Switching to Patreon.

Annnd its been over a month hah. Oh well mostly switching this up and upgrading to Patreon rather than blogger. So if you want more updates I would reccomend heading there for the news:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/to-ork-or-not-to-16102572

Basically looking into options to make Dungeonis development a bit easier for me. Looking for some feedback.

Still working on models and games, just changing the update channel up a bit. Hope to see you over there and happy holidays!

These last couple weeks I have been taking a break from the RPG design to work on some buildings for a side project:

Here we have a church/temple type building for players to go visit in game. Gave me a chance to play around with more textures and render settings in Substance painter.

Next we have:

An inn type building. The side part could be good to escape a guards notice from time to time or just get a better view. I am keeping to that stone texture for walls to keep up the theme of the town which is basically old medieval village.

Finally I am also back to following a unity course and learning a bit more about making simple games/coding here is a quick video preview of that:

That is about it for game dev progress and side projects. See you next time!

Alright been awhile since my last post here. Been posting my game around on sites like gamejolt and indieDB:
Game Jolt page

IndieDB page

Not much to report other than a couple follows here and there and some generic hey cool keep going comments. So all in all not much interest or hype which does get me down a bit, but still plan on making some finished product out of it even if it is just expanding a little on abilities and make it more of a story game.

Other than that I did another character which was a lot of fun and gives me a bit more of an idea of where my skills are at.

Sketchfab

Overall she came out fairly good. Could probably use some more cleanup and polish but my general plan was: I want to make a halloweeny character in a week just to see where I am at.

I really do love werewolves and it was a fun character to design with the general thought being keep to humanoid rig so I can easily just throw animations onto it. She is about 6k poly and I did three texture variations: white, russet, grey.

Here is a youtube video of her running around in my game:

Anyways that is all for the couple week update. Would love any plays or feedback I can get on the current state of the game! See you next time.

Demo up and progress!

Finally to the point I have some fairly decent gameplay up and running. Looking for some feedback if anyone has some time to check out the demo at http://www.indiedb.com/games/dungeonis

The demo will not have the skill system as of yet. However, the game is still very playable without extra skills, the extra skills are something I wanted to give the player a bit more choice in how to spec out their character. I will need to test it a bit more before I put it in the demo. After that the plan is to flesh out the town with more characters and implement some loot drops etc. I think I am very close to going into just making levels and filling them with enemies.

The last thing I want atm is a way to save the player position and scene and load it. Perhaps a return to town crystal/item as well. After that I can make the giant dungeons I want lol.

Week of Coding

So most of this update is not really visual as I was mostly coding and modifying code this time around. What was I messing with? Well, due to continuing issues with getting programmers willing to help out on a fairly regular basis I had to work out alternatives again. Basically buying a asset on the store and modding it to work how I wanted. In the end the week of code (or was it a week and a half? lol) was a success! I have spells I can drag to the action bar and a leveling system that saves a couple stats. A half finished ability system got tossed and replaced with a similar one I can work with better.

As far as modelling I also reworked a chair I made awhile back and it is now on the asset store at: https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/props/furniture/fancy-old-rocking-chair-99445!

It also has 3 LoDs to help with optimizing it for games and performance. Great for a haunted house or just random house furniture in general.

Anyways kind of a small update, but lots going on behind the scenes. If you have not checked it out be sure to check out a preview of my boss battle... before I did all this code.

Will have to update this but the code mostly works the same I just have it do some more stuff and wire into the interface better. Not to mention I also have a lock on target feature when you hover over enemies.

Anyways see you in a couple weeks again will be sure to update the vid, and probably have some more 3D model work!

More enemy characters

The last couple weeks I have been working on a couple more enemy types to finish off my first level and replace the old sub par placeholder models I had. You saw the ghoul last update... this time we have another enemy, as well as a boss!

https://skfb.ly/6tt8x

I am not entirely satisfied with this model. She will work for the purpose of an enemy to fight. But she just didn't quite turn out how I wanted. The armor could use some harder edges, the detailing be a bit more crisp the face better in general. Still, it is some progress and learning of substance painter nonetheless. I am also becoming a bit more critical of my models I suppose.

Next up we have something I am much more satisfied with. The boss should be pretty awesome and this guy came out really good imo!

https://skfb.ly/6tEBx
I had some good references and things just came together nicely for this guy. The emissive texture might need to be sharpened up at some point but it does the job for now. I was worried about how a skeleton character would rig up and animate but it seems even better than fully fleshed out characters! Check out the sketchfab link for some lore I made up as well.

Look forward to seeing these two in the dungeons as I polish up my current game and head towards a demo. See you next update!

Exploring substance painter, asset store additions!

Another couple weeks gone by suppose it is time for another update. Still working on my project, In fact revamping the monsters entirely:

Male undead are being replaced with this guy. Which I created in blender and had a bit of fun with sculpting. See the detailed model on my sketchfab: https://skfb.ly/6t6NI
The general theme is a more stylized simplified set of monsters and characters. This guy is a bit detailed for that but not hyper realistic so I think he will work out just fine. You can see some other critters like the goblins and Mira on my sketchfab page as well.

Also a couple new assets got accepted into the asset store, I think I did post them here before but a refresher as they are now available for purchase:

at: https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/97187

at : https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/97535

Stay tune for more on my website: https://csinclairgames.com/

At any rate lots of links this week I will leave you with one final picture of my experiments in a cool program called substance painter:

A simple peasant shirt for the Age of Aincrad project. So a big update as an apology for being a couple days late again hah. Stay tuned for more 3D modeling updates and perhaps even a game preview vid next time.

Mostly updating old models but some cool stuff!

So these last couple weeks I have been going back and making some older stuff more game ready. Also, improving various uv layouts and textures. Without further ado here we go!

You will note all of this is not textured because I got a bit bored halfway through and just stopped applying true textures because it was all working hah. Anyways the goal here was to get a dyeable armor system running with morph3D setups. Still a work in progress, as I will need to hear back how it works out for sure but for now goal achieved!

Next up I went back and reworked some goblin models, rigging them up and giving them some texture options. This allows for a couple models to be used more and seem like different enemies; saves a bit of time making more of them:

These will also be used in my project. I am going to create a sort of bandit forest level populated by them. A fitting place for Mira to begin her adventure... since the guild will need the new recruit to prove herself a bit more.

Speaking of Mira, some model updates and chopping out some polys. Still could probably chop more, but not too worried about it as it is the main char model at this time. If I put her up on the asset store I might aim for about 15k poly count or so though instead of the 20k.

Other than that just a bunch of refactoring and polishing up the game some more. The real progress starts with next week as I block out bandit forest and various encounters while waiting for udemy to show me more cool stuff to add in. Progress is going well though! See you next time!

New main char for my game!

It was long overdo but I decided to go with a more stylized anime like character rather than the makehuman base I had. It also gives me a lot more sense of ownership over the model since I created it from a single cube hah. You would think a cartoony char would be a bit easier than realistic which I suppose is the case because I don't have to sculpt as much but getting the look right was pretty rough.
Here is the sketchfab link:
Mira, adventuring half demon!

For those who just want the quick preview here is an image of her in blender:

Came out pretty good. Still room for some improvements but a lot better than the old char I had.
Unfortunately I will have to make monsters in a similar style hah.

As for the process of this work I actually made the references with screen shots of a black desert character (front side back) to sort of get the form right. I also followed this tutorial:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Xuf6ODN_xY&list=PLvgIVNDU-Dxjb3eukDF5W0l0-6ShO9OiM

 Takes you through building a character like this from start to finish and I found it very helpful so drop em a like somewhere! This combined with my current blender skills allowed me to create my own character.

Anyways that is most of what I have been up to the last couple weeks, watching videos and creating this. Game is still progressing though not quite ready for a serious demo yet, stay tuned though might be just a couple more weeks, really depends on coding progress and some art polishing!

See you again with another update relatively soon I hope!

A month already? dang

So I forgot about this thing with all the stuff I have been working on lately hah. My own little RPG project is doing pretty good, hammering down the interface and putting in a lot of building shells (buildings with no props or doors really). Here are some previews of those:

from the top we have: blacksmith, lords castle, Ruins investigation branch, and tavern.
Next up we have some game screenshots, coming along great so far with initial dungeon and town mostly done!

Ui is mostly placeholder at this time but has a lot of flexibility to slot in UI elements as I get them created. Also, death animations and ouch sounds are in! Now all I got to do is make some better attack/projectile effects for decent combat, well and more abilities. I think that covers most of what got done... A lot of other small stuff but meh.

Also if you see any models you like shoot me a message! I am on turbosquid selling, see this website: My store

see you next time!

More Dungeonis Progress!

New preview video:

New zombie models in... and not so great sound effects of myself on audacity lol. Plan to replace these at some point. First dungeon pretty much done other than maybe doing boss rooms and the projectile effects of course. Oh and some music. Soo a bit less done than I thought but I can run around and beat up enemies so good progress!

Also work on the town has started!

Still a lot to add but looking pretty good so far. Travel time from one corner to the other is about 30 seconds. Wall texture looks a bit bad will consider updating that fairly soon. Next on the list fixing that character a bit more! She looks okay but lots of good improvements to be made still; and at this point they are bugging me enough to fix some now at least.

Stay tuned for more progress. Getting a bit of help lately from unity connect so hopefully some really cool stuff will be in the works!

Also, if you are interesting in purchasing models be sure to check out my website! Only golems and a house available at the moment... Unity is a bit slow accepting models. Probably going to switch over to turbosquid(which is where the house is).

Tons of stuff in the works.

I have a new site! If you care about the reasons why read on otherwise just look at pictures and go oh neat its like a 3D model yard sale.

Not all the links are working yet, but that is because I have to wait for review process to go through on the Asset Store.

So lately I have been thinking: you know, why do I have all my eggs in one basket when I can just put most of the stuff I create on the asset store while creating my games? That way even if an indie team fails or whatever I can be like its ok, can still sell what I made at least. One problem... I got over 100 models to package up and revamp since it took me so long to think of this *sigh. However, at least this gives me the opportunity to revisit them and tune em up with all the skills I have learned over the last couple years.

So in short I save time modelling and just spruce up textures or rig and I am good to go!

 As for projects:
Mainly been working on my own game lately, here is a quick preview:

Lots of placeholder still, but have updated it some since this video. I have just been getting the new comp sorted and haven't got a video capture setup again yet. Also, looking for people to help out if you are interested. Know a bit of code or how to work in blender? Still a bit new? That is okay, practice some features or models on a project like mine! That is, if you like dungeon games and this sort of thing interests you. If not oh well just watch for progress I guess.

As for my other teams it is sort of dead to be frank. Not much news. I occasionally do stuff like this quest board:

However, until I see a bit more gameplay I am focusing on my own project and udemy/youtube learning again. Until next time!

Distracted again!

Hah almost forgot about this blog. Been what? almost a month dang. Anyways a lot has been going on. Been working on armor, redesigning a house(3D model hah), that game I was building actually has a couple people helping out now! So without further ado here are some pictures:

Here I made a beginner armor set for AoA. These are just some basic textures for now. More detail is definitely something I am considering. Was able to set up a pipeline for Morph3D to our project without too much issue though I did have to e-mail them. What they said was very helpful and allowed me to quickly set up a blender>morph3D>unity asset pipeline.

As for the house it was really a re-texture with some slight model tweaks:

The roof doesn't look great but I figure the character won't be on it so it is okay unless I see something to convince me otherwise in the project. here is the old pic of it:

So a lot cleaner and better looking overall in my opinion even with these low res pictures.

And finally we have my project that is really starting to shape up! A nice little dungeon crawler scene shaping up in unity with a character running around and getting bombarded with tennis balls for now but eventually they will be actual weapons lol. Here is a screen from that:

Still loots of stuff to do but the basics are coming together nicely. That is all for now hopefully see you again for another update in a reasonable amount of time this time hah.

Projects being slow again.

But that does not mean I have to slow down! Been taking another course on creating an RPG and learning some cool stuff. In short it basically teaches me how to get a 3rd person char moving around and playing a really epic game of dodge ball. This means I can at least prototype some levels with combat. Probably a good ways to go until it is a really smooth playing game but roughing it in is kind of neat here are some screens of that:

The second pic is more of a planning phase in what I might want to do with the character. Other than that I have just been messing with rigging and animation again. Current plans are to move forward with some dungeon/level prototyping which requires some model creation. That is unless my current projects get it in gear again lol.

See you next time!

Texture upgrades!

I got the chance to revisit a couple models from my past and apply some improved textures to them. Neat to see how I have grown even in this amount of time. First up we have the ol handgun model which you may recognize from a previous update awhile back:

You can see the old model was a bit messy and the dirt patterns were pretty bad! It looks like a gun but close inspection reveals the flaws in the textures. Also, a specular map makes or breaks metal type objects imo. I did fix some flaws and improve the texture but what really improves it is the specular map bringing out all the dings and scratches in the metal that I tried to artificially add in the diffuse before.

Next up we have my player arms model being improved. There is a ton of detail in skin and the hand in particular. I still struggled a bit with adding it all but I am fairly happy with the result. I took some elements from my old maps and added some parts of real life pictures I took myself to make certain details really pop. Integrating it all in and making it blend well was the real trick:

Finally I am working on a new game with the knowledge I learned in that udemy course I took. Breaking it down into pieces and trying to make it work. The general idea is an RTS type game with units and gold to spend with map objectives to claim. Lots of placeholder stuff atm but a good start with purchasing units, placing them in a specific area only and also selecting them:

That is all for this update. See you next time!

More buildings! Getting faster.

These last couple weeks I have been working on remapping/texturing a couple buildings. The first I actually created from scratch and it came out pretty good!

I did simplify it from the reference I had and removed some details to make it less churchy... Here was the reference:

Pretty close right? I may or may not add more details later but for now a pretty good building for our scene.

Next I reworked another model that just looked very drab and did not work well with normal maps or other maps for that matter. Just a too much on one map situation. Here is a picture of the rework:

It is interesting untangling someone's UV work. I am pretty sure most uv maps should be user friendly for others. I have learned how to lay out some really easy to use maps with Quixel's pipeline. So both myself and the program know where to place stuff a lot better!

Finally I am still working on that wolf model... we settled on a shape/model but are working with a new fur shader in unity so progress is slow while we see how that works exactly. Hopefully it will look awesome if not it is back to the ol drawing board.

All told a busy couple weeks. I also managed to finish the programming unity course I was working on and started work on a game but not much to say other than it is a kind of RTS type game. See you again in a couple weeks!

Oops late again! The journey continues!

So I hit a couple snags with the wolf model which upset me a bit more than it should have but I had the world of programming to fall back on in the meantime!

I had a model like this:

Was looking really cool but in the end the look was decided to be a bit too fantasyish for our game. Which meant this model just gets tossed onto a shelf to gather dust. I gave it another go but ultimately my heart was not in it and I failed at creating a decent wolf for what we wanted. There could be many factors to attribute this failure to including no concept art and the team for letting it get to this stage before deciding it wouldn't work (I did send progress files as I went to try and prevent this outcome). Maybe I can come back to it after a break and try a new strategy (look at some unity asset store wolves perhaps) but for now someone else on the team is giving it a go.

I am continuing with the programming course and also doing some smaller models on the side. This was a good lesson, and I probably got too attached to my creation. When working with a group it is important to be flexible when you can and realize a lot of things may have to be redone quite often. Still I think the group should work to make sure as little has to be redone as possible as well.

Learned a lot about trying to refine work with this go around and look forward to continuing the indie game dev journey.

Work still a bit slow

Contact with teams has resumed yay! Still watching a lot of tutorial videos on programming in unity but took a break from that to work on a wolf model which looks worlds better than my last attempt even with the basic start I have:

The shape is there but I need to add a lot of little details like spikes of fur among other things. I am actually looking at some wolf toys and other similar models online hah. I don't want to use fur planes if possible... those are a pain to work with and get to look right. I see why a lot of the earlier wolves just let texture do most of the work. It saves polys and hassle, but it the smooth look is a bit bland when you can work in a bit more detail especially with current computers and a smaller scale game.

Hopefully better updates next time but these last couple weeks have mainly been self training and just a smidge of modelling the last couple days. Will write again in a couple weeks!

Holidays killed my teams!

Well not really, but radio silence seems to be the norm in terms of projects atm. However, I have been using the free time to improve coding/unity skills. The end goal of course being able to create some small projects or prototype some level/design concepts on my own. Small steps, but with the help of Udemy, youtube, and google I hope to get there! Here is a small update of what I have been doing with a Udemy course:

You may or may not recognize some of the assets are from a site called Glitch the Game. There are a lot of pre-made assets from a game that failed a few years back but went public domain. A good place for resources or simply understanding things that go into such a game. This pic is just a small level setup/game asset animation scene.

As for the course it is still focusing on 2D games mainly but I have learned a lot about menu systems and general C# programming tricks. Definitely recommend it if it is still on sale: Learn to Code by Making Games - The Complete Unity Developer.

See you next update and thanks for reading!