Over the last month, I got a bit side-tracked from the coding side of things.
I was showing a friend an early build of the game (which looked like this), and they pointed out how much neater it would be if the characters were actually fighting in the level, rather than inside a “picture frame” in the foreground. They were totally right. Since the levels are actual levels now, instead of just two-dimensional sprites, it’s a waste to drop the players in a flat, featureless box when they could be fighting on a bridge or in the clouds, or something.
(Pictured: Fighting on a bridge. Not pictured: Walls)
So I got rid of the confining walls (…at least for the outdoor levels).
There will still be some sort of level bounds (lest players fly away into space) but they won’t be as claustrophobic as the giant pillars protruding from the ground.
In addition, I’ve been working on giving the visual style a good polish before moving forward.
By re-making the objects, adding post-processing effects such as SSAO and bloom, and making the water look like actual water rather than a blue carpet, we’ve gone from this:
To this:
The game is still in the early stages of development, and there’s plenty of work ahead, but it’s nice to see things gradually taking shape.
-Rimply
It’s always exciting to see such wonderful updates, its good to know you’re making progress! I can’t wait for the sequel; I am looking forward to it.
LikeLike
Thank you for the support, Ronan!
LikeLike
With the new rendering effects, can the game still run on machines that are older and don’t support DirectX11?
I’m curious how level limits will work now that the original picture frame borders are gone. A goofy thought came to me is that without border, this could easily have a smash bros style system for kicking players off the stage.
Alternatively maybe bring the frame border back as usual, but just let the game take place in the real level?
LikeLike
Hi reactorcoregames,
I just tested the current build in DirectX9 using “-force-d3d9”, and everything appears to look and run correctly, so for now older machines should be fine!
But, it’s worth noting that Unity themselves will be deprecating DirectX9 some time in the nearish future:
https://blogs.unity3d.com/2017/07/10/deprecating-directx-9/
As for level limits, I’m still playing around with some ideas. One of which is similar to your Smash Bros idea, but since players only have one life, unlike in Smash Bros, I’m thinking of having the player get shot back onto the stage, similar to the first Floppy Heroes when a player would stand next to a wall too long.
If I do bring back the solid wall, I may simply re-design it to something less…solid-looking…like a wall of fog.
It’s still all up in the air (no pun intended), and as development progresses I’ll see what works best!
LikeLike
Sweet, thank you for testing it out. My machine can’t handle DX11, so Floppy Heroes 1 was excellent for me since it could run smoothly on my older hardware.
About the smash bros thought, I meant there was an alternative health/life system override that makes character accumulate % to become weaker, to be more easily kicked out of a level.
I also want to mention that I enjoy the Floppy Heroes 1 walls for being solid and clear, so I probably wouldn’t respond well to the ethereal nature of a wall of fog, I think. It may be a better idea to go for something more grounded like an actual cage (cage fight match!) or go all in on the “picture frame” idea from FP1, taking inspiration from photo frames or stylized borders to set the theme/mood that matches the background/actual environment of a level.
Either way thanks for making these news posts. I check them out whenever I see them while browsing through my steam library for news on games I have.
LikeLike
Thats a good game
LikeLike
are you going to make a public test?
LikeLike
It’s too early for any solid plans or dates, but I’m considering Steam Early Access when the game is further along so I can get valuable feedback (especially bug reports) before the official release.
LikeLike
hey rimply! if you want to you coud uptade some uptade vlogs on your youtube cannel.
LikeLike
0 Pingbacks
Follow Rimply At