A name for the "Blocking Stamina Bar" could be Endurance or Posture. Makes it seem directly tied to the affected character's ability to withstand more blows which I like for flavor.
Stagger Bar is also a fair option to describe. As it fills you become less stable until it goes over and you get staggered. Putting this bar as a curved vertical bar near the middle of the screen, offset from the player character and have it only display when you are hit. You could then have it fade out after about 15% of cool-down/regeneration since your last hit.
@@Deagle243 Oh good idea that it should fill instead of getting empty. I'll definitely try that out. Yeah having it in the middle of the screen near the player also came to my mind. But most of the time i kinda find that distracting. But I'll also give this a go. Thanks for the good ideas
Do you know any tutorials etc about the way you make your textures too cause they look cool af, I assume you don't have time to make any tutorials? :D@@thatFain
@@Gothicpolar people keep asking that ^^ If I find the time I'll definatly make one. I basically search for texture online --> resize them to most of the time 128x128 pixel. Then I also do this for the normal map of the item (if you dont have a normal map you can use materialize
Really love how these videos aren't just a timeline of the changes, but also have lots of advice for other indie developers. (I also can't even imagine the stress of that big presentation lol.)
3:06 can't you access the HISM component and get a list of the instanced meshes to tweak? Pretty sure there are ways to modify specific PCG elements - worth researching!
Sadly at the moment this does not work. You only can make a stamp of the generated elements which then act like a big instanced mesh. I think I read that they want to add the ability to modify specific elements in a future version.
Hey man, if you have a way to make unity skeleton animations work in unreal, I'd be totally down to send you some shield/strafing animations. Just let me know. Great video!
Oh nice thanks so much for the offer. I'll look into that and let you know. But I think it should work. But also I won't take them for free ^^ I want to give you something in return. Also thanks for hanging around :)
True, poise bar has a certain ring to it. Thanks for the suggestion. People also suggested to name it Endurance or Posture -- bar. Will let all the names sink in, and then decide.
Glad that I could help. The thing I would recommend is, make a list for yourself what you want from a publisher and what the could give you. Then try to think about it and check if its worth it. If you don't really need the financing from the publisher you are in a super good position, to look for someone who really fits for you. There are sometimes things that seem small at first but can be super fucked up later on. Stuff like who gets the IP of the game (especially important as a solo dev or small team i think). If they get the IP and at some point decide they want to cut ties with your studio, it can come to the point where you can't make any games in your own universe anymore, which is super fucked up if you ask me (just look at what happen with the team that made Disco Elysium). Also another big thing in my opinion (also especially for small teams) is how is their media presence, can they offer you that more people will see and play your game. (if you don't do it inhouse) Because if they just finance the game but the media coverage isn't that good, then your game can end up being made but no one knows that it exists which would be sad. Normally advertising your game and making sure people know about it, is the job of the publisher. Haha sorry about my rambling, that where some points that just spontaneous came to my mind ^^. Hope your project goes well
Hey! I've been watching for a while and wanted to take a minute to say - This is great work you're doing and the game looks amazing. Very much looking forward to playing it! I was considering a similar (graphically/feel & combat/exploration wise) project some years ago when I first played Dark Souls - Prepare to Die Edition, except I wanted to do completely randomized block/grid based terrain. That SOUNDS limiting but I'm very big on procedural generation and writing algorithms that make convincing well crafted levels is a personal passion of mine. Imagine a cursed district of town enveloped in thick fog, that's always randomized. The trick is to run a bunch of "builder" objects that work off of each other and generate the level, including a "pathfinding tester builder" and so on. The results can be very organic and can feel hand-built. It all seems like such fun stuff to work on too. You know, when your job doesn't feel like a job? I almost want to ask if you want any help with Calamity in any way shape or form? Even if it comes to simple stuff like playtesting, numbers/progression balancing, level design feedback hit me up. Anyway - Good luck with the game. I very much believe we're witnessing a Legend in the making.
Love seeing the world come to life. Any progress on the story/lore for the game? If you needed any help with creative writing content I’d love to help out anyway I can.
@@vasyavasilich7659 Thanks :). I think how I set my goals right now it also can work as a solo dev, I will definitely work together with people for music and animations. But for that I need funding. If I get the opportunity to get funding for the game or early access will work out. then i would get together a small team. But I'll only do that if I can pay everybody fairly! Its always really challenging but step by step it will eventually work out :)
I been following your project even before i played any souls, i was just interested on Game Dev. But about a month ago i played my first souls and nos i get how cool this project is
good progress, must consume you heaps of time to reach the complete level, the combat feed back got a bit week feeling, and yes the enemy attack animation is not very noticeable. those must be already on your todo list, great work, and wish all the best
For keyboard and mouse controls may I recommend a system where the player character faces towards where the camera looks. Possibly so that it's toggleable. If you make a dark souls type targeting system then you could have an invisible target tied to the camera which the player locks on to for this "reticle aim mode". Or at least that's the way I would've done it if I'd been responsible for porting the Dark Souls games to PC.
Good recommendation. Will look into that. Yesterday I started to implement a toggle for that, if you are locke on to an enemy. So I could maybe also use it as just an option to toggle on.
Regarding PCG - Editing of individual objects in some way is part of the Unreal Roadmap, which might inspire you to update again :D But hard to say when this might be released.
haha yeah #NoMoreUpdates ^^ I really think that if you want to make a commercial game (especially if you are a small team). you have to settle on one specific version and keep it. most of the time you can't afford to break stuff that is already in the game, and every update has a 50% change of doing that ^^
Game is looking great so far! If you havent checked out Lies of P yet it has some really interesting ideas and changes up the Soulslike formula in some cool ways
thanks :) Oh yeah Lies of P is still on my (never ending) list of games I still have to play. But it really looks super good! I have to find the time to finally play it.
@@thatFain Oh yah I know how you feel I created a excel sheet to track the games I have to play and how long each one is. Creating a video game does feel like playing one a lot of the time so that makes up for the lack of gaming time
@@thatFain Haha paper list are just as good. Yah knowing the time for me as let me get through a couple games, I also give each a little review and write down thoughts from each game so I can take note of different elements or gameplay features id like to use
for the PCG tweaking, I use PCG to mass generate a forest, then I apply it. After "Applying" it you can tweak the trees individually but you cannot re generate the forest. Hope this helps someone :)
I'm uncertain but it looks like when you moved to 5.3 your map is using or started using LWC or Something similar. Go to Windows > World Partition > World Partition Editor and dock the window somewhere. It will show you a minimap of the level. Left click and drag over all the cells you want to see then right click and select "load regions from selection". That should bring you map back . Any of the greyed out regions in the world outliner haven't loaded -- this is one way to load them. I'd caution against using PCG as it is experimental and may end up causing you more grief then its worth later down the line. Love the work btw. Keep it up.
@@thatFain I would say that you shouldn't disregard the World Partition system because you had a bug with updating engine versions, there are so many benefits to using it that will massively help down the line that i'd really recommend using it as early as possible, Not only for streaming/optimisations but also for making cool gameplay stuff (Like different world states with data layers / quest management etc)
@@waitumusprime Thanks for the feedback. Sorry I should have clarified that a bit better in the video. Its not only because of this bug I'm switching back. I wanted to do this before but had no real reason. I had some other issues with it while level designing and there was the problem, that I want to have peer to peer coop in the game. And World Partition not really supports that, the host will have to render the whole map/landscape regardless. But yeah in the end I just feel more comfortable with the normal level approach. But I definitely get what you are saying. I can also change to world partition down the line for the other maps. The whole game world will not be one giant. It will probably be split in 4 different maps.
hahaha thaaanks ^^ Even though the animations are from the unreal store and I slightly edited them. I instantly have to think about the ludicrous claim form Ubisoft with their "quadruple or AAAA" quality game xD
I was recently playing fate samurai remnant a game that has the same lock on movement as yours and besides the block issue you have. I couldn't help but think the action looks way too goofy when the character give their back to the enemy like that even in an anime setting. Just for that reason alone strafing is the way to go with lock ons.
Pcg, rather than laying out an entire forest with it think of it as smaller chunks. It’s great if you want to cover a whole area in generic woods, but if you make smaller more varied chunks and then place then intelligently over an area you will have more control, then just don’t use them in areas you wish to curate more and place your meshes manually or with the foliage tool. Porque no los dos
True that could work. But to be honest with my current workflow I would be faster by painting and placing it. Probably also comes done to preference. Also that unreal itself labels pcg experimental at the moment, is keeping me away from it. But the idea with smaller chunks is very nice.
@@thatFain good glad I could help, how far are you in development do you think? Is it possible that you might do another pass on foliage and trees at a later date? You could make a few chunks and save them off for when it comes out of experimental. However I’m a big fan of the hand crafted approach you have. It’s always been more my style as well
@@llLastll01 I would say at the moment I have a third (1/3) of the early access version of the game ready. I think to get it out in early access in a state of polish that I want to have, it would take 2 ½ years full time as a solo dev. If I have to take on a day job again, this will then take longer. I don't think that I will make another pass on the foliage, I have to move forward and get more stuff in the game ^^ I will stick to the painting approach from now on. Also the painting approach is way more fun for me to work with. So I think sticking to it is the right decision. Nice happy that you also like that style :)
Hmm I wonder how they made the Elden Ring map. I imagine there were like 10 guys just manually placing the trees and rocks. It's very humbling to attempt such tasks. Your game is shaping up to be amazing! But... I am a bit upset at you... WHY HAVENT YOU GOTTEN THE STEAM PAGE UP I WANT TO WISHLIST! 😡
Ohhh yeah I'm also wondering this. It definitely seems like they handcrafted everything. Which is an Incredible feat. Yeah true it's very humbling and kind of meditative. (I love it ^^) Thanks so much
Yeah I know what you mean, since then I also removed them. But I also think that it depends a bit, on who you are pitching too, like I think you can be more free with stuff like that if you pitch devolver or new blood for example. But i could also be totally wrong on that one. xD
A name for the "Blocking Stamina Bar" could be Endurance or Posture. Makes it seem directly tied to the affected character's ability to withstand more blows which I like for flavor.
Thanks for inspiration
Stagger Bar is also a fair option to describe. As it fills you become less stable until it goes over and you get staggered.
Putting this bar as a curved vertical bar near the middle of the screen, offset from the player character and have it only display when you are hit.
You could then have it fade out after about 15% of cool-down/regeneration since your last hit.
@@Deagle243 Oh good idea that it should fill instead of getting empty. I'll definitely try that out.
Yeah having it in the middle of the screen near the player also came to my mind. But most of the time i kinda find that distracting. But I'll also give this a go.
Thanks for the good ideas
Great devlog, i really like the new inventory ui it's got that cool older arpg look
Thanks so much
really cool game!
@@somerandomchannel382 thaanks
This looks fantastic, the most ive been excited for an indie game in a while. I hope all geos well and progress continues!
Thanks
you could call the "stun bar" just "stagger"
haha i like stun bar ^^ there is already a stagger when you get hit without a shield.
I've been surprisingly excited about your new devlogs! Keep em' coming, you make them really interesting!
Thanks you so much
Do you know any tutorials etc about the way you make your textures too cause they look cool af, I assume you don't have time to make any tutorials? :D@@thatFain
@@Gothicpolar people keep asking that ^^ If I find the time I'll definatly make one.
I basically search for texture online --> resize them to most of the time 128x128 pixel.
Then I also do this for the normal map of the item (if you dont have a normal map you can use materialize
Holy shit thank you so much for the tips!! You're a legend! ^^ @@thatFain
@@Gothicpolar No problem, always happy to help : )
Really love how these videos aren't just a timeline of the changes, but also have lots of advice for other indie developers. (I also can't even imagine the stress of that big presentation lol.)
hheeeyyyy uncleweeb ( * ^ *) ノシ
*heavy waving*
My fav game dev logs on youtube! Also big inspiration for starting my own game
Thaaanks 🖤
And you can do it ; ) : )
This game’s shaping up to be a great experience! Can’t wait for the next Devlog where the Clifflord rises!
Thank you so much
Its looking great! The animations look really good. Cant wait to see more
thanks 🖤
3:06 can't you access the HISM component and get a list of the instanced meshes to tweak? Pretty sure there are ways to modify specific PCG elements - worth researching!
Sadly at the moment this does not work.
You only can make a stamp of the generated elements which then act like a big instanced mesh.
I think I read that they want to add the ability to modify specific elements in a future version.
Hey man, if you have a way to make unity skeleton animations work in unreal, I'd be totally down to send you some shield/strafing animations. Just let me know. Great video!
Oh nice thanks so much for the offer.
I'll look into that and let you know. But I think it should work.
But also I won't take them for free ^^ I want to give you something in return.
Also thanks for hanging around :)
Cool video, it would be nice to see you explain how you arranged your pitch and slides!
Thanks
8:35 maybe poise'd be a fitting name, instead of stamina?
True, poise bar has a certain ring to it.
Thanks for the suggestion.
People also suggested to name it Endurance or Posture -- bar.
Will let all the names sink in, and then decide.
@@thatFain It's kind of a similar mechanic to the structure meter in sifu or in sekiro I guess. Keep up the good work
@@richardtoth7240
Oh yeah true I totally forgot about them, have to take a closer look at them again.
Thanks, will do my best : )
Good info on the pitch, trying to decide if I'm going that route or just going fully solo. Nice to see everything coming along man.
Glad that I could help.
The thing I would recommend is, make a list for yourself what you want from a publisher and what the could give you.
Then try to think about it and check if its worth it.
If you don't really need the financing from the publisher you are in a super good position, to look for someone who really fits for you.
There are sometimes things that seem small at first but can be super fucked up later on. Stuff like who gets the IP of the game (especially important as a solo dev or small team i think). If they get the IP and at some point decide they want to cut ties with your studio, it can come to the point where you can't make any games in your own universe anymore, which is super fucked up if you ask me (just look at what happen with the team that made Disco Elysium).
Also another big thing in my opinion (also especially for small teams) is how is their media presence, can they offer you that more people will see and play your game. (if you don't do it inhouse)
Because if they just finance the game but the media coverage isn't that good, then your game can end up being made but no one knows that it exists which would be sad.
Normally advertising your game and making sure people know about it, is the job of the publisher.
Haha sorry about my rambling, that where some points that just spontaneous came to my mind ^^.
Hope your project goes well
i love this game man,great job you've done creating it.
Thanks so much 🖤
Hey! I've been watching for a while and wanted to take a minute to say - This is great work you're doing and the game looks amazing. Very much looking forward to playing it!
I was considering a similar (graphically/feel & combat/exploration wise) project some years ago when I first played Dark Souls - Prepare to Die Edition, except I wanted to do completely randomized block/grid based terrain.
That SOUNDS limiting but I'm very big on procedural generation and writing algorithms that make convincing well crafted levels is a personal passion of mine. Imagine a cursed district of town enveloped in thick fog, that's always randomized. The trick is to run a bunch of "builder" objects that work off of each other and generate the level, including a "pathfinding tester builder" and so on. The results can be very organic and can feel hand-built. It all seems like such fun stuff to work on too. You know, when your job doesn't feel like a job?
I almost want to ask if you want any help with Calamity in any way shape or form? Even if it comes to simple stuff like playtesting, numbers/progression balancing, level design feedback hit me up. Anyway - Good luck with the game. I very much believe we're witnessing a Legend in the making.
thanks so much
Cant wait to play looks amazing. I hope you don't lose inspiration on this project.
Thanks
You should look in to foliage spawner volumes. They can be individually changed after being generated.
Will definitely give it another look, for the foliage spawning.
I find the style very appealing, keep it up ✌️
Thanks so much :)
Love seeing the world come to life. Any progress on the story/lore for the game?
If you needed any help with creative writing content I’d love to help out anyway I can.
Thanks for the offer
Good luck with your pitching!
Thanks :)
It's good that the game is getting support
: ) thanks for watching that's also supporting and helps a lot
@@thatFain I think you need to have a small team to help, its hard to do it by yourself, although you're doing great so far!
@@vasyavasilich7659 Thanks :). I think how I set my goals right now it also can work as a solo dev, I will definitely work together with people for music and animations. But for that I need funding.
If I get the opportunity to get funding for the game or early access will work out. then i would get together a small team. But I'll only do that if I can pay everybody fairly!
Its always really challenging but step by step it will eventually work out :)
I been following your project even before i played any souls, i was just interested on Game Dev. But about a month ago i played my first souls and nos i get how cool this project is
Thanks
good progress, must consume you heaps of time to reach the complete level,
the combat feed back got a bit week feeling, and yes the enemy attack animation is not very noticeable.
those must be already on your todo list, great work, and wish all the best
thanks :)
Another awesome devlog! Loving the game
Thaaanks 🖤
Looks promising! Keep up the good work!
Thanks
Looking really good!
Thaaanks 🖤
Good luck, man!
thanks :)
New inventory looks great! Also, please take the Elden ring approach. It's just not fun trying to block melee attacks without target lock.
Thanks
For keyboard and mouse controls may I recommend a system where the player character faces towards where the camera looks. Possibly so that it's toggleable.
If you make a dark souls type targeting system then you could have an invisible target tied to the camera which the player locks on to for this "reticle aim mode".
Or at least that's the way I would've done it if I'd been responsible for porting the Dark Souls games to PC.
Good recommendation. Will look into that. Yesterday I started to implement a toggle for that, if you are locke on to an enemy.
So I could maybe also use it as just an option to toggle on.
Regarding PCG - Editing of individual objects in some way is part of the Unreal Roadmap, which might inspire you to update again :D But hard to say when this might be released.
Yeah I also read about that, but I will stay on this version now ^^
The scale of your game seems like pure insanity. Looks really good though.
Haha I know what you mean xD.
And also thanks
I empathize so much with the upgrade to UE5.3, it totally broke my project but i didn't realize until i was too far along to switch back to 5.2 💀
haha yeah #NoMoreUpdates ^^
I really think that if you want to make a commercial game (especially if you are a small team). you have to settle on one specific version and keep it. most of the time you can't afford to break stuff that is already in the game, and every update has a 50% change of doing that ^^
Game is looking great so far! If you havent checked out Lies of P yet it has some really interesting ideas and changes up the Soulslike formula in some cool ways
thanks :)
Oh yeah Lies of P is still on my (never ending) list of games I still have to play.
But it really looks super good! I have to find the time to finally play it.
@@thatFain Oh yah I know how you feel I created a excel sheet to track the games I have to play and how long each one is. Creating a video game does feel like playing one a lot of the time so that makes up for the lack of gaming time
@@MikeGemi haha yeah true ^^
I still have an oldschool paper list xD But writing down how long they take is a super good idea!
@@thatFain Haha paper list are just as good. Yah knowing the time for me as let me get through a couple games, I also give each a little review and write down thoughts from each game so I can take note of different elements or gameplay features id like to use
@@MikeGemi Oh that's a really good idea. I think I have to step up my "list-of-games-to-play" game ^^
Maybe I'll make it in a little note book form.
Okay den deutschen Akzent habe ich ja so gar nicht rausgehört. Starkes Game und freut mich, dass es so Wellen schlägt!
Danke ^^
looking so freaking awesome
Thank you
for the PCG tweaking, I use PCG to mass generate a forest, then I apply it. After "Applying" it you can tweak the trees individually but you cannot re generate the forest. Hope this helps someone :)
Really you can ?
I toughed I tried that out. Damn that's good to know. Will take another look at it.
Thanks
Project lookin fucking good, brother!
Thanks 🖤
I'm uncertain but it looks like when you moved to 5.3 your map is using or started using LWC or Something similar. Go to Windows > World Partition > World Partition Editor and dock the window somewhere. It will show you a minimap of the level. Left click and drag over all the cells you want to see then right click and select "load regions from selection". That should bring you map back . Any of the greyed out regions in the world outliner haven't loaded -- this is one way to load them.
I'd caution against using PCG as it is experimental and may end up causing you more grief then its worth later down the line.
Love the work btw. Keep it up.
Thanks for the feedback
@@thatFain I would say that you shouldn't disregard the World Partition system because you had a bug with updating engine versions, there are so many benefits to using it that will massively help down the line that i'd really recommend using it as early as possible, Not only for streaming/optimisations but also for making cool gameplay stuff (Like different world states with data layers / quest management etc)
@@waitumusprime Thanks for the feedback.
Sorry I should have clarified that a bit better in the video. Its not only because of this bug I'm switching back. I wanted to do this before but had no real reason.
I had some other issues with it while level designing and there was the problem, that I want to have peer to peer coop in the game. And World Partition not really supports that, the host will have to render the whole map/landscape regardless.
But yeah in the end I just feel more comfortable with the normal level approach.
But I definitely get what you are saying.
I can also change to world partition down the line for the other maps.
The whole game world will not be one giant. It will probably be split in 4 different maps.
How does it feel to have better mechanics and animations in place at this point than most "AAA" games currently do?
hahaha thaaanks ^^
Even though the animations are from the unreal store and I slightly edited them.
I instantly have to think about the ludicrous claim form Ubisoft with their "quadruple or AAAA" quality game xD
maybe have the stamina bar with reduced opacity just local to the players position + orientation?
God of War does this very well
Oh that's an interesting idea.
I'll take a deeper look at how God of War did it.
i'd love to know the answer and advice you get from your pitches !
Btw, great work ! Keep it up, and take care of your health dont burn out yourself !
@@unspi554 Thanks so much
I was recently playing fate samurai remnant a game that has the same lock on movement as yours and besides the block issue you have. I couldn't help but think the action looks way too goofy when the character give their back to the enemy like that even in an anime setting. Just for that reason alone strafing is the way to go with lock ons.
I totally agree.
Will try to implement the strafing next week :)
lookin good
thanks
Pcg, rather than laying out an entire forest with it think of it as smaller chunks. It’s great if you want to cover a whole area in generic woods, but if you make smaller more varied chunks and then place then intelligently over an area you will have more control, then just don’t use them in areas you wish to curate more and place your meshes manually or with the foliage tool. Porque no los dos
True that could work.
But to be honest with my current workflow I would be faster by painting and placing it. Probably also comes done to preference.
Also that unreal itself labels pcg experimental at the moment, is keeping me away from it.
But the idea with smaller chunks is very nice.
@@thatFain good glad I could help, how far are you in development do you think? Is it possible that you might do another pass on foliage and trees at a later date? You could make a few chunks and save them off for when it comes out of experimental. However I’m a big fan of the hand crafted approach you have. It’s always been more my style as well
@@llLastll01 I would say at the moment I have a third (1/3) of the early access version of the game ready. I think to get it out in early access in a state of polish that I want to have, it would take 2 ½ years full time as a solo dev.
If I have to take on a day job again, this will then take longer.
I don't think that I will make another pass on the foliage, I have to move forward and get more stuff in the game ^^
I will stick to the painting approach from now on.
Also the painting approach is way more fun for me to work with. So I think sticking to it is the right decision.
Nice happy that you also like that style :)
oh Hamburg, du bist deutsch! cool. I live in trier...well rivenich, but trier is the closest city.
yes I'm also german :) ^^
Oh cool, yeah as I begun studying I also toughed about studying in trier. But in the end I decided to go to Hamburg.
@@thatFain I wish you luck, The game is looking good.
@@nowherebrain Thank you so much
Hmm I wonder how they made the Elden Ring map. I imagine there were like 10 guys just manually placing the trees and rocks. It's very humbling to attempt such tasks. Your game is shaping up to be amazing! But... I am a bit upset at you... WHY HAVENT YOU GOTTEN THE STEAM PAGE UP I WANT TO WISHLIST! 😡
Ohhh yeah I'm also wondering this. It definitely seems like they handcrafted everything. Which is an Incredible feat.
Yeah true it's very humbling and kind of meditative. (I love it ^^)
Thanks so much
Just my 2 cents, but don't use such smileys or "passion project
Yeah I know what you mean, since then I also removed them.
But I also think that it depends a bit, on who you are pitching too, like I think you can be more free with stuff like that if you pitch devolver or new blood for example. But i could also be totally wrong on that one. xD
@@thatFain Nah I agree, also true. :D Good luck with your game!
@@XY-wy3rh thank you so much :)