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TIGSource ForumsCommunityDevLogsHardland - Sandbox action adventure RPG [Release Candidate]
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Author Topic: Hardland - Sandbox action adventure RPG [Release Candidate]  (Read 60808 times)
Timo Vihola
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« on: May 09, 2014, 06:31:45 AM »

UPDATE: 2019 August 15th - It hasn't been easy and it took nearly a decade but Hardland is finally coming out in a couple of weeks! Wizard Toast Right


"His Wooden Majesty will live forever. Even if he dies, he'll grow again. Hardland will live forever too, because our kingdom is our king. It's easier to say than to believe.

When you have an open wound, you stitch it closed. When you're sick, you take your medicine. We can't let Hardland die and hope it grows again. Everything is alive now. Everything is telling us something. We just have to listen, and we have to take action. Even if it's hard. Even if it demands sacrifice.

We might fail, but that's all right. Anyone who dream can be a knight."


- Lady Capra, The Hidden Journal






For the past two years we've worked with Chandler Groover on the story.
He's written about a novel's worth of text for the game.

Even the common "enemies" have things to say that tie into the greater story:


The game went through several phases and the final form is a lot closer to heavily story driven games such as Quest for Glory than procedurally generated games like Sword of Fargoal, No Man's Sky or Dwarf Fortress.


----- OLD POST -----
Release 13 is available now in Steam Early Access!
http://steamcommunity.com/app/321980/announcements#scrollTop=0






Couple of gifs showcasing the terrain generation methods:




----- OLD POST -----

Hardland is an upcoming open-world action adventure RPG game. We want to make it a place full of characters and creatures each with their own wants, needs and ways of working. Everything, from the creation of the world to the behavior of animals, operates by their own set of rules. This makes each play experience unique. We don't want to tell the player a story - we want the player to tell their own.

Hardland is sort of a spiritual successor to Minigore and it's a dream project we've wanted to do for a long time!






Hires screenshot: http://www.mountainsheep.net/tigsource/Hardland-Screenshot-01.png


Hires screenshot: http://www.mountainsheep.net/tigsource/Hardland-Screenshot-02.png






The fully destructible tile based world is inspired by the likes of Minecraft, XCOM (original) and Voxelstein 3d - I personally feel like games lost plenty of gameplay opportunities when they started doing static environments with everything baked in "Damn, I can't shoot through this candle because otherwise the baked candle shadow will look wrong!". And so you as a developer decide that candles are indestructible Smiley
Heck, we're guilty of that with Minigore as well!

Also shouldn't forget Super Mario 3d World for it’s tactile feel and Sword of Fargoal for it’s great use of random generation.

Minecraft inspired the modding support. Modding is a big thing for us and one of the reasons we're targeting the PC platform first. With Bike Baron we’ve had 600 000 user levels created by users and it will be awesome to see what people can manage to create for Hardland.




This is a small glimpse at our design process, we all work in the same room so the most recent design lives in the daily conversations. I don't believe in 1000 page design bibles because it's nearly impossible to keep them up to date. I prefer to do some quick illustrations to communicate the spirit of the game and possibly fun scenarios (can't be 100%  sure it's fun until you've implemented it):











Here's a short breakdown of the asset creation process, let's say we want to create a fox character.

1. Pixel art concept is drawn in front view to make the next step easier.
2. Copy and paste the pixel art into Qubicle Constructor and extrude it as a 3d volume.
Then define the main forms and split the model so you've got separate head, legs, body and tail.
3. Import the voxel asset into Blender. Add bevel modifier and cast modifier.
At this point it's good to animate the basic moves: Idle, walk, run, attack, block, take damage, death.

TEST THE MODEL IN THE ACTUAL GAME, IF IT’S FUN AND WORKS PROCEED TO THE NEXT STEP.

4. You now have a better idea what worked well and what didn't on that particular character.
It's time to paint the concept art for the final version.
5. This is how the final model looks like in the game.
It was modeled in Blender and Zbrush and textured in Photoshop.




To improve iteration times the game has two types of content: prototype content and final content.

Prototype content lets us test radically different gameplay with minimum effort.


Hires render: http://www.mountainsheep.net/tigsource/Workflow-Render-01.png




Textures, models, gameplay data and shaders can be changed while the game is running.
We have our own data format which is a bit like JSON with less syntax and support for comments.


Hires screenshot: http://www.mountainsheep.net/tigsource/Modding-Screenshot-01.png

Shouldn't be too hard to make a modern warfare mod Smiley

There's lots of graphics technology in this game which make even simple low res assets look cool, that Harrier fighter jet model is from our 2008 PSP game.

Screen-space reflections, Screen-space shadows, SSAO just to name a few of the techniques. Our graphics programmer wizard Kalle can explain these in more detail if anyone wants to know how they're implemented.

We'll soon start looking for testers for the first playable technology preview.
« Last Edit: August 14, 2019, 02:39:02 PM by Timo Vihola » Logged

mirrorfish
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?!?! ... It's just a box.


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« Reply #1 on: May 09, 2014, 06:37:38 AM »

Very impressive dude! Great look and colors, very visually appealing.  Love the goal of having a player tell their own story. That to me is the great strength of games. I know some people love game stories but I'd rather read a book. Games are interactive and should leverage that unique strength.  Looking forward to more updates!
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WonderGinger
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« Reply #2 on: May 09, 2014, 01:02:58 PM »

What platform will this game be played on?:D
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Derqs
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« Reply #3 on: May 09, 2014, 02:28:54 PM »

this looks amazing!loving the bright colours. Your art assets workflow looks fun too
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gimblll
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« Reply #4 on: May 11, 2014, 03:37:54 AM »

Looking good! Smiley
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ephoete
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« Reply #5 on: May 12, 2014, 01:08:20 PM »

Wow excellent! Your workflow is quite well-thought in my opinion.
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Whyman
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« Reply #6 on: May 12, 2014, 11:22:45 PM »

Looks amazing. The art is stellar! The game concept seems great and it would be interesting to read a more fleshed out version of it. As you mention that you will be looking for testers soon, I might aswell mention that I have ALOT of free time. Wink Best of luck with the development! Cant wait to hear/see more!
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McMutton
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« Reply #7 on: May 13, 2014, 02:38:36 AM »

I like the look; the final images remind me a lot of toys because of the lighting. The prototyping is pretty interesting, too. Seems like it'd definitely be good for quickly pumping stuff out to test, as you said.
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Timo Vihola
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« Reply #8 on: May 14, 2014, 02:53:36 PM »

Development update #1: Everything is going well in preparation for the technology preview, lots of work done! It could be ready to roll next week.

mirrorfish: Thanks for the motivating words!
WonderGinger: We're targeting PC first.
Derqs and ephoete: Thanks a lot! Indeed it's a refreshing way of working and helpful at finding the most fun designs quickly.
gimblll: Thanks!
Whyman: Glad to hear you like it! We'll probably start looking for testers next week.
McMutton: Thanks! I'm a fan of tilt-shift photography and really love stop motion films like Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse Bride so that might explain it Smiley

Some brand new screenshots. Wood Elf and Ghoul posing with a depth of field effect:


Hires: http://www.mountainsheep.net/tigsource/Screenshot-DOF-01-Large.png


Hires: http://www.mountainsheep.net/tigsource/Screenshot-DOF-02-Large.png

Also the mandatory military mod screenshot with DOF: (this Panzer Gore mod will be included in the tech preview as an example of how the modding works)


Hires: http://www.mountainsheep.net/tigsource/Screenshot-DOF-03-Large.png
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alvarop
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« Reply #9 on: May 14, 2014, 03:09:42 PM »

Excellent art-style. me follows.  Crazy
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Whyman
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« Reply #10 on: May 14, 2014, 08:55:13 PM »

I love that you support mods in such a big way. Pretty rare these days and gives me a reason to like this game even more. Also the new screens look great, cant wait for next update!
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Timo Vihola
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« Reply #11 on: May 18, 2014, 11:36:15 AM »

Development update #2:

alvarop: Thanks!
Whyman: Here's a couple of new screenshots:


Hires: http://www.mountainsheep.net/tigsource/Screenshot-DOF-05-Large.png

Screen-space reflections and bounce light visible in this one:

Hires: http://www.mountainsheep.net/tigsource/Screenshot-DOF-04-Large.png


And one screenshot which was taken back in January, the game was in quite raw shape back then Smiley


Hires: http://www.mountainsheep.net/tigsource/Screenshot-Old-01-Large.png
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Sampo
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« Reply #12 on: May 20, 2014, 07:59:13 AM »

Hi everyone! I put together a breakdown of one of the Hardland inhabitants, Wood Elf.
In case there's any questions related to the art, don't hesitate to ask.

Tomorrow we will start looking for testers for the Hardland technology preview! Stay tuned!

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Timo Vihola
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« Reply #13 on: May 21, 2014, 08:48:54 AM »

Development update #4: Hardland pre-alpha technology preview is starting soon, participation instructions at the end of this video:



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rascalpuppyjay
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« Reply #14 on: May 21, 2014, 10:34:24 AM »

How do I apply for pre-alpha or can I? Tongue
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poe
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« Reply #15 on: May 21, 2014, 11:22:42 AM »

This game looks fantastic!
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Timo Vihola
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« Reply #16 on: May 21, 2014, 11:24:25 AM »

rascalpuppyjay: Sure you can, just send e-mail to hardland at mountainsheep.net with you PC specs. (be quick though, there's limited number of invites available)

poe: Thanks!
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Timo Vihola
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« Reply #17 on: May 24, 2014, 02:58:19 AM »

Development update #5: The pre-alpha has started and we've been working on dynamic weather and improving the generation - now we need to plug the different weather conditions to approriate biomes so once you enter a swamp biome it starts to be foggy etc..

Here's a couple of gifs showing the weather transitions:



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Timo Vihola
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« Reply #18 on: May 29, 2014, 11:35:49 AM »

Development update #6: Even more people have access to the technology preview now. There were some issues with Intel HD 4000 card but other than that everything seems to be working fine!

Quick water test from today:



The easy solution is to start the water at certain tile height. Once properly implemented it should make the environments more interesting because you have a lot more reflections going on - especially on night & sunset lighting it looks great.


Hires: http://i.imgur.com/xoozpI9.png

We're probably gonna settle for a static solution like that. Water is a hard thing to do dynamically, it flows downhill and water level gets lower if you dig a bigger hole for it and of course there's waves etc. That's an R&D ocean which would drown us Smiley
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Timo Vihola
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« Reply #19 on: May 31, 2014, 03:39:15 PM »

Development update #7: Testing spell attack with the new refined Wizard model, still missing legs and the animations need to be improved:

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