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[oahda]

Thanks! Drawing together was fun. I'd been considering asking her to lend me her skills for something like this, but got a sudden rush to work on this myself, but when I had started getting somewhere she suddenly started asking me whether she could add or try adding this and that, without me having said a word about my considerations yet. So I let her, and she added some details that really made a difference. Kind of like any creative processs, I suppose; a second voice, if it is the right one, can always be helpful.

[oahda]

UPDATE 15

I guess (another) WIP might be fun for drawings too. Started on that next piece of concept art and I did so, as with the last one and as with the town WIP, by adding a bunch of reference pictures together.

With the town it was a bunch of buildings and a boilerplate full photo of a town by the coast.

With the finished concept art of the submarine and the drowning train, 'twas just the submarine sprite that's in the game ATM and my train render.

In this one it is a LOT of pictures of different ships, sails, an anchor and so on. As you can see by the template, a lot of ship details are still to be added, and then remains the rest of the setting.

[oahda]

UPDATE 16

So there's more than a chain now. That MAGNET is coming along. The chain is still playing rather nicely but the magnet has introduced some bugginess. I've almost solved it tonight, and it's working well enough that I can record a GIF with no bugs showing through, but they are there, and I'll keep going at 'em tomorrow or so.

• In this GIF: pulling the magnet out, turning it on (blue), shooting it, retracting it, reeling it out and hauling it in as well as the fact that the chain of course follows the sub along and the magnet with it.

• Not in this GIF: pulling the magnet back in.

• Not implemented yet: actually hooking on to magnetic things and just using the magnet as a claw to pinch and pick up any items, magnetic or not. And of course the animations and stuff.

[oahda]

UPDATE 17

Another important aspect of the magnet is of course its functionality as a CLAW:

» View animated GIF here (or see beginning of GIF in the next post).

Currently the controller scheme is to hold the button down until one wishes to release whatever is picked up, but I might have to change this depending on the final implementation.

I've currently mapped it to the multifunctional action button, which means that it's only going to be possible to pinch away in certain situations, but that might be frustrating, especially since one might want to drop or pick something up in a place where there's also something else to trigger the action button, like something to investigate.

So I think in the end I'll be using the dedicated magnet button somehow, which currently turns the magnet on (blue) and off (grey). I'll see if I can figure something out, or if someone could suggest something. In that case I'll probably stick to having to hold the button. Perhaps that could actually be the difference; a single press would toggle the magnetism, while holding would pinch.

The pinching is mechanical, of course, driven by things inside the front of the submarine, so it's not possible to pinch when the chain has been extended.

So there are two ways to pick things up. Some are magnetic and one simply has to turn the magnetism on and approach those. Others are not magnetic and have to be small enough to fit inside the claw. Things that stick magnetically to the magnet will stay on it when the chain is extended, while non-magnetic things will not, as the claw loses its grip upon extension.

EDIT:
Implemented the controllers I suggested. A quick press toggles magnetism while holding pinches. I think it works well myself, at least.

[oahda]

ayyyy, here be booty

[oahda]

UPDATE 18

Took the code out of my magnet chain class and refactored it into a generic chain/rope class because I will be needing more of them, sometimes just for decoration, and sometimes for interaction. Now, specifically, I will be needing a rope for the first section of the game that I will eventually be implementing.

Here is the rope:



Don't worry about it seeming very much above water and not very damped; that is correct. The first section I'll be making is an isolated corner of the larger demo temple section shown on the first page of this thread, where there is a wooden crane standing above water, with a rope hanging from it. Here is a rough sketch I made like a year ago:



Scales are going to be changed around a bit, the gem is going to be much smaller, the rope is going to be longer, and so on, but you get the general gist of it. The gem is going to be hanging from a hook or so on the end of the rope hanging from the crane, and the goal is to launch away the magnet hookshot onto the gem so that it falls off onto the floating platform (a door that fell out from the wall just above a bit earlier in the full section of the game).

[oldblood]

What an excellent devlog. Great read.

[oahda]

Thanks! You got me reading through it again myself too, and I obsessively fixed up some typos or deprecated info in the OP. Was fun to see how at least some progress has been made since the birth of this thread, even tho it's still far from much of a game. Motivates me to keep going, at least, so hopefully it won't be forever until we get something a little bit more interesting!

Is there some sort of info lacking from this thread that would be fun to see? I'm trying to keep away from technical details, just showing the graphical results, but maybe some people would like to know how I actually did it too? Fact is, I'm cross-developing the game alongside my own little engine, Karhu, based on SDL 2, with AngelScript support implemented and Box2D for physics.

Nice way to get an engine done properly, by actually making a serious game with it at the same time, adding what's needed for it as I go. Developing another game with my girlfriend at the same time in an existing system, Unity, also helps me see what a toolkit needs and some of my solutions have definitely been quite inspired by the Unity way of doing things. I've nested the Karhu project into the Vatnsmyrkr project in Xcode so that I can work on them simultaneously 100 % seamlessly.

[oldblood]

I applaud your effort to develop both proprietary technology AND work with established tech. I myself have dabbled in proprietary engine tech and found it be quite daunting. I'm simply not patient enough for it. Working on a title for more than 6 months is challenging for me, so using established technology is ideal with my mentality. That being said, I think you're managing it properly by working with both a tool like Unity and developing your own (although I would imagine that this adds significant time to the process). As you said, this provides a lot of insight into seeing tools and applications that you may need for your own engine.

Regarding devlog topics, I personally simply focus on the design (gameplay, discussion, questions) and aesthetics although this will likely expand to QA/Feedback on the gameplay from as I progress farther. Some focus on technology which is enlightening but generally not as fun to read so I think simply focusing your devlogs on what you want to write about will churn out the best quality content. I will admit that the majority on my posts are purely dependent upon how good or bad I feel that day-- but, only ever focus on topics that I want to write about. Write about what interests you.

Either way, definitely continue. You're making excellent progress.

[oahda]

I applaud your effort to develop both proprietary technology AND work with established tech. I myself have dabbled in proprietary engine tech and found it be quite daunting. I'm simply not patient enough for it. Working on a title for more than 6 months is challenging for me, so using established technology is ideal with my mentality.

Definitely adds time, but it's a nice learning experience and it's fun to add whatever I want however I want it. Time scale isn't really an issue – the game had already been in preproduction and experimentation for like two years before I actually started properly on programming it.

I've got about 42 pages in my design doc so far and a lot of info still in my head or notes in my phone that need to be incorporated into it. Trying to pick out things to reveal from there as well, but I'll probably wait until I've made some concept art for it.

That being said, I think you're managing it properly by working with both a tool like Unity and developing your own (although I would imagine that this adds significant time to the process).

Yeah, trying to divide time slows each project down, of course, tho admittedly there's more time going into Vatnsmyrkr than the other one ATM (I lost my job, so I feel like I should try to get as much done as fast as possible just to have a safer showcase, but as soon as I can get a new job, I'll try to go back to dividing the time spent on each project a little more evenly, because I really want to do that project as well).

Other than that, I'm not really in a rush. I want a good game and it'll have to take the time it takes.

Regarding devlog topics, I personally simply focus on the design (gameplay, discussion, questions) and aesthetics although this will likely expand to QA/Feedback on the gameplay from as I progress farther. Some focus on technology which is enlightening but generally not as fun to read so I think simply focusing your devlogs on what you want to write about will churn out the best quality content.

Yeah, probably. Took a peek at your log, btw! Interesting concept and really nice-looking assets!

I will admit that the majority on my posts are purely dependent upon how good or bad I feel that day-- but, only ever focus on topics that I want to write about. Write about what interests you.

I guess I work a bit similarly, tho I think I actually avoid posting anything at all if my mood is so-so. I tend to work pretty well under those conditions, tho, and then the work tends to make me feel better once I accomplish something new and then I feel like posting after all, so that's good!

Either way, definitely continue. You're making excellent progress.

Thanks! You too, apparently, by the impression I got from your own devlog! Good luck with that.

I'll try to remember to keep checking in on it every once in a while now that I'm aware of your project.

[oahda]

UPDATE 19

Also tried the gem thing out by attaching it to the end of the rope using a joint and then some callbacks to destroy the joint upon collision with the magnet.

This does mean that the magnet would make the gem fall off even if the sub were simply to ram it (or slowly touch it) with the magnet pulled out but not actually shot, but that's fine because the rope is going to be out of reach above the water, like I said. A forceful hookshot is all that's going to be able to reach it, so 's all gud!

» View animated GIF here.

I've been neglecting my scripting interface for quite a while now, focusing on the core C++ functionality, so soon will be the time to bind it up to date with the current state of the engine and implement this in scripting instead. This is precisely what scripting is for! c:

EDIT:
Had forgotten one important step: to make the gem ignore collisions with the magnet so that it doesn't fly away upon impact. Then of course it's going to be locked on the x-axis anyway so that it'll fall straight down onto the floating door below, but yeah.

[marcgfx]

I did not manage to read through all posts, but you have an interesting dev log here, I will be back for more later. I'm always impressed when I see rope-physics, it looks really good!

You mentioned a few ideas regarding controls and that you were trying to simplify. the idea of using one button for magnet/grabbing doesn't sound that good to me, there could be some mixups. You also mentioned removing water-cannons that you had planned for some puzzles. well, maybe you can have it all with 2 buttons? one for the action and the other to toggle through the abilities? this would also open up the possibility of adding more features.

[oahda]

I did not manage to read through all posts, but you have an interesting dev log here, I will be back for more later. I'm always impressed when I see rope-physics, it looks really good!

Thanks! A lot of it is of course thanks to Box2D but I'm actually not using its rope joints because it didn't work out very well. I'm using revolute joints and then wrote my own algorithm to make sure the links never stray too far apart, because Box2D didn't handle that all too well. It comes with the payoff that links sticking together is prioritised above complete safety when it comes to the ropes possibly moving through things if they're dragged, but I think that can be solved by placing things correctly.

You mentioned a few ideas regarding controls and that you were trying to simplify. the idea of using one button for magnet/grabbing doesn't sound that good to me, there could be some mixups.

Well, my thinking is that claw and magnetism are essentially the same thing, just that magnetism only picks magnetic stuff up and opposite for the claw. But I dunno. Eventual playtesting sessions will show, I suppose.

You also mentioned removing water-cannons that you had planned for some puzzles. well, maybe you can have it all with 2 buttons? one for the action and the other to toggle through the abilities? this would also open up the possibility of adding more features.

Well, I don't want anything menu-like for this game. Scrolling through abilities feels too much like that, and I don't want to bring up some HUD element showing the current one. I want a clean screen. I didn't only remove the cannon due to lack of buttons, but because I feel like it adds more complexity than the game really needs. So much can be done with the versatile magnet/hookshot/claw/screwdriver anyway.

I honestly didn't have more than a few basic ideas for the cannon anyway. Nothing really concrete. So it's not a big loss, but rather a good riddance. So I don't want more features, but fewer. :p

It feels quite clean this way now, at least I think. And absolutely enough.

Thanks for your input and interest!

[oahda]

UPDATE 20

So I started this thread two days ago about using a customisable, shadeable OpenGL implementation rather than SDL_Image, or a mix of the two, with SDL 2.

I ended up writing an implementation almost from scratch, and it is now presentable. GLSL support and all sorts of possibilities now open!

Here we go! Took me like 1-2 hours more than necessary because I had accidentally given the same name to a global variable as a local variable and was referencing one in one place and the other in another and so some images would show up and some wouldn't (the variable was supposed to hold the ID of the shader program). Took me a while to find. But once I did, all smooth!

Game now looks exactly like before:



Except now I can apply crazy shaders!

[Zorg]

All you need is an aquarelle shader now.

[oahda]

I've got a lot of reading and experimenting ahead of me before I can write a neat shader – this is the first time I'll be doing it – but it feels really good to have gotten it all into place, so that I can just play away at any time now! I've got the orange GLSL bible right in front of me and the web is full of resources, so it'll work out, and hopefully I can come up with some stylish ways to put this new power to use.

Definitely going to be fun to try to make wavy underwater effects and stuff. Would be really neat to couple some of that with screen shake and gamepad vibration as well as dusty particles and little rocks falling down in rumbling cutscenes.

[oahda]

UPDATE 21

Magnet picking and dropping!

So I've had the magnet working for picking things up for like two weeks already but I did a little bit of fine-tuning today, making sure that the magnet and anything picked up is treated as part of the submarine's collision mask, so that moving into something with the magnet pulled out or holding something the sub gets pushed back properly, rather than these just going through the wall, only blocking the submarine itself.



There is no true force of magnetism just yet, so one does have to collide the magnet with things that can be picked up ATM. They won't be sucked towards it.

I also added screen shake coupled with gamepad vibration but it doesn't get caught in GIF's very well.

[oahda]

UPDATE 22

Added a polygon class to the engine and got in colliders for the submarine's top and bottom fins, but they didn't flip along with the sprite as it got mirrored. They do now.

Box2D (the physics engine I'm using) fixtures (i.e. colliders) have to be completely destroyed and recreated in order to have their position or shape/rotation relative to their parent [rigid ]body altered. This means that the code I had written for the collider stuff with the magnet in my previous post had to do some collider destroying and creating hither and thither in order to get it all working.

However, with the fins I don't actually want to destroy them, at least from my engine's point of view, just because I want to move them or mirror them. So I made my engine do the destruction and recreation of Box2D fixtures under the hood whenever colliders are individually modified using the same interface as any other game component (i.e. using functions to set things like position and rotation).

I haven't actually implemented it for real yet – modifying position should be completely working, but for rotation I've just added in support for 180 degree turns of polygon shapes, because that's what I need for the sub's fins. I'll fill in the missing, generic code for any rotation when I actually need it and leave it at this for now. So an 180 degree turn combined with mirroring (multiplying by -1) the local vertical position of the fin colliders now makes them mirror nicely along with the sprite.



Their debug drawn bounding boxes are buggy tho, but that's work for later. Not important right now.

EDIT:
As a bonus, here's a cozy photograph of the current development situation: wrapped up in thick bedsheets with the supported gamepads at hand.



Now is sleepy time tho!

[bornander]

Magnet picking and dropping!

I like the indifference expressed by both the submarine and Gabe himself as he is pushed into the abyss

[oahda]

Magnet picking and dropping!

I like the indifference expressed by both the submarine and Gabe himself as he is pushed into the abyss

Don't worry! There's actually another (invisible) floor just below! He might just have missed it, tho – it only sticks out a bit relative to the upper floor.