Gods and Nemesis: of Ghosts from Dragons
Moving every year is my Nemesis
our stuff to Prince of Wales Island but it took 2 months. In addition, they had lost approximately 20 boxes that still have not been recovered.
Well, I finally came to the conclusion that what is lost is lost and rebought monitors, keyboards, speakers, cords, mice, etc. I am thankful that the main computer was not lost because it is a pain getting all of the programs reinstalled so that work can continue.
However, it has been nice to get a break. I had a great time playing Unturned. This helped me understand that fun is above all else in game design. I was even able to use an old laptop that I luckily kept and really focused on what makes the game so addicting at times.
Games are supposed to provide an escape, and that is hopefully something that I can ultimately provide.
And now to the progress! I needed something to get me back into development with programming behavior and model design at the same time. This reminded me of something that had been bothering me for a while on the short play testing rounds -- the Shal Shar trees!
I am now finally pleased with the megaflora in Gods and Nemesis. The world keeps opening up and becoming its own. Most games I played have a simple system of breaking down a tree for firewood or building material. This was how my game was but you could only harvest saplings. This had
always bothered me but it was a decision that was necessary to limit computations at the time. Also, I wanted to use the built-in systems that most game engines have and paint the tree objects. Outside of being just fun to use, the terrain painting system also provided wind movement with built-in levels-of-detail (LOD) to reduce draw calls -- very important as you can imagine. This came at the heavy cost of making these painted objects non-interactive. And when I say non-interactive, I mean non-interactive as even collision meshes didn't work right. A player could not climb these trees without noticing that the collision did not match the object for instance.
It took a lot of planning and theory to figure out how to solve these issues (well for me anyway).
The main drawback is that I have excepted the fate of manually placing every plant and tree in the world which will be especially time-consuming when re-creating the mimic-living forest.
In the long run, it is worth it.
Shal Shar trees are very unique in that they often have multiple trunks and so their breakdown should be unique as well. The complexity is where a player targets when taking down a Shal Shar tree. Most of the time you can only take out the base trunks but there can be situations where the player will be able to take out the middle portion or attack the branches first using magic or projectiles. This was very complex because the physics changed accordingly.
On top of it all, I was also shocked when I went to create rustling leaf sounds that nothing I had prerecorded years ago was useable. I could have sworn that I covered all of the basics. So I had to go out into the wild against my natural hermit mentality and get a sound byte! It just happened to be the day our yard was trimmed so there were plenty of branches with fresh leaves to get what I needed.
--- Rant: Developers might be interested in this fix ?---
However, once I recorded everything I was perplexed by the hum in the background of the soundbites. You would think I was on a starship -- it was that bad. It turns out this noise was there all along and not feedback. It is amazing how the mind works. It appears our minds blocked this out because it was later found to be the hum of a nearby factory generator. Regardless, I was able to isolate this and take it out but then it left a tinny result with a deficit to the left side recording (still not sure why). All in all, I was able to fix this by creating a mono-sound version of the isolated portion and offsetting it to fill in the left speaker. I then made yet another copy which I changed the pitch and added a g-verb effect to fill it in. The results are so nice and I learned a lot thanks to the powers behind Audacity!
-- End of Rant ------------------
The trees now respond with proper sound effects depending on how they are chopped down! If you attack the pillar trunk supports you get the crackling release. If you start at the middle it will have more leaf rustling. And of course, there is an amazing opportunity to expand what you can get when harvesting the trees. You can collect old leaves to burst the temperature to get campfires started or use some of the fresh leaves for alchemy. Today I will get the leaves to have a more natural look when being picked up probably by using restrained cloth physics.
Now it is time to finish up this side of the project by taking care of the other versions of the Shal Shar trees and making a similar system for the very rare Morprif trees! This side detour made for a nice welcome back into this passion project. With the short break and great success with the trees, I will be able to go back and finish up the loose ends to the storyline system and expand it for easier future modding. I hope to include all of the cool features that Steam has produced over the years which probably would never have been in the cards using the old engine.
Also, I almost forgot! I have a helping hand with the aspects of communicating the progress, ETA, and updates. I am happy to welcome PixieStitch to the folds of this great Nemesis of a project. She is a project setter and sound-byte-getter! This is very much needed because I love developing but suck at communicating what is going on every day.
Anyways thank you for taking the time to read this and as always I am open to suggestions -- it keeps the Nemesis ever-growing.
Take Care,
Chadwee
Moving to a new Location
While I was 30 miles from the Artic Circle I was able to get a unique viewpoint of survival. I was able to record some amazing wind sounds and I was inspired to add more realistic auroras along with some rare light pillars. I feel this really adds to the feel of the alien surface. Also, as my skills get better I am able to finally transcribe some of the more complicated concepts for the life cycles of animals and plants. Instead of monsters, they are creatures with purpose and hopefully soon driven by environmental change.
Thank you for taking the time to read this. Take Care.
I am feeling good about the new G&N version!
I can see the light at the end of the tunnel! As you know I created this game in an amazing engine for the time called Torque. Unfortunately, it does not have the needed updates to keep up with the endlessly changing technology. This resulted in prohibiting the advancement of the universe to the planned scale needed, and there is an unbelievable amount of work that needs to be done. This game is different. The game starts off with a storyline that gradually gets the user involved. As a result, it is not for everyone. Regardless, it has the intent of providing an escape and artistic experience that is truly unique and genuine -- unlike anything else. The goal is to attract creative minds with a willingness to be open to exploring new ideas. This is why everything had to be made from scratch and with that comes huge learning curves.
Unity has been an amazing experience, to say the least. When I first started, there were many times that I felt that it was unrealistic to recreate this entire project. I thought, maybe I should just stick with what I had and look for ways to improve it with the available resources. Unity kept sucking me back in though as solid possibilities manifested every day. With that, I took the harder road.
Today I had a pleasant feeling. I had a sense that was in complete contrast to the overwhelming nature that had become normal to me as I navigated through each milestone. It's the comforting feeling of reaching the finish line! I had this sensation when completing the current edition using Torque years ago. At the time, I knew that I could begin the process of gaining the needed community interest to get greenlit with actual timeline goals. Now, finally, I feel secure in providing updates on a regular basis as it is all starting to weave together in a wonderful way. Thank you for all of your support and patience. I can not wait for you to experience this.
Take Care,
Chadwee
Gods and Nemesis
Thank you for your ongoing support! I will continue streaming the progress for Gods and Nemesis every Wednesday. Please feel free to comment and make suggestions but most of all have fun with this evergrowing universe. https://www.twitch.tv/chadwee
Take Care,
Chadwee ːsteamhappyː
Update 2.5
As you know I learned everything about game design on my own which includes everything from the 3D models, textures, music to the AI, storytelling system, and sound effects. It has been an amazing ride to learn about all of these things, but as you can tell there have been issues with keeping it going in a timely manner. This is why my next goal will be to get the game on an updated Torque engine. They are doing amazing things in that community, so if you are into game dev please check them out. Just like the Steam community, I would have gotten nowhere without their patience and guidance. This will be the last update for Chapter One. I can't wait for everyone to experience what has been accomplished next!
1): I have changed over to a new sound profile and it should make it playable on even more systems. The old sound profile was just too antiquated which I believe made things come to a crawl on some of the systems that could not compensate. Keep in mind that updating the engine will be the main cure to many of these issues, so if this update still does not work for you, be patient as the cureall is coming soon. Note: You can also go into setting from the menu to change over to the other sound profile settings, sometimes this can remedy the issues as certain systems just seem to run better on different configurations.
2): The sentience system still needs improvements as many of the storyline creation elements are still not streamlined. I will advance this modding system based on the success of Chapter 2. It will be nice to have this but it may need to wait as expanding on Chapter 3 is the main focus.
3): Added more to the festive system. I have added in Halloween. It was nice to see random items populate in accordance with the time of year and the level your character's exploration sub-ability! Feel free to message me holiday suggestions and I will try to work it into the system. The toggle system has been added for those that do not want this feature.
4): I explained that Chapter 2 was waiting on a battle music score last time, well the sidequest needed one as well and it makes for an amazing experience. Also, the boss battle can be a little tough so I added in a replay at certain locations within the storyline so as to ease the frustration level a bit.
5): The alpha survival mode still needs a lot more advancements so it will be made into an update for Chapter 2. The survival mode is important in that it paves the way for the multiplayer portion!
6): I will be streaming the final stages for Chapter 2 on Twitch. I do not have a set time yet but should figure something out by this week. I plan on recording the videos as well. It is a work in progress but I feel it will give many more an opportunity to see the game in action and to learn about the complexities of its evergrowing universe. https://www.twitch.tv/chadwee
Thank you for your ongoing support! Always feel free to reach out, let me know what you would like to see more of and I will always strive to make it happen.
Take Care,
Chadwee ːsteamhappyː
Update 2.0
1): The alpha survival mode is running well and I am adding to its side quest! There is a lot of lore and bizarre concepts that you have come to expect from this game’s universe.
2): Added to the Sentience project that will allow a door to be opened for modders so they can begin making their own story lines. I feel that this game needs to be open to the community. It is also in alignment to a major project that I am now planning out that will provide a platform for artist of numerous backgrounds even unrelated to this game universe.
3): I have added a more adaptable profile for the gamer so that more systems should be able to run the game. I believe some antivirus software looked at the past profile modifications as suspicious so this should be better overall. Fingers crossed.
4): Added a slick camera system. Cameras do not exist in this world so I made a magic based concept with the feel of a camera so that it is still relatable. I had a lot of fun being a photographer in the world. This system will also help me take pictures for social media as well.
5): Added in a festive system. So far I have festive Easter eggs for Christmas and New Years. The system finds out what the date is and will add in the items randomly in the world at the right time of year. I will soon be adding in Easter festive items! This was a lot of fun for me and I hope everyone has a blast with this too. Please message me any holiday suggestions and I will try to work it into the system. I will be making a toggle system for the player to turn this on or off.
6): Chapter 2 is waiting on a battle music score for a major boss. I am finishing up on a multipart music score that randomly comes together giving a unique experience every time. I am really happy that it is memorable with a Gods and Nemesis feel but at the same time adds to the exploration without distracting the player,
7): I am smoothing out the system to allow for easier updates on my end. This will allow for new things to be added which will especially become important for the survival mode adaptation coming soon.
8): The Skills Tree was a challenge but well worth it. It has a lot of potential for adding unique skills depending on the races and classes your character is forged from. It is also in alignment to the game’s storyline. There will be a major shift soon towards cause and effect. Your actions and direction affects everything!
9): Chapter 2 is on its way! I am putting in the finishing touches. I want the player to have the option to check out the survival mode afterward so they can enjoy the alien moon of Uthanus Dreen! There were a lot of cool creatures big and small made for this so I hope you have a great time interacting with them. Make sure to take lots of pictures with the new camera system!
Thank you for your ongoing support! Let me know what you would like to see more of and I will always strive to make it happen.
Take Care,
Chadwee
Update patch 1.0
Issue 1): Game crashes on some systems randomly.
The engine was defaulting to OpenAL which would cause certain systems to crash immediately or at random while playing. The game should now default on all systems to Direct Sound
Issue 2): Game would become buggy or crash on entering a new Scene Level.
Sometimes the AI in the past level were still running and needed to have a double check when deleted. I have created an array manager that tracks all commands and ensures they are cancelled when entering a new Scene Level.
Issue 3): The game would lock up or crash during load up.
It has been found that the video card must have dedicated memory. The requirements have been changed on the store page. Additionally, an old profile from the computer used to design the game was being uploaded as the default. This will no longer happen which will give the user's computer a chance to generate its own profile based on system specs.
Enhancements:
1: The GUI's have been modified to make it easier to navigate. The GUIs, as with the entire game, were made from the ground up in order to give it a fresh feel. As time goes on, more will be added to make it even smoother while maintaining the G&N feel.
2: Made the secrets more apparent as some were hidden too well.
3: Several models were washed through a retopology method to lessen CPU burden while upholding their original form.
4): Added the help page so that players can alter the game for their system needs.
5): The level up system has been reformulated and new enhancements are underway.
6): The save system has been reformulated so that it will ask the player if they want to save at the end of Chapter 1.
7: Cleaned up the code for the airships so that they run smoother when Chapter 2 is released.
8): Numerous enhancements are in motion and will be ready soon.
Thank you for your ongoing support and please let me know what you would like to see more of.