Cove Level Update

 Cool!  I like the waterfall by the Island.  Maybe the lighthouse peninsula does need to be larger and more twisty. It seems small and weedy compared to the now more dramatic spiral mountain.

That's probably because:

a) it's currently flat, and missing the boulders along it.

b) it's missing the truly insane lighthouse centrepiece.

I may be able to fix a) today, but b) will need a masterpiece of design - and in order to be playable implementation of moving objects - before I can add it in.

Here's a shot of current progress (you'll see there's a cliff, and some terrain happening on the east side of the level now.

Also note the grass effect, comments on that would be appreciated.

Cheers!

 Hi,

All looking good - has SVN been updated?

Bye!
Mark

Hi,

Nope.  These updates are all working towards a complete terrain build for upload, but it won't be available to all until I've had a chance to finish it, play around in it and iron out any bugs I come across.  I'll keep posting images though for now

Holy crap there's cliffs!

They're 'in' as opposed to 'done' but that's progress

Image 1 is taken from the lighthouse pad.  In this one you can clearly see the rocky spur with archway leading up to the lighthouse area, and the tunnel leading out of the level (looks a bit poo from this angle).  You can also see a bit more water than there was before, and if you look carefully you may just notice the placeholder mountain in the far background, which will give the impression there's something behind the cliff if you're looking from here or the mountain top.

Image 2 is taken from the first tier of the mountain and gives an idea of the profile of the cliffs.

Depending on how ridiculous the height of the lighthouse ends up being some parts of the cliff will need changing so you cannot see over them!

Laters!

One step backwards, two steps forwards!

All the stand in props have been removed, as today I've added the basic village plan and the large impact scar leading towards it.  I've also done a bit of optimisation that was needed in a few areas where tons of "detail" was totally hidden from view.

This is an in-engine shot - you'll notice I've removed the grass effect for now as it needs to go in at the end.

Also, sorry about all the shots looking a bit crummy.  I'm lazily using the "Image Assist" button which downscales and heavily compresses everything by default.

Just regarding image assist, it scales down 'preview' versions of images so that they can fit in the window (though I probably should set it to scale down further so it actually fits in the forum posts!)

But you always can view the original, full sized, uncompressed image just by clicking on the image in the post.

If there's any problems with the site, feel free to let me know either here or in the 'Game Works Website' forum. Hope this helps.

Today's update (probably 1 of 1).

I've started working on the cliffside area accessed by the interesting stairs atop the tiered mound.  It's been fiddly work so not a huge amount, but the stairs do look nice, and hopefully I'll be able to carry on making headway.

Click the pic 

Okay so I found some more time - whad'ya know?

It's a big pic (pretty much my full desktop res) in order that you may be able to see what's new.

There's a bit more cliff and I've also started work on the mine entrance that this ultimately leads to.

Yours hopefully,

Andy

I hope you keep finding time.... it's becoming more and more dramatic with each step..

Here's the latest on the clifftop platform section.  The walkway on the right will ultimately be destroyed by the rune that ends up in the mine entrance and caves in the mine (I figured I'd build it then destroy it rather than try to build it pre-destroyed).

There's a walljump bit and this leads to a steep ramp you slide down and have to time 2 jumps off.  Both of those jumps have catch areas so unless you're stupid and walk off the cliff you shouldn't have to repeat much.

Oh yeah, and although it's not obvious from this angle there's a chanelled ramp below Erik which would be just perfect for a huge boulder to roll down.....

Well would you look at that, I finally got a life for a few days!

Two updates today.

First is a close up of the cliff section which I've started adding some more detail to and tweaking (plenty left to do).

Second is my experiment at "baking" shadows into the level, and is fairly successful.  Just a few muddy texture problems to solve and it'll all be good.

Enjoy, feel free to respond with comments as it'll make this thread seem less lonely...

I made a tower.

It's a little out of context at the moment, but it's where the prize for navigating the maize maze will be located (although the maze isn't even designed yet).

Also some fixes to the rock faces.  This is a render, not in-engine.

Now I'll be taking pencil to paper to design some or other area.  Will it be the lighthouse?  Will it be the village?  Will it be the forest?  Or even something totally different?  I don't know yet, hoping inspiration will hit.

 Great to see the baking working - although it means we have to build everything in 3DS - which just means more work for you!

I say design the lighthouse next - it will be an excellent test of platforming gameplay and maybe even physics.  I like the idea of ithaving moving parts, gears and lenses that need to align in order to magnify the sun and light the fire. Lots of moving platforms - maybe a section of the entire lighthouse rotates, or an arm around it.  (Maybe like the machine for predicting the alignment of the constellations in Ogra's lair in The Dark Crystal).

I played yesterday's build in gameand it's seeming more and more like a game.  i still wonder about the tradeoffs of doing it mostly in 3DS - will you have to go back and add a lot of little details later. Whereas some elements (eg, cliff ledges, rock pillars) could make good building block components placed via the level editor but only need to be detailed once.

Hi admin (no idea who is the admin...)

Actually doing the island house next at the mo.  I'm not going to make a start on the lighthouse until we have the ability to do all the moving parts it requires (also, no lenses since we're not doing complex shaders).  In fact, the island house will have a couple of moving bits which will just have to be static for now.  Once we know how well the character interacts with moving platforms the development will be a lot easier.

Details wise...well, who knows?  Look at any 3D platformer and you'll see pretty much this building style, with assets placed on top.  I think that yes, by not repeating ledges etc the development will take longer but the level will look a lot better for it, and hopefully play a lot better too.

Components will be used in the forest, the field-maze and possibly (though not certainly) the lighthouse.  And maybe in other levels too, which will give us a good idea of how well they work.

Incidentally, spot the ledges and pillars that could have been static so far (hint: pretty much none) as I've designed the levels to look a bit more organic.  Texturing it all is likely to be a challenge though!

As drawing textures isn't my strong suit, at this point I could really use textures for grass, rock, stones (like building stones), gravel and roof tiles.  They'll need to be original and consistent.

In the meantime I'll keep on modelling, but it will look totally different once textured.

Hi.

Likely just the one update today, and here it is:

Untextured as ever (since we don't have any textures as yet) but you should get the idea I think.

The waterwheel is currently not 'made' and nor are the cogs so you're seeing placeholders there.  But essentially from a rotating platform on the drive shaft you can jump onto the veranda, platform your way across the lethal smoke belching chimneys (timing is everything...) then round the back on some window ledges, and up onto the roof.  Works pretty well and looks fairly cool.

Hopefully it will look a bit more in keeping with the theme once we get the stone wall and roof tile textures on there...

Note: this is a render, purely for the sake of shadowing.

Or maybe 2 updates.

Presenting: the water wheel:

I've thrown on some basic textures as a test.  This is probably a more realistic look than we'd want ultimately, but I may keep using some stand-in textures until we get around to making some.

I agree those textures are more realistic than the cartoony style we've after.  But it's always good to see things textured - it does make a difference. I can see that house working as a platforming challenge now.  Would any players that get swept over the waterfall use the waterwheel to get back up?

(Oh, and that was me as Admin the other day)

How's about this version?

Mostly the same textures, but photoshopped.

Small revision to the look.

Personally, I really like this one.  Comments welcome

Hoping to get some more of the modelling done today, perhaps for the impact scar/village though they need to be designed first...

That house looks really nice.