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[Thaumaturge]

Aah, the old "spikes in the floor" trap--a classic of any deadly tomb! :D

I rather like the little warning animation that the spikes perform when the player moves over them--that's a nice little touch, I think. ^_^

Have you changed the sound of the swinging blades hitting the ground? Either it's much improved, or I'm hearing it differently today, because what I heard in the video just above sounded pretty good to me! ^_^

As to the death by axe, I really like that "death flight": the effects really convey a sense of something vitally bad having happened, and the flight gives the whole thing a slightly eerie, mystical feel, I think. ^_^

And finally, congratulations on finishing the tomb scene! ^_^

[RealScaniX]

Aah, the old "spikes in the floor" trap--a classic of any deadly tomb! :D

Indeed.
At first it was supposed to be a classical "weak stone plate" that crumbles below your feet and makes you fall into a deadly pit. But it would need to "grow back" when you failed it and in the end I liked the idea of spikes better, because it was easier to add some animation to it.

I rather like the little warning animation that the spikes perform when the player moves over them--that's a nice little touch, I think. ^_^

Thanks! I like it, too. A bit difficult is the fact that the duration of the warning raise (that's actually the name in the code) depends on the difficulty. On hardcore, you only have 0.6 seconds (I think) to cross this plate, so the animation is pretty short. Also the sound of the charge (when they go down again just before poking you) gets a pretty high pitch to match the length.
 

Have you changed the sound of the swinging blades hitting the ground? Either it's much improved, or I'm hearing it differently today, because what I heard in the video just above sounded pretty good to me! ^_^

Yes, I have applied a new set of floor hit sounds. I have several sound assets and it's not always easy to find the sound I'm looking for. I stumbled across those sounds while looking for a different one.
 

As to the death by axe, I really like that "death flight": the effects really convey a sense of something vitally bad having happened, and the flight gives the whole thing a slightly eerie, mystical feel, I think. ^_^

Thank you!
The game has no game over or real death. When failing something, the penalty always is getting set back to a starting point. Originally I've wanted to do a new 2D shader that adds some red border, but ended up using this one that I actually did as a test for triplanar mapping in a post processing shader.
 

And finally, congratulations on finishing the tomb scene! ^_^

Thanks, but only the map layout is finished. I still have to add a few things.

[Thaumaturge]

Thanks! I like it, too. A bit difficult is the fact that the duration of the warning raise (that's actually the name in the code) depends on the difficulty. On hardcore, you only have 0.6 seconds (I think) to cross this plate, so the animation is pretty short. Also the sound of the charge (when they go down again just before poking you) gets a pretty high pitch to match the length.

Ah, neat! Having such be adjustable for various difficulties seems like a good idea. ^_^

Yes, I have applied a new set of floor hit sounds. I have several sound assets and it's not always easy to find the sound I'm looking for. I stumbled across those sounds while looking for a different one.

Serendipity is a favourite word of mine--and a pleasant experience, too. ^_^

Well, I'm glad that you did stumble on those new sounds, as they work quite well, I think! ^_^
 

Thanks, but only the map layout is finished. I still have to add a few things.

I gathered as much, I think, but nevertheless I feel that it's a small milestone and I congratulate you on it. ^_^

[RealScaniX]

I had lots of problems with the lightmapping in the tomb. First, I found out that the voxel importer fails to produce usable lightmap UVs. Then I switched to a different way of importing the models to unity to get working lightmaps.
Then I did every possible mistake to destroy those UVs or put objects at the wrong coordinates and so on to make rebaking the lightmaps over and over again necessary.
Finally the floor of the central room failed to get correct lightmap UVs even while using the new importing method, so I had to replace the floor with a different model. It didn't help that Unity crashed frequently or took 30 minutes to render the lightmaps.
 
But finally, I was able to fix all that and build a nice looking lighting and also improved the shading of some objects in the central room.

Here is a look at the "final" look of the lightmapping and shading of the central room of the tomb.
 
I really like it (which can totally change by tomorrow).
 

[JobLeonard]

Oof, sounds like a very painful education

[RealScaniX]

Oof, sounds like a very painful education

Yes, kind of. But I still have hope that I won't make the same mistakes again (soon) and the next scene with lighting will be finished very quickly. ^^

[oahda]

Tomb is looking great, so at least all that pain paid off! Hope it's easier next time.

[RealScaniX]

Tomb is looking great, so at least all that pain paid off! Hope it's easier next time.

Thank you! I hope so, too.

[RealScaniX]

Here is a preview of the main puzzle of the tomb, which will be about gears and a lever.
 
The way interaction is done, it's sometimes difficult to keep all elements of a puzzle in view while manipulating it.
a) the overlay view
b) focus the whole puzzle
 
I prefer b, because it does not break the immersion as much.

Next, I will add more highlighting to the gears, so they also highlight the connected gears on hover.

[Thaumaturge]

I had lots of problems with the lightmapping in the tomb. First, I found out that the voxel importer fails to produce usable lightmap UVs. Then I switched to a different way of importing the models to unity to get working lightmaps.
Then I did every possible mistake to destroy those UVs or put objects at the wrong coordinates and so on to make rebaking the lightmaps over and over again necessary.
Finally the floor of the central room failed to get correct lightmap UVs even while using the new importing method, so I had to replace the floor with a different model. It didn't help that Unity crashed frequently or took 30 minutes to render the lightmaps.

Aah, the joys of game-dev, not so? ^^;

More seriously, I'm sorry that it proved so troublesome, but glad that you seem to have come through it at last! And indeed, the lighting in that tomb does look rather good, to my eye! ^_^

Here is a preview of the main puzzle of the tomb, which will be about gears and a lever.

...

I rather like that! ^_^

As to the two views, I do agree that the "focus" approach is more immersive--but conversely, I find the "overlay" approach more readable. Alas, I seem to find the gears a little more difficult to "read" from the angle used in the "focus" approach, due I think to the combination of their shape and the voxel construction. :/

That said, perhaps this might be improved (presuming that it's not just me) by lowering the perspective of the "focus" approach, so that the gears are once again seen near head-on.

[RealScaniX]

Thank you!
I hope it will look even better when the puzzle is in there and there is not that much empty space.

That said, perhaps this might be improved (presuming that it's not just me) by lowering the perspective of the "focus" approach, so that the gears are once again seen near head-on.

I will probably have to do that. The reason for the current angle is that it's still viewed from the players eyes. When "exiting" the puzzle interaction, you can just walk away. The view will not change at all.
I thought it would be better without a transition out, so there is no delay.
 
I guess I will try out a new angle. I hope it will not look odd as there is a limit to the length of his arms... ^^

[Thaumaturge]

The reason for the current angle is that it's still viewed from the players eyes. When "exiting" the puzzle interaction, you can just walk away. The view will not change at all.
I thought it would be better without a transition out, so there is no delay.
 
I guess I will try out a new angle. I hope it will not look odd as there is a limit to the length of his arms... ^^

Hmm... Those are good points, I think--the responsiveness allowed by a lack of a transition in particular.

Well, an alternate suggestion, then: could the puzzle be moved up to eye-height? Perhaps with some alteration such that the lever is on the side, and thus within similar arm's reach to the gears?

[RealScaniX]

The reason for the current angle is that it's still viewed from the players eyes. When "exiting" the puzzle interaction, you can just walk away. The view will not change at all.
I thought it would be better without a transition out, so there is no delay.
 
I guess I will try out a new angle. I hope it will not look odd as there is a limit to the length of his arms... ^^

Hmm... Those are good points, I think--the responsiveness allowed by a lack of a transition in particular.

Well, an alternate suggestion, then: could the puzzle be moved up to eye-height? Perhaps with some alteration such that the lever is on the side, and thus within similar arm's reach to the gears?

I've already moved the puzzle up a bit. What I plan on doing is to put it onto some steps, so the player is standing a bit below it. It's probably not super realistic anymore concerning the arm length (at least for a typical 13 year old), but I hope this isn't a problem.
I really want to have the lever on top as it is in front of the tower in the central room and moving the lever from right to left will move the water pipe (that is just ahead of you) from right to left as well.

[Devilkay]

wow. I love this style. Like a 3D work using the pixel art! great project!

[RealScaniX]

wow. I love this style. Like a 3D work using the pixel art! great project!

Thank you very much!

[Thaumaturge]

I've already moved the puzzle up a bit. What I plan on doing is to put it onto some steps, so the player is standing a bit below it.

That sounds like it should work, indeed. ^_^

It's probably not super realistic anymore concerning the arm length (at least for a typical 13 year old), but I hope this isn't a problem.

I suspect that a slightly over-long interaction-distance is one of those breaks from reality that a player is likely to overlook, given its convenience. ^_^

I really want to have the lever on top as it is in front of the tower in the central room and moving the lever from right to left will move the water pipe (that is just ahead of you) from right to left as well.

Ah, yes, that does make sense. Fair enough, then!

[oahda]

Continually amazed at how much you're getting done. Really like those voxel gears!

[RealScaniX]

Continually amazed at how much you're getting done. Really like those voxel gears!

I'm continually amazed at how long those things take to finish. ^^
But thank you!
 
BTW: Here is the current look of them on their new pedestral.
 
I've finished the code for checking which gears are connected and which are colliding (when pulling/pushing them out/in). Now I need to build some working puzzles with them.
 

[RealScaniX]

I'm adding the visual feedback to the gears puzzle.
  
It should show you:
- what gears are connected (blue: direct, orange: rubber band)
- which gears are directly connected to the one you are moving
- the jamming gears
 
It's hard...  
 
I am both trying to keep the immersion and at the same time show enough indicators, so the player knows what is happening. And I'm still struggling a bit to come up with a working puzzle that is difficult enough to solve.
 
You will need to make ALL gears move (in the beginning, you only needed to move the one in the middle of the bottom row) and have no jamming gears.
Gears are jamming if they are directly connected to a gear that is turning in the same direction or at a different speed.
 
There also is a way to solve this puzzle by doing something completely different (and slightly humiliating) in the tomb level. ^^
 
This is one of the times where the developer himself (me) has no idea how players will receive it, so I will just finish the tomb scene and let some people play it. I might still replace these gears thing with a completely new puzzle if it does not work.
 
 

[Jayesh]

Great job at transforming an inherently circular geometry like a gear into voxels and yet make it look believable when two gears mesh together. Looking forward to further progress.