Looks like we are aiming to announce our game this weekend. Will be nice to answer questions we get when posting teaser screens finally. A few things I'm unsure about what we should list on the game's site. When I get most of it ready I'll ask for some feedback if you guys wouldn't mind. Super excited.
This is painful for me to hear.
Any experience with Unity3D and shaders? I'm trying to figure out how I can adjust the colour or darkness of shadows (received by the shader). More in particular, I'd like to darken them and make all shadows pure black, regardless of how many light sources are affecting them or what the colour of the underlying material is.
I think it's the ambient lighting you're struggling with. It's set to a non-black color by default.
In Unity 4 it's located in Edit>Render Settings and in Unity 5 it's at Window>Lighting
Fixed some of the issues. But I'm not done yet with the interface. I might add some simple buttons to the top right menu as you said.
I think the two left boxes looks pretty plain.
ugh, there are some grammar mistakes in the picture.
This is painful for me to hear. As I'm a solo man team. I'm trying my best but yeah... The Art isn't going to be the strong suite. In some ways I do have to put the gameplay/story in the fore front.
Hmmm...
I tried to add arms... What do you think?
Also Male Slimmer body test:
This is painful for me to hear. As I'm a solo man team. I'm trying my best but yeah... The Art isn't going to be the strong suite. In some ways I do have to put the gameplay/story in the fore front.
Hmmm...
I tried to add arms... What do you think?
Also Male Slimmer body test:
Glad to hear that, you've definitely more trouble with names than is reasonable.Crisis averted. The other studio agrees the name is too close and will change it.
The galaxy is at peace.
I'm planning to implement a scripting language in my own game engine, both for my own benefit and potentially for modding.
Does anyone have any overall suggestions, pitfalls, etc. about this topic before I start designing and implementing it?
Awesome!Crisis averted. The other studio agrees the name is too close and will change it.
The galaxy is at peace.
Any experience with Unity3D and shaders? I'm trying to figure out how I can adjust the colour or darkness of shadows (received by the shader). More in particular, I'd like to darken them and make all shadows pure black, regardless of how many light sources are affecting them or what the colour of the underlying material is.
What type of geometry and light sources does your game have? Making a custom solution for your situation would be much simpler than figuring out a universal solution.
No reason to get it personal, it's programmer art and for that its already better then what most other have to offer.
But keep in mind, if this is an commercial project, you need to hire someone to do the proper artwork for you.
Since I'm also working on an SRPG I just wanted to quickly chime in and say that Chrono Trigger and FF on the one hand (very similar games) and Disgaea and FFT on the other hands are completely different games regarding gameplay. The huge mainstream RPGs of the kind of FF don't play anything like SRPGs. There are basically two still-running series of (his kind of) SRPGs, Fire Emblem and Disgaea, with Disgaea just entering its fifth main iteration and Fire Emblem being on a quite stable 2-3 per generation rhythm. Overall we probably end up with ~4 big traditional SRPGs per generation, so we are at least not talking about an oversturated genre. Of course, him and me will both have one problem: This year there's Disgaea 5 (and typically those games are excessively long), next year it's Fire Emblem Fates, so there's serious likelihood of being completely overlooked.
Though I must say the big three of SRPGs have very different focus, showing already that there is a lot of room for differentiation even through details.
FE is very much focussed on in-battle strategy
FFT is quite focussed on character development
Disgaea is a game of labor because you really need to grind like crazy if you want to play all maps.
EDIT: Based on what he has written in the introduction of the game, there are already unusual things that differentiate the game from all other SRPGs I know:
1. There is a fixed party of eight members, not recruiting, no losing characters
2. Crafting plays a very very small role in FFT and FE and is basically grindwork in Disgaea, so this will probably differ a lot, too.
In regards to your specific art assets, I'm afraid I don't have strong feelings one way or another - I don't find them "bad", but I don't find them appealing either, both aesthetically and technically.
The use of disjointed limbs is interesting, as mentioned above, but that alone doesn't make it singular enough in my eyes, as it looks like a concession rather than a decision. Maybe use that visual distinction more? Rayman has disjointed limbs, and he *uses* them: throwing fists, having a grappling hook with extendable length, etc. Imagine how it'd be if in your case, those disjointed hands could be used as actual mechanics - suddenly, the style would make more sense, and could probably be pushed even further!
The one aesthetic part I'd comment upon is your use of colors, as I find it a bit rough.You don't use contrasting tints, and most are very saturated, making for an overall monotone look on every character. For both black characters, the skin tint is very saturated, making the adjacent lighter colors look recessed: the armor for the knight, the hair for the woman. In both cases, those lighter parts look like they're on a different plane to me, in the background, compared to the "meat" of the character.
The outlines aren't consistent either, with strong black outlines for the bodies, but colored (and very little constrast) for the hair. I'd think something more homogeneous would work better: either fully black to detach from the background (and maybe go for a quasi cel shading if you can afford a two tone shading on that limited sprite size), or colored with stronger contrast.
Just to get an idea on the colors...
Do you mean something like this?
Not exactly, but nice try!
You've desaturated everything at once, which keeps the color contrasts you already had, albeit less pronounced. The grey you use, for instance, could use a tad more red hue to link it better with the red line, or instead green to make the line pop out, depending on the effect you're going for. Here, the colors simply don't really mesh together.
The outlines don't have good contrast either in both cases. For the black outline, it's too strong. I think it'd work better with grey-ish pixels at angles, to "round" the shapes instead of having every outline pixel the exact same value. I'm not sure the exact term used to describe that pixel art technique. Place's I'd have lighter pixels: corners of the head+top of most vertical lines. If you're intent on keeping the arms, that'd be a great place to have greyer pixels too - though as I said earlier, I think you're losing a design element with potential by adding arms.
In your other example, the contrast is however not enough, the outline is barely visible, and some of the outlining colors don't mesh together (the hair outline leading to the face outline, mainly).
Maybe it all comes down to color palettes. I'll link again to the beginning of the post I had made earlier about my own use of color/palettes: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=175905005&postcount=7763, in the hopes it might be clearer.
There isn't a single one answer to define what is "good use" of color, so some might argue against everything I say here with good reason, as it's probably pretty subjective. However, I believe it might be of use for discussions' sake to look at some color palettes of characters you like, and trying to understand why you like their palettes, then try and apply these principles to your own art. Do you have an example of a character using a similar palette, gray base with brown+red motifs and yellow highlights?
I put Matilda into the game.
I wasn't getting personal..?
Hello Indie GAF!
This is my first post here (so yay for me and hello to everybody!) I've been following NeoGAF for a couple of years now but never really participated. Time to change that.
First of all, there's so many promising games here I'm going bananas! It's awesome how the game industry is changing thanks to all the indies everywhere.
I'm half of a 2 person studio from Warsaw called Lichthund - we're working on our first game called Lichtspeer. (Lichtspeer means lightspear in German - it's like a lightsaber except it's a speer).
We've been showcasing our game on a couple of occasions (even won some awards! crazy right?) and people in general dig it, still I'm looking for some more feedback, general thoughts etc.
Here's a trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BWP3l-Tbjo
Let me know what you think!
Thanks GAF!
since I'm just a junior let me know if I screwed something up
Hi and welcome!I'm half of a 2 person studio from Warsaw called Lichthund - we're working on our first game called Lichtspeer. (Lichtspeer means lightspear in German - it's like a lightsaber except it's a speer).
We've been showcasing our game on a couple of occasions (even won some awards! crazy right?) and people in general dig it, still I'm looking for some more feedback, general thoughts etc.
Here's a trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BWP3l-Tbjo
Let me know what you think!
The splatter already looks like a fun game, though the animation is kinda stiff.
Hi and welcome!
I really like the style and the wackiness of it, and given my taste for shorter gaming sessions lately it definitely piques my interest. You should probably add a link to the Greenlight in the video description as most people probably won't be bothered to search it manually. Good luck and you have my vote
Oops! Bad wording from me. With "personal" I wanted to say that you should not be afraid to show your art
.
Looks ace, man. Hot damn at those colors.
When this comes out, I'm making a weekend of my first (or multiple) playthrough. Don't bother me, I'll be busy.
Can't wait to play this again
This is painful for me to hear.
Texture-less building environments. Using point-lights, but could work towards a direction light and/or lightmaps for the environment. Would preferably find a solution that works on characters and point lights with shadows though.
Idea is to get a Killer7-look.
I believe I've seen this before somewhere. Maybe on Twitter? Anyways, you've got a vote.
Hello Indie GAF!
This is my first post here (so yay for me and hello to everybody!) I've been following NeoGAF for a couple of years now but never really participated. Time to change that.
First of all, there's so many promising games here I'm going bananas! It's awesome how the game industry is changing thanks to all the indies everywhere.
I'm half of a 2 person studio from Warsaw called Lichthund - we're working on our first game called Lichtspeer. (Lichtspeer means lightspear in German - it's like a lightsaber except it's a speer).
We've been showcasing our game on a couple of occasions (even won some awards! crazy right?) and people in general dig it, still I'm looking for some more feedback, general thoughts etc.
Here's a trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BWP3l-Tbjo
Let me know what you think!
Thanks GAF!
since I'm just a junior let me know if I screwed something up
I believe I've seen this before somewhere. Maybe on Twitter? Anyways, you've got a vote.
Welcome! That's one nice looking trailer :-D
Thanks, really appreciate your comment, since it's my goal to give the feel of an old school shmup.
I put Matilda into the game.
Hello Indie GAF!
This is my first post here (so yay for me and hello to everybody!) I've been following NeoGAF for a couple of years now but never really participated. Time to change that.
First of all, there's so many promising games here I'm going bananas! It's awesome how the game industry is changing thanks to all the indies everywhere.
I'm half of a 2 person studio from Warsaw called Lichthund - we're working on our first game called Lichtspeer. (Lichtspeer means lightspear in German - it's like a lightsaber except it's a speer).
We've been showcasing our game on a couple of occasions (even won some awards! crazy right?) and people in general dig it, still I'm looking for some more feedback, general thoughts etc.
Here's a trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BWP3l-Tbjo
Let me know what you think!
Thanks GAF!
since I'm just a junior let me know if I screwed something up
I don't know if you've used Unreal Engine 4 yourself, but in your opinion is that video series general enough to apply to Unreal as well? I'll bookmark it if so, thanks for the post.This is the tutorial I used to learn how to write shaders: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJxxXjoZE30&list=PLV4HCa5XqFT02gZOZ_Jb_A66wqDhZMCkN
If you want to get a good understanding of how shaders work, I'd recommend watching all of it. However videos 13-15 cover lighting.
I don't have lights in my game so I'm pretty rusty with how they work in Unity, but hopefully that gets you thinking about some options.
Thanks! I've probably heard of Lua for games that support modding, and I'll take a look at both of those options.I'm not sure if you mean creating your own scripting language, or implementing an existing one, but to begin with I'd suggest giving giving lua or AngelScript a try, since they're simple to integrate and get started. lua has been used extensively in the games industry, so it's pretty robust as far as platform support goes (there's even a JIT compiler too). If the syntax of lua doesn't appeal to you, AngelScript is very C/C++ esque, which makes it very easy to transfer scripts to native code if they aren't performing well enough.
You might want to create your own (something I've done personally) if you have some particular design principles you want to follow, but be prepared to make many revisions as you inevitably get new and better ideas for compilation and syntax! LLVM is an awesome library to look into too if you want to compile your scripting language into native code.
I don't know if you've used Unreal Engine 4 yourself, but in your opinion is that video series general enough to apply to Unreal as well? I'll bookmark it if so, thanks for the post.
I'm planning to implement a scripting language in my own game engine, both for my own benefit and potentially for modding.
Does anyone have any overall suggestions, pitfalls, etc. about this topic before I start designing and implementing it?
Granted the last 4 have been from today, but I do think that's some decent progress. Progress I might add, was made possible by fellow Gaffers.
It's not over yet, but progress is being made.
I don't know if you're still looking for suggestion, but I made a few.
I don't know what kinf od sprite you're looking for or the background of each character.
So I took what it looks like a warrior.
What I think was wrong:
-The face was too "rectangled."
-Same for the body, it's a warrior so i thoguht he would have a more toned/stronger body.
-Fix of the color issues.
I think there some stuff to fix on the legs and hair. But I'm out of time. Feel free to use a palette similar to the warrior bellow if that the color scheme you're looking for.
Oh he might be a Magician, dunno.
Nah, you got it right.
I had to re-draw them to 1 x 1 pixel size and then I resized them by 200% to get their actual ingame sprite size. If you're looking at them on a 1920 x 1080 screen, that is how they will look in game.
I do like it. The body looks far more natural. Though I wonder if I can even use it since it's been modded :O
The walrus flying to his doom made me chuckle haha, looks like this is going to be both a hectic and funny game, liking what it looks like so far!
It's all yours.
Tonight I might see if I can do something to the hair and legs.
By the way, you don't have to redraw. Just grab paint and resize the bigger size:
Hello Indie GAF!
This is my first post here (so yay for me and hello to everybody!) I've been following NeoGAF for a couple of years now but never really participated. Time to change that.
First of all, there's so many promising games here I'm going bananas! It's awesome how the game industry is changing thanks to all the indies everywhere.
I'm half of a 2 person studio from Warsaw called Lichthund - we're working on our first game called Lichtspeer. (Lichtspeer means lightspear in German - it's like a lightsaber except it's a speer).
We've been showcasing our game on a couple of occasions (even won some awards! crazy right?) and people in general dig it, still I'm looking for some more feedback, general thoughts etc.
Here's a trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BWP3l-Tbjo
Let me know what you think!
Thanks GAF!
since I'm just a junior let me know if I screwed something up
Welcome! Great style to that game of yours, I hope it's a success for you and your team.
This is painful for me to hear. As I'm a solo man team. I'm trying my best but yeah... The Art isn't going to be the strong suite. In some ways I do have to put the gameplay/story in the fore front.
Hmmm...
I tried to add arms... What do you think?
Also Male Slimmer body test:
Here's a trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BWP3l-Tbjo
Let me know what you think!
Thanks GAF!
since I'm just a junior let me know if I screwed something up
That's what I do. However sometimes after enlarging, I found when trying to shrink it... It comes out weird.
I tried to make more hair detail and made the legs a tid bit longer on the far right one. Though I'm not a fan of that one. xD
Currently testing out a higher-tier Solus enemy. This bastard can summon the fireflies, launch goop at you, slowing you down, and also do a burrow strike. Their Carapace also occasionally reflects projectiles!
This is painful for me to hear. As I'm a solo man team. I'm trying my best but yeah... The Art isn't going to be the strong suite. In some ways I do have to put the gameplay/story in the fore front.
This is coming along pretty well. Don't worry about it not being a masterpiece yet. You have to draw thousands and thousands of pieces before you can obtain mastery, and you look like you're on the right track. The same is true for many things as well. For instance, I was a terrible programmer and designer when I first started ten years ago, but that's okay. If you stick with it because you love doing it, you will get better. Just accept things for how they are and always look for ways to get better!
Holy shit, it`s Zaxxon nnnnnnnnext gen. Looks awesome.
I do see the progress... I attempted the new style on other characters.