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[AsifDev]

Hey there! I'm fairly inexperienced with writing these things, but I'd like to start a devlog anyways for my solo project, Shattershield.

In any case, I'm still learning. My devlogs will all be located at https://shattershieldgame.wordpress.com/blog/, but I'll do my best to post any new ones here.

Shattershield will be an over the shoulder POV 2D hack and slash (think "Punch Out!!" but with swords and magic), and is for the last solo project I'll ever probably do for this course - it's the last Studio Unit, and the only production unit other than this is the final production (which is over two entire trimesters! (that's like a semester except for a third of a year instead of a half).

to summarise -and fill any gaps left by the website- so far, all I really have to show is code - I'm not even in the prototyping phase of development - and some branding symbols and basic concepts. Some of the people I've gotten from other places in the college (Aus college so it's basically just a small university), have done some concept art, but not really any of the in-game art as of yet. Enjoy these extra Concept art-ing for the very first enemy - the Goblin:

This first image by Sapphire is more along the lines of concept art, and is less indicative of how it'll look in the game, but was helpful to the design process nonetheless.


This second one by Sean, however, is far, far, far more indicative of the target artstyle the game will contain, I really like this pixel goblin.

[bryku]

I really like that pixel goblin art style! And I'm very interested in how you're planning to mix a sprite-based pixel graphics with that over the shoulder POV 2D approach - can you write something more about it?

[AsifDev]

I really like that pixel goblin art style! And I'm very interested in how you're planning to mix a sprite-based pixel graphics with that over the shoulder POV 2D approach - can you write something more about it?

Thanks for taking an interest - like I said, I was impressed with the pixel goblin too!
Essentially, what I mean is something between, say, Dead Space's camera perspective and Punch Out!!'s drawn perspective. The reasoning behind this is that I want the player to experience the game mostly facing the enemies they'd be fighting, but also be able to see their own character, essentially, things would have to just originally be rendered from that perspective - which I imagine is actually a fair bit challenging for the animation students I have on the team. In retrospect, that may have been poorly planned, but it's too late into production now to back out of that style, especially considering they still have their own classes - I feel like this needs clarification, as the course works a little weirdly in terms of how the practical assessments and "Studio Marketplace" works, but essentially, my project is their side-project. Most of the Game Design students have to rely on animation, film, or audio guys for our assets - it's actually a Learning Outcome (our grading system) to have someone from another course working on your game.

In any case, yeah. Over the shoulder 2D - essentially just the Dead Space or fairly generic MMO camera but rendered in 2D.
Worst case scenario is that it'll just be similar to the Punch Out camera - I don't know what it's actually called off the top of my head, but it's sort of an angled bird's eye view - isometric, in other words.

One of my/our more prominent inspirations is a fairly unknown game called Crossed Swords, which isn't *quite* what the perspective I mean to have is, but is very close.


Also, wanna say sorry for responding so late. Last week has been a bit of an intense one, as I'll try to show in the next update of this devlog.

[AsifDev]

This week has been a bit of a mess.
Thankfully, I also actually got a lot done.
Though I'm not a fan of this testing aesthetic, the people I've shown this to in person apparently like my stick test fighters.
Anyways, here's me testing the Enemy AI and Stats/abilities methods. I'm simulating mobile controls via mouse by left and right click - left being the left side of the screen, and right being the right. There's alot going on under the hood to make 6 abilities possible with only two buttons.

It's very clearly not polished, but the purpose of this prototype was just to test that everything that needs to works properly.
Please keep in mind this is only marginally going to be the look of the game. practically the only correct visual aspect here is the camera/perspective.



The feel of the game isn't quite right - but part of the reason I had so much work this week was making all of the variables that control this easily editable for any specific enemy instance. I can choose how quickly they decide to attack - the likeliness of them just doing nothing, or even them attacking at low stamina, depending on what state the player is in themselves. It's not the best AI ever, but it means I can control the timing of it's attacks somewhat, and this allows me to change enemy behaviors more easily later on.

That said, it seemed to never use it's special attack - or at least, very rarely did - it didn't in this specific test demo.

Unimplemented and made today were some test voice lines made for the Goblin.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1urLmm6keT7Uiq6ELIZ7tjyNgb8AuDT9k
He used audacity and a crusher to achieve this noise, and while the voice itself isn't excellent, this is exactly the style I was looking for.

Edit: Something that maybe needs to be mentioned is that I'm controlling alot of scripts via specific frames of animation - calling functions on them. That's why I needed these animations for testing. otherwise, I wouldn't have had any stickmen at all.

[AsifDev]

Not much visually has changed in the game proper this week - mostly just adding functionality to monetized elements, such as replenish-able potions and such, but other than that, one of our background artists has started drafting up the main menu! (well, not so much started as much as finished the first few drafts)


Sorry for the image size. I may be a coder, but I'm still new to BBcode and not sure if there's a way to scale images using it.
Thanks to user 'bryku' for the advice with resizing the image!

I've also been tweaking the AI scripts, making sure everything works correctly. Admittedly, seeing as it's my first ever AI, a lot of it's functionality is a little.. poor. I would have liked to have the knowledge I have now, but as it is, it works, and that's all I really need. It can dodge my attacks, which is what I was fixing this week.

[bryku]

Nice pixel art work. A little too blurry for me, but it's a matter of taste.

It took me some time before I figured out how to scale images here, so here's a tip: use [img width="XX" height="XX"] attributes to make it work.

[AsifDev]

Nice pixel art work. A little too blurry for me, but it's a matter of taste.

It took me some time before I figured out how to scale images here, so here's a tip: use [img width="XX" height="XX"] attributes to make it work.

I'm fairly impressed, personally. he's still a student, and from what I understand this is one of his first attempts at pixel art - but I might be misremembering.

Thanks for the help with the resizing!

[AsifDev]

Alot has happened over the past two weeks!
I did alot of code work in unity, though I feel like I could've done more. Most of it was in preparation for Audio - the creation of a script that allows me to attach any number of noises in a single script, randomises which of a selection I use, etc.
I also did a lot of feedback work, seeing as the assets in working still aren't at the level I'd like them. The group also had a bit of a communication mishap that exacerbated over time - most of my animators believed themselves to have enough time to create the pixel art animations I wanted, and I've recently learned that some of them aren't sure they can complete the critical scope, so some workarounds are being planned for that, too.

The others who have continued to work on pixel art - either because of experience, time, or otherwise - have made some - in my opinion - amazing pieces:

[AsifDev]

Project has suffered a large amount due to my overscoping - I hadn't realised how tedious pixel art would be to create, and neither had the Animation students who signed on.
As a result, We had to think of a different solution, and I came up with a method that uses rotoscoping - ie: tracing over a video to create animation - then scaling it down with some parameters and using some GIMP 2.0 trickery to create pixel art from the result.

In a sense, this is a preview of my post mortem.
There were alot of issues with this project to begin with, and I feel like kicking myself for not having noticed them before. There was too much focus on artwork for a project headed by a single individual over only 12 weeks, the project was much bigger than it should have been for a small student project, and my artistic ambitions ran too free. I wanted more of myself and my team than I could realistically get, and though that didn't affect how we are (all of us are friends, and still are), it definitely affected the end outcome - essentially, my over-focus on artwork despite having no experience with it led to a degradation in mechanics.

I'm not proud of this game. Maybe some will find it fun, but my lack of realism in planning for the specifics has led to this, and it's a serious issue I need to address in future projects.

I AM however, extremely proud of my team, as they stuck by me despite all this and tried their best to get things done, with special thanks to Phil and Jenny, Welland, and Lucy - Phil and Jenny made all the amazing backgrounds - this was their first attempt at pixel art, and they did some truly phenomenal work VERY quickly. Welland is an audio student who made all the sound effects and music for the game, and Jenny is still currently diligently working on making coloured versions of the rotoscoped pixel art tracings.

Before I get back to work on making this game presentable for the QANTM sae Perth Showcase, have some miscellaneous assets made for Shattershield including work from the entire team.

Shaped Potions by Sapphire Fox
https://imgur.com/a/PgwJCtk


Vagabond Concept Art by Matthew Walker

Matthew and Sapphire both also did concept art for the goblin before the rework, and helped me in general with things like voice acting - which was scrapped, admittedly - and helped film the references for the Goblin and Vagabond characters in the game.

Goblin Pixel Art Concept by Sean Rodgers


Menu Animations by Phillip Nguyen (Concepts and Sketches by Jennifer Griffiths)




Amongst many others, both used and unfortunately, unused.

[AsifDev]

Well, it's the end, and showcase went well!
All in all, I'm not 100% proud of it, but other people seemed impressed.
Credits are in the game, I'll post a link for those interested - it's got a dummy micro-transaction system - part of the requirements of the unit - but they don't use any actual money.

I wasn't proud of the tutorial I made either, but that was quite literally last minute. a LOT has happened in the past few weeks, so here are a few control hints/instructions (Game runs on Android phones/tablets):

Light attack = tap on the right half of the screen.
Heavy attack = hold down on the right half of the screen.
Shield Bash/Parry = tap on the left half of the screen.
Block = hold down on the left half of the screen.
Restore Health = tap both sides of the screen.
Regenerate Stamina = hold down on both sides of the screen.

Well, here it is:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=17sR2q46ziYx1k9EyEB2wwgvCTOh1sN54

This is my game, Shattershield. I hope you enjoy it, but keep in mind it's only a student project.