3571 The Game
3571 The Game - News Update #9
Hi everyone! The future is back! TIred of looking at the same screenshots of 3571 The Game? Want to hear more music from 3571 Orchestra? Want some REAL action? Here we go! Let's watch the very first official 3571 The Game trailer video:
WATCH THE TRAILER VIDEO
I worked hard on this first trailer, as mixing sound, music, 3D, animation, coding, illustration and writing is the purpose of the 3571 Project! And because the future always become present I'm already working on the next video which will be a gameplay trailer. I hope you enjoyed meeting for the first time some of the droids and mutant animals you'll soon be able to slash for real in the year 3571.
Making animations is fun, I know, but what about the game? I just rebuild every houses random spawns of the World Procedural Generator and fine tuned all random elements to avoid any kind of misplacements, seems to work fine! And I also added lots of GUI tooltips to enhance player feelings about the game mechanics and too get more intuitive controls.
I also added a simple 10-steps tutorial for new games, to allow you to test the controls on you avatar before entering the apocalypse!
See you soon for the next update, and thanks for watching !
FRAPPA STUDIO
3571 The Game - News Update #8
Testing, debugging, testing, debugging... There's almost no more bugs in the year 3571! This month I rewrited tons of code to implement a more precise and efficient save and load system. But I'm also pround to announce that an early access on Steam will be available very soon, and to present you new concept art.
Save and load system
Five years ago I didn't know how to write a single line of code. These last nights, except this small hundred of simple bugs to correct, I felt like a beginner again while rewriting entirely my original save and load system to be able to save NPCs positions, stats and current attitudes. This was a very long and painful for 3 reasons:
• The game maps are procedurally generated and the previous save and load system was strongly connected to the methods involved in the world creation. That's why rewriting the save and load system also forced me to optimize and rewrite most of my procedural generation script too.
• To increase FPS rate, I included in the game a very dynamic objects apparition or disparition if too far or invisible. This works like a preloading script which manages pools of objects during the game to avoid too much simultaneous calculations. I hade to rethink this too to match with the new save and load system.
• Last but not least: when the player loads the last saved game, the game engine needs to spawn objects and data in a very precise order as all scripts are connected and interdependant. Adding new datas forced me to manage starting scripts in a very different and more efficient way.
The final core script looks so simple... All these headaches were worth it: Now the game stores much more data in a saved game and the massive code optimization I had to do to achieve this make the game more fast and stable. Great!
Early access on Steam very soon
TOP SECRET! INDIE DB EXCLUSIVITY! Since last summer I also spent nights and weekends on the new Steamworks distribution system, as I decided to launch the game on Steam very soon in early access. I already prepared the store page, integrated all Steam API elements, and as everything is going superfast these weeks, I plan to release the early access version 6.0 at the end of this year during the 2018 new year's eve at 00:00. This date could change during next critical weeks for the final build, but I'll do my best to respect this deadline.
New Concept Art
As this news wasn't the most graphic, I decided to took my pencils and create exclusive new concept art for future comics and videogame ennemies, and vehicles. What do you think?
Thanks for reading, and see you very soon for the next update! Future is coming very soon!
THE FRAPPA STUDIO
3571 The Game - News Update #7
What happened to 3571 The Game this summer? Well, lots of bugs have been corrected, I also rewrited the combat system to gain performance and better animation synchronisation during fights, but most of all, I managed to finish my Unleash Magic Force system, and added new player character customisation options!
Unleash your force!
The main concept of the Unleash Magic Force system is simple : when player's magic level gets high enough, he can activate the Unleash mode when he needs to. When unleashed, the player runs faster, jump higher, all the skills are increased according to the magic level, and of course you can hit your enemies stronger too.
When unleashing your force you can run faster...
...and hit stronger!
But be careful, unleashing your force will cost you a lot of your energy level. If your resistance skill is too low, it will consume it faster than light and you won't be able to fight properly or run during a few seconds. Enough for a droid to kill you... But on another hand, losing is fun!
During a game, Unleash mode management is adding a bit of strategy, as your energy level is very slow to come back to normal. You can also reach higher places and I also coded a smooth impact, which avoid fall damage when you activate the unleash mode before hitting the ground.
Reach unattainable places with your magic force!
Unleashing your power feels like going Super Saiyan. You'll need to read the 3571 Comics which I'll translate soon in english to know where this mysterious force comes from.
New Character Customisations
Just a few screenshots of player models you can create before sending your avatar to the year 3571! I also plan to add a female character very soon.
Thank you very much for reading, and see you for the next update.
Note : Please keep in mind I started this game 5 years ago with no coding skills, and be aware that the News Updates aren't representative of a 5 years work. I plan to write this story too, but here I wanted to be focused on important new game features only to get maximum useful feedback from community.
3571 The Game - News Update #6
Hi everyone! It's been a long time since the last update, but as I craft everything alone I sometimes need to focus on creation only, especially when composing music. Now it's time to share with you how the project is going on! I am also currently working on the animated trailer movie of the game... Welcome to the News Update #6!
3571 The Game Official Trailer - First Screenshots
Spoiler alert ! I'm currently working on a short 3D animated movie to promote 3571 The Game and especially explain the link between the comic, the videogame, the music... I wrote the script, I drew the storyboard, now I animate it on Blender with the original game 3D models. Here are the first two screenshots of the trailer :
3571 Orchestra
3571 Project is not only a videogame, it's also a comic/webcomic, animations, films, and music. Its main originality is that I create everything alone during my free (night)time. Learning 3D modelling and C++/C# languages at 30 was really challenging for me but drawing, art direction, animation and music have been my best skills since I was a child.
Music is a very important part for the 3571 Project. 3571 Orchestra is meant to be an independent music album with its original idea: I decided to compose very classical orchestral songs, but to « futurize » the sound I played and recorded them with cheap digital devices ( like a small MIDI keyboard connected on the free version of garageband for exemple ).
I created a soundcloud for the project and already uploaded 15 seconds samples of the first 2 tracks :
( work in progress )
3571 ORCHESTRA SOUNDCLOUD
This can lead me to electronic music atmospheres sometimes, and a "MIDI" 1990's sound, but titles sound medieval with very classical harmonies, melodies and orchestration. I think this musical concept is fitting pretty well the main 3571 Sci-fi-Medieval story.
An exclusive interactive soundtrack system
I also composed and coded a interactive classical song for 3571 The Game. This allow the game to change orchestration and atmosphere of the same music track according to the player stress level. Basically, the song record is divided in 3 main group of instrument tracks that fits together on the same melody :
- Track 1 : Dark atmosphere instruments, dissonant harmony, scary effects
- Track 2 : The main piano melody, neutrally positive and minimalist
- Track 3 : Violins secondary melody, very light and happy
During the game, I programmed the player to vary its Stress Level variable in quite every engaging action, and this changes the soundtrack musical composition and mix it responsively. That's why it's great to be the composer and the developer at the same time !
For exemple, when you loose a fight, your stress is maximum, and you nearly only hear the Track 1, dark and scary. But kill your opponent, speak with a friend, eat a fruit and then play flute and the piano comes back slightly with a smooth violin melody, all of this happening like it's one and only song : quite fun to hear !
I think I'll use the music of a real in-game session to record the album version. The first music created playing a RPG videogame ever !!! :D
Does anybody know if there's similar projects, I mean a videogame created by a single person including story, coding, graphics, UX, concept art and music? This would be a great inspiration for me.
See you soon for the next game update!
3571 The Game - News Update #5
This month, a big update ! The world procedural generation has been updated to increase emergent storytelling coherence and global replayability ! Now houses are created with a specificity, like a kitchen or a workshop, with a Crafter inside ready to craft you a shield for 4 pieces of wood ! While we speak about NPCs... They went from stupid to amazingly smart, thanks to last Unity Navmesh update. I also tweaked the camera settings and added HD, bloom, color correction and more effects making the game look visually better : we'll check that with new screenshots! Let's go!
World procedural generation update
I updated strongly the world generation. Before this update, it was really basic : the terrain was created first, and a bunch of objects were randomly spawned according to their height on the map. Results were quite good, but if all maps were different, the gameplay was way too much similar, and no consistent story emerged from these procedural lands.
The most important change is that now each element is generated with its own specifities, but in relation to each other element around on the map. This allows more richness, variety on each new game and a simple emerging storytelling while playing.
I detailed above all the steps of the new generation process. It took me lots of work to reduce generation calculation time to the maximum but it was worth the price : a medium map takes now less than 10 seconds to be generated on an average computer ( iMac 2010 i5 3,2Hz - 8G RAM - osX )
The best features of these new worlds is that now every building is specialized : it can be a kitchen with an old woman cooking and food suppplies on a table, a empty ruin, a droid base...etc. This makes each new map more coherent and surprising. I also included some kind of "Dungeons" which contains random stronger enemies and lots of loot ! But don't hope to visit one during you first day : you'll get killed in less than a minut. XD
5 new buildings have been created too ! With new rocks structures and also caverns ! New 3571 worlds are more convincing now, ready for your adventures:
Enemy AI Update
I wrote code during months without finding a satisfying navigation system for my NPCs. There are ready-made solutions where you can "bake" the obstacles of your map, but my game deals with completely random architecture placement, and the player is able to build shelters, walls... I needed a realtime system.
I wrote first a messy wall detection script, but the behavior when chasing the player in random-generated towns was still not really satisfying:
I started then to code a complex node system to help my NPCs to find doors... when last month I read news about the brand new Unity's realtime navmesh: I immediately tried to implement it. After painful nights ( I had to rethink NPC's AI structures a lot ) this finally was really worth it. The navigation system works very well, and enemy's way of chasing you is intuitive and fast. It still allows the player to build walls, buildings, which will impact in realtime on the NPC's path decision.
Camera effects update
I spent a lot of time too trying to find the visual settings I desired for the Camera View. I finally found the perfect combo : HD settings + SSAO + Bloom + Photo Light and Field of view filter + My-own-secret-color-correction ! Let's see the impact on the game :
A lot of work done so far, and a lot of work still to be done. Sometimes we need a break after nights of programming and 3D models texturing. Let's just watch new screenshots of the game before leaving! See you in the future, dear time-travellers!
Screenshots from the year 3571
3571 The Game - News Update #4
UI and Design
Until now, the whole game graphic identity was really futuristic and dark. But as the project goes on, and after lots of feedback advices, I decided to completely rethink the design of the game. Since this is the videogame of a comic, I finally choosed to create a graphical universe closer to the comic's universe : very white backgrounds, black and white, handmade lines, same fonts... This gives the game more of the particular comics atmosphere and I think this will allow a better continuity in the global multimedia experience.( Yes the comic's translation in enlgish is planned )
I decided not to use the specific game logotype and use the same 3571 logotype for all projects : Comics, game, films, music...
The Main menu is now like a blank comic page that you can fill with adventures and action !
Lights and rendering improvements
The lighting and rendering have improved a lot, allowing some kind of "realism" and enhancing the thrill of in game actions, but without loosing the "PS1-Medium-Low-Poly" simple style of the game. Here you can see how both design and rendering/lighting update change the game atmosphere on the character customization menu :
Before update :
After Update :
Fog, sun and day/night lightings, shadows, color correction, bloom... The game was created for good performance since the beginning, and the models have very low polygon counts : I was able in this update to polish realtime 3D graphics a lot, and now it is pretty satisfying to explore surroundings ! Let's see the new look of the game with fresh new GIFs :
I don't like dragons, but I slash droids really well :
It feels good when sometimes there's no droids around attacking you :
If zombies are not enough, better lighting and textures makes the night scarier :
Thanks for reading! Every comment or suggestion will be useful. Next update : AI and emergent situations ! Get prepared for the year 3571 !
3571 The Game - News Update #3
ENEMY UPDATE
In 3571 The Game, every character in game is part of a "Clan". Humans, Animals, and Monsters were the first non-player character types. Today we welcome a whole new clan in the game and the most powerful army of the comics : droids. Unlike human characters, they will automatically try to kill you, in order to rule the entire planet with other robots. Like other NPCs, they can run, they can jump, they can have weapons. Yes, they make our future worse. Let me introduce you to the deadly droid units.
COMBAT DROID
The combat droid is the main unit of the droid army. They're not fast, but they're strong. Really strong. Equipped with their famous deadly trident like in the 3571 Comics, their resistance will make you think twice when you'll see a pair of blue eyes glowing in the dark.
You can also meet old Combat droid models, covered with rust. Even if they're a little bit less solid than newer models, be careful : they are still dangerous.
AP6 DROID
The AP6 droid model is also very common. They are the eyes of the droid empire, and they will detect you. But their small-sized bodies makes them very hard to see ; if you find one of them, it's already too late. They run faster than you. Crushing them immediately with an axe could be a good idea.
XP-Z DROID
The XP-Z droid model is the smartest unit of the droid army. You'll find only a few XP-Z models during the year 3571, but each time your life will be about to end. They're weaker than the Combat Droid, but they're rarely alone and sometimes can shoot at you with plasma guns.
MORE CONCEPT ART!
You want to see more about the 3571 universe? Please scroll down! 100% Fresh new art of the day!
Thanks for reading, thanks for watching!
3571 The Game - News Update #2
New UI Improvements, New Weapons, New Buildings!
Here we are! The first draft of the player ingame interface! Following the general idea of the game, I want the player to have maximum possibilities with the simplest gameplay and controls possible. So I've designed this first draft of a multifunction pause menu, with all player skill levels and equipment/inventory options at the same place. And I also worked on new weapons and buildings.
New Weapons and Buildings
I just added new animations for the player to create a new class of weapons : BIG two-handed weapons! I started with a very big sword, because I realised I wanted to feel more powerful while I was fighting a droid last week. You can't hold a shied with these weapons, but you can parry some attacks with it. I also started to implement magic weapons, which will consume quickly your energy according to your magic level.
I also worked on several buildings, but I still have a lot of work to do. The idea is to let the player evolve in a real open-world, which means you can visit every house, tower, castle you see. I'm very glad my 3571 Comics was so graphically simple as I can design very simple models and increase FPS : each room you can visit is as much vertices as the exterior of a building. I need at least 15-20 different building at first to create satisfying random maps. I also started to write a script which will spawn random furniture, mobs and loots in the buildings.
Player Interface
In order to design the most simple window possible, I've forced myself to clamp the height and the width of the window, and I choosed not to use tabs or multipages menus in order to let the player acces data or inventory pressing only one key.
By pressing Escape key at any moment during the game you'll be able to:
- Pause the game
- Save your game and exit game
- See you currently equiped items
- Examine each item stat, like power or durability by simply pointing it
- See your how your combat skills change in realtime as you change weapons, armors...
- See your carried inventory and equip/unequip any of your items
- See all your current character XP levels
I like how the small size of the window let you still see game view, and it forces me to use very ordered elements and only what I need, keeping design style sober and efficient. I think I'll give a more Sci-Fi touch to the graphic design, but I'm pretty happy with the ingame user experience this window gives. I think time you need to choose items, check your progression or craft items is reduced, increasing real playtime.
Next steps :
- I think unfortunately I have to add 1 page ( not more! ) to create the crafting window that the player can open with a "BUILD" button on the main pause window presented here. And I also need to add hunger and thirst indicators, and a mouse sensitivity cursor for better confort.
- I improved the runtime shortcut UI on the bottom of the screen a lot. This lets the player know at any time health, energy, water and food levels. it is currently like this:
Thanks for reading! More coming soon!
3571 The Game - News Update #1
First UI draft & first player customization test
I've been finally working on a first draft of the UI ! It's a bit weird for a traditional art director used to Adobe Suite to have to place texts and colors with code only in C# at first, but very amazing then!
Most of all, to add more "RPG" in the "Hack'n'Slash" gameplay, you can now customize your character ! This is the first test, I will work more precisely on the textures and hair models later. But the core engine works and that was a hard part :
Assigning different materials was pretty easy, as well as creating the buttons to switch them. Changing hair model was easy too thanks to Unity's prefab system. But the most difficult part was to save properly positions and textures of every player choices. Now I can create lots of funny faces, shirts, pants, hairs because the script is working perfectly !
This weeks, I also plan to complete the implement of a dialogue system for all human NPC's, and NPC-to-NPC interactions. Again, I really want the final game to have as many RPG ingredients and emergent gameplay as possible.
Welcome to the future!
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to comment, as iterative and open development is part of the concept, and also because I create absolutely everything alone. I need your advices!
Frappa Studio