Welcome to Sunday Musings! Back again like an actual boomerang...not even a metaphorical one. We don't do things by half here...not even with similes Boxes of Cameras in the Kitchen for the BossSeriously, if I could find a picture that represented that heading, I'd deserve a knighthood or a Golden Crisp. Either would do nicely. Although, I'd prefer the Golden Crisp...It's tastier. The week has been a tad busy for us, with getting ready for yet another DubLudo and plenty more to do yet! On Monday we did some white-boxing of the next section of the game, the lead up to the second Temple. Since then it's been an exercise in trying to get each level working properly. Lots of trial and error and more error and more error. But it's working now...mostly. Still some work to do ahead of tomorrow. Hopefully it's all working by then. Adrian's been busy modelling out and texturing the kitchen and all it's furnishings which was our Screenshot Saturday this week: This is the second scene in the game where we meet one of the NPC's in the game, Evelyn's father. There's still a few items missing from the scene but they'll be put in, in the next couple of weeks, hopefully. Apart from getting the white-boxed section of the game to work, I've also done some small things in the game, and one fairly large thing. One thing I fixed early on in the week was Evelyn's walking up slopes. This is of particular importance to the section leading up to the next temple, without it working properly, we'd have to completely redesign that section. So, it's working now so she shouldn't be sliding in unusual fashion anymore. I've also created 2 new camera modes in the game, we're up to 7 now with more to come later, no doubt. The first one is a tracking camera that has boundaries on the left and right and doesn't follow the character in the y-axis. This is for both the first Boss Battle (and possibly other ones) and the kitchen level. The other camera mode I coded this week has an upward boundary, so it stops following the player in the y-axis when she goes above a certain height. Handy, particularly in sections where you don't want the camera to pan too high. The last thing I did this week was the first Boss battle which, as I said in my blog this week, was really fun after weeks of Object Pooling (which is now thankfully done for now). The boss has ranged attacks, as well as a melee attack and a closer up ranged attack. It still needs some work, obviously, but it's getting there. We'll need to test it a lot to get the balance right on difficulty. Risk of TF2This week we've been playing far more Risk of Rain than should be acceptable for any human being. We played a 3 hour game during the week, just kept looping around the levels to see how over powered we could become. The answer is...very. Unfortunately, my internet cut out and Adrian got kicked at around the 2.5 hour mark, so I finished the game solo. Still such a good game. Think we need a Risk of Rain 2 soon though! We'd love that This week me and Adrian also dabbled in some Team Fortress 2 after the slight catastrophe that was the first attempt to play it where I was absolutely woeful. WOEFUL. But last night was more of a success, apart from my keyboard being a nuisance and losing connection every couple of minutes towards the end. Got some nice kills as the Sniper and a few more as the Heavy. Really need to get used to the Keyboard and Mouse. I am getting there. So, we'll no doubt be playing this a lot more over the next couple of weeks. Good fun had by all. We also briefly had a play a small portion of Hammerwatch which has a new campaign and it's bloody tough! We'll have to give it some more goes. Time All for the MusicsIt's time for the music section of Sunday Musings. This week, I've gone for "Wore Out The Soles of my Party Boots" by NoFX (I really like NoFX, you may have noticed). Heard this song for the first time on their greatest hits album. This is a more updated version and it's awesome Adrian's gone for Hozier's "From Eden". That's all I got. I asked Adrian about him and he doesn't even know who he is...So, erm, yeah. Dan's: NoFX - Wore Out the Soles of my Party BootsAdrian's: Hozier - From EdenThat'll do...So that's my lot for this week. We'll be back as usual next week and what not. We'll have pictures from DubLudo XV, Adrian's blog and then back here next Sunday for more of the same.
Enjoy the rest of Sunday! So here we are the end of another week nice sunny weather and a good lot of work behind us. So sit back and relax as I muse of the weeks doings for your perusal. As I said the week has been busy we have been white boxing out more and more and even now have a major boss battle actually in place. We are super excited to carry on and have a new area fully tested out. Temple number 2 is on the cards for the future but if we were breaking our game down into levels and worlds we would be at world 4 now moving onto world 5 in terms of white boxing. Each connecting world between temples seems to wrap up with at least 4-5 different levels for players to explore and fight there way through so we are happy with the amount of content we are putting into the game. So for the week I have been doing concept art for the new enemies in the air temple. The above image is the Snake like electric flying enemy or the easier way to say it quetzacoatl. This enemy will fly towards the player and circle her position dealing damage over time with its electric field of doom. The best strategy for this one is to dash back as it begins circling to force it to rise in front of the player and giving you a clean shot at it. Another enemy that may be shown next week some time is the ice warriors with big shields made out of ice and a towering physique that will dwarf the player. This character will slam down his shield into the floor making it impossible to attack form the front. as he tosses spears over the top. It will be up to the player to jump over him and attack in the back before he turns around. I have also have been modelling things for the fire temple and texturing up the kitchen in her home. So much to do and loving every minute! As they say do what you love with people you can have a laugh with and it is not work :D. Dan on the other hand has been doing a lot with the code and the actual build of the game stream lining the entire game with his object pooling and removing instances of every attack destroying it self as the old method we used to test out things. It is a slow process with all the attacks and combinations we have but it seems to be worth it as the pay off will be a bit slower load time on the initial load and no slow down in game compared to the eventual cache filling up with destroyed objects that can have a toll on older machines. Like this dog the old way would of created a mess! But luckily Dan has completed all the pooling and got a chance to actual move on and save his sanity. As we found out pretty rapidly on the climb to the air temple characters on a slope seem to have a bit of a problem climbing and standing still as we do not want the player to slide down on this section Dan had to come up with some magic code that lets the player move and feel the same as she does on the flat ground as having her struggle would be to jarring to game play. We also have a new battle camera that lets the player see the battle area clearer when larger enemies are on screen. This camera restricts the up and down element of our old camera when the player jumps. It gives the battles a more epic feel as you really get a view of the players scale compared to the giant she has to take down. The last thing Dan did this week is foot splashing for every time Evelyn's foot hits shallow water or puddles this is a super cool little touch that later on will add polish to the game but it was easy enough to implement early on. I for one love it and might get a vine of it for next week. Other thingsBoy this is a long post but stay with it. It is good to read, even if it is my random ramblings :D ! We are messing around with seeing how we can record some of our game night fun and post it up to get more of a community feel last night was our first official test. But hit a few problems with frame rate that we can sort out later but think it will be good to show everyone a bit of who we are and what we do when faced with challenges in other games and how it makes us grow as designers. We tried recording risk of rain and the frame rate issue forced us to stop sadly. But as the title says when it rains we pwn!!! We lasted 2 hours in risk of rain and became so over powered we just had to finish and loved every single second of it hopefully we can capture our next time! Plus we have a giggle every games night and would like to share some of the fun with our followers. Review timeYup this is a rare segment but as it is my turn to write on of these and i will not shut up about it since I got it I think I shall review................. HYRULE WARRIORS Well my opinions so far as I have not got very far in it and have unlocked only a handful of characters. But so far I am in love with it. It brings a feeling of power as link and the crew I gathered so far. The gameplay is true to the dynasty warriors where the player must help the forces either defend or advance on enemy fortresses. But with the universe and lore of Zelda. But wait what is this it is a new link and Zelda so it is not just the hero of time its a new link who is a recruit to the princesses hyrulian guard. Link quickly makes him self shine when dark forces encroach and he goes from trainee to pwn hundreds of demons this is the event that gives him the honour of wearing the green garb of legend. Enemies will fall to you power in massive numbers until you hit a special enemy this is where the game changes pace and you must use some strategy to your fighting. This gives the game a good flow and makes killing these harder enemies in a group feel epic at times. As for character as I stated above I have not unlocked many but I have found a favourite in an unlikely place. Sheik her harp element play style has me in love with her the ability to not only cast 4 elements on the enemy forces you get a bonus of using them elements on your self making you a killing machine with flashy attacks. Sure she is not as strong as link but I think she alone brings enough variety to the game play to keep me interested. Now what happens if you finish or get bored of the story mode? No worries hop on in to adventure mode! This mode has the original 8 bit zelda map for you to re explore but each screen is a challenge like killing enough enemies in a time limit or kill the right enemy in a group and only that enemy. It brings great variety to the game gives the player a chance to unlock more items and characters along the way. With all that being said it is time for my score 4.5/5It is a great game that combines all the 3d Zeldas in one game with massive battles that make you feel godlike. Music timeIf you are still around after all that reading why not chill and listen to our music for the week. This week Dan has selected Beautiful Ride by a fictional character named Dewey cox. My turn now and I have gone for something from Smooth McGrooves cover of the Gerudo Valley from ocarina of time . The end is near and now relaxThanks for having the time to read this weeks musing's. Relax and enjoy you sunday. Dan is in charge of next weeks blogging.
Have fun week guys ! |
Archives
January 2016
Categories |