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[io3 creations]

So it was originally gamepad focused when it was a sidescroller and at one time I had pitched the game as a console title. Now I'm focusing on mouse/keyboard controls for PC but a gamepad will work just fine.

Oh, I see.

As indies the PC is just a lower barrier to entry (No devkits, certification etc)

That's another great benefit to indies nowadays.

plus I'm a PC gamer so the last console I have actually owned was a SNES!

I've played more (early) console games on emulators than actual consoles.   Mainly to catch up on certain game experiences that I missed out on when I saw gameplay on tv but haven't had the chance to play.  Plus, there were some arcade games as well that I didn't have "unlimited coins" for.

The prototype is in the works but it's more to do with technical problem solving and bringing all the different aspects into one working base. Gameplay wise I'm very clear on how it'll handle and play - so have a strong vision of those areas. That's not to say it won't require plenty of tuning along the road of course.

Sounds like you took the "I'm all in" approach!   Technical aspects usually are the "easier" part to deal with. Making sure that game is actually fun to play with having mechanics and control scheme that works well can be trickier to imagine - especially with new control schemes.  Plus, environment and enemy behaviour can influence the experience.  Hope, you'll find the *sweet spot* for your game.

That certainly can be true, we will find out soon enough in this case too

Half Life 3 confirmed!

I'm looking forward to it.

[cubit]

The first glimpse of this planets inhabitants in some kind of transport vehicle:

[JobLeonard]

Gorgeous teaser material, as always

[io3 creations]

Looks great! You could've shown just a little bit more moving on that grass blade.


I know it's WIP but that condensation trail seems quite turbulent and spreads out too fast for such an airplane.  Come to think of it, I've only seen contrails from far away and it may actually look like that with some form of magnification.

[cubit]

Thanks JobLeonard

Io3, yeh those trails aren't quite there yet. In truth I basically took a smoke FX I had created for destruction and tweaked it slightly to make it a contrail - I'll do a proper one later though :D

[SimonFelix]

Got goosebumps watching that teaser... Looking forward to seeing more!

[io3 creations]

Io3, yeh those trails aren't quite there yet. In truth I basically took a smoke FX I had created for destruction and tweaked it slightly to make it a contrail - I'll do a proper one later though :D

Yeah, it did look more like something burning and more "chaotic" than a contrail.  At first, I thought it was a spacecraft entering Earth's atmosphere.   After thinking about contrails, I mostly remember them spreading out slowly and forming a white "line" that can stay in the air for a long time.  Depending of a few factors, air currents can spread it out even more over time.  But I've also seen others that disperse and disappear under less than a minute after forming.  However, even those don't have the turbulence seen in the video.

Oh, forgot to mention.  Looks like the project is further then I imagined based on the other preview media you posted.

[cubit]

Thanks SimonFelix By the way, I forgot to reply to you before - as you are a microbiologist, if you spot anything inaccurate then do tell me! :D

Io3, well - it's still early for sure, but this year will see significant progress in all of the major areas of the game - I'd like to aim to ship next year but I'll only ship a solid game, so if it slips it slips haha :D

[SimonFelix]

Haha, will do! The only thing I can think of right now is, depending on the scale of the pods, the player's vision should be clouded with microorganisms, but I guess that won't benefit gameplay in any way :p

[sakrirafael]

Game looks really cool so far, it's nice to see all the vegetation that close up and it certainly creates the base for a whole new type of game environment 

[cubit]

SimonFelix: Ah, well the POD is about 1cm in length, including the legs. The actual alien pilots stand around 2mm tall at most. I'm planning on there being particulates floating around (spores, pollen, dust etc) and plenty of rotifers in suitable water, tardigrades roaming among the moss leaves etc.

Sakrirafael - thanks! 

[SimonFelix]

Ah, cool! If you don't mind me geeking out a bit: the aliens are about 2 mm in length, so that's about a 1000-fold reduction in size (compared to human beings). So that would mean a 1000-fold amplification of microorganisms. This means that a lot of them (protozoa and fungi which are in the 10-20 µm range, and some bacteria which can be up to 250 µm in size) would be visible on the pod-screen, as they appear 1 cm and up in size. A lot of small nematodes (which range from about 100 µm to a lot bigger) would be even bigger on the screen.

Again, feel free to disregard al this imformation 

/Geekmode over

[io3 creations]

Io3, well - it's still early for sure, but this year will see significant progress in all of the major areas of the game - I'd like to aim to ship next year but I'll only ship a solid game, so if it slips it slips haha :D

You've probably heard Shigeru Miyamoto's quote: "A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad." 

[cubit]

This thread is a geek out zone... no amount of geeking out is too geek for this thread I can assure you

Funnily enough, I put together a huge psd with many nested smart layers showing the accurate comparative scale of an alien compared to many other earthly things. So, I'm adding as much of these kind of details as possible (small snippet below):




Aliens would clearly need helmets on, but you get the gist :D

[SimonFelix]

Awesome, I'm liking this project even more (if that was even possible) 

[cubit]

io3: sorry I missed your reply before. Very wise words there from Miyamoto :D

------
A little update: I had been prototyping particle FX but some of it wasn't really going to be suitable for Infinitesimals. So rather than waste it I had a thought about simply completing the set of weapon impact/destructions particles and releasing a ballistics impact/destruction pack for UE4 - Here's a couple of WIP videos:





And the demo map: I thought I'd have a bit of fun with the narrator...





Clearly this is entirely unrelated to Infinitesimals but I'm hoping if it brings in even a small amount of cash, I can work full time on Infinitesimals for a while.

[io3 creations]

No problemo.

The particle FX are looking good! 

There's one thing I wonder about.  It might have more to do with projectile impact calculations than the particle FX.  As I recall from various war footage, bullets hitting water seemed to create mostly vertical splashes and don't remember splashes at angles that varied much.  Though, those may have been from airplanes with higher caliber guns and not hand held guns.  Splash direction probably depends on the liquid surface normal - e.g. hitting the vertical part of a tsunami wave.  I'm just wondering that while there are some waves, the waves don't seem that large to change the splash direction that much.  As with the smoke FX before, this is just based on my experience.

I'm guessing the physical destruction of environment is a separate part from the particle FX.  Is that an asset or is that something that you created?  Reminds me of the Matrix "lobby scene".

[cubit]

yes good point! I have created a simple material system that allows for material to increase or decrease the chance of a ricochet and also change the random ricochet angle per material. So for instance, a completely smooth and hard material can be set to deflect bullets at even non glancing angles with very "pure" bounce angles compared to a rough surface, which can be set to deflect only at very shallow impact angles + a more random trajectory when a ricochet occurs. A material such as sand can be set to consume bullets and rarely deflect them. It would be quite trivial to now also add modifiers based upon the projectiles velocity and other factors too. :D

edit: Oh yes, and the angle of the splash/VFX is also a modifier/variable.

[cubit]

Yep, the destruction pillars I made and will be included in the demo map - just to show off the VFX for fragmentation though - they aren't anything special tbh :D

[Geoff Moore]

Wowww... not sure how I missed this one. Looks incredible!