Remaking old stuff!

So after last month, we continued working on Project OLP.

Our current concept of OLP is heavily based on this GDC video by David Rosen (we highly recommend checking this out!).

We've created our player character's movement animations by hooking up poses only and blending them from blueprints. The only actual animation sequence we used was the idle animation.

And her tail and ears are physically active.

We've also cleaned the project out of all outdated assets and code and started almost from scratch with all the experience we've gained since we last worked on this. It's kind of cathartic to be able to start it all over and have development go so much faster and smoother.




We're almost caught up with all the features that were present in the original project, only now they work better and the Tick event isn't as badly overused as it used to be (still looking for ways to optimize blueprints, though).

(Sorry about the last frames of the gifs, our capture software likes to mess things up as it stops capturing. Also, I'd like to note that it's impossible to arrange inserted pictures in this editor.)

Now that we could actually create some gameplay elements as opposed to only being able to move the character around, we've been creating pickup objects that can be used for combat, or as usable items. Geril is modeling all sorts of random things that players will be able to throw at each other when they don't have a weapon equipped. You'll be able to pick up most objects you see, and even destroy things to make more objects for yourself – if a wall shatters, you'll be able to take the bricks and throw them at your opponent. Different objects will have different properties and special effects: for example, a glass vial will shatter, leaving shards behind that will hurt whoever walks into them.

You can expect more to come in relation to this, we're kind of on a roll here.

Beatmap editor in Unreal 4!

Hey there! This is Lussy.

We've been hard at work on our rhythm game projects, and we've managed to create a feature we've never thought we could do with Blueprints only, coupled with our current experience. But alas, it has happened.

We've created a beatmap editor inside Unreal 4 using only Blueprints and Rama's Victory Blueprint plugin (it's a godsend, check it out if you're using UE4!).

For the editor, we used osu!'s editor as a reference, and for now it can only create and edit Taiko type beatmaps. We plan to overhaul it almost completely for our own game, but first we had to try if it was even possible to create.

The editor uses .ogg files as music, and creates a text file with a matching name for each new .ogg file. The file contains BPM and title information, as well as all the beat objects or notes in the song - similar to how osu!'s .osz files work. We dubbed ours as .beatmap files though.

Once the file is created, the user can enter a BPM calibrator that lets them tap a button in time with the music. The editor then calculates based on those clicks the BPM of the song, or alternatively, the BPM can be input manually.

After this is done, the actual editor lets users put notes down on each beat of the song, change their colors around and then save the beatmap. The beatmap can then be played in play mode.

The whole thing is very raw right now, because we haven't had as much time to work on it as we wanted to, but it's getting there. This tool will be very useful for developing our rhythm games, and we plan to include it in the game too, so users can create custom content with songs they like.

At this point we're starting to feel like anything is possible in Blueprints with the right nodes and tools. Of course knowing C++ would help greatly, so we're going to get on that, too, but there's no rush.

Unreal Game Jam!

Hi! It's Lussy.

This month was... hectic, to say the least.

We're still getting settled into our new home, but we did have some time for our personal projects. So we decided to enter the Unreal spring game jam.

At first, we started making a turn-based RPG for the theme 'Transformation'. It featured a bug of some sort that could take the defeated bugs' and insects' limbs and use them as its own. We got quite far with the development, the combat system was mostly finished, it had a basic interface, experience points, 15 levels with new abilities unlocked at various levels. The whole thing was inspired by observing a dead mosquito in our bathtub that fell apart with all of its legs detached. (Why does that happen, by the way?)

...Aaand then we realized that we couldn't finish it in time, so we abandoned it and started developing a much simpler game. We managed to make it in just about one day. It featured a sphere shape that could transform into a variety of other shapes at the press of a button, and the player had to control this shape and guide it through a series of holes in walls that were coming towards it.
We called it 'Andy and the Wallhole'.

Just as we were about to upload the finished project (which was very much not finished, we wanted to include a lot more features and even a soundtrack, but oh well, game jams), we noticed that it was half hour past the deadline. I made a mistake in converting the deadline from New York's time zone to our own. Sooooo... that was that. We uploaded the project to itch.io nonetheless, but it was not accepted. I'm including the link, so if you want to try out this earsore of a project, go ahead.

The whole thing left a very bitter taste, but we do plan on going ahead with the shapes project and making it our own rhythm game. We've been trying to come up with some gameplay mechanic to put into our rhythm game framework ever since we recreated Taiko. So at least this is a plus! I also feel like I gained some experience in working really fast with blueprints. So it wasn't all in vain. That's what we keep telling ourselves, anyways.

So, until next month!

Happy New Year!

2016 has been a long and eventful year. We've started a new project (Lemniscate), it got greenlit on Steam, but in the meantime, we ran out of resources... We've learned a lot nonetheless. Even our latest fanart seems to have turned out good - it has been seen by about ten thousand people. Thanks, Yuumei, for sharing it!

Lemniscate is progressing slowly, because it requires more time and money than we currently have. Seems like we always take on bigger projects than we can handle... Anyways, since it's not in a bad shape and the foundations are laid down, as soon as we get enough resources, we'll start making a demo for it and promoting it again.

In the meantime, we're educating ourselves in game design and development with tiny (really tiny this time) side-projects. Our current side/practice project is a small two player co-op puzzle game that was inspired by the Nintendo Switch, basically. We really like local coop games and they are the minority nowadays, and we love Nintendo consoles in general. Hearing the news that Unreal 4 is going to be supported on the Switch, maybe if the project turns out to be anything good, we'll be able to release it. (That goes for all of our projects, by the way)

Thank you for helping us out with kind words, actions, or just by visiting this blog once in a while. It means a lot to know that we're not doing this in vain.

Happy New Year!

March update

Hi! I'm Lussy.

...It's been a while..
I got home from Korea a little while ago, so I'm still jetlagged and grumpy. But being there helped my mental health a lot, so now I'm ready to dive into work again. ...I mean, I would be but I have a few months of school left, so until I graduate, I don't think I'll have much time for anything... Finals. Sigh.

So while I was away and wasn't paying attention, Geril found a REAL programmer for our project. An actual programmer who can actually program AND actually DOES program. Not procrastinate. So yeah! As I still have very little grasp on what's going on, I'll just let our new programmer tell you how the project's doing. If everything works out though, I'll be able to switch back to the role of a designer and texture(/3dmodel/background/everything else related) artist soon. And I'm really looking forward to that.

***

Hi! I'm Alex,

I'm the new programmer for this project. I can also help out with German and Italian translations if we decide to include them in the game.

I hope you'll like the videos we make about the game, its features and maybe some of its funny glitches. I joined this project because I liked the story behind it and I want to be a part of this 'game-dev-gamers' team.

What I'm working on right now is some basic movement, and functions for blueprints. I'm still trying to get used to Unreal's hierarchy.

Hopefully with me on the team the rest of us don't have to get involved in the blueprint madness too much, so we can speed up the project a little bit.

What I aim to work on soon, but still don't know how exactly, are some grab functions and fluid character movement to make the gameplay look awesome.
I hope you will enjoy my videos and updates on the project.

***

PS: March's comic may be a little late, but it's already in process,
PPS: It looks like we'll be migrating to Unreal 4.

Movement test!

Hello!

Here's a video for you:


Just a quick update on how we're doing. As you can see, we're experimenting with different controls: a fixed, side-scrolling camera with 3D movement. It works out pretty well. The only awkward thing about it is how sometimes you can't determine where you are in the 3rd dimension. We're planning to fix this with a small circle of shadow below the player, and a more dynamic camera.

P.S.: Subwoofer required for full experience

Shapekey Test

We've been planning to post info about the gameplay for a long time now, but we'd rather not discuss it just yet. Instead, we're going to show some interesting stuff.

One of the playable characters in the game is going to be Eslie. I'm going to write about her technical properties today but her story and personality will be covered in another post.

Her lip-syncing is kind of difficult to create and adjust with her being part wolf. Morph targets - or shape keys - deform her base mesh into a given position (for example, her mouth making different sounds). It can be adjusted, how much (a gaping mouth-morph target can be adjusted to become a slightly-open-mouth morph target by changing the values) and when (they are made into keyframes) the mesh deforms. With some effort, these morph targets can be adjusted so Eslie can (almost) perfectly lipsync any given speech.

A demonstration of this:



I (Geril) used a free software called Papagayo that creates lip-sync using sound and text. It's not very accurate, and it doesn't adjust the jaw movement unfortunately, so there's still a lot of adjustments to make after it finishes. It's better than creating it all from scratch, though.

The importing didn't go very well, but I managed to put it all together in Blender ver. 2.63. I also added some very basic facial mimicry to see how it would look.

And the character can now sing. Not in perfect sync, of course, and without any animation on her body... in T-pose. But it's working. (Makes a great imitation of the decapitated robot in the first Alien movie.)

World details

Our game's world is based on metal. The lifeforms developed according to this, so we have created our own circle of life and have organic metals. For example, a chitin-like material is as common in their world as keratin is in ours - it's mostly a layer of defence, but it may even be the base of a plant's body.

Many plants that can be found in this metal based game world are similar to plants we are used to, the only difference is how they accommodated to the nature of the world. This might not explain much right now, but some of the questions will be answered through the actual game.

Next, I'll tell you about a gameplay element we're currently working on.
"Human" intervention is causing the metal based planet to change, similarly to how Earth may have changed in history.
The temperature became vacillating, which created bigger thermal expansions, so the planet's surface cracked and shattered in some places. It's important to note that the magnetic effect is the strongest one on the planet.

The Chasm:
There are two notable chasms on the opposite sides of the world. In these chasms the magnetic field is enormous. Most things levitate in the air, or orbit around bigger objects. The magnetic field affects everything nearby, again, since everything is based on metal. Even the living organisms have large amounts of metal inside them - everything they consume or inhale contains some metals. At the bottom of these chasms the magnetic field is so strong that it could tear nearly anything apart.

There exists a metal that generates a magnetic field under pressure. The greater the pressure, the stronger the field. With bracelets made of this metal worn on the hands and feet, and a belt worn on the waist, the ability to hover becomes possible. The bracelets and the belt need to be connected with a rubber-like tight rope, so that the farther the user holds their limbs from their body, the higher they will begin to levitate.

Lastly, the technology in this world is simple. Some would even say it's steampunk, and they wouldn't be far off. More details on this will come clear in the future.

In the next posts to come we'll write about more gameplay mechanics.

Have a nice day!

About the game

Hello,

I am Lussy, a member of a video game developer team. We're working on a project codenamed O.L. The game is in its very early stage. We're constantly brainstorming and still figuring out which gameplay elements to implement.

Our story revolves around an anthropomorphic fox, currently only referred to as 'Fox'. Fox lives on a planet which is mainly made of iron. The inhabitants (also anthropomorphic) live mostly in small colonies, or small cities at best. Technology is vastly different from what we know due to the many elements with unique characteristics.



The game will be powered by the Unreal Engine 3, featuring a third person perspective and will focus on adventure game elements, problem solving and combat (mostly melee). We'd also like to emphasize animal instincts and senses. For example, smells would be kind of visible for the player, and would help in pathfinding. We want to make it a unique game that players will enjoy, so feedback is greatly appreciated. After developing the core of the game and finalizing our concept, we aim to launch a Kickstarter campaign to see if our idea is interesting enough for it to be brought to reality. We're experimenting with different graphical styles, so far we like the cel-shaded and watercolor-like look the most.

Currently, we're working on the control of the main character, but we already have simple maps to test in, so looking at the pictures I upload, you can get the basic feel of the game. I'll be posting about the progress of the project on this blog regularly. In the next couple of posts I'll write about the protagonist, the world, the story, the gameplay and technological information.

Until next time, then.