Project: Sherlock – Dev Log 3 (Sprint 8 and Sprint 9)
I’ve recently concluded the 8th milestone for my game project. It’s still an untitled game but is codenamed “Sherlock”. I don’t think this milestone is really worth making a full video for, but here is a list of features that were completed.
Sprint 8
-New shader effects for displacement and colour desaturization
-New floor detail art (blood pools, etc)
-Important node arrow animation
-Tons of level scripting for interactions as well as room geometry tweaking
-Support for generic, coloured boxes
-Event handler system (triggering scripts when certain things happen)
-Click on item to see description of it
-Lots of new level detail art
-Engine code refactoring
Sprint 9
-Music and SFX added!
-Tutorial level added
-Prep work for internal alpha demo (lots of bug fixes, creating the feedback form, and packaging up a working build)
Project: Sherlock – Dev Log 2 (Sprint 7)
I’ve just posted a pair of videos showing off the new progress from Sprint 7 of the game I’m building in my spare time (progress is slow because I don’t actually have much spare time). Here are the two videos:
Some of the notable improvements are as follows:
- A new anomaly object. This is shown off in the second video; it’s a ripple shader effect that warps whatever is behind it. It’ll be used for some sort of portal later on, or even just some sort of disruption. Not sure yet. I think it looks cool though.
- Pathfinding added to the path manager. Now you can click on any node and the character will walk the whole path (instead of you having to click on the next adjacent node.
- New character art added in. Still lots of improvements, but this is a big step.
- New confirmation window. Asks a yes or no question and performs actions based on what the user selects.
- New UI revamp. Cleaned up the awful placeholder UI with a nicer looking placeholder UI.
- Hovering over a location will now highlight it, so it’s more obvious that it’s interactive.
- Many minor improvements and tweaks to the engine code.
Project: Sherlock – Dev Log 1
This is the first dev log for a project I’ve been working on in my spare time for the past little while. What is it: it’s a game. Kind of a cross between Resident Evil (without the combat) and the overworld map from Super Mario 3. It’s built using the game engine I wrote myself several years ago. Here’s a small list of some engine details:
Game Engine Details:
- 2D-in-3D sprite-based engine. Characters are 2D billboard sprites, while levels are 3D tiles and blocks
- Physics engine (JBox2D)
- Scripting engine (JavaScript)
- Handles and organizes game and render code (Rendering uses Processing, which uses OpenGL and GLSL)
- Level editor for building the scenes
So what have I done so far? Well, I’ve just finished my 6th iteration/milestone, so I’m going to take some time to work on the design and levels of the game before I implement more features (I have a big/growing list of features to work on though). Here is a brief video demo of the flow of the game at this point in time:
Here is a non-exhaustive list of the interesting stuff and features implemented for this project so far:
- Set up a new game/app that uses my existing engine. Re-used most of my game art, etc. so I could get it together faster
- Basic mechanics implemented:
- Rails movement: Click on nodes to walk to that location
- Actions: Some locations have specific actions the player can take, such as opening a door, taking an item, or searching that location.
- Condition system: Some locations or actions have conditions (aka you need an item or to have done something). It uses a Mongo-like expression evaluation system.
- Title screen and level select screen. Basic stuff, but had to be written
- New game art:
- New Character art and animation sequences. Still in progress, but right now it at least looks like a dude walking around the levels
- New isometric pixel art for random objects in the levels. This is so the levels feel more like a world instead of an empty room
- Task queuing system. Requirement for this type of game. You give the engine some work to do and it’ll do it in order (stuff like “move here, then play sfx, then do something else”)
- Session auto-save system. Loads your game session when you boot up a level and manages everything you’ve done in the game (inventory, completed tasks, etc)
- Various minor engine tweaks: Camera zoom, thicker walls, etc
- Added a handful of levels and added a bunch of objects like wall art, desks, dressers, etc.
Video: Second demo for my game
I’ve finally gotten around to making a video recording of my new game demo! Part of my problem was finding a suitable video capture software suite. I ended up using Open Broadcaster Software, and it turned out fine; I WAS using KRUT, but it had issues with the audio capture.
Anyway, while recording it I ended up finding out that half of my rooms didn’t make it into the demo! I had an issue where a locked door led straight to the boss level. That kind of sucked. Here’s the video though:
Project: DarkWolf2D (2D Dungeon Crawler)
Over the holidays, I had some time to upgrade the core code for my game engine. I’ve upgraded the version of Processing that I use as well, which means I can use shaders for rendering along with some of the nicer JSON loading features. While I have a “version 2” of my engine working though, I haven’t yet retro-fitted it into my Zombie Mansion yet. This is coming in the future, but for “proof” that my code works, I’ve been putting together a small game based on a design I had in a dream. It’s the “basic” version of the idea, which means no multiplayer and no nice graphics.
The idea is for a dungeon crawler action game that takes ideas from the MOBA genre. I know how it sounds, but it’s actually a very basic idea and it’s already half built. It’s a player-vs-environment game right now where the player begins at level 1 for each dungeon and has to level up as they progress to bosses. The theme for it is an alternate history WW2 where the characters are different classes such as “US Medic”, “Russian Sniper”, or “French Resistance Fighter”. Each class has a basic attack and a list of abilities they can level up and use. I’m keeping the XP system as simple as I can (although I’ve never built one before), and I’m not using any items for the game right now.
For rendering, it’s a 2D game with no character animations; just a static side-shot image. This should keep the dev cycle pretty low for now. I also have a feature backlog that I’m considering making public, but for now I’ll only do that if I have anyone comment that they actually care to look at it. It’s a list of all the features that I plan on implementing (some are basic things like “add audio to the game”, and it functions as my “todo” list. As I build in features, I mark them as “Complete” and they shuffle to the bottom of the list for storage.
Edit: Added a screenshot. It’s very basic and you can’t really see anything worthwhile. Just showing that I can at least render the player in a level. I’ll make a video later.
First screenshot of DarkWolf2D
Aftermath of Zombie Mansion Alpha 1 Build
So at this point in time I’ve had multiple people play through my game demo. The results were actually better than I thought. I think only one person wasn’t able to run it (still not entire sure why, but that’s future Jake’s problem now). There were a couple major issues, but those were found and fixed as well. One of the bugs was that I didn’t include the assets for the 3D objects, so when the players entered the room with columns, the game crashed. There was also some scripting errors driven by not having necessary images wrapped up in the resources archive. Logging definitely helped out there.
The last major issue is unsolved, but lies with some code I threw together for the level selection screen. I think some of the click events aren’t going through, or it’s not loading the levels properly. I think this may have something to do with that particular tester running the game through a zip file though. I was shocked to find out that it worked period though.
I got some pretty decent feedback from one tester in particular though. He gave not only bug reports, etc, but opinions on controls, aesthetics, and game flow as well. Most of those things were explained away as “placeholder” stuff, but still; it was useful information to know what a tester/player is thinking when they see that stuff. When I show most people my game, I need comments like “looks neat and retro” or “I like the camera spin feature”, but not enough people pay attention to tiny details.
Anyway, that’s the update. I haven’t had free time to cut a second build or to work on new levels or anything.
[Video] Demo Play-through Part 2
Here’s part 2 of the video. My video converter wouldn’t let me have it all in one go (and thus I am on the market for a new converter program now). I’ve gone back to edit part 1 to have a link to this video as well.
[Video] Demo Video of Zombie Mansion
Here is part 1 of a 5-minute video of a short level I put together in a playable demo. I play through the puzzles and traps of the level and show off some of the details and mechanics of the game. Please forgive the large amount of placeholder art and the rough nature of the game so far.
EDIT: Part 2 coming soon
[Video] Combat demo video
Here is a short video showing off some combat mechanics and example animations. The zombies will stalk the player and attack with a melee animation. I’ve included sound in this video as well, although there’s no music in this clip.
[Video] Navigation in Zombie Mansion
I’ve done up some more rooms and made another demo video! This one shows how navigation will work in the game. Right now the camera is still orthographic due to some control scheme issues, but I assure you, isometric/diagonal walls looks pretty sweet as well.
Jake Seigel's Schemes 