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[jamesprimate]

Thanks for sticking up for us! In this instance I think it was just the gamespot crew having the whole timeslot labeled as "adult swim games" rather than any nefarious intent. That stuff gets crazy hectic!

in other news, been working on some HUGE rooms concepts for shoreline region. was legitimately concerned my computer would catch fire and explode, but so far so good! here is a screen from a mysterious island, with fancy new fog shader and everything:


detail: https://i.imgur.com/fSBLpLE.png

[fall_ark]

Woah. That water and the shadows on those background structures. Combined with the fog shaders it's seriously beautiful. Somehow reminds me a little bit of Ori and the Blind Forest....

[JLJac]

Update 440

The waves looked a bit mechanical, so today I added the ability to add "rollback" waves, ie a smaller wave pattern moving in the opposite direction as the main wave pattern. I think it looks a bit better.

Also I've started skinning the new creature. James and I call this critter "Jet Fish" and its specialty is fast swimming. What the head will look like I'm still sketching on, but I've started on the lower part used for locomotion.



The creature has two strong tadpole-like tails that work together to create an even forward thrust in the water. It's important to the feeling I'm going for that the speed is even, and these two spiraling tails seem to create a plausible constant swimming motion. When jumping out of the water the creature uses water stored in its body to propel itself upward with a jet, and the two tails are just flexing, probably their muscles help squeezing the water out somehow.

The actual water coming out should probably look nicer than this, just not sure how to do it. Perhaps a similar technique to the smoke.

For the upper body I'm not sure yet, I think it's going to have some pectoral fins as the two tails seem to be way better at pushing forward than they would be at any actual steering.

[gimymblert]

Tadpole ninja! tad pooolee ninjaaa!



 

[Christian]

Will all aquatic life try to gang up on poor slugcat and drown you? Leeches, Jet Fish, etc.

Love the look of them though. Well, the tentacles at least. I don't think a short round body would have the leverage or strength to throw a slugcat into the air the way it does.

[adge]

How are the creatures skinned? 

Since mostly everything is procedurally generated the shape of the creatures consist out of points which are connected through springs and then you just draw triangles from point to point which then get redrawn every frame if the points change their positions because of collisions and natural physic like behaviour? Uh, what a sentence :D. The actual "skin" does not respond to collisions?

Am I right? Please correct me if I'm wrong

I'm also wondering, how much did you build the game engine on your own. I know that you are using Unity but does this also mean that you are using Unitys rendering engine? Or did you code the whole game loop with inputs, rendering and so on on your own?

[Crabby]

This game is just so beautiful. So great.
I can't convey the amount of praise I can give you through these smiley faces, so just have this one. 

[hypedupdawg]

With the mysterious island, the fog and now an (amphibious?) jumpy creature, this is giving some great alien/otherworldly vibes. Why is it that all circular architecture looks distinctly non-human?

I think the rollback waves definitely add to the water behaviour. One thing I'm curious about is the way you're initially triggering waves in your system - are you adding a continuous physical force to the simulation, or do you set it up in such a way that it perpetuates? On that note, will the water interact with the environment as a whole, maybe damping down just before the rain/getting more energetic during the rain?

[Crispy75]

I'd just like to note that when I started following this thread, I bookmarked "index.php?topic=25183.4000" cos I just wanted to go to the most recent page and 4000 seemed like a ridiculously high number. But here we are on 4008 posts and I have to update my bookmark :D

Here's to the next 4000!

[Wlad]

I'd just like to note that when I started following this thread, I bookmarked "index.php?topic=25183.4000" cos I just wanted to go to the most recent page and 4000 seemed like a ridiculously high number. But here we are on 4008 posts and I have to update my bookmark :D

Here's to the next 4000!

What about index.php?topic=25183.new;topicseen#new? 

[JLJac]

@Christian haha don't worry, there will be something that can eat you all by itself as well!

@adge, yep, correct! That's how I do tentacles etc, but not everything is triangle meshes. Quite a lot is also hand drawn 1-bit sprites that are rotated and stretched etc, and there is a bit of traditional animation in there as well - for example I might do a bunch of frames for a creature showing it rotated around its own axis, and then I combine that with actually rotating the sprite in code to get a 2-axis rotation. As for the engine, Unity's render pipeline and input are used, but the main loop, the game architecture (what is a room, what is terrain, etc etc) and all the object classes are my own.

@hypedupdawg, the waves are just a sine wave that's applied on top of the physics simulation :S

@Crispy75 haha let's be done before that!

Update 441

Jet fish coming along! Still no pectoral fins, but a body and some eyes. Also they sprout whiskers like carp, which are individualized. Now it looks like a tadpole/carp/squid/prawn - I'm always happy when a creature takes on a style of its own and sort of leaves its real-life inspirations behind.



The eyes switch between underwater mode and air mode - under water they're big with a large pupil, up in the air they become like small amphibian eyes:

[oldblood]

@Christian haha don't worry, there will be something that can eat you all by itself as well!

Haha, love the response. Excited to see what else lurks in the deep. Will there be any edible sea creatures to give slugcat an incentive to swim?

These "prawns" are looking amazing... love it.

[Teod]

I don't like the position of their tentacles during the jump. It looks awkward and neither elegant nor threatening. They should either be upside-down Aries shaped, or bend all the way up preparing to grab.

I'd just like to note that when I started following this thread, I bookmarked "index.php?topic=25183.4000" cos I just wanted to go to the most recent page and 4000 seemed like a ridiculously high number. But here we are on 4008 posts and I have to update my bookmark :D

Here's to the next 4000!

I have it at 9999 and I'm afraid even that may not be enough.

[Christian]

I don't like the position of their tentacles during the jump. It looks awkward and neither elegant nor threatening. They should either be upside-down Aries shaped, or bend all the way up preparing to grab.

Or I could see them propelling themselves from the water, fully extended, looking almost like an eel with tentacles back and feelers aiming towards its prey. Kind of how a frog is stretched out when it leaps

[Crispy75]

They look poop-propelled out of water :-/

[adge]

I love the mouth fangs. Look super creepy underwater. Long thin things always scares the hell out of me

[adge]

They look poop-propelled out of water :-/

Yeah maybe use handdrawn animations instead. Looks totally weird but he already stated that it will get changed. I love the mouth fangs. Look super creepy underwater. Long thin things always scares the hell out of me

[tortoiseandcrow]

I'm loving these jet prawns so much! Those whiskers are really characterful, and the way the tentacles change in shape and dimension is a nice touch. I think some pectoral/dorsal fins will add a lot.

They do feel a bit unbalanced in the rear, though. I like the muscularity of their tentacles when they jump, but agree with other folks that the flexing lacks a certain elegance at the moment. Perhaps they might contract further inwards in a "scissoring" motion as they expel water? I also think that the point where the tentacles meet should be concave, rather than rounded. My somewhat childish response right now is: "it looks like a butt."

Will these critters attack and eat something other than you? Will something else eat them?

Unsolicited content suggestions:

I love the way that shrimp swim by oscillating their tiny feet/gills/whatever! I seems like it wouldn't be too difficult to render procedurally, and could look really neat/beautiful.




Also, I would love for there to be something with a transparent exterior, inside of which you can see weird organs or appendages.

[Crispy75]

My thoughts on the shape are best summarised in an image:

[gimymblert]

My thoughts on the shape are best summarised in an image:

I don't agree, left is better, it's more weird hence better to create atmosphere