I haven’t really been posting any actual screens for a while now. The reason for that is, I’m mainly focusing on how the game plays right now and I’m also trying to figure out ways to build my levels faster. Even with all the advancements I made I don’t think I’m going fast enough. When I can build my levels at decent speeds I’ll focus more on coating them in timely manner and post the results.
The second part of this story would be character models.I was going to do a bit of modeling work a long time ago but decided that it really wasn’t as important in the grand scheme of things. In turn, I’ve just been doodling trying to stabilize Felix’s design, which likes to change a lot because I always tend to try different drawing methods.
Then there’s the music… Good grief. The first song seems to be the hardest one because it sets the theme of the other songs. I still haven’t done that first song. Maybe it’ll come to me after the playing through the first stage in full form.
The artistic side of things tend to be the most open ended so I’m saving those tasks for later. Getting lost in the arts is an easy way to prolong a project. I honestly think I would be done right now if I didn’t focus so much on graphics and technology but I guess it was all warranted with the jump to 3d.
Either way, lesson learned!
I guess… be careful with models/animations : )
- Maybe think about re-using a model, re-color it and add a very distinctive accessory to each version of that model (sort of like a hat, bandana, mask, boots etc.) to avoid making too many models from scratch (of course, I don’t know which is easier in your model tool)
…Accessories are inspiring I think = ) as an easy way to make characters look special.
Just realized I meant “attire” not “accessory” : D Man, I kinda mess up my suggestions sometimes.
Perhaps the most important things I’ve learned since starting development is to try and recycle everything! : D
I was going to build something to allow me to generate characters in 3D but I figured it was too much work right now. Lithodora practically required that I do it.
For this project however there aren’t too many complex characters to worry about and I don’t mind many of the characters looking exactly alike. (i.e. the Card Soldiers)
Modeling isn’t really the demon here, it’s level construction. You can spend an hour on a portion of a stage that someone would wiz by in 30 seconds. Things should get better after I pick up a few tricks though. I’d like to blame the tool but it seems like level construction in general is a slow process.
I’m feeling similarly about my own 2D level editor: it takes 2 hours to build a cool level that takes 30 seconds to playthrough… and that’s 2D …aww ; D
(I worked a lot on streamlining it from my old Mario Galaxy fangame, where a 30-second level took more like 2 full days to build)
I looked at a video of you using your tool for Tale of the Night back in the days, and seriously it looked smooth! The walls just flew up from the ground when you dragged the cursor around. So from my perspective you’re onto something good : )
Hmm maybe that level tool was actually for the Tandem Tales “5″ (?)
Link to your video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8aYsPlfdsI
Super Mario Galaxy fangame!? That has to be an ambitious endeavor even for a 2D game with all those physics. : j
2 hours seems like an awfully long time for a 2D editor. Don’t cha just spray a bunch of tiles or vectors as walls or floors and then have the tool automatically paint things to so they look pretty? I think you can build a full length level (let’s say 5 minutes) in about 20 minutes depending on graphics detail and the type of game. 2D is so much more tool friendly : )
The tool in the video is the one for Tale of the Night which I used to call “The” Tandem Tales Online. I have 2 other level editors I made before that one, each more of a pain to use than the last.
The first one (Dream Master) was top down and you could only make boxes, the second one (Tandem Tales) had multiple views and could make polygons but you couldn’t do anything inside the perspective view. The third one (Tale of the Night) allowed you to work completely inside the perspective view. And the current one (World of Whimsy) has many of the features of a modeling tool and is all around better than the last one. The next one, which is an upgrade for a change, (Lithodora of Despair) will be optimized with features solely for modeling quickly and making things pretty.
It would probably take me about 1 day to remake Dream Master as opposed to a week now. Unfortunately the days of making stages out of boxes are gone :’ (
Man… with those tool iterations you are really experienced with developing 3D tools. (I hope you keep that in mind if you ever search for developer jobs : )
My 2D editor didn’t/doesn’t support tiles, it’s only triangles and quads and sprites. To make editing faster I programmed e.g. quad-strips, triangle-circles and groups that can be copy-pasted.
I’ll keep that in mind. ; D
So a vector based system eh? If I can recommend something, which I can’t help but do, it would be to add support for working with outlines that automatically triangulate (even the concave ones) and update whenever you move a vertex. Even if you can only triangulate the convex shapes it still helps a lot.
Kinda how Google Sketchup does it, only in 2D.
That sounds like a really good idea. And storing outlines could make physics calculations much faster, by only detecting outlines, rather than collision-detecting all triangles/quads against characters.