Character Start

Have to switch gears to the character. Andrew, the Gameplay Programmer, will need something by this weekend to start getting the actual game part going. We'll definitely need him rigged and block in animation by Saturday AM.

I blocked out the character from the initial sketches, slapped a texture on him and placed him in engine.

Um no. Head too big, body doesn't have the right frequency of detail to match the environment. Quick Sketch to hash out ideas...

Better, but I also realized its going to be a sculpt > bake normals kinda workflow. Which is fine especially for characters. So started to sculpt him but have to go to work...

This is where I'm at WIP. I like his new hair and 20% smaller head, or is it 20% bigger body? The bigger change is going to be his clothes. I'm thinking Robin Hood with a mage cloak/cape sort of thing. Might add a hood, we'll see. 

Weekend Update 2_22_15

Finished messing with materials for the houses, and looked over the other materials... good enough I think. I added motion to the vegetation (it does come with it almost working, just isn't set up correctly) I also mult a gradient so that it only moves on the ends. I made a few masts for the boats. Made 2 bushes to help break up the veg. Checked out the terrain material... basically I worked on set dressing the Showcase level, seeing what I had and what was missing. Overall loving the Top-Down City as I thought I would.
Also researched water shaders, this my non-transparent version, but ideally I'll want depth fog/transparent.

(lighting needs to be re-baked... whatevah)

Needs some color breakup, maybe some orange/tan and dead versions

Houses1 Material Update

Houses1 is one of two master materials in Top-Down City. I know this is might seem trivial but I've spent (more time than I should) today tweaking the material to my liking. They come by default set to PBS settings of basically metal and non-metal, and I wanted to do a little more than that. It helps getting that extra something from the lighting with better PBS. There's more work to do on correcting normal's and making better light map UV's etc. This kit was made for Unity3D and ported over... generally that means a little clean up work on each element.

Mouse over to see before/afters of the material update.

The game is going to be some sort of top down perspective that we haven't decided on yet so right now I just want to make it the best I can, with the time I give myself.

Top-Down City

(picture not in MY game, from Michael Orkisz FB page)

I've had my eye on, and finally purchased Top-Down City from Manufactura K4 on the Unreal Marketplace. Michael Orkisz is the artist and I just love the style. Planning on getting the other "Top-Down" kits after this is in place.
I did an initial once over looking at the assets, and there will be some minor work, like collision fixes. Then onto redoing the materials with Quixel suite, and exaggerate material differences as a stylistic choice. So right now, materials, materials, materials. At the same time make my own level, and start lighting so I can see the material work.

Starting New

Ok Its been a while. I'm going to post my dev diaries here and a few tutorials, its mostly to keep me accountable ...well, to myself. The new game has a working title "Mage Apprentice". Here is a collage of some concepts I did. Inspiration comes from MiniGore, Besiege, Brothers - A Tale of Two Sons.

Trollin' Troll Call

Playing Team Fortress 2, Doomsday. I don't particularly like the map but I'm playing it never-the-less. Trying to find mini-sentry gun places. Its about 8 on 8 for the most part, I'm doing well, on the top, almost 2x better than the next guy on my team, there were so many AFK's I thought its lucky I'm playing well. We won 2 times and we're on the third match. Its getting harder and people are stepping it up. Its a good fight. Then one of the other team says "Agentfx youre such a fuckin pussy" to which I promptly respond, "no I'm not, YOU ARE" I'm laughing at my one-ups-man-ship in immaturity, when people start saying to the effect "OMG worst come back ever", "you don't have to cry about it" I say "LOL" I'm really crackin' up at this point when I get kicked! Probably my best play experience in recent memory. I love that kind of counter trollin'. I love that they kicked me. Perfect end to a session.

iOS Android Store Fronts Solution

I used to love playing games on my mobile devices. Over the last year I've stopped, and switched back to playing on my PC. I have money to spend on iOS/Android games but can't find anything to play! (I find some but get over them and can't find something else) Why? I know there are countless games and apps I would love. 

App stores think they are similar to bookstores, with sections for anything you want. Except no bookstore has million++ books on the shelves. Each section only has the shelf space available. That's important in the digital world too. I can only browse X number of apps. I only open up and read about Y number of games and will only buy Z. Both iOS and Android stores know this and cater down to a few editor/staff picks, and sections lead by popularity. That makes the Walmart of app stores, but I only rarely shop at Walmart. Whats the problem? It caters to all demographics 16 year old girls and 35 year old men even tho they don't play any of the same games or apps. Games for middle school boys games don't need to be taking up *my* shelf space!

We need a solution, custom/multiple store fronts, and multiple teams running them. Real world has lots of stores, catering to many different people. Lots of alternative perspectives, some that work much better for me personally while others that don't. I'm not their demographic. Going to a hub thats designed from the start to cater to me, search the way I want to search, browse the way I want to browse. Think what store would Wired Magazine make? That's my dream app store! It would be thoughtful by taste-makers, editors and journalists who think and like what I like. While an app store by Lucky magazine has nothing for me.

Both iOS and Android market places fail for me. I hate browsing games on the iPad/Nexus7, hate it! Rarely are the games/apps they present are interesting to me. I want to dig deeper and browse manicured selection of games and apps targeting me. Take a cue from internet advertising, not perfect but at least they're trying. 

A clear example is XCOMM if iOS even tried I'd by it in a heartbeat. I had to search for it, by then think I'll wait. If it was merely present anytime I went to the store, then I'd by it when the mood struck me. 

Another example, I rarely play or download freemium (Clash of Clans short lived exception). That however could cut out a lot of shelf space in my personal store front. Hell look at my history! I never spend money on freemuim, target me "genius"! It has to be hand selected, or at least a better algorithm that isn't beatable by cheap knock offs. I'm begging, sell to me, I want to buy!

This would also start a new wave of apps and games targeting demographics in the store not just in their outside advertising. With so much noise in the marketplace the cream might need some more help rising to the top. There are too many apps. Now the app store's job is to stop bragging about how many apps they have and gets better at selling them *to me*.