Onslaught of the Laser Cat; it's no longer on GameJolt, but it was a multiplayer FPS. Where it fell apart was adding the Laser Cat. Also, the work on Sara has helped me build some neat technology for building a data-driven game. When I figure out how to get the procedural level generation done, and fix the Scout's jumping problem, I've got the basics. From there, it's iteration and finding the fun.

EDIT: Good LP video...but if you want a more interesting one, try the below one. This is the Metroid Prime Any% Speedrun from AGDQ 2014, where they got a senior gameplay programmer on Skype, and he revealed all sorts of cool details about how the game works.

 

My game for this challenge will be a "turn based" style game, with inspiration from Pokemon, Summoners War, Final Fantasy. Below I showed a link of what I got down below, I got some of the basic functionality working like the a "Manager" handling all the the monsters, each monster has it's own unique skill/stats, each monster can attack and manager finds next monster ready to attack. Also I got the HP bar GUI going and starting to work on buffs/debuffs (that is the shields with 2s you see at the top of their head lol).

Currently 3rd skill allows monsters to gain an "Extra Turn", just making sure I have stuff like this in the core right at the beginning while it's easy to do.

Melee attacks were very easy and basic to do, but I am having some troubles figuring out how to do range attacks/projectiles, for example the monster stands still and throws a magic missile or bow attack while being able to have access to the attacker monster's stats/skill stats. I figured I would make a prefab of a magic missile and instantiate a clone of the attacker which is attached to the magic missile and throw it at the enemy??


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDn8w-z48do

Forgive my newbie questions and progress the next 5 months, I am only about a month into starting Unity!
Please let me know what you think and any feedback is greatly appreciated!

 

@Azmar, looking pretty sweet so far.. It's early days for everyone..

@Asvarduil sure, if you look at arch viz demo's they're usually clean, sparse and dulux brilliant white.. It's lighting and PBR materials / shaders that make the most impact.. Plus AAA games on a diet don't require realistic graphics, it's just quality more than anything else.

Looking forward to see how it turns out, a thought springs to mind though.. To attract more attention, you could have 6 - 8 static spots that can take advantage of GI and lightmapping, with a bit more pazzazz! Then you can then procedurally generate the rest of it.

It also helps with issues like running into the main boss right at the beginning of the game if the map you get given is in your favour ..

 

Teamwork! lol

Jumping is fun. I've made several jump systems. It's all about applying some decreasing force to your character every frame. The force should decrease until it matches your gravity, then switch to gravity / stop incrementing. And by force I don't actually mean built in force, but you could use it. Just anything to increment your y position by a decreasing amount. It's an easy way to get a smooth jump.

 

Week 2: "Oh, #@!% my stove is on fire!"
...That actually happened this week.

This week, I got a basic scene with a killable, non-AI'd enemy, an environmental hazard, and a door created. Those are the bare-bones basics of the game.

I've also gotten some basic work started on the World Generator, based on the info from @ShadowK earlier in the thread. I've also re-assessed my jump problem from Week 1 - the falling seems to be working OK, it's the ascent that isn't going well. I'm putting some work into debugging that bit, and I should have a fully functional jump (hopefully.)

Week 3 Objectives
This week, I'm going to create an AI for the enemy, and a minable resource (a gold cube this time; I feel original.) I'm also going to continue work on the world/biome generators.

 

Allrighty then!.

I'm still on the environment / artwork phase.. Probably will be for a short while to come:

Although here is the plan:

• Get the environment textured / sorted
• Finish off base character models, rig and try to do some decent animations for combat
• Build a massive space ship.!
• Write IK scripts to keep the centre of mass for quadrupeds stable
• Finish off basic UI / Loading screen
• Add a weather / climate system (everything is lightmapped, but atmosphere is a cheap trick to make things look different).
• Add destruction system
• Add basic inventory / levelling system
• Add a basic dialogue system
• Use blendshapes / facefx and fill in the voice / cut scenes.

What I'd like to do, but won't have time (probably).

Character customisation screen.

 

So as we enter week 3#, how is everyone else doing?

 

In other news - I finally got jumping to work. That means, no more holding back.

See for yourself (yes, there's a lot of basic stuff. Also the unexpected behavior with jumping is actually something I mean to work into the game, too; typically I'd call it a bug, but it's a good bad bug that gives credence to the Scout wearing a booster-jetpack of some sort.)

 

@Asvarduil

That's pretty sweet, I like how the gun retracts when you walk into something. Gravity is a bit off, a bit un-responsive when you try to jump and slightly floaty.

Try changing the gravimetric force when you hit a specific vector height.

 

Yeah, tuning the movement system is going to be a pain - for me, it always is. Movement systems are the parts of a game I always find hard, for some reason. To be honest, putting down "jumping has me stumped" two weeks in a row sort of embarrassed me, a bit. Still, it's basically functional; I'll note the floatiness, and see about fixing it.

The mining system is still up, as well as working the procedural map system. Your notes/Wikipedia article link really helped, I just have to figure out how I'm going to go about actually doing it.

 

Simplest thing to start off with, build a location grid.. Then see if you can instantiate said cubes in a pattern, randomise it, then add meshes, then connectors..

It doesn't have to be anything particularly fancy, you could (as said) have fixed point locations with a "base room" which all roads lead back to Rome as such.

In Blender (or whatever you're using), create one repeatable corridor and 2 U-Bends.. Start off with just getting these meshes spaced out and lined so they can "snap" to the correct location.

A lot of it is just randomising vector positions for different instantiated meshes, it can be as complicated or as simple as you like ..

P.S don't be embarrassed, I / were here to help.. Hopefully it will give you a chance to enjoy what you do and earn some money out of it.

 

Can I participate? Mine will be a 3D Platoformer game
I started developing it 2 days ago , hope it will be good!

So after the challenge time is over , will be have to upload it or just show a gameplay video of it?

 

Btw can't we develop a game that isn't science fiction? I mean my game hopefully will be good but it isn't science fiction at all , lol

 

Depends, what are you thinking of? After the games done, we'll get it distributed / published.. I'm not talking just trying to slap it on greenlight, I'll send inquiries to the guys at Sony and see if they want to take it on..

I'm not pally, pally or anything and still a nobody myself, but I've worked with them before so don't have to go through the process again.

It's really the whole deal, not just a I want to play at dev.

So whatever you're thinking, it HAS to be good if you want to follow the challenge to the bitter end..!

.....................................................................................................................................

OR! You could just do it for fun and break off whenever you feel like it ..

 

I, Tomnnn Face, officially withdraw.

 

I'm in.

 

I'll put my best efforts into it , even though it has been just an year I started Unity and I'm 16 years old

 

Quitter ..

@Haseeb_BSAA

Well it might not be the easiest challenge to start with @Gigiwoo's usually the best thing to get going with..

BUT I can guarantee you'll learn some cool stuff.