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[Bandreus]

This is so cool. Beautiful! Would you be willing to explain a little more about how you hand draw these normal maps? I saw you posted this image:



And I'm still trying to wrap my brain around that. That's amazing.

What system are you using for figuring out which color to use where in the normal map? How many different normal map colors are you using? And how do you achieve different lighting intensities at different distances to the camera? (e.g., a foreground block is "more lit" than a wall in the background)

Basically a normal map is an image of which the data stored within (the pixel colors) are used by the lighting engine in order to do its magic.

You might be interested in reading this this and this

Because, in a normal map, you basically need to store a value which represents the normal vector's orientation for each pixel, and because you want to store the each component of the normal vector's angle in a different color channel, each pixel's color ends up visually showing what's the general orientation of the vector vs the image's plane.

This is of course dependent on the chosen implementation. Also, I know nothing about how Claw rolls out his stuff, so I'll leave the specifics to him.

Hope this helps!

[Claw]

That pretty much covers how the normal maps work, RGBA color + normal vectors pumped into a shader which takes the light position and calculates intensity of a pixel based on distance from the light + angle the normal vector faces.

As for actually drawing the maps, I have a palette of normalised colors that I use. When you do it for a while, you get used to it. It's basically like shading in pixel art, with the twist of doing it from all angles. I have a bit of a trick to it but I'll reveal more when the game is closer to completion/is completed and I can talk in more detail about some of the technical aspects of the game

[Bandreus]

As for actually drawing the maps, I have a palette of normalised colors that I use. When you do it for a while, you get used to it. It's basically like shading in pixel art, with the twist of doing it from all angles. I have a bit of a trick to it but I'll reveal more when the game is closer to completion/is completed and I can talk in more detail about some of the technical aspects of the game

Aw man. I cannot wait for moar 

[Nu-Type]

As for actually drawing the maps, I have a palette of normalised colors that I use. When you do it for a while, you get used to it. It's basically like shading in pixel art, with the twist of doing it from all angles. I have a bit of a trick to it but I'll reveal more when the game is closer to completion/is completed and I can talk in more detail about some of the technical aspects of the game

Aw man. I cannot wait for moar 

+2!

[Caran Elmoth]

So, I leave these forums for a while and when I come back I find... this! 
Awesome concept and aesthetics: I'm really looking forward to something playable.

Good luck for IGF!

[Thecoolestnerdguy]

Ow man! This game is looking so neat! It looks so solid! It looks so cool!
Pretty interesting gameplay mechanics.
I hope everything goes well for you on IGF. Good luck man!

[Claw]

Thanks for all the kind words guys, it's really motivating to see people interested 

I'm going to be submitting to the IGF this Sunday, making sure I don't miss the deadline in some obscure way. Excited, terrified and all those other cool things. Just hoping that people/press are interested in it if they stumble across it in the lists! And of course fingers crossed for the judges liking it too Nervous, don't know what to expect from it, but excited, can't wait for some people to see it.

I'll post some good ol' screenshot saturday pics tomorrow, and either saturday or sunday I'll put up a new vid. Mostly to show off some of the polish, a bit more of the game to tease with, and more of the first area which is pretty green. Green green green. Comparing the current version to old pics, makes the older ones seem a bit bare, added more decay and such recently and it's a nice improvement. Also lots of sound effects, mainly material based footstep stuff which I have a nerdboner over.

Today I threw together some splashy stuff when you walk through water + noise and it turned out okay! There will be some of this in the video to check out, would appreciate some feedback on it but I'll ask again when I post it.

Actually here's one of the shots for screenshot saturday, more of the same sort of stuff but thought it was pretty cool:

[Bandreus]

It's cool indeed. Im'  this game more and more with each screenshot

[Dr. Cooldude]

It's cool indeed. Im'  this game more and more with each screenshot

Same here

[seagaia]

MARK YOUR GAME IS GOOD KEEP UP WORK I WANT TO BEA TEST.

[mokesmoe]

I would also like to be a test.

[seagaia]

I would also like to be a test.

deep down we all want be test!

[kamac]

Yay. It progresses. It's amazing how normal maps can make things look pretty, even when their 2D texture is actually pretty bad (sorry) 
This is a good approach I guess.

[jeko88]

nice project, do you need a music composer for your game?

contact me if you need my collaboration

look my signature for listen the track :D

[Claw]

Cool chiptunes jeko, thanks for the offer but I'm not looking for any sound designers at the moment.

seagaia you sound drunk, I like that.

kamac, textures are flat/lack shading so the normals can do their thing so they look bad on their own.