tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5439941893980599296.post111288477764855925..comments2023-09-24T07:49:19.084-04:00Comments on Games By Design Has Moved!: A Valley Without Wind #13 - Beta Gameplay Footage Part One (Video)Christopher M. Parkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16719365007524426389noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5439941893980599296.post-17046361392755515692011-08-18T01:15:53.958-04:002011-08-18T01:15:53.958-04:00Christopher, this is looking better and better. An...Christopher, this is looking better and better. Animations look a lot more natural. <br /><br />You and your team are doing great things here.Tankor Smashnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5439941893980599296.post-89059376279738912382011-08-17T15:05:44.029-04:002011-08-17T15:05:44.029-04:00The start/stop work is already done, and will be r...The start/stop work is already done, and will be ready for the next video. Haven't done a slide animation as part of the stopping yet, but will at some point most likely. Probably in beta or after.<br /><br />One of the things about older games (or even newer ones, for that matter) with regard to sprite animations on the main character is that they typically only have one or two main characters. So they CAN lushly animate them because it's just one character and hey why not. In our case, we've got so many distinct characters -- any NPC can be a player character -- that this means we've got to put in vastly more artwork to make that sort of thing happen. That's the main reason why the difference here, anyhow.<br /><br />Terraria wasn't really a factor with the initial idea to switch to side view, because I didn't know Terraria existed when I originally floated the idea with Keith back in December. He promptly brought up Terraria in response, though. Much later, when we came back to that impulse to move to side view, seeing the fact that people were okay with that perspective in Terraria certainly didn't hurt matters. Keith played it and really liked it, but I still haven't had time to play it yet. The wood platforms were an idea that came about independently, but it's kind of an obvious idea so I guess that's not surprising. ;)Christopher M. Parkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16719365007524426389noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5439941893980599296.post-81859417119656326752011-08-17T14:18:04.037-04:002011-08-17T14:18:04.037-04:00I gotta agree that the start-stop needs work, and ...I gotta agree that the start-stop needs work, and I'm happy you're listening to the feedback. :D<br /><br />It's be awesome if the sliding stop, after reaching near max or max speed was accompanied by a matching animation, though.<br /><br />I know your manpower is very limited, but people are going to stare at their characters for hours. Making them as snazzy as time constraints permit is probably a worthy goal. (That can probably be put off until after release, but it'd be nifty.)<br /><br />Look at an old game like Castlevania SotN as example. The monster animations (bosses excluded) are extremely simplistic, but the main character's animations are rather impressively detailed. That makes things decidedly more pleasant when you spend hours with him at the center of your screen.<br /><br />On another note: Did Terraria play any role in the decision to change perspectives? Part of that underground, and the wooden platforms, do sorta remind me of that a lot. :oAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5439941893980599296.post-20031397257198239432011-08-15T10:34:25.667-04:002011-08-15T10:34:25.667-04:00Yeah, from comments elsewhere I'm going to inc...Yeah, from comments elsewhere I'm going to increase the characters' acceleration rate when starting out (because it's annoying otherwise), and then add a slide effect when they stop.Christopher M. Parkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16719365007524426389noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5439941893980599296.post-66371897497510366262011-08-15T10:26:10.124-04:002011-08-15T10:26:10.124-04:00It's just... The effect reminds me of early Ev...It's just... The effect reminds me of early Evolution RTS (Spring Engine mod) effects which just looked wrong.<br /><br />Anyway, other than that I'd say you should make the acceleration and deceleration rates on the character movement match (currently you accelerate slowly but stop very quickly which again looks odd, kinda sticky) and it's good.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5439941893980599296.post-55848006707441128872011-08-15T08:49:25.894-04:002011-08-15T08:49:25.894-04:00In terms of fireballs, I can't really argue se...In terms of fireballs, I can't really argue semantics there -- this is what I've chosen to do, and I'm happy with it. There originally was a central ball of visible fire, but I didn't feel that played as well or looked as nice, so I took it out. Other spells will vary in their makeup, but that spell is definitely long since done.<br /><br />In terms of the dungeons, good eye that these are trees. There are actually two things going on there to make them not fully trees, but that's not visually represented in the maps yet:<br /><br />1. There are side passages (holes in the wall underground, ventilation ducts in most interiors) that let you get around in a non-tree fashion.<br /><br />2. For some buildings, there's actually multiple entrances, too.<br /><br /><br />Beyond that I'm sure we'll do more things at some stage, but for now that's how we're setting up the layouts.Christopher M. Parkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16719365007524426389noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5439941893980599296.post-68490672138187673172011-08-15T06:33:33.059-04:002011-08-15T06:33:33.059-04:00Hm, is there any chance that dungeons will stop be...Hm, is there any chance that dungeons will stop being trees design-wise? It looks pretty odd how rooms only ever branch out, never join up again.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5439941893980599296.post-30263521538098066532011-08-14T04:26:21.782-04:002011-08-14T04:26:21.782-04:00The fireball seems to have a definite collision sh...The fireball seems to have a definite collision shape, that part should be visible. A prominent trail like that is justified if the trail particles have a clear gameplay impact but just having them pop out of nowhere like that looks plain weird. I mean, it's a fire BALL. That ball is the dangerous part, right? That's why it should be visible. Keeping the trail more coherent (applying air drag or something to the particles) would also help to make it look less like a flaming icicle. After all the flames are supposed to be moving towards the enemy, not burst out of the background along a path.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5439941893980599296.post-69443179493099113512011-08-13T19:32:45.864-04:002011-08-13T19:32:45.864-04:00In terms of the bright outline, that's an arti...In terms of the bright outline, that's an artifact that sometimes pops in to some of the sprites as I post-process them. I have a quick Photoshop method for removing them when I find them, but most things don't have them. In a lot of cases, also, I think it works well visually. But where it doesn't I remove it (though I've not caught all cases; mushrooms underground in particular need it, I think).<br /><br />In terms of the dynamic lighting on the characters, I don't plan on doing that anytime soon. It's a potential area for improvement sometime, but for now I'm happy with the (very weak and ambient) light source that is on the characters, and plan to leave it like that.<br /><br />In terms of the projectiles, when there is actually a projectile we definitely have one and show it. In the case of most of these effects shown here, such as the fireball for instance, there isn't a literal projectile like a rock or anything -- rather, it's a big mass of fire. Others that are more about shooting a meteor or similar will actually show the meteor with then a trail.<br /><br />Glad you like the animations, and the exploration bits. I agree about not wanting to have digging be a thing here. :)<br /><br />In terms of enemy spawns, they come out of literal monster nests, so if you stand near a nest then they'll come out near you. But you can get a feel for the timing, and you can jump over the nest to avoid them, too. The nest graphics are placeholder at the moment, by the way, but you can see them all through the video.<br /><br />In terms of preorders, we'll be taking those as soon as we have a beta and beta demo to share with you. Ideally, by the middle of September. We look actually on track to hit that estimate, finally. ;)Christopher M. Parkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16719365007524426389noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5439941893980599296.post-12484584392458776202011-08-13T17:13:08.021-04:002011-08-13T17:13:08.021-04:00The new characters and animations look great, the ...The new characters and animations look great, the difference from last video is very noticeable and positive. I know you were tired of hearing about those, but it was definitely worth the effort.<br /><br />I hadn't noticed this before but previous commenter is right about particle effects. They look good but it's not clear where is the harmful bit.<br /><br />Will enemies always spawn so close to the player? It could be quite frustrating to have them constantly pop out of nowhere.<br /><br />Also, bats look just as irritating as they did in the old perspective. :P<br /><br />Any estimates on when will you start taking preorders? I would gladly pay for it already if only you'd let me. :)mlaskushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04654430978155870903noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5439941893980599296.post-49907268286433260272011-08-13T12:06:48.788-04:002011-08-13T12:06:48.788-04:00It looks nice but I found two things in the presen...It looks nice but I found two things in the presentation that bug me:<br /><br />1. Things have a brighter outline than main body, that just seems odd and doesn't give them much volume and gives them a bit of a paper cutout feel. If it's necessary to highlight objects then maybe it should be limited to objects that are interactive or important, it seemed to be on every decoration object.<br /><br />There don't seem to be any shadows on your main character at all which looks very odd, like there's no light source, just random highlighting (if you wonder about how to add dynamic shadows to sprites, I think you could use a normalmap generated from the 3D model and feed that into lighting calculations, should allow you to properly shade a sprite with dynamic light source positions).<br /><br /><br />2. Projectiles look like they're only particle trails, gives them a kind of non-solid feel. I think adding a big sprite at the current location of the fireball with the trail de-emphasized would make it clearer which bit of that particle shower is the dangerous part. The lightning particles shot by those white ball enemies also look pretty detached, a line trail through them might make that look more consistent.<br /><br />I know you don't like complaints about the graphics but I think these are fairly minor tweaks. Appearance is pretty important, there are too many shallow gamers out there who look at a screenshot and go "ugly, next!".<br /><br />Still, I'm looking forward to this game. The best parts of Terraria are when you explore an area without having to dig and this is finally a game that doesn't throw that boring digging stuff at you when all you want is to explore dangerous caverns and stuff.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com