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Connor
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« Reply #300 on: July 14, 2014, 12:36:34 PM »

DevLog Update #70 - 07/10/2014

I finally integrated the garden/nature area into the actual game.

I didn't really have an idea for how the level would be laid out when I first started. I began by putting random geometry in place, and then started to walk around the level to see how it felt. Then I started to make adjustments all over the place until it began to feel right.

The whole process took about 5 days. It's now much more organized.

I'm planning to playtest it this weekend and next week to see how it holds up.

For comparison, below are some shots of the level from the beginning of the week when I first started working on the level, and some shots of what the level looks like now.

Before:







After:









wow, pretty awesome improvement :L

also, tomorrows my birthday. i will murder everyone in cars within a few hours. entirely by accident. oh god. why.
« Last Edit: July 14, 2014, 12:50:36 PM by Connor » Logged

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blitzkampfer:
https://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=52009.msg1280646#msg1280646

too bad eggybooms ents are actually men in paper mache suits and they NEED to be agile
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« Reply #301 on: July 14, 2014, 05:46:51 PM »

everything still looking super cool, Willy
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William Chyr
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« Reply #302 on: July 17, 2014, 12:35:50 PM »

DevLog Update #71 - 07/17/2014

Thanks for the feedback, Connor and Cordell! As always, it's good to hear from you guys.

MGDS
This past weekend, I attended the Midwest Game Developers Summit in Wisconsin. Drove up from Chicago with a couple of other local developers.

I was exhibiting Relativity there, so didn't get to go to too many of the talks. On a side note, Lemma, another game with a devlog here on TIGForums was there as well, and I got to try it out. Very fun.

The response overall for Relativity was quite positive and I got some very useful feedback. The most important is that I finally figured out how to deal with a problem that had been bothering me for quite some time, specifically, how to guide the player once they're in the "exterior" area. While this part looked extremely cool, with all the architecture twisting and turning, and staircases in every direction, it was extremely easy to get lost. Some players, usually the ones more experienced with puzzles games and first-person perspective, would be fine, but far too many would get stuck here. This was very evident especially when playtesting during conventions and festivals, because it's at this point that players would stop and leave.

Before:


After:


Notice that in the first picture, it is much more cluttered: the green box on the right side pushes into the frame, and the tree (w/ the translucent grey leaves) is blocking a good portion of the view. Also notice that there are more things in the center in the upper area. Having things directly above the player in this area was problematic, because some players would fall off, and proceed to land in the area directly above where they fell. Instead of realizing that the world repeats itself, players would think they had landed in a different 'world' altogether. By moving the above area off to the side, now when players fall, they're much more likely to land near where they fell off, thus realizing that the world they've landed on is a replica or the same world as the one they fell from.

Here's a comparison of another area:

Before:


After:


Again, you can see that the area is now a lot less cluttered. There's more negative space around the architecture, which makes it easier to see which parts are connected.
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« Reply #303 on: July 17, 2014, 04:22:12 PM »

Forgive me if you've said it before, but do you have a release date in mind, Willy? I can't wait to play this  Grin
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« Reply #304 on: July 17, 2014, 04:59:34 PM »

Forgive me if you've said it before, but do you have a release date in mind, Willy? I can't wait to play this  Grin

I haven't really announced a release date yet. At the moment, I'm thinking of early 2016, but that's subject to change.
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« Reply #305 on: July 19, 2014, 12:18:44 PM »

DevLog Update #72 - 07/19/2014

Poster Idea Experiment
I've had an idea for poster I wanted to try out for quite some time now. Yesterday, I was feeling a little stuck on a particular puzzle I was working on, so I decided to take a break and give the poster idea a go.

The core of the idea was to have 6 vertical panels across a horizontal image, each panel showing a scene with a different gravity field.

This was the first version I drew up:


It's kind of cool, but I need to put the title of the game somewhere...


The problem here is that you can barely read the text.

I decided to add a gradient layer, like this, just below the title, but above the image panels:


And then turned the opacity of that layer down to about 40%:


That's looking a lot better. However, problem here is that the purple panel on the very left isn't a very striking image, and the orange (2) and green (5) panels look way to similar. I think blue works well as it's the only interior scene, so it stands out a lot, and it's also quite minimalist.

Here's version number 2:


I think it could use another indoor scene to balance it out a bit. So here's the final version, at least for now:


Of course, I'm still quite a bit ways away from release, so this is by no means the definitive poster for the game. Just like with all the levels and puzzles in the game, I'm going to keep iterating on this until I get it right. I'm starting to do so now, so that I can give myself as much time as possible, and to get all the bad ideas out of the way.
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« Reply #306 on: July 19, 2014, 12:48:46 PM »

Pretty sweet poster. Smiley

P.S. How in a world I'm still not subscribed? Huh?
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« Reply #307 on: July 20, 2014, 11:55:01 AM »

It might be interesting, or horribly awful - to try mapping the gravity changing to some sort of cube with gyroscopes for shows.

The side of the cube facing down would determine the gravity direction.

(i thought of this after reading about sphero robots, which is basically a ball full of gyroscopes)
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« Reply #308 on: July 22, 2014, 06:26:24 PM »

DevLog Update #73 - 07/22/2014

Pretty sweet poster. Smiley

P.S. How in a world I'm still not subscribed? Huh?

Thanks for all the feedback on the poster design! Really helped me figure out what changes to make.

It might be interesting, or horribly awful - to try mapping the gravity changing to some sort of cube with gyroscopes for shows.

The side of the cube facing down would determine the gravity direction.

(i thought of this after reading about sphero robots, which is basically a ball full of gyroscopes)

Hmm... I'm having a bit of a hard time trying to imagine how I would tie that into the game, cause it's not so much the gravity changing direction, but the player... Interesting idea for game-related merchandise, though. Who wants just another t-shirt? But gyroscopes? Oh yeah!

Experimental Architecture

Anyway, moving onto business.

For the past several days, I've been struggling a lot with puzzle design. Basically, all the puzzles take place in rooms that just generic boxes. I'd like to utilize architecture more in the actual puzzles themselves, but just wasn't getting anywhere with this.

I decided to just go all out experimental, and try making some nonsense architecture without any regard to playability. It didn't solve my level design problem, but I did have fun, and I got some really cool looking images and gifs out of it.







In action:




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« Reply #309 on: July 22, 2014, 10:39:35 PM »

Thanks for all the feedback on the poster design! Really helped me figure out what changes to make.
Yup, sure. Feedback is always a great thing (I mean, constructive one).

Interesting idea for game-related merchandise, though. Who wants just another t-shirt? But gyroscopes? Oh yeah!
I need this because of reasons. My Word!

I got some really cool looking images and gifs out of it.
Spend few minutes watching gifs. Perfect loops are perfect.
Oh, I also think they will look great as loading screens between levels (or between main menu and actual game). Add some vignette, flashing "Loading" label and... um... well... you got the idea. Smiley
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« Reply #310 on: July 23, 2014, 09:51:06 PM »

Oh, I also think they will look great as loading screens between levels (or between main menu and actual game). Add some vignette, flashing "Loading" label and... um... well... you got the idea. Smiley

There aren't actually any loading scenes between levels. My goal is to have a completely seamless open world. There are some optimization problems with regards to this, but I think I can get it to work.

There is a load scene when the game first starts up, so a looping scene like this could work. Ideally though, I'd like it to be an actual level that players can explore, without feeling completely overwhelmed.
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« Reply #311 on: July 23, 2014, 10:57:15 PM »

There aren't actually any loading scenes between levels. My goal is to have a completely seamless open world.
Yup, I had this in mind so I added a "between main menu and actual game" remark. Smiley

There is a load scene when the game first starts up, so a looping scene like this could work. Ideally though, I'd like it to be an actual level that players can explore, without feeling completely overwhelmed.
How about people explore it during game loading if we're talking about showing it during loading? I mean, they walk it, jump, change gravity vector, maybe... and when game are ready player can press a button, abandon this world and dive into puzzles.
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« Reply #312 on: July 24, 2014, 01:12:59 AM »

I love how this is looking  Kiss Kiss Kiss (been a while since I last checked).

I am curious. Do you have an expected release date (or a time you need to be done with the game)? Or are you approaching this in a it's done when it's done way?
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« Reply #313 on: July 24, 2014, 10:22:30 AM »

Of the poster variants I liked the first one the most (when you had vibrant colors but still hadn't found a spot for the logo) ... I wonder if you could find some way to make the logo readable without changing the colors so much?  Like an outline on the logo text, or just dimming the background colors in a much smaller region around the logo?

If you wanted to have looping + a level that could be explored on the load scene, one idea is to have a level that progressively adds geometry as you enter it, so initially you're in looping freefall and watching distant parts of the level come to be, but after a bit enough is constructed that you land and can explore.
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« Reply #314 on: July 24, 2014, 11:34:00 AM »

Those latest levels look great for a trailer moment. Music building up to a reveal, and then show that crazy complicated space.
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« Reply #315 on: July 24, 2014, 12:55:51 PM »

How about people explore it during game loading if we're talking about showing it during loading? I mean, they walk it, jump, change gravity vector, maybe... and when game are ready player can press a button, abandon this world and dive into puzzles.

I was thinking of something like this for the opening of the game. Basically, every time you load up the game, you'd be dropped into the same crazy looking world, but there wouldn't be puzzles or anything. There would be one door, and walking through it would take you directly to where you left the game last time.

FRACT OSC does something very similar, but the initial space is much less complicated.

I love how this is looking  Kiss Kiss Kiss (been a while since I last checked).

I am curious. Do you have an expected release date (or a time you need to be done with the game)? Or are you approaching this in a it's done when it's done way?

I don't really have a set release date yet. I'm hoping to have it done by early 2016, but wouldn't be opposed to pushing it back if that's required. My plan is to have a feature-complete version of the game with all the puzzles in place by October of this year, and then spend all of 2015 on polish.

Of the poster variants I liked the first one the most (when you had vibrant colors but still hadn't found a spot for the logo) ... I wonder if you could find some way to make the logo readable without changing the colors so much?  Like an outline on the logo text, or just dimming the background colors in a much smaller region around the logo?

If you wanted to have looping + a level that could be explored on the load scene, one idea is to have a level that progressively adds geometry as you enter it, so initially you're in looping freefall and watching distant parts of the level come to be, but after a bit enough is constructed that you land and can explore.

The colors are definitely the strongest in the first version of the poster. It might work well as a poster for those who area already familiar with the game. I haven't tried having outline around the text, but not sure that it'll work so well, since the visuals themselves already have a ton of lines.

I have been thinking of doing a vertical version of the poster, in which case, I might be able to keep the vibrant colors since I'll be more likely to find an area that has enough of one color to place the entire title on top. We'll see.

As for your suggestion on the looping level that progressively adds geometry, that's actually a really good idea! It would be super cool visually as well, seeing geometry appear and fly into place. It would definitely require designing the level around this very concept though, to avoid accidental landing places that cause players to get stuck.

Those latest levels look great for a trailer moment. Music building up to a reveal, and then show that crazy complicated space.

Ah yes, it actually hadn't occurred to me that these would work really well for a trailer, but you're right, these would work really well for the big reveal moments. I'd also like to do things like the

with this stuff.
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« Reply #316 on: July 24, 2014, 01:07:45 PM »

I was thinking of something like this for the opening of the game. Basically, every time you load up the game, you'd be dropped into the same crazy looking world, but there wouldn't be puzzles or anything. There would be one door, and walking through it would take you directly to where you left the game last time.
Ah, I see. Sounds good. Smiley
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« Reply #317 on: July 24, 2014, 05:32:00 PM »

BTW this looks like something you might perhaps want to submit to: http://www.mediaindieexchange.com/event/reg/devs/ ?  They're looking for "games with cutting-edge, exceptional, or experimental graphics" which I think definitely could include Relativity.
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Connor
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« Reply #318 on: July 25, 2014, 06:47:03 AM »

send me one of those posters, eh? id love to be able to buy a physical one. it looks so good!
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Firearrow games
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blitzkampfer:
https://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=52009.msg1280646#msg1280646

too bad eggybooms ents are actually men in paper mache suits and they NEED to be agile
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« Reply #319 on: July 25, 2014, 06:56:52 AM »

On the posters:

I love the idea, but I sort of prefer the version without the gradient. If I could suggest a way to make it legible, it would be:

Make each pair of letters fir one strip, with the R and the y standing on their own. R EL AT IV IT Y .
Then make each pair of letters exactly fit each strip (with the white of the letters at the border merging seamlessly with the background white).
Then give the places where the white of the letters touches the strip an outline similar to the game's outline...

It's just a suggestion, and it might look horrible, so try it at your own risk...
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