Work In Progress / Shavra - Renaissance

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Avenging Eagle
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Posted: 17th Jan 2020 22:23 Edited at: 17th Jan 2020 22:23
The updated skybox and adjusted ambience makes all the difference - it looks much better now. I have great faith your sound design, which is pretty consistently top notch, will really sell this as a proper lived-in environment. All those bugs will no doubt help too, give it another dimension of movement. Beautiful stuff.

One thing I've come to admire about your work is the sheer amount of models you produce. I know you reuse a lot of them from project to project, and I know you've been modelling for well over a decade but JEEZ LOUISE, you have made SO much stuff over the years! Great to see it's still coming in handy even now, although it looks like the squarish pillar (picture 3) could benefit from some adjustments to the smoothing group.

AE
Wolf
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Posted: 18th Jan 2020 02:45
Thank you!!! Means a lot coming from you. I will try to improve on it continously, I'm very motivated now that GG can actually hold its ground with most needed features.

Also, allow me to share something important to me, that I added to my work routine when making models. Its true that making stuff is a huge part of the fun for me. I get ideas about new structures and shapes anytime I am in public, sadly I wasn't all that productive last year but I intend to increase my output on all parts of my life this year, including making these silly games

Now, I've always made a lot of stuff but whenever I was working on a scene I ended up lacking important detail props. I figured out that this was mostly because, while I had all the entities I needed, most of them where textured with a different tint than what I had in mind to use. You might have noticed that the previous incarnations of this game all used a very warm, sandstone look for the architecture. I made it to be rather characteristic on purpose which was a mistake. That was because the game was indeed set in an arid environment but when I started making something set in say, a forest, I was limited to fewer assets.

First time where this really stood out to me was when I was working on a fishing village. Wooden piers, huts, overpasses, all of that sorta jazz. Now I had tons of planks and wooden structures, I think we all do if we downloaded all FPSC and GG packs available for free, but all the planks had very different tones. Dark wood, worn wood...hell some wood was nearly black and white. Thats when I grabbed a particular wood texture that had the tone I wanted, blurred it and used it as a template to color all the other wooden items I had. Now I could use all of my wood props in the same scene and none stick out. The whole process takes me a few seconds per texture.

I have adapted this to all basic materials, wood, rock and concrete. If I want some coloration to remain more pronounced I can use the color layer at a smaller percentage (70 instead of 100%). So there is a folder sitting on my desktop with the base rock, wood and concrete color texture. This greatly speeds up design process once you decided on a universal template for your environments.

So now I can make collections of assets for later use that will still be just the way I need them, when and if the need arises.



-Wolf
OldFlak
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Posted: 18th Jan 2020 11:26
Yeah, consistent texturing makes a great deal of difference.

Awesome looking scenes Mr Wolf.

Great too that you are inspired by GG again - lets hope when the beans are finally spilled for 2020 GG it leaves us with dropped jaws.

OldFlak....
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Avenging Eagle
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Posted: 20th Jan 2020 22:05
Interesting to read about your process - I'll have to try that in future if I ever need to retexture large quantities of third party entities. I too have noticed the alarming inconsistency between different - I'll use your example - planks of wood from one pack to the next. I'm assuming you also create a new folder in entitybank just for media for that particular game, and just copy your retextured assets in there? I've started doing that for Ignite too. A lot of the base dungeon models come from a pack by Lafette, but I found them all too green so I've copied everything into an 'Ignite' folder and am slowly retexturing bits as I need them. Even more laborious when I'm having to synthesise PBR maps from DNSI originals, but it's all good fun!

Anyways, keep up the great work!

AE
Wolf
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Posted: 22nd Jan 2020 08:30
Quote: "I'm assuming you also create a new folder in entitybank just for media for that particular game, and just copy your retextured assets in there?"


Oh, not quite While I generally make games in 2 distinct genres, I modify everything to fit in those. So my library is full of collections that are either Fantasy or Scifi with their relative style. I do have an absurdly long list of folders...and I like to think being able to navigate these accurately with GG's lack of a search function (and my lack of proper archivation) is good for my memory
Medmatheus
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Posted: 22nd Jan 2020 12:44
Great work as usual you keep inspiring creators for sure.

Also, do you have a gameplay movie for this project?
Wolf
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Posted: 24th Jan 2020 15:38
Thanks Medmatheus!

There is no video yet, but you can follow my channel here and I'll upload it there once I got something
Wolf
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Posted: 6th Feb 2020 00:24


Hey gang, its been a while so I'd like to update this with some more recent stuff.
Now, not THAT much has happened but I did get around to improve a few more aspects of the game. Its all going well and things are progressing. I also retain 60 FPS on my rig, which is marvelous. I'll keep you all updated on how that fares in the future as well as I think its important.

I said before that even though this project started when GG was in its prolonged infancy, that I dont have as much gameplay related stuff ready as I have for Acythian as I shelved it pretty early on simply because there was no way I could pull it off in older GG versions. I try not to endlessly chip away on a "pipe dream" but as I stated, I always wanted to make this game. I bring this up because I realized by working on it just how much I am on square one with it. Maybe square 2 with a lot of generosity and faith

That being said, a lot of things are not yet decided. I do have pretty neat characters, you've seen glimpses of them in previous screenshots but I am also interested in seeing the new and improved character editor that is promised to be in GG max. I plan to have this game have occasional spoken dialogue bits but mostly written multiple choice dialogue sequences.... but with an easy lip sync system I might just get a couple buddies together to voice it and see how that fares. So thats all pretty much in the dark still.

Speaking of GG max, Lee has promised us backwards compatibility but I am cautious about that, so I am on the fence of fully plunging into some mechanics right away because... well, I am fairly certain I can just pop my levels, at least the static geometry and basic animated stuff, straight into GGX but I do have my suspicions when it comes to global parameter heavy scripts like an inventory system. So I will likely get a few levels made, pop in basic combat and exploration and wait to sink my teeth into the real meat of the game later on. If you have thought about that for your own works, lemme know.

So the game is intended to have between 15 or 20 Levels. That would make it the larges GG game to date, I am aware of that, but hey, its a project that is very dear to me so I want it to fill a couple evenings for the player.

Some frustration came also in realizing that the exteriors don't quite look the way I want them to. Some of that is down to GG's rendering but most is because I simply don't have the right assets yet so I am also working on that. There are some great games out there with a visual style that I intend to come close to from the early 2000s and I do need a few more passes to get that right.

Allow me to also post a few screenies from an area I have been working on. This is part of the main quest and you will get to deal with some nasty critters. Keep in mind looking at this that you will hunt (or be hunted by) giant spiders here that creep up on you through the foliage. You can not always see them coming until they are close which is a nice added effect. I'll be sure to record some eeriee audio for them sometime this week. This all leads up to an abandoned mining village where they dug up a subterranean spider nest. You will be tasked to play exterminator here and destroy the nest. Nothing too special but a neat creepy aside from the main story line in my mind.


























As always, the soundtrack will make or break this scene. I intend to have thick swamp sounds with frogs croaking (and be actually visible in the game for that matter) and a subdued tribal music suite that flares up every now and then. We'll see how this goes.

Here is something that will amuse some of my fellow GG users, I have a lot of unity packs ready to go that are far superior, but a lot of the fun to me is making or modding my own stuff. So these are the cartoon props from the classics collection remade:















Changelog


Polished some of the levels, including new foliage and other environment models
Increased grass draw distance and thus improving look and feel of exteriors (thanks guys!)
Changed PBR rendering values to improve metallic and glass objects (soon to be seen)
New architectural content as seen above. More to be added soon.

As always, thanks for reading and all the amazing support I've gotten for this project so far! Cheers!!



-Wolf
Skonlogick
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Posted: 6th Feb 2020 00:56 Edited at: 7th Feb 2020 21:38
That's some amazing work. The scene really sets the mood for the atmosphere you're going for, creepy spiders sneaking up on the player. For some reason, I'm getting Morrowind vibes from this, especially the swamp areas of that game.

Hopefuly you'll be able to continue this in GGMAX so you can get all those features in there, without engine limitations.

Here are some screenshots from the aforementioned Morrowind areas.

https://forum.game-guru.com/attachment/24560

https://forum.game-guru.com/attachment/24561

https://forum.game-guru.com/attachment/24562



The rework on those cartoon props look amazing, in fact, they look quite real. Great work on those, hopefuly we will see more of your work soon. I pretty much use your assets in every scene I make
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Wolf
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Posted: 7th Feb 2020 21:42
Thank you Skonlogick!

Yes, ever since I've went for the giant mushrooms for the swamps I am getting a lot of "morrowind" comments across the web. I'll stick to it though, Morrowind had a great art style and these mushrooms look mystical and are very lowpoly and easy to integrate I like the way they look.

All I hope for in GGMAX is better memory managment. Everything else could remain the same and I would be happy, as that is the last show stopping error GG has, the inability to load certain levels in larger builds.

Quote: "in fact, they look quite real"

Thank you!!
My stuff is starting to remind me of table top props. You know, the little models you get for the LotR table top games, the black eye or warhammer games. I'm a little proud of that

Also I edited your pics to be links because otherwise someone might browse this thread and assume I pirated morrowind props or directly copied them which is something I want to avoid



-Wolf
Avenging Eagle
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Posted: 7th Feb 2020 22:45 Edited at: 7th Feb 2020 22:46
Quote: "I do have my suspicions when it comes to global parameter heavy scripts like an inventory system...If you have thought about that for your own works, lemme know."

You may have seen that AmenMoses has recently been helping me develop a little multi-level picture puzzle for Ignite. In his testing, he discovered that Game Guru doesn't have a persistent LUA environment. That is, every new level is loaded effectively like a new standalone so all globals get reset to their default init values when a new level loads (apart from a few hard-coded things like player health, weapons carried etc.). This is a bit of a problem for building a working inventory system but, thankfully, LUA allows you to read and write to files outside of Game Guru, which is how Amen managed to crack the storing of which pieces of my puzzle the player has collected. This functionality isn't going anywhere, it's built directly into LUA as a language, so if you wanted to write an inventory system, that's probably the way to go. Mine was a very simple example but 3com has built a inventory system before so might be worth hitting him up! Would be better if all this functionality was wrapped up within Game Guru itself though.

https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/221478

Quote: "So the game is intended to have between 15 or 20 Levels."


"Say whaaaat?"
I admire your ambition, especially given Game Guru's memory cap and the other projects you've got on.

The environments look great btw, very atmospheric and forbidding. Do those mushrooms have a purpose within the story/lore? Or even a gameplay purpose? In any case, I'm looking forward to seeing some videos of spider combat one day! Also well done on the retextures. I used to criticise those assets back in the FPSC days but you've proven great things can come from these old assets if you're willing to put the work in.

Big thanks also for the mention in your article for the TGC newsletter, it means a lot

AE
Wolf
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Posted: 10th Feb 2020 02:20
@Avenging Eagle: Ah!! I have been kind of shying away from looking at permanent states for inventories and quest related things due to this so far. Eventually I will have to tackle it but I do wait for the release of GGX and see how its done in the new engine now.
Thanks for the info.

Quote: "I admire your ambition, especially given Game Guru's memory cap and the other projects you've got on. "


The difference between working with GG and another engine is that I can (hopefully especially in the future upgrade) continously work in it in a relatively relaxed state. You see, I don't have the daunting task of worrying about my own code collapsing in on itself as I do with unity because most of what I have with GG is already pre-coded. The homemade scripts are more surface layer and easily adjustable to me so working on this game throughout the year should allow me to make constant improvments and progress so... as this is kind of my " flagship" project... why not put in the extra work and deliver something that really fills a couple evenings for the player.

Quote: "Do those mushrooms have a purpose within the story/lore?"


No, these are just part of the natural foliage of that area. There are mushrooms the player can collect which are much smaller in size. I do have hopes to have a rudimentary alchemy system ever since I started this project. Especially now that I moved it back to the lush swamp lands but that is not 100% necessary. And those mushrooms you can collect are much smaller in size. The large ones are, just as the trees, a feature of this landscape. You will however come across optional books the player can read that touch on them to further improve the effect of immersion.

Quote: "Or even a gameplay purpose?"


Haha, I probably can't resist this as they are perfect for some kind of environmental jumping puzzle.

Quote: "I used to criticise those assets back in the FPSC days but you've proven great things can come from these old assets if you're willing to put the work in. "


Haha, and you are not the only one. Ever since FPSC I've always maintained that asset packs are a solid base to modify for an authors need and not something I want to just work out of the box. Sure, they are all a bit under cooked texture wise when you get them but such wonderful stuff once you polish them a little as they save you plenty of time compared to making all these yourself.
Its relatively easy to learn retexturing and changing a mesh but pretty hard to make such a medieval building yourself so I am thankful we have them



-Wolf
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Posted: 14th Feb 2020 14:28 Edited at: 14th Feb 2020 14:28




Hello again!

I've been working on improving the existing maps a bit and also added a new one. Dungeons, crypts and mines are of course an integral part of the fantasy adventure genre and I do intend to both make them interesting and engaging. For that I have specific ideas to stretch the gameplay to last at least 15 minutes per level. The "indoorsy" nature of these areas allows me to optimize them to both be quite large and labyrinthian while maintaining a flawless frame rate (See my old optimization tutorial in the tuts section if you too would like to know how to do this. Specifically, turn off the terrain and water whenever the player can not see it.)

Shavra takes a lot of inspiration from older fantasy games, stuff that came out in the late 90s and early 2000s simply because those games had very isolated gameplay beats. You reach a puzzle, you solve it, you move on, you encounter an enemy, you deal with it, you move on... this is in contrast to newer games like "The Witcher" or "Kingdom Come: Deliverance" where there are constant interconnecting systems engaging each other and plenty of stats being updated, changed...so forth. I don't intend to make the game feel simple by any means, there is just less number crunching under the hood because I know well enough that I couldn't code that in LUA. So if you encounter a trap in Shavra, you will have to deal with it independent of your current relationship to the kings wife or what potion you drank 2 levels prior.
I ..err... hope this makes sense

So this level is far from done of course but I decided to lightmap an early version of it and the results can be seen below.

I am also still in the process of converting media. Currently on the chopping block are unfamillias cartoon assets, which will be remolded to go with my art style but are otherwise quite useful and the stock medieval buildings by arteria 3d. Not only do these get a fresh coat of paint and shader maps but I also managed to reduce their polycount by several hundred polygons. File and texture size are also far more lightweight

You see that the dungeon is a bit too colorful for my taste and not everything is 100% polished, at this stage nothing is, but I will not tweak it too much as this will eventually get ported to GGX. So there is little point in fine tuning a lighting system that will be replaced anyway.























As always, thanks for reading and please let me know your thoughts

Changelog


Just improved maps.



-Wolf
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Posted: 15th Feb 2020 17:42
Here is my thoughts, Wow, just wow

Ps .... these days i just float around on GG forum looking at what everyone else is doing, and hopefully the urge to start working again will hit me with a bang.
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Wolf
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Posted: 19th Feb 2020 01:45
Thanks PCS!

Hey, I hope you do! You made some cool levels.
cybernescence
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Posted: 19th Feb 2020 07:31
It’s looking great Wolf

Is your rebuild retexturing of the assets PBR - looks like they might be, but guess will need to be to exploit the new GI and lighting in max?

Cheers.

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Wolf
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Posted: 19th Feb 2020 21:43
Hey cybernescence!

Thank you! Well, they are sort of PBR. All my models are DNS in the little presentation pics but do use the PBR override in the game.
That means that they have the proper materialindex and (occasionally) shader, yet seldomly have the full set of PBR maps. For wooden, rocky, metal, glass or otherwise homogenous entities I am quite fine with just the normal and albedo map (specular is also included yet it seems to no longer be loaded when using PBRoverride) I'll only add the gloss and metalness maps for objects that require these, as in objects that have both wooden and metallic parts to them or special detail objects.

It might seem a bit lazy (it is) but I am fine with how it looks + I get to save resources with less textures being loaded.



-Wolf
Wolf
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Posted: 22nd Feb 2020 23:08
Howdy!

I figured I'd update this to share some more web presence for this project.
Now that I am fully committed to working on this instead of my other creative outlets I thing its good to have a few web presences out there instead of just this thread. Now oneof these have been around for a while but has been largely neglected, I now try to update them all in sync with each other.

First of all: I updated the first post to this thread to better represent the project. It still had some ancient screenshots from 2015 to 2017... with the old rendering engine, lack of AA and some pretty spotty stuff. I think it represents the progress better now while still having some screenshots from the past to show where it came from. Link is here.

The IndieDB site has been around longer than this thread and is the best archive of this so far

Game Jolt is a pretty decent service and I have a newer profile for the game there as well. LINK

Presence on my own website.

Cheers!



-Wolf
Wolf
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Posted: 2nd Mar 2020 12:51
Hey folks!

First of all, I have had another game guru moment working on my dungeon. You see, that dungeon is planned to be at the middle chunk of the game and I felt that was a good place to prototype the general gameplay and make an alpha video of it. I'm not exactly surprised but...of course game guru decided that once the level had an increment of complexity to refuse to lightmap it. Now, I always appreciate input but let me just say that yes....I tried all tweaks to fix that, there is nothing wrong with the level, it just seems to be too large for the lightmapper to operate now. Its not really a biggie, as I fully intend to migrate this to GGX (if it holds up) eventually but its frustrating because I did indeed want to show that video later on. Oh well, I will have to pick another map to showcase then.

Now, here are the added parts that made the lightmapper quit on me. You can see the last screenies from that area that are lit later on below.

Entrance to the dining hall. You see the collapsed entry is quite well hidden here. All areas in the game should feel connected and natural. There isn't a clean cut between "outdoors" "city" and "dungeon" as it is with some other games. A dungeon might lead into a cave or out into a valley and then back into catacombs.

Unlit collapsed hallway.

Unlit dining hall

Unlit dining hall entry.

Dining hall statue

So, if you picture these scenes lit, they might have looked quite decent even

Anyway, on to a different topic: I have seen DenZeliks Neir lately and he has quite the inventory and store system whipped up. I am always amazed by what some of you can do in LUA and that makes me re think my own design choices. You see, Shavra originally based its store system off of Dvaders work. Meaning, you would get currency from activities,or finding jewels, valuables or coin. This would then be added to a sum completely disconnected from the inventory. But seeing that an inventory system can actually communicate with a store system made me scratch that idea in favour of this. No idea how to do it...but now I know it can be done. I'm always fond of the creativity in this community

This also gives me hope for that alchemy system I always wanted to make.

Other changes to the game are rather simple but add up. Foliage has been added, some props have also been created. Slowly making progress as I want to have a decent chunk to be somewhat ready when the GGX update hits. It then either works as intended or I convert everything to unity... we shall see.

A project like this is quite enjoyable to make but also demanding. For example, I have finally decided to make the climate of the swamps to be colder and more pseudo-european. Initially I had a more tropical feel in mind but didn't like the look of it.. All little things that need to be considered and that pile up. Also I have chosen to go with tribal and folkish drums and flutes rather than an orchestral track. easier to make/come by and gives it its own personality.












As always, thanks for checking in! Let me know what you think

***Changelog***


Improved and added to Sunken Temple and Dark Valley levels.
Added several wooden items and detail props
Added new foliage and improved existing foliage.
Added enter-able huts for villages
One new ambient music track.
Duchenkuke
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Posted: 2nd Mar 2020 13:02
lovely screenshots. Cant wait to play!
MXS
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Posted: 3rd Mar 2020 00:29
this game just looks amazing.
more than what meets the eye.Welcome to SciFi Summer

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Wolf
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Posted: 7th Mar 2020 21:35 Edited at: 7th Mar 2020 21:38
@Duchenkuke: Haha! Thanks, you're on the top of my list

@MXS: Thank you! Glad to see you are still checking in from time to time

****Small Update****


No earth shattering news but as you know, games like this grow in small increments.
I have been adding to existing areas, which I hope you're not tired of seeing A few other tiny things have happened too though.

I have finally gone through my asset library and fixed materialindex issues and some transparency issues. If you also have foliage that doesn't work quite right, with it obscuring objects behind it or having outlines around the leaves/branches do this:

1. Make sure the occluder/occludee setting is proper for the way you use it (duh!)
2. Make sure the line "transparency = 5" is added to the .fpe.
3. Be sure to quickly edit the texture to make sure the part that has transparency to it (leaves, grasses, branches) don't touch the edge of the texture.

Now you should be all set and they should (mostly) render as intended. Special thanks to Duke for giving me the hint about that last part.

Also this: All you script savvy folks might be able to point me in the right direction:
For the game, I want the player to be able to carry only 2 weapons. A light one and a heavy one. So whenever he finds a new light weapon (dagger, shortsword...so on) he will have to switch it with the one he has currently equipped. Same with the heavy weapons. The other 7 weapon slots should be reserved for spells, where the same system applies.
Is that at all achievable in LUA? I wouldn't know how to go about that so I am looking for input

So, here is some more wandering through the nature of Sha'Rath: I am in no way advocating for anything but I must say that I think the final game will also be fun to stroll through while stoned.



















***Changelog***


Fixed some media to render properly
Additions to levels

As always, thanks for stopping by and I am always grateful for feedback!

So long!



-Wolf
Duchenkuke
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Posted: 7th Mar 2020 21:41
awesome foliage !

Outstanding screenshots!
OldFlak
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Posted: 7th Mar 2020 23:58
Great stuff Wolf

Although all those pics are cool, that top pic is my favorite - just looks awesome.
The old tree and those huge rock formations that gives the level real atmosphere.

The sky is awesome - the only negative there is it is very low render quality. However having made quite a few skies, and a bit of messing with Terragen 4 I know that a sky of that composition would take a LOT of render time (easily one for the Render Plow).

Overall it is just great environment - sorta makes you want to pitch a tent and explore the place....

OldFlak....
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Wolf
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Posted: 10th Mar 2020 01:39
Thanks guys!!

@OldFlak: I never considered making my own sky boxes from scratch. I will look into terragen, thanks for the tip.
Other engines allow you to import skyspheres, so you can directly grab panoramas from Google Earth and put them in your game. (non commercial only of course!!). It would be nice to have that in GG... its how I made this sky in one of my unity prototypes.
OldFlak
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Posted: 10th Mar 2020 05:00
Yeah, indeed spheres would be great to have. Boxes are pretty old hat nowadays.....
That sky would have to be minimum 2k to look any good using Terragen and they would consider that very low res as well.

OldFlak....
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Wolf
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Posted: 15th Mar 2020 19:24
I see!! I have some skies that are just 1k. I guess I am more inclined towards the mood something sets than its resolution. We'll see how it all comes together later this year
OldFlak
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Posted: 15th Mar 2020 21:39
Yeah it has a great mood to it for sure - all your maps seam to....

Maybe adding fog to sky would help at tad - you can change that in settings FX

OldFlak....
aka Reliquia
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Wolf
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Posted: 18th Mar 2020 02:19
Thank you!

I have not yet experimented with that at all. I will do so
Avenging Eagle
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Posted: 21st Mar 2020 22:27
Luscious environments as ever. If I'm picky though, for me the skybox is a little too bright - those blown out highlights don't match the terrain or entities. The overbrightened look could be something you're going for, perhaps to show a hot or sun-scorched environment, but in that case, the Surface Level would need be increased a bit to better match the sky. If not, you could lower the brightness of the sky a bit, because seldom is a sky as blown out as that.

Just my opinion

AE
Gtox
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Posted: 22nd Mar 2020 16:12
Lovely
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Wolf
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Posted: 27th Mar 2020 12:19
Hey gang!

I gave it a lot of thought and decided to put this project on hold indefinitely. Shavra has always been my "flagship" project and its world and lore are rather deer to me. That is also why I can absolutely not work on it to end up being mediocre. So I feel like its best to shelve it until some time in the future where I might have better skills and better tech to pull it off.

Why is that? Well, after bringing it up to speed here and there I was finally getting down to the core gameplay loop and...boy oh boy... did it not work. You see, I already knew that the melee combat in GG is horrendous at best. So I decided to have melee combat as a side to a magic/spell casting system as the focus. You can see on page 1 of this thread that this actually looked quite passable but it didn't play that well. I tried to work some magic on the gunspec files but it always ended up feeling like firing an invisible gun.

With melee combat in a fantasy adventure game being janky and the magic system not being much better I took a look at other issues like how I'd need a robust inventory system for the game. Now, I was able to make that kinda work, with a few tricks to link inventory objects to active quests but this too felt cobbled together.

So I either put this on hold or need to bother other users with tons of scripting requests in the vague hope that GGMax has more features to make this a reality. Thats just not how I like to work.

So in the end, I decided to conclude this project before I end up wasting time on something that will never be up to my standards and decided to focus on my other long standing project: Acythian, instead.

Since I am closely following all of your progress here as well I found that user Duchenkuke made some pretty motivating strides with his project that inspired me to re-design Acythian into what I hope will end up being a pretty decent game. At least with it, I know that I can make the core gameplay engaging. I mean, it was already not half bad in the Redacted Test games.

This project has seen a lot of work already with plenty of environmental props and custom characters being made. I will pack some of this and send it to a few of you who also work on fantasy themed games so it does not go to waste. However, most of these assets are based on GG stock media so I won't put them up as a free download. Expect to see some hand made stuff on my store page shortly and the rest will get sent to other community members of whom I know that they have the same media in private.

And thats that. I know that its disappointing to anyone who was patient with and followed this project through the years but I rather say this upfront than just have this project fade into the back pages of this section again without addressing it. Cheers to you and remember to stay save in these uncertain times

Godspeed!

Duchenkuke
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Posted: 27th Mar 2020 12:31
I am no stranger when it comes to putting projects on hold (or abandon completely)

This thread is a great way to show what can be done ~ it is still of high value even tho the project is not continued for now.
cybernescence
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Posted: 27th Mar 2020 13:06
I know what you mean ... can't let my 'baby' out into the wild either .... it's just not living up to the dream (yet)

Hope you get back to this at some point when you can.

Cheers.

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Avenging Eagle
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Posted: 27th Mar 2020 18:38 Edited at: 27th Mar 2020 18:39
Oh man, that's such a shame after all the work you put in, but also totally understandable.

It's an all-too-often occurrence on this board. I heard someone recently refer to the Work In Progress board as a graveyard of indie projects abandoned because of the shortcomings of the engine. I hope Game Guru Max brings you the advancements you need, though I still have reservations that, aside from a couple of new features, it will largely be a cosmetic upgrade.

Would this project not be better suited to Unity? I know you've done some experiments with it already but returned to the TGC fold, but surely the capabilities of that engine are better aligned to the scope of this project?

In any case, best of luck with your future projects; I'll be keeping a close eye on them whatever happens!

AE
Wolf
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Posted: 27th Mar 2020 21:22
Thanks for understanding! I've been offered donations for this several times already but never took them just because I'd never take anything if I could not guarantee that there would be a final, playable project.

Quote: "This thread is a great way to show what can be done ~ it is still of high value even tho the project is not continued for now."


Thanks! Thats why I'll leave it here. Its still a good source to show some level design related stuff to new users.

Quote: "I know what you mean ... can't let my 'baby' out into the wild either .... it's just not living up to the dream (yet)"


You are a bit more resourceful than I am, so I'm sure you'll nail it eventually...but alas, I know too well that its a struggle.

Quote: "I heard someone recently refer to the Work In Progress board as a graveyard of indie projects abandoned because of the shortcomings of the engine."


Hehe! While not wrong per se, its a bit of an overstatment... simply because all indie websites have huge crypts of dead projects... making a game from start to finish is a huge under taking so there is no wonder there. Sure, people, me included, tend to get carried away with projects that might not pan out in GG but I think just as many lose interest/realize how much work it is down the road and just abandon their games.

Quote: "I still have reservations that, aside from a couple of new features, it will largely be a cosmetic upgrade. "


I concur, thats why I want to focus my efforts on something I know I can do in a straight forward way that is up to my skill sets.

Quote: "Would this project not be better suited to Unity? I know you've done some experiments with it already but returned to the TGC fold, but surely the capabilities of that engine are better aligned to the scope of this project?"


In theory, everything can be done with Unity. In practice... well, I can't for one. I can't code, I can bend existing LUA scripts to my will and even dabble in modding C# code as I had for my Unity prototype. There are great packages and solutions for whole bulks of features in Unity. However, these packages are limited in their own way and rarely blend together. So for a fantasy game like this, a combat system, stats system, inventory system and so on would be a major head ache. A full blown migraine. And to tether all these feature together and make them work in tandem with each other, some coding ends up being required and I'd have to ask friends for way more help than I'd ever have with this project in GG. The stand alone systems for character controllers are brilliant but lack the necessary other features... the complete packages that feature everything are too bare bones for my tastes. Great basis to start but not all too useful if you are, like me, not a coder. Then there are the visual scripting editors like game maker and so on. Those work well for level interaction but character AI and stat management are their own can of worms here.
So yes, its possible and I recommend anyone with the patience for it to try it out but its not for me.



-Wolf
Wolf
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Posted: 15th Jul 2023 21:33
This is not quite the same project, its very small in scope and something I work on occasionally, but its in the same genre so I use the same thread.








This new iteration is pretty fresh and a lot is yet unclear but its fun to dabble with. Thanks for viewing!

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