The SCND Genesis: Legacy

Comments

  • My never ending quest to get better continues. While taking a break from coding and tweaking the gameplay/UI I decided to revisit the assets of one stage. I made subtle changes to my existing assets and its made quite the difference. My Intuos Pen and Touch arrived a week ago and Im still trying to improve on my linework and characters.

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    Picked up my old Adam scans (2011, used in my first game) and colored them with my new shading techniques. Im still trying to improve but Im happy with how it looks. I can now make many colored variations of the same outfit. I use static layers and blend modes to simulate shadows and highlights. Line work still needs practice but this i the style Im aiming for

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    Latest build available here http://scndgen.com/downloads/ScndGenLegacyAlpha.zip

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    Changes:
    - UI
    - Character Balance
    - AI (please try both Easy and Very Hard)

    As usual waiting for your feedback, thanks.
  • GoDaddys service is super sucky these days. You may have to use a download accelerator (timeouts).
  • A look at the current build. Attention has been focused on the UI, AI and game-play feel/responsiveness

  • BTW, have you thought of looking at something like Spriter to help you with the animations?

    I'm still having a hard time figuring out what is going on. It seems like your opponent can use abilities while they're taking damage.

    It's also not clear when I should use what ability. I think your characters maybe have too many. Maybe if you limited it to 1 or 2 per paradigm and certain abilities were only available when in a specific paradigm. It would be easier to figure out what to do?
  • Fengol said:
    BTW, have you thought of looking at something like Spriter to help you with the animations?

    I'm still having a hard time figuring out what is going on. It seems like your opponent can use abilities while they're taking damage.

    It's also not clear when I should use what ability. I think your characters maybe have too many. Maybe if you limited it to 1 or 2 per paradigm and certain abilities were only available when in a specific paradigm. It would be easier to figure out what to do?
    I'm constantly amazed at how I miss out on the most obvious details. Logically, a character shouldn't be able to attack if they are sustaining damage (unless its a breaker attack or something). Ill look into that (adds to list).

    I'm also trying rethink most of the screen filling magical attacks because they do make things chaotic, though that should sort itself out with the fix above.

    I did group attacks into paradigms in one build but switching between paradigms to access all attacks didn't feel fluid so I turned it off. It still exists in the code, infact all the attacks exist in 4 separate lists but I draw all of them at once. I've altered key mappings in my current build so Ill give that another go.

    I'm saving animation and character models for last but I have taken a look at spriter.

    Great feedback as usual. Thanks for that.
  • Despite the issues. Did you notice any of the other tweaks. E.g. AI, cooldown times and damage/defense in different paradigms

  • Characters aren't able to attack if they are sustaining damage, they can only break out of attacks with launcher attacks. This is the only change implemented based on your last suggestions and as you can see things are less chaotic.

  • New build avaliable here

    https://mega.co.nz/#!WENQlQDA!8qNNlZNplbgP6U66Vq98pOiYEfdOVB7bZAt46BVNPqg

    Please be sure to use a mouse as keyboards and XBox bindings are somewhat sketchy right now. I also plugged in a basic LAN hosting and joining capabilities so play against someone if you can. Make sure the host selects "host match" before attempting to connect as a client.

    Changes:
    Only show attacks from current paradigm.
    Shows the effect of switching paradigms in the upper right side of the screen.
    Breaker attacks are captioned in the HUD.
    Improved attack animations for Azaria.

    Screens
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    Awaiting feedback.
    Thanks
  • For better or worse I feel I may have spent too much time on this project. By November I plan on releasing a demo on Indie DB and maybe even Desura. Based on the response I get I'll decide if I should pursue this idea further or just stick to making interactive webcomics and boring corporate applications for the local market. Below is my latest attempt at improving my 2D art.
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  • @SubiyaCryolite: What kind of response are you looking for? Do you have thresholds of attention that the game needs to get before you'll keep working on it? Why would you stop making games in general instead of just starting on a new game instead if this doesn't get the reaction you're looking for?
    Thanked by 1Fengol
  • Compressed version

  • Extracted version semi rant below :).
    From a technology stand point I achieved everything I wanted to when I started out (http://www.scndgen.com/#blog_1203030_legacy_a). From a game perspective, I'm not really sold. I don't know how, but my first game which was somewhat lazy got moderate attention. I never promoted it but I got 10,000 downloads in over 140 countries. Someone else posted it to Softpedia, Someone else said I could sell it, someone else said its awesome. Basically people were interested in it, had confidence or whatever in it. Some guy in Spain reviewed it in spanish for pete's sake despite getting zero promotion from me personally. This one however, is getting a lot of "mehs". For every "this looks interesting" I got on Greenlight I got 4 "this gave me cancers". >_>

    To be honest I wan to continue but a lot of things have changed around me. Two guys from my department are leaving. We were already understaffed before but now we're being pushed to the brink with only 4 devs left behind (2 left last year as well). We work on a national health care system so we're always under load but this is especially taxing. We are trying to get a release out as we speak so things are extra hectic. A lot of responsibility is being thrown on our shoulders and we have to learn real quick. Then there's an Android sub project within work that I am "unofficially" in charge of and that has to reach closure, despite politics among people way above my pay grade. I've got part time MSc classes and this semesters courses are quite challenging. I have to start extending the house next year and that's going to be something else entirely. I'm still fairly young (23) and all that but I feel that I have to start prioritizing. I already cut out a company which I co-founded but it seems that's not enough and more has to be sent to the cutting floor. Most of my (limited) free time goes towards this hobby but I really cant work on something that nobody will want to play. Its also a bit annoying because everyone around me feels I should spend my time on more "productive" things like side projects, consultancy and the like.

    TLDR. There's a lot going on right now so I need to trim the fat. I could spend more time on fixing this concept, but that's another 3, 6 or 9 months and my mind cant justify it.
  • Yeah, I know the feeling there...

    You know you don't have to finish this particular game, right? Why not try producing simpler prototypes of ideas in the hours that you manage to snatch to yourself here and there? That way you still get to build stuff (if that's a relaxing thing for you to do) and you get to mess with more game concepts than you would usually as well.
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    Thanked by 1Bensonance
  • Thanks guys, that puts things in perspective and helps a lot.
  • *post feeling sorry for myself*
    So in preparation for my "final pitch" I decided try bring out the best aspects of the game as much as possible. One of those aspects is the fact that the engine is custom made and it supports geometry instancing. I was using Z coordinates with little (+- 0.5f) variation which gave the game a very "flat" 2D look. So I played around with coordinates so that assets take full advantage of 3D space (50 width * 25 height * 115 depth). The results are quite pleasing to the eye, especially in motion. There's a much better 3D effect and the Depth of Field filter looks a hell of a lot better. A littlte tweaking is still reuired but overall Id say this is a much better look. The gif below was taken when I first started adjusting coords.

    New coords with no DoF
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    New coords with DoF
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    Gif showing perspective prototypes
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  • Just want to raise a note of caution: A technical feature is rarely a notable point of uniqueness for a game. Sure, there are always exceptions (like how in Ninety Nine Nights geometry instancing is a definite thing in the game, allowing you to fight ridiculously numerous hordes of enemies, but it's still crap without fun fighting mechanics), but generally you want to emphasise gameplay stuff as much as possible.

    If, instead, you're working on juice elements, then there's always camera shake ;) And this article about making action games more impactful is particularly good, mostly because it talks about camera shift. That stuff is genius!
    Thanked by 1SubiyaCryolite
  • So here's progress so far.
    -There's a better sense of 3D due to depth in the environments.
    -Ive added a new Bokeh Depth of Field shader to the scene.
    -Im now using impact flashes and the camera zooming out when a character is launched for better impact effects. [Thanks dislekcia, I'll try to incorporate more effects from that article]
    - I also added a basic gravity algorithm that allows launched players to gain and loose momentum. Notice the double launch attack at 00:20 - 00:24. This opens possibilities for Tekken like juggling in combos

    Next I'll add 3 different hit sprites (for low, medium and high damage attacks). Ill also add idle animations so that the characters look a bit more lively when standing. Right now the game plays best with just a mouse but Im trying to make the KeyBoard and 360 controller feel just as fluid. Any observations and comment are welcome.

  • Hey guys. I've tweaked game mechanics to rely on frame data, like conventional fighting games two characters can launch attacks at the same time but whoever lands first cancels out the others move. I'm tweaking attacks so that they don't go straight into a hit state, but rather the character must have some movement before connecting. Also I've added sparks on top of the existing flashes to highlight impact. I was inspired by Killer Instinct and brand new footage from Tekken 7. Also the character Subiya now has an idle animation, I plan on dong the same for Azaria.

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    Tekken particle Heaven below:
  • Gotta say, I really REALLY love how this game progressed since the beginning of the thread. Your art's improved a hundred fold, the juice is coming along great and the system is seeing improvement bit by solid bit. It's looking really really great now!

    I think that you may have had a little too high of an expectation from the game - what you've drawn as examples and what you've basically used as the bar against which to measure your game are superb games that's taken pretty big teams quite a long time to complete - so it's only natural that you'll fall short if you don't have the team or the time. Any of the modern fighting games would have taken forever to do the visuals - but AT LEAST as long doing the movesets, the balancing, the characters, and that's all after the core fighting mechanics. It takes tons of experience and tons of experimentation, no doubt.

    As @dislekcia said, there's no NEED to finish this game. There's no rule about games that need to be finished or else - try something else. Scoping down is great advice - just because you can't make a competitor to Tekken doesn't mean you can't make games.

    I think the stuff you MUST have learnt from making this so far is already way worth the time :) And whether you choose to shelve it for another day or to carry on or spec it down or to try something else, I'm sure you'll do it even better :)

    Woo :D
    Thanked by 1SubiyaCryolite
  • After being busy for the last two months with work and school I'm back it. The two courses I had this semester were User Centered Web Engineering and Requirements Analysis and Methods. Both subjects where very interesting and a lot of what I learned could be applied to game development in general. I'm applying that and everything else I've recently read and played (Final Fantasy XIII on PC) to my own title.

    I cant capture any videos to show my changes because my Ubuntu installation is down but I've done the following:
    - made nice changes to animations, 2-3 more frames per move allowing for time to counter
    - reduced the number of rounds from 3 to two
    - reverted back to 2D stages (time required to create and polish 3D arenas is just too much)
    - tweaked gameplay mechanics and balance.

    I'll upload a playable build for you guys sometime this week. I'm also trying to come up with other game ideas on the side now that I've got free time.

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  • The never ending story. I've been getting more and more strangers to play it and getting useful feedback, almost there.

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    Hi guys my latest playtest is available here http://www.indiedb.com/games/the-scnd-genesis-legacy/downloads/the-scnd-genesis-legacy-2015-play-test-demo. The download contains the games HTML based readme file but you can access it here http://www.scndgen.com/downloads/manual/README.html.

    *edited link*
  • Long time no see guys, its been a while since I posted thanks to work, school and life in general. I wanted to let you all know that I still work on the project in my spare time, more so as a passion project than anything else. This is an AI battle (very hard difficulty),demonstrating my combat mechanics and battle-system. I've spent some time on fine-tuning sound effects and animations (not complete). Please let me know what you think. P.S. The clip is 60fps so please choose the 720p or 1080p version

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    Hello Guys, hope you're all OK.

    Im finally done with my MSc program! This is great because I now have a lot more free time. During my long hiatus I spent a lot of time playing The Phantom Pain, Bloodborne and Dark Souls. These 3 games taught me something that I seem to have forgotten, solid gameplay mechanics are far more important than graphics and "cinematics" will ever be. I feel that I have gained a whole new appreciation for good design and gameplay because of them. I've used this information to make significant changes across the board. Im putting mechanics, fun and simplicity at the core of my design philosophy. I'll be posting updates soon. Take care.
    Thanked by 1Stray_Train
  • Hi guys. Hope you're all doing well.

    As you know my game hopes to be a hybrid of turn based RPGs and fighting games. Unlike fighting games which put emphasis on mastering button combinations for combos, this game puts emphasis on when and how to use your attacks. I've made the following changes to my game-play.

    Each character has 8 moves, ideally mapped to a controllers D-Pad and 4 face buttons [easy to execute]. Each attack is of a specific type (low, medium or high) and has its own stamina requirements. Attacks are automatically chained assuming your character has enough stamina, and execution takes precedence. However, high attacks beat low attacks, low attacks beat mid attacks and mid attacks beat high attacks. Breaking an attack based on this system interrupts an opponents combo as well as restores 25% of your own stamina. Defending is performed by holding down a trigger button, this absorbs 80% of an opponents base damage but quickly depletes your own stamina.

    Let me know how that sounds. Im a few weeks from uploading a playable build. The HUD is now a lot simpler

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    Thanked by 2Fengol pieter
  • Can't wait to play it, the combat mechanics sounds really interesting :D
    Thanked by 1SubiyaCryolite
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