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Delzhand's Game Art: Sexy polygons on pg 2
Delzhand
Hard to miss.Registered User regular
Hard to miss.Registered User regular
I just parsed the entire latter 3/4 of the chat thread for my posts. I'm immensely thankful for all the crits received.
MISSION START!
MISSION START!
Delzhand on
0
Posts
who need signiyures anyways o_O
A few questions,
1. Are you planning on making at least 2 more weapons?
2. Are there going to be any more awesome looking baddies?
3. Are you planning on making side characters also?
@ducky: XNA Indie games. I don't have a release date though.
@Shiekahn: The gun only changes appearance when you find the auxiliary barrels, but there are plenty of customizable powerups. There will be more baddies, but there probably will not be any other human characters. That's not set in stone, though. I haven't designed any other characters yet, either way.
@Manon: The link in my sig goes to the videos, but I'll post them all here so the progress is more visible.
These first videos are the engine in it's infancy, before I the announcement of XBox Community Games.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCt62jYbgIo&feature=channel_page
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmOolUYA-LU&feature=channel_page
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPQAExWNic4&feature=channel_page
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkPn00X-diM&feature=channel_page
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsHbWxrE_SU&feature=channel_page
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ld_xroVtlE&feature=channel_page
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gr8Q8HcIsQs&feature=channel_page
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ez9AYUVen-U&feature=channel_page
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_m4NfoMOVs&feature=channel_page
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duvOHHGPl6o&feature=channel_page
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTyXrrsQ1mg&feature=channel_page
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04qCLbcbn8A&feature=channel_page
p.s. do you have music for the game?
who need signiyures anyways o_O
this is looking much better than that was
I watched some of your vids, but I know most folks won't check out the sig link.
I'm not sure what to do about music, honestly. I don't mind being the sole designer/programmer/artist because those are all talents I had prior that I've developed through use. I have no musical talent beyond appreciation. My wife is an opera singer, but her composition skills don't quite match the tone of an action based video game.
I've found a few sites for royalty free music online, but I haven't found any particular artist or track that stands out to me. If something doesn't materialize I was planning on putting the demo up and asking on the OCRemix forums if anyone would be willing to negotiate some sort of deal.
who need signiyures anyways o_O
and sometimes I'm all "this will be most dull and generic to play."
that last monster design falls under the latter for me.
As for the music, though. I would suggest checking with some of the local bands in your area, depending on what's available.
I guess I'm still not sure what I'm doing with the enemies beyond "they need to be there", honestly.
For one, it's very clear that you're animation skills are rudimentary at this point, so when you post large, complex, and textured enemies, all I can think of is how much trouble you're going to have animating it, and ultimately how stiff it will probably end up because of it.
Another thing is that I've never cared for the generic monsters that fill games, so I think you need to pick a theme for your game and stick with it for your designs. It seems like at first you chose Western because you thought it'd be cool to make a Western game, but then after having a hard time designing weapons and badguys it seems that you threw in the scifi-post apocalyptic stuff so that you can pull whatever monster designs you happen to come up with and throw them in there.
Also, think about your designs from a gameplay element. So far, you have three bigass monsters that will probably slowly drudge themselves around the screen. You need variety in it.
Think first, "From a gameplay aspect, what do I want this enemy to do?" (jump high, crawl around low to make the player shoot at a downward angle, climb the sides of walls, fly in loops, hover, stick stationary out of the ground, be so tall the player has to run up underneath it to shoot up its asshole, etc.)
Then think, in context to the overall, unifying-theme of my game, what design elements can I use to bring that to both a logical and entertaining fruition. (For example: It needs to jump, but be annoyingly small. So far, I'm using mutated exoskeleton-based enemies... I could have a flea-inspired monster roughly the size of a labrador.... then research the way flea-mechanics work and base it off of that. Then you could try pushing a step further into the entertaining aspect. Maybe put a saddle on it or something? the player would go "I wonder what the fuck is so small, it can ride that dog-sized flea." then it opens up two more gameplay-based enemies for you, short dude-like creatures, possibly with guns both on flea-back and not)
Now that was just something I pulled out of my ass as I typed, but you can see the process I took to get it, and I think if you were to really narrow-down and select a more unifying theme that gives you less freedom than "generic post-apocalyptic, mutant-filled future" then you will be forced to come up with more creative designs, causing your game to stand out of the pack.
I'm not ditching the "world moved on" concept because I like it. If anything, I'd like to build on that. Something halfway between Wild Arms and The Gunslinger sounds about right. Maybe I can start from there.
When you're working on the unifying theme, try to ask yourself, why is the world the way it is? what existed in each part of the world that the game takes place in prior to the change? (like you don't want to use horseshoe crab-inspired enemies if it's in the american west because they're native only on the east coast of our continent, etc) what has happened to those things since then? are there people augmenting themselves or each other with mechanical or genetic components? if so, what was the height of their technology before the degrade, and what do they have to work with now to do it?
If you're liking the fungus and crustacean combination, ask yourself why is it happening? is the fungus sentient? is a parasytic or symbiotic bond? is the fungus a threat to the main character? if so, can are there gameplay elements that sentient fungus-only enemies could function as? (floating spores, stationary stalgmites, etc.)
think about fallout or bioshock, both taking the world-moved-on approach. each game has a handful of classes that the enemies fall under, there's variation within class, and each enemy serves a gameplay function as well as has a reason story-wise for being the way it is.
also, on your main character sprite, if you're going to have him hold his gun at the hip, you might as well remove the butt from the back of it. On the shooting animation, it is confusing as to what is part of the gun and what is his rear forearm.
and I stress again, what you really need to be working on now is your animation. Buy the animation book that (Iruka or somebody else?) suggested, and really get in there and do it. Stiff, jerky, animation will easily kill your game, and you're getting way ahead of yourself worrying about enemy designs and the like at the moment.
The setting, as described by the player character
Shame we cocked it up so bad.
Today, the details are sketchy, but a few things are certain. The world kept getting warmer, and for whatever reason, we couldn't figure out how to stop it. Lakes and rivers dried up, plants died, and deserts expanded. Entire animal populations moved away from the hottest parts of the earth. Some became hostile, and as predators and food shortages took their toll on mankind, our world began to fall apart. As we became more and more preoccupied with just surviving, our machines began to fail. Any place suitable for growing crops became hunting grounds for the predators. Carrion eaters and insects increased in size, number, and aggression.
Our place in the world went from the top... to somewhere in the middle.
People aren't stupid, at least not stupid enough to let themselves go extinct. After a few decades of steady decline and death, they banded together, forming fortresses and settlements on the coasts. They figured out how to use the ocean to keep crops alive, how to use the weapons their ancestors had. Gunpowder and steam replaced electricity. Bricks replaced steel girders. Trees replaced utility poles.
Life is still hard. Science has taken a backseat to more practical knowledge. There are a few people like me who travel the wastes inland, scavenging for relics of the old science. Anything that still works is worth food and lodgings, depending on what it does and what condition it's in. I've managed a living for 30 years as a relic hunter. The first piece of tech I ever found is probably the only reason I lived this long outside the protection of the settlements - a weapon that never seems to need munitions. In all my years of work, it's the only piece I've ever kept for myself.
I don't feel bad about it, either. Relic hunting fulfills a sense of duty to the species, by helping us re-learn what we once knew. By keeping myself alive, I keep science alive. If I live long enough that I can't go out anymore, I'll pass it on to the next person willing to do the same work. I don't think today's scientists would have much use for it, anyway. Seems to run on solar power, and even if we had anything to hook it up to, we don't have the materials to make the little cells what run along the stock. The scientists are more interested in mechanical and chemical artifacts. Anything that runs on electricity is... well, it's for another day. They'll take it, but the pay isn't as good.
Occasionally we try to set up colonies further inland, but they don't last more than a few years, with the exception of Santa Alma. Santa Alma's peculiar. Someone found a big lake a few years back, and managed to build a town around it. The walls went up first, then they built a huge church they called Valde Benedictus. Well, the lake eventually dried up, but there must have been water under the ground, because the place stayed alive. They had a few gunsmiths who knew how to make black powder, and when the collection plates at Benedictus went around, they collected sulfur and charcoal. I hear they've got quite an arsenal, and they teach the young men and women how to shoot. They're not afraid of the man-eaters out there.
I'm wondering now if they ought to be. The city council in Endcourt said Santa Alma's monthly communique is three weeks overdue, and they asked me to check it out, on account of my reliability. I've got my gun, my water, and my wits. Couldn't ask for more.
This narrows my range of enemies a bit. Large animals, particularly carrion-eaters and insects, and displaced predators. There will probably be a fantastic element to them, but I'll be toning down the mutations quite a bit.
Brainstorming off the top of my head:
-Vulture/carrion birds (could be constantly following the player, only attacking if their health is low)
-Wild Dogs (fast pack animals that could overwelm the player, but be cowardly and run when injured)
-Insect Swarms (simple particle effects can go a long way.)
-Bears/cougars (doesnt have to be MAN BEAR! bigass bears are scary enough without much changing.)
-Lizards/snakes/turtles (all sorts of spitting, poisonous, and armored things to go off of)
-Big herbivorous (what are all these predators eating? A bison type thing will kill just as hard as any bear)
-Other humans (I don't see whats stopping you from having gangs, or rival relic hunters. This guy can't be the only one trying to loot stuff)
-Old Tech (robots, trains, cars, tanks, all the old world shit that has a reason to still be around.)
Manon hit it on the nail with -think up the REASON for the enemy in terms of gameplay, and then design something plausible to fit using your established theme-
And the more I think about it, the more I like the idea of human enemies. The frontier is full of beasts, but that's 1/4 of the game, max. I haven't decided exactly why Santa Alma is... well, whatever it is. It also gives me a better set of enemies that could use projectiles, which was necessary gameplay-wise.
Thanks for all the advice, by the way. I've already got a much better idea how to move forward. You guys have both nailed what my problems were - trying to make "stock baddies" without any sort of process or reasoning.
That bear-testicle, thing, though - what?
You really do need other dudes and tech. You don't want to have a shooter where no enemies shoot.
I wonder how long it took Pixel to make Cave Story by himself...
I was originally planning to learn programming in order to supplement my engineering skills, but, fuck it. I'll just become a game designer instead.
INSTAGRAM
though it clearly isn't, it might also be of interest to you.
Full-size here.