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[Nordanvinden]

#Update 45 - Level design

I mainly worked on creating more levels yesterday, so here are some images from those levels and their design.


Level 3 first current obstacle. Shaped as a maze to teach player how to swim.


Level 3 second current obstacle. A yellow jump cube is hiding in the lower middle of a current while fish are patrolling the area.


Level 1 layout.


Level 2 layout.

A obstacle combination that did not make it into these early levels, but I will definitely add it for later harder ones.

[Nordanvinden]

#Update 46 - Level design

I finished level 3 and 4 yesterday. Level 3 introduced fish and a rolling spitter orb challenge.


First spitter challenge.

Level 4 introduces the gravity cube.


Second gravity obstacle.

Something new I am trying in the ice world is starting off with 3 levels introducing one cube, the heavy cube. I wanted to make sure that the player have understood the mechanic of it before introducing the next cube (which is the gravity one).

I also updated how the swings move. They no longer move horizontally, only vertically. Too many people had trouble figuring out how they worked and got frustrated by their movement. I might introduce it later though in a later world where I want a more challenging swing.


Updated movement for swings.


Level 3.


Level 4.

[Nordanvinden]

#Update 47 - Level design

I worked pretty much this whole weekend and finished up level 5 and 6. They both keep introducing the gravity cube in different ways.

Level 5

On level 5 ice slides get introduced. And a problem that appeared was that you would not see the end of the slope before reaching it and then you had to jump in blind faith that you would land somewhere. So I introduced a simple camera system that zooms out the camera when the player is inside a certain area.


Camera zoom feature in action when using ice slides.

I first tried using the velocity of the player to decide how much the camera would zoom out. It felt too random and I realised that it would be hard to control when it zooms out and to which degree.


First velocity based prototype.

There are also a few obstacles and puzzles that appear when the gravity has changed. I have noticed that even simple things get tricky just because the player has to adjust to having everything the other way around. It is kind of a funny thing to see.


Gravity obstacle 1.


Gravity obstacle 2.


Gravity obstacle 3.

I also introduced a simpler puzzle where you need to wait for the ChuChu to pass before going into the wind. I have then evolved this concept in level 6.


Gravity obstacle 4 - mini maze.

Level 6

On level 6 I keep adding to the gravity obstacles and then show the player in the end that the heavy cube will turn the gravity back to normal. That they contradict each others effects.


Gravity obstacle 1 - The swing obstacle that I have showed before in different forms.


Gravity obstacle 2.


Gravity obstacle 3 - Big maze.


Level 5.


Level 6.

[Tahutahu Studios]

It looks like you're working really hard! This looks pretty good design; I hope we can sneak a peek soon!

 

[AaronB]

The are for sure more things to think about, but I tend to get stuck. I think a good approach is looking at which building blocks you have (mechanics, enemies etc) and figure out in which order you want to introduce them and how to up the difficulty in a fun and challenging way.

If someone has any recommendations for articles or such regarding this subject, I would really appreciate it

Creating a game is like painting a picture - the number of variables is infinite.  I'm sure there are rules - but breaking the rules is also part of the game!  Ultimately it is the human mind you are trying to please - play testing and feedback are your only real true friends for answering these questions.

[Nordanvinden]

It looks like you're working really hard! This looks pretty good design; I hope we can sneak a peek soon!

 

Thanks! Yeah, I will let you know as soon as the next version is ready 

The are for sure more things to think about, but I tend to get stuck. I think a good approach is looking at which building blocks you have (mechanics, enemies etc) and figure out in which order you want to introduce them and how to up the difficulty in a fun and challenging way.

If someone has any recommendations for articles or such regarding this subject, I would really appreciate it

Creating a game is like painting a picture - the number of variables is infinite.  I'm sure there are rules - but breaking the rules is also part of the game!  Ultimately it is the human mind you are trying to please - play testing and feedback are your only real true friends for answering these questions.

Thanks man, great tip. I really agree about what you are saying and you put it beautifully 


#Update 48 - Forest world update

Yesterday I tried to make the cube animate in the correct way when running on the roofs after obtaining the gravity cube. It did not go too well 


Weird animation 1.


Weird animation 2.

I stopped after a few hours and will try again sometime not too far from now.

Forest update

I did end up updating the current demo (alpha 0.2.0) locally. These changes were all based on multiple rounds of feedback. Here is what I changed so far:
- Removed the flowers. People thought that they were collectibles and tried to grab them.
- Make swings move horizontally only.
- Removed cubes after picking them up. This is a controvercial one for me since I really like them. But they did not contribute to the gameplay in any real sense. More in random ways and mostly negative ones (were in the way when landing sometimes, attracted attention around the player, distracting because people were thinking "why are they following you?").
- Made it impossible to fall out from level. No one though it made any sense. And it does not fit the game to "die" and then restart the level.
- Updated the particle effect for jump-cube. No one really understood what the cube did the first time around, until they picked up the speed-cube and started thinking that the yellow one probably did something too.
- Switched place on level 1_2 (introducing jump cube) and 1_3 (introducing speed cube).
- Added zoom out for swings on level 1_6. They disappeared off the screen when jumping with a jump cube.


No more flowers. Also the cube gets absorbed.


New jump particles.


Zooming out on swing obstacle.

[Nordanvinden]

#Update 49 - Heavy cube update

I did not have much time to finish anything yesterday. I fixed some minor bugs and updated the color of the heavy cube from orange to teal-green to avoid confusion with the yellow jump cube.


Collecting heavy cube.


Effect from jump and heavy cube combined.

[Nordanvinden]

#Update 50 - World map

The world map has gotten a huge update which makes it possible to travel between different planets. Also it is no longer possible to play the boss until you have completed a couple of levels, indicated by the numbers below the boss skull. When you have completed the boss, a "cannon" appears that can transport you to the next planet.


Boss is not playable (6 / 7 necessary  levels completed).


Boss is playable (7 / 7 necessary levels completed).

And this is how the world map looks now:


Planetary travel in the world map utilizing the "cannons".

What do you guys think about these two things?
- The way I try to let the play know that they have to complete at least 7 levels before the boss is playable.
And
- How the planetary travelling looks and feels?

[Nordanvinden]

#Update 51 - Ice Ice Cube
 
I started working on the graphics for the ice world planet since I will have a spotlight-video made for The Lost Light of Sisu here at Stugan the 9th, and I would like to show some more footage of worlds that are somewhat finished.

I created the ice shader in a Unity plug in called Shader forge which I can really recommend. What it really comes down to though is to try to make it fit into the graphical art style of the game, which is hard. Here are some different versions that I came up with.


Showing how the ice looks right now.


Ice version 1.


Ice version 2.


Ice version 3.

I personally really like ice version number 2, but I dont feel like it suits the game. Its too jagged compared to the rest of the feeling that I try to communicate.

[Nordanvinden]

#Update 52 - Art style
 
So I started thinking about what direction I wanted for the art style again after receiving some feedback and also in aspect to how much time I have to put into each map that I create.

I would also like to to be able to have some 3D tiles and stitch them together in some way. I will probably look into that tomorrow.

These are some early tests, what do you think?

[Nordanvinden]

#Update 52 - Tool for tiles
 
I started looking into creating a shader for stiching together different 3D tiles. First I wanted the edges to be able to have different y-positions (height). I got it working and it looked pretty cool.


Stitching tiles together.



I did get some very rare occasions of vertices not ending up at the same location, and also the tiles would need to have the same amount of vertices at the edges, and they need to be using the same tilable normal map.

So what I did instead was keeping all the edge-vertices at their original position. This way I can mix and match different tile sizes and different types of tiles without running into stiching issues.


Getting a paralax effect from different sized tiles.


3 different sizes of tiles next to each other.

And finally some images from more art style tests:




Testing depth of field to see if it would make sense in this game.

[Nordanvinden]

#Update 53 - Getting ready for Stugan spotlight video

Yesterday I was working on putting together some stuff for the spotlight video that Stugan does for each team. I am a bit nervous about it. But in the meantime I created some gameplay footage that could be used in the video and a youtube header. (it will get recorded today I think)

[Nordanvinden]

#Update 54 - Back to tiles

Yesterday kept looking into being able to use tiles instead of one mesh for the landscapes. I found that by using different black and white gradients to control how different normal maps are applied to the tile mesh, I can hopefully sew them together in a nice way without getting too much visible repetition.

These are some early examples:



Gradient do get tile to rise in middle only, making it possible to connect flat tiles on the right and left side.


Gradient do get tile to rise on the left side only, making it possible to connect flat tiles on the right side.

Here is an early image:


Still issues with getting edges to work well together in some cases (see upper right part of image).

[freank]

A very good start! I follow!

[allurious]

Your tech art stuff is so neat! The gradient tile gen is super cool, looking forward to seeing how it develops.

[Nordanvinden]

A very good start! I follow!

Thanks! I appreciate the support 

Your tech art stuff is so neat! The gradient tile gen is super cool, looking forward to seeing how it develops.

Thank you! I am glad that you like it, Ill try to write more about it as I continue to develop it 

A very good start! I follow!

#Update 55 - Art style struggle

I had a hard time yesterday trying to figure out how to put levels together in an efficient and nice way. And at the same time create an art style that is interesting and sticks out from the crowd.

I also worked on the tiling tool, which feels done at the moment.

Tile based tool

So yesterday I mentioned shortly that I had some issues in the background mesh where the sewing did not quite work. Well it turns out that the gradient that I created in paint.net does not create coherent colors for each horizontal line. Even though it was only a really small different, it ended up meaning that the edge where two meshes connect is visible.

I solved this by using Inkscape instead, which works with vector graphics and created coherent gradient values.

I also had to make sure that the normal map is tiled, otherwise it ends up with the same problem of having some vertices being offset at the edges.


No gap between tiles.


6 tiles put together. They partly depend on world space coordinates to create some differences.


Using different gradients to elevate the mesh.

Art style


Prototype 1. Too much going on.


Prototype 2. Still too much going on.


Prototype 3. Background is too detailed and draws too much of the attention.


Prototype 4. Welcome back to the early 2000nds.


Prototype 5. Less distracted by the background. Starting to like where this is heading.


Prototype 6. Added shadows.

There are so many things that end up being troublesome though, just to get it to work the way I want it to.

- When you offset vertices in the shader, the camera will cull those objects depending on the original mesh shape. This creates a very nasty popping effect.
- For each type of tile, you will need to create a separate material. And then if you want different normal maps on similar tiles, well then thats a new material.
- Vertices being offset differently because image editing software (paint.net and apparently photoshop when a friend tried it) does not create perfect gradients.

A bit of a rant, but I thought it could be interesting to know about stuff that comes up from all of this 

Final

Funny thing that could be used for deforming the landscape when something happens in the game.

[TheWing]

I like the style, and the game seems to have a lot of thought put into it.

..also, as a Finn I can't resist the sisu

[Nordanvinden]

I like the style, and the game seems to have a lot of thought put into it.

..also, as a Finn I can't resist the sisu

Hey, thanks a lot! Glad to hear that you like the style and that me using Sisu is a positive thing

#Update 56 - Darkness (levels)

I am taking a break from the art stuff and revisited the concept of having dark night levels. The energy cubes has been removed since the last time I tried it so I needed to make the player start glowing when picking up the cubes. I think it worked out really well, both from a gameplay perspective but also that it added these really nice shadows which could potentially be used for gameplay (thanks for the idea Mahatmaindie ).



I also introduced a milder version of the spitter which has orbs that only pushes you back instead of freezing you. I will probably use these in the first world.



I also made the collider for picking up energy bigger to avoid annoying moments where you would miss to pick up an energy cube, even though it looked like you should have gotten it. This feeling especially occurred when the camera was zoomed out.



A part from that I have made some minor changes to the levels to make them more fun and less annoying.

[Nordanvinden]

#Update 57 - More darkness

I have kept working on darkness levels and finished up level 2_7 and 2_8.

A few gifs showing how the shadows come in to play. I really like how the cut away most of the screen. In combination with not seeing that far away from the character, this makes you very focused on what is important in the scene.






Scary pusher shadows.


Level 2_7.


Level 2_8

I also started thinking about the boss for world 2. I have a few ideas but haven't settled yet on which one/ones to go for yet.. 

[Nordanvinden]

#Update 58 - Fishy boss

I have started working on the second boss now. It is a big fish that you will need to feed with smaller fish by tricking them into its mouth. This is just a first prototype of the boss the be able to show it to people and let them try kind of what it will end up being in the end.


Part 1 of boss so far.


Part 2 of boss.


The whole boss.

I also started prototyping features for the next world which is probably going to be something with magnets. But well see..