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TIGSource ForumsCommunityDevLogsChiccoo and Life (previously Phantom Behind) - Stealth top down 2D game
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Author Topic: Chiccoo and Life (previously Phantom Behind) - Stealth top down 2D game  (Read 7581 times)
Jayesh
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« Reply #40 on: August 29, 2020, 11:36:09 AM »

One of the animated scenes from Chapter 1.



* The week started with some painful code reorg. I was planning to use Unity's animator state machine as a single state machine framework for my AI pawns. It turns out the state transitions are not very reliable (at least to my understanding). The state entry-exit-update callbacks get called at times when I don't expect them to. When I read on forums about it and after I considered the animation blending framework, I realized that there might be a reason for those callbacks not being so crisp. Anyhow, I'm more comfortable with my own implementation of state machine that runs parallel to animator. I had to spend couple of days to get it working again, but it's working now.

* Later I implemented special actions as states in this state machine - e.g. banging on door, brushing teeth, or fetching water (as seen in gif above). More cool architecture work was done so that in future I can spend more time in creating assets than writing code.

* I'm experimenting with an alternative to ViewCone mechanics. As for me, one of the lesser liked aspects of Shadow Tactics/Desperadoes gameplay is ViewCones. They do give critical information to the player about the gameplay, however I would like such information to be readily provided without user's intervention. If all unit's viewcones are turned on by default, they overshadow the cool graphics of the environment. Moreover drawing each viewCone is costly. That's why I would like an alternative. This week I tried drawing lines of sight instead. They don't take much visual space, cheaper to compute and render and can be turned on automatically for all nearby enemy units without obscuring the environment. It's still WIP, but I'll have something to show by next devlog.

* I got more certain about the visual style this week. I wanted to preserve the minimal oval shapes that build characters and environments, yet add some 3d depth to the look. I think I've worked out some tricks with shadows and highlights that achieve both of these goals.

* I also spent creating vector sprites for Sneaccoo and made it cool red while I was at it. Here's Sneaccoo, hiding in the bushes.



Have a fun weekend!
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Sp1ke
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« Reply #41 on: August 30, 2020, 01:52:09 AM »

I don't know. These more detailed graphics (trees and ground) shown at first page looked better. Or maybe it's just me. 
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Jayesh
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« Reply #42 on: August 30, 2020, 05:22:48 AM »

I don't know. These more detailed graphics (trees and ground) shown at first page looked better. Or maybe it's just me. 

Yes, I'm going to keep that detail in environment (trees, rocks, etc). The recent screenshots are about animations of characters. The flat trees used in them are just placeholders.
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Smuli
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« Reply #43 on: September 01, 2020, 09:05:49 AM »

I like the ways you're occupying the NPCs, nice work with the animations!
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Jayesh
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« Reply #44 on: September 02, 2020, 12:42:37 PM »

Short mid-week update gif

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Jayesh
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« Reply #45 on: September 05, 2020, 09:50:45 AM »

Hello all,

In this week's update I've new gifs that hope you like.

* I spent time at the beginning of this week on making the handling of Sneaccoo more enjoyable. For one, I added a hit effect. I was always thinking of animating the body to show a hit, however that didn't go well for many reasons. Then I came up with an idea of doing a special expression for hit effect, added with a simple scale down animation and some particles. I think it went well. What do you think?


* I have update sneacoo's colors to make his paws white, gives a good contrast to the character's visual

* Added a separate Knock out animation when it's initiated from standing position.


* Then I spent bunch of time doing new NPC animations. Here's an updated smoker animation


I put together a conversation controller which procedurally chooses between talking/listening animations to create some interesting looking NPC action


* In case you haven't noticed I also updated the wardrobe design for all lumberjacks.

I also had some good ideas about the background of narratives, however I won't be talking about it in these devlog posts to avoid spoiling the story.
Next week I plan to spend time on environment design.

Have a great weekend.
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Ramos
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« Reply #46 on: September 06, 2020, 11:39:17 AM »

WOW, the number of details you put into this animation really brings a strong personality to your project.
You are on a good development path sir
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Jayesh
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« Reply #47 on: September 07, 2020, 08:57:26 AM »

WOW, the number of details you put into this animation really brings a strong personality to your project.
You are on a good development path sir

Thanks Ramos for the encouraging words.
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Jayesh
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« Reply #48 on: September 12, 2020, 12:30:12 PM »

This week was spent on designing the environment, or at least starting with it. You can see it here





* Experimented with the visual style. After a lot of back-n-forth between abstract vs detailed styles (an abstract style would be made of plain vector shapes designed in Inkscape, a detailed style would try to be as close to reality as possible), I found a sweet compromise between the two using the oilpaint filter of Krita. I'm a big fan of Studio Ghibli's visuals. In a stealth game there's lot of waiting involved. I want to make it enjoyable by putting the player in a serene environment.

* Redesigned the rig for Sneaccoo the hero. I didn't like its standing poses. Now I have it so that it walks on four legs while going slowing and does a jump-run when you press shift key to move it quicker. You can see it in later part of the video above. I find it cute.

* Also added background sounds. Instead of having any background music, I am procedurally generating the soundscape from the sounds one hears in a wood. It adds greatly to the peaceful ambiance.

* Some bug fixes in pawn's movement code. No matter how many years I spend coding, calculating the right rotation of an object always confuses me. Even though the math is pretty simple, the platform API doesn't always behave as you expect.

Tell me what you think of the video above and have a fun weekend.

Cheers!
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Ramos
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« Reply #49 on: September 13, 2020, 12:13:22 PM »


It is a good direction.
Here are a couple of suggestions.
Nature needs to be more alive and environments need to make the player feel like he is there so:
- make some wind effect aka trees to move according to the wind
- some animated fireflies in the dark places of the forest
- some animated birds going on the top layer
- some fog clusters
- some clouds maybe
- some light/shadow effects for more depth
- when racoon enters a low bush or grass make that grass move a bit so you make the player feel that he is interacting with the environment



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Jayesh
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« Reply #50 on: September 14, 2020, 08:15:51 AM »


It is a good direction.
Here are a couple of suggestions.
Nature needs to be more alive and environments need to make the player feel like he is there so:
- make some wind effect aka trees to move according to the wind
- some animated fireflies in the dark places of the forest
- some animated birds going on the top layer
- some fog clusters
- some clouds maybe
- some light/shadow effects for more depth
- when racoon enters a low bush or grass make that grass move a bit so you make the player feel that he is interacting with the environment


Very nice suggestions Ramos. They are on my todo list. Can't wait to implement them.
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Jayesh
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« Reply #51 on: September 19, 2020, 11:06:07 AM »

Hello,

This week was a bit shorter, but I made progress in some important things

* I worked on the core game loop, namely two aspects - Handling of the hero and Indication of enemy lines of sight. Made some progress, but both need some more work. Here's how the hero moving along figure 8 loop.



Ideally I would like his body to bend perfectly while doing turns. I'm using Unity's blend trees to achieve the effect, but it needs more massaging. It's still too jerky despite all the time I spent on it. The only sense of bend is coming from the tail.

* Second, I sped up level design by gray boxing the puzzles. At the same time writing down the environment ideas or narrative that will replace those gray boxes later. The plan is to do this entire level as a Chapter 1 of the game. It should provide at least 10-15 minutes of playtime. I think I'm about 60% done with writing this script. I've all broad strokes in place now. I don't want to talk more about it here to avoid spoilers. But here's a quick sketch I drew today that will become one of the NPCs in the game.



Have a great weekend!
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Jayesh
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« Reply #52 on: September 26, 2020, 12:14:52 PM »

This week I fleshed out the NPC scenarios in further detail. Also did some experiments with trees and foliage sprites. But I think I'm going to now focus on all NPC animations and the interaction with the hero. A more solid narrative is taking shape too.

Here's an animation of one of the NPC scenarios I got working this week.



After last week's post I got a good suggestion to look into metaballs to achieve the kind of fluidity I want in the hero's movement. It's a nice alternative approach that hadn't occurred to me. I put together a basic rig with two rigid bodies attached by a spring joint. After an hour of experimentation I got some decent movement. It was a good experiment, but not good enough to depart from the more familiar approach of animation blend trees.
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Jayesh
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« Reply #53 on: October 10, 2020, 10:38:25 AM »

Just wanted to write a quite short update. I skipped writing last weekend, but the work is in full swing. Most of the work has gone into coding the NPC AI though. Have added many rough NPC animations and had to write a framework of transitions between several states. A lot of it has been done, but still some important parts are remaining. So I don't have any pretty GIFs yet, but the game is moving forward. I've had many new ideas and fortunately all of them have been converging instead of diverging from the central concept of the game and specifically chapter 1.

Stay tuned for future updates. Have a great weekend.
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Jayesh
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« Reply #54 on: October 26, 2020, 07:00:07 AM »

I have been lazy past couple of weekends to write a devlog update. I was in the middle of writing NPC AI code and didn't have any new animations clips to share, so I decided to skip. Also took a break for few days to recharge my batteries. Now I'm back and here's an animation clip for one of the areas in Chapter 1. What you see is sequence of animations controlled by the AI. What you don't see is the laundry washer characters can be interrupted from their routine when they see the hero and they will return back to their routine after attacking it. It still has rough edges, but it's ok for now.





The spec for chapter 1 is now more solid. It will have 20 enemy characters. The goal will be for the hero (our red raccoon) to cross all these areas, as a main quest. (I won't talk about the story here to avoid spoiling it for you). In addition there will be 4-5 side quests that will allow the player to explore the level further, leading to some fun outcomes and revealing more of the story about the characters.

There's a ton of work to do, but now it seems to be well defined and just have to dig the mountain one strike at a time. I want to be able to release Chapter 1 before the year ends, but we will see.
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Jayesh
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« Reply #55 on: November 02, 2020, 12:01:45 PM »

Lot of progress, mainly animations, graphical look and level design. Can't go into much detail without spoiling things. But here's a video that shows a glimpse of current look of the game.



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Beastboy
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« Reply #56 on: November 05, 2020, 12:57:52 PM »

Love it, gj on the visuals, got a nice deepth to it. If you add some lighting/shadows it will be perfect
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Jayesh
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« Reply #57 on: November 16, 2020, 11:52:01 AM »

Thanks Beastboy.

Here's new update. This time in my voice on Youtube  Who, Me?



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Jayesh
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« Reply #58 on: November 23, 2020, 04:33:50 AM »

Lot of progress last week. Here's one of the results.

Save like a pro!
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Jayesh
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« Reply #59 on: November 24, 2020, 03:54:53 AM »

New devlog is up



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