Work In Progress / The Island (working title - name will change)

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synchromesh
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Posted: 31st Aug 2016 21:14
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I'm actually looking forward to this one
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Belidos
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Posted: 1st Sep 2016 08:28
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Thanks guys.

It's going to be quite a while before I have something workable to show you. I haven't even started making levels apart from the first beach scene yet, i'm spending my time working on the scripts, and models i'm going to need, testing and retesting to make sure scripts don't conflict, and so on.

At the moment i'm trying to work out how to chain animations to make cut scene videos, Lee did a great twitch about my request, but he missed the most important part of the request.. what I asked for was how to chain animations so for example a character would start sitting, stand up, walk a distance, and do another animation.. he showed how to chain the animations fine, but didn't include the moving part, i'm still not sure how to do that. But i'm sure i'll get it there eventually.

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Posted: 15th Sep 2016 10:13 Edited at: 15th Sep 2016 10:13
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Not a lot of work done on the actual game creation over the last few weeks, i've been spending some time over the last few weeks on story line, and planning out the tasks, i'll be using system of scripts using flags that update a task panel as you progress through the story line.

As to the main story, my original plan was to have followed The Island of Dr Moreau fairly faithfully, starting off ship wrecked, rescued, brought to the island, noticed odd things, investigate and find out about the hybrids, and so on, but what i wanted to do and what could be done were very limiting. Most of the early game would have been being controlled more by the NPC's than by the player, making little more than watching a movie where you controlled the camera view. Not may people's idea of a good game.

Now my planned story line will be slightly different, instead of being shipwrecked, the character will arrive relatively safely at the island, in search of a friend or comrade that had been exploring the island (maybe an entomology study or something) who has gone missing. The story line will progress from the beach, finding a way into the interior of the island, finding the entomologists camp, working out clues to his whereabouts, finding a deserted compound, which leads to finding the bunker and a way to access it, rescuing your friend and finding out about the hybrids, then escaping from the island with your friend, which will not be as easy as it sounds.

The biggest issue i have at the moment is plausibility at the start of the game, i'd like the access to weapons in the game to be extremely limited, maybe starting the game with at best a knife, however i'm at a loss to explain how if you arrive safely at the island of your on volition and intact, then why would you come only prepared with a knife? I know it's just a game and i don't "have to" explain it, but i'd like to have at least some plausibility in my games story line, and that's a sticking point for me.

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Posted: 15th Sep 2016 15:25
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Quote: "The biggest issue i have at the moment is plausibility at the start of the game, i'd like the access to weapons in the game to be extremely limited, maybe starting the game with at best a knife, however i'm at a loss to explain how if you arrive safely at the island of your on volition and intact, then why would you come only prepared with a knife? I know it's just a game and i don't "have to" explain it, but i'd like to have at least some plausibility in my games story line, and that's a sticking point for me."


Easy! The vast majority of civilians outside of the US don't have any access to weapons. Most Europeans associate them only with games, movies or the military. Guns are not something you "just bring along".

Look at it this way: The only way I would have a gun would be through obtaining it illegally, and even if I where a police officer or have a sporting permit, I'd not be allowed to carry it around. To get to a deserted island, you have to cross borders, charter a boat, possibly fly by airplane... how do you smuggle a gun through all of that? It seems impractical to bring it along.

Besides: You'd not expect to need it as you are looking for your scientist relative. You'd most likely assume that there was an accident. If you'd think that he was kidnapped or some situation where you'd need a weapon you would not go in alone but rather contact the police.

I believe it would be more odd to bring a gun along, assuming you are not an american and the island is not on american soil.



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Posted: 15th Sep 2016 16:27
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Quote: "Guns are not something you "just bring along"."


Talk for yourself, punk!

Quote: "To get to a deserted island, you have to cross borders, charter a boat, possibly fly by airplane... how do you smuggle a gun through all of that? It seems impractical to bring it along."


That's the reason I always purchase on arrival whenever I travel to dangerous territory, best case from a trustworthy and loyal local.

However, to be honest, you really got a point here.

I would say a knife and a hunting crossbow is something many people who would go on such a journey own anyways, and it's not restricted to bring it with you (checked baggage of course, not in the cabin).
That should be good enough for a startign point.
One of the cheapest, yet still plausible things to get more advanced weaponry would be finding an abandoned army / police / ranger outpost with a weapons locker there. Or a stranded speedboar from the coast guard.
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Posted: 15th Sep 2016 16:58
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Quote: "Easy! The vast majority of civilians outside of the US don't have any access to weapons. Most Europeans associate them only with games, movies or the military. Guns are not something you "just bring along".

Look at it this way: The only way I would have a gun would be through obtaining it illegally, and even if I where a police officer or have a sporting permit, I'd not be allowed to carry it around. To get to a deserted island, you have to cross borders, charter a boat, possibly fly by airplane... how do you smuggle a gun through all of that? It seems impractical to bring it along.

Besides: You'd not expect to need it as you are looking for your scientist relative. You'd most likely assume that there was an accident. If you'd think that he was kidnapped or some situation where you'd need a weapon you would not go in alone but rather contact the police.

I believe it would be more odd to bring a gun along, assuming you are not an american and the island is not on american soil."


Makes sense. I think i was more thinking about it as some kind of covert operation to rescue someone, i kind of get stuck in the "all games equation" rut, where most games are centered around various military and civilian agencies carrying out missions. But yeah, i will probably go with scientist friend goes missing and you get a lift to the island on a trawler to see if you can find him with a prearranged pickup in a couple of days.

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Posted: 15th Sep 2016 18:58 Edited at: 15th Sep 2016 18:58
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Quote: "Talk for yourself, punk!"


Don't go Eastwood on me, Slacker

Quote: "I would say a knife and a hunting crossbow is something many people who would go on such a journey own anyways, and it's not restricted to bring it with you (checked baggage of course, not in the cabin)."


Eh! I don't even see myself bringing the crossbow. I may own one of these and must say that these are big and bulky but its getting a lot more plausible now.

(A locally purchased handgun would still be very plausible yet I don't see the main character in that scenario expecting the need for it/any opposition.
The story should take us to a deserted island, not dangerous territory.)

Quote: "prearranged pickup in a couple of days. "


Making you stuck on the island which adds to the suspense. Besides, your usual military unit or whatever would not go alone and have radio contact to someone which further takes away from the atmosphere. I really think the whole looking for a relative thing is a terrific idea.

Oh! It also makes perfect sense to have shot- or bolt action guns in stations and settlements on an island. You can always hand the player a gun early in if you restrict ammunition.
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Posted: 15th Sep 2016 20:33
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the enemy standing on a nonterrain object and beautiful baked AO in the bunkers have me excited
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Posted: 15th Sep 2016 21:27
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Glad you like it bugsy, the character standing on the non-terrain object is a fluke, I have no idea why it worked but it did, in fact I've noticed most seem to work on my models when its been proved time again they shouldn't, maybe I do something with my models differently that makes them work, I have no idea lol

As to they AO in the bunker, I'm cheating there, SAO I'd turned off completely, the AO you see is built into the texture, I find it increases fps and you get a more blended AO effect that way.

@wolf and ertlov ... Thanks for your input guys, its always very much apreciatef.

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Posted: 16th Sep 2016 09:07
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Quote: "Don't go Eastwood on me, Slacker "


Allright. A man's GOT to know his limitations.

Just wanted to point out that not all Europeans defy the concept of private arms. However, you are right that this is a cultural thing. There are several countries where you would be considered outright supid f going unarmed, even if you DON'T expect resistance.

Quote: "As to they AO in the bunker, I'm cheating there, SAO I'd turned off completely, the AO you see is built into the texture, I find it increases fps and you get a more blended AO effect that way."


AH!

Now that explains it, I was wonderign why your AO looks so neat.
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Posted: 16th Sep 2016 11:12 Edited at: 16th Sep 2016 11:13
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I've always added AO to my models textures, ever since Unfamilia's videos taught me how to do it at the start, my reasoning was that it would save time when light mapping, as you wouldn't need to use the f4 bake to get ambience.

When SAO was added i debated whether i should stop adding my own AO to textures or not because we now had built in AO, but decided to keep doing it because SAO is one more effect that can decrease performance, and at least with AO in the textures i could turn SAO off and it would be one less strain on performance.

I'm not 100% happy with AO in the texture, i'm still tweaking how i add it because every now and then you will get a single line of plain texture in the middle of the AO, usually where walls meet ceilings or floors, but it's getting better.

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Posted: 16th Sep 2016 22:24
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I spent most of the evening working on my own quest system scripts, here's a quick test of the functionality...


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Posted: 17th Sep 2016 18:47 Edited at: 17th Sep 2016 18:48
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I've moved the HUD around a bit ...


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Posted: 17th Sep 2016 20:55 Edited at: 17th Sep 2016 20:57
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Hi Belidos, looking good
It's just an idea, but just maybe you should lose the key icons from the HUD and just include it in the about / help screen in the menu. You could also have a hot-key to bring a key map up like in other games. Maybe make it in panels or a transparent overlay PNG sprite.

gd - Ed.
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Posted: 17th Sep 2016 23:42
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Interesting work. I have played games in the past that have hunger and thirst elements in
them, but they have always been a bit annoying for me because they deplete far too fast
and unrealistically,....you know,....10 minutes go by and you are starving,....lol.
Another problem with games like that is you don't have time to look around and explore
at your own pace,...something I and lot's of other players like to do,...to enjoy the scenery
so to speak.
You seem to me to be a sensible fella,.....so I am confident you won't make those mistakes,
....so good luck with this,....,I look forward to seeing more,....and nice work so far.
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Posted: 17th Sep 2016 23:50 Edited at: 17th Sep 2016 23:55
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Quote: "Hi Belidos, looking good
It's just an idea, but just maybe you should lose the key icons from the HUD and just include it in the about / help screen in the menu. You could also have a hot-key to bring a key map up like in other games. Maybe make it in panels or a transparent overlay PNG sprite.

gd - Ed."


OK sounds good to me, how's this?

Pressing O now toggles between this:



and this:



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Posted: 17th Sep 2016 23:54
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Quote: "Interesting work. I have played games in the past that have hunger and thirst elements in
them, but they have always been a bit annoying for me because they deplete far too fast
and unrealistically,....you know,....10 minutes go by and you are starving,....lol.
Another problem with games like that is you don't have time to look around and explore
at your own pace,...something I and lot's of other players like to do,...to enjoy the scenery
so to speak.
You seem to me to be a sensible fella,.....so I am confident you won't make those mistakes,
....so good luck with this,....,I look forward to seeing more,....and nice work so far. "


Thanks Shadow Man

The survival aspect is a tricky one, if I have it too fast and people will have to rush the game, have it too slow and it becomes a pointless aspect of the game. I'm going to try to balance it so that it moves fast enough to be something they have to pay attention to, but have enough food and drink available so that they won't be panicking and rushing.

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Posted: 18th Sep 2016 19:01
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The quest system now progresses to the next set of tasks and so on, and there's now a toggle that shows a key bind overlay when O is pressed.


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Posted: 21st Sep 2016 22:59
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Still looking good. A serious undertaking making a good survival game. Most games make the mistake of making it all about the resources and crafting, while having no real game to speak of. What's needed, is a better balance of interesting or compelling game play in combination with the survival elements. Not the easiest of tasks for a lone developer, I must admit, hats off for you going for it.

I was going to add similar things to New Beginnings but I think it would be too much of a drain on time and resources. I'm undecided on what RPG elements I will be going for with that as yet. I have big ideas, but know that in reality I will have to keep a lid on them. I've been battling speed issues for the main, alongside some odd standalone issues with the latest level.

Best of luck with this, I can see you are putting in some time here and it's looking very good so far.



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Posted: 26th Sep 2016 08:31
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Thanks DVader

Quote: "What's needed, is a better balance of interesting or compelling game play in combination with the survival elements. Not the easiest of tasks for a lone developer, I must admit, hats off for you going for it."


Yeah, i plan on having a little of everything, so as to make it less repetitive. Will be adding jumping puzzles, dodging puzzles, a little combat, and some more cerebral puzzles (ie working out a solution to a problem from multiple hints).

Gonna take some time to do, but i'm in no hurry.

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Posted: 26th Sep 2016 17:45 Edited at: 27th Sep 2016 15:05
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Hi Belidos, the hud looks so much better using an overlay key system
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Posted: 26th Sep 2016 21:06 Edited at: 27th Sep 2016 06:29
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Thanks gd

Some more improvements...

- Added transparent bar across the top and bottom to make the HUDs show better.
- Moved the controls overlay to avoid overlapping the top bar.
- Added a Task Journal window that is toggled by pressing J.



This should be the last of the major script work for my game, I have next week off work, and with luck should be able to start on building the levels

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Posted: 27th Sep 2016 08:45
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Hmn, a quick thought.

If i'm going to do a lot of traps and puzzles, especially things like arrow traps, jumping puzzles, etc that could potentially kill the character, requiring multiple attempts to get right, maybe i should get rid of the lives count and give them unlimited lives, and add checkpoints.

That way they won't have to keep restarting from scratch when they run out of lives.

What do you guys think?

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Posted: 27th Sep 2016 13:01
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I've seen a lot of survival games and even games like Bio Shock give you the option with the difficulty setting. You could have both then Think Legendary mode in Bioshock Infinite, or the many rogue likes out there. Personally, although I can see it making the game more exciting, as the penalty for messing up is starting over, I'm never keen on one life and that's it, not when a game can take a long time to beat. Some people enjoy the challenge, I haven't the patience for that anymore. So the option of both would give the player the option


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Posted: 27th Sep 2016 13:10
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True, but I wouldn't have a clue how to implement that, how would you give them an option to start with different numbers if lives? Isn't that hard coded into the start marker?

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Posted: 27th Sep 2016 13:22 Edited at: 27th Sep 2016 13:40
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Oooh thinking about it, i think i have a solution.

On the main menu add another button to go to a new page for difficulty, on that page have the buttons, and each button sets a global variable (say g_difficulty) to 1 (easy, 300 health & 99 lives), 2 (normal, 200 health & 3 lives), and hard (100 health & 1 life), then at the beginning of the first level have a script in a trigger zone that checks the global variable and sets the starting lives and health accordingly, with a 6 second prompt telling you which difficulty you selected and what attributes you get.

Something like (the global will declared in the menu script with a default of g_difficulty = 2):


Think that might work?

I'm just not sure if the global can be carried over from a titlesbank script or not. If it doesn't i'll have to create a script that triggers before everything else giving you an option.

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Posted: 27th Sep 2016 13:38 Edited at: 27th Sep 2016 13:40
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It is, but you should be able to override that with a bit of lua. I would use regular lives as normal, but check at the start what difficulty you are set at and set the lives accordingly at that point. It may be possible to add that to a menu option at the beginning , I'm not 100% sure. If not, then on first loading the game you ask right at the start. Should be a piece of cake technically, but I haven't actually tried this.

You could also overide GG's built in health system altogether and use your own. There's nearly always a way to get most ideas going in GG Of course it's theoretical until done, but I see no reason why it wouldn't be possible. The first option being the easiest to do, if GG lets you of course.

Edit - Yepp. You posted before I finished this one. That should work fine in concept Exactly the sort of thing I meant.


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Posted: 27th Sep 2016 13:45
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I'm actually thinking now that instead of having this in the title menus, have the start marker off map and a script to show a menu, when you click the button it sets the health/lives and transports you to the actual start. Might be easier than messing about with titles and hoping the variable sticks between titles and levels. Also has the added bonus that you can test it in the editor without making a standalone every time you change something.

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Posted: 27th Sep 2016 13:51
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Yeah, easy to make your own little sub-menu at the start You can disable the default menu also, so it should load straight into your own Again not tested as I normally do this type of thing last when making a game and I rarely get to that point You don't even have to change your marker position, if you use a image at the very start for your menu background and freeze the player. Unless you want to go fancy


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Posted: 27th Sep 2016 14:00 Edited at: 27th Sep 2016 14:05
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Yup, good thinking.

All i need do now is work out how to make a script that:

1. activates the mouse pointer
2. shows three buttons
3. allows you to click said buttons and set the difficulty
4. removes the three buttons
5. deactivates the mouse pointer

2, and 4 are no problem, its the mouse part and and making the sprites clickable that i haven't a clue about, mouse stuff confuses me.

As to whether to do this sort of thing first or last, personally this kind of thing is the hardest part for me, so i like to have all my systems in place, working, and looking nice, then i can concentrate on making the level and conforming it to things like the hud, so i don't have to worry about it later. You can also see how it will look in the final draft as you progress through your level design, which is handy.

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Posted: 27th Sep 2016 14:40
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Here's an example I've just wrote.


I did this awhile ago, ready for adding to any game I might make. You can do quite a bit with lua!


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Posted: 27th Sep 2016 14:48 Edited at: 27th Sep 2016 14:50
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Thanks for the code DVader, will have to have a good long look at that sometime, but at the moment i haven't a single clue what it does or how to use it, it's just a big jumble of code to me lol.

Where would i add the button sprites? and how would it decide which i clicked? How do i add multiple choices?

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Posted: 27th Sep 2016 15:05
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That was just an example of how to get your mouse working. You would need to add an entity, place that script in and place it near your player. You also need to make the image in the directory I use.
Here's a quick example of a single button, text for speed, can't be doing with making images, lol.

Just save that as custom_menu.lua, add it to an object near you, make an image and a folder in your scriptbank folder for your cursor and you should be away. You could get technical and write a more sophiticated method but really for a one off small menu, no point. I also have it printing the X and Y to make it easy to add more buttons. I could pretty easily make a menu maker this way and have though about it in the past, but not sure if there would be much interest.


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Posted: 27th Sep 2016 15:21 Edited at: 27th Sep 2016 15:23
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Hi Belidos, you could use something like HITMAN so they try and do better each time.

Example of HITMAN

The ranking Silent Assassin is a special rank given to the player, once they have achieved a mission with flawless stealth, and little to absent aggression.

They get different rankings based on how well they do and also an option to choice the difficulty at the starts or half way through for some people lol

The idea behind this is to increase the life-span of the game and get end-users talking about it, sharing their views and hopefully create a good buzz on the steam community

Great if your using global variables or vegetables if there is any left

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Posted: 27th Sep 2016 15:32
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Thanks again, much appreciated, i'll definitely add you to my credits

So looking at that, if i was using text instead of sprites, it would need to be something like this?



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Posted: 27th Sep 2016 15:45
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You could change the menu headings just for fun:

Hungry - having a strong desire or craving for food.
Famished - extremely hungry.
Starving - extreme or prolonged lack of food.
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Posted: 27th Sep 2016 15:51
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Some great ideas gd, i was thinking of making a badge for completing the game on each difficulty, i'm also thinking of adding secret items that when clicked will grant badges. That's if i can work out how to integrate it with steams badge system, that will of course be a long time in the future once i (and if i ever do) start the greenlight process.

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Posted: 27th Sep 2016 16:14
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It should do, it looks about right. You may need to adjust your numbers depending on the length of the text. The X difference will change with longer words.

If you use images instead, you can use the sprite size and position to do it automatically. Or just manually add the co-ordinates the same way


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Posted: 27th Sep 2016 16:16
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Belidos will you also be adding the crawling feature? Maybe you could slow the character down a little, him / her in the crouch position for a time frame and or have a sleep option or force sleep. "I'm so weak I must sleep now." This will help regenerate their health a little but if used to often could cause them to never wakeup and end the game. Maybe hold it in a global variable of some sorts

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Posted: 27th Sep 2016 16:19
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Quote: "If you use images instead, you can use the sprite size and position to do it automatically. Or just manually add the co-ordinates the same way - DVader"


Yes I agree as just test the script and found it hard clicking the text in the right place.
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Posted: 27th Sep 2016 16:30
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Quote: "Yes I agree as just test the script and found it hard clicking the text in the right place. "


Yeah I was rough and ready with the distances. A bigger range will make it easier


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Posted: 27th Sep 2016 16:47
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Quote: "Yes I agree as just test the script and found it hard clicking the text in the right place. "


You would do, the co-ordinates for the mouse click aren't set yet, they're only 1% by 1% in size lol.

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Posted: 27th Sep 2016 17:32
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2% in my example It should be possible to find the exact difference between points by using the length of the string multiplied by the text size. It can all be automated of course, but that would be up to you. For a couple of options, it's easier to do it the manual way. It doesn't take too long to find the exact percentage you need with trial and error, or taking note of the positions with the mouse cursor, as previously said

You should be well on your way to adding this feature though now


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Posted: 27th Sep 2016 17:35
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Yup thanks for the help.

The bulk of the difficulty script is done, just need to add a background, and some button sprites. I'll probably transfer this script onto the script forum once it's finished for anyone that needs it, with plenty of credit all round of course

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Posted: 27th Sep 2016 19:29
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Thanks guys @Belidos and @DVader - very generous. This mouse convo has taught me so much. I've been struggling for days, literally, trying to get a simple 2 button option with a background screen: button 1 go here, button 2 go there. I managed to break guru a few times and got quite familiar with the runtime error. I think the code @DVader posted might have shown me the way.
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Posted: 27th Sep 2016 19:59
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Glad it helped you too Isagabe.

I have one issue wit it at the moment, SetPlayerHealth(300) only sets the health to 300/100, how do I set it to 300/300?

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Posted: 28th Sep 2016 18:21
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The easiest way is to set the player marker to regenerate health. That sorts it I think, been awhile since I played with that. You probably won't really want health to regen if it's a survival game though. Otherwise, you need to disable the hud and make your own so it displays the correct info or simply displays a health bar instead.


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Posted: 28th Sep 2016 22:42
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OK i'll look into that.

Found another issue:

If you die it doesn't reset you to your chosen difficulty, it resets back to whatever is set in the start marker.

So if you chose Normal, which gives you 200 health, and the start marker was set to 100, when you die it will reset you to 100/100 as per the setting on the start marker.

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Posted: 29th Sep 2016 10:49
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You need a flag to be set to allow you to reset it on death to the correct level. Something similar to this but for the player

My next video is on basic HUD's, but having issues getting it recorded since the software IO use has been updated


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Posted: 29th Sep 2016 11:05
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any idea which lua command would do that? I've looked for some sort of ondeath command in global but i cant find anything for player, only entity.

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