Work In Progress / Shavra - Renaissance

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Wolf
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Posted: 18th Jan 2017 16:21 Edited at: 18th Jan 2017 16:25
Thank you 2! I just hope the gameplay will hold up as well. I try to keep melee combat to a minimum as I feel like it does not hold up in GG.

EDIT: I see that we reached page 3 Very nice! I'll migrate the last update over to this page. This comes in handy because there is now a slightly greater divide between the work with and without anti aliasing and other postprocessing.

*************


I haven't updated this for a while because I was finishing my test game and have been trying things here and there. I feel like I have progressed enough to give this another whirl (as I try to achieve a higher quality than in my SF games)



In my shooter games I can rely on the rather simple shooty shoot mechanic to carry my games. I know that centering the screen on something you want to hit and then clicking is not necessarily cerebral doping but can be fun and challenging. I hold a lot of fondness for the FPS genre but this game is decidedly not one. Despite there being weapons I still plan on having this to be by and large an adventure game...facing all the challenges that come with this. As a fan of stealth games like the legendary Thief series I also try, knowing that I'll likely get sub par results, to get stealth mechanics up an running. Its very possible that I'll cancel the idea if it proves to be unfeasible.

So yes, I've written out the plot points of a smaller game in this universe and will deliver that as soon as I can. I have less time this year than I had 2016 but I'll still try to keep up with this. Am I repeating myself here?? Anyway!! On to new stuff:

Despite dabbling in some gameplay mechanics I also tuned the visuals and had fun working on my maps!

Note that I have not yet replaced the HUD I had in Redacted : hired gun. Just pretend its not there, I'll get behind crafting a placeholder swap out for that later.


Samweyrian Village - Herbalists Hut




Still a huge fan of Errant AI's work in puncto weapons!




There is a certain serenity to this village to me. I'll ad some insects buzzing around when its polishing time!








I try to make places have an organic feel to it with lowpoly clutter objects like this!








Me fooling around. There are no enemies in this level, just NPC's. But hey! I like that tattoo I added so there ya go



If you look at that char, you won't notice how much the AO is not working in the background (:



Abbey Island again. A tiny bit optimized and modernized




Its possible that it will be a while until I can post newer material since I'll probably have a lot of tweaking to do to get a servicable stealth...illusion...going. For one level at least.

I think I mentioned everything I wanted to point out so I'll hold back on blabbering on endlessly. Let me know if you have any questions as alway:

Feedback and ideas are extremely welcome.



-Wolf
Bugsy
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Posted: 18th Jan 2017 20:16
for how much AO seems to "work" in the background it doesnt seem to be working as much as it should in the foreground. Might just be the way firefox displays images vs my comp, or the smaller resolution, but these look slightly better than they did on skype. second one is my favourite save the weird numbers at the bottom. if those are part of the story, I'd put them in a different font if you can.

also: your characters are fine. I kinda feel like "visual quality" is iffy with indie games anyways, especially people using this game engine. I think your main audience, gameguru users, would appreciate the use of some not-before-seen custom media!! even if the characters dont look like nathan drake or micheal or trevor from GTA doesn't mean they dont make it obvious to the rest of us nerds that you have invested a lot of time effort and energy not just using the same people everyone else does
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Wolf
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Posted: 20th Jan 2017 09:03
Hey Bugs!

I have not yet found out what the numbers are... Pirate_Myke suggested that they are coordinates of an item which would make the most sense but when I get them to zero...there is only terrain. Nothing in the editor either. I'll figure it out some time, as you know, my time working on this will be extremely short within the next few months.

I couldn't do with the old chars but feel very comfortable with the new ones. Thanks for your reassuring comment. I know, Characters and their facial rigs are advanced beyond your average joe - indie developers reach since almost forever. Even games like Doom³ or others in its generation have chars rigged in a way that the vast majority of indies just can't compete with.
I'm fine with that tough, as long as they don't stick out as much as the first iterations did. Actually, I really like the new ones Same with your chars for origins.



-Wolf

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Posted: 21st Jan 2017 17:20
Quote: "I have not yet found out what the numbers are..."


https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/217134

Check this, might be the same as your 'numbers'

Grts
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Posted: 21st Jan 2017 23:18
wolf wrote: "Same with your chars for origins."


hope you still got the time to retexture those guys
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Wolf
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Posted: 23rd Jan 2017 21:11
@Anubis: It is!! Thank you!

@Bugsy: Of course!



-Wolf
SpaceWurm
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Posted: 25th Jan 2017 21:18
Wolf, once again, fantastic work!! The placement of everything just makes it seem like there's a history to each scene. The color palette is spot on too.

One thing... (anal comment coming through) in screenshots 7 and 8 in the last post, there seems to be a light source close-ish to the rock which is causing some desaturation. I know I know... it's feeble but sometimes I need to try help thyne Lord Wolf of GG.
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Wolf
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Posted: 26th Jan 2017 04:10
Thank you and:

Good catch! Must be the specular map.

However: I have to freeze this project again as I was unable to prototype a form of gameplay (as in core gameplay) that would be fun enough to carry this kind of game and I don't want to "dumb it down". 2017 will be another SF game year for me.



-Wolf
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Posted: 26th Jan 2017 20:47 Edited at: 26th Jan 2017 20:49
It looks good Wolf, it reminds me Morrowind.

The shadowing is strange, are you using photo textures with baked shadows or with lot of contrast ?
Other parts are well lit, and this part is very black like totally absorbing the light.
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Posted: 27th Jan 2017 01:44
you know, I notice this too but like it. I feel like a lot of games these days are computer corrected to automatically get the perfect tonal range in every frame for photographic effect, but it doesn't allow anything but the very darkest shadows to be fullblack. I like to see darkness and light being able to be a part of textures for artistic effect, and feel like the glove actually fit perfectly given what the player probably is focusing on, which is where they're going. I think it presents a convincing sillhouette and doesn't shift the focus from the scene around you.

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Posted: 24th Feb 2017 15:39 Edited at: 24th Feb 2017 15:55
Why is your scenery so breathtaking ? I'm gonna wait till your out m8 and rob your pc lol Its a shame to drop it m8 but im sure you'll be giving us something great pretty soon (maybe worth sticking it on the back burner you my change your mind) i too love Skyrim so will give this a looksee. Hope you do come back to it Wolf its a beautiful piece of work.
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SpaceWurm
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Posted: 25th Feb 2017 06:17
*scrolls down. See the screenshots. Thinks "No ways! This is crazy good work that Wolf has done with GG". Proceeds to read the text.*

It is kinda sad you've canned this project Wolf but it is also understandable. I can understand that when you play a game that you thoroughly enjoy, it often creates inspiration but then it can also bring about the overwhelming prospect of creating a game to meet the standards of what you want in your own game. Enderal is probably one of those games for you. It's fantastic overhaul of TES VI and it's also a damn challenge! Been enjoying it for a while now.

At least we have Acythian to look forward to
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Ertlov
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Posted: 25th Feb 2017 09:19 Edited at: 25th Feb 2017 09:19
Although I can understand it from a psychological point of view, I find it pretty sad. This looked a long time like a Wolf-Fantasy-game that actually could get to some releaseable state.
I mean, we have been drooling on one or another iteration of your fantasy / outer world ideas for years now.

And, personally, I believe you are a better "visual story teller" (at least, if you finally embrace other means of ingame-story-telling) than FPS designer.
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Posted: 25th Feb 2017 10:18 Edited at: 25th Feb 2017 10:18
Noooooooooo
an unquenchable thirst for knowledge of game creation!!!
Wolf
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Posted: 27th Feb 2017 00:05
Hey gang!

Thank you for your input! It means a lot

@Honkeyboy:
Quote: "Why is your scenery so breathtaking ? I'm gonna wait till your out m8 and rob your pc"


Oh please! You'll find better hardware in a toaster these days But thanks!! I enjoy mapping and I guess I've developed a few tricks over the years

Quote: "(maybe worth sticking it on the back burner you my change your mind)"


I've been developing this game in different iterations (and engines) on and off again throughout several years. I think its only right for me to see that this is a bit beyond the scope of things I can do. I'll likely reuse a lot of stuff I made for this in a halloween mini game this year. So there is that!

Quote: "Hope you do come back to it Wolf its a beautiful piece of work."


Thank you! If I do, it'll be for small episodic games set in the lore I've written up for this. Not a full game like this.

@Landman :
Quote: ""No ways! This is crazy good work that Wolf has done with GG""


Haha! I wish!

Quote: "the overwhelming prospect of creating a game to meet the standards of what you want in your own game"


Exactly! Games are usually developed by large groups of professionals. I'm just a guy with a laptop. Even if I'd had more time and give this my all it'd still end up being rather "clunky" to play.

Quote: "At least we have Acythian to look forward to"


I'm glad you see it that way Altough Shavra has been perceived overwhelmingly positive throughout the interwebs where as Acythian is pretty much unknown. But hey! Acythian is a project I can finish and deliver something of reasonable quality.

@Ertlov:
Quote: "This looked a long time like a Wolf-Fantasy-game that actually could get to some releaseable state.
I mean, we have been drooling on one or another iteration of your fantasy / outer world ideas for years now."

I thought so too but its just not in my grasp to get this to anything enjoyable. Mechanics would miss the mark so much they'd be perceived as clunky in 2003. Also thanks a lot for the compliment

Quote: "And, personally, I believe you are a better "visual story teller" (at least, if you finally embrace other means of ingame-story-telling) than FPS designer."


Thank you! I can see why you feel that way, just let me assure you that I worked a lot towards in game story telling throughout the years. Its just that I never managed to get many to any of these games released Telling a story was why I first picked up game design in the first place. I deviated a lot from that core for my simpler games simply because its hard to get right.

@science boy:
Quote: "Noooooooooo"


Sorry mate! Its scope was too large for me.



-Wolf


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Posted: 13th Mar 2017 00:27
wolf will the new face rig program on steam help you to continue your quest for the ultimate game
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Posted: 21st Mar 2017 18:40
It would certainly be another handy tool in the box!! I gotta check it out. Thank you for the tip!
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Posted: 14th Jul 2017 22:03 Edited at: 16th Jul 2017 22:42


* * *


Hey gang!

Yeah, I know there was a big post up ahead where I announced that I quit the project. Well, I deleted it...because I can do that.
I took a while off to take care of other thing and doing so I also reevaluated my game projects. In the past I had a lot of failed projects and those that where successful where usually so because they where a game I could make rather than one I necessarily wanted to make. My fantasy projects where always more focused on quality than their futuristic counterparts and I decided to decrease some of the quality standards I've set for myself.
I'm a lot more lax about many aspects of game design now, simply because I'm only one guy after all.

I also took a browse through all my favorite games and there is a quality to them that unites them all, despite them being in different genres and settings.
Immersion and atmosphere. I always had a strong focus on atmosphere in the past but not so much on immersion and I'll try to get more up to speed on that as well. I was mostly checking out older titles in this regard, mainly Gothic 1 and 2, Thief 1 to 3 and Arx Fatalis. There are a lot of things in these games that make them great that a dedicated lone artist can do with current technology. I'm of course not claiming that I can reach the level of craftsmanship these games displayed, just that I took new inspiration from them as they are, mechanically, a lot more evolved than tons of "diet-cokeish, people pleasing" newer releases. Arx Fatalis and Dark Messiah have way more bone and meat to them than the sugary Dishonored 2....if you get my hamfisted adjectives here.

I want to craft little worlds that make sense in themselves rather than have the interaction be too "gamy". If a brittle, wooden door is locked and I'm armed with a giant warhammer, I should just be able to smash it rather than look for the key. If a lit torch is lying on the floor, I should be able to pick it up. Little things like this. Real people don't talk in exposition, my NPC's shouldnt do so either. I'm ranting but I'm sure you got the gist of it after the first example.

* * *


Just like Redacted: Hired Gun was a test to see if I can get a somewhat decent shooter set up in GG, all I'm really aspiring to with this for this year is a demo to see if I can get a decent Fantasy Adventure up and running.
I've added a few more mystery and horror elements because my projects are usually slanted in this direction and because it keeps players more on their toes, even when they are solving a puzzle. There is just something way more exciting in a game like Penumbra about its environmental puzzles knowing that something might turn up to chase you than there is in a Myst game. At least for me.

In conclusion: I'm working on a little demo ...again! Set in the Shavra Universe...again! With lowered standards and ambitions than I aim for in the full game...again

But enough of this palaver: Here are some screenshots from said conceptual demo.















Thanks for your visit, please let me know what you think



-Wolf
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Posted: 15th Jul 2017 12:44
I'm so glad you resumed this game! It's the kind I love! The atmosphere is great! I hope you will succeed in the intent!

Great news! Without offense to those who make war games, I always see them too similar to each other. I prefer unique games like this one!

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Posted: 16th Jul 2017 21:11
Quote: "I'm a lot more lax about many aspects of game design now, simply because I'm only one guy after all."


I came to this conclusion too about my game creation efforts. It's quite liberating, actually! It's not like you won't care about your levels anymore, it just means you will pick and choose your fights rather than fussing over every little detail.

Despite your apparent lowered standards, this is still stunning work Wolf! Just goes to show how much can be accomplished in GG's severely limited lightmapper if you know how to get the best out of it. I'd love to see a video of this level in action!

AE
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Posted: 17th Jul 2017 16:59
Heya!

Thanks for the feedback!

@lotgd: Thats great to hear. I came to the conclusion that offering the player little adventures would be way more rewarding than elaborate shooting galleries. My girlfriends stuffed animal collection can attest to how much I like a good shooting gallery though .
Indeed no offense to those that make shooters, be they military themed or not, but I feel like I made quite my share of FPS games and its time for a new challenge. I will list my previous releases soon too.

I'm also glad that you already like the atmosphere from the screenshots alone!
So far everything goes better than I expected.

@Avenging Eagle:

Quote: " It's not like you won't care about your levels anymore, it just means you will pick and choose your fights rather than fussing over every little detail. "


This sounds an awful lot like marriage . But its exactly the way it is. For example: If you look at the screenshots where the protagonist activates the button by casting the spell, the one with the statue mounted to the wall, you can see to the left that I misaligned the texture and so forth. The whole level has little issues like this but therefore I also added details like that small carving in the floor you can see well on the shot with the glowing shrooms up close. Adding to that is, as you mentioned, GG's lightmapper always misrenders some shadows and messes up the normal mapping but those are things I can just roll with now (in the hope they improve in the future).

Quote: "I'd love to see a video of this level in action! "


I want to have video devlogs too but my current rig is not strong enough to do this. I will get this level into beta state and then ask someone with a better system to record a video for me.



-Wolf
Peri
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Posted: 17th Jul 2017 17:43 Edited at: 17th Jul 2017 17:44
WOW Wolf what a high level its really looks amazing.
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Posted: 19th Jul 2017 02:28
Thank you Peri!! I've made some more progress here and there and can show some new stuff soon
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Posted: 26th Jul 2017 17:23
Hey there!

I didn't quite get around to working on this as often as I wanted but I still managed to get quite some headway done.
The second level has all the core gameplay elements in place. However, there is nothing else there yet so I can't show you any of it just yet.
My reasons being that it would spoil where you'll have to go and take the exploration element away from the experience and its just plain ugly the way it currently is.

I'm also working on a companion that will be there a short portion of the game. However this proves a bit difficult. I'm quite capable to get an animated model working well in GG but far less capable to make it move around the map in any consistent way. However, there will be some time spent on more fundamental things before I can get to that.

The title this demo will go with will most likely be "Skrye : a shavran tale". This is a working title though.

I have also gotten around to tweak the visuals a little to edit out some of the glossy game guruness that was present before. The shader maps pop a little more and the colours convey a bit more atmosphere now. The visual errors such as mildly displaced normals, stretching and all other kinds of terrible are still in but as I said before, the bar is a lot lower for me here for the sake of getting something playable out. That does not mean that I actively neglect things, it just means that I try to ..err...be more tolerant with myself? Bah! nevermind! What matters is that another place is developed enough to be shown here...the workshop. Please keep in mind that a lot is subject to change and many static items will later be replaced with interactive ones.

I know that all these environmental shots are not that exciting as they convey little about the game, however I will also reserve some surprises about tone and plot of the game for when I release it.







Upgraded areas which where shown before.







Workshop room and smithy


All feedback is very welcome!



-Wolf
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Posted: 27th Jul 2017 06:07
Love the attention to detail. Takes a huge amount of effort to get right, but is sometimes only noticed when it isn't done. Sometimes when running through a level I'll stop in a room and realize that it probably took a week to create the room in all its intricate detail, but I'm running through it in a few seconds.
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Posted: 27th Jul 2017 16:39
Beautiful work as usual, sir
As Gtox said, great attention to detail. This is one of those levels that leaps out of the screenshots and makes you just want to jump in and explore!

AE
Wolf
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Posted: 29th Jul 2017 21:30
Thanks a lot!

The beauty of GG is that I can whip these levels up way faster than I could in any other engine. I do of course have to deal with its shortcomings but that is well worth my time if I can have visible results so soon

Quote: "but I'm running through it in a few seconds."


Its an adventure so I do kinda force the player to loot every area for possible clues and items. ...but yeah! There are many fast paced but yet very detailed shooters out there!

Quote: "This is one of those levels that leaps out of the screenshots and makes you just want to jump in and explore!"


Thank you!! I really hope that, despite the flaws that come with indie titles, the surroundings will feel like a somewhat real place to the players.



-Wolf
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Posted: 3rd Aug 2017 20:41


****


I'm at the point in my life where I have to craft rough battleplans of what I am to do within the next couple of months.
A lot of my hobbies and interests have been swapped to the wayside in the wake of things that I just have to do. (Wether I'm particulary inclined to or not). I'm just gonna say if you have a regular joe, western job where you do your nine to five. Look at it in a positive light because I guarantee you, that once you can manage your own hours, you are in 9 out of 10 times going to work longer than you did before.

A reality that doesn't keep me from browsing the boards every 2 hours though! A man gotta lay out his priorities.

I've also been working on the game. Very little though so I don't have any new shots from the levels but I have crafted a new version of the companion character Cassia.

You might remember when I announced that I was going to invest in better character models, because I couldn't live with the significant divide between level and character quality. I've also been presenting my progress to folks outside of GG and got way better responds than I expected, even after I told them that its made in GG but the wooden lowpolygon look of the chars has always been mentioned.

Now, altough I bought these chars they still have to be modified, unified and of course scripted to work in GG which is a little nightmare in itself. Especially having them move around the place. However, this is a headache for another time now.

****


Cassia - Old Version




Cassia - New Version


Additional Pose 1

Additional Pose 2


She does still have more rough edges and a lower texture resolution than I could give her but I am downsizing my workload and the quality of my art a bit to get more progress done in less time.

If you stopped by, please let me know what you think



-Wolf
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Posted: 3rd Aug 2017 21:01
WOW Wolf this looks so good do you have the terrain off just wondering what the FPS is like with all that amazing scenery
Welcome to the real world!
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Wolf
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Posted: 3rd Aug 2017 21:36
Thanks Graphix! I appreciate it

Quote: "do you have the terrain off just wondering what the FPS is like with all that amazing scenery "

You bet I do! Terrain switches off the instant you don't see it anymore. Pretty much doing everything to keep the framerate high. The way GG is currently working I can get a better framerate in these detailed indoor levels than I can on a rather empty outdoor map. I can run the interiors at over 60 fps on my office laptop when I crank down the settings.



-Wolf
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Posted: 3rd Aug 2017 23:27
I like her,she looks good in the blue light.i no what you mean about time.i am more or less retired and still have no time,hoe do you work that out .

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Wolf
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Posted: 3rd Aug 2017 23:50 Edited at: 4th Aug 2017 16:45
Hey Granada!!

Haha! Its not always working out perfect but I do manage to set aside enough time to be happy with my schedule.

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Make a plan for my time,that's what I will take out of that .

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Posted: 4th Aug 2017 01:26
Hi Wolf.

The lighting and level of detail in your levels look absolutely awesome!

This is truly remarkable!
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Wolf
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Posted: 4th Aug 2017 16:50
I put my previous rant in a code snippet because it was rather off topic

@Solar: Thank you!!

I used to have a wonderful collection of props for the previous incarnation of this Game "Relict". However, I have found out much later that all models from that collection have been ripped from several games. I'm currently replicating all these models so I can design as freely as I used to. That means I can improve both, the detail and the optimization of my level soon.
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Posted: 4th Aug 2017 19:24
I think you should keep your models exclusive for this only. instead of sharing or selling them. I feel it will give your game an exclusive look and you will have a better chance of selling it.
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Posted: 4th Aug 2017 20:47
@MXS: I agree and there are certainly things I don't share.
Personally, I think my previous games all had a characteristic look to them and although some people tried replicating it, it was always rather distinctive. I doubt that if I sell my models enough people would buy them for them to be too widespread.
...and in the end, I don't plan to sell this game.



-Wolf
science boy
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Posted: 10th Aug 2017 12:45
sooo glad you taken this back up....

twin worlds will be getting much love and development when more things have been added, and prob looking at january for my next start.
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Posted: 11th Aug 2017 01:25
Heya Science Boy!

Glad to see you are still about too. Why the hold up until January?



-Wolf
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Posted: 13th Dec 2017 20:12


I just noticed I have uploaded the title image for this project in 2014. Sheesh! Creepy. Its almost 4 years later and I haven't really gotten anywhere with this project. It IS my personal "flagship" project but I should get around to at least release an in-universe spin off soon. I mean...woah!

I post to let everyone following this project know that I am still working on it, although the memory problems withing GG that have recently come to light have lowered my enthusiasm considerably. This title relies on very detailed and lit environments and I don't want to reduce any of it. In fact I was hoping to be able to increase it with GG progressing as an engine. We'll see how that goes.

While the spectrum of game developers and their ambitions is quite huge I believe you can break down most of them into 2 big categories. One group are those that view games akin to board, card or other social games. They develop certain rules, and gameplay mechanics and then dress them up to have a certain theme or style to them. These people often make multiplayer games and there is a lot of originality to be found among them. You notice a larger use of minimalistic or tooned graphics being used among these and games are often cross-plattform releases. The other group is more narrative oriented. While a compelling story is rarely the focus, this group wants to provide the player an experience where he is put in an outlandish or dangerous situation and gets a bunch of skills and tools to deal with it. These games usually bank on immersion, atmosphere, fluid interaction with the environment...so forth. I think the "immersive sim" type of games like Deus Ex, Thief or Arx Fatalis are very good examples for this school of though. Now they do overlap of course but I feel strongly about counting myself into the second categorie.

Shavra too should put the player into situations he has to adapt to. If a door is locked I dont want him to do the whole routine where they key is sitting somewhere on the other side of the map where it has no logical sense in being. I want options here. Can the door be broken if you have a large bulky weapon? Can it be lock-picked? Is there a place around me where it would make sense for a key to be? Can I avoid the door and sneak through an opening somewhere? What I always wanted to create with this title was a believable and very interactive world and so far I have not succeeded even remotely with this.

However, not all is bad... I tested Bugsy's latest lightmapping innovation on this marble corridor and I think it looks quite neat








As always! Thanks for visiting! Especially those of you who have been supporting me for all these years where I was working on this project!



-Wolf
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Posted: 14th Jan 2018 13:38
i like this wolf
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Posted: 9th Feb 2018 18:21
Wolf, this looks very good. awesome models you have here.
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Wolf
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Posted: 22nd Feb 2018 19:59
Wolf
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Posted: 7th Jan 2020 16:01 Edited at: 7th Jan 2020 16:03


Quote: "I just noticed I have uploaded the title image for this project in 2014. Sheesh! Creepy. Its almost 4 years later and I haven't really gotten anywhere with this project. It IS my personal "flagship" project but I should get around to at least release an in-universe spin off soon. I mean...woah! "


I concur, 2017 me! Sheesh, where does the time go? Anyway, to distract myself from the sepulchral gust that I seem to feel thinking about how I started working on the first incarnation of this project way back in 2010, I'd like to announce that I like to pick it up again. A lot of time has passed and I must say that 2019 was the most difficult year I had to face. The most difficult year yet, a mocking voice remarks somewhere deep within me, but difficult none the less.

However, it was not all grim as I also spent some quality creative time learning Unity and releasing an FPS game. The latter had a profound impact on my art direction as I kept the scope as small as possible but expanded on the very doable, simple ideas enough to have sufficient material for a full game. The trick here is that this way, I can actually drag something to be released.

I have started developing Shavra in a very early version of GG and you can see it evolve in this thread. A lot of you reading this will likely remember how rudimentary GG was back in the day. Broken, bugged and it all ran at a snails pace. Well, a lot has changed since then... I've gotten around working with its lightmapper, now somewhat intact again and to my surprise, large maps run with a solid 60 FPS throughout.
It saddens me that this had to occur so far into development where most of the public has long given up on game guru and deems it an asset flip generator. Alas!! There is nothing I can do about that but suffice it to say that I quite enjoy working with what it became now.

Now where to I want to take this project for now? Well, I have been giving it a lot of thought and came to the conclusion that "short story" fits what I want to do with it best. In 3D at least, I believe the main plotline would make for a decent novel and I honestly consider trying my hand at writing, seeing how Ivan Ertlov has had a lot of success with it. Now this would be a german release but hey, who knows...if I pull this off, maybe it will be translated . Hehe, I've never been a very ambitious man but I am also not a pessimist.

So, short stories. Small stories set in various locations in the world of Shavra with plot lines that all tie together over time. Now, before I get too lofty, lets just say that for now I have written up a plot for a small 10 level type game. Very oriented towards adventure game play with a grounded story line. Now, I can't even make a knock off of a large role playing game and I am honestly a bit alienated by how "fantasy" became synonymous with "role playing" for gamers. Not every game where you pick up a sword has to be a huge open world extravaganza. I always enjoyed games like Dark Messiah, Arx Fatalis, Thief, Drakan, Blade of Darkness or Hexen and take a lot of inspiration from them for this. While I always enjoyed a good fantasy plot, most stories revolving around dragons, huge battles and epic quests don't sit right with me. J.R.R. Tolkien knew how to pen such a tale but most modern incarnations have an after taste of high fructose corn syrup to me. ...but I digress.



I brought up Hexen because the melee combat in GG is still rather basic so I aim to go with a more magic based approach à la "the wheel of time". (play it, if you haven't Its pretty decent.) With working on this instead of an FPS game I also shot myself in the foot because I will need to get down to a lot of scripting eventually...that will prove to be interesting.

Anyway, while I have gotten back to it only recently, here are a few shots of a new area. Most of the things in this thread are old ideas from my FPSC days and its an absolute blast to be able to bring them to life now. The swampy, forested land of Sha'Rath is inspired by illustrations of ancient time periods like the jurassic, carniverous or triassic time period I have seen in books as a child. I hope to nail the atmosphere eventually. I've set the earlier prototype of this game in a desert, because there was no way back then to do forest in GG and not have the game stutter with the frame rate of a dia show.



















Up on the workbench next:

* You may have noticed that these weapons don't look right, with the pitch black shadows on them. That is because they are still tweaked for the X9 shaders and will be updated to PBR.
* A health bar and health vial system
* Some basic wild life for this area and later on the enemies you will face.
* Lot of small things I will bring up as I go along with this

For now, thank you for reading and I am always interested in reading your thoughts!



-Wolf
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Posted: 7th Jan 2020 21:55
About time. Bring back the fantasy force of shavra long may she be with us. As usual the art is immense spectacular and inviting with that urge to play explore and enjoy and as i am aware of your skills i will never be disappointed

Welcome back to your home wolf
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Posted: 9th Jan 2020 14:07 Edited at: 9th Jan 2020 14:08
Can't wait to get baked on those enormous shrooms! lol

Always nice to read what you're tinkering away on, Wolf, and I wish you every success in progressing this project. I like the idea of a short story format game set in a fantasy world, would be a great way to explore lots of aspects of your gameworld and its lore (and I know you love lore!) in an efficient way.

That environment is looking nice. Weirdly kinda reminds me on Naboo from Star Wars but that's probably because of the massive stone face. Also has a somewhat oriental feel. Might be an interesting and original design cue though, to take inspiration from the East - every fantasy game I know seems to feel thoroughly European, even though few are set in Europe.

Anyway, good to see you're still experimenting with Game Guru. Hopefully 2020 is kinder to you, and also brings some much-needed engine enhancements to make our lives easier!

AE
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Posted: 9th Jan 2020 18:11
Quote: "Can't wait to get baked on those enormous shrooms! lol"


LMAO

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Posted: 10th Jan 2020 19:30
@Science Boy: Thank you for the warm welcome!!

@Avenging Eagle:
Quote: "and I wish you every success in progressing this project. "

Thank you and likewise!

Quote: "Might be an interesting and original design cue though, to take inspiration from the East - every fantasy game I know seems to feel thoroughly European, even though few are set in Europe. "


I've been saying for years that there is infinite stuff for games if they'd explore foreign cultures and mythologies in fantasy games. So far, its been seldomly done.
Personally, I don't do it on purpose, its just that plot wise this should be another planet but prop wise, I have to work with what I got. I can't model everything by myself, or I wouldn't see the end of it so I end up blending various historic styles and try to make it coherent while avoiding generic medieval european over tones.

Quote: "Hopefully 2020 is kinder to you, and also brings some much-needed engine enhancements to make our lives easier!"


Here is hoping!




bluemeenie195
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Posted: 11th Jan 2020 00:04
The picture you showed with the broken wagon almost looks like a painting.
Your games always look fantastic.
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Posted: 14th Jan 2020 16:23
Quote: "The picture you showed with the broken wagon almost looks like a painting."


Thank you!! The new stuff will improve visually as well once I decide what kind of post processing to use. That will be decided at a later date though.

As for now, I have gotten around working on this again and made some progress. The overwhelming majority of things are still in a very early, rushed state. Mostly because I never actually did much LUA for this, unlike Acythian, so I have to do almost all in-game systems from scratch. I have an inventory framework and even figured out a work around to having a key or quest object simoultaneously show up in the players inventory but also acting as a standard key. So thats good. However, now I struggle to add more player attributes than health to flesh out the game. If anyone made some headway here or has suggestions of what can be done, I am always open for ideas.

On the visual front of things I have taken the time to brush up my old stuff. I mean old stuff. I have some fantasy props from the FPSC community that date back to 2006 and while I could just remake them from scratch, with a higher poly count and generally increased detail I decided to just use my texture library (mostly stuff from textures.com and davegh in this case) and quickly spruce them up with new textures, UV's and shaders. I mean, the original ones used solid colors on some.
Now this is mostly sentimental value because I have used these props so often throughout the years that I grew kind of attached to them.
Here is a selection so you know what I am yapping on about:







More pillars

Small stuff

Plinth

Stuff I

Stuff II

Grave Pillars


I have also gotten valuable feedback from this community that the ambient settings of my earlier screenshots didn't quite cut it so
I have overhauled them. While test runs with beautiful blue skies or an evening sunset looked the best, I did want to maintain the slightly more eeriee overcast nature of the scene and thanks to rolfy, I found just the skybox and adjusted the level to that. See here:

















And on a final note, to my surprise this map still ran with a solid 60 fps after I have added all the environmental critters. Frogs, Moths, Dragonflies and bugs all thanks to Gtoxs extraordinary artistry. Now I did the same thing on this map in an earlier version of game guru and straight up lost 20 fps.



Changelog


Implemented rudimentary inventory system based on moshrooms great code.
Upgraded Weapons and Hands to PBR
Overhauled ambience of the journey maps that lead from the Apothecary to the village of Ramak.
Imported collection of old environment props
Created several detail props
Implemented simple journal system

As always, I am grateful for your feedback and there is more to come!



-Wolf

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