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[etodd]

This week I finally fixed my water code to allow finite bodies of water like this:



(It's so dark because I still have a pesky rendering bug)

I also realized I accidentally had pre-multiplied alpha turned on for my cloud texture. Here's what it looks like when you use pre-multiplied alpha incorrectly:



And here it is fixed (I also made the clouds fade in over distant objects):



I finally fixed a long-standing bug which caused shadows to get really shaky when the camera was far from the origin due to floating-point errors. I fixed it by rendering everything as if the camera is at the origin. Here it is before:

gfycat

And after (I also switched from back-facing shadow maps to front-facing):

gfycat

I also did a ton of level design and minor tweaks like making the game pause when you alt-tab away from it, but that's boring stuff. Here's something cool, I totally rewrote the orb enemy to be much scarier. It jumps around all over the place now and is super dangerous:

gfycat

I also finally cleaned up the GitHub repository and added some proper documentation. You can now actually download the source and start making your own maps. Check it out!

[etodd]

This week I finished what will probably be the last map in the Kickstarter demo.
It teaches the player about the "extended wall-run" ability, demonstrated here:

gfycat

Normally, you hold Shift to wall-run. Now you can just keep holding Shift after you run out of wall, and you'll keep going.

I also fixed the water bugs from last week, so it looks much better now:



I've been worried that I don't have time in the demo to introduce every idea I have at a reasonable pace, so I'm thinking of including a "sandbox" map that just enables every ability and throws every idea at the player and lets them play around.

Here's the beginnings of that map:





The most important ability I haven't introduced in the demo yet is my crazy slow-motion predictive system that lets you build stuff like this:

gfycat

That's it for this week. Thanks for reading!

[etodd]

I'm simplifying all the materials a bit... here it is in action: gfycat

Pretty simple, white is neutral and red hurts you. As you run around you spread the blue material, which stops the red from spreading.

[Christian]

I'm simplifying all the materials a bit... here it is in action: gfycat

Pretty simple, white is neutral and red hurts you. As you run around you spread the blue material, which stops the red from spreading.

How were the material before?

Also I posted that recent GIF on NeoGAF. Someone had a good comment

You can run through a level and the game creates walls to get you to the end safely? Seems kinda... beside the point of a parkour game, but maybe I am just misunderstanding this.

Walls and platforms being made for you does seem kind of at odds with parkour platforming, now that I think about it

[etodd]

It was... complicated. I'm trying to get it color coded in a way that immediately makes sense, similar to the visual style of Mirror's Edge.

Thanks for the feedback, that's a good point from the NeoGAF comment. I think the goal is not so much to have walls and platforms be created for you, but more to have the player take an active role in shaping the environment.

I guess there's only one way to find out if it makes the game pointless or not, and that's to play it (which you'll be able to shortly ). I'm not too worried about it yet because it seems fun to me. It is possible that I may have to tweak or remove it.

[etodd]

So the demo and kickstarter comes out on Monday and I'm still making major changes. Yolo I guess.

Brand new section added to one of the levels:

[etodd]

I'd really appreciate it if someone could try out this quick test build. Getting ready to release it for reals on Monday!

Build 297 - 105 MB - you'll need XNA

Some new stuff this week:

• The orb is now a cube! And it's a bit more forgiving now.
• The materials work differently now. Hard to explain, but hopefully it makes more sense. Also it should be more color-blind friendly.
• Some massive re-arranging of levels in order to introduce cool features sooner
• New sandbox map with all the abilities enabled and an enemy that doesn't appear in the campaign yet
• Lots of bug fixes
• Some new ambient sounds in the tutorial
• The menu system is way better

[eigenbom]

Yep works on my comp with Win8. My laptop has both integrated gfx and  nvidia graphics, and the game seemed to choose to use the integrated gfx by default - which made it run quite slowly. I had to manually choose "run with nvidia graphics", which I don't seem to have to do with other games.

Loved the start sequence and menu!

You've also seemed to include the source in the Content/Game folder, did you mean to do that?

Good luck with the release!

[etodd]

Thanks for checking it out! Glad everything worked aside from the weird nVidia issue. Yes, the Content/Game folder has the scripts in plaintext, it actually compiles them at runtime. The rest of the code aside from that folder is on GitHub. I wanted it to be super easy to mod the game.

edit: forgot to mention, if you guys could check out the Kickstarter before it goes live and let me know what you think, that'd be awesome.

[etodd]

Today I actually took a break from Lemma for the first time in a while to mess around with Pixi.js (click for HTML5):



Kickstarter launches on Monday. Tell yo friends!

[Christian]

Thoughts on the KS page:
Nice, you added GIFs

I think you need more info. More than "It’s an exploration game; you explore and piece together the story, and of course you do a lot of parkour." Compared to at least the other projects I've backed and followed, it seems very light on info about the game. I think you can flesh the page out with more info, from the types of enemy entities and what they can do, to the different block types and the kinds of hazards and challenges the player will face. Maybe even do a short breakdown of how areas would work: i.e. detailing a chase as you flee turrets

You state that the story can branch, but how? Is it just different dialog or does gameplay change? Do you play new levels that wouldn't be available if you choose a different option?

If I didn't know about the game, stuff I'd be asking:
- Is it open world? Levels?
- Are there puzzles? Combat? Or is the only gameplay platforming?
- How is a physics grad student doing parkour?
- Will there be multiplayer?

Edit:
Game runs nice and smooth for me now on Window 7...but I can't figure out how to leave the room where you wake up. I found the paper you can pick up, saw the prompts for movement and crouching, but no doors are opening and I can't open any. I'm probably overlooking something.

[eigenbom]

Pick up the phone on the kitchen bench then go back to the bedroom to start the game. :L

[Christian]

Pick up the phone on the kitchen bench then go back to the bedroom to start the game. :L

Thanks. Knew I was missing something.

Will have better impressions later

[Christian]

First, I think you should make it 100% clear that this is an alpha demo, animations are placeholders, etc.

Personally I found that the most comfortable control scheme was to move "parkour" to right mouse and "crouch/roll" to another button (Q for me, others might like shift or control, etc.). Parkour on the mouse feels very natural and intuitive in my opinion

You must have done some major optimization work under the hood, because this alpha runs so much better for me compared to alpha 3. The redone levels feel a lot more natural, although it was easier to figure out a way to go in the early alpha. Also, maybe because they're early levels, there isn't much of a sense of flow to them. Could be my lack of skill but it doesn't feel like I could keep up some kind of smooth flowing parkour through the levels.

[etodd]

Dude, thanks a ton.

You're not the first to struggle with the first level. I think I'll change it so you go out the other door near the phone instead.

As for the Kickstarter, I'm always worried about adding so much info that people won't read it. I think you're right though, it's pretty light on details. Some of them I was planning on putting in the FAQ section, but it's probably better to put it straight in the page. I'll get to work on that.

I think you're right that something needs to change with the controls, because having the parkour and the crouch both on the left pinky is pretty bad. I really like Shift for parkour though, it kind of makes sense coming from existing FPS control schemes. I might move crouch/roll to the mouse.

Thanks again. I've got a lot of work to do now.

[Christian]

Dude, thanks a ton.

You're not the first to struggle with the first level. I think I'll change it so you go out the other door near the phone instead.

As for the Kickstarter, I'm always worried about adding so much info that people won't read it. I think you're right though, it's pretty light on details. Some of them I was planning on putting in the FAQ section, but it's probably better to put it straight in the page. I'll get to work on that.

I think you're right that something needs to change with the controls, because having the parkour and the crouch both on the left pinky is pretty bad. I really like Shift for parkour though, it kind of makes sense coming from existing FPS control schemes. I might move crouch/roll to the mouse.

Thanks again. I've got a lot of work to do now.

With the first level, it wasn't that I didn't know what to do, it was that I didn't even realize there was something to pick up. Maybe you could add some kind of highlight or glimmer to objects you can interact with, so they'd be noticeable

On the KS page, I think it's best to put the info right on the page. Personally if it's not a game I'm already anticipating or it doesn't hook me with the trailer or early info, I'm not going to be scrolling all the way to the FAQ to find out more

And your game has so much cool stuff, like the snake enemy or the enemy that uses the environment against you. The abstract threats, the weird mysterious landscapes, the environment-modifying parkour, those are the aspects I think make the game stand out from, say...Hover: Revolt of Gamer, another first person parkour game, and the elements you should be taking more about

And GIFs, more GIFs. IMO, this is a game that really needs to be seen in motion. GIFs for enemies, GIFs for block behaviors, GIFs for parkour movements and exploring

[etodd]

I'm redesigning a bunch of problem areas to be more open. For one thing, I totally ditched the explodey cube section and replaced it with a more open design with a snake:



I also changed the movement code so that it doesn't kill your momentum when you change direction (unless you do a complete 180), and you can also control your velocity just a bit whilst mid-air.

[etodd]

Thanks for the great feedback guys. Unfortunately Kickstarter has a 2-3 day approval process that I didn't anticipate. So just waiting now...

Apparently some people have waited up to 3 weeks for approval.

Note for future Kickstarters: I think you can submit your project for approval pretty early in the process and continue editing your page after it's accepted. Wish I had known that.

[etodd]

Aaaaand the demo is live. Go on, check it out.

The Kickstarter and Greenlight pages are up too.

Here's the trailer:

[Christian]

Backed!

Spreading the word on NeoGaf and Reddit
http://www.reddit.com/r/IndieGaming/comments/20prjc/support_lemma_on_kickstarter_first_person_parkour/