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[Frappa Studio]

3571 The Game Devlog - Welcome to the year 3571!


3571 The Game is a ruthless RPG survival videogame. Build a base, recruit an army, and beat the time of the best survivors of the year 3571, but be careful: death is permanent! Droids, zombies, aliens, mutant monsters... Welcome to the most crazy apocalypse ever!

Actual version : v0.62 - for PC & MAC

What's new in this game ?
- Personal artist project: This game is part of the 3571 Project, a multimedia story
including black and white comics, animations, films, videogames and a music soundtrack.
- Open-ended project: updates will be based on players' feedback, and I plan never
stop adding content to the game, as well as in the comic books and the films.
I started the whole project around 2012.




Random generated open world & realtime RPG combat system

The story:
3571 The Game takes place in the 3571 Comics universe: In the year 3571, the last hundred
humans declined to the Middle-Ages and struggle to survive amongst droids, mutant animals,
zombies and aliens. Travel time right now and create your avatar in the year 3571
to see how long you can survive on our Last Kingdom!

Can I play to the Early Access?
CLICK HERE TO PLAY 3571 THE GAME AND SUPPORT ITS DEVELOPMENT


Features:

Implemented Features (v0.71):
• Original single artist videogame project since 2012
• Official Gameplay Mode: Survive as long as you can and enter the Legend
• Custom Gameplay Mode: create your own apocalypse
• RPG system with XP level and skills
• Survival system with hunger and thirst management
• Item system and Inventory and Chest system
• Fully destructible environment and objects
• Both 3rd person Hack'n'Slash and 1st person FPS gameplay
• Funny and interactive NPCs: complex A.I. behavior and realtime pathfinding system
• Recruits: players can recruit NPCs in his own team
• 3D Roguelike with permanent death and highscores
• 100% realtime combat system with special attacks and combo system
• Procedurally generated 3D open world: Each new game is different
• Fast One-click simple Crafting System designed for the game
• Player character customization
• Unleash your quantum force in every situation: jump higher, run faster, kill harder
• Riding system: horses, giant wolves... and flying dragons
• Intelligent and interactive music multitrack system: music vary according to the situation
• Random Events: random droid attacks or zombie invasions can happen at any time
• Emergent action: there's always something happening around you

Future Releases:
• Micromanagement: Player will be able to create his own Kingdom
• Recruits update: player will be able to equip and give orders to his recruits
• Vehicles: ( Cars, spaceships... )
• Growing, cooking & farming: 100% organic food
• New crafts: steampunk guns and new constructions
• Content update: new NPCs, new items, new buildings
• Events update: new random disasters
• Multiplayer: a whole new hardcore FPS game is on track

About
To read more about this, please visit the 3571 Project website






https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsahQia2MHU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Z5Eh5YQ












3571 COMICS VS 3571 THE GAME CONCEPT ART











Welcome to the future !

[Frappa Studio]

This is my very first combat debug session WITHOUT bugs.

I used to create small multiplayer to play with my little bro' on our only PC when I was 15. It was so fun to work with softwares like GameMaker, etc...

When the 3571 Project was initiated around 2010, I immediately knew it would be more than a comic. I started to learn 3D with the wonderful and open-source Blender, and two years later I started to master modeling, rigging, animation ( I had a very solid traditional illustration/animation background ). Then I knew my webcomic could have its own game when I started to use the Blender Game Engine. It all ended with a very messy visuel programming I just couldn't update without getting crazy. But at this point I knew everything was possible.

This is me playing for the first time with my own first videogame. I never imagined how amazing this feeling would be when after years of battle, something finally works. The videogame of my comics was born.

It made me so happy to kill this stupid Giant Rat in this empty map with my King's crown.

This game version ( 0.02 ) is from 2012.
If anyone wants to get a Blender file of this version, I can share it. the BGE is very interesting to craft fast prototypes of games without code, and feel visually how object-oriented programmation works.

[Frappa Studio]

Here some sketches I did both for the 3571 comics and 3571 the game.
I can't explain how thrilling it is to give life to your comics' characters in a game.

[Frappa Studio]

I am currently posting one page of the 3571 Comics every week, while I am also developping 3571 The Game. I can then pick in the comic to design more enemies, vehicles... But sometimes, it's the opposite :

For exemple, I created pod combat spaceships thinking about a multiplayer FPS e-sport version of the game named 3571 Arena. In this week's 3571 Comics episode, we can see the combat pods I designed initially for the game in the story. I had to include them in the comics scenario cause I liked 'em too much.

Here are the combat pods I designed for the game and  the illustrated version I created later.

[Frappa Studio]

After Rats.. Zombies were the second type of enemy in v0.02 ; I had to update them completely because they were strange and cubic compared to my newest 3D models : my Blender level was "Real Beginner" at first. But they were as close from the comics' zombies as I could !

Slassssshhhhhhhhhh 'em allllllllll !!!  

[Frappa Studio]

I experienced Blender a lot, created several small games and animations, and quickly get used to it.
Here you can see a screeshot of the version 0.1 of the game, and the "visual" code I had to edit to perform initially very simple RPG mechanics : player movements, healthbar, 1 slot inventory, enemies and a basic combat system.




Visual coding is really messy code for a RPG. Here is my main issue : No matter the software I use, I need to learn programming language if I want to create a real videogame. Luckily, I already bought years ago a VERY big C++ manual which I read. It took me 2 years to learn new languages like HTML, CSS, and finally C# when I discovered Unity.

I reccomend the use of Unity and Blender together because it's free and very powerful.
I'm really happy to live in the future.

[Frappa Studio]

Around 2012, I was finally able to write my own C# scripts, with tons of debugging sessions of course.
I dropped out the full-Blender v0.1, and downloaded Unity to start the v0.2 from the beginning.
At this moment I worked with this completely free and very efficient workflow which I still use today :

[Frappa Studio]

I just composed and coded a interactive classical song for 3571 The Game. Basically, the song record is divided in 3 main group of instrument tracks that fits together on the same melody :

- Track 1 : Only the dark atmosphere sounds instruments and horns
- Track 2 : The main piano melody
- Track 3 : Orchestra Strings secondary melody

During the game, the player vary its Stress Level variable in quite every engaging action, and this changes the soundtrack musical composition and mixing responsively.

For exemple, when you loose a fight, your stress is maximum, and you nearly only hear the Track 1, dark and scary. But kill your opponent, speak with a friend, eat a fruit and then play flute and the piano comes back slightly with a smooth violin melody, all of this happening like it's one and only song : quite fun to hear !

[Frappa Studio]

Here is how I managed the main Dynamic Music function ( each track is in a specific mood and their volume is relative to the player stress level, all tracks are part of the same classical song I wrote for the project )

Code:

public void ChangeStress(int value){

		if ( value > 0 ){

			if ( PC.Instance.playerStressLevel < 5 )
				PC.Instance.playerStressLevel += value;

			if ( PC.Instance.playerStressLevel > 5  )
				PC.Instance.playerStressLevel = 5;

		}
		else if ( value < 0 ){

			if ( PC.Instance.playerStressLevel > -5 )
				PC.Instance.playerStressLevel += value;

			if (  PC.Instance.playerStressLevel < -5 )
				PC.Instance.playerStressLevel = -5;
		}




		if ( PC.Instance.playerStressLevel > 0 ){

			stressMusic.GetComponent<AudioSource>().volume = PC.Instance.playerStressLevel * 0.5f;
			neutralMusic.GetComponent<AudioSource>().volume = 2 - ( PC.Instance.playerStressLevel * 0.4f );
			positiveMusic.GetComponent<AudioSource>().volume = 0;
		}
		else if ( PC.Instance.playerStressLevel < 0 ){

			positiveMusic.GetComponent<AudioSource>().volume = PC.Instance.playerStressLevel * -0.5f;
			neutralMusic.GetComponent<AudioSource>().volume = 2 - ( PC.Instance.playerStressLevel * -0.4f );
			stressMusic.GetComponent<AudioSource>().volume = 0f;
		}
		else if ( PC.Instance.playerStressLevel == 0 ){
			neutralMusic.GetComponent<AudioSource>().volume = 2f;
			stressMusic.GetComponent<AudioSource>().volume = 0f;
			positiveMusic.GetComponent<AudioSource>().volume = 0f;
		}

	}
}

[Frappa Studio]

In order to model, animate and program Non Player Characters really fast, I created a generic character template on Blender with all animation, and every NPC will use only animations needed for it's specific personality and story implication, but each one of them will have it's own mesh, size, face, hairs, cloth, textures, dialogues...


It's strange to see my comics' characters come to life when I hit "Play".

[Frappa Studio]

As the random generated map will be surrounded by ocean like in the 3571 Comics, I needed to populate water with Mobs as soon as possible, so I created this shark on blender as one of my first enemies. Next step : animation !

[Frappa Studio]

And here is the animation for the shark ! Very basic and simple :
- slow swim
- fast / attack swim
- Bite
- Hurt
- Death

[Frappa Studio]

When I dropped the Full-Blender worlflow and try Unity for the first time, this was obviously very new to me, but I felt some kinf of powerful freedom. Unfortunately, a this time without any C# skill, I could only make the player move ... after weeks of tutorial reading and newbie "coding" in C#. But the game performance increased 2000% : I could set a big map, a big castle and lots of Unity's grass with a great FPS count. And the graphics looks way better ! Skybox, vegetation, ground textures and shaders...

So I decided from this point to use Blender only for 3D models creation, and start again my game from zero in Unity... I have no more enemies, no more player health bar, no more weapons... But it's Ok, because it will be a better game.

So I also created a more convincing player character, as my Blender modelling skills increased a lot.

[Frappa Studio]

Searching for the perfect-balanced crafting system... I need to find a very simple system as I must implement it alone in my free time, with the rest of the game, but I want it to really enhance the gameplay

[Frappa Studio]

Creating handmade textures is very relaxing after a night of hard coding. I definitely love working with so many different techniques when you create a videogame alone : programming, illustration and textures, sculpting and 3D model creation, writing scenario and dialogue, animating, design logos, UI, ...

[Frappa Studio]

A new home / dungeon for the Random Map Generator, with treasures and people inside !

[RofB]

Looks really cool. I love the character models, I have a soft spot for grimey looking low poly models (the shark reminds me alot of Banjo).

[Frappa Studio]

I designed a new enemy, with a Giant Wolf crane helmet, a wooden shield and an axe !
A little bit slow when they run at you, but veeery resistant !

[Frappa Studio]

Looks really cool. I love the character models, I have a soft spot for grimey looking low poly models (the shark reminds me alot of Banjo).

Thanks very much ! I can't wait to let you play ! Between childish cartoons and adult violence

[Frappa Studio]

I started to design the item icons for the player's inventory, pretty small, cute and functional
For now I crafted around 25 items including food, armors, weapons, resources...