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Author Topic: Penumbear  (Read 8579 times)
tacograveyard
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« on: September 16, 2012, 09:11:06 AM »

Penumbear is a project that I've been working on over the summer. It's a platformer where you play as a stuffed koala who interacts with light.

Here is a rough gameplay trailer that I put together:



Walking on a penumbra:



Another area:



A WIP boss:



For the animation of bigger enemies we've started using Spriter. Here is a video of a test enemy in action:



Here is a level overview from the editor:



I've posted a few updates to the blog during development to date: http://blog.tacograveyard.com
« Last Edit: February 24, 2013, 03:17:17 PM by tacograveyard » Logged

Majestic
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« Reply #1 on: September 16, 2012, 11:32:13 AM »

Right off the bat i want to say this is a really creative concept. The artwork is really unique and "spirited", the colors and lighting looks very well done..full of life.

The puzzles look like they will be fun to play also


My girlfriend would love this game

Beautiful and fun looking game so far.

Feel free to check me out as well Smiley

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jamesprimate
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« Reply #2 on: September 16, 2012, 11:40:05 AM »

looks fantastic and seriously wonderful trailer! music is spot-on too. that jumping sound seems like it would get pretty annoying after a while though Tongue
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tacograveyard
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« Reply #3 on: September 16, 2012, 11:50:02 AM »

dang this is a neat idea. good luck!

Thanks!

Right off the bat i want to say this is a really creative concept. The artwork is really unique and "spirited", the colors and lighting looks very well done..full of life.

The puzzles look like they will be fun to play also


My girlfriend would love this game

Beautiful and fun looking game so far.

Feel free to check me out as well Smiley



Thank you, I'll definitely check out your stuff!

looks fantastic and seriously wonderful trailer! music is spot-on too. that jumping sound seems like it would get pretty annoying after a while though Tongue

Smiley Sorry about that jumping noise. It is admittedly horrendous! Pretty much all of the sounds are going to be replaced. Once I get some better sounds in I'll post here for feedback.
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« Reply #4 on: September 16, 2012, 04:26:21 PM »

I really like the look of this, but I kind of feel the main character doesn't fit in due to the inversion? I know it's deliberate to make him standout / convey his powers but it looks a bit odd to me.

Also:



 Smiley

Cannot unsee the goofy smile on the block.
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tacograveyard
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« Reply #5 on: September 17, 2012, 06:07:27 AM »

I really like the look of this, but I kind of feel the main character doesn't fit in due to the inversion? I know it's deliberate to make him standout / convey his powers but it looks a bit odd to me.

The goal was to give him a bit of an other worldly feel and as you mentioned convey his powers. His style is a definitely different than that of the levels. Here are a few alternate designs that were tried:



Thoughts on those?

What Steve and I wanted to avoid was making him look like this sad little fellow:



Here are some sketches from before the bear was settled on:



Cannot unsee the goofy smile on the block.

Haha! Now I see that face all over the place!
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jamesprimate
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« Reply #6 on: September 17, 2012, 10:06:11 AM »

FWIW i like the original bear style, for exactly the reasons you mention. But the middle one of the three in that pic looks great.
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tacograveyard
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« Reply #7 on: September 20, 2012, 12:56:01 PM »

Working on more levels this week and adding new enemy types:



These bigger enemies are animated in Spriter. My initial implementation was a bit of a mess, but dogfooding it this week has been really helpful.
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« Reply #8 on: September 20, 2012, 11:15:22 PM »

 Kiss

The art design is gorgeous, couldn't agree more with MajesticMastermind about it being 'spirited' and 'full of life'. Really has a great sense of character.

The gameplay looks fantastic. From a couple of the screenshots I thought maybe the koala's design didn't fit, but seeing the trailer I think it looks fine, in fact I think it fits well. Maybe if he was slightly more transparent though?

The voiceover in the video, would that be in the game as well?
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tacograveyard
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« Reply #9 on: September 21, 2012, 05:50:49 AM »

Kiss

The art design is gorgeous, couldn't agree more with MajesticMastermind about it being 'spirited' and 'full of life'. Really has a great sense of character.

The gameplay looks fantastic. From a couple of the screenshots I thought maybe the koala's design didn't fit, but seeing the trailer I think it looks fine, in fact I think it fits well. Maybe if he was slightly more transparent though?

Thank you! All the kind words are very motivating!

Transparency and blend modes are things that I've spent a lot of time experimenting with. I may write a shader to adjust his look as he collects fireflies, turns lights on and off, etc. He still needs a little "something".

The voiceover in the video, would that be in the game as well?

Originally the voice over was just an idea for trailers, but the idea of having a verse or two of a longer poem between major areas has grown on me. I would need to find someone with a voice that fits better with what I how I imagine it sounding. The voice in the trailer is mine (with distortion).

Also live smooshing action:

« Last Edit: September 21, 2012, 08:05:18 AM by tacograveyard » Logged

tacograveyard
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« Reply #10 on: September 26, 2012, 08:43:13 AM »

Starting work on a third zone this week. A key ingredient here being water, so I've started with it.  YouTube video of it in action:





I still need to go back and code the boss for the second zone, but I need to think through a few mechanics first.
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tacograveyard
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« Reply #11 on: September 29, 2012, 06:46:24 AM »

My #screenshotsaturday is the in progress boss for the second zone. Here he is in Spriter where he will start to come to life:

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« Reply #12 on: September 29, 2012, 06:54:01 AM »

That boss looks awesome, love the art style. Is that door on it's back the end of the level? Grin

The simulated water looks good too - does it interact with objects when they collide?
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tacograveyard
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« Reply #13 on: September 29, 2012, 09:05:40 AM »

That boss looks awesome, love the art style. Is that door on it's back the end of the level? Grin

The simulated water looks good too - does it interact with objects when they collide?

Thanks! Haha, yep it is the door to get out of the level!

The water does interact with objects, but in a very limited manner. I'm only simulating a height field, not using SPH or anything like that. I'm tempted to test out an SPH driven approach, but it would be pretty CPU heavy considering everything else that is going on.

Btw loving the look you have going in Chroma, so moody!
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« Reply #14 on: September 30, 2012, 12:12:09 AM »

Which came first, the idea or the name?
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tacograveyard
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« Reply #15 on: September 30, 2012, 01:42:02 PM »

Which came first, the idea or the name?

Great question! The idea came first. The mechanic and basic gameplay was in place before we settled on the character. At that point I was using Penumbra as a code name for the project (which is already the name of another game).  Steve drew up a bunch of characters and we decided we loved the bear most. After that I couldn't help myself, I started using Penumbear as the code name and it stuck.

Bonus screenshots from the WIP third zone:


« Last Edit: September 30, 2012, 01:47:14 PM by tacograveyard » Logged

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« Reply #16 on: October 09, 2012, 06:14:28 AM »

Just came to say, Koalas are not bears. I simply cannot support a game that promotes such a misconception.

Joking aside, this is looking very good. How do they controls feel? The texture on the different environmental elements like trees and blocks read more as noise, they stand out too much, especially when they are the same color as the outline of the object (i'm speaking of the tree in this example). I understand it's WIP but I just wanted to point it out!

Good luck.
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tacograveyard
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« Reply #17 on: October 10, 2012, 04:44:26 PM »

Just came to say, Koalas are not bears. I simply cannot support a game that promotes such a misconception.

Joking aside, this is looking very good. How do they controls feel? The texture on the different environmental elements like trees and blocks read more as noise, they stand out too much, especially when they are the same color as the outline of the object (i'm speaking of the tree in this example). I understand it's WIP but I just wanted to point it out!

Good luck.

Haha, you are correct they are not bears. In my first dev post (on the blog, not this devlog), I actually pointed that out: http://blog.tacograveyard.com/code-name-penumbear I should have reposted it here! My excuse is that he isn't really a koala, just koala-esque (or something).

The controls are getting smoother with each build. The weight and speed of the bear are feeling good. The "physics" were a bit wacky for awhile, but I've cleaned up most of the edge cases. I hope to get a build together so folks here can test it out at some point.

Thanks for the feedback on the visuals! Your suggestion would be to lessen the weight and contrast of the internal lines?
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tacograveyard
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« Reply #18 on: October 18, 2012, 10:07:23 AM »

Now that prepping for IGF submission is out of the way, it back to work as normal. I've gotten an iPad build out to a few testers and received a ton of great feedback that I am working through. The next round of testing will probably be for desktop folks. I've also started work on a third boss that I hope to be able to show off soon. After that it is on to the third zone.

Greenlight now has a Concepts area for games that are early in development, so I put Penumbear up there: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=103354251 Hopefully that leads to some helpful feedback and/or provides some guidance about if there would be interest on Steam.

Here is my optimistic todo for the rest of October:

- third boss
- fourth zone assets
- another round of sfx improvements
- boss music, clean up some of the earlier music
- another round of testing/feedback/improvements
- make some fall themed tacos
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tacograveyard
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« Reply #19 on: October 24, 2012, 08:00:59 AM »

Starting working on zone 4 assets. The biggest hurdle is to get fire that matches the style and moves nicely. I tried a simple particle approach and couldn't get the effect I was looking for. I'm moving on to other approaches now. I have something that looks ok in screenshots, but doesn't have the exact movement I am looking for. I will post video and some details on the approach once I get closer. For now, here is a screen shot of my progress:



UPDATE - Some video of where I am now:

« Last Edit: October 24, 2012, 10:28:57 AM by tacograveyard » Logged

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