I like the idea of developers on ue5 not chasing photorealistic graphics that don't work on the current graphics cards generation anyway, and focusing on gameplay.
Overwhelming majority of UE5 rendering features works quite fine on not only current, but also previous generation hardware. Unless the developer(s) are completely incompetent optimization-wise, you can get most game types using new UE5 rendering features running on High scalability preset on something like RTX2060 Super rarely dipping below 60FPS.
I really dig the aesthetics. That era of 90s games where people were just figuring out all of this 3D stuff just reminds me of that feeling of infinitive possibilities that games seemed to have back then - especially when experimentation and learning were the cornerstones of game development. I'm aiming for a similar vibe for my own project so this is quite the inspiration to me. Keep it up!
@@user-fu8gq5xg5u1 That's a fair assessment. I often see budding artists attempt to emulate the drawings of their favorite cartoons and while there is nothing wrong with that when I tell them what mistakes they've made the ones that don't know better try to defend it by saying it's part of the style. They fail to understand that the ones they are emulating took inspiration from the real world and worked *that* into a style. They didn't start with the 'style' and then break every rule because of it. My drawing prof said it best 'You need to understand the rules before you can break them correctly.'
I really like how this gives you just enough detail that your imagination creates the fine detail in the textures. The smoothness to the animation is really beautiful.
@@fleshtonegolem best support at the moment is kinda watching/liking the videos and telling people who could be interested about the game. I hope that I will get a puplic alpha test on the way early next year. Then people can finaly test it and flood me with bug reports :D
Your game looks really cool. I can't wait to play it when it comes out, and I'll definitely add it to my Steam wishlist. Also, I appreciate how regularly you post videos. It helps a lot as I work on my own game. I hope I can keep up a similar pace with my game development.
I also like your approach to level design and how you explain it using examples like Elden Ring. There aren't many informative videos on level design, so I always find it interesting to hear something new on the topic.
@@Antantic_ Hey thanks for the kind words :) the game is kind of early right now so release will take abit ^^. but i hope that next year there will be a public playtest : ). its super nice to hear that the infos on level design are useful. always hope that i can help and inspire with my videos : ) Wish you all the best with your own project. Don't push yourself too hard
Personal reccomendation - I find it really pleasant to the eye, when grass "meshes" is generally of the same color as the landscape they spawn on, so they sort of blend in, and fade out in the distance, i.e. player cant tell, where they actually end spawning.]
RUclipss algo coming in clutch. Loved watching this video and seeing a creative do their thang and I'm here for it. Was admiring the added level design at 4:07 and thought some areas would look and feel a bit more immersive with muskeg/swampy parts in some of the grassy areas --especially how you've implemented that foggy atmosphere in the forest area-- you know, to kinda slow progress while venturing and adding difficulty to some places for higher rewards. Also, the now cliche' poison ponds/lakes maybe 😉😉
Thanks so much. Yeah absolutly, i have to get some more detailed "decals" or "patches" in the game. haha oh yeah the cliche swamp area will come ^^, but there won't be "that much" poision i think ^^.
Some thoughts for later down the road. I like the idea following the Elden Ring Level Design. But I think it would be cool if the forest or general the map had some small props that show the past tho. Maybe skeletons or things left behind from people who did not survive. Some area show a fight occured, some show people being so surprised by being attacked they left behind things in a state like they still are there. Something that shows that it's not only the player and the enemies, but also people were here but did not survive or escaped. Also bloodtrails, maybe? But awesome progress! Keep up the amazing work!
Ohh yeah absolutley! I love stuff like this. The fallout games have soo good environment storytelling, will definitely add stuff like that later on. I love it when you can kind of see what happend on a specific place just by looking at your surroundings.
First time seeing this project and I'm very impressed. As a fellow game developer I really enjoy seeing honest devlogs from other small projects like this. I'll be eagerly awaiting every update from you, man!
I am a huge fan of graphics that convey a unique artstyle instead of focusing so much on photo-realism that i might as well step outside and play the hardest game of all time: LIFE.
No idea why the algorithm led me here today, but this looks very cool so far for a one man indie game, I like the detail of the forest being cut down near the enemy camp, pretty impressive
@@thatFain Can I ask what your main inspirations have been? I think I can see some Dark Souls but I would love to know what other games or media have influenced your creative process?
@@LavenderRex7705 sure : ) The atmosphere is heavily inspired by dark souls / elden ring / diablo / Zelda Majora's Mask. But also the manga Berserk. Also animes like Claymore or Seven Deadly Sins are kind inspirations in terms of style and backstory. You can also find a hint of Escape from Tarkov in terms of extraction based progression in the game. The psx style look is heavily inspired by Gothic, Lunacid, Dread Delusion or Valheim.
Very good devlog series. It is leagues ahead of other devlogs because you present your intention cohesively and it seems that your game has a strong sense of identity. I am excited to see where this goes.
Thank you so much that means a lot 🖤 I'm always a bit anxious if I get the point of the game across so this is super nice to hear : ). I think the strong sense of identity comes from the point that the idea for that game was loosely floating around in my head, for quite some time. This gave me some time to really think about what I want the game to be and made reflecting on that idea and writing that vision down on paper much easier. Again thanks for the kind words
Great stuff! I like your approach to level design - you block out a space based on how you want a player to *feel* as they explore it, instead of jumping right into sculpting + decoration. This is what gives a level good "flow" - like in Fromsoft games!
I had a feeling that was the case. looking forward to see more of your project in the future. The visual style really stood out in a great way :)@@thatFain
omg I adore the way the fog hangs in the air-makes the air look so thick and dead/lifeless (in a good way!) looks almost like walking through a cobweb (again, not in a distracting/bad way, I just mean it sort of evokes a certain... creepy, cob-webbiness haha) Sorry if that was confusing, to underline my point, I think it's really impressive how much of an impression of desolation you've managed to create in those areas already, so early into development... that I can already feel that after seeing 13 seconds of footage from the game
thanks for the very kind words 🖤 I get what you mean, really thanks a lot. That makes me super happy, because this was what I was going for. to evoke this desolate or melancholic feeling.
Hi, new fan here. Looks awesome. I like how the forest looks - I'm very fond of forest bc I grew up in one. All in all I'm interested to see more & subbed. Keep going :)
This looks like a very interesting game, I like the low poly art style. You do a good job of making the level design feel like that of elden ring. Elden ring has is a lot of good lessons about game design that I learned and tried to put into my game, but I haven’t delved too deeply into the level design as you have :P
It looks amazing! Here are my nitpicky criticisms and suggestions, lmao: - You could probably drop the opacity of the fog texture a bit as it's a bit distracting when it should be one of those subtle effects that you more so feel than see. Consider making the particles always face the camera too as there are moments such as in 1:22 that you can see (top right corner of the screen) the sheets used. Kind of breaking the illusion. - The textures used in the tree barks could also be tiled slightly more to produce smaller pixels. They're clashing with the texel density of the ground and player and it got more evident with the fog overlapping them with way smaller pixels. - Absolutely love the despaired, I think it'd be really fun if the one without the lower half of its body used its mace to move instead of just crawling, by attacking the ground and pulling itself towards it. It would require a different animation and they'd move in steps instead of linearly. Similarly, the one missing a leg could be hopping. As it is and moving in a constant velocity, it just feels like he's got two legs but one is invisible and they're just walking with a limp. - I think the blood texture when you attack them is a bit too light and pink-ish in hue. Since they look so gross, maybe consider making the blood a darker shade of brown? Like it's putrid and gross, same for the bones which should probably be a little yellow-er. They also look very frail, like their bodies are decomposing, would be interesting if they lost body parts when attacked or even had a small chance to maybe lose a limb or something when they themselves attack with a heavy weapon, like the weight of the weapon made their arms come off or something. A limbless despaired could maybe begin running towards the player to bite them. That way you have some extra variety and make them more interesting and "real". - At the 3:00 mark the archer turns its back to the player to reposition themselves. This is very nitpicky, but I don't think they should do that. I'm not sure on how intelligent and capable of planning things ahead these creatures are, but turning their backs sort of implies they're somewhat smart and have the concept of object permanence. If you think of zombies in popular media, you only ever see them with their backs turned if the player rotates around them or if they're being snuck on. They should instead strafe or hop backwards (since you already introduced that they are capable of doing so with the one missing a leg), always keeping an eye on the player. - I'm presuming they are decomposed bodies and not just plain ugly, so, one suggestion I have that I think could add a ton of immersion is by adding flies near to where they spawn. This would make them more creepy and scary, even if they are easy enemies. It will also work as a warning for the player that there's a Despair around. The buzzing sound could get louder as you approach or they could spawn a lot of flies when there are multiple despaired near each other. - The sharp shadows on the foggy forest are taking away from the mood and also making it feel less dense or dangerous. Being inside the fog should be closer to being outside on a overcast day. - Similarly, I think you could adjust the post processing volume to make it be a little darker when you're inside the fog forest, like the sun isn't penetrating that thick fog making it so it doesn't receive much light. - You should make it so the fog particles fade out when the player is near them. This helps with the vibe. - Consider adding more foliage on the ground like bushes and grass blades. Some decals would be pretty cool, like mud puddles, fallen leaves, that sort of stuff. A fog forest should feel creepy and damp. - The grass blades are still a bit too vibrant for the ground texture. I've seen a few shaders around that sample the ground color to make them more seamless and I think that could be quite for the atmosphere, it also really helps with variety since you could have the ground underneath being different textures of grass being blended and it would sample those colors regardless. You should also edit the grass blade's model normals to be facing directly upwards. This is an old trick and helps with the transition to the ground feeling a bit less sharp, since they'll share the same normals that the terrain has. - A great way to make the pathways feel more used and walked on is by adding decals of things such as footprints, trails from caravans, horseshoes, puddles (especially in areas where there are multiple footprints). You can probably make a few brushes in Photoshop (or whatever tool you use) and just go wild with it in a few height textures with some opacity (ya know, black footprints, grey background, that sort of stuff). Bake a normal map from those textures, an AO map and save the height. You can use the height to blend water in for puddles, and you can set the materials as deferred decals. Don't add a color texture unless if you really want to. This way, they'll be transparent and just apply the normal to the ground underneath. This is how games do things such as edge decals, for example or spawn footprints. - Consider making the terrain where there's a path slightly lower than the parts on the sides where there's grass. You can even add a edge texture to accentuate the detail - maybe you could use Unreal's road tools instead of terrain blending, this will give you greater control on how these roads work and I think it supports different pieces for variation and whatnot. Also try to think about how those roads get used. Roads where vehicles go through are wider and often will have patches of grass in the middle, because caravans won't walk on those. Pedestrian paths are often narrower. Natural paths for in areas where people walk through a lot, this usually happens in places people will use as "shortcuts" often, like, maybe the pathway to the river is a bit too long and "if I just cut through these two trees here I can get there faster". These natural paths are often very irregular and nature tends to survive a bit more. Anyways, nitpicky as hell, I know. Sorry. - I like the cut down trees near the camp, that's a very cool story-telling detail. You can probably add a bit more to it, like axes stuck on the tree stumps, some trails of where logs usually got dragged towards the piles, etc and there should be less greenery throughout, because of dragging trees around the grass and overall being a lived-in area. The camp, however, would've likely been set on the hill behind it (the one with the tree), as this is the more strategic and logic thing to do since it would give you a higher ground and allow you to see incoming attacks from a distance. Being positioned this close to the forest and behind a hill would just make it very susceptible to being attacked. - You could also make those tents stand out more, having some different textures. A few raggedy ones, others patched up with other colors, that sort of stuff. Anyways, sorry for yet another massive post lmao. Don't feel like you need to respond, especially because a lot of these are very nitpicky and don't matter at all.
Love the art style and colors, however, I would smooth shade your models, it should look better and it's also much less vertices, so it would also look more authentically retro. (in case you didn't know how to do that, it's just a switch in blender)
I'll maybe give this another try later, but last time I tested it I didn't really liked the look afterwards. I kinda love me my hard edges ^^. But thanks for the tip.
if the grass blades had a gradient mix of green, brown and yellow it may blend better with your grass landscape material and look very natural with the environment.
The game is looking swell, though I noticed that the grass looks a bit off since it's a different color from the gound. You could sample the ground color beneath the grass objects to change the hue which would also work for any type of environment since the grass changes color with the ground. Anyways, keep up the good work!
Would be cool to have some sort of hidden graveyard in the forest area with ghost or skeleton enemies, maybe it's the city's old graveyard? Although that's just an idea. Keep it up 👍
Nice work! Just an obvervation -- the texture on the enemies you show early on blend into the dirt texture. Wasn't sure if it was intended but they camoflauge making them hard to tell if they are environment or enemy.
Thanks 🖤 yeah I know what you mean, I'll maybe adjust there color a bit along the way. this will probably depend on playtest feedback. but thanks for the input, I'll keep an eye on it !
Truly impressed with all the work you've put into this game! I also really liked your thoughts on Elden ring level design. I don't have much context for your game but I really hope you find something meaningful to set it apart from Elden Ring.
@@thatFain That's pretty inspiring tho. I am also in love with the RPG's especially Elden Ring... finished that game x4 times.. In fact, I loved Elden Ring so much that I even start game dev thanks to it. Anyways, can you please tell me how long/the process of learning blueprints? Like, you follow tutorials (before entering tutorial hell I suppose), and then you simply come up with your small implementation, like "ok, now I want to add x,y,z" and you slowly start to get the hang of it?" I mean, that's my actual status. However, I only know how to do basic things, nothing close to inventory system, combat system or such. I might be able to implement those into my own project tho, but sometimes I feel that I should learn more complex stuff, but that means to get back to "tutorial hell" so...I am not sure what would be the best/optimal/efficient way. Also, I am looking forward to play your game in 2 years (at least that what you've said and yes I know it's extremely hard to be accurate with this, no problem if it's going to take 3 or 4 years, it's an RPG after all) Imo RPG's are the second most hardest game genre to develop (the first one would be mmorpg)
@@zrmdevelopment7260 Wall of text incoming sorry xD ^^ Oh nice starting game dev is always fun and kind of scary at the same time ^^ That's a hard topic, I think everybody has his or her own way of learning things and its always good to try out different methods and kinda of find what works for you. As for me, how I still learn blueprints and the whole engine (its kind of a never ending process) is also by following tutorials and then altering stuff according to my needs. I also began my learning with doing different tutorials to begin understanding how blueprints work. If you are completely new i would suggest trying to make a very very small game. Like just doing something where you have to run from one end of the level to another and dodge balls or what ever and at the end there is a victory screen. super simple idea but it has a lot of different things to learn in it. while starting out I found it super important to not randomly make tutorials but to know what you want to make that gives you a goal to strive for. and make this as easy as it can be! after you have a good grasp of blueprints, try implementing stuff out of memory from these tutorials, kind of to solidify your knowledge. To prevent tutorial hell, I’m thinking about what do I need in my game or what do I want to implement and I just search exactly for tutorials on that topic. This will most of the time lead to info of how to implement something but often has some different stuff that I don't need or that I want to change, so I mostly use that only to get an idea on how I could approach that and then begin altering the implementation to fit my needs. but yeah i think at the beginning it can be a bit much with tutorials but they can be good to get a grasp on how systems are working and after a while, if you try to implement stuff out of memory, and repeat things you will feel that you get more comfortable with the whole systems and implementing stuff on your own. to quickly sum up how I do it, when I don’t know how to implement something or want to learn about something is: - think about what I really want to learn or want to implement. - look up a tutorial (the shorter the better) - learn how the approach form that person is, maybe try out implementing it that way - after that take some time to understand what is going on and fuck around with the implementation (like if its a shader changing around some numbers changing the textures changing the calculations and look what happens) - i think the real important part is to take your time after you followed a tutorial to understand what is going on and just testing around with what you just implemented.
Hell yeah, I also want dismemberment in there! I already begun looking into this, but its a bit more complicated to set up so will take a bit till its in there. And I absolutley love the fact that you mentioned Blade of Darkness! Its one of the games I sometimes go back to, to look up how they do stuff.
@@thatFain yeah, i'm currently working on some complex enemy AI and started making our sound engine. Will apply some sound and music to the game soon. ☺️
I don't drink beer or have time for streams but I would love to be a tester of the project I've enjoyed every video thus far and can't wait for the next one
You don't have to drink beer to test the game promise ^^. I will definitely make a public play test as soon as I think that the games plays okay. The playable state I mentioned in the video will probalby not work that well for that. But we will see. I'll try to get you guys something to play as fast as possible! Also thanks for following along on the journey
Bro the thumbnail already grabbed me around the throat and dragged me in, and that first little clip of the character walking around hooked me. Where do I buy.
Great content here and also on Twitch. Keep it coming! :) It would be interesting to hear, how you are going to encounter the variation on enemies, since this seems to be kind of hard for an indie project. There was critic on Lords of the Fallen, that there are 'only' about 40 enemy types for such a large game with AAA background. I'm asking from a standpoint of variation in models and animations (also obviously planning with budget - which you dont have to talk about here). Are you planning on adding quadrupled enemies like dogs and other creatures/monsters?
Thanks a lot 🖤 So here is a wall of text ^^ :D That's a very interesting question, and one that I'm also thinking about a lot at the moment. You are completely right in the assessment, that this is hard for an indie project (especially if you are only 1 person xD) Also haven't played Lords of the Fallen yet (it's on the list) but damn I think 40 enemies is a lot ! Especially if all of them have their own animations, timings etc. But I have to play the game to really see if they are repeating too often. For Calamity I don’t really want to quadruple enemies, of course for example the “Despaired” will have different versions with different weapons (which changes their attack patterns etc) but there will also be different versions of them with different armor types. So in a sense this is using the same enemy. I think the biggest problem I will face is animations. I simply can’t make all the animations on my own because it would take way too long, and the unreal marketplace only offers so many good animations. So this means in a perfect world I would hire somebody to do animations for me, but at the moment I have no Budget. I only can support myself at the moment from savings I have and I will also need to get funding of some sort next year or I need to do a side job. I’m very open about my budget, and will continue to do so ! So yeah I’m still figuring out how I will manage to get a good variety of enemies in the game. In one of the future streams I also want to go over Enemy types and look at what enemy could be next. We need one that fits the foggy forest next. I’m also super scared of making the first boss enemy, because I really have to figure out how I’ll make the animations for him. I also want to look into enemy variety in other similar indie games like Lunacide, Dread Delusion or Blood West. I think Blood West doesn’t have that many different enemies but it works fine. But I have to really analyze this to be able to speak out on that. Thanks for the intrest in all of that 🖤🖤
@@thatFain I dont mind wall of texts :P Great insight, thank you for being this open. Would it be a sidejob in the (gaming-)industry? A comparison i found very fitting for the "only 40 Enemy types" topic was, that demon souls also had about the same amount of enemies. What DS did better in the eyes of the critic, was placing a certain type of enemy in a dedicated area and nowhere else. Lords of the Fallen seems like placing its enemies 'randomly', so you encounter them very often in different areas -> they are not bound to certain places. So i guess, as an one man studio, you could come away placing enemies in one area and not repeat them later in a green colour :P As for your forest enemy: it has to be spiders and/or wolves, jk :D How about a humanoid where you can see red eyes glowing from a distance but nothing else - and suddenly it charges you after it screams on spotting the player.
@thatFain Also for the Boss animations: What i found useful was to use Motion Warping for rootmotion based Anims and the "suggest projectile velocity custom arc"-node function to move the AI through space with inplace Anims. Both could achieve a very much from soft like feel to the bosses in a sense of danger and aggressive moves/behaviour.
Ahh okay yeah, I thought it had to be something like this. Because sure if you encounter every enemy very often in different areas it does not matter how many different types you have, it will always look like they are repeating itself. Yeah I'll definitely take a similar approach like the one from Dark Souls. I love how they use their enemy placement and how good it ties into level design and lore. I also only want to use enemies in places where it makes sense for them to be. That's also why I don't like the first enemy I made that much anymore because he does not fit the surroundings at the moment. That's also why I want to write down a bit of lore when I have a bit more off time, like over the holidays. Love your idea with the screaming enemy ! Will make a note and think more about them. Yesterday I had the idea to make a rat king for the area. not like a king of rats, but the actual thing, like a demon out of dead rats knotted together. (if you don't know what i mean just google rat king but beware its kinda disgusting xD) As for the sidejob thing, I don't know exactly, in the best case yes in the games industry but also I won’t work for companies that are using dark patterns to make money. I’ll never work in browser- or handy games. And sadly at the moment there are not that many companies that I would like to work for. But that's a problem for “future me” ^^ there is still time and also maybe I’ll find funding or a publisher.
I love the graphics. I usually don't like the oldschool mmorpg look but damn this is more like Valheim. Some variety in topography and foliage would help this world, but the "feel" is right on point
Thanks : ). Yeah true i need to make some more variety in foliage etc. but this will come a bit later down the road. For now the first goal is make it playable ^^
Ich komm gern vorbei und trink ein Bier mit dir während wir deine Demo spielen! :D Sehr gutes Video mal wieder, bin sehr froh auf dich aurmerksam geworden zu sein! Sehr motivierend deine Fortschritte zu sehen! :)
@@thatFain Oh! I just assumed you'd speak German tbh if you don't just let me know 🙈 But I'll answer in English just to be sure on this! I don't life in Hamburg but I wouldn't mind driving to you to have a look at your work and talk about the game and game dev in general tbh! 👀 I have way too few people in the same industry I could chat with tbh
@@inflamethetreehouse I also speak german ^^ but want to keep the chat in english so others can also understand. oh thanks for the offer, but if something is playabel I'll let you know and can send you an alpha build. but this will still take a bit of time. If you have game dev question etc you can also always drop by the streams when i'm live and ask them there. I always try to answer them as good as I can : )
Man it's looking great! Gamedevs often underestimate the art of level design but you seem to have it down. I am working on a similar open world, but more barren and its a challenge for sure. For the foliage how are you handling the performance? Do you use unshaded materials?
Thanks, means a lot hearing that from you. I also absolutely love your style. Everybody reading this go and check out his videos ! Its and order ! Yeah I love level design and did quit a lot research into the theory behind it during my studies. I really want to do a video about the theory of level flow, but i have to find the time for doing that :D For the foliage (espacially for grass, flowers, samplings stones), I'm straight out culling it over distance ^^ (with a smooth fade). You can see where it's not rendered if you look into the distance. For now I'm okay with that, espacially because of the low poly psx'i style its more forgiving I guess. But I also have to optimize that at some point. Thanks for sticking around man 🖤
Thanks 🖤 Haha yeah good find ; ) I just now realised that the mancatcher in Berserk also used spikes on the outside xD But yeah I also want to add some more enemies like Mozgus' Disciples. think they will fit in very well.
![Seungmin "그렇게, 천천히, 우리(As we are)" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/kAzmhLHePqU/mqdefault.jpg)
I like the idea of developers on ue5 not chasing photorealistic graphics that don't work on the current graphics cards generation anyway, and focusing on gameplay.
Yeah true. I'm also a big fan of graphics which convey an art style and not just imitate photorealism.
@@thatFainA E S T H E T I C S
@@Oversensitive-S-poster yeeesss ^^
Overwhelming majority of UE5 rendering features works quite fine on not only current, but also previous generation hardware. Unless the developer(s) are completely incompetent optimization-wise, you can get most game types using new UE5 rendering features running on High scalability preset on something like RTX2060 Super rarely dipping below 60FPS.
@@user-fu8gq5xg5u1 oh yeah haha, i remember this ^^
I really dig the aesthetics. That era of 90s games where people were just figuring out all of this 3D stuff just reminds me of that feeling of infinitive possibilities that games seemed to have back then - especially when experimentation and learning were the cornerstones of game development. I'm aiming for a similar vibe for my own project so this is quite the inspiration to me. Keep it up!
Thanks
@@user-fu8gq5xg5u1 That's a fair assessment. I often see budding artists attempt to emulate the drawings of their favorite cartoons and while there is nothing wrong with that when I tell them what mistakes they've made the ones that don't know better try to defend it by saying it's part of the style. They fail to understand that the ones they are emulating took inspiration from the real world and worked *that* into a style. They didn't start with the 'style' and then break every rule because of it. My drawing prof said it best 'You need to understand the rules before you can break them correctly.'
I also have a soft spot for early 3d ps1/n64 game esthetic. 96, 97, 98, the pioneering years, the golden era of videogame development to me.
I know right. In terms of looks and feel, it just takes you back to that time and makes you want to play a game
The cabin at 3:47 looks like a shot-for-shot replica of the cabin in Slay the Princess.
I just learned about that game and sure enough put it on my wishlist xD
The forest is definitely incredibly beautiful. Atmosphere is on point.
Thanks 🖤, yeah I also really like it ^^.
Think I'll also test out the fog on some more areas and check out how it looks.
I really like how this gives you just enough detail that your imagination creates the fine detail in the textures. The smoothness to the animation is really beautiful.
Thanks
@@thatFain is there any way for us to support the development and try it out as well?
@@fleshtonegolem best support at the moment is kinda watching/liking the videos and telling people who could be interested about the game.
I hope that I will get a puplic alpha test on the way early next year. Then people can finaly test it and flood me with bug reports :D
i had the notifications on, i have faith in the success of this project, keep going, it looks great!!
thanks you so so much ! will do my best
Good job, please continue. Your project is similar to the old RPG games, as well as Two Worlds, Dragon Age and Gothic
Will do and try my best : )
Editing the next Devlog atm, also thanks for comparing me to such awesome retro games! 🖤loved them !
Your game looks really cool. I can't wait to play it when it comes out, and I'll definitely add it to my Steam wishlist. Also, I appreciate how regularly you post videos. It helps a lot as I work on my own game. I hope I can keep up a similar pace with my game development.
I also like your approach to level design and how you explain it using examples like Elden Ring. There aren't many informative videos on level design, so I always find it interesting to hear something new on the topic.
@@Antantic_ Hey thanks for the kind words :) the game is kind of early right now so release will take abit ^^. but i hope that next year there will be a public playtest : ).
its super nice to hear that the infos on level design are useful. always hope that i can help and inspire with my videos : )
Wish you all the best with your own project. Don't push yourself too hard
WHY DO I LOVE THE MOOD OF THIS GAME SO MUCH??? It looks and feels amazing, man. Keep working on it 😲
Thaaaanks so so much 🖤 will do my best to keep it up ᕙ(•◡ •)ᕗ
Phenomenal atmosphere on this game! This is really cool, good luck! 👍
Thanks so much 🖤
Personal reccomendation - I find it really pleasant to the eye, when grass "meshes" is generally of the same color as the landscape they spawn on, so they sort of blend in, and fade out in the distance, i.e. player cant tell, where they actually end spawning.]
Hey there, yeah got this recommendation quite often now xD I'll change the grass a bit in the future.
RUclipss algo coming in clutch. Loved watching this video and seeing a creative do their thang and I'm here for it. Was admiring the added level design at 4:07 and thought some areas would look and feel a bit more immersive with muskeg/swampy parts in some of the grassy areas --especially how you've implemented that foggy atmosphere in the forest area-- you know, to kinda slow progress while venturing and adding difficulty to some places for higher rewards. Also, the now cliche' poison ponds/lakes maybe 😉😉
Thanks so much.
Yeah absolutly, i have to get some more detailed "decals" or "patches" in the game.
haha oh yeah the cliche swamp area will come ^^, but there won't be "that much" poision i think ^^.
I really love how zweihander works like zweihander and not some kind of chonky 50 kg piece of metal in your game, It's really refreshing.
Thanks
Really great dev log! Not sure, if I'm the target group of that game, so I guess a playtest won't be that valuable, but I'm interested in the beer ;)
Thanks
Right up my alley, great work!
Thanks 🖤
Some thoughts for later down the road.
I like the idea following the Elden Ring Level Design.
But I think it would be cool if the forest or general the map had some small props that show the past tho.
Maybe skeletons or things left behind from people who did not survive. Some area show a fight occured, some show people being so surprised by being attacked they left behind things in a state like they still are there.
Something that shows that it's not only the player and the enemies, but also people were here but did not survive or escaped.
Also bloodtrails, maybe?
But awesome progress! Keep up the amazing work!
Ohh yeah absolutley! I love stuff like this. The fallout games have soo good environment storytelling, will definitely add stuff like that later on. I love it when you can kind of see what happend on a specific place just by looking at your surroundings.
bro the artstyle of this game is genuinely absolutely perfect. Keep it up its looking awesome so far
Thaaaaaannnkkss 🖤
The fog is only a small part of this video but I like the solution you came up with. It really adds so much to your world and it looks great.
Thanks so much
Wooooow! Such a cool style! Love it! Think you should have a bit of smoothening on the camera movement❤
Thaaanks 🖤
True, I'm also not that happy how the camera is at the moment. I've not found the right values yet, but will try to figure it out : )
nice job. i liked your thoughts on the cliff level design 👍
thanks
Looking very cool, brother. Keep it up
Thanks
Love the video vibe and how you present your game! Also, congrats on the progress in Calamity!
Thanks so much 🖤
First time seeing this project and I'm very impressed. As a fellow game developer I really enjoy seeing honest devlogs from other small projects like this. I'll be eagerly awaiting every update from you, man!
Thank you so much 🖤
Great stuff man! ❤ Looking forward to the next devlog!
thaaanks man 🖤
I am a huge fan of graphics that convey a unique artstyle instead of focusing so much on photo-realism that i might as well step outside and play the hardest game of all time: LIFE.
: ) nice thanks. I know what you mean. I'm also a big fan of artstyle over realism.
just found this video in the recommended, will keep an eye on it! great job so far ~
Thanks 🖤
No idea why the algorithm led me here today, but this looks very cool so far for a one man indie game, I like the detail of the forest being cut down near the enemy camp, pretty impressive
thanks
This is so cool! Glad this appeared in my recommendations!
Thanks for watching 🖤
@@thatFain Can I ask what your main inspirations have been? I think I can see some Dark Souls but I would love to know what other games or media have influenced your creative process?
@@LavenderRex7705 sure : )
The atmosphere is heavily inspired by dark souls / elden ring / diablo / Zelda Majora's Mask. But also the manga Berserk.
Also animes like Claymore or Seven Deadly Sins are kind inspirations in terms of style and backstory.
You can also find a hint of Escape from Tarkov in terms of extraction based progression in the game.
The psx style look is heavily inspired by Gothic, Lunacid, Dread Delusion or Valheim.
Very good devlog series. It is leagues ahead of other devlogs because you present your intention cohesively and it seems that your game has a strong sense of identity. I am excited to see where this goes.
Thank you so much that means a lot 🖤 I'm always a bit anxious if I get the point of the game across so this is super nice to hear : ).
I think the strong sense of identity comes from the point that the idea for that game was loosely floating around in my head, for quite some time. This gave me some time to really think about what I want the game to be and made reflecting on that idea and writing that vision down on paper much easier.
Again thanks for the kind words
I just wanted to say have luck in whatever you do. Keep going. Looks amazing
thank you very much 🖤
Great stuff! I like your approach to level design - you block out a space based on how you want a player to *feel* as they explore it, instead of jumping right into sculpting + decoration. This is what gives a level good "flow" - like in Fromsoft games!
Thanks
Looking awesome so far! really excited to see how your game progresses
thanks
Looking great! I really like the overall atmosphere. I look forward to seeing more!
Thanks 🖤
Wow, this looks really good! I'm excited to see where this project goes!
Thanks so much :)
Good luck on this, looks cool!
thank you 🖤
Very good progress, love it! Can't wait to see that demo at the end of the year, keep up the good work! :)
Thanks 🖤
yeah me too, and I hope I can manage getting it done xD
Looking good, I think maybe for the forest to add a bit of rocks and props to fill it with a bit more environment
Thanks
I had a feeling that was the case. looking forward to see more of your project in the future. The visual style really stood out in a great way :)@@thatFain
@@B4NTO thanks so much! : )
First time viewer of your channel here, but just want to say as a fellow indie dev to keep it up! You can do it!
Thank you
rad dude, love the design and aesthetic so far
Thanks
looks great, glad I discovered this. Would wishlist on Steam if it comes there
Thanks so much
loving the atmosphere, good job!
thanks :)
This looks sick!
Thaaanks
I can't deny the fact loving exactly this like looking games.. Also Valheim nailed it. I love these aesthetics so much.
Yeah true Valheim really nailed it in combining these old school models/textures with real good lighting and new game engine features.
Good luck with the project dude. It's looking good :)
I'll definitely keep an eye on it ^^
thanks 🖤
Better than the day before after yesterday, nah but serious dope your making a game wish you the best !
xD ^^
thanks 🖤
just found this video randomly and already very excited about this. will definitely be keeping an eye on this project
Thank you very much for the kind words
omg I adore the way the fog hangs in the air-makes the air look so thick and dead/lifeless (in a good way!) looks almost like walking through a cobweb (again, not in a distracting/bad way, I just mean it sort of evokes a certain... creepy, cob-webbiness haha)
Sorry if that was confusing, to underline my point, I think it's really impressive how much of an impression of desolation you've managed to create in those areas already, so early into development... that I can already feel that after seeing 13 seconds of footage from the game
thanks for the very kind words 🖤
I get what you mean, really thanks a lot. That makes me super happy, because this was what I was going for. to evoke this desolate or melancholic feeling.
Hi, new fan here. Looks awesome. I like how the forest looks - I'm very fond of forest bc I grew up in one. All in all I'm interested to see more & subbed. Keep going :)
thanks so much.
This game looks absolutely amazing. I love the art style it looks great.
Thaaanks !! 🖤🖤
You are a hero, bro! Nice work!
Thank you
Looking forward to playing this. Absolutely adore PS1 style graphics and older graphics in general.
: ) will try my best to get a public dmeo out as fast as i can.
yeah me to ! it has this crunchiness to it.
looks promising! will keep an eye on this one, keep it up
Thank you ! 🖤
This looks like a very interesting game, I like the low poly art style. You do a good job of making the level design feel like that of elden ring. Elden ring has is a lot of good lessons about game design that I learned and tried to put into my game, but I haven’t delved too deeply into the level design as you have :P
Thank you 🖤. True Elden Ring has super good design in many areas, and we can learn a lot from it.
i LOVE the visual style.
Thaaaaanks
I'm feeling so immersed seeing this game! I can't wait to play it :D
Thanks
@@thatFain It'll be awesome! :D
Beautiful music
Thanks 🖤
Really good job man, looking nice!
Thanks so much
Just a little bit more feed back and weight behind the attack system and it would be so good it looks so incredibly smooth
Oh yeah, thats true!
I need to add some more "juicyness" to the game and espacially the hit feedback. Like a bit of camera shake and stuff like that.
First time I see this and I already feel the vibes of the game. I'm going to watch semi closely for it.
Thanks for checking it out and keeping an eye on it
It looks amazing! Here are my nitpicky criticisms and suggestions, lmao:
- You could probably drop the opacity of the fog texture a bit as it's a bit distracting when it should be one of those subtle effects that you more so feel than see. Consider making the particles always face the camera too as there are moments such as in 1:22 that you can see (top right corner of the screen) the sheets used. Kind of breaking the illusion.
- The textures used in the tree barks could also be tiled slightly more to produce smaller pixels. They're clashing with the texel density of the ground and player and it got more evident with the fog overlapping them with way smaller pixels.
- Absolutely love the despaired, I think it'd be really fun if the one without the lower half of its body used its mace to move instead of just crawling, by attacking the ground and pulling itself towards it. It would require a different animation and they'd move in steps instead of linearly. Similarly, the one missing a leg could be hopping. As it is and moving in a constant velocity, it just feels like he's got two legs but one is invisible and they're just walking with a limp.
- I think the blood texture when you attack them is a bit too light and pink-ish in hue. Since they look so gross, maybe consider making the blood a darker shade of brown? Like it's putrid and gross, same for the bones which should probably be a little yellow-er. They also look very frail, like their bodies are decomposing, would be interesting if they lost body parts when attacked or even had a small chance to maybe lose a limb or something when they themselves attack with a heavy weapon, like the weight of the weapon made their arms come off or something. A limbless despaired could maybe begin running towards the player to bite them. That way you have some extra variety and make them more interesting and "real".
- At the 3:00 mark the archer turns its back to the player to reposition themselves. This is very nitpicky, but I don't think they should do that. I'm not sure on how intelligent and capable of planning things ahead these creatures are, but turning their backs sort of implies they're somewhat smart and have the concept of object permanence. If you think of zombies in popular media, you only ever see them with their backs turned if the player rotates around them or if they're being snuck on. They should instead strafe or hop backwards (since you already introduced that they are capable of doing so with the one missing a leg), always keeping an eye on the player.
- I'm presuming they are decomposed bodies and not just plain ugly, so, one suggestion I have that I think could add a ton of immersion is by adding flies near to where they spawn. This would make them more creepy and scary, even if they are easy enemies. It will also work as a warning for the player that there's a Despair around. The buzzing sound could get louder as you approach or they could spawn a lot of flies when there are multiple despaired near each other.
- The sharp shadows on the foggy forest are taking away from the mood and also making it feel less dense or dangerous. Being inside the fog should be closer to being outside on a overcast day.
- Similarly, I think you could adjust the post processing volume to make it be a little darker when you're inside the fog forest, like the sun isn't penetrating that thick fog making it so it doesn't receive much light.
- You should make it so the fog particles fade out when the player is near them. This helps with the vibe.
- Consider adding more foliage on the ground like bushes and grass blades. Some decals would be pretty cool, like mud puddles, fallen leaves, that sort of stuff. A fog forest should feel creepy and damp.
- The grass blades are still a bit too vibrant for the ground texture. I've seen a few shaders around that sample the ground color to make them more seamless and I think that could be quite for the atmosphere, it also really helps with variety since you could have the ground underneath being different textures of grass being blended and it would sample those colors regardless. You should also edit the grass blade's model normals to be facing directly upwards. This is an old trick and helps with the transition to the ground feeling a bit less sharp, since they'll share the same normals that the terrain has.
- A great way to make the pathways feel more used and walked on is by adding decals of things such as footprints, trails from caravans, horseshoes, puddles (especially in areas where there are multiple footprints). You can probably make a few brushes in Photoshop (or whatever tool you use) and just go wild with it in a few height textures with some opacity (ya know, black footprints, grey background, that sort of stuff). Bake a normal map from those textures, an AO map and save the height. You can use the height to blend water in for puddles, and you can set the materials as deferred decals. Don't add a color texture unless if you really want to. This way, they'll be transparent and just apply the normal to the ground underneath. This is how games do things such as edge decals, for example or spawn footprints.
- Consider making the terrain where there's a path slightly lower than the parts on the sides where there's grass. You can even add a edge texture to accentuate the detail - maybe you could use Unreal's road tools instead of terrain blending, this will give you greater control on how these roads work and I think it supports different pieces for variation and whatnot. Also try to think about how those roads get used. Roads where vehicles go through are wider and often will have patches of grass in the middle, because caravans won't walk on those. Pedestrian paths are often narrower. Natural paths for in areas where people walk through a lot, this usually happens in places people will use as "shortcuts" often, like, maybe the pathway to the river is a bit too long and "if I just cut through these two trees here I can get there faster". These natural paths are often very irregular and nature tends to survive a bit more. Anyways, nitpicky as hell, I know. Sorry.
- I like the cut down trees near the camp, that's a very cool story-telling detail. You can probably add a bit more to it, like axes stuck on the tree stumps, some trails of where logs usually got dragged towards the piles, etc and there should be less greenery throughout, because of dragging trees around the grass and overall being a lived-in area. The camp, however, would've likely been set on the hill behind it (the one with the tree), as this is the more strategic and logic thing to do since it would give you a higher ground and allow you to see incoming attacks from a distance. Being positioned this close to the forest and behind a hill would just make it very susceptible to being attacked.
- You could also make those tents stand out more, having some different textures. A few raggedy ones, others patched up with other colors, that sort of stuff.
Anyways, sorry for yet another massive post lmao. Don't feel like you need to respond, especially because a lot of these are very nitpicky and don't matter at all.
Of Course I’ll answer !
Thank you so so much for taking the time and delivering so much and detailed Feedback! I appreciate that
This looks amazing, can’t wait to see more!
Thank you : ) 🖤
looks so nice so far
Thanks
art direction looks great
Thanks 🖤
WOW nice ! dude it looks amazing .
Thaanks
I just love these graphics man
thaanks
It looks phenomenal. I can’t wait to see some new kinds of enemies someday!
Thank youuuu ! 🖤
It looks like it’ll be an amazing game! Keep up the good work 👍
Thanks 🖤, will do ᕙ(⇀‸↼‶)ᕗ
Love the art style and colors, however, I would smooth shade your models, it should look better and it's also much less vertices, so it would also look more authentically retro. (in case you didn't know how to do that, it's just a switch in blender)
I'll maybe give this another try later, but last time I tested it I didn't really liked the look afterwards.
I kinda love me my hard edges ^^.
But thanks for the tip.
if the grass blades had a gradient mix of green, brown and yellow it may blend better with your grass landscape material and look very natural with the environment.
yeah true, i want to redo the grass texture at some point. just have to find the time ^^
Just found the channel. Love the aestethic and designs.
Thanks 🖤
Noise! Updating Software is always fun!
🥸
yeeah true xD
Looks great. I love the retro 90's look.
Thanks
Looks great!
Thaanks 🖤
The game is looking swell, though I noticed that the grass looks a bit off since it's a different color from the gound. You could sample the ground color beneath the grass objects to change the hue which would also work for any type of environment since the grass changes color with the ground. Anyways, keep up the good work!
Thanks so much 🖤
Yeah someone else also mentioned that.
I'll definitely look into this.
Would be cool to have some sort of hidden graveyard in the forest area with ghost or skeleton enemies, maybe it's the city's old graveyard? Although that's just an idea. Keep it up 👍
thanks for the idea.
yeah was also thinking abotu a graveyard, but didn't thought about the foggy forest. the forest would fit pretty well !
@@thatFain always ready to help mate!
@@Trix_13 🖤
Nice work! Just an obvervation -- the texture on the enemies you show early on blend into the dirt texture. Wasn't sure if it was intended but they camoflauge making them hard to tell if they are environment or enemy.
Thanks 🖤
yeah I know what you mean, I'll maybe adjust there color a bit along the way. this will probably depend on playtest feedback. but thanks for the input, I'll keep an eye on it !
love the lo-fi aesthetic
thanks : )
Looking great!
thaaanks
definitely something interesting going on
thanks
Looks really good!
Thanks 🖤
Truly impressed with all the work you've put into this game! I also really liked your thoughts on Elden ring level design. I don't have much context for your game but I really hope you find something meaningful to set it apart from Elden Ring.
Thanks
Hi, glad I found you.
A tip, maybe you should look on how Gothic 1 implemented it's low poly forest, it's pretty rad
thanks
Nice! Keep it going. By the way, do you use blueprints and/or C++? Thank you!
Thanks, will do : )
I only use blueprints, i'm not really that good in C++
@@thatFain That's pretty inspiring tho. I am also in love with the RPG's especially Elden Ring... finished that game x4 times.. In fact, I loved Elden Ring so much that I even start game dev thanks to it. Anyways, can you please tell me how long/the process of learning blueprints? Like, you follow tutorials (before entering tutorial hell I suppose), and then you simply come up with your small implementation, like "ok, now I want to add x,y,z" and you slowly start to get the hang of it?" I mean, that's my actual status. However, I only know how to do basic things, nothing close to inventory system, combat system or such. I might be able to implement those into my own project tho, but sometimes I feel that I should learn more complex stuff, but that means to get back to "tutorial hell" so...I am not sure what would be the best/optimal/efficient way. Also, I am looking forward to play your game in 2 years (at least that what you've said and yes I know it's extremely hard to be accurate with this, no problem if it's going to take 3 or 4 years, it's an RPG after all) Imo RPG's are the second most hardest game genre to develop (the first one would be mmorpg)
@@zrmdevelopment7260
Wall of text incoming sorry xD ^^
Oh nice starting game dev is always fun and kind of scary at the same time ^^
That's a hard topic, I think everybody has his or her own way of learning things and its always good to try out different methods and kinda of find what works for you.
As for me, how I still learn blueprints and the whole engine (its kind of a never ending process) is also by following tutorials and then altering stuff according to my needs. I also began my learning with doing different tutorials to begin understanding how blueprints work.
If you are completely new i would suggest trying to make a very very small game. Like just doing something where you have to run from one end of the level to another and dodge balls or what ever and at the end there is a victory screen. super simple idea but it has a lot of different things to learn in it.
while starting out I found it super important to not randomly make tutorials but to know what you want to make that gives you a goal to strive for. and make this as easy as it can be!
after you have a good grasp of blueprints, try implementing stuff out of memory from these tutorials, kind of to solidify your knowledge.
To prevent tutorial hell, I’m thinking about what do I need in my game or what do I want to implement and I just search exactly for tutorials on that topic. This will most of the time lead to info of how to implement something but often has some different stuff that I don't need or that I want to change, so I mostly use that only to get an idea on how I could approach that and then begin altering the implementation to fit my needs.
but yeah i think at the beginning it can be a bit much with tutorials but they can be good to get a grasp on how systems are working and after a while, if you try to implement stuff out of memory, and repeat things you will feel that you get more comfortable with the whole systems and implementing stuff on your own.
to quickly sum up how I do it, when I don’t know how to implement something or want to learn about something is:
- think about what I really want to learn or want to implement.
- look up a tutorial (the shorter the better)
- learn how the approach form that person is, maybe try out implementing it that way
- after that take some time to understand what is going on and fuck around with the implementation (like if its a shader changing around some numbers changing the textures changing the calculations and look what happens)
- i think the real important part is to take your time after you followed a tutorial to understand what is going on and just testing around with what you just implemented.
New to this, but really like the art style!
thaanks
oh i really really like the style
Thaanks 🖤
Great video, looking forward to many more. Viel Erfolg.
thanks
Amazing! Can't wait to play it
Thanks
Needs dismemberment and option to remove health bars. Look at how Blade of Darkness does it. That is a good start.
Hell yeah, I also want dismemberment in there!
I already begun looking into this, but its a bit more complicated to set up so will take a bit till its in there.
And I absolutley love the fact that you mentioned Blade of Darkness! Its one of the games I sometimes go back to, to look up how they do stuff.
Looks great! Love your breakdown on elden ring level design. Really useful. 👍 Ill apply your teachings in my levels aswell. Thanks. 😊
Thanks
@@thatFain yeah, i'm currently working on some complex enemy AI and started making our sound engine. Will apply some sound and music to the game soon. ☺️
@@blackcitadelstudios Niice!
I don't drink beer or have time for streams but I would love to be a tester of the project I've enjoyed every video thus far and can't wait for the next one
You don't have to drink beer to test the game promise ^^.
I will definitely make a public play test as soon as I think that the games plays okay. The playable state I mentioned in the video will probalby not work that well for that. But we will see. I'll try to get you guys something to play as fast as possible!
Also thanks for following along on the journey
For the part where you need to redo foliage, you should look into PCG stuff, it can speed up the process a lot and also look great!
Yeah someone else also mentioned this, I'll definitely look into that. Thanks for the tip
Bro the thumbnail already grabbed me around the throat and dragged me in, and that first little clip of the character walking around hooked me. Where do I buy.
Thank you so so much
Great content here and also on Twitch.
Keep it coming! :)
It would be interesting to hear, how you are going to encounter the variation on enemies, since this seems to be kind of hard for an indie project.
There was critic on Lords of the Fallen, that there are 'only' about 40 enemy types for such a large game with AAA background.
I'm asking from a standpoint of variation in models and animations (also obviously planning with budget - which you dont have to talk about here).
Are you planning on adding quadrupled enemies like dogs and other creatures/monsters?
Thanks a lot 🖤
So here is a wall of text ^^ :D
That's a very interesting question, and one that I'm also thinking about a lot at the moment.
You are completely right in the assessment, that this is hard for an indie project (especially if you are only 1 person xD)
Also haven't played Lords of the Fallen yet (it's on the list) but damn I think 40 enemies is a lot ! Especially if all of them have their own animations, timings etc. But I have to play the game to really see if they are repeating too often.
For Calamity I don’t really want to quadruple enemies, of course for example the “Despaired” will have different versions with different weapons (which changes their attack patterns etc) but there will also be different versions of them with different armor types. So in a sense this is using the same enemy.
I think the biggest problem I will face is animations. I simply can’t make all the animations on my own because it would take way too long, and the unreal marketplace only offers so many good animations. So this means in a perfect world I would hire somebody to do animations for me, but at the moment I have no Budget. I only can support myself at the moment from savings I have and I will also need to get funding of some sort next year or I need to do a side job. I’m very open about my budget, and will continue to do so !
So yeah I’m still figuring out how I will manage to get a good variety of enemies in the game. In one of the future streams I also want to go over Enemy types and look at what enemy could be next. We need one that fits the foggy forest next.
I’m also super scared of making the first boss enemy, because I really have to figure out how I’ll make the animations for him.
I also want to look into enemy variety in other similar indie games like Lunacide, Dread Delusion or Blood West.
I think Blood West doesn’t have that many different enemies but it works fine. But I have to really analyze this to be able to speak out on that.
Thanks for the intrest in all of that
🖤🖤
@@thatFain I dont mind wall of texts :P
Great insight, thank you for being this open.
Would it be a sidejob in the (gaming-)industry?
A comparison i found very fitting for the "only 40 Enemy types" topic was, that demon souls also had about the same amount of enemies.
What DS did better in the eyes of the critic, was placing a certain type of enemy in a dedicated area and nowhere else.
Lords of the Fallen seems like placing its enemies 'randomly', so you encounter them very often in different areas -> they are not bound to certain places.
So i guess, as an one man studio, you could come away placing enemies in one area and not repeat them later in a green colour :P
As for your forest enemy: it has to be spiders and/or wolves, jk :D
How about a humanoid where you can see red eyes glowing from a distance but nothing else - and suddenly it charges you after it screams on spotting the player.
@thatFain Also for the Boss animations:
What i found useful was to use Motion Warping for rootmotion based Anims and the "suggest projectile velocity custom arc"-node function to move the AI through space with inplace Anims.
Both could achieve a very much from soft like feel to the bosses in a sense of danger and aggressive moves/behaviour.
Ahh okay yeah, I thought it had to be something like this. Because sure if you encounter every enemy very often in different areas it does not matter how many different types you have, it will always look like they are repeating itself.
Yeah I'll definitely take a similar approach like the one from Dark Souls. I love how they use their enemy placement and how good it ties into level design and lore.
I also only want to use enemies in places where it makes sense for them to be. That's also why I don't like the first enemy I made that much anymore because he does not fit the surroundings at the moment. That's also why I want to write down a bit of lore when I have a bit more off time, like over the holidays.
Love your idea with the screaming enemy ! Will make a note and think more about them.
Yesterday I had the idea to make a rat king for the area. not like a king of rats, but the actual thing, like a demon out of dead rats knotted together. (if you don't know what i mean just google rat king but beware its kinda disgusting xD)
As for the sidejob thing, I don't know exactly, in the best case yes in the games industry but also I won’t work for companies that are using dark patterns to make money. I’ll never work in browser- or handy games. And sadly at the moment there are not that many companies that I would like to work for. But that's a problem for “future me” ^^ there is still time and also maybe I’ll find funding or a publisher.
oh ok, will look into that
I love the graphics. I usually don't like the oldschool mmorpg look but damn this is more like Valheim. Some variety in topography and foliage would help this world, but the "feel" is right on point
Thanks : ).
Yeah true i need to make some more variety in foliage etc. but this will come a bit later down the road. For now the first goal is make it playable ^^
@@thatFain BUT it looks good even now, so can't wait. Keep it up
@@ThomasBerglund-y8f 🖤
Ich komm gern vorbei und trink ein Bier mit dir während wir deine Demo spielen! :D
Sehr gutes Video mal wieder, bin sehr froh auf dich aurmerksam geworden zu sein! Sehr motivierend deine Fortschritte zu sehen! :)
Thaaanks
@@thatFain Oh! I just assumed you'd speak German tbh if you don't just let me know 🙈 But I'll answer in English just to be sure on this!
I don't life in Hamburg but I wouldn't mind driving to you to have a look at your work and talk about the game and game dev in general tbh! 👀
I have way too few people in the same industry I could chat with tbh
@@inflamethetreehouse I also speak german ^^ but want to keep the chat in english so others can also understand.
oh thanks for the offer, but if something is playabel I'll let you know and can send you an alpha build. but this will still take a bit of time.
If you have game dev question etc you can also always drop by the streams when i'm live and ask them there. I always try to answer them as good as I can : )
I was not expecting it to be a ue5 title. kind of surprised you can scale the engine like that.
yeah you can do crazy stuff wiht ue5
nice work, good luck
Thank you 🖤
this looks awsome!
thanks
Man it's looking great! Gamedevs often underestimate the art of level design but you seem to have it down. I am working on a similar open world, but more barren and its a challenge for sure. For the foliage how are you handling the performance? Do you use unshaded materials?
Thanks, means a lot hearing that from you. I also absolutely love your style.
Everybody reading this go and check out his videos ! Its and order !
Yeah I love level design and did quit a lot research into the theory behind it during my studies.
I really want to do a video about the theory of level flow, but i have to find the time for doing that :D
For the foliage (espacially for grass, flowers, samplings stones), I'm straight out culling it over distance ^^ (with a smooth fade).
You can see where it's not rendered if you look into the distance. For now I'm okay with that, espacially because of the low poly psx'i style its more forgiving I guess. But I also have to optimize that at some point.
Thanks for sticking around man 🖤
@@thatFain Im flattered by your response!
@@CloudlessStudio 🖤
2:04 Jooo, is that the man catcher from Berserk? looks sick
Thanks 🖤
Haha yeah good find ; ) I just now realised that the mancatcher in Berserk also used spikes on the outside xD
But yeah I also want to add some more enemies like Mozgus' Disciples. think they will fit in very well.
@@thatFain Yeah 100%
love all the representation that berserk is getting in games atm, such a vibe!
@@the_blocktopus true!