~Kitasia
News
Price Drop
May 2nd
Tale of the Night is now available on Xbox-Live Indie Games for 80 Points.
Also, the frame rate has been improved.
Maybe not May
Apr 28th
Although a lot of my code is potentially cut and paste worthy, I don’t think I’ll be making that May release, maybe not even June. But of course, I made this pretty obvious over the past few months. The very essence of 3D coding is all so familiar yet riddled with things I haven’t quite put into practice. I’m attempting to place my peak quality in this so expect delays.
I’ll be moving ahead soon with a colored but non-textured 3D model and starting up textured level building.
Retrospect: April 20th
Apr 20th
Bone rigged my model, placed it in the the game, and tested the collision detection using a more advanced technique. Everything is working smoothly but before I move on I’ve taken the day to reflect on my game design. It’s easy to lose focus sometimes. This retrospective, I’ve taken a close look at the movement of the game. Past games have moved very freely and cartoonish, this game I’m focusing a lot of attention on animations and realistic movement. I’m also looking to place bit more focus on automated movement to keep things smooth and at a fast pace. The polish should be visible whenever I get to making a video.
Before I get deep into that though, I’m a tad overdue for character texturing and textured levels. Completing the Felix model is probably a hallmark in terms of my progress.
Turning Point
Apr 16th
3D Test Model from December
Artistic design has always been a critical hurdle of mine in terms of progression. With a seemingly endless capacity to try and improve on something, it’s as if I can never finish. I can finally say I’ve finally got over the hump! I mean, sure, the model isn’t completely finished, and tweaks will be inevitable, but I’ve reached a point where I’m happy enough to move forward. I’ll probably end up thinning out the lower half a bit more later and the hands are blocks cause I really don’t know what I’m going to do with them yet.
I still have bone rigging, facial animation, and uv mapping but in my honest opinion the worst is over! How long this took wasn’t that my tool was hard to work with, in fact it performed brilliantly ; D, but the problem was I was unable to fully conceptualize the character in 3D which in turn caused a lot of revisions to take place. I really didn’t think I’d need reusable clay but I”m glad I got it!
After I rig the model and place it in game, I’m going to move back into the more advanced side of collision detection.
The Perfectionist
Apr 13th
The good news is I think I finally finished the head, the bad news is I’m doing the same thing with the body as I did with the head. I never realized Felix’s stature was so complicated to me. Then again, seeing as his weight changes like every game, it’s starting to add up. I’ve spent half the month drawing, 3d modeling and clay modeling almost in a recursive cycle. It’s was a bit of an embarrassment at first but I’d rather take all month than release a model that doesn’t personify the character correctly. I hope to have the final version by the 15th.
I’ve been blabbing on about this forever so I’ll share something maybe someone will find interesting. I’ve tested what I have of the game on Xbox 360 and thus far there have been no garbage collection issues what so ever. So a silky smooth frame rate is expected. Also the first true screens of the game are likely to be of Everblue City as opposed to Lithodora. Everblue City is a metropolitan area so you’re likely to know how in-depth I’ll go with this off the start.
Art Takes Time
Apr 8th
A message I can’t seem to get into my head. When it comes to art, I’m I hippie in a suit. I just can’t seem to get myself under control. Alas,
more Felix heads!
Although I’ve been adding new functionality and learning how I will animate the face along the way, I feel to be stuck in time here. I hope to finally start on the body tomorrow if I can ever stop tweaking the head! I expect the head to change ever so slightly that only I notice the changes over time.
I’ve also been playing around with Zelda character models for fun, seeing as I haven’t used the obj importer for much. I might go as far as to rig one and put it in game one day. It’s a weird obsession of mine.
The Wonders of Clay
Apr 4th
I finally got my clay. and while it took me a while to actually model a head with it I finally have a perfect representation of how Felix’s head should look in 3D. The model in the picture may look similar to the last one but trust me when I say it’s very different. The normals are in fractals because it’s easier for me to work and I currently don’t have support to switch between the two but I’ll add that support before the final version.
My tool does a very good job! I’m really surprised how much it feels like a retail modeling tool. I’m at the point where 3D feels like second nature now.
Downtime
Apr 1st
Still no clay, and when I’m waiting to finish something I’m usually careful not to delve into anything too big causing me to shift my focus. So I’ve been working with music again. The first song is the hardest for me because it sort of defines the rest of the songs and I’m finding it a bit difficult knowing there will be sections of the game where the player may move a slow pace. It’s been a weird process. In any case, when this is all over I’ll probably get into more of the advanced aspects of collision detection.
Modeling on hold
Mar 27th
I
t’s been a long week slowly adding tweaks and modification to my tool to smooth along the modeling process. My favorite new feature would probably be extrusion. That’ll come in handy later when working with levels later.
Easily the hardest part of modeling for me is the head. It’s not surprising considering the hardest part when drawing is, the head. What I’ve decided to do, is delay the process about a week and model the head using clay so I can get the modeling correct. What I don’t want to do, is just accept the head and then later on become use to how it looks. If I get the head just the way I want it, the rest will be easy. The strange graphics where intersections occur are tentative.
I haven’t figured out what I’m going to do until I get more clay but it seems Block Felix may be around a bit longer.
Production Plan
Mar 22nd
I’ve taken some time to reevaluate things and following is a list of how things may go thus far. I wanted the game out by May but a realistic time frame may be around July. I’ll still be attempting to complete things as soon as possible without rushing.
End of March - First revision of true character Model
April - Complete Animation Support, World Editor Tool Derivement, and General Game Physics, New Graphic Implementations
May- Sound, Cinema, Combat, Items, Game Logic, and Prologue Chapter in Playable form
June and Beyond- Content Development and General Improvements
Wedged between that are a lot of fixes, tool enhancements and other things I’ve forgotten to mention. Next month I plan on testing the game out on Xbox 360 to check for potential performance issues I’m sure you can expect it to move flawlessly. The month after, I hope to begin posting video of the game or to make some sort of trailer. If a fair share of people aren’t excited about the project after that, I officially haven’t met my expectations for the project. Expect great things!