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[Fresh Mozzarella]

Well I locked the thread trying to read jO's response on my iPhone, so that's fixed. 

Don't feel the pressure to listen too much to the opinion of other people (including mine).
Just because someone does not like or is fed up with graphical style A or style B it does not mean that you cannot do that.
Seriously, #+öä# that. 
Do what feels right for you and do whats the most fun.
I think your stuff looks awesome; sure you can improve, but don't allow criticism on your basic art style to take you down or even switch gears to something that you actually don't want to do.

Thanks for the input and sound mind. We love to hear the criticism and input or we wouldn't have made this devlog but of course take each with a grain of salt.

Similarities and art styles are like revolving doors, and there's lots of people going through them to get where they need to be.

[aberrantmind]

I dig the overall direction that you guys are taking with this game. commenting to get updates!

[Fresh Mozzarella]

We have a new programmer! And with that will come...



Look for an update by Friday.

[siskavard]

Don't mean to rain on your parade here, but snakes can't program.
I mean, I'm not one to tell people they can't do something but...

haha my jokes are funny

I'll see myself out

[meek]

siskavard, seriously, why aren't you on the comedy circuit?

[siskavard]

cuz i lov gams

[Jubjub]

We've been working on a procedural terrain generator that creates the maps that you can explore in-game.

Here's how it works, I'd love to get some feedback on it:

First, I generate a heightmap using 3D Perlin noise (I use the z axis to seed the noise function and get different heightmaps each time).
It looks like this:


Then I run an erosion simulation that works like this:
Repeat for each pixel:

• Release a drop of water on this pixel
• Try and find a neighboring pixel that's lower than this one, if there's several, choose at random amongst the two lowest.
• Move the cursor to that pixel, and reduce the height of the previous pixel by x.
• Repeat until we can't move downwards anymore.

Once that's finished, the heightmap looks like this:


And finally, we map each range of heights to a predefined color, and it looks like this:


I've experimented with carrying sediment, but the final map looked *really* weird.
I think the only thing that's missing is adding some variety, maybe some forests and different ground colors, but otherwise the final result is quite pleasing  .

[anselm_eickhoff]

Looks great indeed, but I'd do it a little different for the rivers.

See that little river in the mountains? It has to be carved all the way down to zero for it to have water, according to your algorithm. I would lower the bits where water flows a only little, but also "mark" them as a river.

Then in the last step, add water everywhere below a specific height (for lakes), but also add water in every place that you marked as a river. That way you can have mountain rivers without carving all the way to the bottom.

(Edit: You could have a specific amount of starting pixels to be dry rivers, so they only erode without adding water later)

[Panurge]

This looks awesome. It already has a nice atmosphere and some intriguing gameplay ideas.

I'm no artist but the art style looks good to me. Lots of character.

I hope Roguespy is still on the cards too. You seem to be making exactly the sort of games I would like to both make and play. I'm torn between jealously and excitement... Okay, excitement has it! 

[Fresh Mozzarella]

Also a little update on our progress in addition to what Jubjub (our new programmer!) posted:

We've fully converted the engine to Python and have integrated alot of the main features of the game, primarily tweaking the dynamic between in-camp actions and out-of-camp expeditions. Between these sets of commands we hope to create a wealth of things for the player to manage within the context of our unforgiving world and beat the odds.

We're still on the fence on the combat system and how we want it integrated into our Real-Time Survival gameplay style.

[Jubjub]

Then in the last step, add water everywhere below a specific height (for lakes), but also add water in every place that you marked as a river. That way you can have mountain rivers without carving all the way to the bottom.

I definitely agree, the main problem right now is that rivers just carve *very* deep holes in the ground and dissapear, instead of creating lakes.
I'll play around with this idea and post the results, hopefully it'll look more consistent.

@Panurge
Thanks! I'm still working on Roguespy (although slowly), I really want to see that one finished.

[meek]

So, updates are frugal, but it doesn't mean we're not busy! We're spending hours and hours every day on this. Currently adding new buildings and we've also got a seasonal cycle (spring, summer, fall, winter). We'll keep ya'll posted!

[siskavard]

Guys, why is all of the action so low in the frame? Do you have to build upwards, or are there levels that are more mountainous? It feels like a big empty space. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, it can portray specific feelings you might be going for, but I was just curious.

[meek]

There's more to come, which involves mining and resouce gathering, which plays into the open space a little more. It is also kind of for the atmosphere, though.

[Jubjub]

So we've been working on adding buildings and a weather system.
Right now it cycles quite fast so I can see all the possible permutations and catch any bugs, it'll be much slower on the final game!

Here's a gif showing both systems:

[siskavard]

I O-faced when the snow came in!

 

looks really fun

[meek]

Those are also the older walk cycle animations, which are soon to be replaced. I've kind of relinquished my post as animator, as Fresh Mozzarella is far better at it than I am.

[christonian]

wow this looks amazing I would love to do a indie showcase when it is closer to completion

[Fresh Mozzarella]

Christonian: Thanks for the compliment! We'll definitely be in touch soon via PM.

So today we're updating with what I consider one of our more interesting gameplay concepts- what we call the Flow Command System.

Essentially, we found a way to make building structures in our game more strategic and meaningful. We do this by making the resource cost and person that will build your structure decided by the Flow System. Time of day, Weather, and Character/Camp Moods all factor into the amount of time, wood, stone and who will complete your building task. This makes deciding when you will build a structure all the more important, and manage your men correctly to promote efficiency. More on this to come, please enjoy the screen below which shows the dynamic nature of this system in action:

[meek]

Handy little tents added: