TIGSource Forums

I would also like to talk about the playable section, in Netherworld we will have both firearms, shields and swords, each one of them will be needed to finish with an enemy in particular, almost all of them are already developed, but today we are going to show you one in concrete, our flamethrower.

Ok, let's take a look at the stages of development that we have when we are going to create a new weapon.

First of all we have to design it, usually I do it on paper, not very impressive to be honest

(https://i.imgur.com/6KjP79Ol.jpg)

Now we can start to implement it, usually I start with the bullet, in this case the fire.

(https://i.imgur.com/jdvAPk0l.png)

A unity particle system, nice and easy to implement... well, actually they are 3.

(https://i.imgur.com/hBKfZ0il.jpg)

The flamethrower's sprite is not its final version, it's simply a prototype drawn quickly by me to start implementing it.

ok, now we have to be able to shoot it and control the flame. the next step is to test its behavior against objects and enemies.

(https://i.imgur.com/X7JPyBpl.png)

That tree is hot enough already. Next, integrate the weapon into character animations reload, walk, crouch, walk backwards...

(https://i.imgur.com/8uqadLC.gif)

I'll talk about those pixilated arms in a dedicated article.

Time to debug, we have the following problem, the position of the decoration flames and smoke was not consistent when the flames had a length determined by the obstacle, we solve it by determining the distance to the obstacle (Raycast) and repositioning the decorative elements based on that distance.

(https://i.imgur.com/slIZtpx.gif)

Normally we now add and test the light generated by the weapons, in this case it is a bit more complicated.

(https://i.imgur.com/rDyW936l.png)

And finally, integrate into a scene of the game and verify that everything is fine.

(https://i.imgur.com/L4uGkhj.gif)

Yay!! You made a devlog at Tigsource! Hello friend!

Wowee, I see you have been busy. Great work so far, can't wait to play this one and welcome to the forums!  :gentleman:

Hey Joe, what a surprise! I see that they have good composers in this forum  :handmetalL:  :handmetalR: thanks friend!

Aw, thanks Dan! I hope this brings you a lot more attention. You deserve it, I can see you have been hard at work ;)

I really like the animations. They look awesome!

wow, this looks fantastic in motion. incredible mix of realism and pixel art matched with a sweet goth aesthetic. keep going!

thanks guys.  :beer:

That looks absolutely amazing :D Just when you think you've seen every kind of pixelart sidescroller, there's something new behind the corner.

Thanks Rayharry, it has always been our goal to differentiate ourselves from the "common" in pixel art.  :beer:

guys, I need your help, I'm making a selection of images for the steam shop, if you had to choose one of these 3, what would you choose?

(https://i.imgur.com/QUuSyml.png)


(https://i.imgur.com/VaABQtW.png)


(https://i.imgur.com/gnYasqF.png)

Looks really interesting. Love the environments and overall concept. Reminds me a bit of Rain World, which I thot was brilliant.

The breakdown of the flamethrower weapon is excellent as well. How will you handle turning of the hero when firing? Auto-stop the flame, turn, then resume? Maybe turn and fire the flame in the air on a turn? Might be an interesting mechanic in there... perhaps a sense of mastery if you stop firing before you turn, so as not to waste fuel on the turn? Or using the turn as a quick way to fire at something above you? Just random thots, based on your breakdown :).

All the best with it!

I'd say 2. Most colors.

Such a cool gloomy looking game!

Hey been watching this on Twitter. Cool to see a TIGSource for it. Can't wait to see more detailed progress here!

Loving the dark themes and aesthetics! How long have you been working on this? seems really polished. Curious about how you handle those themes through the gameplay and narrative. Nice work!

Thanks Garlicguy, i think i prefer 2 too  :handthumbsupL:


I see that a lot of the people that I follow on twitter are in this forum, it's great that we can learn from each other here!


I started alone about 10 months ago, but 6 months ago an artist who is in charge of drawing and animating now (I am the programmer) joined the project and that was a turning point for the game.

All the weapons point instantaneously to the point where the mouse is placed... all but this, I decided to add a delay to make it feel heavy and balance it in terms of damage / precision. It would be too powerful, when you point behind you is another problem, I decided to rebuild the flames you had before you turned around but adding another small delay with the purpose of adding a tactical disadvantage to this weapon.

I have actually used your comment as an excuse to burn that tree again. thanks  :gentleman:

(https://i.imgur.com/Ox9xRqq.gif)

Brilliant! Thanks for the example and explanation. Poor tree :).

Here we have our first teaser, if you could share with me your feedback, I would be very grateful.  :toastL: :toastR:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiJnV7Fdtpg (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiJnV7Fdtpg)

And if you don't, too  :toastL: :toastL:

First, a question: What are trying to convey with the teaser?


Without seeing the devlog and knowing a little bit about the game, my first impression regarding the trailer would've been "What is going on exactly?"  By that I mean, what is the player's role?  Is the player the little dude, the big guy or something else?  But either way because you start in the middle of the fight and shorly after the boss is dead.  So, the teaser loses out on impact that it could have if first the player's character is shown (e.g. being small compared to the forest).  Then the big menacing boss shows up and fight ensues with various weapons.  The shotgun seems quite generic compared to the much more unique looking flamethrower.


The music is an interesting choice.  At first, I imagined an *epic battle* music more fitting for fighting a boss, but for the trailer it could work if the idea and theme you're trying to convey is "It's sad that you have to kill them" or something related to a dark-ish theme instead of being an epic hero.  Also, if you don't have any sfx/music going with your logo, then the music could start right at the beginning.  That could set the mood immediately instead of having the empty silence.

In terms of motivation, you could add a one-line at the beginning or end to give a better idea about the player's motivation.


Oh, isn't the Stormtrooper helmet under some kind of copyright?

First, thank you very much for your feedback, you have won a beer.  :beer: (a virtual one)


First, I wanted to show a little more the combat system, which is what I have shown less in social networks, Second, I wanted to convey a feeling of sadness, in this game every boss has his past and his reason for being and killing is not always the best option.


You've been right, I've been working on this game for a long time and for me it's obvious who is the protagonist and who is the boss, but for someone who has never seen my game, this is not easy to appreciate, here I have a problem to fix .


Indeed, the music has been chosen specifically to convey sadness.


I thought about it, but in the end I decided to show something short and shocking, most people who follow me on social networks or see my game in IndieDB would not hold a very long video and my goal was to compress it as much as I could.


That helmet will not be in the final game, it's just a meme for social networks.

Your opinion has helped me a lot, thank you!

I personally like the sad music. TBH I am tired of the oversaturated 'epic' music that you hear literally EVERYWHERE these days. Kudos Dan, for doing something different. Your game is unique and I applaud you not doing the same thing every other game does in its trailers.

In my opinion the sound design begs for bigger aggressive music. If you are married to the very mellow style of the music, I would suggest dialing back the sound design. Currently they seem mismatched.  I think because of the gritty nature of the art, choosing something a little darker for the music would be cool.

Maybe a drone would be cool? Something like this might split the difference between what you have and the standard epic stuff?

https://soundcloud.com/stevenharriton/fear

Hope that helps. Keep up the good work. The visuals are sweet!

That's great!  Because I don't drink! :lol:

Given your response, the choice of music makes sense.

I do wonder about the target audience.  I assumed that the Kickstarter announcement trailer was intended for any potential player and not just people who already follow you.  While followers will obviously be familiar with game, I'm assuming you'll need more people's support for the KS.  Thus when followers forward the trailer to other potential supporters or new people come across it, it'd still be better to include a "little more" to let them know what the game is about.  Of course, I'm assuming that the actual KS trailer will feature more details.

I'd have to agree here. I have been following this game for awhile now so I am already excited but if that trailer was the only exposure I had to the game I probably wouldn't be as excited for it tbh. Now I don't like when trailers give away too much, but it does feel like you may be holding your cards a little too close to your chest here. There are so many amazing environments in the game, the world feels large and varied, making me want to explore it but going by this little teaser you won't realize that there is so much more to the game. I think maybe even just a few quick flashes of some of the different environments in the game would go a long way to gathering more interest.

Thanks for your opinion mate, It was clear to me that the music had to contrast with the scene, but seeing the opinions maybe i do some tests with something different, thank you very much! :)

Same here, If you don't have an epic scene, adding epicity with epic music usually results in ridicule.

You are right,I focused the teaser on someone who has followed the development, when I should have focused on the person who has never seen the game.
Of course, the kickstarter will have a specific trailer (not teaser), this was just a small teaser to announce it, the trailer will be much more explanatory. :)

Well, I just wrote an article in Indiedb (http://www.indiedb.com/games/netherworld1/news/how-to-weaponized-your-son) and I want to share it with you.

Church's Abbess of Netherworld's city, the legend tells that to protect her church she is able to give birth to creatures and use them as a mace grabbing them from her umbilical cord.

We can tell you clearly that it is not just a legend.

Well, you have entered this link to know "How to weaponize your son" and we're going to show you that step by step how.

  

• First step, you have to give birth. generally opening the legs and squeezing. but we prefer to use the Unity physics engine.

(https://i.imgur.com/mGoSU90.gif)

• Second Step, Grab the umbilical cord, usually 1m from the fetus is fine.
  

(https://i.imgur.com/aL3RMEX.gif)

• Third step, the moment you've been waiting for is here, burst your son against things. We have 3 force vectors, each of them will be applied temporarily spaced to the body of the fetus, it will be tied to the hand by the Unity physics system.

(https://i.imgur.com/dVV6q7F.gif)

Why 3 vectors?

Well, we could have broken it down into how many vectors we want, but we decided 3 vectors was enough for a 2d game.

(https://i.imgur.com/QyXJIfG.gif)

video reference (https://youtu.be/HYIBH5gvPLU?t=3m8s)

(https://i.imgur.com/BS3tdCz.gif)

The red line is the "bounce" vector, it is calculated in each hit. A force will be applied in this direction to add a bounce effect a little more "Cartoon" (Only in strong impacts)

• Fourth step, Be carefull, it can blow out in your face.

(https://i.imgur.com/yRgY2tA.gif)

And finally, a sample of its final version.

(https://i.imgur.com/d6ucgJ0.gif)

Conclusion

If you have to design a boss that uses a mace, the smartest thing is to draw the animation :D

See you on Twitter  (https://twitter.com/NetherWorldGame)and if you like our content.

Thank you for reading.

I have a *feeling* your game is gonna have an age check on Steam.  :-[

WOW. I love the tone and feel of this. Graphics are very cool. Honestly I liked the music in the trailer - though I do think the sfx need to be toned back/modified a bit maybe. I assume those are still WIP though?

I also agree that the trailer could use a bit more explanation/exposition. But I think it's a great start!

Really interested in this!  :beer:

Thanks for your comment i saw you on twitter!

Definitely not the best teaser in the world  :lol:  :lol:

 :lol:  :lol:  :lol:  :lol:

This guy is giving interviews without my permission.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W13-CtuHsNU&t=1s (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W13-CtuHsNU&t=1s)

(https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5a01baa7d7bdcee985c80c15/t/5a5654f671c10babbdf27e02/1515607305643/Thunderclap-logo.png?format=750w)

Out Thunderclap here! (https://www.thunderclap.it/projects/67007-netherworld-kickstarter-feb-20) 8)

HAHAHA that was excellent! The repeated "cuts", and the dialogue after was hilarious, had me laughing out loud in the 2nd minute. Love the humor.  :beer:

I like the choice of music and the aesthetic although it might be a bit too dark, you need a way to make the characters, which are completely black, stand out from the background which is too tenuously illuminated, Dark Souls is probably a good example of what you should be looking for in that armors and characters have shiny highlights over darker tones, Darkest Dungeon portraits are another good example of it.

I'm glad you like it   :)


Thanks for your comment, I think you're right, we definitely have to work to fix it. I thought that with white eyes the player could make an idea of where the character is, but evidently the hitbox of the character is bigger than just the eyes and can be confusing.

Working on a boss, probably for a demo that we want to release soon, but for now, working without assets.


(https://i.imgur.com/e0VF4k0.gif)

(https://i.imgur.com/pKy2ymX.gif)

This looks great! Following! :)

Thanks Sid :)

loving the progress, this maternal infant-slamming hellbeast is dope man hahahah, so creative and disgusting, love it. also, i think the fire effects are looking better now and match the pixeled aesthetic more. re: Steam store images, my choice is #2, it's the most eye-catching.

Thanks for your words dude. Every time I hear the 'disgusting' word, I realize that I am doing a good job hahah.

Almost finished the boss of our demo, I need 48 hours days...

Here you have one of its many mechanics. It reminds me a lot of "Ocarina of Time"

(https://i.imgur.com/4rod6hih.gif)

Gif -> https://i.imgur.com/4rod6hi.gif (https://i.imgur.com/4rod6hi.gif)

A dash movement added.  :handanykey:
(https://i.imgur.com/XBOmmRx.gif)

When I posted the following tweet, many of you asked me how I manage to draw the arm of our character in real time. It is much simpler than it seems.

(https://i.imgur.com/wvCQJbj.gif) (https://twitter.com/NetherWorldGame/status/919256335266480129)

We start by drawing a segment.

What we have? 2 points, the beginning of the segment and the end, we also have the pixel size, which in our case we determine depending on the Sprite selected automatically.

(https://i.imgur.com/wO4zGBJt.jpg)

The process is pretty simple, we calculate distances between the possible positions of our next pixel with the end point, the pixel that has the best distance to the final pixel will be the one chosen to be drawn. (this is very optimizable, for example, if the target pixel is in a lower position than our current pixel, we can directly discard the higher positions)

(https://i.imgur.com/1jhQNYFt.jpg)

Possible position of the next pixel
Position of the next pixel
Segment


In an iterative task, our origin pixel is now the pixel already drawn, until the distance of the next pixel to be drawn is greater than the distance of the current pixel with the destination.

Not optimized version.

(https://i.imgur.com/4qLIZuFm.jpg)

Optimized version.

(https://i.imgur.com/FtbXZcum.jpg)

Real-time Example

(https://i.imgur.com/W77bnaN.gif)

This process has to be repeated every frame.

We have almost all the work done, to have the complete arm we just have to position the elbow, this elbow will be the end of the first segment and the beginning of the second segment, which will move based on the position of the initial point of the first segment and the end point of the second segment.

(https://i.imgur.com/8cdIcTZm.jpg)

Real-time Example

(https://i.imgur.com/IKBHgS9.gif)

Ready, we have our fully functional arm , let's see it in action.

(https://i.imgur.com/RPNgw6q.gif)

(https://i.imgur.com/5jjlWYf.gif)

(https://i.imgur.com/Mjiu0Am.gif)

(https://i.imgur.com/0V8qkDY.gif)

(https://i.imgur.com/mqyJy2F.gif)

I hope you liked it.

I take this opportunity to say we are about to launch our Kickstarter (probably when you read this has already been released) for more information you can enter our Website (http://www.netherworldgame.com/) or follow us on Twitter (https://twitter.com/NetherWorldGame/media), thanks for reading this article!

(https://i.imgur.com/3cgyUyi.gif) (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1522665641/netherworld-drugs-sex-and-pixels-adventure-game?ref=417359&token=7f9332a2)

Omg is that a tommy gun?  :noir:

This might be a dumb question but is there gamepad support?

And good luck on the Kickstarter you guys!!! Can't wait to do my part to help make this game a reality!! Honored to be working with you both and can't wait to see the progress  ;)

Thanks for all Joe  :toastL: ;D

PS: Of course, we have "gamepad support"

Here (http://www.indiedb.com/games/netherworld1/news/real-time-pixel-arms) you have a new version of my last article, a little more "Clean"

Really like those "behind the scenes" animations, keep them coming!

Thank you!  :)

Lets vote!
:handanykey:  :handanykey:
https://twitter.com/NetherWorldGame/status/969620920955482112

(https://i.imgur.com/LRo2MZ4.png)

Well, 50% funded in 2 weeks, When the campaign ends, i'll list all the mistakes we have made.
In any case, it is possible to fund the project if we continue like this  :toastL: :toastR:

You guys are at $4,000+! Looks like you got a nice bump over the past couple days. I have been spamming discord, particularly some NSFW game dev servers, hopefully that is helping lol. Let's keep it up!  :handclap:

Maybe take a look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bresenham%27s_line_algorithm, which is an optimized version of what you tried to reverse engineer.

Yep, Bresenham rasterization is definitely a good option :)


Thanks Joe!! , We are working so hard on it and we have achieved several good publications in Spain such as Eurogamer.

http://www.eurogamer.es/articles/2018-03-05-netherworld-el-juego-de-los-madrilenos-hungry-pixel-bsuca-financiacion-en-kickstarter (http://www.eurogamer.es/articles/2018-03-05-netherworld-el-juego-de-los-madrilenos-hungry-pixel-bsuca-financiacion-en-kickstarter)

You’ve seen pictures of a town, a castle, creepy church interiors, a desert… Now it’s time to let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!!

We’ve been working hard this week on a Windows and Linux demo (you’ll play it soon!), but there’s more: Isabel, NetherWorld’s awesome pixel art artist, is working on a new COOL scenario!


(https://i.imgur.com/0B05mdf.gif)

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(https://i.imgur.com/m7gR10h.gif)

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(https://i.imgur.com/rZAotMs.gif)

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(https://i.imgur.com/HRLZFmr.gif)

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(https://i.imgur.com/xfruKej.gif)

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(https://i.imgur.com/32okHgN.gif)

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(https://i.imgur.com/FCMyt3R.gif)

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(https://i.imgur.com/F9baT5F.gif)

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(https://i.imgur.com/klTgF3C.gif)

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(https://i.imgur.com/BEWHG5B.gif)

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It’s not finished yet, but at first sight you can feel the loneliness and frigidity of the place. Wait… What’s that wall for? (It’s been you, Trump? Jon Snow?) Our quirky protagonist will live tough situations there… The shadows of his past will come back, and he’ll discover NetherWorld ones too. We’ll see the consequences of a forgotten war, and get a f*cking flu. Seems that NetherWorld’s plot becomes a little more dark and sinister as we get into these cold lands… Brace yourselves, ladies and gentlemen.

Thanks for your support!

NetherWorld Team


Kickstarter (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1522665641/netherworld-drugs-sex-and-pixels-adventure-game?ref=indiedb)

(https://i.imgur.com/x5XQDot.jpg)

Congratz!! I just wanted to say the art looks gorgerous!  I will keep looking forward :)

Woohoo! Congrats! I'm so excited I spent all day working yesterday on a snow theme  :lol:

It’s been 2 months since NetherWorld Kickstarter campaign finished. During this time we’ve been working without rest on the project (especially the demo), improving several art&code aspects and rounding off the story to offer you a perfect summary of what NetherWorld final game is gonna be. We’re both nervous and excited to know your demo reactions and feedback!

We wanted to post a NetherWorld progress devblog every month… Okay, we didn’t, but here’s our April-May devlog!

First of all, let’s talk about User Interface starting with a cool headline:


We’re gonna kick lots of boss butts in NetherWorld, so the combat UI has been taken very seriously.

NetherWorld has two different combat modes: Shooting and slapping, or in other words: ranged mode and melee mode, each one with its particular weapons (swords, shields, torches, handguns, long guns, flamethrowers…). Choose wisely according to the mess you got into.

This double combat system made difficult to decide how the weapon selector should be. However, we finally opted for a quarter circle in the top left corner of the screen. Besides showing the weapon list, its rotation will allow you to change weapons and the combat mode as well.

Here’s a prototype of how the circle looks when rotate (weapons and combat modes not included… yet).

(https://i.imgur.com/mOQ3Mmc.gif)




Another UI improvement we’ve introduced has been a damage indicator. That gives you the possibility to see how much damage you received from the last enemy hit.

The damage indicator is used in several games like Dark Souls and many others, and shows up as a white bar in the player HP bar. In this way, with a quick look you’ll know if you’re gonna be fucked up in the next blow or not.

(https://media.indiedb.com/images/articles/1/254/253462/auto/2cAXrGm.gif)




Who loves our black and weird main character? In NetherWorld, nobody. But we do, so we created his first health recovery item: a red heart (wow, never seen it before! Just a tribute to the classics, you know).

This will help him to survive during crazy and intense fights against crazy and grotesque bosses.
(https://media.indiedb.com/images/articles/1/254/253462/auto/biG6FvK.gif)

If you’re wondering how the heart splits up in lots of pixels and every single one follows you, it’s simple: Vector Party! The purple vector indicates which direction the pixel has to head for to reach the player, and the yellow vector is the union between item’s center and the current pixel position.

(https://media.indiedb.com/images/articles/1/254/253462/auto/Y8rdozs.gif)



Regarding to combat system, we had to make some tough decisions such as changing NetherWorld submachine gun. We were using an MP40 model before, but finally we changed it for the classic Thompson. Why? It was all about the colors and its contrast with the scenarios: The design of this gun on pixel art is much better-looking than the MP40 one.

Previously, weapons were a 20% bigger than the rest of NetherWorld sprites (comparing pixel sizes). Now we’ve decided to unify pixel size in all the game, including particles system.

(https://i.imgur.com/S5dGXah.gif)

Due to these changes, we also modified rural areas vegetation and some specific elements of NetherWorld enemies and creatures such as the tentacles of the lovely eye shown below.

(https://media.indiedb.com/images/articles/1/254/253462/auto/XEPKWzq.gif)

(https://i.imgur.com/Fih1zDK.gif)




Thinking about NetherWorld objects rotation, we considered that a standard rotation would clash with the pixel art “essence” of the game. That’s why we’ve been working on a truly pixel art rotation system.

That wasn’t an easy decision: NetherWorld rotation system has experienced several (and important) changes during its development. In the beginning, the calculation to build a new rotated image for big objects like the gauntlet you’ll see below raised the 30k. After an optimization we got to reduce it to 10k.

We also developed a system to storage the rotated images, so if we already had “Object X” rotated in a certain angle, the next time we needed it we would use the stored image instead of doing the rotation calculations again.

(https://media.indiedb.com/images/articles/1/254/253462/auto/bXsp8OA.png)

This system is very useful in a lot of cases: For example, when having objects like many rocks in the same scenario, we can have identical models subjected to constant rotations (or rocktations?).

(https://media.indiedb.com/images/articles/1/254/253462/auto/dt62RgA.gif)




Did you know that our NetherWorld odd jellyfish couldn’t go down the stairs? Thanks to our rotation system (and some other magic tricks) now he can climb, move through irregular areas and get in buildings.

(https://i.imgur.com/pTBSz56.gif)

(https://media.indiedb.com/images/articles/1/254/253462/auto/H7NgwbR.gif)

(https://media.indiedb.com/images/articles/1/254/253462/auto/jhq7qwI.gif)




And last but not least… We introduce you another tool we developed while working on NetherWorld demo: Let’s make a little bit easier the platform building!

Although NetherWorld is not a platform game, we considered necessary adding some platforms during the main character journey to reduce the perception of just a flat horizontal scenario.

(https://media.indiedb.com/images/articles/1/254/253462/auto/gddjpfO.gif)

As you can see, our platform-building tool allows you to create in a few seconds an organic structure. Once the model is built, you can also modify the parts you don’t like manually.



Oh, did you arrive here? To show our gratitude we’ll give you (FOR FREE!) some ways to be the first to know about NetherWorld development!

Twitter: https://twitter.com/NetherWorldGame (https://twitter.com/NetherWorldGame)
Mail: [email protected]

…and don’t forget to subscribe to our wonderful mailing list here: https://t.co/28zpcJH8Lp

Thanks again for your support and see you soon!


NetherWorld Team

What has happened since our last April-May devblog? A LOT.

If you’re cold, don’t worry… We are back to heat up everybody with some cool stuff!


First of all, let’s talk about graphic improvements.

>> THE BOSS, THE BOSS, THE BOSS IS ON FIRE <<

While developing the demo, we saw some problems with the boss fire particles. We were using the same particles for decorative purposes (the demo boss is made of metal and blue fire) and for the fire attacks and explosions.

What happened? Our disgraced protagonist, Medoo, was really confused because sometimes he wasn’t aware of being damaged… Okay, it’s funny to see Medoo’s suffering, but if you’re playing Medoo, dying without knowing why sucks.

Luckily, this was easy to fix. We designed two different particles:

The “Ouch!” fire particle explosion (right), and the “Look-How-Badass-I-am” decorative one (left).

(https://i.imgur.com/Ks24COS.gif)

>> RED LASER REDEMPTION <<

Is… Is she hitting you with a fetus?

(https://media.indiedb.com/images/articles/1/262/261837/auto/1eWVz5K.gif)

Well… Yes, but that’s a long story. Look at the laser sight. If you’ve ever worked with Unity, you’ll know how useful the “LineRenderer” tool is for things like this. The problem lies in having a cool HD red laser... in a (cool) pixel art game.

Hmmm... Something’s wrong here, right? Most of the feedback we received indicated that too. So... let’s fix it.

(https://i.imgur.com/PqQhgLI.gif)

Thanks to the rasterization algorithm by our beloved friend Jack Elton Bresenham, we got a cute and fully integrated laser sight for NetherWorld firearms. In this particular case, a dusty Thompson.

Laser sight was an appearance improvement, but this hasn’t been the only change we’ve made in weapons. We’ve spent time and effort to assure you the best experience in the game, especially during boss combats.

I SWEAR I WAS AIMING THE BOSS!

A jellyfish shooting a Thompson is probably one of the best ideas we could ever have. At the beginning, it sounded fantastic to program a realistic recoil for an automatic rifle. However, we didn’t take into account that there's a bit difference between two human hands holding a Thompson and several slippery tentacles doing it... so the recoil was horrible. Being aware of that, we reduced the recoil parameters to avoid frustration, despair and suicide among the players while trying to shoot a target.

Here’s a Before / After gif to show the recoil evolution (Guess which is the bad and the good one):

(https://i.imgur.com/1SUMCvb.gif)

>> WUIPONS <<

In the April-May Devblog you saw a prototype of how would the Weapons UI be. Well, since then our Weapon Selector has been upgraded and debugged for the demo.

(https://media.indiedb.com/images/articles/1/262/261837/auto/BEBKHhl.gif)

>> OH… AND THAT’S IT? <<

We haven’t posted an article since May… OF COURSE the news are not over. We’re gonna make a quick list of SOME of the stuff we haven’t shown you yet:

>> UI Gamepad Builder Tool

If you want to play the game for Nintendo Switch... You’ll need a controller. We’ve created a terrific tool to make the "switch" (sorry) from keyboard UI to controller UI the easiest way possible.

(https://i.imgur.com/ugb35r2.gif)

>> Picking Objects System

As in every rich world and story, NetherWorld deserves cool objects with weird descriptions and a great way to pick them up. We’ve improved NetherWorld Picking Objects System adding new functionalities, like “Take this note from the wall”, or “Pick this gun from the ground and add it to the inventory”.

(https://i.imgur.com/SSNXO62.gif)

(https://media.indiedb.com/images/articles/1/262/261837/auto/XHw97cv.gif)

>> Menu

This is how NetherWorld menu looks like, at least in the demo… Hope you could listen to it ;)

(https://i.imgur.com/q6ccQ7H.gif)

>> Online Features

Wait... Is NetherWorld an online game? Are we gonna play a Battle Royale? WTF, OF COURSE NOT! NetherWorld is still a single-player game, but we wanted to add some cool online features, like worldwide leaderboards and what we call... The Intruders System.

(https://i.imgur.com/BdmxwRd.gif)

Imagine that you and 200 other players are, at the same time but in your own games, getting drunk in the town’s bar. Wouldn’t it be cool that you could see them as a creepy spirit, or even as your wife memories recalling how disgraced you are?

NetherWorld Intruders System is still in alpha tests, but is basically a dynamic NPC position based on where player character is in the game. You won’t be able to interact with other players, but you’ll see them in a funny (or creepy) way.

>> NEW WEBSITE + STEAM <<

As you may know, developing a game is much more than programming. It entails boring stuff like paperwork, but also other fulfilling things like having a cool website. We’re glad to introduce you our NEW NETHERWORLD SITE! (https://netherworldgame.com/) From there you’ll be able to visit our Steam page too.

NetherWorld Team

NETHERWORLD PIXEL BLOODSTAIN SYSTEM

Today we’re gonna talk about violence in videogames and how our helpless children are deeply influenced by tHahaha Just kidding. Now we have your attention, let’s talk about BLOOD in videogames, and the 2D pixel bloodstain system developed for NetherWorld.

TRADITIONAL BLOOD SYSTEMS

If we write about blood in videogames, Mortal Kombat has to be here. Probably, it was one of the first games that started to spread blood everywhere in the scenario. Considering its 90s console technical limitations, blood looked quite good.


What an awesome fatality, huh? If you look close to it, there’re blood splashes on the floor that start their animation when the blood stream is still in the air (left of the screen). Besides, the stains disappear quite fast. There isn’t much to comment here; they had more important worries in that time (and Twitter didn’t exist, so it was difficult to be a hater).

Do you remember GTA III? WHO DON’T? Let’s pay attention to the stain in the green frame below. We’re shot, blood drops hit the ground and a blood-drop-textured plane is instanced just there (Did they use a blood pool? If they did, we find it convenient). With this method, it isn’t possible to have infinite bloodstains, so they disappear progressively. The stains are also removed when the police car hides them from the camera (and hits us dramatically).


Okay, Hitman 2. We’ve just killed our target and left some bloodstains in the wall and floor. The method used here is different from the one in GTA III, and allows showing the stains in the scenario permanently. How do they do it?


Hitman 2 modeling has textures that can be modified in real time, and there’re previously-painted bloodstain images ready to appear when we decide to shoot anyone who deserve it (everyone).

Once the bullet goes through a body, the script calculates its trajectory. If there’s an obstacle behind the potential corpse, it’s time to determine the point where the bullet is gonna collide into the texture. Then, a bloodstain will be added on that texture’s exact location (GIF’s green squares).

What’s the problem here? Look at the orange squares. Textures are designed to wrap the 3D model in a natural way, but while a bloodstain looks fine in a 2D texture, things change in a 3D model. As seen in the GIF above, there’s the possibility (SPOILER: It’s gonna happen) that visual errors ruin the beauty of the scene (beauty in terms of graphics, not all the blood and killing people stuff… Just saying).

Moreover, having lots of previously-painted bloodstain images doesn’t seem to be the best way to solve that problem… or at least not the most efficient one.

PRBLOODBLEMS

As seen in the previous examples, most of traditional bloodstain-painting methods show two main problems:

1) Visual bugs tendency.

2) Performance problems (unless stains disappear)

How can we fix these problems in a 2D pixel art game like NetherWorld?

When talking about pixel art games, it comes to our minds a kind of game you could run in a calculator. Well… We’re in the 2019, not the 80s!

NetherWorld has scenes with high levels of illumination, shaders (e.g. grass movement), and also a varied particle system.

The more these particles collide and splash the scenario with cool blood streams, the better will be! MUAHAHA! (We’re not psychos, promise)

Nowadays, there’s a lot of stuff to consider if you want to develop a modern 2D pixel art game and make it feel visually attractive. From now on, we’ll call this stuff “firework resources”.

Here’s a NetherWorld scene comparison with firework resources and without them:


Well, one would fit perfectly as a set for school play… But we prefer the bloody one. Oh, did we said school play? Let’s talk about performance.

This Unity Forum’s thread (https://answers.unity.com/questions/949903/combining-multiple-sprites.html) shows how important is to have an optimized “Blood, blood everywhere” system in our game. If we create a bloodstain every time we kill an enemy, there’re tons of them and we also use “firework resources” in the scene, we’ll have fps drops. (As said before, GTA III made the stains disappear for the same reason).


Once both scenes are full of blood, we observe 3 differences between them: With NetherWorld system, we don’t create objects, blood overdraw is reduced to 0, and the number of tris doesn’t increase.


+ So... You want to make a pixel art game.

- Yep.

+ ...With massive blood levels, including quartered enemies and other kinds of bloody violence in several scenarios...

- Aha.

+ ...and permanent bloodstains.

- Eeexactly.

+ ...

NETHERWORLD PIXEL TEXTURE PAINTING SYSTEM
(We’ll focus on bloodstains, but this system can be used for dirt or other stain materials.)

“Pixel” is the most important word in this whole section. If we applied this texture painting method on an HD model, calculations would go crazy.

This method forgets about painting blood on textures by hand, and uses an algorithm that decides which pixel should (and shouldn’t) be dyed red in a particular radius. How does it work?

BLOODSTAINING TEXTURES (I): The grandma

Imagine you’re walking down the street in a dark and cold night. Suddenly, a wild old grandma appears and tries to rob you holding a knife. Poor granny… She doesn’t know we always carry a 9mm handgun called “Retirement”.

What should we do? Shooting her fucking head, of course. This article is about blood, not mercy.

From now on, the place where granny’s blood is splashed will be the point (a,b).


BLOODSTAINING TEXTURES (II): The Bloodstain Pattern

First of all, we designed a simple pattern: An X-pixel-radius circle in (a,b) position. This circle has a concentric rhombus inside, and several vectors go through it perpendicularly. This vectors are the traces or blood drops that will appear around the main bloodstain.

Unless you’re color-blind, you’ll see the pattern is divided by 3 areas: A red rhombus, a green circle and outside vectors.

Each area has different staining probability values:

Red = High

Green = Low

Outside Vectors = Medium

In terms of quality, we think this pattern allows us to obtain acceptable bloodstains. However, we don’t discard to go a little bit further and work on a more variable pattern, for example.


We have a bloodstain pattern, cool. Let’s use it!

BLOODSTAINING TEXTURES (III): Which textures can I stain?

All textures inside the radius will be suitable to be stained. This way we fix the “traditional method” problem of not staining parts from other object textures, even if they’re involved in the blood splash.

We love to get things complicated, so let’s try to stain a surface between 4 textures.


BLOODSTAINING TEXTURES (IV): Getting dirty

Okay, we know how to create a bloodstain, and where to splash it. But blood looks different depending on the texture that has underneath, right? How do we manage bloodstain colors?

While our texture painting algorithm is working, it finds a pixel that needs to be colored (following the staining probability values explained before). Once found, it reads the texture color in that pixel and obtains 4 numbers (RGB+A). This “A” value (Alpha Channel / transparency) will be very useful to determine if that pixel belongs to the texture (or group of textures) we wanna paint or not. If the “A” value is 0 or close to 0 (e.g. beyond texture’s edges), the pixel will be ignored.

“Wait… What’s RGB?”


RGB is a color representation space through a vector with 3 elements: Red, Green and Blue. All 3 are quantified in levels from 0 to 2^ (Pixel Depth)-1. If we’re working with 8 bits, we’d be talking about the Standard Dynamic Range (SDR) [0 – 255]. If 10 bits, it’d be a High Dynamic Range (HDR) [0 – 1023].

One of the advantages of this tridimensional vector space is the possibility of drawing a vector from one point to another. I you wanna change the color, you just have to move between the points.


We want to bloodstain a pixel. This pixel has already a color (its color texture), and we want to stain it a red. With our pixel texture-painting system, we’ll draw a vector from the pixel original texture color, and we’ll set the “pure red” value (255, 0, 0) as the end of the vector. Let’s see if it works:


Well… Is that blood or radioactive ketchup?

Okay, now we know 2 things:

1) Bloodstains are red.

2) But not THAT red.

In other words, we need this red to be more integrated in the original color texture. To get that, our system will look over the vector to find a color value close to pure red.


Much better now, don't you think?


Having all that explained... Is RGB the best color system for our Texture painting method? No, it’s not. In fact, HSV color model would probably work much better. However, we didn’t want to add more calculations for color space model conversions, and RGB results are good.


“Yes yes, blah blah blah... I want to see that system in the game!”

BLOODSTAINING TEXTURES (V): NetherWorld in-game examples

TEST Nº1:

The best way to show how a bloodstain system works, is killing a bloodball enemy.


TEST Nº2:

Hitting several enemies in the same area + shadows + extra illumination effects applied to the whole scenario.


Wow, this article has been pretty intense! Let’s sum up the most important points of this pixel bloodstain system.

SUMMARY

1) Select textures (objects) to stain.

2) Apply bloodstain pattern and define the pixels to stain.

3) Read the selected pixel color and move it through its RGB space to the desired blood color following your own parameters (“pure red” would be out of reach).

4) Apply the new color to the original pixel.

Did you like the post?

We love videogames and everything related to them. That's why we really hope you enjoyed this article. Give us your feedback in the comments!

We're also doing all our best to develop NetherWorld and spread the word about it. And we're happy to announce that NetherWorld has been nominated in the 3HM Awards!! ;D  We need all the votes possible, so if you wanna help us, that'd be awesome!

VOTE FOR NETHERWORLD IN THE 3HM AWARDS! (http://upcvideogames.com/games/?lang=en)

Thanks so much for your support and see you soon! :)

I like it, seems crazy original crazy

Thank you Beastboy  ;D

First boss, on Switch!

(https://i.imgur.com/M00Dmcf.gif)

NETHERWORLD JUNE DEVBLOG 2019


NetherWorld has experimented great progression since last time we posted an update. However, first of all...

During these months we realized we didn’t explain how NetherWorld gameplay structure will be like. Let’s do it now!

Nope, NetherWorld is not a Metroidvania.


NetherWorld has 3 different game modes you’ll alternate during the gameplay:

>> STORY MODE
Cinematics, world exploring, talking to NPCs, interacting with/ buying objects, doing main and secondary quests…

(https://i.imgur.com/WHILHel.gif)

>> MINIGAME MODE

Some places, objects or NPCs will offer you “services” to earn extra money or get materials.
These include drinking competitions, sex with young&old people, shooting stuff or even controlling a tick called Joe through filthy underground rogue-like dungeons)

(https://i.imgur.com/3LNUHIN.gif)

>> FIGHT MODE

Time to kick boss asses! You’ll fight all kind of creatures switching melee + shield and ranged weapons (swords, shotguns, Thompson, flamethrowers and more!)

(https://i.imgur.com/WtLfxLZ.gif)

>> IMPROVING SCENARIOS (I): DEUMANVILLE <<


The town scenario has changed A LOT since we started its development. You’ll play it at night, but also in a beautiful sunset.

(https://i.imgur.com/HH7NemD.gif)


Deumanville is also the home of Medoo, our miserable protagonist, and the place where everything begins.

So we have the “Where”. Now here’s the “Who” that starts it all.

>> CUBICK <<

(https://imgur.com/QOsWtyc.gif)

Cubick is a cokehead mage who’s hiding from the Mafia. Why? Don’t know yet. But what we know is he’ll be involved in all the boss town fights... And will involve you in them, of course.

(https://i.imgur.com/MudnuI7.gif)

>> TOWN BOSSES <<

We’ve fully developed the 2 bosses you’ll find in Deumanville. And you know what? You’ll have to face them unarmed. Yeah… Shit happens.

> Boss 1: Xenus, the Mafia Doctor
(https://i.imgur.com/mwUadod.gif)

(https://i.imgur.com/Ubd14jf.gif)

We tested it on Nintendo Switch too! (It will look similar to this… but without sword and shield).

(https://i.imgur.com/M00Dmcf.gif)


> Boss 2: Cubick Party

There’s nothing more deathly than a party with Cubick. Wait... Is that a unicorn?

(https://i.imgur.com/0LkEyjo.gif)

However, Deumanville is not the only scenario with changes.


>> IMPROVING SCENARIOS (II): MORDISCO DESERT <<

[SNEAK PEAK]



Howdy, strangers! The first desert scenario was cool, but it had contrast problems between most of its elements.

(https://media.indiedb.com/images/members/5/4194/4193206/profile/old_desert.png)

Our artist Erien has been working on a new design, which is still under development (particles, people, plants, decorations...). However, we’re very satisfied with this new direction.

(https://media.indiedb.com/images/members/5/4194/4193206/profile/improving_desert.png)

We also developed a never-ending parallax system so you’ll be able to run through NetherWorld’s hottest place all you like. Enjoy the views!

(https://i.imgur.com/epu8o0B.gif)

In the next update we’ll show you more about the desert!



>> OTHER FEATURES <<


>> New Picking&Throwing System
This system was improved when developing Xenus mechanics. This way Medoo will be able to handle tough objects and throw them wherever he wants.
(https://media.indiedb.com/images/articles/1/269/268687/auto/GBCIqiJ.gif)

>> New dialogue system
Besides normal dialogues, now you’ll have the chance to ask multiple questions to some NPCs, and they will be able to change due to external events.

(https://i.imgur.com/UwapPhK.gif)

>> Look at these curves!
We want you to enjoy Medoo’s suffering no matter the situation, so we added some outlining when his body is hidden. Don’t miss a thing!

(https://i.imgur.com/kw7bIAr.gif)

>> WE’RE FAMOUS! <<


Well, not really. But we’ve had the great opportunity to explain the project to wonderful people in different media, even in a live on Mixer! Check it out if you want!

> Mixer (Youtube LIVE) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykNeIUzZ1z0&feature=youtu.be (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykNeIUzZ1z0&feature=youtu.be)
> My Game Story https://mygamestory.com/the-big-interview-netherworld/ (https://mygamestory.com/the-big-interview-netherworld/)
> Scouse Gamer 88 http://scousegamer88.com/2019/05/22/qa-with-hungry-pixel/ (http://scousegamer88.com/2019/05/22/qa-with-hungry-pixel/)

>> FREE STUFF <<


Oh... Did you arrive here? To show our gratitude we’ll give you (FOR FREE!) some ways to be the first to know about NetherWorld development!

> Twitter https://twitter.com/NetherWorldGame (https://twitter.com/NetherWorldGame)

> Website https://www.netherworldgame.com (https://www.netherworldgame.com)

Thanks again for your support and see you soon!


NetherWorld Team

NETHERWORLD APRIL DEVBLOG 2020

During these last months we've continued working on the desert scenario, as well as developing the teleport system.Wanna see (and listen to) it?
LET'S START!

NEW CHARACTERS

Oraculactus
In the most remote place of Mordisco Desert, an ancient cactus awaits. The Oraculactus will be one of the several NPCs with multiple question system.

(https://i.imgur.com/LKr7456.gif)

Sheriff Westwood
Westwood (aka “The Fucking Law”) is the fastest shooter in Mordisco Desert. You’ll find him in The Puke town, and he’ll have an important role in the main story.

(https://i.imgur.com/oQT2KH9.gif)
(https://media.moddb.com/images/articles/1/280/279198/auto/xefziVg.gif)

Wormy Olesva
Sent to The Puke 15 years before, her existence relies on spreading the word about how great the Great Abbess and Wormpink are. Wormy Olesva will be key to understand some of the NetherWorld lore, especially religion.

(https://media.moddb.com/images/articles/1/280/279198/auto/o1O9wBr.gif)

Mafia Guys
Hmmm… Something makes us suspect these guys are not from this town.

(https://i.imgur.com/SYPgZ14.gif)

Badass cowboy clichés
A western-inspired scenario is not complete without outlaws riding horses. The Nachos will also teach you how to shoot stuff standing on a horse.

(https://i.imgur.com/oIWnxS8.gif)
Guacco riding a horse.

(https://i.imgur.com/9NaEL5x.gif)
Mayo riding a horse.

(https://i.imgur.com/hANIXdS.gif)
Cheddy riding a hor…CHEDDY, C’MON! Not that way!

(https://i.imgur.com/o7s7pQE.gif)
Ketch and Cheddy riding PROPERLY a horse.

NEW DESERT PLACES

The Puke is the only town in the entire Mordisco Desert. Depending on the spot you’re visiting, you’ll be able to buy weapons, fuck, get drunk, get into a mess… Here are some of the new places we’ve been working on:

Welcome to The Puke!
The crappy soul of a town summarized in a sign.

(https://i.imgur.com/vIhRljH.gif)

Ammoizing Gun shop
Howdy, stranger! Wanna get some shotguns?

(https://media.moddb.com/images/articles/1/280/279198/auto/EXRFSjH.png)

Sheriff Office
“The smaller the office, the bigger the prison”. As you can imagine, Medoo will end up there sooner or later.

(https://i.imgur.com/Gvc5rLC.gif)

Wormpink Chapel
This old chapel was built long ago by Wormy Olesva, and includes two little rooms and a cemetery inside. Pink arrows and torches circle the only place where Wormpink can eat people’s corpses and souls and take them to the Holy Swamp. You’ll remember this place.

(https://i.imgur.com/KVLmIjx.gif)

Froots, the No-Fruit Stand
The best fruit stand in Mordisco Desert… with no fruit.

(https://i.imgur.com/K8b5DMi.gif)

Bonfire Gallows
We wanted to add some light to the traditional western gallows. The perfect warm up before hanging out with your bff Trouble! (The hanging guy has been removed to avoid spoilers)

(https://i.imgur.com/jCywAm4.gif)

THE GROOVE, THE SAND AND THE WILDY
OK, you’ve seen how the desert looks… BUT HOW DOES IT SOUND?

Here’s a sneak peek of Mordisco Desert scenario theme by courtesy of our amazing composers Rogue Sonics. ENJOY!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vq1ix4wzOMM

Like it? Tell us your impressions in the comments!

We’ll never be grateful enough for the incredible job these guys are doing with NetherWorld OST and sfx.

WORMHOLES
Yessss, we can FINALLY talk about this! One of the main mechanics in the game is a fast way to travel between scenarios. Portals? Nah…

(https://media.moddb.com/images/articles/1/280/279198/auto/hG7ZP0n.png)
(https://media.moddb.com/images/articles/1/280/279198/auto/DZSQ2Fz.png)

Legend has it that Wormpink, the Life Puker, The Soul Eater, created everything. It’s basically a holy giant two-headed pink worm.

(https://i.imgur.com/YciFGEl.gif)
Maybe you don’t know if this god exists (yet), but you’ll find normal (?) palindrome worms in most of the scenarios you’re gonna visit. The mechanics are simple: One head eats something somewhere, the other pukes it somewhere else, and vice versa. Now replace “something” with “YOU”.
But where does each worm go to? Is there a kind of “worm chamber”? How many worms are you gonna use in NetherWorld?
Well…

…We’ll see it in the next update!

(https://i.imgur.com/ae8atqc.gif)
Oops... A bug in a worm.

see ya!

NETHERWORLD JULY DEVBLOG  :handanykey: :whome:
https://www.indiedb.com/games/netherworld1/news/netherworld-july-devblog-2020

I dont know how fun the gameplay actually is but the artwork is very interesting

Though the pixels are a little intense, this looks full of life man. Keep it up