more props and a building

Things are still moving along pretty slowly, but I have got to the point where I can model and texture a prop within a day pretty easily which is nice. Here are some examples:

It took me awhile to find a good wood texture. For whatever reason getting a good image of all the detail wood has seems difficult and even with a texture site like CGtextures a lot of detail seems pretty fuzzy. After I find a good texture it is pretty easy to modify it and add details I need.

The other model I created was a building:

I am not sure if I am completely satisfied with the stone texture. Still, I think it came out pretty well for the style we are going for.

My own project is still getting put to the side while I think about some of the details a bit more and work on these models. It is quite a trick balancing play and productive work when all you have is yourself saying certain things need to get done! It is like a shoulder angel scenario, the good one is saying: Hey we need to do this model or learn this for our game creation! The bad one is like: nah man, play another game of league or do something in BDO, can always work on more stuff tomorrow. I have come to realize that the games are a good thing, as long as I don't let them take over entirely; they give some good ideas and references for my own games in addition to providing a social outlet in a very unsocial workplace setup.

work slowing down a bit as I consider how to move forward with my game and wait for teams to organize a bit more. Still, I did manage to get a simple prison done:

It should work for the purpose we need. I might add some more details later if needed but I have learned you want to keep it simple initially for feedback!

I also got to look over a cabin designed by another modeller and did some tweaks and adjustments:

It was nice working with something already mostly constructed, but it also showed me a bit how far I have come when I was fixing some minor issues. Issues I myself might have had, so I kind of had a system of how to look it over and fix them.

As for my game it is coming along nicely (have some enemies that shoot and attack the player, in addition to some environment details), but I am wondering if just killing monsters in dungeons could be fun enough. Adding inventory and loot seems a bit complex not to mention harder to balance the game if say a player finds a rare item and suddenly starts one shotting enemies. My goal is to make a set of challenging dungeons with just enough story to make one want to keep going and uncover things. I suppose I will just have to plow ahead and see what happens. Play test it and add more if needed, leave room in the maps for treasure and such.

Created an entire town!

Still struggling with the whole play too much and not enough creation time, but I have managed to impose some discipline and get things done here and there lol.

Here are some basic houses I finished. You can make some variations with that side piece but I went a little further and did one more:

By the end the people I was working with are like: Man you practically have created this entire town by yourself! Well, I try, I always beat myself up about not working enough but when I do work I seem to get it done pretty efficiently.

That is the bulk of what I have been doing. Still doing some odds and ends for the other game like cabinet animations and sinks and such. Also looking to get back to some character models a bit soon. As for my own game I got a lot of the world map pretty much laid out!

Ignore the really bad looking collision boxes, those won't be visible in the actual game lol. It is starting to come together nicely, though that cursed feature creep is trying to bog me down. I am like: alright lets get some more actual gameplay that I have planned out in before I go doing things like items, treasure, or more skills. I got a guy that can fight monsters for now, lets make more places to fight them and stuff!

Survived BDO

So I still managed to get some work done despite black desert trying to suck me in, I think I have it under control now lol. So here we have a dead person for one game:

Not too bad on the details though I feel I could clean it up a bit more it works for now. This got put off a lot due to distractions and various things just getting in the way. I also have a male version of the corpse on deck, but taking a break from it for a bit to work on more animation stuff.

Next up I came back to an old model and saw just how much I have improved. Talk to a project lead and show him this tavern I had shelved.

 He was like: I like it lets use it! Turns out it was shelved because of a lot of issues and I spent the rest of the day fixing them and optimizing/improving textures. The end result was much better and well worth the time imo:

 Still a lot of stuff going on, so look forward to more updates in a week or two!

Props and townhalls

Despite getting somewhat distracted by Black Desert Online (so much stuff to do in that game!) I am still chugging away on my various projects. The last couple days I finished up a town hall for one:

I think it looks more like a hunting lodge of some sort but this is the direction my reference steered me! Turned out pretty good I think, though the textures may have to be tweaked at a later date. The rock walls in particular may be a little too detailed for our style.

Next up still working on finishing up a props list. But I did get some suitcases done!

After that I need to create some dead bodies! er at least some virtual ones lol. I am unsure how to approach that but no time like the present to experiment. The two methods I am considering are simply creating them from scratch or just creating parts and combining them into a pre built mesh like makehuman provides. Modifying a pre built mesh does not seem to be the best idea. I suppose I could just treat it like creating an undead character. As for my personal project it is being pushed to the side again but I WILL get back to it. I have just hit a few snags in programming enemies. That is about all for the last couple weeks. See you next time I hope!

Alright although I have been a bit sick the last week or so I still managed to finish one prop list and the other is down to three items yay! Here are some of the last props:

The fountain came out pretty good if I do say so. The market place had a lot of minor tweaks I needed to do (I only re-textured a bit and optimized the models, someone else on the team did them originally). Which brings me to getting back to that other prop list today at some point hah.

Also, I have been working through that tutorial series still. On the last couple videos now. Definitely takes one pretty far down the path to making an rpg type game. Still need to find some supplement videos like how to make the main menu and maybe look at a skill system. At least be able to pick up new weapons or something. Still, even with what I have I could make a nice hack and slash romp at the very least. I look forward to finishing that project off and adapting my end plan to do so.

In other news I have also been playing some Black Desert. My short review: it is not a bad game, but it has more that open world sandbox feel a lot of mmos have these days. I miss my dungeons and early pvp hah. However, there is tons to do and I can see how a player could get lost quite quickly in such a game. See you next time, hopefully with some more realistic models to show off!

The endless list of props. Both projects! There has been a bit of a stall in progress in my projects lately. It is a bit disheartening to work on endless lists and not see any result other than:

Lots of somewhat interesting stuff but it isn't in game and doing anything yet! At least I can get stuff like this done fairly quickly. But it is like someone who is asking you to re-enact an air battle with 100 paper planes, start folding!

In the meantime I decided to set aside some time to a personal project where I can see everything coming together and what the end result is based on the plan I drew up. It is a nice feeling of being in control and the only obstacle to completion being myself for that one lol. I have been following this tutorial to get me started.

Great stuff and I recommend it to anyone wanting to learn a bit more about gamemaker and creating stuff in it. I am trying to adapt it for more a phone environment like an android but the rpg basics still apply.

Until next time, I will be creating more props, working on a 2D game etc... slowly grinding through the world of game design hah!