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TIGSource ForumsCommunityDevLogsThe game formerly known as Chroma
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Author Topic: The game formerly known as Chroma  (Read 61376 times)
Claw
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« Reply #280 on: November 20, 2012, 05:31:10 AM »

I'm using post-process blur for glowing stuff and the pulse effect when switching to shadow walking; I actually tried a sort of bloom/overall glow effect but it didn't look very good - became too overpowering. I'll probably consider some crazy effects/techniques as it progresses and see what happens. I actually tried using god rays but it didn't look great + was very GPU intensive.

The games posted on my site are the tip of the iceberg I guess, I've been attempting to make games since I was about 13. Life story commencing in 3, 2, 1....


Started out with klik n play and don't remember what I made with it (I have a terrible memory and it was over a decade ago!). I moved onto using the games factory and made some sort of game engines by looking at how other people were making games in TGF, mostly based around sonic the hedgehog.

I would start ideas and never finish, like a tamagotchi thing, sonic games, stuff like that. From there I ended up with a copy of blitz BASIC and started learning, my first programming language. All the logic from TGF/knp etc carried over for games and I worked on making my own game engine there which resulted in RoboMonkey (another unfinished thing).

I went to uni, studying 'games technology'. The course was pretty shit and didn't learn much through it, but it introduced me to openGL which I loved and have stuck with since.

While I was at uni I made a text adventure game for one class which I didn't enjoy (not a fan of text games). One assignment was to make a card flipping game which was kinda fun, in java so learned that while I was there. Another assignment was to make Pong and space invaders, in blitz BASIC which was pretty good for me since I already knew the language - I started the assignment 2 hours before it was due and jammed out space invaders and pong in that time and got a 2:1 for it, my first game jam!

Dissertation was making a physics engine in XNA, turned out to be crappy and I wish I'd done something more fun but it felt interesting at the time.

I started staring down the golden pathway of iOS games, hoping to make the next angry birds and spend my life making games (naively of course). Made some prototype stuff, one about cells needing to eat each other, which later inspired hyper snake, and one game called MR POOP where you were a turd dropping down a toilet bowl (seriously) although it didn't take me long to realise this was a bad idea and not a fun game.

Oh almost forgot, I actually started making a platformer for iOS and got 50% or more through it and gave in as the code became really bad and I just didnt think it was a great idea. You hit switches to rotate gravity; wasn't that bad but just never really inspired me that much.

I should mention the iOS stuff started as I began my first real job as a software engineer making warehouse management systems in C (where I currently still work) and I've been there for 2 years now.

That's as much as I can remember, probably some crappy little games here and there I missed and never saw the light of day. A lot has changed since I began at 13, I have a better understanding of how things work and what life requires, and the determination to push past bad parts of things and get stuff done. That's why I decided to start making Chroma, I felt I was ready to make the game I'd always wanted to, but twisted and changed from life experiences.

Wall of text there and getting a bit dark towards the end but there you go, my game developing life in a nutshell  Tongue
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Sergi
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« Reply #281 on: November 20, 2012, 06:39:33 AM »

Thanks for sharing! It's always nice to know a bit of the background behind the developing of a game. Smiley
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melos han-tani
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« Reply #282 on: November 20, 2012, 08:31:14 PM »

yeah, always interesting to hear those stores, mark.
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Claw
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« Reply #283 on: November 26, 2012, 01:35:23 PM »

Been doing some animating today.

Pulling things:


Pulling everything:

(note that's very much an immovable wall, I've let the player pull at any surface for funsies)

I'd show the animation if I had some way of making it into a gif. Any recommendations of software to turn fraps footage/vid to gif that's free and works? Photoshop has an import video frames function but it just comes up with tonnes of empty white frames for me.
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« Reply #284 on: November 26, 2012, 01:47:12 PM »

Been doing some animating today.

I'd show the animation if I had some way of making it into a gif. Any recommendations of software to turn fraps footage/vid to gif that's free and works? Photoshop has an import video frames function but it just comes up with tonnes of empty white frames for me.

Virtualdub has a function like that, but it turns out all manner of horrible creations when I use it. I haven't really given it a good whack, though.
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« Reply #285 on: November 26, 2012, 01:53:11 PM »

Those animations make me want to play Wario's Woods.
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Claw
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« Reply #286 on: November 26, 2012, 02:20:35 PM »

Been doing some animating today.

I'd show the animation if I had some way of making it into a gif. Any recommendations of software to turn fraps footage/vid to gif that's free and works? Photoshop has an import video frames function but it just comes up with tonnes of empty white frames for me.

Virtualdub has a function like that, but it turns out all manner of horrible creations when I use it. I haven't really given it a good whack, though.

Aha, that worked perfectly cheers!



Critique welcomed as always but I'm pretty happy with this at the moment Smiley Feels heavy in game.
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Code_Assassin
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« Reply #287 on: November 26, 2012, 02:23:49 PM »

Animation looks fine IMO. Great job.

What's with the floating pixel though  Concerned ? It just kinda floats across the screen horizontally.

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Claw
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« Reply #288 on: November 26, 2012, 02:26:46 PM »

that's a dust particle, there's a fair few all over but was never all that noticeable in videos but higher quality gif shows it better.

There is actually a tiny flaw in the anim but I fixed it, just used old fraps footage for the gif I took yesterday. The flaw being the filament in the middle turns a little too much at one point so I toned it down.
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« Reply #289 on: November 26, 2012, 06:34:41 PM »

Wow. This game looks really amazing and I like the way u chose not to use music, it gives a darker atmosfere to the game and its really interesting and the lighting makes everything look really beautiful. Good luck with the game!  Coffee
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Oddball
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« Reply #290 on: November 27, 2012, 02:49:41 AM »

Looking good as always Mark. How are moveable blocks simulated? Is it full physics, or can they only be slid along flat surfaces?
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Claw
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« Reply #291 on: November 27, 2012, 03:07:13 AM »

They can use full physics, as in the code is there, but I restrict it for the blocks I'm using so far to just flat surfaces (no rotation).

One puzzle I have in mind will utilize physically rotatable blocks but I'll have to try that out and see if it's actually fun.
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« Reply #292 on: November 27, 2012, 03:29:15 AM »

For GIFs I use http://www.cockos.com/licecap/
If need cut/scale frames: open in VirtualDub->Filters->Export->Image sequence and put together again in GIMP->Open as layers->Filters->Animation->Optimize for GIF->Export...
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« Reply #293 on: November 27, 2012, 10:09:54 AM »

Just need to chime in and say I LOVE the way this is looking. I had a jaw drop moment when I saw the walking on the shadows bit. Stroke of genius that,  Hand Clap.
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« Reply #294 on: December 04, 2012, 08:22:30 AM »

I'm looking forward to see more of this game Smiley
Best of luck with it!
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« Reply #295 on: December 04, 2012, 03:27:44 PM »

Hi Claw,

I just looked at your game for the first time. Nice. Really. It has that special little something that works.

One very little suggestion though that would add to the atmosphere. Could you add some echo/reverb to the footsteps? They sound a little flat and I think you could put the character into the world more by adding a little echo.

I haven't read the whole thread so I don't know what system you are using but maybe you could fire out the equivalent of some Unity raycasts to hit the environment around your character so that you could roughly calculate the ammount of free air his is in and possibly dynamically alter the slight echo so it fits his environement perfectly. Maybe even just play the footstep sounds twice at half volume each(with a very tiny delay) and dynamically alter the timing between them to create dynamic echo.

Subtle little things like that can make a big difference I think.

Good luck, I'll be following your progress.
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kiddRaddical
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« Reply #296 on: December 13, 2012, 07:39:07 AM »

Saw this on TIGTumblr today; awesome work! Ton of ambience, reminds me of Fez a bit Smiley
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« Reply #297 on: December 16, 2012, 07:20:42 PM »

This looks really neat. I love the shadow mechanic, can't wait to see more stuff =)
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Claw
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« Reply #298 on: December 17, 2012, 12:35:27 PM »

I haven't read the whole thread so I don't know what system you are using but maybe you could fire out the equivalent of some Unity raycasts to hit the environment around your character so that you could roughly calculate the ammount of free air his is in and possibly dynamically alter the slight echo so it fits his environement perfectly. Maybe even just play the footstep sounds twice at half volume each(with a very tiny delay) and dynamically alter the timing between them to create dynamic echo.

Thanks for the feedback, something to consider, there's a million other things to do first - but I'll keep it in mind.



Thought I'd post an update of some stuff I've been up to.

One major thing I did was delete half of the map. The area I took out was too empty and large, I was just trying to force it to be big for the sake of it. It also had no real mechanical flow (something that's pretty difficult to get right in a non-linear environment). Anyway I deleted that area, and started again with a plan and it's coming together very well, ended up being a very good decision.

I also re-factored the start of the game a bit; although not finished, it's a lot more interesting now.

I've started to wrap my head around the cool and difficult aspects of design, mostly realising the things I need to consider. I've been thinking about braid and VVVVVV a lot, and how their designs work.

Braid shows the player a shiny jigsaw piece in segmented puzzles in levels. It says "solve this, and you get this". With an exploration based game, primarily the reward will be access to the next area/room. VVVVVV had a hybrid approach, predominantly you'd solve a room and move to the next, with the addition of trinkets in places to add an extra layer of challenge and another thing for the player to aim for.

If you look at the level structure for VVVVVV it's got a large main area which allows for exploration, with paths coming off that funnel into a more linear level system, which is pretty genius. At the moment I'm going down this route, but with the added complication of not making it too linear. There's currently not many dead end nodes, you can wander around, come across a little gap you decide to check out if you want, and that could lead somewhere important. I think that's a pretty important element when focusing on the exploration side of things, the feeling of being able to go anywhere.

Anyway, this part is hard to balance so it's interesting to think about. How can I teach the player what new mechanics do if I don't know how much of the other mechanics they've seen? I think the game will be challenging overall, I just need to maintain perspective on how accessible some of it is.

Also here's a picture:

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Code_Assassin
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« Reply #299 on: December 17, 2012, 01:47:45 PM »

Super Sekrit Glowing Red Glyphs! Awesome!
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