Halfgeek's Forum Posts

  • Heaps better with the extra room nearby! With a few rooms, obscured by FOW so players wont know whats in there until they enter.. great for atmosphere

  • Good that you mentioned BG2, it's the classic dungeon crawl and the fog of war gave it a tension that wouldn't be possible if you saw the entire area right away. ie. Not knowing what's around you in itself, helps the atmosphere.

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  • Honest feedback:

    RPGs are my favorite genre of games, a small level would make it very claustrophobic and removes one of the key element that makes dungeon crawlers great: exploration & tension due to not knowing what's behind that next door (fog of war too, treading lightly...).

    I'm looking at your game level and seeing those doors, I am drawn to open those doors, at which point the level expands to include the adjacent room for my character to explore & pass.

  • So do you have plans to eventually make large levels?

  • I overhauled the BG setup recently to spice it up.

    The BG is semi-dynamic, using some static images & shimmering stars & gas nebulas that move slowly in motion. But nothing major or "pop". Mostly dark & subtle.

    I like this approach as it gives a sense that the universe is alive, without being a distraction that takes away the focus, which should be on the ships.

    jobel

    Also, if you do planets, give them a dynamic atmosphere, it really takes it to another level in depth perception. Its worth the extra effort!

  • jobel

    I haven't got a recent video after I did a planet overhaul. But they are all on different layers, further ones parallax 10, 30, and the main ones at the front are at 100, layer below ships. They also all have multiple atmosphere layers that separate and spin at different speeds to give more depth.

    Here's an example, the top right planet is further back on a 30 parallax.

    The smaller planets & moons are on 10/30.

    The little planets on the Star-Map match the one in the system and they also match it in rotation.

  • byondisoft

    Thanks. I already changed career from science researcher to solo gamedev, so if this doesn't work out, gotta do something to earn $. That's life!

    jobel

    Thanks. Good luck with your Alpha One project!

  • I was very busy at the time so I missed this gorgeous project. I like the style a lot and the minimalism is a charm.

    Also, going for a big complex game can be good as it teaches you a lot, since you're forced to learn & adapt, it challenges you more so you grow more.

  • 112... means 1120 or 11200 events?

    11K so far. But event counts by themselves don't really say that much since someone better at C2 or logic than me would achieve the same features in less events.

    Star Nomad 1 was about 4K events, but it was more wasteful and un-optimized with event usage compared to this one so far.

    Just an example, in SN1, for the spawning of dynamic merchant vessels, I repeated it for each of the star system. In SN2, I use an array that defines the behavior of each star system, one of the metric includes how "busy" that system is and I use 1 function for all the star system to spawn random merchant ships based on that metric in the array. So I accomplish an even more complex spawn system with a few events compared to hundreds.

  • Anonnymitet

    I've got to do a nice video then onto Greenlight it goes soon and hope it passes.

    Also, you are right, the more you work with C2, the more you learn everyday, it's great. I hope to be able to go on and make even better games but...

    If this game doesn't do well on sales, it'll most probably be my last as I have to consider changing careers into something that earns $. One thing about SN2, it's the spacesim game I always wanted to make but never knew how. SO if it sell peanuts, at least its a game I enjoy playing, so not all will be lost.

  • Anonnymitet

    Thanks!

    It's surprisingly well organized since I made a habit since the start to fragment lots of event sheet for each specific task (ie. 1 faction's AI in 1 event sheet) and I put lots of comments so I don't forget!

    Usage of functions & arrays help reduce repetitive events but it's still quite big. If I could restart everything from scratch, I can trim it down by about 2000 events knowing what i know now as well as several features which were poorly done (but it runs efficiently enough).

  • There's some really impressive stuff being made these days!

    Here's a shot from the cave town in Courier:

    Looking atmospheric! Any ETA on when you'll put it on Steam? EA?

  • It looks like a nicely done retro platformer.

    I gave you a yes vote!

  • Thanks blackant !

    A big update, lots of pics, currently play-testing complete build & balancing & tweaking AI

    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    This is what happens during a system under siege from rival Factions:

    During a random play test I happened to stumble into an Imperial system which was under pirate attack, the fighting was intense, with the defending Imperial quad wiped out by some pirate reinforcements. The victorious pirates camped that system wrecking havoc on merchants and disrupting trade.

    Not wanting to be a pirate victim, I decided to scoot and jump into a nearby system, which happens to be Cerulan, an ex-Imperial system which the Omni Collective (Purple Zerg-like Ships) previously captured. The Empire (Golden Armored Ships) gathered its resources & fleet to launch a full scale offensive to try and re-take it. Obviously the Omni HQ called in reinforcements to prevent this, and so an epic battle took place.

    https://halfgeekstudios.files.wordpress ... eet-01.jpg <-- Fullsize

    Both the Collective & Empire decided (AI voodoo magic!) this was an extra important battle and committed ALL their fleets into this engagement. The scale quickly escalated… I ran and hid in a corner to avoid all the crossfire..

    Out of the blue, a random scouting fleet of the Starborn Federation (Aqua Crystalline Ships) decides to jump in to investigate all the ruckus and got caught inbetween, promptly going out in some big explosions.

    https://halfgeekstudios.files.wordpress ... eet-02.jpg <-- Fullsize

    Due to the Omni holding a major system advantage, their fleet was bigger and so they eventually wore down the Imperials, taking out all their Colossus Capitals.

    The siege is over, the bulk of the Omni Fleet heads to the Jump Point to return to their systems (A big Starborn fleet was heading for Omni space elsewhere!).

    https://halfgeekstudios.files.wordpress ... eet-03.jpg

    But no! The silly pirates in the adjacent system (which they were pillaging) decided to get greedy and jump in to plunder some hapless merchants…

    https://halfgeekstudios.files.wordpress ... eet-04.jpg

    Those pirates sure didn’t expect such a massive Omni Fleet here, they decided to make a run for it (AI ships can flee if odds are very bad for them, or if severely damaged), but the firepower overwhelmed the pirates before their jump engines could charge up!

    System secured for the Omni.. even the little drones fly home.. aww, how cute!

    https://halfgeekstudios.files.wordpress ... eet-05.jpg

    So, that’s what you can expect if you wander into systems under siege from the big factions. Normally the battles are smaller, unless the AI deems the system is important enough AND they have a good chance of winning, they usually do not commit such a large force. Doing so leaves their other systems with weaker defenses, making it vulnerable for the other faction to conquer.

    In a 3-way-battle, the AI does its best to survive & win. This means attacking a weaker foe, but also preventing foes from growing too powerful. It’s been tough to design & balance this aspect, but it’s done, very functional & very effective.

    -------------------------------------------------

    Since making this game, at the start I've always worried I bit of more than I can chew, on a personal talent level but as well as on a C2 engine level (back then, there were a lot of negativity regarding C2 being only for simple games or smaller scope projects)...

    But luckily, C2 is an amazing engine, simple on the surface, but it enables a ton of depth & complexity. There really is no better 2D game engine out there. <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt=":)" title="Smile">

  • Platformers may not be everyone's cup of tea, but what i can say:

    Airscape is a EXCELLENTLY crafted game, with a lot of thoughtful design and it does set the standard very high for any other dev using C2.

    Congrats on the launch and wish you all the best!