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[Juwdah]

-*snip*-

Here's a simple height mapped terrain (no material) under the water: (with some water shader changes and it's on basic settings atm to test with)

That would actually look good as an icy environment for those that live around on of the poles or the environment is on it's way to become a Snowball Earth    

Hey yeah, it looks icy because there isn't any material on it. Funny though, because of that I can imagine an easy way to get ice terrain in there.

I tweaked the height map a bit and started experimenting with @Wazeau's placeholder buildings. Duplicating 5 houses a ton of times gets a city feeling pretty damn fast.

[io3 creations]

I tweaked the height map a bit and started experimenting with @Wazeau's placeholder buildings. Duplicating 5 houses a ton of times gets a city feeling pretty damn fast.

Looks good and ... quite surreal.  It's been a while since I've seen a city underwater and not with the current camera view.

Have you seen this animation? 



After I finish a few other projects, I was thinking about making a similarish adventure game.

[Juwdah]

Looks good and ... quite surreal.  It's been a while since I've seen a city underwater and not with the current camera view.

Have you seen this animation? 



After I finish a few other projects, I was thinking about making a similarish adventure game.

Wo, no I hadn't seen that animation yet. It's really interesting and has a great feeling to it. The water and mood are so good. Really liked the foam effects and how it stayed smooth and without noise. Definitely going into the inspiration folder
Thanks for linking that, got some more of those goodies?

[Seiseki]

Glad to see updates from you guys again!  

I've always found it kinda terrifying looking when you can see things deep underwater.
I can't stand places where there's tons of sea weeds and algae, looking like scary arms that will pull you down. xD

This is looking really good, I can already imagine seeing fishes, big and small swimming around down there.
It might be a bit too crisp though, what if you blurred everything under the surface?
Or maybe more fading on the bottom of the buildings would take make them blend in more?

You could probably get away with not texturing the buildings, maybe just decorating them with some seaweed and such.

[Juwdah]

Glad to see updates from you guys again!  

I've always found it kinda terrifying looking when you can see things deep underwater.
I can't stand places where there's tons of sea weeds and algae, looking like scary arms that will pull you down. xD

This is looking really good, I can already imagine seeing fishes, big and small swimming around down there.
It might be a bit too crisp though, what if you blurred everything under the surface?
Or maybe more fading on the bottom of the buildings would take make them blend in more?

You could probably get away with not texturing the buildings, maybe just decorating them with some seaweed and such.

Yeah, deep ocean brings up a lot of fears. We want to shift most of the terrifying aspects of it towards the evening and night-times and bring a very good and quirky feeling to it at daytime.
It's more of a challenge making it so that it doesn't scare people and actually makes people happy though. But yeah we'll see.

everything underwater is going to be distorted and take color from the ocean, but those settings are off in the gif for testing purposes, doesn't look too good with the distortion atm.

I'm still pondering on how I'd add coral and seaweed etc attached to everything underwater. like the car in the animaton above.

Probably some research with position mapping etc. But that's for later

[The_Observer]

I tried some different models for boats to see how they work.
Might give us some inspiration to try other stuff.

[io3 creations]

Wo, no I hadn't seen that animation yet. It's really interesting and has a great feeling to it. The water and mood are so good. Really liked the foam effects and how it stayed smooth and without noise. Definitely going into the inspiration folder

It's in my inspirations folder, too.  

Thanks for linking that, got some more of those goodies?

Do I?  :GOOGLY EYES:  The real answer will depend on how much free time you have!    But what are you looking for exactly?  "Good" animations (as you mentioned above) or ones that include certain themes (e.g. water and buildings as in the )?

For now here are few animaitons that came to mind:

The silence beneath the bark / le silence sous l'écorce




Apres la pluie (After the rain)   


Actually, this is quite close to the theme of Flotsam and even has breaching scenes!   That one comes from Gobelins (Gobelins L'École de L'Image or Gobelins, the school of visual communication is a Parisian school of the visual arts) and there's a lot more on their YouTube channel .


I'll probably have to think if I've seen a good example of the underwater vegetation that you mentioned, but as a quick thought, I was thinking of going with something similar to how land vegetation takes over buildings once people are gone.  A few examples: I am legend (the movie), The Last of Us (game) comes to mind.  I've only seen a few bits and pieces of Abzu but there might be a few ideas there.  There's also a short video that seem to be also a 3d ride:   Ruin:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doteMqP6eSc

In general, I could imagine having coral similar to how bushes would grow and seaweed similar to very tall grass (plus it would sway with the currents).  For example, if a building top is close to the water surface then the seaweed could easily reach it and you might even get tangled or it could be a good hiding place for a surprise attacker. 


Oddly enough, while I'm not afraid of the dark depth, once after swimming near the beach shore I put my foot down in a sea plant forest and I stepped on a rough surface ... that moved! o.O    My guess is that it was more likely a crab than a fish, but ever since then I'm a little cautios.

[koutetsusteel]

I cannot wait until I can get my hands on this game! I absolutely love the visuals and am a huge fan of survival/building games!  Also, the concept of above-water building is new and refreshing. Most games either have underwater (subnautica) or focus mainly on above ground (Ark, Osiris, etc.)

[Juwdah]

Wo, no I hadn't seen that animation yet. It's really interesting and has a great feeling to it. The water and mood are so good. Really liked the foam effects and how it stayed smooth and without noise. Definitely going into the inspiration folder

It's in my inspirations folder, too.  

Thanks for linking that, got some more of those goodies?

Do I?  :GOOGLY EYES:  The real answer will depend on how much free time you have!   But what are you looking for exactly?  "Good" animations (as you mentioned above) or ones that include certain themes (e.g. water and buildings as in the )?

For now here are few animaitons that came to mind:

The silence beneath the bark / le silence sous l'écorce
-*Snip*-

Apres la pluie (After the rain)
-*Snip*-

Actually, this is quite close to the theme of Flotsam and even has breaching scenes!  That one comes from Gobelins (Gobelins L'École de L'Image or Gobelins, the school of visual communication is a Parisian school of the visual arts) and there's a lot more on their YouTube channel .


I'll probably have to think if I've seen a good example of the underwater vegetation that you mentioned, but as a quick thought, I was thinking of going with something similar to how land vegetation takes over buildings once people are gone.  A few examples: I am legend (the movie), The Last of Us (game) comes to mind.  I've only seen a few bits and pieces of Abzu but there might be a few ideas there.  There's also a short video that seem to be also a 3d ride:   Ruin:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doteMqP6eSc

In general, I could imagine having coral similar to how bushes would grow and seaweed similar to very tall grass (plus it would sway with the currents).  For example, if a building top is close to the water surface then the seaweed could easily reach it and you might even get tangled or it could be a good hiding place for a surprise attacker.  


Oddly enough, while I'm not afraid of the dark depth, once after swimming near the beach shore I put my foot down in a sea plant forest and I stepped on a rough surface ... that moved! o.O    My guess is that it was more likely a crab than a fish, but ever since then I'm a little cautios.

Anything! Really, it's always good to keep exploring, I'm definitely interested if you have more to share.

We know Gobelin as it's quite close to us (Belgium and France). I hadn't seen the video you linked yet but many of their videos are pearls when it comes to inspiration. Every one of them can easily set off a streak of motivation.
It's a really cool video, those breaching animations in there are quite quirky as well, I wonder how far we can take the whale in that regard.

We've seen a few examples and possible ways of adding vegetation/coral. The_Observer suggested that the best thing to test early is to take the normals direction and use the ones pointing up to randomly spawn Coral. We'll test it sooner or later, at this moment it's not something on our priority list.

I cannot wait until I can get my hands on this game! I absolutely love the visuals and am a huge fan of survival/building games!  Also, the concept of above-water building is new and refreshing. Most games either have underwater (subnautica) or focus mainly on above ground (Ark, Osiris, etc.)

Thanks man, it's going to be a while still before we have something playable out there though. You're going to have to sit on that hunger for a while.

[NoLocality]

This is beautiful, not only the visuals but the concept.  I've only played a handful of survival type games and kinda enjoyed them but the thought of constructing floating bases on the water's surface has a definite appeal.


Question about the game-play: If a player constructs a 'base' would they be able to tow it around tugboat-style or are 'player constructions' pretty much stationary?  Maybe an odd question but it popped into my head when I saw what was going on in the game, I can't recall hearing of any recent games with 'mobile bases' and that seems pretty appealing to me...(nudge, nudge) 


I approve of what I see!  Also how did I not notice this before!

[wazeau]

Question about the game-play: If a player constructs a 'base' would they be able to tow it around tugboat-style or are 'player constructions' pretty much stationary?  Maybe an odd question but it popped into my head when I saw what was going on in the game, I can't recall hearing of any recent games with 'mobile bases' and that seems pretty appealing to me...(nudge, nudge)  

Actually, in Flotsam the whole town is moving over the ocean. You're constantly coming across new environmental points of interest that you can interact with this way. You'll also have to pay attention so you don't collide with obstacles that break up parts of your town.
Towing buildings or other stuff sounds interesting though. We have thought about it too, but it is a bit outside of the scope right now.

[wazeau]

For our screenshot saturday we made this gif of the new town heart! This is the most central building and the first building you'll make. It stores some resources and food/water, while also lighting up part of the town with the fire on top.

In earlier versions of the game the town heart was built on top of the raft. Players were a bit confused when they suddenly couldn't use it anymore, so now your raft moors at the side of the town heart and is still usable.
We also wanted a more iconic and visible center for the town, that can be seen from afar. The old town heart was a bit cluttered and unreadable for this purpose.
I hope we can animate some parts of this building, like the crane and a windmill on top. Still have to figure that out though!



Here's the old one for comparison-->

[NoLocality]

Actually, in Flotsam the whole town is moving over the ocean. You're constantly coming across new environmental points of interest that you can interact with this way. You'll also have to pay attention so you don't collide with obstacles that break up parts of your town.

That sounds just fine tbh, having resources and such coming along and not being further and further from base sounds refreshing.

Cheers

[Nebirvi]

This looks so cozy! I usually don´t play this kind of games but you got me on the art style. I will miss this game on the market if it is not released. Fun idea too to place the whole thing at sea. Will the huge fishes be interactive or just decoration? Would be cool if you could involve the marine life with your constructions somehow or tame a few to do you favors Keep up the good work! Watching.

[wazeau]

This looks so cozy! I usually don´t play this kind of games but you got me on the art style. I will miss this game on the market if it is not released. Fun idea too to place the whole thing at sea. Will the huge fishes be interactive or just decoration? Would be cool if you could involve the marine life with your constructions somehow or tame a few to do you favors Keep up the good work! Watching.

Ye we would love to have a lots of fishes and taming would be amazing. It would add a lot of variety and life to the game.

We're actually thinking of using animals like dolphins for "combat" purposes. By combat I mean defending your town from hostile animals like sharks.
The dolphins could then be tamed by saving them from being stuck in garbage.
It would also solve the problem of dealing with dangers, without the bloody mess of having your villagers kill animals with harpoons.

This is just an idea we're playing with now of course and is not set in stone. (Don't wanna do a No Man's Sky/Molyneux here and overpromise!).

If you wanna share some ideas about taming animals that would be cool!

[Juless]

Yo people, new Flotsam dev here. Ima technicalliate this place up.

When the captain of the liferaft wanted to salvage something, the boat would occasionally sail against the flotsam, pushing it away. This would continue going endlessly as the distance to the flotsam would theoretically never be close enough. The problem with this was that the distance between the raft and the flotsam was too high. Seems weird at first, as the boat was physically bumping against it. However the distance between the boat and the plank was calculated from the middle/centerpoint of the boat to the flotsam.
Instead of doing this, I needed to check if the boat actually touched the floating object. Keeping performance in mind, it would have been impractical to use Unity’s collisions. Instead I added 2 more extra points to calculate distances besides just the middle one.
Finding the extremities of the boat was done by using renderer components bounds. It was impossible to do this for “the boat mesh”, as the artists built the boat in a modular way.



Which means it is split up in (at least 20) re-usable parts. In the picture below you can see 2 white wired spheres, one for the boundaries of the front and one for the boundaries of the back. I took the bounds from the outer pieces’ renderers and from the retrieved 4 extremities (front.min, front.max and back.min, back.max) I selected the 2 that correspond with the complete boat mesh and visualised them in the image with black vertical lines. When salvaging a piece of flotsam, all three distances (from each point to the flotsam) are checked and the smallest one is chosen, eliminating my annoyance of drifters sailing against flotsam!

[Juwdah]

Height maps weren't working out, would be hard to utilize in proc-gen later on as well.

Started testing how it would look using large sculpted areas, that would later on act as large tiles.
ATM it's one rock duplicated a couple of times.
(water on basic settings)



Going to make a clean version (or a couple) and start putting some stuff on there.

[io3 creations]

Anything! Really, it's always good to keep exploring, I'm definitely interested if you have more to share.

Here are a few more that I found inspirational:

Head On      youtube.com/watch?v=Bgop3NkdFa0

Inside Me ( Nils Frahm - Me Rework)   youtube.com/watch?v=y9yMUB9cUYI

Thought of You - by Ryan Woodward   youtube.com/watch?v=OBk3ynRbtsw

Swelter  http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/596056

gzilbalodis
Aqua   http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/597133
Priorities   http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/638503

Lucky Day Forever   http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/596083

Little Boat   http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/599588

Here are some "Collection channels" if you need more.
The CG Bros   https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-1rx8j9Ggp8mp4uD0ZdEIA
CGmeetup  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrSvhrtUgpZT3EU0x1Zoy-w



Regarding animal taming:

Horizon: Zero Dawn has a simple method of taming animal robots: you get close to them and "reprogram" them.  Easy! 

In your game, one approach could be to harpoon or catch them with a fishing rod and bait.  Then tire them out and wait until they surrender to you.  But you'd have to keep in mind their size as the structural integrity of your building(s) could be compromized when larger animals try to free themselves.

Jumping on them probably wouldn't be a very good idea for many reasons.

Much like horse and dog whisperers, you could have a "fish whisperer" who could do *magically*  attract fish. 

There are some hypothesis that (perhaps some) cats and dogs got domesticated by initially hanging around early cities and scanvenging on garbage that people threw out (plus small rodents).   So, you could attract them with throwing them  scraps *cough*  treats.     If they get enough, then they'll "like" you and stay around and do favors (as you mentioned).  If they don't, then they could leave or even attack your base since you already fed them they know that you likely have food.  First, it might just be a little nudge, but then they'd breach.  So you'd have to be careful.
There could also be some curious ones that like to explore and even play (e.g. fetch:  you throw in something and they would bring it back) and that process could be used to befriend them.

Once tamed, animals could also be used to help gathering resources that are far away (i.e. much like "magnets" in certain games to increase the distance at which certain items are picked up).
If there's some downtime when there isn't much to do, then other than playing "fetch", there could be some other ways to play with them.  But that's probably later (or perhaps DLC )

[Nebirvi]

This looks so cozy! I usually don´t play this kind of games but you got me on the art style. I will miss this game on the market if it is not released. Fun idea too to place the whole thing at sea. Will the huge fishes be interactive or just decoration? Would be cool if you could involve the marine life with your constructions somehow or tame a few to do you favors Keep up the good work! Watching.

Ye we would love to have a lots of fishes and taming would be amazing. It would add a lot of variety and life to the game.

We're actually thinking of using animals like dolphins for "combat" purposes. By combat I mean defending your town from hostile animals like sharks.
The dolphins could then be tamed by saving them from being stuck in garbage.
It would also solve the problem of dealing with dangers, without the bloody mess of having your villagers kill animals with harpoons.

This is just an idea we're playing with now of course and is not set in stone. (Don't wanna do a No Man's Sky/Molyneux here and overpromise!).

If you wanna share some ideas about taming animals that would be cool!

Yes, I don´t think harpooning would get very popular with all players, using nature to battle nature feels more "okay" somehow ( just like cavemen using wolves etc to defend themselves) I remember playing a great children's science game as a kid where the whole idea was to build and develop a base on an island to study marine life and pollution. A big part of that game is to tame and train the marine center's dolphin to destroy forgotten mines, find things in the deep etc. To train it you where to make it go through an obstacle course underwater ( like rings or something) and when it did a good job you gave it fish treats. After a while it understood what to do and could do it without problem. This of course was quite a simple way to train it since it was a kids game, but I like the base idea.
(P. S the dolphin in the kids game did not die while doing this. It swam passed the mines close enough to activate them and speed swim away in time.)

Maybe there could be areas in the game that is hard to get access to because of old "mines" and if you have a trained dolphin you could get rid of them and gain access to new areas?

P.s I read some more of your dev log now at lunch break and I really love the idea that you start out with about "nothing" and build your way up. How long time have you guys worked on this project?
Also, just noticed! The whale in the background of the building gif.( I know it is a small thing) But the animation would be even better if the tail and front fins did not move in the same direction. It looked in the gif like the fins moved down when the tail did so. It would put the whale out of balance. Better to make them go up when the tail goes down. Other than that I really like the animations!

[Nebirvi]

Also! I would love to follow your thread, how do I do that? ( pretty new here and new to forums overall)