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[GameDevLife]

Greetings!  I'm very happy to be starting up our very first devlog for our very first game: Sirtet.  Those of you that are fans of Troll 2 have probably already sorted out that Sirtet is Tetris backwards and that's precisely what the gameplay is like as well.  As of right now it's a solitaire style puzzle game where you try and figure out how to clear the board of pieces by removing the tetrominoes one by one such that you use exactly a certain number of each shape.  I say as of right now because it's not yet clear if it's going to be fun in that precise form.

Latest Screenshot(s):



For now I'm working with a partner that's handling the game logic and core coding while I concentrate on design and graphics.  So far its slow but interesting going as we endeavor to learn Unity, the game development process, develop a graphics pipeline and learn about the actual nuts and bolts of game design, a skill that I rank with all the great artforms for the science, subtlety and intuition required to do well.

[GameDevLife]

Here's a quick recap of where we're at:

It's approximately day 20.  The core board logic and game messaging are 80% in place such that the player can pick arbitrary shapes and the system will sort out if they can actually be removed from the board or not.

The design of the game mechanics is feeling neglected right now as we've yet to test any actual puzzles in digital form.  However, before we kicked the project off I tested the concept using monster tiles from Arkahm Horror.  Inspiring!

On the graphics side I've got placeholders for all of the required elements created and organized.  I've done several animation tests and asset pipeline tests.  I'm currently trying to pin down the subtleties of normal mapping from Max to ZBrush to XNormal to Unity -- there are some strange doings afoot!

This is a screen shot from the Max viewport:

[GameDevLife]

Day 21:

Worked on learning the normal mapping workflow for Max to Unity.  Max's projection defaults were very janky for my setup -- rendering both objects to the projection.  I must have missed a setting.  Nevertheless, xNormal did a very fine job.

On the unity side I noticed something I don't quite understand:

  ++++-----
  + /
  +/
  |
  |

Say we're looking down at the corner of a box.  The actual corner is the geometry.  The /'s are the intended normal.  The +'s are  part of the existing faces that should resolve to the angle of the /'s.  At some angles in unity it looks correct -- like a uniform beveled edge.  At some angles the "real" normals of the geometry seem to be unduly influencing the final shading.  Still trying to sort it out.  Maybe its just "the way it works."

Once I get over that hurdle and piece together my first few finished materials I should have a workflow I can use for the rest of this project. 

On the code side my partner got the game logic setup for actual tetraminoes and I found our first game logic bug.  I'm sure it won't be the last but overall that side seems to be really solid.  Hopefully we'll have a fully playable puzzle this week.

[oahda]

Can't you just put the bevel into the actual geometry, then? Modern computers shouldn't have any problems handling bevelled boxes.

[Elliott D.]

I had some trouble with normal mapping too. I was making organic models and the seams were showing up quite strongly in Unity.

I think there are a couple ways to create and handle a normal map, I used the render to texture method in 3DSMax and it looked great until I brought it into Unity. I tried using some other tools and found one that worked for the shaders in Unity called xNormal.

Something else to keep in mind are the smoothing groups, I always make the low res models one smoothing group and let the normal map take over.

[GameDevLife]

Can't you just put the bevel into the actual geometry, then? Modern computers shouldn't have any problems handling bevelled boxes.

Oh, I'm not so much concerned about performance as I am concerned about understanding the system.  I could fully model the blocks and it'd likely be fine but when I get into more intense 3D projects I want to know what I can get away with

texture method in 3DSMax and it looked great until I brought it into Unity. I tried using some other tools and found one that worked for the shaders in Unity called xNormal.

xNormal is what I ended up using as well.  It really does the job nicely but what a janky, weird interface.  That's been frustrating.  Their 3D viewer is all but useless to me.

Something else to keep in mind are the smoothing groups, I always make the low res models one smoothing group and let the normal map take over.

I think I tried this and the result was not sexy -- since I've got a very low-res hard-surface model to begin with.  However, I'm wondering now if maybe I tried it in Max but never in Unity...

[gimymblert]

  At some angles in unity it looks correct -- like a uniform beveled edge.  At some angles the "real" normals of the geometry seem to be unduly influencing the final shading. 

Isn't that the anisotropic filtering kicking in?

Also it look wrong on the editor or on a build? Things ran differently in my case (editor reduce overall quality for preview, physics and rendering)

[GameDevLife]

Good question.  I'm about to get back into it right now so I'll check and post an update with screenies if called for.

[GameDevLife]

Day 22 here.  On the art side not too much was firmly accomplished.  Got the art for one block done.  In my defense it involved a lot of horsing around.  Also spent a lot of time learning about community building, YouTube SEO and marketing in general.  Listened to a few decent podcasts on it as well including a roundtable by ADDatWork.  Apologies as I don't have a link handy for you.

On the logic side the piece selection is now restricted to valid tetrominoes and it counts them up as you go.  Just a few more basic features and its technically playable.  Then the real work begins!

[GameDevLife]

Day 23.  Worked on the block and board art more today.  No new technical developments to report.  Just need to keep cranking right now.  New screenies by Friday I reckon.  Cheers!