hdsanctum-blog

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Modelling progress for #7dfps, I'm using #urho3d as the engine.

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Something I've been working on, a test project for mobile devices.

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Making progress on the GUI for the game.

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Weekly Update: Rogue Preview

Rogue Stat Overview:

The Rogue is a classic trickster, favoring deception, tricks and traps over direct attacks. However don't take him lightly, the Rogue is still a sub-class of Assassins, and as such has high single target DPS bursts !

The Rogue wields a deceptively simple Wand and Focus Ring, allowing them to channel magic for illusion and reality warping abilities.

3D Model Progress:

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Weekly Update: Immortal Preview

Immortal Stat Overview:

Immortals are a sub-class of guardians, however unlike a typical armor/vitality/healing guardian, the Immortal is blessed with impeccable battle instinct and move like they have eyes on the back of their head! Who needs armor, when you can dance past your enemies attacks?!

The Immortal likes to keep their enemies at a distance with their spears, and for when the unavoidable AOE's are launched, they have a handy shield to hide behind. You might think that the shield will slow the Immortal down, but as with many things in the universe of Raid Party, 'it's magic'. The Immortal receives an adrenaline surge whenever they successfully block an attack !

Immortal Modelling Progress:

I have already begun texturing the Immortal, this is the first pass where I am getting the materials down, the next pass (detail) will include the missing rivets and buckles.

And of course, the Immortal is rocking a digital-camo style cloth-- as though you won't see this guy sneak up on you !

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Mini Update

These last two weeks I've been working on a variety of tasks, including some time spent on storyboard prototyping with Twine (I only discovered it last week, very cool tool), music composition (finally have one piece worthy of being part of the game), furthering gameplay ideas, shader tweaking to get the materials looking good in Unity and also just continuing the work on low poly model/UV unwrapping and texturing.

I have boosted the time I have been spending on the project from five hours a day to six hours, and eventually I'll raise that too.

Overall, I am pleased with the progress I've been making. I haven't taken a day off since I've started the project, which boosts my confidence in reaching the prototype target. That will probably still be a year away, at minimum.

Thanks !

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Weekly Update: Necromancer Preview

Necromancer Stat Overview:

Necromancers are a sub-class of Wizards, focusing on the dark practice of blood-magic. The Necromancer studies death to overcome it, using their powers to drain the life out of enemies and extend their own.

The Necromancer employs conditions and debuffs to steadily strip an enemy horde apart, preparing their victims for life transfer. Condition damage is an important part of a well-rounded team, it must be combined with direct-damage to maximize a Raid Parties total DPS potential.

Although a Necromancer cares only for his own life, they can also use their powers to help allies. Combined with their ranged abilities, the Necromancer is a vital part of any Raiding Party !

As can be seen, the Necromancer uses a scepter in their main hand, and focus-beads in their off hand. These two items allow a Necromancer to channel their magic in a way other Wizards could not begin to fathom.

Necromancer Model Progress:

I have completed the first two stages of the Necromancer modelling. Although I did intend to UV unwrap and texture all models this week, I realized that the process deserved more attention for each character, so it may take me a few weeks to nail it perfectly.

Since there will only be eight characters in the first prototype of the game, it's important that they look good enough that players will actually want to see more !

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Time Usage: 19 Jan - 25 Jan

This week I have been slowly moving to reduce sleeping time and felt like I spent more 'over time'. I still aim to only do 5 hours a day, but looking at the numbers over the last few weeks I've been averaging higher than that.

This week (19 Jan - 25 Jan), my ~ time usage is:

Stop: 56.13h

Sleep: 50.28h

Raid Party: 47.17h

I listed the Raid Party umbrella this week instead of art, since I spent a bit of time on non-art asset creation (taking photos for textures, music).

The breakdown of the asset creation is simpler this week, I spent 39.29 h on texturing/materials/uv's and integration into unity with correct shaders, so that I could get it looking exactly like I wanted (see 3d Material Preview).

The rest of the time was spent either doing details or working on getting the model into an appropriate low poly form.

This week I will be getting the rest of the characters into a low poly form, UV unwrapping them and preparing their materials. I have already started on the Mage's robe, which looks quite magical yet maintains an element of plausibility due to the physically based shaders (think satin-silk).

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Weekly Update: Barbarian Preview

Barbarian Stat Overview:

Barbarian are another sub-class of Warriors (the first revealed being the Soldier). The Barbarian wield an ungodly hammer in one hand, and an arm-blade in the other, focusing on full-attack and counter-attack type skills. They have an increased DPS over other Warriors, and increased health pool with the draw-back that they have a reduced armor pool.

The Barbarian hammer provides strong crowd-control abilities, including knock-backs, knock-downs and stuns. The off-hand arm blade provides a quick-counter ability, allowing to deal damage back to attackers !

Barbarian Model Progress:

The Barbarian model is the first to have hair, and for this I have made use of Blenders particle system (I have double checked that these objects can be exported). The big advantage to this method is that I can use the hair physics, which will allow to this stylish boy-band hair to have subtle bouncing while he moves.

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3D Materials Preview

Progress:

This week I have been making progress on the material modelling, lighting set up and integration with unity. The above image was taken from unity, and I must admit I am pretty excited by these early results !

Detail:

If you look closely, you can see the cloth has some fine detail that the light can catch, giving the strong appearance of fibres. The leather has a high gloss level and only reflects white specular light, and the metals specular has colour feeding its appearance.

It's hard to tell through the gif compression, but there is also a cube map adding subtle reflections.

Note: The model above is still high poly, however I expect the lower poly version to look similar. Also, I will be making an effort to provide multiple levels of quality so people with average and low-end PC's should be able to run the game at reasonable quality at high FPS, while also giving high-end machines something to look forward to.

Shaders

Raid Party will be using physically based shaders and materials, which makes it a lot easier for me to produce beautiful results with minimal effort. The materials are also easily modifiable, eg, I can change the weave of the cloths and achieve the same basic properties, etc.

Workflow

To make the texturing process easier (and more satisfying), I am using Substance Designer 4, where I have set up graphs that take in texture and diffuse inputs, and spit out the modified diffuse, specularity, glossiness and normal maps.

I had fun taking photos of surfaces around my home which form the scratches in the metal, fibres in the cloth, and bumps on the leather. I am very surprised at how easy it was to turn those photos into usable textures with detailed normal maps.

Thanks !

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Weekly Update: Knight Preview

Knight Stat Overview:

Knights are a subclass of guardians, their focus is tanking and support abilities. They will have a high defense pool, however their DPS abilities will still be viable in the front lines where they will be expected to run along side warriors, absorbing damage, buffing and healing allies.

The Knight wields a sturdy shield in their main hand, and a sword in their off-hand.

Knights provide their allies with confidence, seeing them charging fearlessly, head first into enemy hordes. Stay close to your nearest knight if you want to mitigate damage and receive reliable healing !

Knight Model Progress:

I have begun the detailing stage for the knight, adding rivets, embossing and splits in the armor to make it physically viable. I am not 100% sure how I like the many rivets, however I suspect it won't look too ugly once I've textured him.

I'll change the mane on his head too !

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Weekly Update: Thief Preview

Thief Stat Overview:

Thieves are a subclass of assassins, they have huge single target burst abilities combined with stealth to escape. The high single target DPS / stealth combo is offset by having the lowest health and armor pool and having melee only abilities.

The Thief dual wields daggers for quick and precise strikes, able to bypass the armor of the sturdiest knights.

If you have too many thieves in your raiding party, the Thieves Guild will see you as a competing threat, and will interfere on your raids !

Thief Model Progress:

I have completed the first stage of modelling for the thief. In the detailing stage, I will be adding a Thieves Guild emblem on the belt buckle, and subtle designs to the hoodie, among other finer details such as seams, zippers and tearing on the pants.

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Progress Update

Stage One Character Status:

Just to give a little progress update on the state of the project (separate from my weekly updates), the following assets have been completed to stage 1:

Soldier

Mage

Knight

Thief

Barbarian

Necromancer

Immortal

This leaves one more model (Rogue) to complete stage one character modeling.

In this process I have learnt quite a lot of tricks to make the modelling process very quick in Blender, which is fantastic because I am reaching the end of stage one much sooner than I expected.

I will be sharing tips and tricks for Blender in future posts, both as a reminder to myself and mini-tutorial to anyone interested in learning Blender.

Stage Two: Detailing and Weapons:

Stage two will involve adding finer details to the character models, such as welds, bolts, seams, buckles, etc. Anything that will help add detail to make the models more believable and help in the later steps where I'll need good details to work with when texturing. It's also just easier for me to do as much as I can in 3d so I don't have to get my hands dirty in 2d.

I'll also be modelling the weapons in this stage, which I've left out for the moment to prevent stagnation on the models I have completed so far.

Stage Three: Texturing:

First I will export the normal maps from Blender and then I will be using Substance Designer 4 (that I picked up on the holiday 50% off sale) to create realistic and consistent textures for the models.

At the end of this stage, I will take the time to make some beautiful promotional renders with the models, to help visually describe each characters play style in a single image.

Stage Four: Rigging and Animation:

Finally I'll be putting the pieces together, and making use of open source mocap files where possible, to create fluid animations. I personally believe the animations will be absolutely essential in helping to make this game feel immersive. You will believe in dragons, orcs and necromancy when you play Raid Party ! (Yup, mocapped dragons, believe it !)

After I complete the characters, I will begin working on the world assets for the first quest line involving Heroes vs Bandits (I am targeting only the assets I will need for the first prototype of the game).

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I started with 6 patterns and tried to make a story with it. It's the story of a man and his life journey. He's plodding along all major-like and then things turn on his his head. Suddenly all his old problems are minor. Opportunities arise, but they pass so quick, one door opens and another slams shut. Then he enters the room of doors-- what to choose, what to choose? He makes his choice, looking for a way back home. Suddenly everything is quicker than before. A winding path, familiar to him. He knows his way, he knows he's on the right path. The man sees the days gone by and longs for a time passed. He finds the final door that leads back to a time before it all began. The man takes one last look around and marches onward. All that was wrong is starting to feel right, his minor problems pass and he once again feels major-like.

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Weekly Update: Mage Preview

Mage Stat Overview:

The Mage will be an AOE DPS monster, focusing on ranged spell-casting, direct damage abilities to cause destruction on the battlefield. This high DPS ability will be offset by the Mage's low health and armor pool, so make sure you protect your Mage while they are bombing away !

As can be seen, the Mage uses an Orb offhand weapon and a Staff main-hand weapon. The Orb is the Mage's tool for casting defensive shields and wards- while not in battle the Orb will be tucked into his sleeves for easy access.

Mage Model Progress:

I have completed the first stage of the modelling process for the Mage, which is the main shape contouring. The next step will be detailing and then texturing. Animations will come much later, however you can already imagine how this barefoot Mage will dash nimbly across a battlefield, throwing dark magic as he goes !

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Weekly Update: Soldier Preview

So this week I have been working on the designs for the first set of character classes.  The first is the Soldier !

Soldier Stat Overview:

The Soldier will be a defensive and offensive beast on the battlefield, dealing both heavy single target and AOE DPS, while also unbalanced by a high armor and health pool. The soldiers limitation comes from his melee only attack range, meaning he will need to go deep into enemy formations to unleash devastation !

The Soldier uses an Axe-Spear and Shield combo, handily wielding the huge axe with one hand. The axe is imbued with a magic that allows it to feel much lighter to the Soldier it is bound to.

Modeling Progress:

The weapon model is not the actual one that will be used, but I included it just to demonstrate scale. The weapon will be critical to help identifying characters at a glance.

The model isn't complete yet-- he stills need sandals, a helmet and straps to hold the armor together. Of course it will also need texturing, but I'll be doing that once I've got the other characters armor set up.

Thanks !