Pure unhindered imagination!! beautiful work!

Thank u!  (^‿^ )

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I made another version of the title text with noise added to the input text img.

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Any opinions on whether that is better/still legible?

Damn... I love this shit but I sincerely have no fucking idea what it is. The main character is an insta-classic. And a magnificient work on SFX! :D

TY!

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Sorry for those who don't follow on twitter I've been very busy with school life and porting CRTTR to work with DirectX.  I'm mostly done but there are still some issues that RJ had when running the game. He's wrking on a list of them but in the meantime I thought I would start working on the game's main menu & title.  I made a twitter post of some of my favorite reaction diffusion constants being applied to the title & a poll.

Here is one as an example.

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Here is what that looks like made small and solid color as well.



I'd love it if you took a look and voted.

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I think I might use all of them in the game but I think this is still interesting as for online media purposes I should probably pick one for consistency.  Any thoughts or comments?

Edit: Also I could do something like what RJ does with his forum profile picture & consistently randomly select one effect from a set of gifs or images?

Can I be a playtester plz plz plz PLZ
I'll give you the recipe of my magical zucchini bread in exchange

I need to get the game further along before I think there would be a point to having any public playtesting.  That being said I'll start a list of people who are interesting & put u on it cause it seems some people are interested in playtesting.

me too!

---

non-update: me and snaps talked about how to approah CRTTR as more than just a sandbox to run around in (a great sandbox, and an involving, interesting one, but i digress). i suggested a good starting point would be to integrate a narrative into the experience, and i wrote a lot about how that would work in a way that didn't betray CRTTR's air of inviting discomfort.

we're going to do a more involved call about this soon, but i have some potentially really cool stuff planned for how to flesh out CRTTR's universe without breaking its mystery and distance. so! yeah!

Dang I'm excited 2 talk more about that stuff soon.  Maybe this weekend?  Unfortunately dev has just been kinda slow w school recently.  I'm entering midterm season and all the preceding projects have been taking up a lot of time this last week.  All my midterms are around mid-week next week so there should be a noticeable increase in productivity after...
until finals. ( ;ﾟдﾟ)

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Here is a render of another area of the chasm region from before I finished detailing it with some rubble.



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You can look at a short rendered video on twitter of the fluid sim.
I hope to emulate it in realtime as best I can with GPU SPH.
It also has a bit of rubble in the scene at that point.

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[I'M BACK UPDATE!]

Ok I'm back 2 wrking on crttr.
If you want u can check out what I made in the interim on my itch.io.

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I'M BACK UPDATE!

So far I've worked some on cleaning up area transitions because I would like to make a stable demo "vertical slice" of the game tht I can have friends playtest & give to rj.  I also made a small improvement to the exclamations of timid slimes by adding physics & scaling to them.

Here is a gif.

The lack of arms in this game is perfect

Hey just dropping in 2 ur thread 2 say hi & that the grass & char movement looks rly sproingy & good.

ye

sik I'll dm u later in the week.

The fluid rendering is super cool! I'd love to hold the slime in that second gif. crttr's looking really good but I'm looking forward to whatever else you play around with during your break from it.

Thanks Tom!  I missed your recent Wobbledog stream but watched it on youtube.  Good stuff!  Also I remember you mentioning wanting water in Wobbledogs at some point.  If you want to do some gpu ripple effects on the surface like recent Bethesda games feel free 2 hit me up 4 advice because one of the main challenges is writing a sphere intersection around the world-space position of an object into a texture, something which I overcame a bit ago with the reaction diffusion surfaces in ＣＲＲＴＲ!

Thanks! And I'll definitely let you know if that's something I end up trying to get in. Shaders are something I have super super limited experience with so I'm sure the help would be appreciated.

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Here's a short vid in the meantime of early ai testing.

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snaps you madfuck genius

Thanks rj! ( ＞ ﹏ ⊙ )ノ

Also shiiiit we rly gotta skype again about music & stuff soon lol.  Maybe next weekend cause I'm busy this weekend w getting ready school, team meetings & going 2 a concert?

The fluid rendering is super cool! I'd love to hold the slime in that second gif. crttr's looking really good but I'm looking forward to whatever else you play around with during your break from it.

Thanks Tom!  I missed your recent Wobbledog stream but watched it on youtube.  Good stuff!  Also I remember you mentioning wanting water in Wobbledogs at some point.  If you want to do some gpu ripple effects on the surface like recent Bethesda games feel free 2 hit me up 4 advice because one of the main challenges is writing a sphere intersection around the world-space position of an object into a texture, something which I overcame a bit ago with the reaction diffusion surfaces in ＣＲＲＴＲ!

Hey small update on screen space fluid rendering which turned out to be much harder to implement that anticipated.
Here are some gifs.





Also I posted on my twitter a render of an area I was wrking on. Here it is with a swing added.

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You can see how it looks in game here:

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speaking of which I plan on taking a short 1-2 week break from focused crttr dev since I am about to start my next semester of college and I want to make some small little experiments in processing, cinder, and sfml to put up on itch. I'll b sure to post those on ＴＷＩＴＴＥＲ.

What do you people think the importance of supporting macosx is?
More generally what kind of hardware do you think I should target because I realize my desktop is fairly high spec?

Uhm.
I think your game would mostly appeal fans of surreal/strange games like Yume Nikki, LSD, Gingiva...
Now, this genre isn't really rapresented outside the indie market, so people know getting strange games means shuffling through obscure indie titles. And this means having a Windows - or knowing how to emulate it. Therefore, I think you should focus on Windows, because most of your target audience already uses this OS.

I also think you should keep the min specs as low as possible, for the same reasoning: the most famous "strange" games are made with the likes of rpgmaker and game maker, and usually have very low specs. The kind of people that likes this type of games doesn't usually upgrade their pc to play the lastest Assassin's Creed.

(Obviously, you are the one that really knows your target market! I'm just assuming things. Also, nice smoothie.)

Yeah I agree for the most part however I'm not sure right now how well crttr would run on a lower spec pc.  I will seek out people with worse computers once the next semester of my college resumes for testing.  This will be vital because I'm sure I can optimize some stuff a bit more but I'm not willing to make significant visual compromises.

just wanna pop in and say how technically and aesthetically impressive this thing is looking

how long have you been doing games/graphics programming for? it seems like you really know your stuff

Thank u.  I wrote my first shader in my senior year of high school which was my first graphics card programming but I've been doing graphical programming since I taught myself flash & actionscript in 6th grade.  I guess that means about 10 years even tho im only 21?

i agree that you should def mainly target windows because you should focus on making the best version of crttr possible but just a reminder that your composer's computer is a mac.

(not that it matters bc i use parallels and it's never had compatability issues)

if it's possible make the shaders toggleable? but if not barrel ahead, honestly

tbh i think crttr is a game i would ideally want to play on a console but i also know that is not a realistic goal at this moment

Yeah rj I talked w some friends about this and kinda got the impression that at this point pretty much every gamer w a mac runs parallels.  Currently the main problem with macosx is it doesn't support the newest version of opengl but my understanding is that apple's alternative, metal, is being rolled out and unity is still in the process of adding metal support.  So that means that this actually may become a non-issue in the future.  I agree about consoles that could b really cool because controller is, in my opinion, the best way to play crttr currently.  The main technical obstacle for that is that CRTTR is currently opengl only and most consoles are direct3D only as far as I can tell.  The reason I haven't been using direct3D is unity uses opengl coordinates but direct3D flips them and was causing a lot of problems.  Tbh I think unity's built in stuff to work around that for textures is kinda broken.  Hopefully these issues with the engine will be fixed soon.

May I ask what you're using to develop this?

Its unity but this specific effect is mostly a compute shader written in the cg language.

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Of course I can't make a post with out more pictures and content but I'm not feeling so good after programming this for 3 days without sto- ah CHOO!



well that should be enough for now.  Screen space fluid rendering in the next post!

[Smoothie Update:]

I have a question I forgot to ask.  What do you people think the importance of supporting macosx is?  I want to use compute shaders but have actually so far resisted.  If I use them the game won't work on mac for sure but I could have similar numbers of b~voids or other particle effects to games like ABZÛ.  More generally what kind of hardware do you think I should target because I realize my desktop is fairly high spec?

I couldn't resist anymore...

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Smoothie Update:


I made a smoothie with gpu sph.



There are still some things to implement like fluid elasticity, spatial hashing, supporting some sphere colliders, more emitter types, and better rendering but surface tension, pressure and viscosity are functional.

I plan to use this for many things but the first task will be improving the rendering!  I will probably have and update soon once I've finished some type of screen space fluid rendering.

[Deluxe Gold Milkdate!]

i can really get into the look of this new ｚｏｍｅ

Thank u but that isn't a zome because it doesn't have a zome in it.

glubstone's givin' me some gumby vibes.

Yeah rj I was very inspired by claymation when making them.  

That flocking is mesmerising...

Hey clicked ur twitter & noticed ur doing dare.  Say hello to team grassdancer @ protoplay 4 me.  They are my friends from college.

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Deluxe Gold Milkdate!

New area preview of gold milk deluxe chasm 3-0.

Here is a picture and



here is a short video.

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pls retweet me so i can spam more people on twitter with pictures of crttrs running around in different slime.

EDIT:


I have a question I forgot to ask.  What do you people think the importance of supporting macosx is?  I want to use compute shaders but have actually so far resisted.  If I use them the game won't work on mac for sure but I could have similar numbers of b~voids or other particle effects to games like ABZÛ.  More generally what kind of hardware do you think I should target because I realize my desktop is fairly high spec?

[Glubdate!]

I like it

( ᐛ )و◁～(ＴＨＡＮＫ　Ｕ)

That wonky wobble jump is charming!

Yeah You don't jump in the global up but rather in your head's up to prevent climbing walls.  This results in a wobblier more physical but still controllable jump.

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Glubdate!

New area preview!  glubstone swamp is full of rocks that have trouble breathing.

Here is a gif and

Here is a short video.

https://twitter.com/heysnapshere/status/759126978884538368

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Also...

Team Update!

rj™ has joined the dev team so now its a team and not just me so i can call this a team update.  He will be doing music once I've added a bit more content and I think he will be a great fit for the project considering his past work.  We will be experimenting with procedural ways of doing that but already have some ideas!

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finally I leave you with a preview of another area called ｔｈｅ　ｃｉｒｃｌｅ　ｏｆ　ｄｅａｔｈ.

No rush on gameplay!  I think this is really something as a toy.  It seems like you are having fun with it and creating some fantastic environments for the CRTTR to hang out in.

I can't wait to get a hold of something I can let my daughter play.  She is 4 and she draws these sorts of beasties going on adventures great and just for fun.

That is so nice to hear! It made me realize that thus far I have't thought about age demographics at all when making this.  Thus far I haven't made anything that would not be appropriate for all ages and I would like to keep it that way!  On the other hand I'm not sure if she will be able to play it until she is a year or two older because I am not sure how long this game will take me to finish.  I still have one year of college left before I will need to get a job during which I can get a lot done on this.  I am very perfectionistic and almost everything I have shown has gone through several iterations prior to even showing it and I'm sure my iterating will not stop there.  Also there is the reality that I am the only person making this game.  I have made all of the art, code and sound thus far and it would be very nice to get some help.  Possibly someone else at my college could join the project during the next semester?

I agree, no need to add a complex gameplay! Have you ever played games like LSD and Yume Nikki? They're a bit like yours - giant sandboxes with lots of interesting envroniments to play with. As long as the world is interesting, there is no need to add "gamey" elements.
An handful of collectibles should be enough to ensure a vague sense of progression. Or maybe you can add secret zones reachable only by using an item, like a glider needed to pass a chasm 

Yeah, speaking of which yesterday for the first time I tried playing my game with a controller.  I found that it was even more natural than keyboard and mouse however this brings up a dilemma.  I still haven't implemented the inventory code beyond the visual interface but the E~BAG however I already think its interface looks more like something that could only be operated with a mouse.  Originally I was planing on having e~tems be drag-able into your inventory from in the game world but I'm starting to think I might want to automate the inventory and have e~tems show a prompt when the player is within range and then allow pickup using a button.  They would be automatically put in the first available slot and when a place where an e~tem can be used is found the player would be prompted again.

What do people think of that?  Also I am currently planning that some e~tems will be E~GGs.  E~GGs will be placeable in rooms of a certain area and spawn some of the creatures that you got the E~GG from if the room is the correct habitat.  This will slowly create a central area where the player can quickly access a lot of the games content that they have already experienced.

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Here is a image I only posted on twitter and forgot to add to my last post.  It a picture of b~voids.

[Sand & B~Voiddate!]

I guessed it. In my head.

I love that little guy.  I think he should have something to eat though.
Maybe some little bird seeds or something.

That jump is perfectly over the top unexpected too!

Yes, soon I need to stop procrastinating and make a bit more player related "gameplay".  The problem is I do not think of CRTTR as game as much as a box of virtual toys and I am very distractable.

Sand & B~Voiddate!

That zome is full of sand and b~voids.

here is a gif and



here is a video.





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[Jump & Zomedate!]

Digging the transition, love it. (and big gifs don't bother me, idk about other people)

yes but the filesize is vry big.  btw in general does anyone know of a better way to make gifs that what i've been doing?  I've been using ScreenToGif2.exe and im afraid it is giving me viruses.

The second one looks the best to me, it blends naturally.

？？？ Did you not see the second page or do you not like it?

Everything in this devlog looks like something I would want to play. That root thread yarn or what it is in the last picture looks fantastic.

Thank u

I mean, the tone of your graphics are obviously weird and I believe players attracted to those kind of games are ready to embrace your creativity.

My words exactly. You should go wild. My body is ready.

Cool thank u.  I like your game w the cute ghost, Aftertile.

Absolutely following and adoring this game. The soundtracks really impressed me, all those beeps and bloops really help set the atmosphere.

Thank u.  I assume you mean sound design?  There isn't currently any music.  I might make some ambient music later on but I am not very skilled at music theory.

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Jump & Zomedate!

Hello I am very disappointed in everyone.  You failed to guess what the next area was going to have.

What could be in the next ｚｏｍｅ?

Of course its this!!!!



a zome.

Here is a gif of it and also of a new thing, jump.

[Transition Update!]

this is mine. i want it. give it. give me this

it feels like if looming got fucked up in the hospital on morphine

This is probably the best complement I've evr got.

I love the aesthetic... Looking forward for more updates!!!!

!!!

Yeah!

That's the spirit, thumbs up!

 

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Transition Update!

I have worked on a system to transition between scenes.

Here is a rly big gif (im sorry) and



here is a still of the new scene.



What could be in the next ｚｏｍｅ?

The religious imagery and neon lines remind me of arcade fire's album cover for neon bible.



Already some very unique look and pwrful imagery.  Will b following this project.

this game looks really interesting, following, you said you wanted it to be a social experiment, would you care to elaborate or would that ruin the result?

Sorry for the misunderstanding.  Originally I started work on this game because I wanted to make a "people-watching" experiment but as I became more attached to what I had made I re-evaluated multiplayer.  I made A post about it on the last page detailing the reasons I felt that it would be better for the game and my continued interest to focus on single-player.

what about like a dino skull

Yeah I agree.  I need to have objects in the background or else it feel too empty.

Perhaps you could do a subtle glow effect?

Not sure how to easily do that but I think a radial gradient would work similarly.

I really like the vibe of your game, the oddness that comes out of it is very interesting and special.

But to give you some input about this background question, I really think you should feel free to go a little bit wild and experiment things. I mean, the tone of your graphics are obviously weird and I believe players attracted to those kind of games are ready to embrace your creativity.

So, if I could give you one advice: don't stay too focused on trying to keep everything flat, or whatever you call it. To me, the graphic coherence of your game is more about being "weird". So far, it even seems like the strong point of your game. So go for it!

Thank u.  I think u are right.  For a moment I got very preoccupied with a non-existent flatness dichotomy.  I think I've come up with something I'm pretty satisfied with.  Especially because this area is going to be the start of the game and I felt it would make sense to make it somewhat embryonic.

here is a gif and



here is a still.



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