I’m aiming on completing a few cinematics for the game that will not be in-game. One of them will double as the trailer for the game and it will feature a warrior on his journey to hell:
I want to make a shiny set of armor for him. I started with some basic elements and a quick paint over to see what I need to add, I might have to do a full body concept to complete him though.
Stay tuned.
What do we see here:
I wanted to see how large transparent objects with shadows would be handled, since I want areas with trees. Wilderness areas will contribute to giving the player areas to explore, grind and level up before entering dungeons so I want to be able to make a number of them and they should be able to look good with minimal effort. This is the first step towards this.
These trees exist as card perpendicular to the ground, their shadow is part of the card, yet as the character passes behind them the shadow affects him. The same happens with the practice dummy.
You can also see the ‘Quest log’ interface mokup I have going on, using the new Unity GU. This has actually been in from the start, I just turned it off when recording and I have made the buttons actually do stuff now.
What will look into next:
Changing areas, completing tasks and picking up items.
I was thinking about Dungeons and dungeon generation and also about how to give players the ability to make their own Dungeons and share them with each other.
Well a map can be saved as a 2D matrix, I have even done it with a list of values or 1D matrix.
Here you can see an example I made for a platformer, using a 1D matrix to make square levels (you can edit the level during runtime, play it, save it and load it):
But how does someone edit, share and transfer those easily? How could I make a quick editor or even edit maps outside the game? How could I send new maps to my players fast and make sure they don’t break the game no matter the version?
Well an image is a matrix and we can have RGBA info, so we can hold multiple values in one image for one map and also edit and also transfer them easily.
What do we see here:
This is basically a couple of hours worth of work as a proof of concept.
I made a script that takes an image as input, identifies what each pixel represents and instantiates it. It makes levels of arbitrary sizes, it can spawn empty, floors, walls, columns, enemies and the player.
I also wanted to be able to make sure to use NavMesh and even though Unity is going to add runtime generation in 2017, this was done to prove that if you don’t fight Unity you can even do things it’s not supposed to do.
So the enemies have a NavMesh Agent and the NavMesh is carved using NavMesh Obstacles and as you can see from the delayed generation mode below they can follow you upon spawning even if the level hasn’t finished yet.
I added a delayed generation version because generation was so fast I couldn’t see my work in action, it was hit play, see level, so I put my code in a coroutine and added a small delay to see things being built.
What will I do with this:
I don’t think I am going to use it for Dominus Infernus, I have another game idea it might be more useful for, since in Dominus Infernus I want a higher standard of graphics, which will be achieved using 3D pre-rendered backgrounds.
What do we see here:
I added some blood effects, the health bar and experience bar are working. Changed how enemies are highlighted, the outline was too distracting.
What we will do next:
I want to add some items to see how far I can push this 2D/3D mix and if it is viable. Luckily everything made can work for full 3D as well.
What do we see here:
Click around to move, click on enemies to attack and deal damage. Enemies can attack you and deal damages as well.
What do we do now:
At this point I wanted a decoupled camera, so you could fly around, but in the next iteration I will make the camera follow you, as it seems less confusing and you need your other hand to use potions, abilities etc.
What do we see here:
I had this idea that I could easily combine 2D background with 3D characters and still use Unity’s NavMesh and NavMesh Agent without issue. So I built a quick prototype in which I was not going to use tiles, but a background that is distorted in order to render correctly through an orthographic camera at a 45 degree angle.
I wanted it to match up with the 3D items not just approximately, but as exactly as possible.
I brought in my trusty Nazi guinea-pig, my trusty biped and checkers.
So you see that 2 squares on the checker are 1 meter in 3dsmax and the box on the ground is 1 meter in Unity, but the background although a 2D images is rendered at a 45 degree angle.
I figure with this system I can make RPGs or even Turn Based Strategy games like Commandos.
As a young warrior in training (I am starting with the warrior character) you have a mentor who is teaching you how to fight. I based this guy loosely on Clint Eastwood and Bruce Willis
This guy started way back in the day, I had made a base mesh for a gargoyle character I wanted to make. I did a couple of sculpts, but other things got in the way, I didn’t have a clear idea for what I was going to do with him.
So as I was working with the idea of Dominus Infernus in my head when it was still just Ex Inferno, which means ‘From Hell’ in Latin, I was thinking about Diablo 2 – which is a game I remember fondly and part of why I am making DI. I wanted a character that would be the antagonist and I wanted Hell to be a central part of the story, so I decided to dig up my gargoyle and see if I could turn him into a Demon.
His armor isn’t filled with skulls and bones, because that’s not his backstory, m vision for him is not a grime version of the lord of hell, but rather that of a fallen hero.
