UDK Hack-Slash Game Project

[creasso]

Hi, I'm working on a small HS game using UDK.

Would be great get some outside opinions since I don't have developers near, I'm certain that this can make the project grow a lot.

Here are the first visual tests (got from editor):

http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/Far_Camera.jpg

http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/Near_Camera.jpg

Cursor is "photoshopped" just to mood analysis since I didn't the UICode yet.:p

Thanks in advance!

[Forsaken]

that looks delicious!
First view: "Wtf D3?" :D
but that was just the sand thing.

[evilmrfrank]

Looks kinda cool so far :D

[ellement]

nice model you got there :)) , any videos?

[warlord57]

looks good so far. Keep up the good work, look forward to seeing more.

[creasso]

Thanks guys, I'll keep the updates.
@Forsaken, tx I must confess that you made my day with your comment)
@ellement, No videos yet, I have a large temple to texture first ;)

Best wishes

[creasso]

Following the bridge,the player will enter a small cave segment: :p

http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/Cave_Shot.jpg

Also, I began to deal with the collision:
http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/Cave_Collt.jpg

I think that I'll need add more assets to the cave after, any suggestions?

[Brokenteddy]

Looking great so far! A decent camera and a custom character, that's half the battle!

Keep going!

[maybe123]

Looking Very Good ;), Love the Camera Angles :)

[Froyok]

I agree with other, very nice renders ! :)

[Drevlin]

Nice renders. :) Keep it up

[creasso]

Hi guys! Thanks by the incentive :)

Well, proceeding deeper and deeper in the cave we start to see that the cave is the access to some ruined temple:

http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/Temple_Entrance.jpg

The building start to become more complex while advancing:

http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/Corridor_Shot.jpg

I'm starting to notice that the difficult part is get a "themed" asset set, I'm trying to keep the art direction in few color (alike D1 and D2)... The challenge is do this while keeping a nice contrast and detail.

[Claite]

Have you had a chance to run around in the level? Or are you still setting up the level before you start running around?

I'm also assuming this will be a 3rd person H&S? Or will you try to do it first person?

I like the renders and scenes so far. I'd like to see how it looks from the view of the player (how light/dark the scene is, how easy is it to tell where to go, so forth)

[creasso]

Thank you guys! I'm dying to finish a nice looking level to implement gameplay lol.

@Claite
- I'm doing the tests with the Play from here, but just to check if the pawn can walk trough the path.
- Yep, it will be a 3rd person H&S, no 1st person option.
- The scene will look alike the renders, but of course with another light threatment, to such environment I'm thinking in work a bit with torches and candles to create a more evil mood... `^^´

[Drevlin]

Why do you aspire to use few desaturated gray/brown colours? It is a theme, yes but I am wondering why you decide to go with it.

Im all forth using few colours to build a strong theme, but using few colours of the same pallete with little to no contrast doesnt make much sense to me. Making the world "gray" is one way of getting a dark, depressing look but that can be achieved by using certain colours as well and you will get a stronger visual impact through contrast, not to mention better material response. Remember that Diablo 1 and 2 are sprite games - they didnt have material response other than colour maps but working in UDK that has better lighting and better material response. You can do so much more with materials in UDK than blizzard could do with Diablo 1 and 2.

I dont mean to lecture you, im sure you know that UDK has better tech than diablo 1 and 2 :) And know this when you read my comment, I am sick and tired of the "next gen" desaturated look, and I am deeply coloured by my distaste for it (pardon the pun). I love strong colours and clear visual themes, I love expressive environments. You clearly have skills as displayed by your work, but i dont think you do yourself or the project justice by going for a desaturated look.

[KazeoHin]

Building a theme from these colors may be for just a certain area. I could imagine jungle, or cascadian environments for this sort of game: plenty of opportunity to use different colors.

[SageHunter]

Why do you aspire to use few desaturated gray/brown colours? It is a theme, yes but I am wondering why you decide to go with it.

Im all forth using few colours to build a strong theme, but using few colours of the same pallete with little to no contrast doesnt make much sense to me. Making the world "gray" is one way of getting a dark, depressing look but that can be achieved by using certain colours as well and you will get a stronger visual impact through contrast, not to mention better material response. Remember that Diablo 1 and 2 are sprite games - they didnt have material response other than colour maps but working in UDK that has better lighting and better material response. You can do so much more with materials in UDK than blizzard could do with Diablo 1 and 2.

I dont mean to lecture you, im sure you know that UDK has better tech than diablo 1 and 2 :) And know this when you read my comment, I am sick and tired of the "next gen" desaturated look, and I am deeply coloured by my distaste for it (pardon the pun). I love strong colours and clear visual themes, I love expressive environments. You clearly have skills as displayed by your work, but i dont think you do yourself or the project justice by going for a desaturated look.

I'm also a bit tired of the whole grayscale gaming. For some reason it is confused with realism. Like there's no color in reality.

It is hard to achieve a real and natural look but I feel that too many has gone to this simple sollution of removing color so that nothing sticks out in an unnatural way.

[creasso]

@Drevlin & SageHunter:
It's a hard path get color enough to get apart from the "desat" tendency and at same time keep away from look like a WOW's cousin. I'll keep posting to get some feedback, thank you.

@KazeoHin, Oh! Nice suggestions, but I'll just think about another themes after finish this one... Thanks!

[SageHunter]

@Drevlin & SageHunter:
It's a hard path get color enough to get apart from the "desat" tendency and at same time keep away from look like a WOW's cousin. I'll keep posting to get some feedback, thank you.

Very true. My criticism was not aimed particularly at you, anyhow I do think that some colour except from the brown/gray scale could never ruin a scene.

[Drevlin]

@Drevlin & SageHunter:
It's a hard path get color enough to get apart from the "desat" tendency and at same time keep away from look like a WOW's cousin. I'll keep posting to get some feedback, thank you.

@KazeoHin, Oh! Nice suggestions, but I'll just think about another themes after finish this one... Thanks!


Game development isnt easy. :) I dont see "its hard" as a valid reason not to do something. Youll have to consider how good you are, how much time it would take and weigh it against much it would benefit the project. If you come up with "Yes, its not worth it" that is a very valid reason, and one I can compleatly relate to. Ive been making game art for the last 5 years and been making games for the last 12 and I just recently started to master colour composition.

Try, fail and learn for future projects, or try and suceed and yay!. Either way its benefical imo. :)

[creasso]

@SageHunter: Also a truth, but I'm really convinced that we can get many nuances and tones from an almost monochrome texset trough usage of well placed lights, shadow cuts and normal maps, I still thinking about certain petition that DFans signed and what they awaited to see.

@Drevlin: Ohhh... Maybe I expressed myself bad with the "it's hard" statement, be sure that regardless my skill level I'll keep trying. lol Also thanks by your comments, to be sincere is nice have some artists virtually nearby to exchange knowledge or simply chat ;)

Well, back to this weekend results:

Finally I got enough assets that works well within BSP blocks, this will allow me to save some modeling time and mesh memory covering a big map area with some variations:
http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/Abyssal_Platforms.jpg

Also how I did mention to torches on a previous post, got some time to study CASCADE and got my first particle system working, to be sincere is almost the same thing than work with Particle Flow in 3dsMAX, you just need a good sprite and "voilá"!
http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/Cascade_Torch.jpg

Did also a full redo on the character, the 1st version looked so rough near the remaining art quality so I decided replace everything, imo it looks better:
http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/Dagger_Rev1.jpg

Comments are welcome like usual :D

CYA!

[Kamikaz2011]

it's really nice ,, i'm waiting for a video

Good luck ^^

[creasso]

OK, more shots, began now to do some real closed environment:

http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/Cave_Fortress_Entr.jpg
also, working now within assets that I can hide:
http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/Fortress_Sample_Room.jpg
http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/Hide_Preview.jpg

Best Wishes

[TheFreeman]

I'm loving the artwork gone into this, do you have any game play currently that you could show off?

[junkens]

this is going to be epic. :D
I /sign "TheFreeman".
Is where any gameplay yet?

The mainchar looks nice.

[creasso]

@junkens and TheFreeman: Thank you by the kind comments. I must confess that I didn't touched gameplay yet, while I already got some code samples, my effort now are all focused in get some nice looking "goth fantasy" stuff.

I don't know if is a good approach first invest in "how the game would look" previously to gameplay, but since UDK has amazing graphic capabilities I fear in don't have excuses to present an ugly game.

Anyway, the feedback that all you are providing here is a great incentive, and I thank you for this. Also be sure that when I get some gameplay working the "avant premiere" will be certainly here. ;)

Best Wishes!

[TheFreeman]

Well, seeing that you have a character ingame and done, I'd suggest working on getting all the animations and stuff done on him first. Use the level your building as a testing area once your done with it, and then start to think about some gameplay ideas and working them in. I guess this is the benefits of working with a team, doing more than one thing at once.

It's probably not what most people would do in that order, but I would :P

The benefits of working with a team is doing more than one thing at once. One person could work on graphics while a coder can work on implementing them, I.E Magic effects and such. I'd suggest hunting for some recruits, Moddb has a ton of people just waiting to jump on such a project!

[creasso]

Hi!

@Freeman: Yeap, I know... But I think that people will be busy within their own game ideas, maybe if this become something more palpable than art stuff I should try get some partners. Tx by the idea!

Back to the project...

Finnaly got the core level done, was a nice editor learning exercise, since I used SMeshes, BSP and also a small terrain segment, I think that I know at least the basics to design a level.

http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/ST_Roof_Ready.jpg

Now I'm going to the 2nd detailing pass, dealing with lighting and minor decoration meshes, also planning some FX when needed:

http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/ST_Bridge_Deco.jpg

Best wishes

[Kharnivor]

Hey their nice progress, Im also a 3d artist working on a D3 like game, Iwas wondering have you any idea how youll get the meshes that are in front of the pawn to hide ?

Good luck with the huge amount of assets it takes to make a level look full :)

[RhinoMatte]

Hey their nice progress, Im also a 3d artist working on a D3 like game, Iwas wondering have you any idea how youll get the meshes that are in front of the pawn to hide ?

Good luck with the huge amount of assets it takes to make a level look full :)


I read somewhere that you should use trigger volumes and when a player touches them, change the material to something transparent, and when they untouch, unchange it.

[creasso]

@Kharnivor Tx, I did not R&D about how to hide stuff, I just did the assets divided because a rough planning. But RhinoMatte's tip makes a lot of sense ;)

@RhinoMatte Thanks by the tip!

Back to progress:

Began to do the light setup and decoration in some areas:
http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/051110_A.jpg
http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/051110_B.jpg
http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/051110_C.jpg
http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/051110_D.jpg

Also, did a small R&D in how to get candle flames moving, if someone get interested here is:
A - First model your candle within the flame, map it and etc...

B - Before export it, do some Vertex Painting on the model:
http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/CandleTut_1.jpg

C - On export:
http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/CandleTut_2.jpg

D - Inside your editor, build this shader setup, make a MaterialInstanceConstant and apply on your model
http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/CandleTut_3.jpg

E - Don't forget to include a Wind Info on your scene, and have fun! ;)

The same setup could be used within grass blades and any animated object.

Best wishes!

[RhinoMatte]

@Kharnivor Tx, I did not R&D about how to hide stuff, I just did the assets divided because a rough planning. But RhinoMatte's tip makes a lot of sense ;)

@RhinoMatte Thanks by the tip!


No problem, I didn't figure it out myself, just learned from someone who did it before.

Thanks for the candle tip, and nice progress!

[junkens]

WAAANT TO PLAAAAAY.
That just looks ridiculous!

Although it's getting darker and darker. Hopefully something lights the caves up. :D

[nezus]

Still amazing work :D

Really nice atmosphere !

[Max Power]

I like this work, and dungeons are some of my favorite environments to build. A few quick things I noticed.

Tall, rising pillars, statues, etc. are great for foreground detail in this camera space.

The scale of the interior (floor/wall) bricks is very small. This leads to aggressive tiling and lack of medium frequency detail in your sceens. They are best suited for tight, closer camerea environments or small details in general. Cleaver lighting, props, dirt, contrast manipulation and so on can only serve to cover the tiling, bust still leavesa major gap in scene composition.

The immediate solution is recreating them as larger slabs of stone/bricks for the floors and walls. Beyond correcting repetativeness, scene noise and, you can model them out for more mid level detail.

You don't really see this issue on the dirt/sand ground surfaces due to their lower contrast.

[gausswerks]

Max Power is right, you've got some pretty noticeable tiling artifacts on the bricks.

That said it's cool to see a project so comparatively well developed, nice work so far. Need to get those playable builds out :)

[MythicMonkey]

Everything is looking great, creasso. I look forward to seeing future progress! :)

[creasso]

@MythicMonkey and gausswerks: Thanks guys, I'll try get something ready as soon May Beta with Scaleform shows up ;)

@Max Power: Cool! Nice tips to keep attention, I'll follow your advice. My main guideline now is the scene composition within the character (that I'm just pasting into the map by now) when I notice that the tiles looks so much big I'm increasing then a bit to avoid loose the overall scale. My task will probably get easier while I'm increasing the asset lybrary and finishing the map.

About the tile breachs, I'll probably need do a fine tune in the textures before the demo release, I need do some tests with LMass at production quality to notice the real bad areas, but I relly a lot on the community help and opinions to find what is nice. ;)

Thanks for your feedback guys!

[creasso]

Hi guys/girls!

Good news! I finished the map at least in a basic level (Hooray!)

Got some trouble with the new rendering capabilities of the engine, when I oppened the map in May release my map was dark as a hole. lol
Needed to learn LUT to fix the troubles.

Anyway, next assets that I did were the UI ones since I'm getting the unlearnt things first (don't know how to implement in Scaleform yet).

I would love to say that this UI was simple to made but I need confess that I did and redid it a lot of times until look right. You'll probably miss the red and blue orbs, bars or triangles that we are used to see in these kind of games, but since I'm doing all from scratch I decided try some new ideas on gameplay that will reflect on the UI.

Here is how it looks (no map yet):
http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/HUD1.jpg

The three buttons at left are Menu-Inventory-CharInfo, at center we have the Combat Idol and at right the Active Skill and a Skill Bar.

Probably to understand the Idol you'll need watch it working, so regardless this I would appreciate in hear opinions about the overall look and if the Icons look intuitive or not.

Thank you in advance!

[hero_kenshin]

Maybe don't have the ui so think in the centre of the screen, i'd place the bigger items more to sides, so it blocks less of the things you want to see.
If you get me

[junkens]

Combat Idol? Something like stances?
hm.. well I'm not seeing any lifebar and manabar so something that shows you how near you are to death and releases stances through that? :D

anyway it's getting better and better. WAANT TO PLAY!
The ui looks delicious! Maybe one or 2 decent colors would be cool too but well your decision.
Did you made everything by yourself?

[marcusmattingly]

Wow, this looks incredible! Keep up the great work, and keep us posted on your progress.

[El Junk]

Looks really cool, the UI too. Can't wait to see it in motion. ScreenToaster (http://www.screentoaster.com/) might be worth a look if anyone is trying to capture some video.

[creasso]

@hero_kenshin: I still in some study about UI placement, until now I'm betting my tokens in the old D1 screen division, maybe with a camera a bit more parallel to the gameplay ground and offset the char center a bit to the top we'll miss less of the screen. I'll post some tests after ;)

@junkens: Yep it will show how near death we'll be lol. We'll have colors also, on the skills buttons mainly so it will break the monochromatic feeling. And until now I'm on the DIY scheme but planning get a team after.

@marcusmattingly: thanks! I'll try the better to don't mess everything while implementing gameplay lol.

@El Junk: Nice! I'll visit their homepage thanks by point it ;)

Best!

[junkens]

wuhu. I'm so good in analyzing stuff. :D
but that with releasing stances because of combat-idol change isn't a part of it. right?

this project is going to be epic. :D even LEGENDARY

[creasso]

@junkens Agreed... To me now you'll be known as: Junkens "The Eagle Eye"! lol
thanks by the kind comments!

Anyway, got the Scaleformed version working (displaying at least). If someone got interested in the code it's here:
http://forums.epicgames.com/showthread.php?p=27362549#post27362549

The only issue that I got was with my round buttons, but I'll work on this ASAP:

http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/rbuttonissue.jpg

Best wishes!

[creasso]

Hi!

Like I said previously, would be better show the Idol working, well here is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbF6oUsvsEM

First game video, I need do some tests about compression to try get a better resolution on YT... :(

Comments welcome like usual.

CYA!

[RhinoMatte]

Awesome!!!!!

[El Junk]

Looks really cool creasso. :)

[creasso]

Thanks RhinoMatte & El Junk...

Good news!

Got the concentration bar working, my idea is don't use MANA to feed skills, but instead a concentration bar that we can fill keeping the Right Mouse Button pressed (alike KoF A+B+C)...

Here is how it looks now (ingame footage!)... :D
32% like filling example:
http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/ConcBar_32.jpg

At full power it burns and also rotates...
http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/ConcBar_100.jpg

Did not a video because my pathfinding routine is not 100% yet, also don't make so much sense a video without at least one skill working... Anyway, I'll keep updating.

Best Wishes!

[marcusmattingly]

Wow, this is really looking good.

[pedepano]

creasson, are you brasilian? i liked so much to your project! i am studing UDK about 5 months, and i love it!

maybe we can talk someday... add me on MSN, melo.henrique@hotmail.com

good luck on your project..

[danimal']

Looks very cool, but when watching the video, the character appears to be floating slightly because the shadow is separated from him (watch his feet, unless I'm crazy your shadow would never leave your foot). Just thought I'd point it out. Otherwise, really impressive and great work!

[creasso]

Hi guys/gals.

@marcusmattingly Thanks! I'm trying really hard here, I'm happy that I'm getting positive feedback like yours. ;)

Portuguese BR ON
@pedepano Sim, sou brasileiro - e não desisto nunca lol -, vou te add depois sim, obrigado pela visita!
Portuguese BR OFF

@danimal' You're right and not crazy (lol), I noticed this also, I'm getting troubles in setup the character shadows and also when the overall shadow direction need swap control between the different light influences, another trouble is the shadowmap mipping... I promise that it's all on my todo list, I just thought that I can deal within these light aspects a bit before cook the map to release. Thanks by your comments.

But to continue:

I achieved a rough pathfinding working, also in this new video in the beggining I pressed the right mouse button to show the concentration bar working:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2gHGJrtASE...

I'm just a bit scared with the NAVMesh system, in the code samples the UTBots don't use it and I just got code samples on the crowd agent. Also the documentation about it points just how to create the mesh and few about implementing...

Anyway, if I got a 100% effective code I'll post it here.

I also want to lend a special thanks to Christian Roy from X9 Game programming blog for his amazing tutorial that did help me a lot on the basic Player Controller setup.

Worths a visit: http://x9productions.com/blog/?page_id=357.

Best wishes!

[heyufool1]

Wow! Very very nice looking project you got going here! From the video the only thing that I didn't like was the dust, it was a bit too thick so maybe just lowering the opacity would make it nicer. I know that this is still a WIP but I thought I let you know :) Overall, looks amazing!

[creasso]

@heyufool1 Thanks by the kind comments, I'll get to these changes in the seccond level tunning past. Thanks for pointing it...

Yesterday (after my PFSystem reach 90% efficiency lol) I tought that would be a good idea prepare at least one mob to implement combat and AI. I'm happy in get a break from Level Art and code stuff to back to Characters and a bit of writting...

Luckilly everytime that I need a good reference, some Discovery Show tells about some weird animal that I can use in something. When I was doing mob concepts I seen a documentary about underwater animals, but, after I seen the "Hermit Crab" I got so much crazy to pay attention to anything.

Here is the result, hope that you like it:

http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/HermitConcept.jpg

Mob Specs:
Name: Grave's Hermit
Type: Insect
Class: C
Description:
The Grave's Hermit is an special kind of insect that don't have exoskeleton covering the most delicate body parts, to compensate this weakness it uses a corpse from another animal to protect and disguise himself, also adapting the new body within hunt capabilities.
Habitat: Usually inhabits abandoned cemeteries and temple catacombs from where villagers got the creature's name.

Model shots:
http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/Hermit_Preview.jpg

How the joke is unaivodable, I'm aware that in the finish it looks like an "Infested Mummy". LOL

CYA!

[pedepano]

awesome man! i really like the last video, great Path Finding, weel done dude.

about "Infested Mummy", he has a great look!
i would like to see more detail about main character, it's possible?

by the way, what software you use?

see ya

[creasso]

@pedepano I'm a MAX heavy addicted... lol

Well, like danimal' pointed before, my pawn was flying when not on a flar horizon surface, I messed a bit with shadows just to discover that it's for lack of IK...

Implemented:

http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/SimpleIK.jpg

And, not works perfectly because of lack of Mesh Alignment to ground plane...

http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/SimpleIK_Trouble.jpg

That required a new function that worked...

http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/MeshAlign_A.jpg

http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/MeshAlign_B.jpg

Special thanks to danimal' comments that lead me to change this...


Best Wishes!

[rahatropa]

Looking great creasso! Any updates?

[creasso]

@rahatropa Thanks... But nothing new to show yet. :(

To be sincere, what happened was:
- Began to implement AI, so the mob is chasing the hero, was easy since the same pathfinding can be used.
- BUT when the mob reach the player what must happen is combat (ow ow, I felt that forgot something LOL).
- The mob can attack the player, but to the player fight back he need use weapons.
- Since the player will use weapons this means also character inventory.
- That goes to player customization (that my pawn was not prepared to).
- And probably will implies in the Inventory HUD, etc...

So, I came to a project stage that depends on many related things, lots of rewritting in course.

But I promisse that I'll post something as soon I get something that worths to show. ;)

Best wishes to all you!

[zenarion]

This is *****in awesome.
Will there be multiplayer?
Do you have/need help with creating assets, such as statics and characters/monsters?

[Bofur77]

I love you work .. very cool

Can you upload your work ? or only the script code ??

I want to make a game like D2 too ... but my scripting skills are .. very low ^^

but i dont give up ;)

sry for my bad english and good luck with your project

[TroyMcClure]

Did you use the stock epic rig for your character? Please provide details! Its looking awesome!

[creasso]

Just answering, nothing new "yet"...

@zenarion Thanks man! And about your question all help will be welcome, but I need be plenty sure that I can at least put the same (or near) functionality shown on D3 video before build a crew (I don't want nobody investing time for nothing). Anyway I really thank you by your generous offer and I'll keep your nick near. ^^

@Bofur77 I'll post some tutorials or whatever when I get plenty sure that everything works, but if you want start right now I advice you to read the Isometric Tutorials from X9, it's on the community links, I began there too.

@TroyMcClure No, everything was done from scratch, the only tip that I used was constrain a bone to act like the IK ref (if you try use the animated foot bone the position will shake a lot), the model was done using polymodeling, rigged just with a Biped and skinned with Physique (I hate the default Max Skin Modifier ^^). ActorX understand pretty well the Bip/Phys data so I did not that overlap skeleton.

[JamieG]

@pedepano I'm a MAX heavy addicted... lol

Well, like danimal' pointed before, my pawn was flying when not on a flar horizon surface, I messed a bit with shadows just to discover that it's for lack of IK...

Implemented:

http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/SimpleIK.jpg

And, not works perfectly because of lack of Mesh Alignment to ground plane...

http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/SimpleIK_Trouble.jpg

That required a new function that worked...

http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/MeshAlign_A.jpg

http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/MeshAlign_B.jpg

Special thanks to danimal' comments that lead me to change this...


Best Wishes!

Nice IK work, I'm struggling with foot placement. Could you explain your setup a bit more completely? Any tips/guidance would be appreciated :)

[creasso]

@JamieG Of course!
Sorry by don't post code, I'm on a trip and I'm not with the project here, but I remember well the logic, hope that it helps.

1 - On the character setup you'll need 2 extra bones constrained to your char feet (one to each) to act like IK references, link both to a Reference Bone between your characters legs and on the ground (your Bip root should be linked here too).

2 - On the animtree editor, add 2 skeletal controllers to your "REAL" feet bones (one to each), get a reading on the "Skeletal Controllers" section from the documentation to watch how to implement then and add one IKFoot_Placement connected to each.

3 - On your Pawn code you need do some things:

A - Get the world position from your two ref IK Bones, there is a function that does this and returns the vector. Store these on two variables...

B - Do a trace against your ground from each of these vectors, and after use the hit results + footheight to get an interpolated height, this way you can pull your character to the average ground height by moving your Bip bone (not the Main Root) negatively in Z.

C - Now, do a trace from your character position + 200 against the ground, this will return lots of information but you need care about "HitNormal" that will returns in Radians how much you need rotate your character reference bone to leverage his orientation to the ground.

D - Apply your rotation modifier to the main root and let the foot placement do the remaining! ^^


Best Wishes!

[JamieG]

@JamieG Of course!
...
...
D - Apply your rotation modifier to the main root and let the foot placement do the remaining! ^^
Thanks! Very thorough. I have the rig set up right, my struggle is how do I apply the rotation modifier to the main root? How can I interact with Skeletal Controls in general?

Thank you for your time!

[creasso]

@JamieG Reffer to the "Using Skeletal Controllers" on the Unreal docs, this document explains how to gain access to a specific bone in the Animtree editor and also the kind of skeletal controllers that you can attach to each.

You must attach a controller to your root (not the bip but to your ground ref where you linked it) so you can apply rotations trough the controller. There is one kind that allow Rotations and Translations both in world space how in Bone Space.

Read the doc and pay attention to the kind of controllers that you can use, you'll identify the one that fits. Also in the bottom of this page the Epic guys show what they did with GoW to ramps there is no code but watching how Marcus reacts you can get many ideas.

Best wishes.

[creasso]

Note:
I'm getting crazy with the tons of things needed to get the basic game running, I'm watching what I considered on the beggining a personal project becoming bigger and bigger every day, I'll probably need switch to a more organized task management and some dependency chart or I'll be bury on unpredicted tasks.

Well, these are the last updates...

Other day I get tired of code and decided to watch what I have done to think about next tasks when I noticed an error in shadow casting exactly on the cave entrance:
http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/ShadowShots.jpg

To my surprise, until after deleting the light that was placed to cast the entrance shadow the error persists, so I tried to switch all the level lights to don't affect dynamic objects:
http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/Light_Prop.jpg

The error persists... So I thought that could be to some residual info on the map when I deleted the light, since there is not light on the entrance:
http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/ShowAll.jpg

I redid ALL the level lightning and tought that maybe I could use this opportunity to test "Light Radius"! Well, the level became a bit dark in some places but since the character has his own light I tought that this just add to the game mood...

Here are the shots, I marked the light radius in photoshop:
http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/LRadius_A.jpg

http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/LRadius_B.jpg

The nice thing is that since "Radius" is a variable on the point light component, this can be used like LR of D1 and D2!!! Sort of "Glimmering Helms" and such things on items, how I'm working on item and character customization was a good thing to occurs.

Well... Also I figured that a nice approach would be work character customization, save files and character creation on the same proccess, so I began to do a cathedral where the player creates his character, it's not ready yet but I got a shot from the parts that are made on the Asset Editor:
http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/Modules.jpg

Comments welcome like usual.

Best Wishes.

[marcusmattingly]

Looks better every time I see it! Thanks for the updates and keep up the awesome work.

[Snufkin]

This is amazing i'd like to do a Hack and Slash too someday.

[Guitarrasdeamor]

This game looks absolutely sick. You have skills sir, and I hope to see this finished!

[icesymphony]

Note:
I'm getting crazy with the tons of things needed to get the basic game running, I'm watching what I considered on the beggining a personal project becoming bigger and bigger every day, I'll probably need switch to a more organized task management and some dependency chart or I'll be bury on unpredicted tasks.

Well, these are the last updates...

Other day I get tired of code and decided to watch what I have done to think about next tasks when I noticed an error in shadow casting exactly on the cave entrance:
http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/ShadowShots.jpg

To my surprise, until after deleting the light that was placed to cast the entrance shadow the error persists, so I tried to switch all the level lights to don't affect dynamic objects:
http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/Light_Prop.jpg

The error persists... So I thought that could be to some residual info on the map when I deleted the light, since there is not light on the entrance:
http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/ShowAll.jpg

I redid ALL the level lightning and tought that maybe I could use this opportunity to test "Light Radius"! Well, the level became a bit dark in some places but since the character has his own light I tought that this just add to the game mood...

Here are the shots, I marked the light radius in photoshop:
http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/LRadius_A.jpg

http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/LRadius_B.jpg

The nice thing is that since "Radius" is a variable on the point light component, this can be used like LR of D1 and D2!!! Sort of "Glimmering Helms" and such things on items, how I'm working on item and character customization was a good thing to occurs.

Well... Also I figured that a nice approach would be work character customization, save files and character creation on the same proccess, so I began to do a cathedral where the player creates his character, it's not ready yet but I got a shot from the parts that are made on the Asset Editor:
http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/Modules.jpg

Comments welcome like usual.

Best Wishes.That GUI is amazing, keep it up. *thumbs up*

[Robbyh]

has this stoped updating ?

[Guitarrasdeamor]

I hope not. This still inspires me.

[Drevlin]

Yea, post some progress on this one. :)

[creasso]

Hi!

Sorry by the lack of updates, but I really needed some time to study, watch what Blizz have been done to D3, do some art tests and change some code stuff before proceed. The upgrade probably will lead me to redo the game level with another quality, but this is job to post gameplay since this one can serve pretty well to tests.

I’ll post the screen with 3 from the new things that I’ve been working on:


http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/NEWADDITIONS.jpg

1 – I can’t deny that I felt ashamed from some of my work in comparisson with I’ve been seen coming from Blizz’s D3, I’m conscious that I’m not a million dollars pro team, but I don’t want that the players discover this by poor graphics ^^. Anyway, I needed to change the way that my pawn class builds characters on the screen changing from single mesh to multiple skeletal assembled targeting customizations, what remember me to give a tip here:

It’s easier than it sounds, you just need add more “skelmeshcomponents” to the pawn’s components list and point the same animation and physics to all character parts obbey and sync to the same animset animtree. (“UDK, more you use, more you love it” lol) The only care is that all parts must be rigged to the same skeleton (keep bone names and such).

2 – The Character Info Window is in progress; how you can see, we’ll have a more organizated way to plan our characters since we’ll see separatelly base stats, item bonuses and total sum. This way we can decide where attrib stats points better on level up events.

I plan in divide the character info on three TABS (because this the 3 large buttons) to the player get all needed information about the character in detail and without interference, alike the old school’s character sheets from AD&D and Vampire.

3 – The Clothing Window will be a float “draggable” one, you have 9 slots being: 1 Head, 2 (Shoulder/Back), 2 Hands (Glove+Bracer), 1 Chest, 1 (Pants included Belt), 1 Knee Armor and 1 to Boots, the sum from the armor points from these elements will build up the total Passive Armor Number that is divided by 10 and represented by each shield chunk on the Combat Idol.

Yep, I know that we’ll need the capability to equip weapons and or shields, but I would like to try getting this character aspect on another UI element reserved to adress Combative Equipment (also pointing blocking). Mathematically your shield armor number should not have been summed to your passive armor number if you don’t block an attack.

The new Uis are just Images yet, I’m posting here to get some oppinions before implement then on Scaleform (will be a mess change then after pass trough Flash+GFX) so comments are welcome like usual ^^.

Thanks to all!

creasso

[Xendance]

For some reason the screenshots are giving me this weird Fallout wibe (except the UI).
Looks great.

[Garth Robertson]

Nice artwork!

[creasso]

Hello, thanks to all by your support.

Here is the last UI work from the past weekend, there are small changes from the first shot and probably I’ll get other ones, but I suppose that I got some improvements by small changes. Because of localisation plans I’m avoiding the direct text usage on art elements (I know how boring is redo sprites and textures and the rebuild time needed). So while I plan in add tooltips on mouse overs will be a good test if I don’t influence you telling what they mean now.


http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/11_08_10.jpg

1 – First change was move the inventory slots and replace icons to show better their function and body part presented, while I lost the overall symmetry if compared with the previous version I think that I won adding a bit more of compreension.

2 – The core from the Character Info tab is done, I divided it into two areas, the upper to base status and the bottom to derived chances, adding points on the 3 first you feed all the others. I kept the idea of tell the player stats and item bonuses into separate sectors.

3 – I got so much indecision while picking a font to use to numbers, so after watch a case lock on the bus I got the idea from roller markers (that I tought would be really cool). I did two types, the golden one to point result and the dark brown one to point bases. I know that this also resembles one of the Fallout’s travel calendary but I think that Bethesda will not sue myself while I don’t use power armors on my medieval game ^^.

4 - The chances and bonuses derived from the status got a separated section, this way the player can watch his character capabilities into a more organized fashion.

5 - There is a small (HUGE) difference that I would like to test on my gameplay mechanics that is use items bonuses not on a sum, but like multiplier (notice the item bonuses fields with a “X” sign now). So instead the +XXX we’ll have *XXX items bonuses, since the game will do the math, there is no big complications. But, this also means:

- That while a level one character could use almost any item it will not get a solid +500 attack rating just because the player bought some sword, making from PvP something a bit less related to what a player “owns” and more related to who the player “is”.

- That like on CONAN movies or on 300 we’ll get heroes that just with an underpant and a weapon could beat entire hordes. Like me, you are all probably tired from expend playtime on “sidequests to recover thingamabobs on our corpses”. LOL

Best Wishes!

creasso

[creasso]

Because the lack of standard resolution that we got nowadays I thought that would be a good Idea do a minimal resolution size test with the UI parts.


http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/11_09_10.jpg

I’m targeting 1024x768 and up systems hope that nobody uses 800x600 to games, the inventory was just a non-planned yet area, that looking now would be better if used with vertical rotation... :confused:

Best wishes.

[creasso]

Well, since everyone should be tired from the same level shot again and again on my posts (you must be thinking: OH NO! that green bridge again!), I decided walk with the character a bit more deep on the temple to get the screenshot. This will break the surprise, but since I plan in redo it with improved quality I don’t think that there is a problem in show a bit more.

On the other hand, I need warn about the gore level, this is what I imagine that will be the first frame from the game teaser:


http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/11_12_10A.jpg

I think that you got the idea… I’ll try get a mood near a “Cenobite’s Chamber” to the cursed places, of course is also a direct tribute to Butcher's Room. :D

But back to the project…


http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/11_12_10.jpg

1 - Like I told, I did tabs to the character info window, I choose the vitruvian like icon because it’s more or less something related to the physical description from a man and pretty known by almost everyone. This element is just a Photoshop planning yet.

2 - Since I did a small resolution video, the Concentration Bar on the Idol (implemented and working) could be not so much visible, so I got the screenshot with a filled one so you can watch the quality and also imagine that I’m a Burnout Revenge fan ^^. If you want you can watch the bar animation on the beginning of the Pathfind System video:


link to video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2gHGJrtASE)

Comments welcome like usual and sorry by forget the torch material*.

creasso

[Shaftling]

the character info panel looks a bit strange. draging the otherwise quality look a little down.

[Samize]

I don't have much to add but it looks promising.

[Chosker]

the character info panel looks a bit strange. draging the otherwise quality look a little down.

I agree

btw on that last screenshot it seems like the guy is tripping from all that blood :)

[marcusmattingly]

I'm really glad to see you posting updates again. I love following your progress. Keep it up.

[creasso]

@Shaftling: Man, thanks for point this, I was tunneled again and not even noticed. I guess that due to hurry in view the roller markers was loose about the remaining, I think that now we don’t have more a big difference.

@Samize: Anyway, thank you by the visit and by your feedback.

@Chosker: LOL, I'll just stop when the player notice blood dripping from the screen.

@marcusmattingly: Thanks Marcus! Feedback like yours is a bigger part from what makes me keep running.

Well, thanks to Shaftling comments I noticed that I was a bit loose regarding the char panel, so got the weekend to a redo.


http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/11_16_10.jpg

This also gave me chance to think a bit better about window placement. Changing the window to right will save the work of design a specific window just to pick skills, since the player could drag then right from the knowledge/skills tab.

Now I plan in back to inventory design, watching the three elements together I think that the float window will also need some improvement, maybe some more detail here and there could help.

I noticed that some developers are posting also concepts, so maybe you could be interested in watch some of mine. I did this one on a break on my studies, toke a week to finish since I’m a disaster with a tablet LOL.


http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/11_16_10B.jpg

Since the beginning I was planning in link the dagger class to the Grim Reaper’s figure. This influenced the class name, visuals and story.


Best wishes.

[creasso]

REGISTERING:

Here are the links to a blog and a thread done by Solid Snake.
Must admit that it's far away advanced near what I did achieved, so if you plan in get tips, definetelly worths a visit:

http://blog.digitalconfectioners.com/
http://forums.epicgames.com/showthread.php?t=708464&highlight=contrast

[kudendar]

Great tips, & great artwork...Really great artwork on your concept! This thread was one of first to inspire me! I hope my work to be on the WIP soon!

PS: Along side Marcusmattingly I am also glad you came back to give updates!

Thanks,
Kudendar

[creasso]

@kudendar: Thanks for your feedback and visit, I'll look in the forum by your wip thread after ^^.

Just a small change in visuals, now the three elements looks part from the same UI Skin.


http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/11_18_10.jpg

Got the screen from the temple library, how you can see there is no blood on the ground, so to justify that our books remains untouched there is a small spellbinding circle. Got no time to try to make it look better with the new Bloom features, but I guess that is a cool idea.

Best Wishes!

[creasso]

I looked at the past version from the Character Info with a more critical vision and got no satisfied with the result that looked “just enough”. I decided to give it another try and did another frame with dragons; I plan in mirror it just a bit modified to the inventory window.


http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/11_22_10.jpg

Also got chance to simulate how the tool tips could look and work. The idea is keep the players aware about everything they’ll need to plan further character upgrades, like on old paper RPGs players and game master will know all the rules.

Maybe some players will think that this “overinformation” S$#%S, but guys that like to go deep on rules could appreciate to know the formulas which they are dealing with, to don’t mention that I’ll not need to implement character patch mechanics after.

Best wishes

[KazeoHin]

This is how Diablo 3 SHOULD look. Great job.

[marcusmattingly]

It's looking really good!

[creasso]

@KazeoHin: Thanks, I’m honored by the comparison but we‘ll just confirm if this game sells at least 1/100 from what Blizz will made from D3… LOL

@marcusmattingly: Thanks Marcus. Must confess that I’m getting crazy to see all this stuff working, well, with the inventory ready I can start to “GFXize” everything soon ^^.

Did the character equip window inside the mirrored dragon frame:


http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/11_23_10.jpg

A small new rule: some armor parts have better protection percentage than others, composing what I called Body Covering Factor.

Explaining: Not even a “Godly Blessed Two Times Underpants of Adamantium” alone will give the character so much protection than a Full Common Leather Set. So the proportional armor rate will be different to each part.

Got this idea watching a cartoon where Knights use just some belts like body armor, I thought: What a heck happens with the blows that don’t hit exactly above these areas?! :eek: :D

Best Wishes.

[Bellbird Creative]

This project is really impressive. I love the HUD especially. It reminds me a lot of Hero Quest (http://www.boardgamebeast.com/images/hero-quest-board-game.jpg) which is definitely a good thing. Keep it up :D

[freek3d]

been following this project for some time,
fantastic job! please keep it up!

the UI work is fantastic, as well as the atmosphere in the environments,
most places also have a sense of history to them something that's really inportant in my opinion. great work!

[Shaftling]

Sorry for being lazy to read thru the thread but are you doing all this alone? Not that it wouldn't be impressive even for a team but I'd have to bow to your dedication if this was a solo project! :]

[creasso]

@Bellbird Creative: I played Hero Quest just once, also BattleTech (yep! a Marauder pilot), but must admit that the board game that impressed me much was Legions of Steel (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_aHi4ZT09xfg/SCfAFDgfO9I/AAAAAAAAAyk/S7xPezE2FCQ/s400/legions01.jpg). That puzzle board maze pieces were brilliant (and probably the grandpa from level editors). I got a lot of fun screamming “SUPREEEEEEEEEEEESSSED” while watching all other players in hurry to remove their squads from the corridor. LOL

@freek3d: Thanks! I'm happy that some efforts are giving result without a direct mention. We know that most success from these kind of games comes from the fact that they're heavy story-driven, so I'm trying to keep this in mind.

@Shaftling: Really thanks, but the decision in lonewolf during the demo stage was just due to don’t feel comfortable with the equities model (please don’t get me wrong, I’m just telling that it won’t work to me). The funny is that “made by one man” is not something that will help to convince players or publishers, so don’t get this into account when giving feedback. If the demo doesn’t knock some socks off I’ll not get a gold master before 2020. :D

Thanks for the feedback guys!

[creasso]

Hi.

Installed November update and got this code revision, since many people got troubles with the old UI system removal I’m posting a solution. Sorry by the late, I did not install the OCT update because was working on art, my programmer alterego just back yesterday. LOL

I suppose that this will work for everyone, so it’s posted on docs section to be easy to find:

HOW TO GET 2D MOUSE COORDINATES FROM SCALEFORM HUD (http://forums.epicgames.com/showthread.php?p=27789000#post27789000)


Best wishes!

[Dr Bearhands]

Your amor rule reminds me of the reverse female armor rule.

BTW, if it bothers you that developping alone will set you at a "lesser level" why not look for more people? Your project looks good enough by now to attract talented individuals instead of only less-desirable contributors.

[creasso]

@Dr Bearhands: In really is not about contributor’s quality (I would never judge someone that was generous enough to offer help), but because I’m completely against work in another ones stuff with no $$$ payment and got used to just do purposes that I would to accept ;).

[creasso]

Got some time to work on the weapon tabs design, while the weapons in inventory should fill just one square, bringing then to equip the character will display a bigger graphic representation:


http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/12_01_10.jpg

Like I said previously, weapons and other items will just apply multipliers to base character’s status. So in this example each derived combat ability that relies on strength will get a boost to triple and the speed ones will get twice. Decided to try don’t consider weapon classes on the game to allow the player to use whatever he wants, got this idea after watch a LotR movie and seen Gandalf (a mage) using a sword. Since the weapon adds to character customization I think that is a good concept to test.

To compensate, some weapons will have skills on it that maybe doesn’t fits on the player style, I’ll try use some good sense when designating then, like avoid a staff with stab skill on it ^^.

Best wishes.

[Aviticus]

I just wanted to say I love your project. I'm lead designer of a 20 man team working towards completion of an action rpg, and I must say I am very impressed with your work. You seem very dedicated, and opened to the public with your production. I find that very commendable as we will be opening our site to the public very soon, and plan make our community of fans our eyes, ears, and minds. Good luck with you project, I will be watching patiently awaiting updates.



Aaron Victoria
Lead Designer
Legends of Etherell

[creasso]

@Aviticus: Hi! Aaron, thanks for your kind words. Nice to know that you are also bringing a world to life, I'll look for your site/game/project after ;) cool in know that we are "likeminded" about community feedback, it's good choice to keep the game on sync with expectations. Good luck with your project too!:D

Back:

Thought that the item info sector became a bit strange, poor visual and lack of info :mad:, also not enough room to tell the player that he will need strength enough to carry the pointed item. To don't mention that I forgot about item rarity, that is imo a must have feature.

Items will be shown on the inventory on iconic presentation by category, I think in use the same icon to all swords, other to all staves… Maybe will work since when pointed by the mouse the information will be displayed on the info sector.


http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/12_02_10.jpg

Thinking just in change the icon BG to red when the requirements don’t met.
Just some more icons to go to GFX...Think that you are a bit tired from stills. :o

Best!

[Max Power]

I have nothing to add, but enjoy the work you've shown.

[Whitenorthstar]

:D First of all, I love Ur work... beautiful detailed graphics and environments, matching the games theme very well! Technically, I enjoyed Ur pathfinding too.

:( Just one negative comment, your HUD and status displays are so HUGE! They limit the size of the playable area so much: the action screen of your game feels squeezed between them. It is a shame because Ur game's graphics are so beautiful. Minimize your HUD sizes and open Ur game waaaaaaaaaaay out... expand and show off Ur beautiful characters and environment to the player. Ur main character is a big man, so make Ur player feel BIG, by enabling expansive (and occasionally hideously violent) movements! If it was me, I would shrink both HUDs down to 25% of their size. Of course, U know Ur game best, so it is just a suggestion.

:D just my opinion and, again, great work!

[Shaftling]

Character stats panel is a little hard to read.

[SageHunter]

:D First of all, I love Ur work... beautiful detailed graphics and environments, matching the games theme very well! Technically, I enjoyed Ur pathfinding too.

:( Just one negative comment, your HUD and status displays are so HUGE! They limit the size of the playable area so much: the action screen of your game feels squeezed between them. It is a shame because Ur game's graphics are so beautiful. Minimize your HUD sizes and open Ur game waaaaaaaaaaay out... expand and show off Ur beautiful characters and environment to the player. Ur main character is a big man, so make Ur player feel BIG, by enabling expansive (and occasionally hideously violent) movements! If it was me, I would shrink both HUDs down to 25% of their size. Of course, U know Ur game best, so it is just a suggestion.

:D just my opinion and, again, great work!

Probably will be openable interfaces. If that would be there all the time it would be way too much in the way.

[creasso]

@Max Power: Thanks! Let's just hope that the gameplay also became enjoyable. LOL

@Whitenorthstar: Thanks by your comments! They're not "negative", it's true! The UI is huge. I noticed that while playing Hack-Slash games we expend around 40% of time on navigating UI, because this too much emphasis on it (to don't mention the curiosity in test GFX's limits). About the player big thing, I'm plenty of plans about this, but got nothing ready yet so is better don't give spoilers. :D

@Shaftling: Well, is being a trade-off by use that pre-render rollers. Of course if I get too far from the window I'll see nothing, but since I plan in make a "PC EXCLUSIVE" I think that people could get used to it. :)

@Sagehunter: Yes! You're right. The idea is also don't let the player access inventory while there are mobs nearby. I never noticed soldiers changing their pants in the battlefield, except by Power Rangers that does a complete clothing change LOL.

CYA!

[Aviticus]

:( Just one negative comment, your HUD and status displays are so HUGE! They limit the size of the playable area so much: the action screen of your game feels squeezed between them. It is a shame because Ur game's graphics are so beautiful. Minimize your HUD sizes and open Ur game waaaaaaaaaaay out... expand and show off Ur beautiful characters and environment to the player. Ur main character is a big man, so make Ur player feel BIG, by enabling expansive (and occasionally hideously violent) movements! If it was me, I would shrink both HUDs down to 25% of their size. Of course, U know Ur game best, so it is just a suggestion.



I support Whitenorthstar's theory. So far, our team has managed to make a very small hud. Instead of the typical "drag the item to an area of your character" hud, we are using selectable bars with definitions and icons. To the left it shows your character so you see what he is wearing, but in a very small window. I spent a lot of time researching action rpg forums to see what players wanted during the first 2 years of development, and one of the biggest ones that I noted was people suggesting that hud's were over done or too complicated to quickly navigate. Yours seems really simple, and easy to understand. However, it seems slightly too big, and I also feel that a bit of transparency would help to show more of your gorgeous graphic design.


-Aaron

[creasso]

@Aviticus: I'll consider review it after, now I'm in the middle from my savegame dll coding.

Guys... I'm a lot confuse with this new IPOD thing... Meaning that I'm really tempted to do first a smaller version from the game to try to get some bucks to work on a bigger one to PCs after. Now, I'm like the bottom image while reading the Ios docs:


http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/avatarUDK.jpg

My current character has just 1.5k polys so is just a matter of port. Level will also be easy... Oh god... :confused: Maybe will be madness, maybe a good thing... A portable is a great (cheaper and faster) way to proofcheck and present the franchise.

Lots of hard decisions on the horizon...

[kudendar]

Good & bad, presentably; yes! I think it would be a great way to present your game.
Faster; I don't know about the new Ipad or new smart-phone is, but I doubt they could handle 1mil+ poly scene with full environment. Maybe so, I am glad to see UDK making such a leap in the mobile direction, with windows 8 coming soon, this will be a preferred way to do this.

Just my 2 cents.
PS: Great job Creasso!

[creasso]

@kudendar: Thanks!!!! Well, by "faster" I meant fast to deploy (less content to a US$1,50 game. About the UDKs leaps I think that a great thing would be the possibility to make XBLive games. Maybe MS would like a partnership also.

Hello!

Last update of the year, so I’ll also desire now to all you Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Thank you by all support, comments and attention that all this community gave to my project in 2010, I hope that all you have an amazing 2011 with lots of luck on your projects.

About coding:I got at least the load game routine working, would help a lot if the guys that did the docs from “fgetws( )” have told on the documentation that the function if executed in recursion automatically switches to next line. Anyway, I think that save game and some encryption will be easy now (DLL code will be discussed and released on the documentation area when I finish).

Art & Plot:Now that I can read which weapon the character is wearing, I noticed that I had no daggers to equip the Grimbringer, so I created one, well, in really are two that can become one. The concept comes from the Greek legend about the “Parcæs” that English speakers know by The 3 Fates.

Since the 2nd sister measures the thread of life and the 3rd sister is responsible by cut it with a scissor, there are blades just to these. The idea was not hard to use to a weapon, the eye (fits because the sisters uses just one eye to watch) can merge the two twin blades in a dagger that also can act like a scissor, just used in a skill that can cut the target “life thread”. Perfect to a guy that is a Grim Reaper incarnation LOL. No worries about balance since the target must be alive (e.g. Useless against zombies…).


http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/12_20_10A.jpg

Of course I needed a model, so did one that due to the size seen on game will not need a so big resolution, the polycount predicts 500 tris to two blade copies plus the eye on the middle.


http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/12_20_10B.jpg

CYA in 2011!!!

[creasso]

Not an update, but like told previously:
THE SAVEGAME DLL (http://forums.epicgames.com/showthread.php?t=756252)

[Curious]

I love your work, awesome!

[creasso]

@Curious: Thanks!!!! and Happy New Year to you!

HI! Happy New year to everyone!

Got some extra time on the holiday, finished the Savegame DLL and also got some Brains to the mobs, the player targeting and AI combat logics are complete, also with some transitions between animations.


http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/04_01_11A.jpg

I just need to implement the stuck check and some random patrol patterns to complete the AI movement, soon I could work in player combat. ^^


http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/04_01_11B.jpg

To do a switch between animations that need custom behaviours I'm using the AnimNodeBlendByProperty instead of call CustomAnimPlays, it is easy to manage through script since you just need to create a byte var on our pawns with the same name we gave the the node on our tree. After, is just change the variable value to get change to a desired index.


http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/04_01_11C.jpg

Best Wishes!

[Shaftling]

those screenshots have a feeling of the first diablo to them. let the hell unleash! ;]

[creasso]

@Shaftling: Thanks man! I'm thinking in also add some easter eggs to complete the whole thing lol. And happy new year to you!

[Solid Snake]

This is looking very good. Keep up the great work.

[creasso]

@Solid Snake: Wow! Thanks by your visit and comments, I seen your projects (both IDE and HackSlash Game) and imo you're one of my codding UDK heroes. lol

And about codding...

Well, most people should be aware that sooner we'll get an AIEditor or whatever to help us to plan and code AI sequences to our bots... Well, while this bless don't comes I'm getting some hard but funny momments on my debug sessions.

Probably most of you will not understand a word about I'm saying (no polite English voice over this time) but if you wanna make some laughs the emotions are Universal.


VIDEO RECORDING FROM AN AI DEBUG SESSION (PT-BR Original Audio) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8A6Z-M2vZkc)


Enjoy and get some fun!

[creasso]

Got some trouble with my hardware and some viruses (The game files by pure luck were not infected). This remember me to advice all you to get "monthly backups" from your assets and coding, like me, you could think that all stuff will be safe, but a minor security breach can lead you to lose months of hard work (almost happened to myself).

I'll get the workstation up and running on this weekend.
An amazing weekend to all you!

[Blade[UG]]

monthly? everything i do is backed up in at least two different places the moment in commit it to a repository.

[derrXIII]

You are a God. I want to play this NOW! (thumbs up)

Keep up the awesome work man! How long have you been into UDK?

[creasso]

@jessicamaystead: Thanks! It’s always welcome lol. Here in Brazil we drink galons from it, usually I work with a full teapot near my desk. ^^

@Blade[UG]: Lol… A better approach than mine, but I did mention monthly just by example. Oh, I noticed by some posts that you have contact with DDef guys, sorry if I’m doing a mistake, but if not, congratulate all then by the successful project. Respect!

@derrXIII: Thanks but it’s a lot of exaggeration from your part. I’m just a guy trying to please some players, I’m happy that some feedback points that it’s something that I can do. Anyway I’m dealing with UDK since its launch, studied a bit of U2 Runtime, but always dreamed in get my fingers on a “licensable” pro AAA engine.

Hi!

Good news, PC is up and running again, decided to wait until Jan-2011 release before proceed with AI programming, so this weekend got time to finally create the game logo since I’ll need it soon to the main menu. Got a bit inspired on the task and decided go further just for fun, what ended on a game box mock that I decided to post here to get your thoughts:


http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/01_17_11.jpg

The game name: Vida (spell it like on the Ricky Martin’s song chorus ^^) means life in some Latin languages, and comprises pretty well the game play, character evolution mechanics and tune that I plan in bring to this game.

The slogan: “Survive is far away from being your choice.” Goes with the player main challenge: dangerous world, some realistic combat rules, survive the own “life” and you’ll win. I must confess some sadness by the fact that Mr. LaFountaine is not more between us, would sound great on the voice of god on a game teaser.

The studio name: Vioware, directly assumes that it comes to market to deliver fight, combat and violent action games. Yep… Broken bones, piles of flesh and blood always that possible, get M, 18+ and such ratings around the world will just proof that it’s doing good.

While I doubt that some big player will feel comfortable in endorse such philosophy below his wings, also thrust that anything is possible, like the “for real” Powered by Unreal Tech that were just a long time dream until a bit more than one year before, so I kept room on the box to a publisher logo.

Thanks by the attention and best wishes!

[marcusmattingly]

Glad you are back up and running. Keep up the great work. This really seems to be coming together. Everything looks great.

[derrXIII]

Exaggeration? I think NOT! =P
I actually have been trying to get the Isometric Camera + Mouse to work.
I was following the X9 tutorial, but since i was using the dec 2010 build, things were WAY different, so i gave up :(. I spent countless hours. And I am also not that great with UnrealScript. But this thread isnt about me, so

Dude, I LOVE the cover art. It's amazing and intriguing. Keep up the GREAT work!
P.S-Might be a stupid question, but may I ask which build of UDK are you using?

[Whitenorthstar]

hi Creasso - Nice to see a hot UDK project taking off. As U know, I enjoy Ur beautiful work :D

Ur cover looks good. It's intriguing, but the downside is that it doesn't yet communicate the type of game inside the box.

You may be a great game developer but, as U know, Ur english isn't perfect yet ;) For example, your tagline "Survive is far away from being your choice", needs some more work so that it will make sense, and excite the reader too. The same is true for your feature list.

Just send me a personal message if I can help you out with your English, no money involved: I worked as one of KPMG's editors for a couple of years.

[creasso]

@marcusmattingly: Thanks Marcus! Was a scary situation but now everything is working again ;)

@derrXIII: Well, I'm using the last release (dec/2010), just do updates on releases with major changes. About your studies, I advice you to get X9 just to understand how to work with UDK, but after, to exercise try create your own implementations. Good luck!

@Whitenorthstar: Hmmm... While your point is valid about the art, is just a front mock ^^, I'm counting in get some screenshots on the back and also more info on the sides, trust me I plan in improve it a lot ;)

But, I must thank you by your kindness about my English knowledge level, "not perfect yet" was the better comment I ever got. I have plans in purpose some sort of partnerships with different languages speakers to do localization (German, Spanish, English, Chinese and Japanese) because will be a mess if the players don't understand the game plot. So, when I start the loc files I'll contact you to explain better, by now thanks by offering help ^^.

[RhinoMatte]

The game name: Vida (spell it like on the Ricky Martin’s song chorus ^^) means life in some Latin languages, and comprises pretty well the game play, character evolution mechanics and tune that I plan in bring to this game.

The slogan: “Survive is far away from being your choice.” Goes with the player main challenge: dangerous world, some realistic combat rules, survive the own “life” and you’ll win. I must confess some sadness by the fact that Mr. LaFountaine is not more between us, would sound great on the voice of god on a game teaser.

Not to be rude, I just want to help. ;)

As far as I know, there is only one Latin language (being Latin). In that language "life" is "Vita", not "Vida".

Secondly, not that English is my first language, but shouldn't it be "Survival" instead of "Survive"?

Good luck on the project!

EDIT: as far as a publisher is concerned, I'd personally go with Steam for distributing. But that's just what I'd do if I were to sell an indy game. Or any game for that matter.

[creasso]

@RhinoMatte: Hey Rhino! Thanks by the "Survival" tip, I'll change it.
How you did mention that don't knew this term, I'm sorry, I forgot that most people just know about "THE" Latin, but there is another usage to the expression that reffers to languages derived from Latin. If you get interested there is an article on wiki here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romance_languages).

Also thanks by the publisher tip! I'll try talk with then when I release the demo. Just by curiosity... Do you can please point your 1st language?

Best wishes.

[RhinoMatte]

@RhinoMatte: Hey Rhino! Thanks by the "Survival" tip, I'll change it.
How you did mention that don't knew this term, I'm sorry, I forgot that most people just know about "THE" Latin, but there is another usage to the expression that reffers to languages derived from Latin. If you get interested there is an article on wiki here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romance_languages).

Also thanks by the publisher tip! I'll try talk with then when I release the demo. Just by curiosity... Do you can please point your 1st language?

Best wishes.
Oh, didn't know you were talking about the Romanic languages, then I understand. :)

My first languages are Dutch and French. I also talk a little German, but that one came after English, so it's not that good.
P.S. If you ever want a translater who works for free, I'm your man! :D.

[MegaDeth81]

Do you plan on releasing your code to the community? I think it would be very cool to play around with what you have created. Looks really nice!

[creasso]

@MegaDeth81: Nothing planned about this yet, entire focus is on finish the game demo and get a Publisher or way to publish it.

[tekbear]

this is an amazing looking project! ten big thumbs up to you - it's not very common for one person to stay focused on something like this and get it finished!

the only piece of advice i have is: try to get your character and enemies more distinguishable from the background. usually you would also put a little more saturation on them, but in this case i think that would not fit the style of the game, so this could be done by rimlights for example. other than that - nothing to add.

incredible look!

[creasso]

@tekbear: Thanks by the kind comments! I'll try to get it done to deserve your support! ^^ About contrast, I want to do these arrangements after people get a chance to watch the game running, something that is not visible on the screens is the movement and shadows from characters that (could) be enough to identify the mobs. But I'll tweak this on the future, thanks by the tip.

This weekend I messed a bit with NPCs, I decided to implement a skill master instead of let the player simply buy skills freely at any moment. More or less like on real life you can get a teacher OR buy a scroll to learn the necessary things, so the player must search the world by people that can teach him different techniques and blows.

Well, just got one model until now, the first master from the demo:


http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/01_26_11.jpg

The idea is that through him you can access a skill tree from where you can buy new powers that will be enabled on some sort of knowledge board on the UI. Each skill will have some sort of “Pricing” so you can pay for it or do some quest in exchange for the training fee.

About the Skill Tree, got an idea that is possible to implement through GFX, decided to try something different from the “overused” skill chart. Got all the animation working already and also the model with some slots to fill with SWFs. I don’t know if I’ll be capable in put it to work, but if yes will be a cool UI element to play with ^^.


http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/01_26_11B.jpg

I just sorry by don’t get the video capture, something that I plan doing just after get (if possible) input answer from all the SWFs on each node.

Best Wishes!

[creasso]

Hi!

I still getting mob overlaps – what summed to an influenza is getting me crazy – so decided to try some methods to solve these. The first was getting some ascorbic acid, the second look for some approaches to solve the AI problem.

Looked on the Ddef sample code that while amazing and pretty effective is not exactly what I’m looking for, I would like to get some sort of organized combat positions, allowing ease targeting by the player, almost like a board game attack grid so began to work on an attack spot system:


http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/02_04_11.jpg

The idea is that around each unit we can get 8 points to be filled by attackers, so, instead of mobs going right to the player position first then will request and walk to a free spot before attack. Since each AI unit will target a different spot, they, along with their walking paths “hopefully” will not overlap.

Since the spots are built from target position, will be just a matter of keep the AI aware from then and do complete cleanse and reassigns on extreme changing situations, like player teleports, jumps or whatever.

I plan in do the spot picking AI work on the own player controller and/or on a shared decision component, mainly to avoid get too many AI controllers ticking, can sounds like a dumb idea, maybe not the most effective, but deserves a try ^^.

Oh, and if someone could answer the question from this thread (http://forums.epicgames.com/showthread.php?p=27907479#post27907479)I’ll be thankful.

Best wishes!

[Snufkin]

http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/01_26_11B.jpg


This i like lol!

Also when is the demo out?

[creasso]

@Snufkin: Well, thanks! About a demo, I think that in some of the dark holydays from this year: Valpurgis Night, Halloween or something that fits... huahahaha

[kudendar]

Hey Creasso,
Been awhile sense I looked you up! You have made a lot of progress sense December holidays, congrats!

It's about time you released your youtube channel to us! & I had some good laughs at through the entire thing, but non stop after 1:50 :) for ones that programed AI you know what he is saying.

The Box art looks great, but with work it will transform into perfect.

I like the skill tree, thank you for not following the other RPG games and making simple block tree...it's getting old.

You have come along way, keep us posted through the publishing parts I am very interested in what lies ahead and the hard trials to go still :(

Thanks for doing a great documentation as you build your dream, it's inspiration for all of us!

[creasso]

@kudendar: Thanks! I'll be back to art as soon as I get the base code working, about publishing, I'm just sad that I have so few to show yet or I would certainly contact the guys from indie-fund. :( well, "se la vi"...

Hi.

Did some work on AI improvement, registered in video with some logic explanations. I know that it needs improvement, but I think that you’ll agree that these first results are a lot better than my previous tests. ^^


LinkToVideo (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rolb8j8xFIA)

Cya!

[rahatropa]

Great progress with the A.I.! The grid system appears to be working nicely. Only suggestion I would make would be to have a check on how many creeps are in front of the player, so that the other creeps can then be assigned to attack at the player's back-side. Idea for next A.I. video: ton of melee creeps rushing and circling the player along with ranged creeps attacking from a distance. Great work creasso! :)

[CrimsonStalker]

I remember first seeing this around mid of last year. I'm glad to see you are still working on it and keeping the updates going. Best of luck in your continued progress and I can not wait to see the end result.

[creasso]

@rahatropa: Yep! I’m thinking in deal with ranged guys further, by now I’m just studying ways to advance and siege. The AI began to understand the grid, now the challenge is make use it at her favour. ^^ Must confess that I’m playing FFT trying to get some inspiration. Lol

@CrimsonStalker: Wow, Thanks for come back after so much time. Also thanks by the incentive ^^.


http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/OYoV.jpg
Hoorray!!!

This week Vida reaches his first year of development, I know that I got few steps, don’t know if taking so long is something to celebrate, but I heard somewhere that you need commemorate each small achievement. But the greatest happiness is watch that many people here are giving the project attention and a vow of thrust. So, I would like to thanks all the ones that with their visits and incentive words pulled, and still pulling myself forward, to don’t mention your kind tolerance with my bad English.

I’ll wait for a better opportunity to thanks Epic, but they could be sure that changed my life by allowing the world to use their technology. Before UDK I began to think that I should sell one of my kidneys to get a pro engine without a huge investment, I’m happy that I could keep my parts and still making the game. ^^

Also want to thanks some people that is helping to promote Vida outside these forums, the guys from modaddict.fr by some nice comments, “lellcook “ a Brazilian colleague that mentioned it on UOL, “Geble“ that linked some project images on a Slovenian forum thread and to everyone mirroring the youtube video links on your own blogs.


A big thanks to all you!

Flavio Creasso

[Jarro]

Happy Birthday ! :D

[marcusmattingly]

Congratulations on one year of successful development on your game!

Don't worry about how long you are taking. You've stuck with it and that is certainly something to celebrate.

Keep up the good work.

[creasso]

@marcusmattingly & @Jarro:Thanks guys!

Hi!

Got some progress on the AI, now the mobs can recognize free attack spots and go for then, did a test placing all the mobs against the player start back and after watching their behavior.


http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/03_02_11_A.jpg

I still insisting on the Dynamic Grid, so you can see by the unit’s arrangement around the player that at least the nearest enemies will be easy to pick with the mouse, considering that a player will desire first kill the ones that are harming him will be a good thing.


http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/03_02_11.jpg

The good news is that on the next weekend we’ll have a 5 days break here in Brazil due to “Carnaval”, since I don’t plan in join the party, the extra time will be all used to try get at least the Mesh from my first ranged mob. I know that is a bad habit, but I simply can’t give a brain to a unit that doesn’t have an exclusive pawn, this also remember myself to prepare a projectile asset, maybe some flying poisoned stings…

About code the ranged mob’s AI, the first idea I got is to extend right from UDKBot, since they’ll need a shooter like AI this can save some time, well, don’t know if will fits, but is an interesting place to start.

I almost forgot. Sorry by the gore, but I could not keep the secret about the dinner hall… :p

[creasso]

Really nice have so much time to invest on the game, after the last post I began to get references about insects or animals that could fire projectiles. My first searches were not so much productive since my first “googlings” were related to insects.

Luckily, I began to search also for other kinds of animals and thanks to a National Geographic article, I heard by the first time about the “ninja slug”. The mentioned throwing capabilities from Ibycus Rachelae were exactly what I was looking for, it would be a nice reference to my ranged mob.

Got past week to do some pencil concepts and collect photos from the slug and in Saturday morning began the models, first did the low one, the UV work, and after did a highres to get the maps, I think that I exaggerated a bit on the HighRes, but at least I can use it in some cinematic after.

On bottom I’m posting the shots from Saturday night, I usually do a basic import from skeletal meshes first like static ones just to check size and if the visual fits with the game, the shader needs some tweaks, but I planned in mess with this on Sunday after rig and animations.


http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/D1_HighShot_1.jpg

http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/D1_HighShot_2.jpg

http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/D1_LowShot_1.jpg


On Sunday began the mob rigging and skinning, after do some tweaks to share vertices influences did the most basic animations, like shoot, walk and one idle, unfortunatelly while exporting then through ACTORX noticed that the plugin doesn’t recognize well some bone scale animations, unfortunately did not discovered what happened on my inflate bag effect. (I’ll report to Epic guys to try to find a solution…) Anyway got the previews from the three animations to show you:


ANIMATIONS VIDEO (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9zilFMitU4)

After lots of imports, simply give in from my bag inflate since got at least the tail contractions working, so, finally imported the textures to the mob package and did the official shader, it mades the Harpoon Slug look wet and disgusting like any from her cousins… ^^


http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/D2_EditorShot.jpg

http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/D2_TestShot.jpg
Blarrgh! ^^


Today I finished the mob asset, the last steps were add a shooting socket and open the model on PHAT to add the collision bodies, luckily this mob is just a moving belt, so got no much work on constraint setup.



http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/D3_Socket.jpg

http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/D3_Physics.jpg

http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/D3_Physics_B.jpg


With the mob done, the next step was thinking about the dart asset, first idea was just use a tetrahedron that considering the size in game would fit perfectly, but a pyramid would not look like a calcium carbonate dart, so did some modifications on it until get something more organic.



http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/D3_Dart.jpg

Well, at least the assets are done. Now I can use the remaining time to study the weapons and projectile classes to get some idea about how to put this to work, hope in bring good news on the next post. ^^

CYA

[creasso]

Hi!

Began the ranged mob AI and got a basic shoot working. The AI is better now, so did a video with the improvements:


LINK to VIDEO (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQV0hLSHCyA)

Sorry by the lack of enthusiasm on the narration, but while I was satisfied and happy was also tired after the art/code marathon.

Best Wishes!

[heyufool1]

Looking very good! I have only 2 crits from the video (unrelated to the AI, which was great).

1. The melee enemy's animation didn't seem to keep up with the movement speed, which looked kind of weird.

2. I think the player's walking animation is a bit weird. The guy seems to be rotated too far forward, the motion for the animation seems fine and I'm sure it would look better if you make him stand a bit more straight up. Maybe 1/3 of his current angle?

Other than that, it's looking fantastic!

[creasso]

@heyufool1: Errr... Did you meant that the Grave Hermits (biped) hits faster than they moves? If yes they have 2 walking animations ^^ one natural and the biped one when they try immitate an human.

About the character, you're right ^^ It's a placeholder animation set from an old project that have same bone names, the idea is do exclusive animations to characters based on class, gender and also the kind of equipment they're using.

Hi! Just an announcement:

With the mobs almost ready, I'll back to inventory and scaleform things to enable the char to equip himself to hit the mobs... Updates probably will take longer but I'll post a video from progresses ;)

Best wishes.

[heyufool1]

@heyufool1: Errr... Did you meant that the Grave Hermits (biped) hits faster than they moves? If yes they have 2 walking animations ^^ one natural and the biped one when they try immitate an human.
In this video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQV0hLSHCyA), the melee guys who are walking to the player seem to have moments where their feet just kind of slides across the floor.

[creasso]

@Heyufool1: You have a nice eye to animation and sync. Did the changing that you suggested, is not perfect, but hope you like it, registered on video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaHTgWvpg6Y) to also allow you to check the change. I apologize by my difficulty on understand what you were talking about on the first time :o.

To be sincere, expended more time doing the video than doing the speed change, due the way that I’m working with the engine. How is something that works I’m posting here the approach that I used:

Instead of write each mob on an own class, I wrote a generic class that has some editor variables that will change between mob types:


http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/03_19_11.jpg

So on the own editor I do the config right on the archetype saved on each mob package, since archetypes are probably instanced from their origin, changing the archetype properties will replicate changes to all mobs on all maps, analogous to have a compiled class with each setting.

This with the recent ability to get a custom thumbnail to the archetype is also a big hand on the level design since it allow me to watch the mob portrait and know who’s the monster I’m dragging.

Best Wishes!

[heyufool1]

You have a nice eye to animation and sync. Did the changing that you suggested, is not perfect, but hope you like it, registered on video to also allow you to check the change. I apologize by my difficulty on understand what you were talking about on the first time .
Much improved, great work! I'll be keeping a close eye on this project, good luck!

[Dr Bearhands]

This looks *****ing awesome!

[creasso]

@heyufool1:Thanks man, I'm happy that you liked the change ^^.

@Dr Bearhands: Wow, thanks man! Nice hear that you liked, I also became impressed with the images from your framework.

Well, I still on R&D regarding Scaleform usage, until now just got a basic display/hide from the inventory window. Was nice to see the window opening and closing in the game running, I still planning how to work with inventory slots and how to link then with the item objects inside the engine and the mesh parts from the pawn that need to change.

Anyway, get the inventory displaying and hiding give me a chance to watch it working on both resolutions since to test I just need to swap the resolutions on the solution configuration. On the minimal widescreen (1280x720) the window fits perfectly...


http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/03_28_11_1280.jpg

...but on minor 1.0 ratio resolution (1024x768) if the player opens both windows he will experience minimal vision from the play field what could be a problem.


http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/03_28_11_1024A.jpg

The first solution I thought to try to solve this was change the moviedisplayinfo.Alpha, but it looks ugly :mad:, well, on the other hand a player that opens both windows will know about the risk so I also think that I’ll not need to design 2 UIs.

Any thoughts?

[the taco ninja]

dude this looks really good,kepp up the good work

[Max Power]

creasso: That shouldn't be too much of a problem. Even Diablo2 ALL of the info screens covered half the screen. So if you had up your character page and inventory the game screen is completely covered in UI. Even plenty of modern RPG just cover the entire screen for each menu (The Witcher).

[creasso]

@taco Ninja and Max Power: Thanks guys! Also thanks Max by point The Witcher, I didn't know this game ^^.

Hi!

Began to get the inventory working, since many people would like to get more documents about the theme, what I discovered until now is being posted HERE (http://forums.epicgames.com/showthread.php?p=28067703#post28067703) (WARNING! IT'S A HACK).


The slots beggining to work:

http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/03_30_Implementation.jpg

Best Wishes!

[ilguano]

This looks amazing

[creasso]

@ilguano:Thanks man! I'll try my better to keep improving.

Self explanatory video HERE (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BCdj3ajuwI) I apologize in advance.

Best Wishes.

[Whitenorthstar]

looks awesome!

sincere apologies, but I still think your menu is far too big... leave plenty of room for kick-ass action and cut down the paperwork ;)

[svelle]

agree with whitenorthstar on the inventory being too big, just make it a little bit simpler that should solve this issue less inventory and more ingame graphics.

look very nice till now, hope to see more in the future.

[creasso]

@WhiteNorthStar and @svelle:No trouble, I respect your positions, I did not changed because in this kind of game usually you don't play with the inventory oppened while there is some action happening on the screen. I'm not telling that isn't big or that you're wrong, but I'll use the big rusty jewel theme while I don't get a better idea LOL.

Anyway, here is the inventory working with more item types:


VIDEO (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0t2qOD3VRzg)

Thanks and CYA!

[Whitenorthstar]

ok, the inventory is closed most of the time.... best of both worlds... so lots of space for the beautiful action, great stuff!

:D

[Thom-]

Are you using the standard UDK Inventory system or did you create own classes for all of that? Did you experience problems with the classes (since in the standard inventory system you can only equip one inventory item at time)?

Is this a one-man work? Your design is awesome - and in some kind of way it scares me :D I hope that is your intended atmosphere. Do you work as a designer? You seem to have knowledge in design and also in programming. I believe there are not many people out there who are good in both areas.
I really like your game - hopefully there will be a demo out to see if the atmosphere is as creepy as it's looking in your videos :D

[creasso]

@Whitenorthstar: I'm happy that we agreed now! ^^

@Thom-: Wow, lots of questions. Well:
A - Until now I'm doing the item management apart from the default pawn inventory, so no troubles until now.

B - Yes, I'm working alone. And thanks by your kind comments about the game mood.

C - No, I'm not a professional designer just a guy with lots of effort ;)

About a Demo, probably this year...


Best wishes!

[creasso]

Due to get a scholarship I'll be with less time to the project, so I apologize by the lack of updates.

On next week probably I'll be back with some news (or a video complaining about what was wrong) LOL.

Best Wishes

[Grabby]

Really diggin this! Setting up a nice mood...

[jakoks]

The mood is perfect!

[JUGGERNUT]

http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/12_02_10.jpg

Diablo 1 with updated graphics was the first thing that came to mind... a very good thing.

[creasso]

@jakoks, Grabby & JUGGERNUT: Thanks guys! Hope you like also the weapons.


Hi!!!


Hello! I'm really happy today - while my computer burnt again - I got weapons to work! You'll see some of the ideas that I plan to it on this video!

We'll see combat soon! Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!


THE WEAPONS VIDEO (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEoTIcLGYp4)

Comments welcome like usual.


CYA!

[TheAgent]

Very nice man, love your video diary's :P

[jakoks]

This looks cool !

[Rhiyo]

This looks amazing, good luck to you with it!

[ilguano]

This is looking better by the minute. Congrats again!

[creasso]

@The Agent, @jakoks, @Rhyio and @ilguano: Thanks guys! I'm just pssd because I'm with less time now to invest on the game.

Hi! No videos this time, just telling that I began the combat implementation ^^.

A question: I'm thinking in show the ammount of damage on each char hit, sort of a number like on MU Online. Do you think that this is a cool thing? Or would you preffer just a life bar to the mobs? Or Both?

Best wishes!

[Rhiyo]

@The Agent, @jakoks, @Rhyio and @ilguano: Thanks guys! I'm just pssd because I'm with less time now to invest on the game.

Hi! No videos this time, just telling that I began the combat implementation ^^.

A question: I'm thinking in show the ammount of damage on each char hit, sort of a number like on MU Online. Do you think that this is a cool thing? Or would you preffer just a life bar to the mobs? Or Both?

Best wishes!
Guessing you are saying that each time you hit an enemy the damage appears in text and floats up whilst fading away?

I think you should atleast try it to see if it suits your game. If your game is going to very dark, gritty and serious maybe it won't suit it... but I'd have to see your game with it and with out it to judge :P

[Pangahas]

Very very cool project.. as for your question I think it would be cool if the damage dealt will be shown but maybe made an option to turn it on/off.

[creasso]

@Pangahas: Nice idea! Extended it a bit like you'll see, watch the plan to the DamageTeller ;)

@Rhiyo: More or less this, watch the DamageTeller shot...

Hello!

Wow, there is a long time since my last post (blame my teachers, that insist in ask for homework to stack with my job duties LOL).

Anyway, I have good news! Got extra time this week due to a holiday, with a 2 weeks break from the job and also the school vacation is nearby, so I’ll be so plenty of time to work on the project and you will probably see some huge updates on July.

Got this weekend to do some code cleanse (no more warnings on the compile time), redo or create new animations (OK! The first one was the “bare hands run” that everyone told that was weird LOL) and also work on a “DamageTeller” to display damage.

O bottom some shots to show where it’s going:

Barehands:
Noticed that the player should be able to attack until without weapons (regardless how much dangerous fight a monster without some steel could be LOL) so did animations to this:

http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/06_25_11_A.jpg

Guards:
Guards are the Iddle animations when you are in combat, decided also consider different handlings not just by weapon type but also left hand, right hand and dual hand characters:

http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/06_25_11_B.jpg
Before someone ask: Yes! We’ll have different attacks due to this configuration since left handed persons fight different from right handed.

DamageTeller:
I know that will be a matter of taste (so I’ll implement a ON, NONUMBER or OFF option on this), but I admit that it looks great at first look.

http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/06_25_11_C.jpg
If I get a fine tune on the display time will not cover the game action and will be a great visual way to show how much your blows are great. A small note: It is not 300 logo! LOL

OK guys! Thanks for the time and CYA!

[TheAgent]

Great stuff you got there man.... really good stuff..

[k21n]

you are the s*** man, love your work!!!!

[Bonkahe]

When are you planning on updating? this is amazing, I would also love some info on how you build the inventory system to its current working order.

[creasso]

@TheAgent: Thanks man! Nice get your visit!

@k21n: Sick? Sock? Salt? Do you can please send me the word on a PM? I don't know what is! LOL

@Bonkahe: Thanks man! I'll post another DevDiary chapter on next week (Combat is looking great!!!)

Well, working on combat got some ideas that need some help from the UDK staff to put to work, if you like the idea help me to tell then about this, since this will help us all:


BLOOD MUST STAY SYSTEM (http://forums.epicgames.com/showthread.php?p=28550314#post28550314)

Best Wishes!

creasso

[creasso]

Hi!!!!

New development diary video, also a small report about my last week, where I was implementing combat.
Around 8 mins length so be patient!


7 DAYS of VIDA (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZNVgVuHZys)

Hope you like it!

[Vembumees]

Your game looks excellent, you could achieve great things with that game with some level designers. Atmosphere and graphics is what diablo 3 should be.

[TheAgent]

Saw the diary great information. The scripted textures seem complicated but look amazing.

[fauldsh]

I've been following this project for a while, some absolutely amazing stuff. Loving how the game is progressing and the detailed dev diaries you're giving.

My only suggestion would be to preserve some of the floor details beneath your blood decals. Either through transparency or possibly applying the normals from floor material underneath to the blood ontop (not sure how hard that might be to do).

[creasso]

@Vembumees: Thanks man! I hope that I can hire some in the future! Just a small comment: Let's stop to compare to D3, it will not have so much blood. LOL

@TheAgent: They are not buddy! Just get then, mess a bit around and you'll find lot's of usages to then. ;)

@fauldsh: I'll fine tune this after, thanks by the suggestions!


Hi!

Needed stop the development to write a hack to bypass that @#$%^ MIC restriction, anyway if you need something alike this use it!


CODE RELEASED HERE (http://forums.epicgames.com/showthread.php?p=28581045#post28581045)

Best wishes!

creasso

[LordNelson7]

@creasso

I have taken a look at your work, AMAZING!

I have a question, have you found out how to transfer parameters(like Strength) back and fourth between scaleform and uScript?

I am looking to have a scaleform movie open(Character Screen) populated with the values of several different variables in script, such as Strength. The current value of Strength would have to be retrieved from the Player Controller when the movie is loaded, then when the value is incremented in the movie(strength is increased), a function is run that adds one to that current value.

I have tried everything to get this to work, but when I try to make a cast from the class extending GFxMovie(that is istantiated) the value does not transfer correctly. How did you accomplish this?

Thank you very much.

[Solid Snake]

Looking really good creasso. Good to see you got the ScriptedTextures to work the way you wanted. Keep up the awesome work!

And thanks for the mention in your developer diary :)

Scripted Textures are really useful. I've been messing with them lately to provide extra mask data for post processing as well. Otherwise just exploring and doing lots of random stuff with them.

[DarkCarnivour]

This actually looks pretty awesome! I like the style and theme. I loved Diablo 2.

Good work.

[creasso]

@LordNelson7: Well, you need find a way to get the movie that holds your string on a tempwidget and use the set functions...

@SolidSnake: Thanks man! But you really helped by pointing then ;)

@DarkCarnivour: Thanks! But my real target is D1 ˆˆ

Hi!

With some important game systems ready, I noticed that I'm posting almost nothing about the game background. Well, every time someone asks I say: Yes! The game has story, but I don't tell it.

Began to make some material about this and also write it down, of course, I'm doing some world building helpers (maps, sketches...) to wire the components. While I don't plan write down an entire GDD I plan in show some nice stuff when it becomes ready.

On bottom a preview from the main continent where the game story happens, I still need add some points of interest, but I think that the overall visual looks ok, hope you like it also.


http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/07_21_11.jpg

Best wishes!

[LordNelson7]

Hey, looking good! Will this be a free roam map, like you can go anywhere you want, anytime, like Oblivion, or will it be quest driven story-line(or something), like Dungeon Siege?

[Bofur77]

Nice map .. but work a bit on it .. the place between the ozean and the land is a bit ugly i think ... and the river's are too fat

sry for my english .. i work on it ;)

[merc-ai]

Please keep working on the project, it is very inspiring to follow your work and watch the game shaping up!

[creasso]

@LordNelson7: You can travel wherever location you want (FALLOUT2 Style) ˆˆ

@Bofur77: I'll improve it a bit after... Thanks by the comments!

@merc-ai: Thanks!!! Be sure that I will ˆˆ

Hi again...

First need to tell you that I needed almost redo the entire game map, got some references and seen that most of ancient maps has not the ocean painted in blue. Also some details like the traces on the edges help a lot to give the map some realism.

Anyway, while I'll have a lot of stuff to put on the main continent, the demo will just use a small area, mainly on Wind Island, so I focused on it.

Here is the portion of the map that will be used on the demo:


http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/07_25_11.jpg

I'm planning in enable the four areas to travel, Stonelake will be a safe area where the player can trade and talk with some NPCs, Steelmine and Guth Village are "Siege Grounds" what means that the player must defeat the townís army and a tyrannous to turn it on a safe area, and of course weíll have the already infamous ìJade Bridgeî that is a pure "Combat Ground".

See ya!

[TheAgent]

Looking great. I would definitely play the demo.

[creasso]

@TheAgent: Just hope you like it... ˆˆ

Hi!

Did the first test with what I plan to Main Menu...

Enjoy the preview!


MAIN MENU PREVIEW (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkYrqxnoRqA)

Used some Epic stuff (the skydome and light from the NightDay Map) but will change to some customs after...

CYA!

[Whitenorthstar]

Creasso - you amaze me with your creativity and productivity... awesome work :D

[rlc2405]

Right now, this is on the top of my wishlist!

(sorry the mistakes,... "brazilian" english)

[Archerx]

Beautiful menu background, great work. I wish I could live on that floating island. Loving the atmospherics too.

[creasso]

Hi guys! Thanks by the last comments!

Well, working on a Teaser and a site to promote the project, also wrote down the entire mood and plot to register and this way get more freedom to teel you about.
By now, just a small shot from a character to the teaser:


http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/C_GB_Preview.jpg

Best wishes!

creasso

[creasso]

Hi!

Got the model done... I'll start rigging it this week.

http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/CIN_GRIM2.jpg

CYA

[creasso]

Hi!!!

Well, the cinematics tests are going pretty well, did a small video to show what's going on.
Hope all you like it, there are lots to do but the first results at imo looks promising.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3ndKY2r8nE

Enjoy!!!!

[jakoks]

Just AMAZING!

[TheAgent]

Great looking stuff keep it up!

[the taco ninja]

awesome
(10 char)

[creasso]

@Whitenorthstar: Thanks man, I'm now working on some shaders to improve the visuals, I'll post the new results after.

@rlc2405: LOL, No problem! I'm Brazilian also, so you don't need to worry about "embromation" usage ^^.

@Archerx: Thanks Archerx, well, some guys that saw that first results told me that it doesn't fit with the game mood, so hope you like also from the changes that I did to make Airen more dark (still a floating world, but with a less "teletubbish" visual LOL)

@jakoks: Thanks man!

@TheAgent: Thanks Agent! You must check today's shot! I remembered from you while doing the shader (remembering your asphalt and how many time you probably invested on it ^^).

@the taco ninja: Thanks Taco!

Hi again.

Since it’s being hard focus on programming due to school and work, I decided work a bit on art since it’s something that I can pause and continue without lose the entire thinking path.

So, since I plan in show some nice cinematics to tell the game story to the player invested a bit on get a cinematic Grimbringer that will be the class that we’ll get available on the demo. The idea is get a close up on the video to show the “Reaper’s Eye” that will be one of the skills, so I needed work on a huge skin texture to don’t get pixelation.

By now at least the skin looks enough, but I’m not so much happy with the cap and the effect, well, here is a shot on 720p resolution:


http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/10_03_11.jpg

I’ll post here again when I get some progresses.

CYA!

[MatiasCastro]

I can create original music... Are you interested?

[MatiasCastro]

it's for free

[creasso]

@MatiasCastro: Thanks by the offer buddy, but I'm planning in really "hire" people when the right time comes. By now, just a big thanks by your generosity.


Another funny weekend, was nice to work on a girl to vary ^^.

This NPC will be a goddess to the game cinematic, a spoiler: the temple beyond the jade bridge was someday a place dedicated to her cult in the past. So you should imagine how much pissed she is because that creatures turned it on a mess...

Well, enough talking, here are the shots:


http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/GodessPreview.jpg

Redesign the goddess will lead me to change some of the real time assets (I have some idols with another figure on the temple) but Iím really happy with the goddess design.

By the way, here is an ingame shot from her lowres version (I need do the hair and cloth on the next).


http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/GoddessRT_Prev.jpg

Best wishes!

creasso

[creasso]

Hi!

Here are the goddess in real time, did some tests and probably she will be the NPC used to implement the dialogue system...

Looks gorgeous regardless the low pcount... :P


http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/10_17_11_A.jpg

Here we go, a shot on the level...


http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/10_17_11_B.jpg

I still thinking about how to get an animated portrait, maybe a pre-render sequence with the high res versions...


CYA!

[jakoks]

Hehe i can't wait to see the cut-scene.

[JeNeI]

Sorry for asking,but for what platform is this game made for.I'd be interested seeing it on iOS.

[the taco ninja]

very nice work man

[TheAgent]

The stuff is looking great, love the artwork. The low poly is barely noticeable!

[creasso]

Hi!

Really happy with your feedback guys! Must confess again that your comments are most of times what keep me going ^^...

@jakoks: Thanks man! Me too! I'll start the animatic stage soon to get timings and such, so I think that I'll not take much longer.

@JeNei: Wow a nice request! Well JeNei I'm tied to platforms that UDK allow me to output to, so, since our latest UDK release allows IOS production I see no reason to don't compile it to use on MACs (Still need workstation and mouse). I'll keep one eye your request and thanks by the tip.

@the taco ninja: Thanks by the comment and the visit to the thread! :P

@The Agent: Thanks man! Well, due to the camera angle and distance we'll probably not to feel so much the "lowpolyshiness" (OK I invented this one LOL).

Best wishes!

[JeNeI]

@creasso

Thanks.Your game looks astonishing.Looking forward to play it on my iPad :D

[creasso]

Hi!

There is a long time, so sorry by the lack of updates, the good news is that VACATION is coming! So I'll have plenty of time to do new things on Vida.
Began to study the Physics plugins and evaluate some possibilities, still need some study and tweaks but looks promising.
Got a shot from my first game decapitations:


http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/12_19_11_A.jpg

hope you like it, but it's just the beggining! LOL

CYA!

creasso

[Archie_Vision]

You have been doing a great job so far, and have been a very big inspiration to all of us indie devs out there.

Thanks,

Lee

[bauriema]

This is simply astonishing. And it's real crazy to even think that you're pretty much alone in this project. As Archie said, you have been a big inspiration to all of us.

[creasso]

Hi Guys! Happy new year!

Did some updates on the project due to my Vacation, did also a video to show this to you.
How I'm showing some updates that need read small letters this video does support HD resolution.

Hope you like it!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQI4trmwflk

Best wishes


creasso

[bauriema]

Haha! Rly nice improvements! Looking forward to play this game!

[JeNeI]

Do you plan on making a port for iOS?

[creasso]

@Jenel: The game will be released "someday" to PC / MAC.
@bauriema: Thanks!!! I'm also crazy to put everything to work and play. LOL

[k21n]

Awesome work dude!!!!

[creasso]

@k21n: Thanks dude! Hope that all future players think the same... LOL

Small update: Working on the character creation screen, will take a bit longer since I'm using GFX merged with RT assets.

Best wishes!

creasso

[LordNelson7]

Creasso I've been searching all over for a tutorial for slot-based inventory. What tutorial did you follow to implement your inventory? I can't figure out which function references the slot, such that when an item is dragged over to a slot, the skeletalmesh is changed, or weapon is equipped.

It has been driving me crazy and I have been searching all over, sorry to worry you but I can't seem to figure it out, and I have multiple posts about it but no one has responded.

From my research I believe it has something to do with the eventtypes dragBegin, dranEnd, and drop, but the exact answer has eluded me so far.

[creasso]

@LordNelson7: Dude, I got no tutorial to inventory, simply watched the InventoryDemo that ships with UDK and did imagined an approach "alike". I advice you to do the same.

[creasso]

Hi! Got the character creation prototype running, also did some tests on loading maps.

2 years of project!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZPI7vVIXnE


Enjoy!

creasso

[ADF86]

Looking awesome! Keep up the good work, creasso, you're making quite an impressive game!

[jakoks]

Will you be doing any site were you will put maybe some info about game or/and maybe some more stuff in some near future?

(i am curious what the plot may be like)

Cheers

[jakoks]

Will you be doing any site were you will put maybe some info about game or/and maybe some more stuff in some near future?

(i am curious what the plot may be like)

Cheers

[creasso]

@jakoks: I`ll be publishing a site soon at http://www.vida-game.com

[Kuda]

Hot damn that looks good.

[creasso]

@Kuda: Thanks! Now I'm working on gather all content.

Hi!

I got some small questions and maybe you could help me in make some decisions...

Some people asks about background story, but this one is HUGE... What lead myself to write down it in parts.

So the question: What kind of spoilers would you like to know first about the game?


Best wishes!


creasso

[jakoks]

Maybe what the main character is trying to do?(i mean is he trying to save world, revenge etc...)

[zanrai]

Looks fantastic! Pro stuff! I love the logo btw and gameplay looks great!

[creasso]

@jakoks: Soon I'll post more details

@zanrai: Thanks dude, hope the players like it ;)

Guys!!! VIDA GAME SITE IS ONLINE!!!! Hope you like the article and if you are interested the Archive section contains links to all relevant things published.

Here is: http://www.vida-game.com (http://www.vida-game.com)

[the taco ninja]

love the website dude

[creasso]

@the taco ninja: Thanks buddy! I'll update with more content soon.

Hi! Got some questions about the game story (to be sincere, since the project began) now I got everything registered so I'll publish an Atlas with all the game info, it's on the site and the link is this one:First chapter here (http://www.vida-game.com/atlas_01_en.html)

Enjoy! I'm formatting the next volume.

creasso

[thejaguarmma]

Sweet =)

Thanks for the inspiration

[XstreamTech]

Looks really nice, Its a genre I love..., You've got some high quality content in there also. Keep up the good work

[creasso]

@thejaguarmma: Thanks buddy, I'm glad you liked it.
@XstreamTech: Wow! A Fan! So you'll probably understand what I'm saying on the pitch video...

Allright... I think it's the though post I ever did here.

Guys and gals from the forum.
How you know (some more, some less) I'm here more or less since the UDK was given to us, my objectives were always clear (like you can see if you get the earlier posts) make a hack slash to some old fans that got ignored.

Each day Vida grows a bit more and by your nice feedback looks like I'm on the right path. Now that I'm plenty sure that I could really make something that fits some tastes I'm getting the next step to try get funds to hire* a team and put Vida on the shelves. Of course I know that i could not reach this point without the community support (I said lots of times that your feedback was my fuel) and now I'm directly asking for some help.

*most of you know how much important I consider to pay for any work done.

I began a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo, the video is here:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_O2HnjVgng

I bet that if it reaches the old hack-slash fans (I'm really interested on producing a game for then) the campaign could really making to the goal, so while donations would be great I just want to ask you to send this video to as many people you can. If I reach each from the guys that signed petitions and got ignored I'll be really talking to the ones that inspired this project and are one of the reasons to start this thing.

I hope you don't get disappointed with my request, while I'll not give up if this don't makes be allowed to hire some people will make a huge difference on the finished title.


Thank you in advance.


creasso
PS: You can talk to me on: feedback@vida-game.com

[creasso]

Hi...

Well, second day on my campaign, got my first donation!
But also got my first professional press article in Brazil, if you get interested here is the google translated:Translated by Google (http://translate.google.com.br/translate?sl=pt&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=pt-BR&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fgamereporter.uol.com.br%2Fvida-game-brasileiro-feito-para-atrair-fas-de-hackn-slash-das-antigas%2F&act=url)

[creasso]

Hi, did some images to show the gifts to donators (well, at least a preview), comments welcome like usual.


http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/Vida%20Campaign/Vida_Game_Box.jpg

http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/Vida%20Campaign/Vida_Game_Cap.jpg

http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/Vida%20Campaign/Vida_Game_Tshirt.jpg

Best wishes!


creasso

[creasso]

Hi!

Well, campaign fail... LOL so let's back to the work...

Did a frame concept from the Airen Pantheon... The four gods, Otiva - Life, Aguinasha - Death, Nothgal - Corruption and Zatosh - Ascenssion...

http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t22/creasso/UDK/Pantheon.jpg

Best Wishes!

creasso

[UDK_lover]

looks great! interesting gods :D keep it up! :)

[aRny]

im liking your motivation and effort, keep going - it will come through

[creasso]

Well, I'm moving to iOS by now (selling a smaller game could be faster to capitalize the project, so It's just a pause)... To don't miss the other iOS developers works I'll be posting on the:
VIDA GENESIS THREAD (http://forums.epicgames.com/threads/920007-VIDA-Genesis-Tactical-Turn-Based-iOS-Game)

Same story, design concepts, gore... but on a smaller screen... LOL

See all you there!

Best wishes