"Ghost of a Tale"

Hi guys, the crowdfunding campaign is still going on here: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/ghost-of-a-tale/x/1588326

Here's the alpha trailer:

[video=youtube;sOi04BRQI1k]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOi04BRQI1k&feature=youtu.be

And here's a sneak peek video of the character you'll play in-game:

[video=youtube;BYLazhXN8hs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYLazhXN8hs&feature=youtu.be

Another sneak peek video of one of the undead rats:

[video=youtube;xoJUBanI0eY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoJUBanI0eY&feature=youtu.be

Beware of the frogs!

One nasty monster:

Please help spread the word! :smile:

Cheers,
Seith

_______________________________________________________________________________

Previous message:



Well guys, tomorrow the crowdfunding campaign for "Ghost of a Tale" will go live!

I honestly have no idea what the reaction will be. Total indifference? Mild interest? Probably somewhere in the middle. The thing is I'm not really good at networking and I don't have personal contacts of video-game journalists. So I'll mostly have to fill impersonal forms on their websites. Which may or may not be picked-up depending on their workload.

So tomorrow I'll post the link to the gameplay video and to the campaign page itself. Then we'll see how it goes. In any case, using Unity has allowed me to pursue a childhood dream and for that I'm very grateful.

Now I'll do a couple of similar posts on some other forums to spread the word...

Cheers,
Seith



Original message:

Hello Unity people!

I'm working on a game right now called "Ghost of a Tale", where you play a little mouse adventuring on a haunted island.

And since I've recently switched my pipeline from the CryEngine to Unity 4, I thought I would post a couple of WIP screenshots here. Of course I've had to transfer all the assets and learn how to program in C#, but I'm starting to get the hang of it. And most importantly I'm really enjoying the whole process.

So those screenshots are but just a tiny peak at the game. I hope you guys like it...

Note: All the screenshots posted here are from Unity 4, NOT the CryEngine!

 

Wonderful job, i like the character design. Is this a one man made?

 

Oh my, this looks beautiful.

 

This looks amazing! One of the best looking games i've seen on WIP.

 

F-ing gorgeous!

 

That's weird! Yesterday (no joke) I saw legend of the guardians and was thinking hey! that would be a good rpg stuff... I definately follow your project... I hope you are on wordpress to make a follow link?

 

I want to play this so badly! Looks awesome!

 

Very nice ! is this unity or your previous work on CryEngine ?

Do you have a dev blog for this game ?

 

Thanks guys!

@Metalwings: Yes, I'm working on this project on my own. Which is in fact why I switched to Unity, since I don't have a technical team working for me and I can't program in C++.

@Alex Cruba: I usually post updates on my site: www.seithcg.com.

@1HpLeft: Yes, those screenshots are from Unity 4 with dx11. Since I was used to the gorgeous CryEngine graphics at first I have to say I was a bit reluctant to the mere idea of switching to Unity (no offense). In my uneducated mind Unity was mostly a mobile phone/casual-games kind of thing. But then I took a look at the latest version (4.0) and as I started playing with its features I realized the sheer potential of the thing.

And besides one catastrophic bug that destroyed a full day of work and effectively corrupted ALL my scenes (had no other way but to revert to a project backup), it's been smooth sailing so far...

 

Beautiful!:d

 

I'm confused. Where are the screenshots?

 

This seriously looks gorgeous, I will definitley keep track of this thread, graphics look awesome.

 

Wow! I have never seen anything of this quality in Unity before! It looks just like Skyrim! How long have you been working on this?

 

Weird. I don't see any screenshots at all. I wanna see!

 

Go to his website and look. I can't see anything in the thread due to being on my phone, but you can see his work on his website.
Purely amazing and very nice history of work too. Very I retested as everyone else is on how you are achieving the visuals and terrain.

 

This looks gorgeous! Any sort of gameplay video?

Is he playing the Lute? or Oud? I play the Oud.. I was so happy to see one there (though I think it's a lute).

I know some people who play Lute by the way if you need sounds, etc.

 

Added your blog on my one...

 

Wow... Without a doubt one of the best looking games in the WIP section. Looking forward to seeing more! : D

 

looks very promising. Any chance for gameplay video?

 

Looks great. I hope the animations will be as well made as the graphics.

 

Looking very nice. I hope everything goes well.

 

looks like a very soilde game,now i have to see gameplay
do you work alone or whit a team?

 

Thanks again...

@Acelondoner: Sorry, I have no idea why you can't access the pictures. I uploaded them directly to the forum, so they should be visible to anyone though.

@Thegusse: I have been working on this project on and off for quite some time now, but I've become more serious about it in the last 6 months. Well, I did quit my day-job to pursue personal projects like this one, so I think that qualifies as "serious". Then I switched to Unity last month and since then development has definitely picked up some steam.

@Archania: There isn't something specific I'm doing about the visuals. Just mostly relying on my experience working on movies, I guess. I basically have a very precise idea of how I want things to look like. And I'm glad Unity lets me reach this goal.

Regarding the terrain though, it is important to note that I'm not using Unity Terrain at all. I want to be able to just have localized complexity and decide exactly how the terrain should look like without being constrained by Unity's terrain tools. And I have cliffs and overhangs too. So the "vertically stretched drapery" paradigm of Unity Terrain doesn't really do much for me.

And yesterday I managed to fix an important issue regarding the use of custom-mesh as terrain; I can now have vegetation blowing in the wind, even though my vegetation is made of arbitrary custom models placed by hand (NOT painted on official terrain).

@Carmine: Yes, well spotted, that's a lute!

@Alex Cruba: Thank you!

@Khyrid: I hope so too. I'm having a lot of fun with the animations.

@Dreamhead: I just work on my own.


I'll have to capture some up-to-date footage at some point. Whacking scouting parties of the Undead Army of the Rat is fun though. Well, because I gave myself boatloads of health, but in normal conditions they'll cut you down to pieces in no time.

 

then that is some very impressive work!

 

Wow. Looks great!

 

Come back to CryDev.... we have chocolate!

 

Wow, the screenshots look great. Cool to see the little mouse carrying a lute! ( at least for a musician like me that is , actually I would like to know why is he carrying the lute, but I guess I'll have to wait until you tell the story to know that...)
I'll be following this, best of luck!

 

Amazing work! I hope you are entering the DX11 contest, this is by far the best work I have seen done in Unity.

 

Thank you all...

@Music Vortex: Indeed, why does he carry a lute? In fact, he doesn't look like much of a warrior...

@Kridian: Chocolate...?! CHOCOLATE?!!! Who needs no stinkin' Unity. CryDev forums, here I co-... Ooh, dam, you're good. XD

@Aabel: Thank you! Well, I'm not too sure. I just quickly read the rules and they say that "[the participants] understand[...] that [they] will not receive any [...] credit for use of [their game]". And as a principle I have to say I don't really agree with not giving credit to people. I would be more than happy to let the Unity team use "Ghost of a Tale" for promotional purposes, but that bit here left me unconvinced.

 

<<< placing different cakes >>>

Well we don't have any chocolate here but...

 

This looks truly wonderful, i can't wait to see more progress

 

Oh wow... Seith this is amazing work.

Out of curiosity what made you switch from CryEngine to Unity?

 

Thanks, Freakdave...

@Alex Cruba: Cakes! Say no more.

@Ocid: The ultimate reason that made me switch to Unity 4 after I tried it for a couple of weeks is the sheer ease of use. Everything makes sense and is very well integrated with Maya. No need for any file converters, peculiar material restrictions or jumping through unnecessary hoops. Great documentation, drag-and drop simplicity, FBX and Photoshop support right out of the box, on-the-fly compilation without having to close and then restart the editor... It is obvious that the engine is geared at helping people achieve their vision, whichever it may be.

Oh, and the Mecanim system is absolutely fantastic. Since my professional background is in feature animation, that was really important.

 

Pleeeaaasee post video. Great work.

 

Thats amazing work, keep up the good work,

ill be following your WIP,

if you have a website, ill follow it too.

 

Damn looks sexy!

 

This does look amazing. Where are you in the process of working out game play? I look forward to seeing video!

 

Wow, this looks amazing. Bookmarked!

 

Those screenshots look amazing, but I do have an issue with them. Right now you have a problem with readability between your players (enemies and main character) and the environment. This is mostly due to colors. Everything has this blue-grey to brown color going on, and nothing separates the important aspects from the aesthetic. In one screen shot it took me awhile to even find the player.

One good way to easily determine readability, is take a screenshot and put it into photoshop and turn it black and white. At the moment, everything is basically the same shade of grey. I think adding a bit of color on the important aspects, and darkening the brightness/levels of the environment pieces will really go a long way.

Other than that, it looks great!

 

Thanks for the Clarification Seith. Was merely curious.

 

@Collin Farrell: At the moment the core gameplay mechanics are more-or-less implemented. So I would say for now things work a bit like a basic Zelda. Although my reference would probably be more games like the "Gothic" or "Risen" series.

@d2king10: Thanks. Yes, you're absolutely right, I noticed that too. Of course it's less of a problem when you actually play the game, but still I will definitely address the issue.


By the way, if you guys have any ideas or suggestions about what you'd like to see in the game, or even if you'd like to talk about the nitty-gritty details of development, just let me know...

 

From your other posts...Yes you need a video update!

I'd have to agree with d2king10 about readability but other than that, amazing!

 

When I was play-testing I was emerging from under a dark archway and listening to my footsteps echoing, and then I saw the sunlight. So I took a picture...



And yes, I am working on a little video...

 

Well guys, tomorrow the crowdfunding campaign for "Ghost of a Tale" will go live!

I honestly have no idea what the reaction will be. Total indifference? Mild interest? Probably somewhere in the middle. The thing is I'm not really good at networking and I don't have personal contacts of video-game journalists. So I'll mostly have to fill impersonal forms on their websites. Which may or may not be picked-up depending on their workload.

So tomorrow I'll post the link to the gameplay video and to the campaign page itself. Then we'll see how it goes. In any case, using Unity has allowed me to pursue a childhood dream and for that I'm very grateful.

Now I'll do a couple of similar posts on some other forums to spread the word...

Cheers,
Seith

 

I really like the idea of making the main character this vulnerable, out of his element, mouse.

Would be awesome if the gameplay and style reflected it, having to rely on your wits, cunning and speed.. rather than combat ability.

I skimmed your blog and your work is jaw dropping by the way! Good luck with the funding

 

Really breathtaking scenery, Seith! I like it very much!

The mouse character looks so sweet and vulnerable against the hostile looking environment. Nice!

You mention somewhere in previous posts about the terrain being custom made. How big are these terrain blocks? Are you creating/texture painting them in Maya? Or, do you use any particular program for them?
Also, would be nice to know how you do the blowing vegetation.

Keep those nice screens coming...and, a gameplay vid.

 

Just a suggestion by try and get in contact with Rock paper shotgun.

You have an alpha build ready if I am not mistaken.

Use that to get some press coverage!

 

@Greg Sergeant: Thank you! And I will need luck, since virtually no-one has heard of the project yet...

@ChrisV: The whole scenery is indeed cut into big chunks. They're simple models textured in Photoshop and Maya; no fancy Zbrushing there. You'll be able to see better in the video of course, but for example the first area with the boat is one big model. I mean just the ground; the rocks are placed within the editor in a more traditional way.

For the ground, texture-wise I use big tileable textures. But I also heavily rely on a fantastic plugin called "DecalSystem" (http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/141792-Decal-System) which allows me to project specific textures on top of that to make repetition virtually unnoticeable. For vegetation I use another plugin called "AdvancedFoliageShader" (http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/133398-Advanced-foliage-shader-released) which allows me to put vegetation objects anywhere I want and still have access to procedural bending. Those are two awesome plugins with great support.

@HeadClot88: Sure thing. I'll try and reach them through the default email address of the site, along with the link to the video I'll post tomorrow.

 

Outstanding! I am curious to see the gameplay video!

 

Here is the new video, as promised:

[video=youtube;sOi04BRQI1k]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOi04BRQI1k&feature=youtu.be
​

And of course the page of the campaign itself, to help make the game a reality: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/ghost-of-a-tale/x/1588326

Please help spread the word!