Why is a date important? Because if I don’t have a date I’ll get lazy and distracted causing me to lose focus on what is important and in addition to that, there’s no telling what unknown variables could pop up before that date on a series that is currently unestablished. I don’t want any idea I felt was unique to the game appearing somewhere and I don’t want some movie about a goofy fox showing up in the movie previews. Using QTEs mid-game still feels pretty unique but so many games do it I can’t even tell anymore. Not using buttons in them helps towards sort of a new identity.

Being driven by paranoia isn’t so bad!

This week I plan on starting my collision/physics engine. This is my first steps towards the environment of the actual game. Originally the plan was for the collision system to become very interactive and dynamic. I’ll post on how that’s going this week.

Much of this probably isn’t impressing anyone, but for something I’ve wanted to do so long, yes, I’m going to make a big deal out of it! Everything I did in 2D was actually planned in 3D first. My whole policy was to think in 3D. I drew this  some time ago to get an idea of what Felix may look like in the city and how talk indications would be displayed.

I’m  probably rambling now, I think I’m just antsy to see how it turns out. Personally, I think this is going to to be quite a show.

UV Texture Mapping

With a little help from a document from http://limegarden.net/ I was very quickly able to import .obj files into my tool as well as understand how the obj file works. And if I can import a file I can just as easily export one. I plan to do any major texture mapping outside of my tool. The teapot to the right was done hastily as a test run inside Wings3D . I’ll need to add support for where the seams are textured but that’s a minor issue.

One good thing about the import feature, is I can download and use free models. Why didn’t I think of that sooner.

Fur-Shading

I never even got started doing it, but I decide not to go through with the idea spawned by one Mr. Jimma : j

Conker Live & Reloaded always comes to mind and while I liked the effect I don’t really think its well suited for what I’m doing. It’s a bit of a wild card I don’t need right now.

Bump  Mapping

It’s a neat effect but I’m going to pass on it. I don’t like the idea of adding tangents to my vertex format and it seems to be something that will drain my performance down the road.

Lighting

I want to do bloom lighting! I haven’t tried it yet but I know I want to do it. Shadow mapping is also something I may attempt, I’ve looked into it several times so it’s on my mind at least. I’ll have to get back to these concepts when I actually have objects to project light to.

All this graphical focus is really making me forget about the game but there’s no denying that presentation plays a major role in games these days. Hopefully I can keep up.

Today I decided to try out my new tool and make a foot. Everything feels so sophisticated now : )! What you see is a foot made up of about 133 triangles. I don’t think there’s a good reference as to what my poly count should be so I’m really just following my gut. I kinda cheated in the image by having per-pixel lighting enabled but I wanted to get the full effect. This style of lighting is expensive and I’m really skeptical of its use.

Next is one of the main reasons I avoided 3D, texturing. When I make it out of that nightmare, I’ll move on to the entire body. Worst case scenario, I have to set the texture of each vertex 1 by 1.

My first assignment going into next month is to make an animated block man! This will give me a chance to familiarize myself with 3D models and animation. After that, I’ll probably begin swapping out the block man for a real model. I hope to have some representation to give an idea how characters will look in 3D next week. Quite honestly, I don’t even know yet.

I think to really achieve something commercial I may need to look into bump mapping or shadow maps and per-pixel lighting and definitely into more multi-texturing. Looks alone will get me nowhere but it most certainly help!

From the top would be the dream master editor, which was terrible. I could only work from the top view and the camera view was orthographic. The entire game was composed of boxes. The lower two are two versions of the same scene in the editors of the later games. Ironically I ended up taking it out twice for different reasons! Maybe next time ; D

One feature I’m interested in seeing pan out, is the ability to play with the character while the level is being created in the world editor and dropping models next to each other for comparison or testing it out with animation in the model editor. I want a lot of integration to avoid the task of loading up the game a million times to see how it turns out.

These are programs I don’t plan on releasing but its what’s keeping me busy nonetheless.

I still don’t have anything new to show so once again I’ll bring in something old and discarded. Before I probably even started programming I made this stage demo. There’s a fire and Felix must save, Catrina, from her burning mansion. If you read this walkthrough you’d clearly see the game was never meant to be about busting heads all the time unless you include puzzles that may give someone a headache. While the following walkthrough isn’t very well made or well thought out, I do think it gives a real sense of my style of adventure which is a bit more akin to point and click games. The picture shown is actually just the first floor.

1. Use something from the backyard to break the glass in the backyard

2. Go to the library take the step ladder and then climb into the dining room through the back window.

3. Turn on the thermostat to put out the fire next to the vent in the living room

4. Grab a screwdriver from the utility closet and climb out the living room window.

5. Take the screwdriver and wedge the window open to the kitchen

6. Get the fire extinguisher from the kitchen and head to the bathroom

7. After putting out the fires go in the bathroom and get the plunger

8. Go to the utility closet and combine the plunger with the rope

9. Use the rope and plunger and throw it into the broken off water drain outside and use it to climb up to the veranda.

10. Go into the workroom and out the window grab on the gutter outside and shimmy across it to the balcony.

11. On the balcony, grab the vines draping around the rail.

12. After breaking the balcony window lasso the vines across to the rail above the upstairs grand hall.

13. Climb across the vine and go to the upstairs utility closet to get a wrench.

14. Go back to the balcony and use the wrench on a loose gutter on the other side of the balcony.

15. Shimmy across the gutter to the master bathroom.

16. Exit out the master bath to the bedroom where you’ll find Catrina knocked out.

17. Take her credit card and exit out the bedroom to the hall and use it to enter locked doors like the guest room

18. In the guest room, drag out the dresser into the hall in front of the stairs.

19. Get Catrina and place her on the dresser.

20. Felix will Jump on the dresser as it goes through the fire breaking through the door and the gate outside it to safety.

If you’re thinking what I’m thinking, that was confusing, a bit obtuse, and there were a lot of things on there that probably wouldn’t even work (the vent, screwdriver on a window, plunger, sliding down a curving staircase on the door). I’m still questioning the arrangement of the house also. I also think I was going to throw a time limit in there too! It’s certainly not the best example of Felix adventuring but I think you get an idea where the heart is. That still hasn’t changed.

On an unrelated note, Happy Valentines Day

I’d like this to be my break out point, so I believe the meticulous planning is warranted but unfortunately I’m pretty much left rambling right now. Next update I should be out of this phase. The switch to 3D sort of broke my foundation (in a good way).