I have for quite some time wanted to update my decapitation-code for LBKR, mainly for optimization reasons, but also to add some more detailed Graphics.
I decided to use texture clipping, it's done quite simple.
First I create a damage model for each character in the game, aswell as damage Groups, ( the Groups contain the vertices in the mesh that should be clipped. ).
Once that's done I can simply hide any of those Groups with help from a shader that clip away certain parts of a texture.
For the final touch I created models of the damage itself, so that the player can't see through the dismembered body. Those models have to be merged together with the character model, and fit at the dismembered part.
Eh... oops!? Ain't been any updates for almost an entire year. The game's changed quite alot but I just haven't given myself the time to upload any of the updates here, mainly since I rewrote the story for the game, and scaled it down.
I'll try to get in here and post some more in-depth details about the Changes for whoever still read this blog, for some peculiar reason!
Some screenshots below though!
( It now takes Place on a mega-awesome space-station!....ish )
Hello again!
I've kept myself busy the last week by working with an A* pathfinding algorithm but have had lots of trouble. I found a third-party A* system for pathfinding though which seem to work really well so I removed my own crappy pathfinding.
I still have to modify alot of stuff to get it working properly, the Scene Generator amongst other.
But for now, some new updates.
Implemented the Arena-tiles to the SceneGenerator aswell as created a few more Arena tiles.
Created textures and behaviour for the Floater mob
Polished most of the already existing tiles
Added Pathfinding, still in need of some polishing though.
Added Stun, Slow and Knockback damage effects to DamageTracker Options
I've been sloppy with documenting the updates this month, therefore my list above will remain short.
Below though are some in-game screenshots mixed with editor screenshots of Arena-Tile setup and logic and an example of procedural Scene Generator results.
When I worked on my own A* pathfinding code I got a few ideas to minimize repetition of the generated scenes which I'll try to add the coming month. Similar to the pathfinding it will use a numbers to assign penalties to the different tiles depending on the surrounding tiles and the generator would then get an idea of how appropriate the next tile it attempts to create is, at the target position.
Once again I haven't posted any updates for several months, been busy as hell, sorry about that!
I'll try to be more frequent from now. Anyways, I'll post some screenshots of new GUI hints ( displaying if any items are in need of repairs, if a quest was updated and the player has unassigned stats/talent Points. etc. ) aswell as a rough list of updates made.
I can also add that once again I've done some major Changes to the game, (pardon the use of randomly placed large letters... the textwriter change it on its own and I've accidentally stabbed myself in my hand so I don't bother about fixing typos right now, it kinda hurts to write on the computer), the most noteable change is that the gameflow is more like a dungeon crawler now.
Each level in the game is randomly generated with a range of level-tiles. There are story quests in the main Town but also side-quests to be collected in the randomly generated levels, most of those quests spawn randomly.
Change log Oct - Dec 2013:
Minimap Icons and minimap tiles matching each tile of the level(s)
Tooltip for the minimap Icons for information of what they are targetting
Characters now explode and spread arms, legs and bloody stuff when they die by critical hits
Each mob now have secondary attacks that deal more damage but Drains their stamina
Bosses and mini-bosses have been added
Bosses have more then one secondary attack and also receive a random range of passive mods ( Health buffs, damage buffs, passive attacks, etc.)
Finished main story quests and levels for the first Chapter of the game (meaning there should be a demo-version in not too long)
Created Level Controller classes that handle specific events and quest-progress for each level
Made major change to Object Pool system.
Created the Main Town/ Safe Zone level
Added Random quest spawn during scene generation
Alot of code optimizations
Added climbable ladders
Added varying attack speeds for weapons
Added a new mob class "Psycho", they throw explosives and perform suicide bombings
Added Waypoint portals for Quick access between different areas (Main Town included)
Fixed bugs in Procedural Item Gen. system
Added Passive Mods to item, items may now be generated with bonus skill and attribute mods, and weapons can gain passive attack bonuses such as elemental blast or damage over time type of damage
Added code for spawning rare loots
Major DamageTracker optimization
Added Hint Icons to display necessary information for the player, such as if an item need repairs, a quest was updated and such.
Thought I'ld upload some screenshots of what I've got done this far with the new character style and all.
There are also a few changes in the gameplay.
* Most buildings are now possible to enter, earlier this was only allowed for dungeons.
Buildings will also spawn random interiors with random loot and npc's or monsters.
* Buildings are destructible
* Monsters, Loot and Props are generated randomly and collected by an object pool which increase performance quite alot.
*Hunger Vital Statistic added, the stat increase during gameplay, when the character is starving it will take damage. Too reduce the hunger effect the player will be able to collect food from nature, loot and animals.
* Each level is activated in chunks depending on the players current location. This means that the parts of the level that are too far from the player will not have any code or objects running/active.
Oops, I've been too busy to update the blog lately. Got myself a new job which has taken alot of time. :) Back in constructions now so sayonara industry work!
As for Loot Burn Kill Repeat, I've decided to recreate most of the graphics and art style of the game since I've been annoyed by the old graphics for quite some time now. I'm posting a sneak-peek clip below so you can see how it looks. Haven't had very much time to work on it yet though.
Hm, quite a while since I posted something, haven't read through what it was I posted last either but anyway.
Finished a procedural item generation system for the game that handles all loot and item generation through the game. It left me with an endless ocean of bugs and errors though so I spent most of the last weeks development-time to fixing those errors aswell as adapting and fine-tuning all code in use of PIG to fit it.
Also added stats, skills and vitals to AI characters, similiar to the players stats system. The AI stats is calculated against the player stats during combat to determine damage reduction (armor), dodge, hit and crit chances, etc. etc.
Working on some new buildings and props for the Lochwood levels but when those are finished I'll most likely be done with the first chapter of the game. Still playing with different ideas to change the gameplay and getting some more fun out of it. While I haven't decided on how I want it just quite yet I played around with a side project though.
Been blessed by Prince of Persia and Super Meat Boy lately so felt like trying to make a platform game framework with some acrobatic-ish stuff, just to see if I could pull it off. :D I don't think anything like that will be seen in Loot Burn Kill Repeat though!
While Working on this I also created a test character with an IK-rig (which I've never used before when animating my characters. I created one when I first started on the game if I can recall, but since Unity didn't want to cooperate at that time with my IK-rigged character I kinda gave up on it.
Seems to work fine now though so I'll probably create new rigs and reanimate most of the LBKR characters since IK-rigs gives better control and reduce the time spent animating greatly. :)
Oh right, I also created new graphics for the HUD in LBKR.
