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[Araph]

Link to the old thread

THIS AIN'T DEAD YET. (Surprisingly.) I created a new thread because the game has changed enough (changed, mind you; not just progressed through development) that I believe it merits a new discussion.

The game has been steadily progressing the entirety of the time the old thread has lain dormant. Scripts have been rewritten, ideas have been rethought, and assets have been remade. Actually, assets have been made entirely new.

Spoiler: Still Really Early Screenshots (Warning: Huge Pictures) (click to show/hide)

The premise of the game is still the same: some players control characters trying to destroy evil altars, one player controls a monster trying to kill the other players. Whenever an altar is destroyed, the monster dies and respawns as a different type of monster with the same goal: kill the other players. The players 'health' is actually their sanity. As their sanity drops due to monster attacks, they begin hallucinating and seeing weird (hopefully scary, or at least unnerving) shit.

The original demo map has been dropped completely in favor of an island map, approximately one quarter of a square mile in area. Players are free to run around with a minimal number of obstacles, while the monster is automatically directed towards them to keep the game afoot. Plot-related hallucinations have been dropped entirely, mostly due to time constraints and a distinct change in the pace of the game.

Throughout the island are various locations in varying states of decay. A multitude of abandoned shacks, military establishments, religious sites, and so on are scattered across the map for the players to find (and hide from the monster).


Probably not a lot to discuss, but just letting everyone know this is still alive.

[mastahcheese]

I shall continue to observe its progress.

[choppy]

Just posting to watch.

[acetech09]

Biggest challenge and failure point in games like this is actually making it scary, imho.

Make sure to put in the work to make it scary. Smart AI for the hallucinations. Perhaps give the player monsters some power to do weird shit as well, i.e. teleport, make scary noises. And sounds. Don't forget sounds.

[LeoLeonardoIII]

Araph you should link to the old discussion so people know what's already been suggested.

[My Name is Immaterial]

I'll PTW, and am willing to help test if you need us to.

[Araph]

Biggest challenge and failure point in games like this is actually making it scary, imho.

Make sure to put in the work to make it scary. Smart AI for the hallucinations. Perhaps give the player monsters some power to do weird shit as well, i.e. teleport, make scary noises. And sounds. Don't forget sounds.

I would concur on all counts.

About the monsters, each type of monster has different things it can do, which hopefully are varied enough to keep players from predicting what will happen next (I figure uncertainty is a good first step towards fear).

Araph you should link to the old discussion so people know what's already been suggested.

That's probably a good idea; now linked in OP.

I'll PTW, and am willing to help test if you need us to.

Thanks. I'm planning on trying to test here on B12 again, but this time without any unnecessary complications (i.e. using Hamachi and Skype instead of port forwarding and stuff).


Progress Updoot: The island is mostly done, but only barely mostly if that makes any sense. I just finished sculpting all the parts to a tower (there are two stone towers on the island), which can be fit together a la Skyrim's Creation Kit. When the towers are done, about six of the ten/eleven/twelve-ish sites of interest will be finished. After the sites are all done, I have to go back and do a quick second pass on the island to polish it a bit before testing begins.

[Doomblade187]

PTW! Glad to see this back, and it's looking great.

[Araph]

Meet the eyeless, soul-eating WIP that is one of the two possible protagonist classes.



And a full-body shot.

The textures aren't as good as they will be in the final version, since I was testing out baking them on the low-res model with an automatic UV unwrap. He, as you may have noticed, does not have eyes either. This will be rectified. Similarly, his lack of bones, a hood, and miscellaneous other items will also be rectified. Like I said, work in progress.

I've been experimenting with exporting models to Source Filmmaker with mixed results. I really want to animate a trailer or two for this, but the export plugin for Maya is a lot more finicky than I anticipated. It'll take some work to get it working smoothly, but I'll get there eventually.

The last of the locations of interest was finished (at least, the first pass) a while back, and I've been working on characters and whatnot since then. Progress was delayed somewhat due to me being getting my heart fixed in the hospital earlier this week (I had arrhythmia, and the alternative to surgery was taking daily pills for the rest of my life), which set me back a few days. That said, I have to finish this character, three monsters, and make sure there are no crippling bugs. After that, the beta version will be playable!

[GiglameshDespair]

Nice.

[My Name is Immaterial]

Looks pretty cool.

[Parsely]

Looks quite good Red Mage.

[Araph]

P2 taking a knee while P1 enjoys the dramatic lighting.

Animations are working in-game and over the internet! This is a screenshot of two instances of the game running, with player 1 on the left looking at player 2 and vice versa. In addition to walking and crouching animations (sprinting and the rest will be done soon), your head looks up and down with your camera, so other players can see you admiring the scenery. Everything syncs smoothly over the internet, although there's one major bug involving animations cutting off at the wrong times. I'll figure that out tomorrow, though.

[GiglameshDespair]

Man, that' pretty awesome.

[Araph]

I currently have two monsters and one protagonist class done-ish (that is, working, but not particularly polished). That leaves one monster that's currently being worked on, a halfway-decent UI, and some basic sounds before the game is playable again. At that point (which should be in a couple days at most) there are two possible courses of action:

1) Continue polishing everything for a while before starting testing, or...
B) Jump into testing on a 'it works, it's good enough, it'll get better over time' basis.

I'm probably going with number B, since I'm getting kinda burnt-out from working on something this much without having any finished-ish product to actually show for it.