Post by xombiemike on Jan 6, 2019 12:47:10 GMT -5
(Quoted from the Wordpress)
Merry Christmas everyone. First up, here’s a massive 20+ minute video with some serious updates and footage. The timestamps are in the video details on youtube. A quick shoutout to Jacob Woodruff goes out as well, who made a lot of remade sprites for Alucard. As well as one goes out to Mario Santos for the new wolf design and the bunch of animations he created. And a HUGE one goes out to my current artist as well for all of his hard work and dedication in remaking many of Alucard’s and adding in countless new animations for bat and wolf form!
I covered lot in the video, so I’m going to be relatively brief here: the goal is to get a demo out this year. Followed by a Patreon. I’m also interested in having a forum set up for brainstorming, feedback and bug testing purposes. If anyone has a site where one can be set up for me like this, please feel free to outreach me ASAP. I have received several offers in the past. So let’s see how many of those people will still put up now that the time has come!
………… no, I won’t be using Discord. That suggestion has been offered several times and there are multiple reasons why I have chosen not to use it.
Another good question that came up, was in reference to mod-ability. Allow me to reiterate again that the engine is being coded in a way that will make it very user-friendly experience for people to go in and add new things. This means lots of notes, things arranged in a hierarchical and logical fashion, etc. I included a screenshot below displaying my actual work space to better show what I mean, along with some of my code:
Anyone who codes can tell you that trying to learn and modify someone else’s code is NOT easy. Luckily, the engine is being coded in Unity using C#. Which, in itself, automatically makes modifying things a much less daunting task. But it will still require a person to know how to code and use the Unity editor if they want to make changes. I know people want some magic spell that just makes adding new stuff a button click away…. but that’s just not realistic.
Mind you, I won’t be releasing the code immediately. That will come way later after all the secrets have been discovered and I have finished adding content to it. But it will eventually happen.
Anyway, I’ll discuss mod making at a later date in more detail. For now, there is a much more important subject that I wish to cover. And that is concept art. The project is now at the point where concept art is DEFINITELY needed. While myself and the few people I have working with me have a TON of ideas, it always helps to get feedback from the community. I mentioned this briefly at the end of the vid, but the images found below are actual concept art for the new first stage: the graveyard.
Both of these were done by the artist on my team. And are perfect examples of how to submit assets or even whole rooms for a new area. The first one is what I went with, but there are also a number of assets in the 2nd one that I am having being turned into sprites as well. Submissions like this are extremely helpful and really assist in stimulating the creative process. Even something as simple as the bare bones sketch below helps too:
At this point, I could definitely use suggestions for things like room layouts, enemy positioning, decor and various assets that could be used throughout the stage, etc. The flow of this first new area will be:
Graveyard (with a small mausoleum or two we pass thru in it) -> church leading upward -> town of Aljiba (which was rebuilt slightly after Rondo, but still mostly lies in ruins) -> back out to graveyard and boss
Any suggestions, concept art, tiles, etc. can be placed in a comment here. But again I am ONLY looking for ideas for this one stage at the moment. Admittedly, I’m looking forward to seeing what creative things people come up with. I have gotten some really creative ones in the past, and I always look forward to implementing things that will make people go “Wow, that is really nuts!” or “Man, that’s brilliant!” Those are the extra touches that I think make a game really shine.
Anyway, at this point, I’ve said more than enough for the moment. Stay tuned to this blog for any future updates and videos on my progress. I will be putting up a lot more things for the coming year of 2019!