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TIGSource ForumsCommunityDevLogsDesolus: A Surreal First Person Puzzle Game
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Mark Mayers
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« Reply #280 on: June 07, 2017, 06:24:42 AM »

Update 120: 06/07/2017

INVERTED ARCHITECTURE

About a month ago, I posted this image, which shows how the architecture between alternate dimensions is inverted.
I've started taking this concept further, making it a critical aspect of puzzle design.



This is potentially an early puzzle in the game, where the player first learns how alternate dimensions work.

The player begins the puzzle at the top of the spiral staircase in the orange dimension, and descends to find the first dimension gate.
After traveling to the alternate dimension, the player can climb back up the spiral staircase, which is facing the opposite direction.
At the top of the staircase in the blue dimension is a door which leads to the next puzzle.

Most of the puzzles in the game will likely be based around this concept of inversion in some way.
There is a lot of potential for interesting puzzles based off of this concept, and I have plenty of ideas.

---

STRUCTURE REDESIGN





If you notice, this structure is similar to the previous devlog, but revised again.

One of the primary issues with the gameplay of the previous structure, is that you have to ascend/descend the staircases four times.
It takes about ~10 seconds on those stairs for one flight, so this means about ~40 seconds of essentially wasted time.

In the new structure, there are some critical changes which keep the best of the several designs.
-The level is designed so you only have to climb down the staircase once, and up the staircase once.
-One of the staircases has been completely eliminated, to reduce complexity of the structure.
-Foliage has been added to make critical aspects of the structure easier to see.

Obviously, this is not a final version. However, I'm at least happy with the level for now.

---

« Last Edit: June 27, 2020, 09:15:15 PM by Mark Mayers » Logged

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« Reply #281 on: June 14, 2017, 11:44:36 AM »

Update 121: 06/14/2017

ARCHITECTURAL STYLE

Over the past week, I have been developing an architectural style for Desolus.

A large part of the art in Desolus is based around concepts involving mathematical art.
I've mentioned this influence several times throughout the game's development (ex. I, II, III).

I searched for an architecture style where I could use this interest to my advantage.
After several attempts, I decided on a style which mixes fractals with something resembling gothic architecture.

Below are the several iterations I went through to create the first structure in this style.

---

VERSION I



This was the first major breakthrough, after iterating with a few lesser concepts.

The structure is based on a pentagon pattern, with five of the same pattern comprising the top, and five of the top pattern comprising the bottom.
This is done by repeating a 'window' radially five times, and repeating that result again another five times to create five smaller self similar structures.

---

VERSION II



Instead of having identical top and base sections in a pentagon, I moved to a pattern repeated in a square and pentagon.
This gave a more practical and realistic building. However, the repeated pentagon base section seemed awkward when viewing the structure in game.

---

VERSION III



This is the 'final' version that I settled on, and it also feels most like an actual building.
The pattern is a layout based on a square for the top, and hexagon for the bottom.
This is a practical layout for housing levels inside of the small sections of the structure.

---

SCREENSHOTS

The results turned out quite well! This is version III of the structure, as currently seen in game.
I will likely be using this style for the remainder of the game's development.







---
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« Reply #282 on: July 20, 2017, 12:39:17 PM »

Update 122: 07/20/2017

QUICK UPDATE

Have not posted here in a while.

I've been super hard at work crafting a draft version for the first world of the game (for real this time).
My goal is to have most of the content at least in prototype/draft state by the end of the year.

I'm in full production mode and have been feeling pretty happy with my progress recently.
The game is in a very good state right now.

---

FRACTAL RENDERING

I've been working more on fractal rendering for Desolus, which will be part of a critical mechanic tied to the game's progression.

Here are some gifs of my progress so far:






---

Also, thank you HardcoreGamer for featuring Desolus in Screenshot Saturday again!
« Last Edit: June 27, 2020, 09:06:48 PM by Mark Mayers » Logged

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« Reply #283 on: July 21, 2017, 10:05:37 AM »

I've been working more on fractal rendering for Desolus, which will be part of a critical mechanic tied to the game's progression.

Very cool! I'm guessing you're doing this with shaders? Are you using a known algorithm or are you creating the first fractal shaders?
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« Reply #284 on: July 21, 2017, 10:51:25 AM »

oh i like the way this looks Smiley
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« Reply #285 on: July 21, 2017, 11:30:09 AM »

Very cool! I'm guessing you're doing this with shaders? Are you using a known algorithm or are you creating the first fractal shaders?

Yea! It's a Mandelbrot set algorithm within a fragment shader, which is attached to 3D objects that are repeated in geometric patterns.

oh i like the way this looks Smiley

Thank you! Toast Right
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« Reply #286 on: July 22, 2017, 10:01:34 AM »

This looks fantastic.
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« Reply #287 on: July 22, 2017, 11:00:45 AM »

This is some cool stuff! I would love to see some heavy dravidian structures in here
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« Reply #288 on: July 23, 2017, 11:11:38 AM »

This looks fantastic.

Thank you! Your non-euclidean 6DOF project looks pretty cool as well!

This is some cool stuff! I would love to see some heavy dravidian structures in here

Actually I was thinking about making an area inspired by Angkor Wat, which has some really interesting structures and foliage.




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« Reply #289 on: August 12, 2017, 07:08:49 AM »

I don't think I've posted anything on your DevLog yet (only reached out on Twitter a while back). Anyway, it's been fascinating to go back and read through your DevLog! (I'm still only 1/3 of the way through the whole thing so I'm sure I'll have additional questions as I continue. Smiley)


A few random questions & comments as I was reading through your log:

Thanks for adding in the article about blackholes & Interstellar. It was an interesting read!

Did you do a lot of research in the beginning to decide how best to incorporate some of the physics & astronomy principles as game mechanics, or did you already have ideas for how to represent them as the game progressed?

"The game keeps evolving over time as I add/remove mechanics."

Was there anything you thought could be interesting as a mechanic but took longer than expected to realize how you could best fit a certain idea into the game as an actual mechanic? (Sounds like at least the Destabilizer was one of these but didn't make the cut. Your playtester feedback from this made me laugh.)

Out of curiosity, are any specific articles or papers you referred to for some of the ideas for different mechanics? I'd be interested to read some of your source materials.


Also, thanks for the post you did on incorporating the golden ratio into level design! (I'll check out the video tomorrow. Already spent longer on TIG than I planned to tonight.) It's something I experimented with on a puzzle game prototype I have. It's awesome to see someone else using it regularly in level design.

It seems harder to use the golden ratio in a 3D game without fixed camera movement (my puzzle game prototype is 2D currently). The examples you used made sense (vertical and horizontal spacing of the tentacles), but if you also wanted to apply it to the composition of a level (as you might in an art piece), are there areas at the beginning of a level or perhaps vistas where you also frame the focal areas of a level, applying the golden ratio?


I'm also looking forward to hearing what the game sounds like. Light ambient (with possibly some piano!) seems like a good fit. I really enjoyed the attention to detail in the ambient sounds of The Witness.

I watched the video of the pianist and really like how expressive he is in his performance. Makes me miss having a piano around! (I just added the sheet music for that piece to my future wishlist, so thanks for introducing me to his work! There are some things I miss when traveling, like access to large musical instruments. Smiley)

Also, I really enjoyed that story about the guy who played your demo and wanted to take a picture after. Must have been a cool experience!


Regarding your last post, super awesome you're thinking about building an area inspired by Angkor Wat/Ta Prohm! I'm actually making a trip there next month (I flagged it as a must-see while in Southeast Asia) - so if you need any specific reference picts/angles you can't find online, let me know.


Again, really awesome reading your updates!
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« Reply #290 on: August 14, 2017, 06:13:57 PM »

Hey Karin! I'll do inline responses to this since you had several questions.

Did you do a lot of research in the beginning to decide how best to incorporate some of the physics & astronomy principles as game mechanics, or did you already have ideas for how to represent them as the game progressed?

Most of the mechanic ideas came organically as the game progressed in design.
However, thematically and artistically, the physics and astronomy elements have remained similar throughout.

The core themes of astronomy and physics are still present, albeit in different forms.
In the beginning, Desolus was primarily a game (mechanically) about using black holes to absorb and transfer energy.
Now Desolus is (mechanically) a game about inversion and alternate space. You can see this transition throughout the DevLog entries.

The inflection point happened in May of last year, when I first prototyped the alternate dimension mechanic.
Since then, I have shifted the mechanical focus of the game almost entirely around alternate dimensions.

Quote
"The game keeps evolving over time as I add/remove mechanics."

Was there anything you thought could be interesting as a mechanic but took longer than expected to realize how you could best fit a certain idea into the game as an actual mechanic?

This happens *all the time.* See the entirety of this DevLog, hahaha.
Throughout this DevLog, you'll find a great deal of content which was eventually discarded.
I have many ideas which I think would be interesting as game mechanics, but end up not working out after I've prototyped them.

This was largely due to my inexperience as a designer when starting out, and my original vision for the game wasn't entirely clear.
It wasn't until around 6 months ago when I truly figured out what the game is.
'Desolus' has essentially been two or three different games called Desolus, developed over 2 & 1/2 years.
Although it took me ~2 years to come up with a solid design, I don't consider this wasted time because I learned so much during that time period.
If anything, this should emphasize the importance of prototyping in the design process and adhering to a strong artistic vision.

Quote
Out of curiosity, are any specific articles or papers you referred to for some of the ideas for different mechanics? I'd be interested to read some of your source materials.

I try to read as many game design articles or watch as many lectures as possible.
Check out The GDC Videos, Electron Dance, Errant Signal, Writing on Games, Mark Brown, Critical Distance, and Gamasutra.
The lectures by Jonathan Blow are also a good place to start, he has a lot of interesting thoughts on this subject.
 
Most of the mechanics are 'discovered' by playing around with the game itself.
For example, the alternate dimension idea came when I applied a lighting/shading setting from a newer game world to an old one.

When making mechanics I evaluate them based off of:
-Depth: How many unique puzzles can I make with this?
-Cohesion: How does this fit in with the rest of the game mechanics?
-Artistic Direction: How does this fit in to the core artistic themes of the game?
-Intuitiveness: Can someone understand this simply by looking and interacting with it?

Most importantly, draw as much from the world around you and absorb as much material as possible.

Quote
If you also wanted to apply it to the composition of a level (as you might in an art piece), are there areas at the beginning of a level or perhaps vistas where you also frame the focal areas of a level, applying the golden ratio?

I mostly compose levels based off of 'what I think looks interesting.' There isn't really a methodology to it, outside of subjectivity and experimentation.
However, sometimes I intentionally use golden ratio math. For example the architecture which I've added to the game recently has these elements.

Quote
I watched the video of the pianist and really like how expressive he is in his performance. Makes me miss having a piano around!

I feel fortunate to work with Kyle Landry, he's an extremely talented individual.
His music brings a lot of emotion to the game world, which is hard to convey in visuals and mechanics alone.

Quote
Regarding your last post, super awesome you're thinking about building an area inspired by Angkor Wat/Ta Prohm! I'm actually making a trip there next month (I flagged it as a must-see while in Southeast Asia) - so if you need any specific reference picts/angles you can't find online, let me know.

Oh wow! That sounds awesome. I would like to visit there at some point in my life, maybe after Desolus is released I'll have time/money to travel.

Quote
Again, really awesome reading your updates!

Thank you very much!

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« Reply #291 on: August 15, 2017, 12:25:35 AM »

I'm so glad to see someone else as infatuated with fractals as I am. They are also a huge inspiration in things I do, especially art. In my game I actually use a fractal I generated as the background plane for the ground in the map. I may use them in more assets as well. I can't wait to see this finished and I'll definitely play it. I've been looking for a game like this for a long time.
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« Reply #292 on: August 15, 2017, 03:51:20 AM »

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Desolus has been in development since September 2014 and is currently in Alpha.

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« Reply #293 on: August 15, 2017, 08:45:29 AM »

I'm so glad to see someone else as infatuated with fractals as I am. They are also a huge inspiration in things I do, especially art. In my game I actually use a fractal I generated as the background plane for the ground in the map. I may use them in more assets as well. I can't wait to see this finished and I'll definitely play it. I've been looking for a game like this for a long time.

That's great to hear!
Fractals are super fascinating, and one of the main inspirations for the art in this game.
Would be interested to see whatever you come up with!

Quote
Desolus has been in development since September 2014 and is currently in Alpha.

 Shocked

Hahaha this is what happens when you:
-Work alone & part time because of the day job
-Make an ambitious game
-Start with no game development experience
-Throw away 3 'completed' alpha versions for different concepts
-Have ruthless perfectionism

I get closer to finishing every day Tears of Joy

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« Reply #294 on: August 30, 2017, 03:32:04 AM »

Dude, killer work. Really enjoying following this one. Keep it up!
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« Reply #295 on: August 30, 2017, 08:46:56 AM »

Dude, killer work. Really enjoying following this one. Keep it up!

Thank you Justin!!
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« Reply #296 on: August 30, 2017, 10:40:24 AM »

Update 123: 08/30/2017

DESOLUS: MANY GAMES, ONE NAME

As of this week, I started Desolus as a project three years ago.

At this point I have accepted Desolus is more of an evolving concept, rather than a single game.
Desolus has been many different games, created over the course of several years of my life.

If you read through this DevLog, you can see several major transitions in the direction of the project.
I talk more about this in my Year 2 retrospective.

One could argue I started the current version of Desolus in June 2016.
This is when I created the alternate dimension mechanic, which is now the primary focus of the game.
Since then I have eliminated all prior game mechanics which do not contribute to this idea.

This focusing of ideas (I believe) has vastly improved the quality of the overall game.
As such, this year has been the most productive and focused one yet.

---

A YEAR OF PROGRESS

-June 2016-

In the beginning the of last June, I created the prototype implementation of the alternate dimensions.
Almost none of the elements of the previous 'games called Desolus' have survived past this point.



-November 2016-

At the beginning of November, I perfected the implementation of the dimension gates for Desolus.
This involved rewriting every single shader in the game, as well as solving some major rendering problems.



-February 2017-

In February, I finished implementing the concept of the 'inverted world' as a means of visualizing the alternate dimensions.
Later this would evolve into the concept of inverted architecture.

Most of early 2017 was also spent fixing miscellaneous bugs and heavily polishing aspects of the game.
All of this work resulted in a polished demo build which I presented at my first GDC, in March.



-June 2017-

In early June, I added architecture into the game of Desolus.
For a long time my level design was lacking, as I was primarily using only terrain as a means for level creation.
Adding architecture opened up a huge amount of creative space which I could explore.

Architecture also has a critical mechanical impact on the game, as the geometry is mirrored between dimensions.
This is now the core puzzle element of much of the game.
Early puzzles are solely navigating through inverted architecture.
Later puzzles involve manipulating and inverting the architecture yourself, which I will talk about in the future.



---

GAMES TAKE A LONG TIME TO MAKE

I facetiously remarked in a previous post
"This is what happens when you:
-Work alone & part time because of the day job
-Make an ambitious game
-Start with no game development experience
-Throw away 3 'completed' alpha versions for different concepts
-Have ruthless perfectionism"


At this point, I have been working on Desolus for 3 years of my life.
I keep track of my hours, and I've spent around ~4200 at my computer developing Desolus.
If you add that time up as 40 hour work weeks, I have essentially been working on this project for 2 full time years.

There are several factors which contributed to the significant amount of time spent on the game.

-EVOLVING CONCEPT-

As I stated at the beginning of this post, Desolus has been more of an evolving concept rather than a single game.
I set out more to reach a certain level of quality, rather than create a specific game.
However, focus has now shifted to a singular game concept. I intend on releasing this iteration of Desolus when finished.  

-ABILITY VS AMBITION-

When I started out, I simply did not have the skill set required to match my ambition, and I probably still do not.
Although I began as a competent programmer, I started out with few skills in game design and art.
Naturally, it took a great deal of time to reach my intended goal of quality.

-LACK OF TRUE PROTOTYPES-

Rather than properly prototype and gray box content, I focused on overall presentation.
I was not confident enough in my abilities as a developer to show an unpolished game.  

As such, I spent a huge amount of time on preparing for festivals/expos/presentations.
While this was good from a networking and experience standpoint, I believe it adversely affected the game's development in the long term.

I should have been rapidly discarding sketched out content and working towards a greater concept.
However, instead I created many high-fidelity prototypes which ended up being scrapped nearly entirely.
Taking this approach reduced the quality of the game's design and mechanics in much of early development.

Fortunately, I believe the quality of the game's design now matches its presentation and aesthetics.  
As of March of this year, I have moved on to a proper game development cycle.

-TIME AND RESOURCES-

For nearly the entirety of the game's development, I have been working a day job at MIT as a Computer Scientist.
I switched to part time for my day job at the beginning of 2016, and now work an even 30hr/30hr split between Desolus and my job.
While this provides me with a stable income, there is only so much time in the day.

Although I have Kyle working on the music for the game, I still am responsible for 99% of the game's development.
(Somewhat paradoxically) I don't believe I will take on additional people to work on Desolus.
As discussed in my Unity article I wrote last year, much of Desolus has been designed specifically so I can make it myself.

I am a single person. I can only do so much. I try to take solace that I am doing the best I can with the resources I have.

---

MOVING FORWARD

At this point in time, Desolus is in a very good state of development.

I have a singular unified concept, and I am confident with moving forward.
Currently I am working on assembling all of my ideas and puzzles I've created into a singular cohesive game.

It's taken me a long time to get this far, but I've made a great deal of progress.

« Last Edit: June 27, 2020, 10:18:35 PM by Mark Mayers » Logged

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« Reply #297 on: August 30, 2017, 06:05:15 PM »

I hope you decide to turn one of these updates into a full Gamasutra article at some point! It would be useful for other developers.

Interesting what you said about focusing on the presentation rather than rapid prototyping/blocking out. When you want to show what you're working on and get feedback, it can be hard to get people interested in blocks on a screen (the current state of our own devlog Smiley).

If you were to do it again (knowing everything you now know), when would you start showing the game to the public?
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« Reply #298 on: September 04, 2017, 08:08:35 AM »

I hope you decide to turn one of these updates into a full Gamasutra article at some point! It would be useful for other developers.

Interesting what you said about focusing on the presentation rather than rapid prototyping/blocking out. When you want to show what you're working on and get feedback, it can be hard to get people interested in blocks on a screen (the current state of our own devlog Smiley).

If you were to do it again (knowing everything you now know), when would you start showing the game to the public?


Yea I think at some point I might write a Gamasutra article, I read the site all the time!

It think it's important to show your game to the public ASAP, as soon as it's playable.
Getting feedback and early marketing is essential to make your game stand out. 
However, the issue I experienced personally is I spent *waaayyy too much time* preparing content for demos which I later discarded or heavily revised. 

Sometimes AAA devs experience this for demos like E3, where they prepare for months in advance only to discard the build.
Desolus has been pretty forward facing the entirety of development, which is why I've done this multiple times at my expense.
Getting that vertical slice demo is great, but only if you do it once or maybe twice.
Don't spend your time on polish and presentation if the rest of the game isn't there.

(Although) there are some pros to polish in early dev, as Desolus is stable as a game now artistically and technically.
I spent months perfecting the rendering systems of the game, which is a core component to gameplay.
There are never any crashes, few bugs, and the game runs at an extremely high frame rate.
The game also has a fully fleshed out art style with assets, which I can put back into the game at any time.

As always take anything I say with a grain of salt. I don't know what I don't know.
 
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« Reply #299 on: September 04, 2017, 08:31:39 AM »

Update 124: 09/04/2017

DRAVIDIAN TEMPLE

The past week I have been working on a Dravidian themed temple for Desolus.



You only see the top of the temple from the outside, but in actuality it sits far underground.



This area will be one of the major worlds in the game. Think of this as an equivalent to a 'Zelda Dungeon' in terms of puzzle progression.
I'm aiming to have five of these puzzle worlds in the game, each focusing on a a specific aspect of the game's mechanics.
More on this later.

---

« Last Edit: September 07, 2017, 11:11:08 AM by Mark Mayers » Logged

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