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[McMutton]

Thanks, guys. How did Dark Cloud work, exactly?


I'm going to have to redo Gran Hollow, 'cause it's just not crazy enough. Especially when compared to the starting town:

[zede05]

How did Dark Cloud work, exactly?

Well, if I remember correctly (it's been a while, 2003?), in DC2, you travel by rail to areas in the world, each area is made of many dungeons on a grid, and you have to clear them in order. Each dungeon contains somethings you need to collect to get to the next dungeon. However, to save cost, Level 5 made the dungeons procedural. So if it's the forest area, all the dungeons will have the same trees, flora, etc. but they'll be generated in a different layout each time, same for the enemies. Eventually, you get to the end dungeon and fight a boss, and then you get what you're looking for. Check this video, it might be a better explanation:

[SundownKid]

This looks very slick. I'm immediately reminded of Tales, with some Wind Waker thrown in (the demon is a dead giveaway, hehehe). I'm interested to see how the hybrid gameplay turns out.

[McMutton]

That's a very good thing to bring to mind, Sundown. Hopefully I can get it to be intuitive; It seems like it'll be a bit clunky.

Also:




I've also decided that the shader with the rim lighting I was using is terrible, as it makes the characters all muddy and hard to read. I've got someone working on a new shader, which will be a painterly version of your average cell shading.

Something kinda like this, hopefully (Though with cleaner edges)

[Joshua]

Whoa, how did I not see this thread before now? Your progress is quite impressive, keep it up!

[McMutton]

Thank'eh, Josh.

I've finished enhancing Gil's textures:

[Stib]

Very cool. Love the weapon.

[McMutton]

Thank'eh, Stib.


Van's been enhanced:



And I've been messing with a painterly overlay, and replacing the abstract environment textures with painted ones:




I still need to redo the environments and the sky.

[SundownKid]

The new art style reminds me of LOVE (the indie MMO). While it does look cool, I feel like it clashes with the cartoony cel-shadedness of the characters. Maaaaybe you are obsessing a bit too much over it?

[Mittens]

This is awesome work, I really dig the character designs, especially Gil, I think he's got what the kids call swag.
It seems to me like the game's lighting/shaders need to be changed is some way so that the characters look like they do in their portraits when in game. At the moment the game's rendering seems to obscure your work (damn you ugly, ugly unity!)

[McMutton]

Swag, eh?

I think you're right about the need for more clarity on the characters. As I said, I'll be having that shader made, so I'll see what can be done about that.

And then there was Celeste:

[McMutton]

Still working on the first area of the overworld, Gran Forest.





And here's the entrance to Gran Hollow:

[happymonster]

NICE!

[McMutton]

Hey, check it out. A day/night cycle.

[FK in the Coffee]

My god, this game is looking absolutely stunning.

[Franklin's Ghost]

Nice day/night cycle.

[McMutton]

Feels good, man


More stuff:

[thebarryman]

Great art style! I love the hand-drawn 3D look you're going for, and the environments evoke images of a gorgeous remake of Banjo-Kazooie or another such game from my late childhood.

[Chris Pavia]

Those are some cool looking environments! 

[Ninja Dodo]

Stylish!

One suggestion: For the trees, have you tried having a few sprite variations for the leaves? I think if you had 3 or so different tree-leave sprites to choose between randomly it would add a lot to the organic feeling of the leaves. Same for the grass. And maybe some procedural adjustment of colour within a selected range?