Hello everyone.  Currently, I'm looking for people to help us with the game.  Unfortunately, we don't have a lot of money, so I'm trying to setup some kind of collaboration with the possibility of getting paid at some point.  Currently, I need people to help with the following areas:

1. 3D modeling
2. Modeling equipment to be seen on the main character
3. UI design
4. Music
5. Terrain and world building

We are using Unity and will be bringing the game to the PC, Mac, Linux, and Wii U.

If you are interested, please contact us at business(at)omc-games.com.  Please send your portfolio, potential salary, availability, and your area of expertise. We are trying to get the game released sometime next year, so contact us only if you're serious about getting involved in the project.

You can check out the game at the two links below:
http://skullforge.omc-games.com
http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=40360.0

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to contact us.

Working on the game a bit more these days.  Lots of things that need to worked out and as I mentioned before, lighting is one of those things that I'm still working out.  Either way, I went ahead and changed a few of the areas we used in the trailers to better looking places. Looks better, in my opinion.

Grats!
You planning on any tablet-controller specific features?

When I started my game, I had planned to do something with Miiverse.  Like having a way for players to ask questions when they're stuck. 

The Wiipad is a different beast, but to be honest, I wanted to do Wii U development in order to push the remote and nunchuck.  Sounds crazy, I know, but that's gotta be my favorite controller ever.  We do have some Wiipad things planned. Of course, we'll also have off-TV play as well.  The biggest issue is time, but I want to do something unique for Wii U players.

It's been a couple of weeks since I've updated this blog, but to be honest, I haven't worked on much since my last post.  My real job has been fairly busy, which has made working on the game a lot harder to do.  Things are getting back to normal, so I feel like I can get back to work and so I've been working on a couple of things that had been bothering me.

The first problem I had was dealing with how HP bars were presented for NPCs and enemies when they attacked.  In a previous post, I mentioned that I was going to put them all on the left hand side.  However, after looking at it, I felt it was a bit cluttered.  Now, all NPCs have their own HP bar that pops up over their head.  It makes dealing with multiple enemies easier to manage since you can see each individual NPC's HP attached to them.  Originally, I didn't want to make it seem like a dungeon crawler kind of game, but providing the player with easy to discern information is the most important thing.

The other thing was to work on saving and loading a game.  It's kind of strange to think that I haven't handled this already.  I'll be honest, I hate working on two things...database stuff and save data management.  Just the thought of it makes me want to procrastinate. Unfortunately, I can't put it off any longer. The good part is that I do have a solution in mind for saving a game and how it's going to work. The problem is actually taking the time to get working. If all goes well, I should have the basic framework for it working tomorrow.  That's the plan, anyway.

Other good points over the last couple of weeks have been... we're going to try to be at Tokyo Game Show. With Sony helping out indies by paying the fees, I think I can take the time off to present Skullforge: The Hunt to the world in a more direct way. It will give people a change to play the game as well. Now it's just a matter of getting accepted by the TGS group.  Fingers crossed.

Finally, we got approved for Wii U development by Nintendo.  Maybe that doesn't seem like much, but it's a big deal for me.  Took a lot of time to get it done, but it happened.  Working on a console game has always been a dream of mine.  Here's to the future!

That's it for today.  You guys have a good one.

I'm working on a game named Skullforge: The Hunt ( http://skullforge.omc-games.com ). Right now I'm in need of a character artist to help design the main character for the game.  I have some ideas how I want her to look and I'd like to get an artist to help get it nailed down.  The style I'm looking for is something like the links below:

http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110821190932/powerlisting/images/e/e3/Psylocke_by_ed_benes.jpg

http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/scale_super/0/9311/2258205-psylocke_vs_chun_li_cover_by_snoozzzzzz_1_.jpg

I want a comic book look for the character (and all characters) which can be used in promo material and as the basis for the in-game model.  Not big on the anime look, but a good cross between the western comics and manga would be good, too.  The character is an elf, so keep that in mind as well (I know some folks don't like doing fantasy work.).

So the contract will be for two things:
1. The basic design of the character in color
2. The T pose of the character in two different angles so it can be modeled.

If you're interested, contact me at business(at)omc-games.com. 

Please send the following:
1. A sample of your work.
2. Your rate per hour, including your policy on revisions.
3. Your schedule over the next few weeks.
4. How long you expect it'll take you to get the job done.
5. Any other information you deem relevant to the job.

I'd like to setup a long-term collaboration, but that can be discussed after this first little project.

Let me know if you have any questions or comments.

Thanks for the advice, Dajyareo.  I've pretty much specialized in programming, but I've tried to expand my horizons.  Mainly because I feel like I should understand how other parts of game development works in order to be better at programming.  It's just my own quirky little thing.

I do wish there were some meetups here in Japan, but I haven't found anything like that yet.  Perhaps once we move back to The States, we'll be able to mingle with folks.

Anyway, today was a hard day at my day job, so I didn't get much done.  Gonna try to do a little something before bed, but I don't have much hope since I'm so tired.  Too much stuff to do and so little time.  Tomorrow should be a bit better.

Had an issue with SmartSVN, but got that worked out.  Whew.

Game looks great.  Love the art.

Thanks, Matt.  I had a look at your project and it's looking quite nice.  The art is beautiful.  Best of luck on it.

I know what you mean about changing things up.  I have been working on mechanical things for a while and it was starting to drive me crazy.  Being able to switch up helps keep things fresh.  Designing a good, functioning UI is challenging, so I hope you get it looking and working like you want it.

Welp, back to work.  I'll probably have another update in the next couple of days. About to jump into saving and loading...fun stuff.

It's a short little update since I had a few minutes before bed.  I have been a bit bummed out recently, so I figured I'd work on something that didn't have anything to do with programming.  Working on interiors is one of the things that I enjoy doing when I just want to do something involving the game, but don't want to program.  I admit that I'm not all that good at it, but it's cool putting all the little pieces together to craft the inside of a building.



I'm still learning how to do lighting, so if everything looks a little uneven, then I apologize for that.  We'll be able to narrow it all down before the game is released.  In the pic above, I was messing around with ambient lighting.  In all previous indoor shots, I usually have the ambient lighting turned down so that the individual lights in the scene provide the illumination.  I got the idea after reading some information on lighting a few months ago.  Recently, I've gone back to re-evaluate this as I think the scenes are too dark.

After looking at the above picture, I decided to make some changes which lead to the picture below.  More lights, but I'm not sure how I feel about it.



It's bright.  I like it.

I haven't added any flavor to the building yet (bottles, barrels, chairs, etc.).  I'll be working on it over the next couple of days.

Hello everyone.  It's been a crazy week as I had a few days vacation due to Golden Week here in Japan.  I took a bit of time to just relax and get my bearings.  There's a ton of work to do and with the way everything is going, I have to say I was losing faith.

I'm sure people on this forum understand the sheer amount of work that goes into making a game.  Up until this point, I have put in a lot of time into the game.  I work a normal job and I come home and work on Skullforge for a few hours.  On my days off, I may put in a good 8 to 10 hours working on various systems and testing.  Perhaps this is the situation for a lot of us.

With the sheer amount of work going into this game, one does have to wonder why we do it and what we have to gain at the end of the day?

I guess for me, it's been a dream of mine to make a game. It's something I started many years ago when I got my first computer (Atari 800XL).  I'm sure not many people remember the old days of typing in code from old magazines.  My favorite was Antic and as slow and tedious as it was to type all that code in, I got a trill just watching everything come together.  It's those moments that drove me to get into making games.

So why make this one?  It's something I had to think about recently.  The question is who do we make games for?  The public or ourselves?  In all creative industries, that's one of the big questions.  Who do you do it for?  I'll be honest and say that I always get ideas that I think are pretty cool.  I always have to feel good about what I'm working on.  If I can't feel good about it, then I don't want to do it.  Unfortunately, what jives for us doesn't necessarily jive for everyone else.

I'm a firm believer that it is our duty as developers to convince people to support us or buy our goods.  This goes for the small guys as well as the big ones.  So I look at my own project and wonder if it's worth going forward.  Reception is basically lackluster at best, and while comments have been good overall, there's a certain "meh" surrounding the whole thing.  I wonder what goes through the mind of professional developers when something they've poured their heart into is met with a less than stellar reception.  Do you cut and run?  Make adjustments?  Honestly, I don't know.

I was just about to call it day.  I discussed it with my wife and thought about the consequences of dropping this and working on something else...or nothing at all.  But this morning, I read a story about a project on Steam that was having a bit of trouble.  I don't know the whole story, but it seemed that either something was mismanaged or they got in over their heads.  Either way it was a tough situation for them.  Reading comments and thinking it over, I realized that if I simply gave up and cut my losses, then I'd be another one of those guys who dropped out when things got tough.  Another indie developer who couldn't get anything done.

At that moment, I figured that I did enjoy working on my game.  Not many people get a chance to create something and watch it all come together.  The first time I got my character running around in Unity I danced around the house.  Such a simple thing, but it was my first time really jumping into an engine and I didn't know anything about C# or Unity for that matter.  It was then that I knew I could get my game working and since then I've made some pretty nice strides.  The whole experience has been great.  Should I give all that up?  Maybe not.  I'm still having fun working on it.

So what does this mean for Skullforge?  It won't be another "dead" project.  I'll just continue on and hope that by the time I'm finished other people will enjoy what I've created.  If you can't really enjoy what you're working on, then what's the point?

Thanks for reading.

I woke up this morning with the idea that I was going to tackle something mechanical in the game.  This lead me to working on the small target windows that pop up on the left side of the screen.  The idea behind this was to give you a list of enemies without having to tab target through them.  At least you can figure out which ones are around and choose the correct one accordingly.  In all videos and up until this point, only one window pops up.  The goal is for up to six to be on the screen at one time.  As an enemy dies, it's window will disappear and any other enemies who aren't listed will take it's place.



This should give you an idea of what it looks like in the game.  I'm thinking about trimming the number of windows down to 5, because this might be a tad too much clutter on the main screen.  We'll see how it goes with testing.  The number of windows can be easily adjusted in code.

That about wraps it up for today.  Thanks for reading.

I agree with others who have posted in this thread.  The game looks great.  Really like the style.  Best of luck to you, man.

It's been a couple of days and I've managed to find a little time to relax.  Ended up playing The Amazing Spider-man 2.  It does web-swinging quite well.

Today, I figured I'd take a moment to talk about the graphics in the game.  It should be pointed out that I'm no artist.  The great thing about working with Unity is the asset store. Say what you want about it, but there's a ton of stuff listed.  Some of it good.  Some of it not so good.  Still, without it, I doubt my game would have gotten off the ground.  I made the decision early on to use the Asset Store and I haven't had any regrets as of yet.

I think the assets I've picked up so far have been quite nice, and the best part is that the developers of these assets have generally been nice and have been good enough to make some modifications for me for free.  I owe those guys a lot.



So far I'm pretty happy with the look of the game.  The only thing I'm not happy with is the main character.  This is a big sticking point for me since what you see is a generic character I got off of the Asset Store.  It's not a bad looking character, but it's not an elf and it's not unique to the game.  However, I'm not an artist, so it's the best I can do at the moment.

To fix this problem, I went to Kickstarter to try to get funds to get more custom art for the game.  I have a job and my funds are limited...as I assume is the case for many people here.  I really want the game to look the best it can and good graphics don't come cheap.  I wish I could say that this avenue met some success, but that's not the case.

This is one of those times when I wish I knew how to model in 3D, but alas, I'm just a programmer.  So odds are I'll be using this model until the game goes live, and I guess I'm okay with that.  There's still a lot of time before the game is released and anything can happen before then.

At the end of the day, I'm still happy with how the game looks and I have quite a few assets that can be used to craft some nice looking zones.

Here's the Kickstarter page for anyone interested: 
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/649312251/skullforge-the-hunt

Love the art.  I'll be keeping an eye on this.  Congrats on getting Greenlit.

I find that putting time in when programming is fairly easy these days.  I have a day job that can be demanding, so I generally program when I have free time.  Which means, these days, I'm either programming or working my other job with a rare trip to Kamakura (I'm in Japan) or some place in between.

I thought I'd take some time off and play some games, but I've been having this nagging feeling to do something about the text that pops up when the player blocks an attack.  Seems like a simple thing, but it's something I felt like needed a change, because as of now it simply displays a 0 for damage.  I know it should display something, but the real question is how it should be displayed.  Right now, I'm thinking something along the lines of:

damage taken (damage blocked)
0 (35 blocked)

I just wonder if that is too long.

Messing around with this lead to me fiddling with attack timing.  That's going to something I think I can fiddle with forever.  At the moment, I feel like combat is too easy.  The more skills I add, the more powerful the character seems.  Perhaps this will change as NPCs get more moves and damage is tuned a bit.  Anyway, that's a topic for another day.

Glad you were able to get funded.  Good luck on that Wii U demo.  I was really rooting for you guys.

That's pretty awesome.  I really loved those games back in the day, and it would be cool to see them come back in some way.  I hope you get this done.  Looks good so far.  Will definitely be rooting for you.

Really like the look of this game.  The idea of it.  Looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

Hello everyone.  I've been looking for a good place to just talk about my game from a programming and design point of view and I was directed to this thread.  I like making stuff and creating new things.  My current game is called Skullforge: The Hunt.  It's an action RPG that's done in the old top down isometric style.  There is something about that type of game that brings me back to the early days of gaming.

The official site for my game is at http://skullforge.omc-games.com.

After reading a lot of posts here, it's hard to believe that I didn't know this place even existed.  I guess it shows how far out of the loop I am.  Still, its good to see so many projects out there.  Gives me that warm feeling.

So I plan to use this space to keep go into some design issues and ideas I've been thinking about.  The overall design docs have been laid out, but I find that while I'm developing the game sometimes an idea I had doesn't quite work out as well as I thought it would.  I guess that's why I like game development.

Everything is still pretty early, and I wish I was an artist so I could make the game look pretty, but alas.  All things considered, I think it's turned out well enough.  I apologize for that, but it's the best I can do with what I have.

Anyway, thanks for listening.  I hope you guys have a great evening.

EDIT: Adding the original video for Skullforge: The Hunt.  It's a bit old, but perhaps you can get a good idea of what we're trying to do with the game. Not sure how to embed the video, but at least here's a link.




Vote for us on Steam Greenlight:  http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=250832280
Also, interested in helping out?  Feel free to donate at: http://skullforge.omc-games.com/?page_id=207