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[io3 creations]

Perhaps something along the lines of Starlight Crystals could both describe origin, function and distinguish it from "regular" crystals.

[KevinTillman]

The colors and designs of the icons look gorgeous. Very nice lighting too.

[pturecki]

@io3 creations: Nice idea but we have one kind of crystals in the game so such a distinction may not be needed. Thanks anyway!

@KevinTillman: Thanks! Marcin does really great job with the art

[io3 creations]

I was actually thinking about distinguishing it from real world crystals: sound crystals, crystals for jewelry, glasses and the esoteric "energy healing" crystals.  Much like even if there's only one type of sword in a game that is made of dragon's blood, calling it "Dragonblood sword" would distinguish it from the steel swords and makes it a bit more special.  At least for me.

[pturecki]

@io3 creations: You are right. We have some objects in the game that follow this naming idea (eq Well Of Light) but Crystal is just a simple "Crystal". Maybe we need to change this. We have a lot of name ideas now

[io3 creations]

@pturecki Sounds good!

Well Of Light

[pturecki]

Sorry for a long break in posting here but I have no time at all lately :/ Hope it will be better now

And great news: finally we have an Archaica Page on Steam, and even we sent first bunch of keys for closed beta tests If you are interested in the game, please visit our page and tell us what You think about it. Here is the link:

Archaica: The Path Of Light on Steam

And a few other links:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TwoMammoths/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TwoMammoths

Archaica page: http://twomammoths.com/archaica-the-path-of-light/


Regards,

[thekosmonaut]

I like the intro video on the steam page, looks very well made!

[pturecki]

@thekosmonaut: Thanks a lot! The trailer was made almost entirely by my brother (~three months of work mainly on this but not only)!

And a list of new things:

IndieDB

We started Archaica thread on IndieDB: Archaica on IndieDB.
Also we got to the IndieGame of the Year 2016 TOP100 finals! You can vote for our game here: IndieDB: Indie of the year awards (under category UPCOMING GAMES / Puzzle).

Here are two IndieDB promo screenshots:

First shot from the secret level hidden under the Desert City:

Archaica in TOP100 (see UPCOMING GAMES / Puzzle):

DeviantArt

Here's another nice honorable mention - Archaica screenshot has been awarded Daily Deviation on Friday, December 09, 2016 on DeviantArt page! It's quite unusual, because generally this award goes to the most beautiful digital arts or pictures. Not screenshots from the game:

Work in progress

Here is the first prototype of ingame tutorial in the first level (notice the arrows showing places to click/put/rotate device). Any suggestions are welcome:

Here is rare and the strangest bug so far (in beta tests): crystals without a color (light from crystals is correct, but crystals are all white). It happens only on a few computers and it is still not located :/

And as a bonus: Video from working after midnight (on hint effects)

Post on Twitter
Post on Facebook (but it links to twitter video)

Hope You like it.
Cheers!

[pturecki]

Hi
Finally a small technical post (not stricte technical - rather descriptive). The post is about how our engine (C++/Directx 9.0) renders the scene - especially the lighting. Hope You will like it.

The full post is on IndieDB here: Archaica rendering internals - the Lighting (also with large images). Sorry that I don't repost it whole here on the forum, only a selected part. Next time I will do it better.

Final scene looks like this:


Indirect lighting is built in four steps:

1. Height ambient (two colors interpolated by scene height):


2. Shadow color (fake secondary diffuse term). Takes into account scene height and normal (and it’s also colorized):


3. SSAO (not optimal, and not very fast, and even not very good ;P - but works well so far):


4. And the last component: secondary directional light without shadows (fake simulation of the reflected light):


And direct lighting looks like this:



Combined indirect and direct lighting + diffuse, with postprocess effects (glow, tonemapping, colorgrading, fog) gives the final look (first image).

Hope it is useful. If you have any questions I will ask with pleasure!
Regards,

[TheWanderingBen]

You rolled your own engine? Wow, that's intense! I'd love to hear post-mortem thoughts on doing that -- was it worth it; would you do it again?

[pturecki]

Thanks! Post-mortem is a good idea, but first we must finish the game (the hardest part) ;P

[pturecki]

Merry Christmas to everyone!
Here is a Christmas tree level for this occasion. Hope You like it

[pturecki]

Hi! Take a look at YT gameplay video from Beta version (in English). This video cames out better than we would expected (shows well a gameplay we implemented so far) The game has still unfinished things but is playable of course:





limited / unlimited hint system:

And one question about hint system (I will back to this question later again; we probably change a bit this mechanics):
- What do You think - what is better for a puzzle game: a limited hint system (no more hint options = player stucks in a puzzle) or unlimited (for example player must wait some time and the new hint becomes available = if player waits enough time he will be able to reveal the placement of all devices; no mind-benging needed)? Actually we have 'unlimited' option (and we plan to change it to another 'unlimited' option; small differences).

Cheers!

[Interactionman]

It's a bit of a delayed reply by now, but you were asking about names for things before, and I recently read an article about naming things in games:

http://www.competitivegamedesign.net/naming

Quite interesting I think. And don't forget that the names also contribute to the atmosphere in a game, so even if there is only one of something (e.g. a crystal), if it's a special thing it can have a special name

[pturecki]

@Interactionman: Thanks a lot for this link. Indeed it's a very interesting and good reading!

PS. This is a list of actually selected names (without description). I think there will be a small changes in the near future yet:

PORTAL
TOTEM
ALTAR OF FAME
MEGALITH
REALMGATE
WELL OF LIGHT
PRIMAL WELL
CRYSTAL
HEAVY CRYSTAL
SPHERULE
DETECTOR
CRYSTAL NODES
STONEKEY
CRYPTOGLYPHS
THE SOURCE
TESSERACT
BEAM BREAKER
DIVIDER
AGGREGATOR
HARMONISER
LUNA
CONWERTER
TRANSMITTER
FEEDER
EMITTER

[pturecki]

Hi! Take a look at this nice article on 80 Level (based on this TigSource devlog) with a brief information about our game: Archaica: Beatutiful Game About Lazers.
Regards!

[pturecki]

Hi. This time not technical: a short history of creating a first secret level in Archaica. Hope You like it

This is an existing level, a base for new puzzle:



A new puzzle and a general concept of level shape:



And subsequent screens from created level (going from daylight to dark undergrounds):









And the current state - almost finished level:



Cheers!

[Schrompf]

Ancient ruins and colourful beams - I like the appearance. Tested it back in 2015 at PGA, great to see you're still progressing! Good luck!

[pturecki]

@Schrompf: Thanks! Current version is very different (visually and also richer in mechanics) than version from 2015.
PS. If I remember correctly our discussion at PGA, your game Splatter also uses custom engine! Are you making another game project?