FIGHTING TITANS !!! EXTREME GAMEPLAY !!! SICK GRAPHICS !!! RADULAR CHARACTERS !!!

[Sketchasaurus]

whoaaaa damn

so

am i gonna pick this back up ?
or are u cheating on me with another programmer

cause this all here's pretty motivating

I haven't found another programmer, so the spot's still yours ahaha
I'm trying to figure out my way around HaxeFlixel so I can understand what's going on under the hood a bit better, too.


I was thinking about upgrading the player sprites a bit, too. They're 4 colors + transparency with black being the new color. This way there's a more solid distinction between characters and backgrounds-- and so that they fit in with the mugshots and stats screen sprites.
I haven't gotten very far into updating the player sprites just yet, but I'm excited about how they look so far!

I'll take a second pass at the frozen fx, here's the current sheet:

[TheShyGuy]

Have you guys considered doing the game in 3D space while keeping the current 2D look? That way, you can do all the logic, collision and rendering in 3D space without any intuition problems. If you do it correctly, there won't be any pixel stretching and you don't have to fake the depth.

[Sketchasaurus]

I've thought about that a bit, and it's been brought up to me before in other places. The main issues are deciding on an engine and getting a programmer. This is currently a passion-based project with no current budget, so those two things are harder to come by.

Maybe the next one will be in 3D, though. ahaha

[puggsoy]

My two cents, I feel like making this in a 3D space would be a bit of overkill. From what I can tell it would just be generally simpler to fake the depth since there isn't that much going on beyond forward/back, left/right and jumping. Also if it continues to be made in Haxe, it doesn't have that many 3D libraries (yet).

I'd personally just keep doing it in 2D with HaxeFlixel for this.

[TheShyGuy]

I forgot to mention that going 3D also means that Lexou doesn't have to go through the pain of implementing manual depth sorting since the depth buffer would handle it. It's not that much additional work after the initial set up and getting used to a 3D modelling program like Blender. Buut I agree, seeing as how there may not be many active elements in the game, it does seem a bit overkill and may be confusing if you're not already familiar with 3D.

[puggsoy]

Yeah, I do get your point and if there were more interactions then it might be useful. I think manual depth sorting probably isn't too much of an issue, and it's definitely good experience to do something like that.

[Lexou Duck]

so yeah, like i gotta make a second coordinate system and convert all the logic coordinates into fake 3D before rendering ?

that's the question, do we want an UP input to move the character straight up, or move him along the perspective lines ?


i can imagine (and perhaps implement) a fake3D background that dynamically scrolls the perspective, although that would make the game less and less NESy as a result
a fixed tileset that gives the illusion of 3D, coupled with straight linear movement might be better for this, i'm not sure

[Sketchasaurus]

the only "fancy" graphical gimmicks that I imagine the arenas using is small amounts of parallax or layer scrolling for background layers, like the clouds and boat on the beach level for example.

A mode 7-esque effect is enticing, but it's not super vital, and it sometimes can make details on an image unintelligible. With a fixed perspective, everything is crisp and visible.

and the up input moving a character along perspective lines could feel odd to the disadvantage of the gameplay; because the angle of their movement would be different depending on how far they are from the vanishing point's center. it's simpler if up is up, down is down, and the player moves in 8 directions the way that they'd expect to.

[TheShyGuy]

I didn't mean fake3D or perspective projection, I meant something like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcZ3lFqpYgk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzcafCYecnI

where the camera projection is orthographic and everything is 3D.

If you're interested, here's some resources:

For the general process of using 3D models while keeping the 2D look:
http://www.gamedev.net/topic/629496-dyna...lgorythms/

For the shortcomings of manual depth sorting versus using the depth buffer:
www.gamedev.net/topic/470599-isometric-depth-sorting/

For the pixel crispiness using Unity, but it's still useful if you're not using Unity:
http://blogs.unity3d.com/2015/06/19/pixel-perfect-2d/

_____

Edit:

The one-off initial process just involves getting the correct camera settings in both the 3D modelling program and game. Afterwards, asset creation just requires that the 3D models have consistent pixels per world units, which isn't difficult. I can make a tutorial sometime about putting it all together in Unity, if you're interested.

[Sketchasaurus]

Here's a rough sketch of a potential HUB world screen and potential functions in a single player mode.



City: a place for certain items and events, there could be an urban arena map where you engage in combat with gangs or street performers of some sort. There may be a sub-hub with places like a Casino, Construction Zone, Rough-part-of-Town, and Capitol building, among others. High risk of sustaining injuries that temporarily disable party members' ability to compete in tournaments and participate in other events.
Stadium: the place to sign up and compete in sanctioned matches; the place where tournaments are held.
Gym & Track: The place where Titans are trained to compete and where their moves can be modified and where equipment like armor can be bought and fitted on your team.
Ranch: Where Titans go when they're acquired; possibly a place for virtual pet-like features
Beach: Certain bosses/enemies/events are encountered here.
Docks & Port: Send expeditions out to trap new titans; the type of titan that's brought back depends on what gear is assigned to the crew. They're more likely to bring back items and supplies with titans being somewhat rarer of an occurrence (to keep number of unused/neglected titans low, and to encourage people to spend more time training and using the ones that they have)
Town: a place to buy and sell supplies.
Museum: Where information on encountered species can be accessed, also a place to process fossils brought back from expeditions or the mountains.
Mountains: Wilderness to potentially explore, also a place to acquire fossils. Also the resting place of an enormous Titan (possibly being the final boss).

Fossils would be assembled in order to acquire dinosaur and other prehistoric Titans.

[Khyze]

I've thought about that a bit, and it's been brought up to me before in other places. The main issues are deciding on an engine and getting a programmer. This is currently a passion-based project with no current budget, so those two things are harder to come by.

Maybe the next one will be in 3D, though. ahaha

What about me?

-Cost: 0$ (I kinda have that Passion for Videogames, well, and still im nobody, is hard to find a 0$ team around here)
-Engine: Game Maker Studio (I started with Game Maker 8, i guess in 2011)

Here is something that i made 1 Year ago:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0J1wOtBq6pg

I guess you wont believe how much i improved since that video:
-I learned how to do better 3D world (Instead of just a Plane ground)
-I learned how to do 3D Models (Well, with Sketches as a base)
-Now i use Smooth player rotation (There you see moving it rough)
-Now i use Smooth camera rotation (And even with Mouse, that video was with Keyboard)
-And few more things (Well, those was the most important for me )

But the only thing that i havent improved since then are the Ugly animations, but as i read you may want to use the 2D sprites in a 3D world? then there isnt a problem

Something like this "fake" 3
http://orig08.deviantart.net/b402/f/2013...66tqbl.png

http://pokemon3d.net/forum/screenshots/2...embedded=1

Or maybe i read wrong , well i didnt read all comments (Just few of them) i will be listen till now, so, any updates i will see it, Also, nice proyect

[hawtorange]

EDIT: Modified post to make it less like an advertisement on my part.

In regards to using a 3D engine with 2D visuals, it depends on the stages you're going to end up having.  If you want platforms and wedges/ramps (think the over-world of Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story) then it might be very useful; otherwise, I'd stick to a 2D engine.  Especially if the program you're using would give you a hard time making a 3D engine.

Initially I brought up game maker studio to look into, but this was under the impression that they had the same setup I believe they had several months ago.  This was the free version didn't have much limitations other than you couldn't change the splash screen or the game's icon, which you could do both in the paid version.  Though I checked their site and it seems that it now has some features exclusive to the paid version.


Anyway, good luck with your game. Sorry that I can't be much help.

[Sketchasaurus]

here's a tentative brand logo that might be incorporated into the finalized logo design and other promo material.

Thanks for the comments! I think I actually do have a pro license for Game Maker Studio, but I haven't really done much with GM in a LONG time. I'm still hoping to be able to work with Lexou a bit in Haxe (even though I'm still trying to figure my way around using it) largely because he's already put a lot of good work into the playable bits we have so far. Though, with what I want to do with the playable characters, there's a lot of animation to be done, so there'll most likely be a lot of stuff that needs to be done in that department (but I don't think we're ready to recruit anyone quite yet)

I've been doing some concept exploration stuff and coming up with potential scenarios that'd have to be considered in the battle mechanics. One thing that comes to mind is the potential for underwater combat.

Aquatic Titans would be able to move around considerably better in this field type than terrestrial Titans, giving them a bit more of a home-field advantage. Jumping would be changed into a swimming action, and certain projectiles would most likely be affected by the field, but not completely nullified for balance reasons (can't give the fish every advantage)