Games (WIP) Gnarled Fantasy

Welcome to the Gnarled Fantasy, where twisted nightmares and odd heroes roam and venture!

So where to start? We start with a game with fantasy/cartoony graphics which obviously must have the traditional style of movement to the games this was inspired by; Mario 64, Banjo-Kazooie, Maximo, and even Medievil (which is being REMADE! HAZAAH!!!)

Cencept/Story:
This will be a 3rd person adventure game with a fighting style similar to it's inspiring predecessors in the genre. You will take hold of 1 of 3 heroes who will be saving the kingdom from the Witch who has tricked the King into marrying her, put a spell on him forcing him to sleep, and taken his crown. A classic story idea that will bring you down a path meeting characters similar to that of fabled heroes, and mythical beasts.

The player will be given the option to evolve their character into a new class of hero of their choice as they play similar to as follows: The Farmer character will be given options to choose such as the Knight or the Beserker, while the Wiseman can become the Priest or the Wizard. The Princess can become the Amazon or the Mender. They actually also have a 3rd class of hero to choose from that you'll have to wait to see once it's finished.

Each evolution of the character is meant to make you feel like it's still the same character, but as though they've risen to the challenge of the Witch and become a better person, a Hero. So set forth, save the king, and restore peace to the kingdom!

What's Done Thus Far:
So the camera can rotate around the player and our movement is based off that camera. This much is done along with the controller for animations for basic movements thus far. I've also implemented the main menu with functional option menus, and a character select and creation screen that does in fact save your character.

I've then proceeded to do heavy work on the main menu level which is also the town/base you return to during the story, which happen to be floating islands belonging to heroes of old who summoned you there while you continue your adventure.

At the moment I am finished with the first level you will face as well layout wise and am now prepping to put in placeholders, houses, etc to bring the scene to life. You will be fighting the Witch's minions to save the townsfolk in a flaming village. Below you will find screen shots of some of the characters, the levels thus far, a modular house for easy town building, and concept art.

I'd also like to thank my girlfriend who is doing the artwork, concept art, and helping with level and exterior house designs using ProBuilder. She learns fast having never done any of this kind of stuff before. She did the farmer texture and built the house using textures I purchased through the asset store. But I'm thinking she could've done it herself!

 

CONCEPT ART


MODEL DESIGN


LEVEL DESIGN

 

So just a small update showing the Wiseman character who was added, a mansion created with the modular house pieces that we created, a fire event that happens in the first level (still more to come, fire embers, etc.) and of course I've started work on the throne room which is mainly for the cinematics with the king and wicked witch. Maybe I'll have the end fight here, haven't decided yet. Still working on the detail of the room since I'm trying to keep us much as I can in Unity thanks to probuilder rather than export tons of materials from 3DS. Figured it'd keep the game size down with less files.

Anywho, here are some more pictures.

 

What's next?
So I'm pushing to have a working demo of the game soon that will contain opening cinematic/story, the working TwinSkylands map which will serve as kinda a home location for the player between levels, and the first level which is yet to be titled, but will be a small village on the coast. This will all be shown on the world map which I am still finishing up and adding to.

I've also decided I want multiplayer in this project for small minigames kinda like Conkers Bad Fur day, and maybe even co-op story. I was doing all my previous projects multiplayer aspects with UNet, but as that's being deprecated not sure where I'll go from here on that part. I could go Photon, which seems similar to the concept of what UNet was from what little I've looked into it. I'm kinda not too worried atm as I'm more focused on the single player aspect and gameplay mechanics atm. But I figured this new year Unity should have something released to really replace it hopefully and I'll look into that then.

If anyone has any other ideas on what I should look at for that aspect feel free to share some insight. I do want to figure out a good solution before I'm too far into the project as I found leaving my coding and design open for multiplayer early makes it easier to implement than it does later when you have a finished product that was only designed for single player.

 

So I've been distracted by overtime and my real job which has limited me a bit for this project. But I have managed to get some stuff done. I have finished a Character named Aradia as you can see in the first picture below. She will be joining us in the opening cut scene along with our King and the King's Knight Tyr.

Atm both Aradia and the King are fully textured and rigged with some of the animations done. I personally did the textures for both for the moment, but my girlfriend is going to rehash over them for shading and such so they maintain the same quality of texture work as the Wiseman and Farmer. That way it isn't as noticeable that two different people textured them. The Knight Tyr is still in the process of being modeled, rigged, and textured.

I've also modeled our first enemy of the game for the first stage, the Cultist, both with and without their bird masks.

Aradia


The King (without his crown) and in the throne room



Knight Tyr (unfinished)

 

The Cultist (with and without bird mask)