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Riot-CON(Working Title)

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Shenku RiO Incarnate View user's profile Send private message

Reply with quote Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Before we derail the ZOPU thread much more, I thought I'd start up a separate thread to discuss my other game that we were talking about, Riot-CON.

To quote my unfinished Kickstarter page:

Riot-CON is a fully 3D Beat 'Em Up style game powered by the Unreal Development Kit engine (UDK) which will take place in a "comic book convention" setting, parodying some well known characters/series (in such a way as no legal issues will arise...), as well as introducing original ones in a massive no-holds-barred fight to get your autographs and save the girl!

Story:

You (the player) are heading to a comic convention when for unknown reasons a riot breaks out amongst the comic goers. Your quest for swag and recognition by the Cosplay world will be hindered at every turn by crazed and enraged geeks, nerds, and gamers, as everyone is fighting everyone else.

Your goal will be to defeat these swarming hoards of crazed CON-Goers, and get your CON-Swag before supplies run out, and win all the Costume Contests, but that's only where it starts.

As the CON kicks into full gear, your best friend and CON-Buddy, known by the Cosplay world as adorable Princess Kelly, has been kidnapped! You'll have to hurry to save her before the CON ends, or she'll be lost forever, stollen away by your evil rival in Cosplay, Emperor Steve!

Gameplay:

Gameplay will consist of 3 main modes:

The first mode, Campaign, will be focused on free roaming exploration of the Convention floor, in which you will need to battle your way to the appropriate locations to aquire each item, costume piece, or objective. Individuality is key, and the player will gain new items during the CON to expand, improve, and completely customize their outfit. Better outfits will give you a better score in the Costume Contests, and will lead to better prizes, such as new weapons, costume items, or ability power-ups! There'll be 2 Costume Contests for each day of the CON, so be sure to attend them all for more rewards!

The second mode will be Free Play, in which you can explore the CON at your own pace, and replay specific days of the CON. Careful though, events may differ between Free Play and Campaign mode, as some random enemies and events may appear!

The third mode is Endless Hoard. As the name implies, hoards of enemies will continue to spawn, and you must defeat as many as you can until you either surrender, or are defeated. The longer you survive, the harder it gets, but the better the rewards will become!



In essence, the game will be somewhat "Scott Pilgrim-ish" in terms of humor, and sorta gameplay as well, but with a variety of customization options for the player characters(4 different characters, and each character will have different options available).

While I don't have a good gameplay video yet of the current build, you can check out some early alpha footage on my Youtube channel here. Note: The explosion particles in this video are temporary... As are the crappy high-pitched edits of my voice for the characters, also, the Player Character was a temporary stand-in slapped together for a demo I had at my school's booth for a convention, and has since been replaced as well(currently replaced by Aka-Chan for the time being)...

I've been hemming and hawing over this and another project for a while, and I'm at a point now where I'm about ready to just say "screw it" and pull the trigger on at least one of them. This one seems to have a little more potential than the other, particularly since the other project is focused towards young kids, and is less likely to be fully funded...

I think I'm going to just launch the Kickstarter campaign soonish and just see what happens... Look for updates in this thread in the near future...

Eagle The Purpose View user's profile Send private message

Reply with quote Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Cool, waiting for more. I know it's quite lacking in identifiable function, but you have my moral support. Good luck for the next. Smile

(can't really watch the videos now, my phone doesn't have unlimited internet, just enough so I can watch here few times and post messages..)

Shenku RiO Incarnate View user's profile Send private message

Reply with quote Thursday, February 12, 2015

Wh1t34Gl3(SAS) wrote : Cool, waiting for more. I know it's quite lacking in identifiable function, but you have my moral support. Good luck for the next. Smile

(can't really watch the videos now, my phone doesn't have unlimited internet, just enough so I can watch here few times and post messages..)


Meh, I've had no internet for weeks. I've been mooching off public wifi at my library...

Eagle The Purpose View user's profile Send private message

Reply with quote Friday, February 13, 2015

I don't have my computer for now (fan is broken) and I don't have time to go somewhere else. *intense laughter*

Shenku RiO Incarnate View user's profile Send private message

Reply with quote Friday, February 20, 2015

Wh1t34Gl3(SAS) wrote : I don't have my computer for now (fan is broken) and I don't have time to go somewhere else. *intense laughter*



Same problem with my laptop, which is why I can't work on ZOPU for the time being... It's also preventing me from working on another UE4 project that is a significantly bigger project than what Riot-CON is...

Riot-CON is a relatively small button mashing game. The other UE4 project that I have, is a large open world RPG, kind of like a kid-friendly cross between the item collecting of Animal Crossing and adventure/story driven Skyrim... If that makes any sort of sense... Overall, it's a much bigger project though...

Eagle The Purpose View user's profile Send private message

Reply with quote Friday, February 20, 2015

Ha ha, now it's time to rush to a parts store to find a new one. Rolling Eyes

Animal crossing/skyrim ? Is that possible ??! Shocked

It's like mixing pokemon and wow. Laughing

I see that you have many projects on going, good luck on the organization, it's not easy to work on all of that.

Shenku RiO Incarnate View user's profile Send private message

Reply with quote Saturday, February 21, 2015

Wh1t34Gl3(SAS) wrote : Ha ha, now it's time to rush to a parts store to find a new one. Rolling Eyes

Animal crossing/skyrim ? Is that possible ??! Shocked

It's like mixing pokemon and wow. :*laughing out loud*:


Technically it is possible, especially since, I'm not sure if you're aware and making a joke or simply unaware, WoW added "Pet Battles" a few years ago... It's a thing now... Razz

I see that you have many projects on going, good luck on the organization, it's not easy to work on all of that.


Technically, I have only 4 projects.

My Novel series.
Riot-CON.
ZOPU.
And Spritehaven(working title).

Everything else is on indefinite hold until these are all done, with the exception of ZOPU which may or may not be continued by myself, or possibly opened up for public development like ZEQ2-Lite is...

Anyways, until such time as my book trilogy is finished, and Spritehaven and Riot-CON are released, I'm not looking to add anything else on my plate since it would just distract me at this point.

Eagle The Purpose View user's profile Send private message

Reply with quote Saturday, February 21, 2015

Technically it is possible, especially since, I'm not sure if you're aware and making a joke or simply unaware, WoW added "Pet Battles" a few years ago... It's a thing now... Razz



Ha ha, yep, right. Laughing

We are on internet, everything is possible, I forgot that. x)

Technically, I have only 4 projects.

My Novel series.
Riot-CON.
ZOPU.
And Spritehaven(working title).

Everything else is on indefinite hold until these are all done, with the exception of ZOPU which may or may not be continued by myself, or possibly opened up for public development like ZEQ2-Lite is...

Anyways, until such time as my book trilogy is finished, and Spritehaven and Riot-CON are released, I'm not looking to add anything else on my plate since it would just distract me at this point.



It's already four projects, you must have an incredible schedule between all of that. ._.

Shenku RiO Incarnate View user's profile Send private message

Reply with quote Sunday, February 22, 2015

Wh1t34Gl3(SAS) wrote :

It's already four projects, you must have an incredible schedule between all of that. ._.


Not really, I just rotate and take turns as to which project I'll work on during a given day off from work... Easier still since my new job has significantly more days off than my previous one...

Eagle The Purpose View user's profile Send private message

Reply with quote Monday, February 23, 2015

Ah okay, that explain everything.

by the way, I have just seen the alpha footage. Was quite funny (looks like mix of pokemon, rayman and a movie from michael bay) but it's really impressive. Looks already fun to play. Very Happy

Shenku RiO Incarnate View user's profile Send private message

Reply with quote Monday, February 23, 2015

I'm sure I mentioned it already, but that explosion particle system when the Furries were killed was only temporary, and used a premade particle system that comes with UDK... That, and when I added it to test the death particles, it was so hilarious that I decided to use it in the alpha video I recorded... Razz

As for the floating limb character and the Furry NPCs, as with everything 3D that I made so far, they will all be changed out for new and better meshes later once I get the funding I need for a professional license of 3DS Max since I can't technically use any of these 3D assets for a commercial game...

Eagle The Purpose View user's profile Send private message

Reply with quote Monday, February 23, 2015

Ahh... Badly expressed myself again.. My fault.

Don't worry, I know what indev tests are. At the beginning of the video, I already knew it was one. Smile

Best way to test systems and gameplay elements with quickly made environments. Can be fun too, depending on what you are testing. That's how you recognize a good game from the rest.

Reminds me of first 3D games methods (mario 64, sonic adventure etc.. test stages). <3

:'<

Shenku RiO Incarnate View user's profile Send private message

Reply with quote Sunday, September 10, 2017

*places Dragonballs carefully in the thread*

Shenku: "Arise Eternal Dragon and grant my wish! Bring Riot-Con back from the other dimension!"

*There's a Flash of light*

Shenron: "Your wish is granted."

*A new video link appears in the thread as the dragon leaves*

Riot-Con is back, baby! Cool

Eagle The Purpose View user's profile Send private message

Reply with quote Monday, September 11, 2017

HECK YEAH! Just make it faster paced to fit the music and you'll buy me fully. Laughing

Shenku RiO Incarnate View user's profile Send private message

Reply with quote Monday, September 11, 2017

Eagle wrote : HECK YEAH! Just make it faster paced to fit the music and you'll buy me fully. :*laughing out loud*:



Yeah, combat is still a lot slower than I'd like it to be, and I don't have the dodge/dash mechanics added in yet either, plus AI still needs a lot of work. But I also need a lot of custom animations as well to really streamline the whole combat feeling.

Skatter #*&@%! View user's profile Send private message

Reply with quote Wednesday, September 13, 2017

Some things that stick out to me, and maybe they're more subjective than objective, so feel free to disregard:
1) The main character's color scheme could stand to be broken up more, even if some of the red is made lighter/darker or more or less saturated, it just seems like a whole lotta flat red in short mileage.
2) Tapering the opacity of the blade trail would probably make it look better. It looks fine from most of the footage, but looks really weird when the blade was horizontal during vertical motion. Like one big block.
3) The hit effects kind of look like they're being produced radially from the point of impact, and they create a circular pattern which doesn't flatter the weapon type. The jagged 3-point crown also seems more like a blunt weapon type hit effect in its current state. Again, super subjective, but effects are mostly the only things I can weigh in on.
4) As Eagle already pointed out and you acknowledged, speed is an issue.

Looks like you're having fun with it Shenku, glad if so Smile

Shenku RiO Incarnate View user's profile Send private message

Reply with quote Wednesday, September 13, 2017

Skatter wrote : Some things that stick out to me, and maybe they're more subjective than objective, so feel free to disregard:
1) The main character's color scheme could stand to be broken up more, even if some of the red is made lighter/darker or more or less saturated, it just seems like a whole lotta flat red in short mileage.


Yeah, well aware, I just haven't focused too much on the character's texture yet because the model is subject to change still, but that'll have to wait until I can afford another month or 2 of subscribing to a pro version of 3DS Max again to go back and clean them up/fix them (especially the poly flow, some anatomy shapes, and rigging), cause I'm almost certain the UV mapping will change, even if only slightly.


2) Tapering the opacity of the blade trail would probably make it look better. It looks fine from most of the footage, but looks really weird when the blade was horizontal during vertical motion. Like one big block.


Noted. I kind of didn't fully setup the anim trails for the weapons yet, this one's just a simple flat material color placeholder until I can make some proper trail textures.


3) The hit effects kind of look like they're being produced radially from the point of impact, and they create a circular pattern which doesn't flatter the weapon type. The jagged 3-point crown also seems more like a blunt weapon type hit effect in its current state. Again, super subjective, but effects are mostly the only things I can weigh in on.


This particle is only partly setup, I actually do want to have different impact effects for each weapon type and character since every character will have different types of damage, for both their basic and Ultimate modes. I just put this one in as a temporary placeholder until I make the other ones since it was a fairly basic and generic comicbook style Onomatopoeia kind of effect.

Of course, if we're being super literal, then the effect makes sense since most cosplay weapons are blunt and made of super heavy materials like foamboard or cardboard, so they would be more of a blunt "bonk" rather than a sharp "kasheenk".... Not that I'm trying to make an excuse for it, just pointing out an observation that it makes sense in a humorous reality centric viewpoint... But regardless, you're right.


4) As Eagle already pointed out and you acknowledged, speed is an issue.


Yeah, I'm still fine tuning it as well as the movement systems and overall performance to really get everything to feel as smooth and fluid as possible.


And yeah, before anyone even mentions it, whether about the Marketplace assets, or the ZEQ2-Lite particles, I'm going to be replacing almost all the current art assets (Except maybe some animations unless they continue to prove detrimental to the fluidity of gameplay) eventually as I go. Most of what's in the current build is rough placeholder art, or temporary Marketplace assets just to fill in gaps while I build up the basic gameplay systems. Basically, most of it is "programmer art" right now... I don't really have a set timetable on when things will be replaced, but a lot of it will be.

Skatter #*&@%! View user's profile Send private message

Reply with quote Thursday, September 14, 2017

Shenku wrote :
This particle is only partly setup, I actually do want to have different impact effects for each weapon type and character since every character will have different types of damage, for both their basic and Ultimate modes. I just put this one in as a temporary placeholder until I make the other ones since it was a fairly basic and generic comicbook style Onomatopoeia kind of effect.

Of course, if we're being super literal, then the effect makes sense since most cosplay weapons are blunt and made of super heavy materials like foamboard or cardboard, so they would be more of a blunt "bonk" rather than a sharp "kasheenk".... Not that I'm trying to make an excuse for it, just pointing out an observation that it makes sense in a humorous reality centric viewpoint... But regardless, you're right.



That's pretty interesting. I honestly hadn't considered much about the reality of it-I guess in part because I've never really had anything to do with conventions or even put energy into thought about what going to one would be like.

Shenku wrote :
And yeah, before anyone even mentions it, whether about the Marketplace assets, or the ZEQ2-Lite particles, I'm going to be replacing almost all the current art assets (Except maybe some animations unless they continue to prove detrimental to the fluidity of gameplay) eventually as I go. Most of what's in the current build is rough placeholder art, or temporary Marketplace assets just to fill in gaps while I build up the basic gameplay systems. Basically, most of it is "programmer art" right now... I don't really have a set timetable on when things will be replaced, but a lot of it will be.



I wouldn't know about market place assets, but as for using ZEQ-Lite assets, I wouldn't ever blame you as an effects artist for using them. You've seen me repurpose them before and it's not because I'm lazy-I'm not. It's because they're pretty well made-if a little low-resolution for this day and age, but still awesome overall and it's not really worth reinventing a wheel. Not that you shouldn't absolutely improve on them if you can and want to, though Razz

I guess I just mean that I don't think you have to create a justifiable or defensible position for them being there.

Either way, looks like a good foundation to improve upon and I look forward to seeing your updates on it.

Shenku RiO Incarnate View user's profile Send private message

Reply with quote Thursday, September 14, 2017

Well, at least as far as Marketplace assets go, there's a bad reputation that has been forming in some communities, with regards to games using them since Unity and UE4 became more prevalent with indie developers that I would rather try to avoid.

The ZEQ2-Lite sprites, well, that's more that I want to make something better, because the "spike" sprites are too simple and I don't like the "glow" being built into the sprite because it conflicts with some blending modes, and the "flame" sprite was my modified version of the Public Beta 1 aura sprite, and I was never truly happy with how it turned out.

And by the way, this screenshot below is a prime example of why I'm saying that the player character models are not done yet. Suffice to say, I still have my work cut out for me, and these are just the first two of 4 playable characters. My problem was I sorta ran out of time on my last Pro subscription to 3DS Max, and couldn't clean up the models any after loading them into UE4 and testing them to see what needed fixing, which turned out to be a lot...

In part though, they were really just test models in their current state just to make sure I could use them with the default UE4 skeleton and that I could share animations on them interchangeably without having to do custom animations for each separate character. While that part worked, it revealed all kinds of issues with the model geometries themselves, as well as how poorly rigged some verts were on the skinned meshes, particularly with Murasaki here's skirt which has some verts that don't seem to have any skin weight at all for some reason, or her arms which seem to be improperly weighted to include her spine and shoulder bones. Also, this second mesh was kind of rushed compared to the first one for Akah.

Skatter #*&@%! View user's profile Send private message

Reply with quote Saturday, September 16, 2017

Shenku wrote : Well, at least as far as Marketplace assets go, there's a bad reputation that has been forming in some communities, with regards to games using them since Unity and UE4 became more prevalent with indie developers that I would rather try to avoid.



I can understand that. My only real experiences with UE4 games has been ARK: Survival Evolved, and I can tell their vegetation is shared through a dozen other projects at least, they're not indie, but I do get what you mean.

Shenku wrote : The ZEQ2-Lite sprites, well, that's more that I want to make something better, because the "spike" sprites are too simple and I don't like the "glow" being built into the sprite because it conflicts with some blending modes, and the "flame" sprite was my modified version of the Public Beta 1 aura sprite, and I was never truly happy with how it turned out.



Ah, I get that too. I had to do a bit of tweaking on some of the old sprites to get them to work with Battlebox, too.

Shenku wrote : And by the way, this screenshot below is a prime example of why I'm saying that the player character models are not done yet. Suffice to say, I still have my work cut out for me, and these are just the first two of 4 playable characters. My problem was I sorta ran out of time on my last Pro subscription to 3DS Max, and couldn't clean up the models any after loading them into UE4 and testing them to see what needed fixing, which turned out to be a lot...

In part though, they were really just test models in their current state just to make sure I could use them with the default UE4 skeleton and that I could share animations on them interchangeably without having to do custom animations for each separate character. While that part worked, it revealed all kinds of issues with the model geometries themselves, as well as how poorly rigged some verts were on the skinned meshes, particularly with Murasaki here's skirt which has some verts that don't seem to have any skin weight at all for some reason, or her arms which seem to be improperly weighted to include her spine and shoulder bones. Also, this second mesh was kind of rushed compared to the first one for Akah.



Is there a reason you have to have Pro to do the improvements? I am assuming you'd definitely require it if you were going to sell it, but I guess I am asking (especially if you're still a student-not sure if you are) why you couldn't be building these characters and improving them now with a free license then when it's time to go commercial, buy a pro license? Is there some functionality that's in the pro license that you rely on? I'm just asking and if you don't want to answer either way, that's totally fine, too.

Shenku RiO Incarnate View user's profile Send private message

Reply with quote Saturday, September 16, 2017

Skatter wrote :
Is there a reason you have to have Pro to do the improvements? I am assuming you'd definitely require it if you were going to sell it, but I guess I am asking (especially if you're still a student-not sure if you are) why you couldn't be building these characters and improving them now with a free license then when it's time to go commercial, buy a pro license? Is there some functionality that's in the pro license that you rely on? I'm just asking and if you don't want to answer either way, that's totally fine, too.



The short answer is that I want to do this as a commercial game, and it's technically a violation of the user agreement and terms of a student license to use anything made in a student version in a commercial product.

And the way the agreement is worded, even if I buy a Pro license after the fact, I would still not be allowed to use any assets made in a Student version for commercial purposes. It's a weird stipulation, and I'm not sure how they would check or even know, but I'd rather not risk it.

And the reason why I would rather wait for a Pro version instead of just making placeholders, is I don't want to have to make too many assets twice, or risk forgetting to remove any student version assets. Especially if I intend to go forward with a crowdfunding campaign, cause once money becomes involved the risk of legal action goes up for such violations if I were to be caught.

I can still make ZOPU's assets in a student version though, cause that's all non-commercial...

Skatter #*&@%! View user's profile Send private message

Reply with quote Saturday, September 16, 2017

Ah, I understand now, and that's a commendable way to look at it. Thanks for answering.

Shenku RiO Incarnate View user's profile Send private message

Reply with quote Sunday, November 26, 2017

Update!

Added in two new playable character classes, Saphire Nova, and Captain Ambassador, both of which are now covering the "super hero/heroine" themed player characters.

Added in 4 enemy classes, Furry Cat, and Furry Fox, in Male and Female versions.

Going to try and throw together at least 2 more player characters, and make the Furry faction's Boss character (Right now debating the idea of some kind of Kitsune/9-tailed fox type character, but still tossing ideas around in my head...), then I want to start really focusing on the rest of the game's mechanics outside of just the combat... Particularly, I'm looking to start tackling my performance issues with the game, since I'm still struggling to stay above 15fps sometimes, even if my laptop is a potato, because I'm still iffy about the specifications for this game's intended target platform...

Eagle The Purpose View user's profile Send private message

Reply with quote Sunday, November 26, 2017

Firefox wants to fight!

Do you know how to render fur/hair?
https://www.turbosquid.com/3D-models/fur-animation-wolf-3D-model/584550

Would look pretty dope even in an NPR context, I think.

Shenku RiO Incarnate View user's profile Send private message

Reply with quote Sunday, November 26, 2017

Eagle wrote : Firefox wants to fight!

Do you know how to render fur/hair?
https://www.turbosquid.com/3D-models/fur-animation-wolf-3D-model/584550

Would look pretty dope even in an NPR context, I think.



I have a fur plugin that might work to make their outfits look like they have actual fur, but I haven't sat down to figure out how to use it just yet, and for performance reasons I'm reluctant to add something that might add more computations in a game that's already suffering framerate wise (Granted, I still don't know if it's the game performing bad, or just my laptop being a potato...)... Final versions of the models might have modeled "tufts" of fur near typical spots for it to show, like shoulders, chest, forearms, tails, exc.

But for the moment I'm more concerned about just getting the characters into the game than making them perfect since I have a few short term goals which require me to at least get a working and well performing prototype running, so the less time I spend working on each individual character, the more time I can spend on adding the other characters and polishing up the game itself. I can update the characters later once I have more time/money to worry about them specifically....

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