Those characters are a bit too reminiscent of purple and brown, you may want to adjust the design.
Well I think it's only problematic when you try and make money off of videos, it's uploaded educationally so I don't think I'll be running into any legal issues. I think it also has to be super popular for people to even notice, thanks for the concern though
I mean you plan to sell your game eventually, right? It seems like more of an advert than anything else (dont get me wrong, I like it, but yeah)
I would really err on the side of caution when it comes to that sort of thing, because isn't taking it down the last thing you are going to want to do if it does become super popular? With such simple characters all you would really need to do is get rid of or change up that bottom eye lid. Also as a consumer there's something kinda lame about being like "Oh, there's those characters I like" and then realizing its someone just using them illegally, its like seeing hello kitty on a billboard for a Chinese restaurant, or seeing those peeing Calvin car decals. Yeah they are probably getting away with it, but I don't think you should aim to.
I mean you plan to sell your game eventually, right? It seems like more of an advert than anything else (dont get me wrong, I like it, but yeah)
I would really err on the side of caution when it comes to that sort of thing, because isn't taking it down the last thing you are going to want to do if it does become super popular? With such simple characters all you would really need to do is get rid of or change up that bottom eye lid. Also as a consumer there's something kinda lame about being like "Oh, there's those characters I like" and then realizing its someone just using them illegally, its like seeing hello kitty on a billboard for a Chinese restaurant, or seeing those peeing Calvin car decals. Yeah they are probably getting away with it, but I don't think you should aim to.
Well its already got two down votes so I'm not particularly counting on it becoming the next big thing at this point xD I get what you mean though, some guy made the rigs and he said I could use them, I really liked them so I used them. If it gets popular I'd change the design, I don't know to what though because it's not something I think about because I don't expect it to be popular enough to get that kind of attention for me to need to do that and I just do things as I go, I don't really pre-empt stuff. Legacy started because of EQNL based on a thesis originally done in the alpha that snowballed out of control.
Making this game is mostly educational and part closure. I wouldn't take it commercial unless there was a fanbase big enough to support it and maybe there could be but not yet. I just go with the flow I guess it might come off as advertising since I don't think you played Landmark to really feel some of the deep issues it has which is very understandable, I'm glad you liked it though
I don't really have much to add to the discussion, I just think the idea of an irate miner digging through waves of happy-faced chibi blocks is endlessly hilarious.
Mission accomplished! I should probably render it out in 1080p and add some sfx
Rigging tests finally done for these guys, the big guy still has spine issues that I'm trying think of a good solution to, but for now I'll have to deal with the crashing and move on till I figure out the rigging for it.
Y'know I was about to break out in to this satiric typical tumblr post about your aesthetics and completely avoid the game, but I am not a fool who looks at a man's finger when he points to the moon.
What I WILL say, is that this project does look very nice. One thing it has is FLARE! Especially in the animation department, good golly that must have taken some time, bub.
Your aesthetic choice is actually marvelous:armor and character design, overall style, the colors, MMM! Honestly it sort of looks like Sunset Overdrive mixed with Minecraft (WHY AREN'T YOU ON PC!?!?)
While I am looking forward to this by visuals alone, I do worry about gameplay.
From your post back in September 2014, you show that the camera works in a sort of controllable cam/mounted/Diablo-esque style and from the gameplay you show that the player will encounter moments where they go up and down. My issue is with visibility, and whether how your team is going about this? I'm sure you already have an answer, but it never hurts to be curious.
Also, is the MMORPG in the same vein as Minecraft or (even I don't know how it's relevant to this) Wakfu?
HOLY NOZ, I THINK I KNOW THIS STYLE!! Did you work on Kingdoms of Amalur? This looks like Kingdoms of Amalur, were you a dev artist!?
Y'know I was about to break out in to this satiric typical tumblr post about your aesthetics and completely avoid the game, but I am not a fool who looks at a man's finger when he points to the moon.
What I WILL say, is that this project does look very nice. One thing it has is FLARE! Especially in the animation department, good golly that must have taken some time, bub.
Your aesthetic choice is actually marvelous:armor and character design, overall style, the colors, MMM! Honestly it sort of looks like Sunset Overdrive mixed with Minecraft (WHY AREN'T YOU ON PC!?!?)
While I am looking forward to this by visuals alone, I do worry about gameplay.
From your post back in September 2014, you show that the camera works in a sort of controllable cam/mounted/Diablo-esque style and from the gameplay you show that the player will encounter moments where they go up and down. My issue is with visibility, and whether how your team is going about this? I'm sure you already have an answer, but it never hurts to be curious.
Also, is the MMORPG in the same vein as Minecraft or (even I don't know how it's relevant to this) Wakfu?
HOLY NOZ, I THINK I KNOW THIS STYLE!! Did you work on Kingdoms of Amalur? This looks like Kingdoms of Amalur, were you a dev artist!?
First off, thanks for all the compliments you lovely, lovely person you. Digging up and down has its issues that I have a list of ideas that need testing but I'm still coding the character controller (running jumping basic interaction). Some of the ideas revolve around the camera and some of the solutions are mechanically based.
1 you can only dig down if you find holes (can be secret) this is similar to either Zelda (cracks on the floor) or Donkey Kong (completely hidden), this is to reinforce search and discovery, they'll be placed randomly, but at least you know what you're looking for and that it's around its on the current floor you're digging through, when you can dig down at all times things can become a bit aimless, this also helps instance and randomize caves.
2 caves might be 0 degree x axis only (unlikely decision), the other option is to not render specific sections the camera is looking at detected through ray casts/tracing this would be used for all enclosed areas like houses if the ceiling isnt high enough (very similar to The Sims) when you're in the overworld or open areas, things on top of you might be made translucent and not completely transparent , either way this needs lots of testing
3 digging upward isn't a major way to dig, it's usually used to clear head room quickly with jumping which is something people naturally do in small spaces (in games - which is weird), if there's space the more efficient way is to use airborne attacks, which is jumping + normal attacks similar to DMC or KH.
I'm still testing the MMO part by converting other games (in theory) into MMO's, I did this to Majora's Mask and Banjo Kazooie, which funnily enough wasn't very difficult, what is challenging is finding nuanced ways to gate areas that need certain items to unlock them, a persistent MMO puts a lot of strain on this but it's solvable, the solutions will probably become more creative as I go getting into the groove of it. The bigger problems are how story is handled, which needs to move toward a paradigm of cyclical design, if you think of sign posts as major events in a story and draw a line through them that makes a circle, the lines in between the sign posts are the players shaping external events that change what the sign posts say which in turn changes player goals fluidly and that's how you can have proper stories in a persistent world.
These sign posts can either be dynamic, constantly changing their goals, or they can be check points where the goal is always the same but the action and reason are constantly different. In a way the story begins to write itself, sometimes it will lead to dead ends because of this.
Before any of this jargon I'm building the prototype in unity that has all the fundamental player inputs tied up as a moba arena and a tutorial stage that should test all those mechanics (including digging and capturing eidolons), think the kickstarter is kicked off about here so I can get a team to start coding the story engine, character creator and generate general assets. This is a long way off, I'm in the process of generating more rent to tie me over dig deeper into the code.
I'm afraid I didn't work on KoA, although I'm flattered that you think I did, the animation in it was really nice! My bread and butter was animation for film/tv, but I'm moving away from that and getting into games.
Y'know I was about to break out in to this satiric typical tumblr post about your aesthetics and completely avoid the game, but I am not a fool who looks at a man's finger when he points to the moon.
What I WILL say, is that this project does look very nice. One thing it has is FLARE! Especially in the animation department, good golly that must have taken some time, bub.
Your aesthetic choice is actually marvelous:armor and character design, overall style, the colors, MMM! Honestly it sort of looks like Sunset Overdrive mixed with Minecraft (WHY AREN'T YOU ON PC!?!?)
While I am looking forward to this by visuals alone, I do worry about gameplay.
From your post back in September 2014, you show that the camera works in a sort of controllable cam/mounted/Diablo-esque style and from the gameplay you show that the player will encounter moments where they go up and down. My issue is with visibility, and whether how your team is going about this? I'm sure you already have an answer, but it never hurts to be curious.
Also, is the MMORPG in the same vein as Minecraft or (even I don't know how it's relevant to this) Wakfu?
HOLY NOZ, I THINK I KNOW THIS STYLE!! Did you work on Kingdoms of Amalur? This looks like Kingdoms of Amalur, were you a dev artist!?
First off, thanks for all the compliments you lovely, lovely person you. Digging up and down has its issues that I have a list of ideas that need testing but I'm still coding the character controller (running jumping basic interaction). Some of the ideas revolve around the camera and some of the solutions are mechanically based.
1 you can only dig down if you find holes (can be secret) this is similar to either Zelda (cracks on the floor) or Donkey Kong (completely hidden), this is to reinforce search and discovery, they'll be placed randomly, but at least you know what you're looking for and that it's around its on the current floor you're digging through, when you can dig down at all times things can become a bit aimless, this also helps instance and randomize caves.
2 caves might be 0 degree x axis only (unlikely decision), the other option is to not render specific sections the camera is looking at detected through ray casts/tracing this would be used for all enclosed areas like houses if the ceiling isnt high enough (very similar to The Sims) when you're in the overworld or open areas, things on top of you might be made translucent and not completely transparent , either way this needs lots of testing
3 digging upward isn't a major way to dig, it's usually used to clear head room quickly with jumping which is something people naturally do in small spaces (in games - which is weird), if there's space the more efficient way is to use airborne attacks, which is jumping + normal attacks similar to DMC or KH.
I'm still testing the MMO part by converting other games (in theory) into MMO's, I did this to Majora's Mask and Banjo Kazooie, which funnily enough wasn't very difficult, what is challenging is finding nuanced ways to gate areas that need certain items to unlock them, a persistent MMO puts a lot of strain on this but it's solvable, the solutions will probably become more creative as I go getting into the groove of it. The bigger problems are how story is handled, which needs to move toward a paradigm of cyclical design, if you think of sign posts as major events in a story and draw a line through them that makes a circle, the lines in between the sign posts are the players shaping external events that change what the sign posts say which in turn changes player goals fluidly and that's how you can have proper stories in a persistent world.
These sign posts can either be dynamic, constantly changing their goals, or they can be check points where the goal is always the same but the action and reason are constantly different. In a way the story begins to write itself, sometimes it will lead to dead ends because of this.
Before any of this jargon I'm building the prototype in unity that has all the fundamental player inputs tied up as a moba arena and a tutorial stage that should test all those mechanics (including digging and capturing eidolons), think the kickstarter is kicked off about here so I can get a team to start coding the story engine, character creator and generate general assets. This is a long way off, I'm in the process of generating more rent to tie me over dig deeper into the code.
I'm afraid I didn't work on KoA, although I'm flattered that you think I did, the animation in it was really nice! My bread and butter was animation for film/tv, but I'm moving away from that and getting into games.
To your dig down response:
1. Can these randomized hole really just appear anywhere? Say a player is exploring, something pings, and they find these holes and get the loot. Would this hole then just sort of "disappear" and pop in another random locale or would they be static? Either way I think it'd seem a little cooler and make more sense if they were like "portals" to another "loot dimension". That way when the hole closes up or you don't see it anymore it's not,"Wait where was that hole I dug," and raises a few eyebrows and becomes,"Snap, that sick ass portal is closed, can't go back now". I also ask if "dig down" could be in a similar animation as like a down smash attack?
2. The render thing is smart, thank you for using the Sims as a reference. I truly only understand ideas of game design, not concept and meaning.
3.Nothing to add here.
The sign thing is a little confusing, are you saying for story to occur that the players have to frequently check in at a quest board? And then there actions on top of the actions of others will influence story?
And I'm honestly shocked you didn't have a hand in KoA in any way! I'm also sad now, because that game had a serious amount of potential going about it, especially in the art department. They had this one really cool race that were basically aristocratic Italian Aurin. I think if 38 put out the "MMO" as a game instead of Reckoning we would have seen more.
AND GOOD LUCK! If you have anything going for you right now its your art and animation, but those aren't what's important! I don't know much about game development, but playing games has taught me that your aesthetics serve to appease your audience from a visual standpoint. They exist as a hook to draw you in! Your art is good, but talk to us on design some time. I want to like it a lot, but recent experiences have taught me to test things firsthand before I make a dedication to it.
Y'know I was about to break out in to this satiric typical tumblr post about your aesthetics and completely avoid the game, but I am not a fool who looks at a man's finger when he points to the moon.
What I WILL say, is that this project does look very nice. One thing it has is FLARE! Especially in the animation department, good golly that must have taken some time, bub.
Your aesthetic choice is actually marvelous:armor and character design, overall style, the colors, MMM! Honestly it sort of looks like Sunset Overdrive mixed with Minecraft (WHY AREN'T YOU ON PC!?!?)
While I am looking forward to this by visuals alone, I do worry about gameplay.
From your post back in September 2014, you show that the camera works in a sort of controllable cam/mounted/Diablo-esque style and from the gameplay you show that the player will encounter moments where they go up and down. My issue is with visibility, and whether how your team is going about this? I'm sure you already have an answer, but it never hurts to be curious.
Also, is the MMORPG in the same vein as Minecraft or (even I don't know how it's relevant to this) Wakfu?
HOLY NOZ, I THINK I KNOW THIS STYLE!! Did you work on Kingdoms of Amalur? This looks like Kingdoms of Amalur, were you a dev artist!?
First off, thanks for all the compliments you lovely, lovely person you. Digging up and down has its issues that I have a list of ideas that need testing but I'm still coding the character controller (running jumping basic interaction). Some of the ideas revolve around the camera and some of the solutions are mechanically based.
1 you can only dig down if you find holes (can be secret) this is similar to either Zelda (cracks on the floor) or Donkey Kong (completely hidden), this is to reinforce search and discovery, they'll be placed randomly, but at least you know what you're looking for and that it's around its on the current floor you're digging through, when you can dig down at all times things can become a bit aimless, this also helps instance and randomize caves.
2 caves might be 0 degree x axis only (unlikely decision), the other option is to not render specific sections the camera is looking at detected through ray casts/tracing this would be used for all enclosed areas like houses if the ceiling isnt high enough (very similar to The Sims) when you're in the overworld or open areas, things on top of you might be made translucent and not completely transparent , either way this needs lots of testing
3 digging upward isn't a major way to dig, it's usually used to clear head room quickly with jumping which is something people naturally do in small spaces (in games - which is weird), if there's space the more efficient way is to use airborne attacks, which is jumping + normal attacks similar to DMC or KH.
I'm still testing the MMO part by converting other games (in theory) into MMO's, I did this to Majora's Mask and Banjo Kazooie, which funnily enough wasn't very difficult, what is challenging is finding nuanced ways to gate areas that need certain items to unlock them, a persistent MMO puts a lot of strain on this but it's solvable, the solutions will probably become more creative as I go getting into the groove of it. The bigger problems are how story is handled, which needs to move toward a paradigm of cyclical design, if you think of sign posts as major events in a story and draw a line through them that makes a circle, the lines in between the sign posts are the players shaping external events that change what the sign posts say which in turn changes player goals fluidly and that's how you can have proper stories in a persistent world.
These sign posts can either be dynamic, constantly changing their goals, or they can be check points where the goal is always the same but the action and reason are constantly different. In a way the story begins to write itself, sometimes it will lead to dead ends because of this.
Before any of this jargon I'm building the prototype in unity that has all the fundamental player inputs tied up as a moba arena and a tutorial stage that should test all those mechanics (including digging and capturing eidolons), think the kickstarter is kicked off about here so I can get a team to start coding the story engine, character creator and generate general assets. This is a long way off, I'm in the process of generating more rent to tie me over dig deeper into the code.
I'm afraid I didn't work on KoA, although I'm flattered that you think I did, the animation in it was really nice! My bread and butter was animation for film/tv, but I'm moving away from that and getting into games.
To your dig down response:
1. Can these randomized hole really just appear anywhere? Say a player is exploring, something pings, and they find these holes and get the loot. Would this hole then just sort of "disappear" and pop in another random locale or would they be static? Either way I think it'd seem a little cooler and make more sense if they were like "portals" to another "loot dimension". That way when the hole closes up or you don't see it anymore it's not,"Wait where was that hole I dug," and raises a few eyebrows and becomes,"Snap, that sick ass portal is closed, can't go back now". I also ask if "dig down" could be in a similar animation as like a down smash attack?
2. The render thing is smart, thank you for using the Sims as a reference. I truly only understand ideas of game design, not concept and meaning.
3.Nothing to add here.
The sign thing is a little confusing, are you saying for story to occur that the players have to frequently check in at a quest board? And then there actions on top of the actions of others will influence story?
And I'm honestly shocked you didn't have a hand in KoA in any way! I'm also sad now, because that game had a serious amount of potential going about it, especially in the art department. They had this one really cool race that were basically aristocratic Italian Aurin. I think if 38 put out the "MMO" as a game instead of Reckoning we would have seen more.
AND GOOD LUCK! If you have anything going for you right now its your art and animation, but those aren't what's important! I don't know much about game development, but playing games has taught me that your aesthetics serve to appease your audience from a visual standpoint. They exist as a hook to draw you in! Your art is good, but talk to us on design some time. I want to like it a lot, but recent experiences have taught me to test things firsthand before I make a dedication to it.
Anyway, good luck man!
It's tough to say how extensive I will be able to push for random in that department, the goal is that players can do whatever they want to the world while nature tries to undo all this damage, if they close the hole you found it's gone forever in that case. Digging down is already a down smash attack, it's generally referred to as the ground pound, very common in platformers from the 90's You will be able to dig down anywhere but no very far, you'll need to find a sinkhole to proceed to another level below, think of it like real prospecting.
The sign posts were metaphors of points of no return in a story, like Frodo receiving the One Ring from Bilbo's Will, once he has it he can't un-have it because circumstances combined with his personality force him to make certain choices that lead him down the rabbit hole. In Legacy at that point, the player chooses to take it, give it to Gandalf or try and find someone else to have it. If Gandalf ends up taking it, does he become an anti-hero? If you keep it, what will you do with it etc etc.
Visuals actually have a huge impact on action type combat, if you deconstruct tera for example the animation is built around developing a rhythm so players can feel the beat of telegraphs so when attacks happen, the landing of those attacks don't feel arbitrary, you can tell exactly when it's going to happen and this ties into game design very tightly because it develops the meta of avoidance to survive which Dark Souls has proven the further you push that the less type of attacks you need because the focus is purely on avoiding taking damage. Guild Wars 2 and Wild Star are both very good examples of how to get this completely wrong. Guild Wars 2 monsters tend to have no rhythm to their attacks, so even when telegraphed its difficult to tell when you should dodge, Wild Star on the other hand has no animated telegraphs because the focus is completely on the ground high lights so players are never engaged by what they see, also they put in auto attacks which completely undermines the whole point of active avoidance.
I have pages upon pages of game design written out, but I don't think many are too into talking about these things so I just post the art and animation. Thanks for stopping by mate
Thanks man, there's been a ton of progress on the R&D and world building side of things. I tend not to let anyone see this stuff because walls of text and no tangible visuals to explain them yet. Combat went through its 4th iteration and I think it's finally gotten to somewhere that will stick. I'm still figuring out magic and ranged combat, like summoning things as avatars or minions, it's tricky because I have to make sure the design fits on the controller without resorting to heavy use of modifiers while making sure it still fits in the paradigm that melee is already established in.
If I had to describe the combat now, it's very much dark souls garnished with a blizzard arpg, the last step is to add that zelda element of interactive items to push key phases in bigger fights, which is still just on the table since I'm always balancing the depth & complexity, i.e. do you carry the items around? How many? Consumable? Persistent? UI space? Controller space? Intuitive? Overwhelming? etc etc.
The last "step" seems a bit fast...not sure if it looks weird because it cuts out immediately after or not, but it's a minor critique.
Your animations are generally looking really solid, though the characters/creatures don't appear to have a solid "weight" to them all the time. The movement seems smooth and immediate, and how I'd expect (a) a guy with heavy armor to move, or (b) a creature supporting its weight on its wings. These are really subtle changes I'm talking about, but I think if you added them in it would help with the believability.
As an example, the dragon-like creature bobs its head at the exact same time its wings/feet hit the ground. There's usually a small delay with the head bobbing for a long-necked creature, as the weight is transferred to the legs (and wings in this case), and then the head bobs. This was the best animation I could find that shows this slight delay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6s0wt4OFGg
There's a similar issue with your running human animations, and the last animation of the guy...the head bob doesn't seem to really exist there, but there's no sense of the character having to really push their body around. The running animation looks like a person wearing regular light clothes, trying to tiptoe across hot sand, or "floating" over the ground plane.
I'd suggest you try to add a stronger sense of the legs pushing the body up in walking/running animations.
Posts
Well I think it's only problematic when you try and make money off of videos, it's uploaded educationally so I don't think I'll be running into any legal issues. I think it also has to be super popular for people to even notice, thanks for the concern though
I would really err on the side of caution when it comes to that sort of thing, because isn't taking it down the last thing you are going to want to do if it does become super popular? With such simple characters all you would really need to do is get rid of or change up that bottom eye lid. Also as a consumer there's something kinda lame about being like "Oh, there's those characters I like" and then realizing its someone just using them illegally, its like seeing hello kitty on a billboard for a Chinese restaurant, or seeing those peeing Calvin car decals. Yeah they are probably getting away with it, but I don't think you should aim to.
Well its already got two down votes so I'm not particularly counting on it becoming the next big thing at this point xD I get what you mean though, some guy made the rigs and he said I could use them, I really liked them so I used them. If it gets popular I'd change the design, I don't know to what though because it's not something I think about because I don't expect it to be popular enough to get that kind of attention for me to need to do that and I just do things as I go, I don't really pre-empt stuff. Legacy started because of EQNL based on a thesis originally done in the alpha that snowballed out of control.
Making this game is mostly educational and part closure. I wouldn't take it commercial unless there was a fanbase big enough to support it and maybe there could be but not yet. I just go with the flow
Mission accomplished! I should probably render it out in 1080p and add some sfx
What I WILL say, is that this project does look very nice. One thing it has is FLARE! Especially in the animation department, good golly that must have taken some time, bub.
Your aesthetic choice is actually marvelous:armor and character design, overall style, the colors, MMM! Honestly it sort of looks like Sunset Overdrive mixed with Minecraft (WHY AREN'T YOU ON PC!?!?)
While I am looking forward to this by visuals alone, I do worry about gameplay.
From your post back in September 2014, you show that the camera works in a sort of controllable cam/mounted/Diablo-esque style and from the gameplay you show that the player will encounter moments where they go up and down. My issue is with visibility, and whether how your team is going about this? I'm sure you already have an answer, but it never hurts to be curious.
Also, is the MMORPG in the same vein as Minecraft or (even I don't know how it's relevant to this) Wakfu?
HOLY NOZ, I THINK I KNOW THIS STYLE!! Did you work on Kingdoms of Amalur? This looks like Kingdoms of Amalur, were you a dev artist!?
First off, thanks for all the compliments you lovely, lovely person you. Digging up and down has its issues that I have a list of ideas that need testing but I'm still coding the character controller (running jumping basic interaction). Some of the ideas revolve around the camera and some of the solutions are mechanically based.
I'm still testing the MMO part by converting other games (in theory) into MMO's, I did this to Majora's Mask and Banjo Kazooie, which funnily enough wasn't very difficult, what is challenging is finding nuanced ways to gate areas that need certain items to unlock them, a persistent MMO puts a lot of strain on this but it's solvable, the solutions will probably become more creative as I go getting into the groove of it. The bigger problems are how story is handled, which needs to move toward a paradigm of cyclical design, if you think of sign posts as major events in a story and draw a line through them that makes a circle, the lines in between the sign posts are the players shaping external events that change what the sign posts say which in turn changes player goals fluidly and that's how you can have proper stories in a persistent world.
These sign posts can either be dynamic, constantly changing their goals, or they can be check points where the goal is always the same but the action and reason are constantly different. In a way the story begins to write itself, sometimes it will lead to dead ends because of this.
Before any of this jargon I'm building the prototype in unity that has all the fundamental player inputs tied up as a moba arena and a tutorial stage that should test all those mechanics (including digging and capturing eidolons), think the kickstarter is kicked off about here so I can get a team to start coding the story engine, character creator and generate general assets. This is a long way off, I'm in the process of generating more rent to tie me over dig deeper into the code.
I'm afraid I didn't work on KoA, although I'm flattered that you think I did, the animation in it was really nice! My bread and butter was animation for film/tv, but I'm moving away from that and getting into games.
To your dig down response:
1. Can these randomized hole really just appear anywhere? Say a player is exploring, something pings, and they find these holes and get the loot. Would this hole then just sort of "disappear" and pop in another random locale or would they be static? Either way I think it'd seem a little cooler and make more sense if they were like "portals" to another "loot dimension". That way when the hole closes up or you don't see it anymore it's not,"Wait where was that hole I dug," and raises a few eyebrows and becomes,"Snap, that sick ass portal is closed, can't go back now". I also ask if "dig down" could be in a similar animation as like a down smash attack?
2. The render thing is smart, thank you for using the Sims as a reference. I truly only understand ideas of game design, not concept and meaning.
3.Nothing to add here.
The sign thing is a little confusing, are you saying for story to occur that the players have to frequently check in at a quest board? And then there actions on top of the actions of others will influence story?
And I'm honestly shocked you didn't have a hand in KoA in any way! I'm also sad now, because that game had a serious amount of potential going about it, especially in the art department. They had this one really cool race that were basically aristocratic Italian Aurin. I think if 38 put out the "MMO" as a game instead of Reckoning we would have seen more.
AND GOOD LUCK! If you have anything going for you right now its your art and animation, but those aren't what's important! I don't know much about game development, but playing games has taught me that your aesthetics serve to appease your audience from a visual standpoint. They exist as a hook to draw you in! Your art is good, but talk to us on design some time. I want to like it a lot, but recent experiences have taught me to test things firsthand before I make a dedication to it.
Anyway, good luck man!
It's tough to say how extensive I will be able to push for random in that department, the goal is that players can do whatever they want to the world while nature tries to undo all this damage, if they close the hole you found it's gone forever in that case. Digging down is already a down smash attack, it's generally referred to as the ground pound, very common in platformers from the 90's
The sign posts were metaphors of points of no return in a story, like Frodo receiving the One Ring from Bilbo's Will, once he has it he can't un-have it because circumstances combined with his personality force him to make certain choices that lead him down the rabbit hole. In Legacy at that point, the player chooses to take it, give it to Gandalf or try and find someone else to have it. If Gandalf ends up taking it, does he become an anti-hero? If you keep it, what will you do with it etc etc.
Visuals actually have a huge impact on action type combat, if you deconstruct tera for example the animation is built around developing a rhythm so players can feel the beat of telegraphs so when attacks happen, the landing of those attacks don't feel arbitrary, you can tell exactly when it's going to happen and this ties into game design very tightly because it develops the meta of avoidance to survive which Dark Souls has proven the further you push that the less type of attacks you need because the focus is purely on avoiding taking damage. Guild Wars 2 and Wild Star are both very good examples of how to get this completely wrong. Guild Wars 2 monsters tend to have no rhythm to their attacks, so even when telegraphed its difficult to tell when you should dodge, Wild Star on the other hand has no animated telegraphs because the focus is completely on the ground high lights so players are never engaged by what they see, also they put in auto attacks which completely undermines the whole point of active avoidance.
I have pages upon pages of game design written out, but I don't think many are too into talking about these things so I just post the art and animation. Thanks for stopping by mate
...which shouldn't necessarily be limited to websites, actually.
Apparently it does, it's news to me too! Also I use Java to code too, something I also thought was just for web dev. I fixed it btw:
How's progress been on the project overall?
Thanks man, there's been a ton of progress on the R&D and world building side of things. I tend not to let anyone see this stuff because walls of text and no tangible visuals to explain them yet. Combat went through its 4th iteration and I think it's finally gotten to somewhere that will stick. I'm still figuring out magic and ranged combat, like summoning things as avatars or minions, it's tricky because I have to make sure the design fits on the controller without resorting to heavy use of modifiers while making sure it still fits in the paradigm that melee is already established in.
If I had to describe the combat now, it's very much dark souls garnished with a blizzard arpg, the last step is to add that zelda element of interactive items to push key phases in bigger fights, which is still just on the table since I'm always balancing the depth & complexity, i.e. do you carry the items around? How many? Consumable? Persistent? UI space? Controller space? Intuitive? Overwhelming? etc etc.
Almost forgot to post this other thing im working on, gif limitations be damned!
Your animations are generally looking really solid, though the characters/creatures don't appear to have a solid "weight" to them all the time. The movement seems smooth and immediate, and how I'd expect (a) a guy with heavy armor to move, or (b) a creature supporting its weight on its wings. These are really subtle changes I'm talking about, but I think if you added them in it would help with the believability.
As an example, the dragon-like creature bobs its head at the exact same time its wings/feet hit the ground. There's usually a small delay with the head bobbing for a long-necked creature, as the weight is transferred to the legs (and wings in this case), and then the head bobs. This was the best animation I could find that shows this slight delay:
There's a similar issue with your running human animations, and the last animation of the guy...the head bob doesn't seem to really exist there, but there's no sense of the character having to really push their body around. The running animation looks like a person wearing regular light clothes, trying to tiptoe across hot sand, or "floating" over the ground plane.
I'd suggest you try to add a stronger sense of the legs pushing the body up in walking/running animations.
Your current animations look a bit like this (floating, little to no weight, unnaturally smooth movement:)
I'd try to incorporate a bit more of this: (visible pushing off from ground; headbob)...start at the 0:25 mark