Exploration will play a large part, with the ability to climb and jump plus strong puzzle elements it may sound a bit 'Tomb Raider', but that's ok I am not reinventing the wheel with this but trying to create an interesting environment for the player to wander around in.







Without a decent pipeline for getting assets into GG there won't be many good quality Artists willing to put in extra work to create these ready to use assets. This will be the tipping point when it comes to available media for GG users who don't want to model or code, and the ratio of decent Artists will decline along with the user base as more and more of the 'same looking games' get released. It might seem okay to ignore the creators whining about difficulties to concentrate on 'easy to use' but really your product is going to depend on variety and quality when it comes to users requirements and needs. Personally I probably won't be doing anything much for GG myself till it becomes more Artist friendly since I get all the hard work so others get it easy.

This is looking outrageously good

Player character can now climb walls.

The only reason why I haven't really taken the full dive into Unity, is because the programming aspects intimidate me.

Wow rolfy your truly a great artist, no matter what engine your using



Thats why i paid and are paying you for your GREAT models on the store , you do the work , i pay you , and "i" get to drag/drop your media
I know its a bit tricky to get your assets into GG ( and get it working correctly ), but if you use more time getting it to GG. i dont mind paying more for your great work. Dont leave GG completely we want and need your amazing work.

Off Topic: See Screenshot, can anyone explain to me WHY no one not even Unity add light to the other side of the normals/bumps , but only use shadow to make the plane look more 3D ? beats me its a simple calculation getting light/specular on the other side to raise the 3D effect, so no matter what direction your looking at the parallax occlusion plane it would look 3D ? why not go that extra mile ?
Perhaps i should try this in GG (make a new shader), the bump can it baked into the Normal texture Alpha channel ( its not used anyway ) and bumps are only gray scale so.

I also been/are coding in Unity , and its not that hard but i also like c# and javascript , i mainly used it to get media into AGK , like i made functions in AGK to use a converted GAIA terrain https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/42618 , and are able to get level designs into AGK , i mainly do this because Unity have a huge overhead when running on mobiles. On mobiles AGK is mush faster / better. Well that was some time ago , now i use GG to get my terrain/levels ... into AGK. But your mainly doing Desktop stuff so you would never see this overhead

Keep up the great work Rolfy.

Game Guru has a LOT of work ahead of it still...

I just found this gem created 7 years ago with Dark Basic Pro....

I think we can agree to say that quality of 3D art and level design matters more than 3D engine quality.


Great work Rolfy.
This is really not to bother you but i am not sure showing a game that is Unity is a good idea on GG forums as these two software doesn t adress the same people, and we are aware there is things that will need to improve.
If you were doing that on UE4 or Unity forums the topic would be closed quickly, i think you should respect some more GG not doing that ? What do you think ?

[quote]This is really not to bother you but i am not sure showing a game that is Unity is a good idea on GG forums as these two software doesn t adress the same people, and we are aware there is things that will need to improve.[quote]

That's why it's in the off topic part of the forum, you can post whatever you like here

As a new user you clearly you haven't found rolfys work yet, even though fpsc is before my time I still consider him one of the people that built the fpsc / reloaded community.
As a long term user he's earned his right to show his frustration with the engine but this thread is not in any way detrimental to GG, Lee himself will admit that GG can't compete with unity so why can't rolfy or anyone else showcase his work? We should encourage it and learn from people who have such talent

As for climbing, do you have a video? Is it using the same system you used to detect limbs/feet hitting objects or simply an animation? Looks like the foot is planted but the hands seem off, not that it needs to be perfect, just curious the system behind it.

The parallax is working fine in producing height from any angle and some of the effect is lost due to light direction and shadows behind the view as you would see in real life. All the same it is something I have noticed in both my own level builds and in other games is the normals do not reproduce specular details the same way according to direction as you say. I haven't really looked into why this is and maybe it is an easy fix which is overlooked by many Artists or even teams of AAA Artists. It probably is as I have seen many other issues even with big games that would have required only a small fix to make things work as they should, perhaps the Artist working on a certain aspect of a level design doesn't have all the knowledge (who knows everything?) or maybe it is just something that most wouldn't notice or care about, or maybe there are technical reasons for some omissions in detail that we, as Indie developers, are unaware of.

This is one of my hacks...lol. I took a ladder script and replaced the climb animations, with an entry and exit trigger I can make the climb as high as I like. I did at first use IK on a mesh with full collision and it looked pretty good with the character fumbling for a grip on protruding wall parts but for me personally the climb was smoother using box collision, which means the IK positioning isn't right on the nail with planting of feet and hands. I will likely take a closer look at this and either have less of a detailed surface which would work better or tweaking the IK. It was kinda too real with the character often falling back down a little if he didn't find an overhang within reach.
It is all work in progress and of course not perfect in any way as yet, I am simply pleased to even have a climbing system in place in any form at this point as it enables me to progress the level design.
I will post up a video maybe this evening and show more of the level design along with the climbing.

I see where you are coming from and kind of agree, all the same if you look at the TGC forums the Off Topic board has several games designed in other engines including Unity and UE4, these are being designed by long term users of TGC products and maybe it would be different if it were someone without a history using TGC software. Lee himself has said he considers these forums primarily about game creation and encourages discussion whatever the engine.
Doesn't surprise me that Unity forums would lock it and maybe it is another example of the tolerance and respect on these boards that it isn't, as you may be beginning to notice we are a different breed around here and have a different mind set, we are the underdogs and stick by each other, we welcome you to the team

I know and understand GameGuru intimately and reckon I am in a position to compare and give a more in depth review and response to wht is needed in the engine than someone with only a few hours posting negative and facile comments which have no real idea of what they are talking about, they just see what they see and aren't even sure what it is they aren't seeing when it comes to graphics and functionality. Hope this makes sense as I am actually portraying how much still needs to be done and in technical detail, of course it is all just personal opinion but perhaps some of it if left out will be glaring to some users when they require it. I am not entirely finished with GG here, just taking a break and building a game in another engine while I wait for it to be better suited to my own needs.

Glaring omission? IK foot planting...lol. It really does stick out doesn't it?

Just an aside but anyone who says GameGuru will never compete with Unity (even GameGuru's developer) is entirely wrong, it will be the users who prove that point.

Video of level design so far. I could still do some work on physics and encountered the odd collision error but it's coming together nicely.

He sounds like a horse when there's no other sounds, he needs quieter shoes or he's going to suck at stealth :p
Like the uneven footsteps when he stumbles though, that's a nice little extra but have to say I don't think the sliding fits the level, the ground doesn't seem slippery enough for that (its a cool feature though).

The fog looks very realistic, the temple / stone models are great quality.
Might be worth increasing the brightness of the cave texture a bit to match (especially the parts that break through the floor) as it kinda looks a bit black to me compared to the stone textue, the stone makes it seem well lit but the cave looks dark (might just be the video and the fact I'm watching on my phone though).

Now where are the bad guys? You promised us multi limbed baddies

Looking great Rolfy! The climbing animation is superb. Does the animation change dynamically when the player is confronted with larger/smaller objects to climb?

One thing that I noticed (it's so minor that it barely needs mentioning, but, I know you are a stickler for perfection!) is the idle animation. The animation itself is good, but, the hands look a little wooden. Maybe add a little finger twitching in there occasionally and flex the elbows on the inhales and exhales.

I was genuinely struggling to find something to leave as constructive! I didn't just want to post "looks great".

I am currently working on my game in UE4 (remaking the platforming game (Steve) I originally made in GG.), but, I won't post it here, I wouldn't want to hijack your thread.

Keep up the awesome work.

Cheers

Jay.

You are of course right on both counts, wasn't too concerned with these at this point and will fix it up, as for footfall sounds I felt I would leave this kind of thing till nearer the end of a level design as it might be that I will change up textures a lot and better to assign these when done with it so currently just a default placeholder, thanks for the input keep it coming




I had noticed this myself and another one of things to change up as I go along, I should start a 'to do list' really. You don't really appreciate GameGuru till you have to do every little thing yourself, even had to create my own 'fall damage', but it is also kind of liberating to have so much control over it all

I have no worries with others posting some of their own work in other engines and I am sure it would be interesting for other users too so feel free

One of those things that will be a fair amount of work just as the idea of different climb and swing animations will be for different overhangs etc in climbing per Unfamilia's suggestion. I do have an idea that I could use various triggers to do this all the same and once all the mechanics are done I can build it all into prefabs and use these throughout the game. It is all grunt work at this point. I imagine huge games like Assassins Creed use this kind of prebuilt method to make builds easier and faster.

OK, you asked for it! haha.

Here is the remake of the game I made in GG. Except, it's now a side scroller.



Please, feel free to poke holes in it. Any area's it can be improved upon, I will gladly listen to any and all advice.

Cheers

Jay.

Wow, that looks amazing! Nice work!

Looks like a pro made game to me out of the box,very nice work on this jay .

Dave

Indeed really nice game there, a lot of nice extras too like the slow on the special or the ghost souls
only complaint I can see is it looks a little dark in places and the character actually can't be seen but its very minor (perhaps a tiny bit of glow around the player could work).

Thanks guys. I appreciate the confidence boost! I have been a little nervous about this game. Don't get me wrong, I feel immensely proud of it, but, I have had my doubts as to how it would be received.

@SmallG, Yeah, the lighting has been mentioned a few times now by other people, so, it must be an issue. While I have been testing it, I haven't really noticed as I haven't been looking out for it. I will update the lighting and update with some better footage. Thanks for pointing it out though, I honestly appreciate all feedback!

Cheers

Jay.

It is looking like a pro game though, shame you didnt make it in GG so we could get it into mobile :p
I'm curious, what happened to the character in this part of the video?

Ah! Yes, That was poor video editing on my part!

One of the players abilities is to transform into a hand; meaning you can fit into areas that the normal sized character can't reach. The transform animation played before I cut it off in editing.

I will update soon with a new video. I have made some more progress since the last video, so, I will post it here when it's done.

Cheers

Jay.

@unfamillia, Game looks great! I found Unity's lighting can get a bit funky with some lights casting shadows and others canceling each other out if the ranges cross into each other on larger entities so it takes a little farfing around to get it to light all objects in scene.

Been working on this with the cave interior and expect to be at it for a few to get it all just right. Look forward to seeing more of your game design.

Yeah, I need to crack down on the lighting in my game. I really need to utilise the UE4 toolbag. They have buffer visualisations to show what might be affecting frame rates, hitches in the CPU or how your shaders are performing. They also have one to show which static lights are overlapping and how much of an effect it is having on the surrounding areas. I should really use those more often! haha.

Your latest screenshot looks tremendous. You always manage to nail the scale of your scenes, which give a great atmosphere.

Look forward to seeing more from yours

Cheers

Jay.

Disagree. If your FPS is garbage due to poor engine optimization... than it doesn't matter how good your game looks. Same with poor controls. In fact if you used Game Guru back when it was in its earlier stages as FPSC Reloaded it was virtually unplayable at times. So the engine behind every game matters a great deal more than how well someone has designed their assets or their environmental design. Prime example is this very thread. Rolfy who has a strong sense of environmental design and 3D modeling... showing us his work in both GG and Unity... and you can see the difference..

The point of the DBP video was to show Dark Basic Pro using 3rd person mechanics before Game-Guru and even FPSC.



This is the off topic page and is used in comparison. Its a great way for Lee and others to gain inspiration on how to improve GG by showing how users of this community use other software, with the talents they currently have. Lee has specifically asked for examples like this in the past. With honesty GG wouldn't even be where its at today without some of the input, feedback and work that rolfy has contributed to this community and the stream of products that has led to GG.

This isn't a forum like any other. We support one another here and have a direct line of communication with the developer(s). Some of us have been here for over a decade and there is a reason why we keep coming back. I see it as a blessing to be surrounded by so many talented people.

Great work guys .


I don't think I will even bother to answer .

Dave

I agree, i seen very simple games made in Unreal looking awesome because of shaders, lighting and post effects.

Medieval Steve has had a write up already.

Link to article here

It's not a large or well known game reviewer/ blog writer, but, it's a start!

Obviously had to mention FPSC and GG. Get some advertising in there!

Yes it is I think if your game plays as awesome as it looks you will see a lot more.

I tested an early version of it. It does. Very fluent and intuitive.

Check it out for yourself. I have compiled a very short two level demo (one of the levels being the tutorial level!)

Oh, press 'Q' to read things. There are hints in the tutorial level that teach you how to play.

Click here for download

There are a few known bugs as of yet:

Startup videos don't play
Weird LeapMotion error at the start (i'm not even using a LeapMotion plugin....)
Audio levels are all over the place (not a bug, but, worth mentioning)
Lighting still needs to be worked on (again, not a bug)



Thanks Wolf, try the new version! A LOT has changed since you tried it last!

Cheers

Jay.

love almost everything about it, at the start couldn't work out how to read the signs lol. anyway the video shows where i struggled and didn't and how I got around them. Also for people with the low bandwidth that cant or don't want to download here is a video of my play though. and do note the visuals are much c;clearer then my video i just downed the quality a bit for easier upload

Thanks for doing a little playthrough. It actually highlighted a few points for me to improve upon. Like adding a second checkpoint closer to the swinging axes! Haha.

Cheers

Jay

Lol yeah that was starting to get to me

@unfamillia,Downloading now.
Meanwhile here's a cooler player character.

@rolfy That's a creepy statue in the background :p

@unfamillia Cool, looking forward to trying the demo

@Rolfy,

Your character looks BADASS! He looks ready for battle. It's just an overall great looking scene. Is it running badly in Unity? (20fps). Or have you upped the quality for a screenshot? I look forward to seeing more.

@SmallG & Rolfy,

Don't forget to tell me what I have done wrong in the game. I am looking for super helpful feedback. You can give me all the compliments in the world, but, make sure to follow it up with a swift kick in the ego with an error/bug/lighting issue/fps drop etc.

Cheers

Jay.

The fps counter that comes with standard assets has never worked properly for me, same fps in any scene using it and it gets worse as you build and can drop to 10-14fps . If I remove it I get an average 50-60fps in this scene which is fairly large. Same if I close and reopen the scene fresh the fps jumps back up, maybe memory buffers needing cleared, I really need to take a closer look at Unity settings perhaps but it's no big deal as it still runs smooth while building.
It doesn't help when have a half dozen other programs open while designing either
Here's a screenshot using NVidea counter, if I were to clear and reopen the scene it shoots up as well but haven't done that here, at the same time there is a lot I could do to further optimise the level and haven't gotten so far as that yet so I expect a really healthy frame rate in the end



That statue is Death and the Mother by Niels Hansen Jacobsen in 1892, I remeshed a 3d scan and baked AO,cavity and projected normals to texture a low poly model of it. I reckon it is well out of any copyright issues time wise but I will look further into this and if any problems I can create something else. It is kinda disturbing to some folks but I like it and it suits the atmosphere I am going for

definitely suits the scene, just creepy

tried the demo on my laptop and the jump felt a bit slow to respond, might just be low fps, not sure, i'll test again on my pc soon
the tutorial enemy didn't die for me but kept hurting me when i tried to attack him (i tried both normal and jump attacks), rest of the enemies died fine though.
the menu is bunched up/overlapping (most noticeable when finishing a level).
would be nice to have the notes close on Q as well, i dont like to play games with mouse if using laptop and as the rest of the game didnt need a mouse it felt a bit annoying.
i know it's likely not the finished tutorial but it should be made clearer that the hand is only 1 use rather than on some sort of timer (i guess you learn this by playing but it still might be nice to include it in the note).
definitely add a checkpoint at the axes, i didnt make it past them i died so many times

also the game didn't start in full screen but after i changed resolution in settings it was full screen, would be better if it started in full screen.

@Rolfy,

I figured it would be something like that.



I completely understand your pain here! haha. Photoshop, Illustrator, UE4, Blender and a few tabs of Chrome open......my computer hates me! haha.

The statue is great. For copyright; in themusic industry (could be the same for classic art?) as long as the original creator has been dead for over 100 years, all copyright is cleared.

@SmallG,



I have added a new 'jump-start' animation, which could be slowing things down. Although, this is the first I have heard, so, I will look into it.



How strange! I will need to keep testing on him.



What resolution are you working with on your laptop? I haven't tried it on different resolutions yet, so, I can imagine the scaling is just plain horrid!



Yeah, I have tried messing with this before. It annoyed me while I was constantly testing. I am working towards a completely mouse free experience. Which will also mean controller support.



Good point, well made. I will add the extra info.



Haha. Already added buddy. After AU Shadows video, I immediately added one in there! It was painful to watch him die so many times at that point!



Good spot! I will go in and change the settings for that.

Absolutely golden feedback mate! Thank you so much for taking the time to come back with this info! Greatly appreciated!

Cheers

Jay.

Also, brand new, hot off the press....... Medieval Steve teaser trailer.

Brand new teaser trailer for my game, Medieval Steve.



Cheers

Jay.

If you're making a 2d (3d with forced perspective, I know) plattformer like this you just have to know JazzJackrabbit². I loved it back then!

Maybe you'll find some inpsiration in it

I will take a better look at the game when I get on my dev rig.

It looks fun and could potentially give me some inspiration and/or ideas. Thanks for the link.

Cheers

Jay.

rolfy that last screenshot you posted , at first glance i would assume that was unreal. Looks quite good for Unity.

I hope someday we can create 2D/2.5 platformer with GG .

Hey rolfster! Been a while since the last update! Nothing new to get me jealous about?

Can you mount the camera to that characters head bone?? I'd love to see what this would be like in First Person.

Now remake assassins creed
Very cool, he'll soon be able to do more than I can... Wait, maybe he already does... :p

Good work on level design.


@SmallG

For the entire character animations, interactions and system he uses the Unity plugin : Third Person Controller from Invector


For the horse this is another plugin named "Horse Animset Pro"


He cheated you LOL
http://invector.proboards.com/thread/262/level-designs-wip?page=1

And you could do the same without coding using the same plugins.

my comment wasn't about rolfy but the character in his game can do more than i can in life, just a joke
i also wouldn't consider it cheating, that is what the plugins are for after all