tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14232234502076134092024-02-21T01:27:06.232+00:00Luminescagame development blogMatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17574183434667093252noreply@blogger.comBlogger47125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1423223450207613409.post-78671266278264915812013-06-03T20:58:00.002+01:002014-06-01T17:57:59.018+01:00Surfacing soon...I have to admit, when I released the first alpha version of Chapter 1 in February I had hoped Chapter 2 would follow pretty closely behind. As it turns out, releasing a game - even just one part of an unfinished game - and dealing with the ensuing promotion and maintenance takes up a lot of your time. Who knew?!<br />
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So I'm now very pleased to be able to say that the Chapter 2 alpha is just around the corner (I mean a matter of mere <i>days</i> away) and that I have a few other cool things lined up too! Read on for the run-down...<br />
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Rezzed PC and Indie Games Show</h3>
Luminesca will be on show at the <b><a href="http://www.rezzed.com/" target="_blank">Rezzed</a></b> game show mega-event in Birmingham, UK on 22-23 June 2013, as part of the Leftfield Collection. You'll be able to play the latest build of Luminesca, including Chapter 2 and the new, updated version of Chapter 1. I'll be there in person, manning the station, handing out <b>free art cards</b> and chatting about the game to anyone within earshot. If you can make it, come and say hello! Bring friends!<br />
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<i>Here are some art cards you can have for free if you'll only come and talk to me...</i></div>
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Free demo</h3>
Shortly after the release of Chapter 2, a free demo of Luminesca will be released on the <b><a href="http://www.luminesca.com/" target="_blank">main site</a></b>. It will essentially comprise of Chapter 1 (the new, updated version), playable in your web browser. I wanted to get Chapter 2 done first so that people who have pre-ordered are still getting some exclusive stuff in exchange for their early support!<br />
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Soundtrack</h3>
Also coming shortly after Chapter 2's release will be an option for purchasing the original soundtrack. Many of you have confessed your undying love for the soothing sounds of Luminesca, so you'll soon be able to drift off to sleep while listening to its majestic underwater melodies (I accept no responsibility for any bed-wetting this induces). The soundtrack's release will function the same as the game itself, so as new chapters are released in alpha form their associated tracks will be added to the soundtrack download for free.<br />
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As always, you can already pre-order Luminesca <a href="http://www.luminesca.com/" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">right here</a>, and doing so will grant you immediate access to Chapter 1, with Chapter 2 being added at no extra cost <i>very soon</i>.<br />
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If you've decided not to pre-order just yet I'd be interested to hear your reasons <b><a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1zTWcqZ1B2fMuwB99fJgLcCr4NUk7J5tX9oYgfdI94oU/viewform" target="_blank">here</a></b>. In the past, people said they wanted a PayPal option and that is now available via the Humble Store widget. I am listening to all feedback, even if I don't have time to respond on an individual basis!<br />
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Thank you for your continued support, and I hope you're as excited about the new release as I am!<br />
<br />Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17574183434667093252noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1423223450207613409.post-38020032029036099662013-05-18T19:07:00.002+01:002014-02-20T10:11:55.879+00:00Luminesca now available on the Humble StoreFollowing some feedback from customers, I'm very pleased to announce that Luminesca is now available to purchase through the <b>Humble Store</b>, using the widget on the <a href="http://www.luminesca.com/" target="_blank"><b>Luminesca website</b></a>!<br />
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This brings several new benefits over the old payment system...</div>
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<li>The Humble Store accepts a wider range of secure payment types than the previous payment processor including PayPal, Amazon and Google payments.</li>
<li>With a single payment you will have access to Windows, Mac and Linux versions of the game. The previous system had these listed as three separate products, and customers were limited to just the one you purchased.</li>
<li>Humble Store focus entirely on video games, so it's a little more robust in that sense.</li>
<li>I'll be able to easily link Desura keys, plus Steam keys in the future (if the game succeeds on Greenlight that is, so send your votes <a href="http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=133911386" target="_blank">this way!</a>)</li>
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If you have already purchased Luminesca through the old system (Gumroad) I will be sending you an email soon with a free key for the Humble Store. It's up to you whether or not you use it, of course, but I recommend it! You can always gift it to a friend if not!</div>
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Don't hesitate to <a href="mailto:luminescagame@gmail.com" target="_blank">drop me an email</a> if you have any questions or contact the Humble Store's excellent <a href="http://support.humblebundle.com/" target="_blank">customer support</a> team.</div>
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Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17574183434667093252noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1423223450207613409.post-7699965867137560392013-05-15T17:04:00.000+01:002013-05-15T17:04:03.984+01:00Chapter 2 coming soon!Slightly later than planned, but Chapter 2 of Luminesca is so very close! Here's a brand new trailer showing off some of the new areas, as well as some additions to Chapter 1.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="281" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/zZAPzgLap8E" width="500"></iframe></div>
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<b>You can pre-order Luminesca now from <a href="http://luminesca.com/">luminesca.com</a>, <a href="http://www.desura.com/games/luminesca" target="_blank">Desura</a> or <a href="http://www.indievania.com/games/luminesca" target="_blank">Indievania</a>. Anyone who pre-orders gets instant access to all available chapters, and new chapters will be added at no extra cost as they are released in the future.</b><br />
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Thanks for your support! I hope you like the new video!Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17574183434667093252noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1423223450207613409.post-85708840870890837662013-05-07T16:33:00.001+01:002013-05-08T08:26:21.328+01:00Sublevels in Unity3D (when prefabs aren't enough)Most <b><a href="http://unity3d.com/" target="_blank">Unity</a></b> developers will use '<b>prefabs</b>' sooner or later. For those who are unfamiliar, they are basically a way to clump together a group of objects or behaviours so that you can clone them repeatedly and have them all look and act the same way.<br />
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In <b><a href="http://www.luminesca.com/" target="_blank">Luminesca</a></b>, planktids are prefabs so they can be easily dropped into a level in large numbers, and any time I need to make a change I just edit the prefab and it perpetuates all the way down through all the individual instances.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3TsfxlxvGRVDjD3OisajFWIPirxqhCoqV-5koJtp-aTa6RIIq1jekmaXEkPvOiu3A7WQfrk_Ydb44gnqyNv_Jf6PyuFe0b4PvM6xUUIAObfKkHj3TYiEc7NzYBIez-c-0Gp5nSptmPOFU/s1600/sublevels1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="171" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3TsfxlxvGRVDjD3OisajFWIPirxqhCoqV-5koJtp-aTa6RIIq1jekmaXEkPvOiu3A7WQfrk_Ydb44gnqyNv_Jf6PyuFe0b4PvM6xUUIAObfKkHj3TYiEc7NzYBIez-c-0Gp5nSptmPOFU/s400/sublevels1.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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In the screenshot above, the planktids are two instances of a single prefab. The glowpod is also a prefab. The plants are very simple prefabs, and even the large rocks are too. So they're pretty versatile and will save you a ton of work, but sometimes you need something extra.<br />
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During development of <a href="http://www.luminesca.com/" target="_blank">Luminesca</a>, I've been tackling a scenario where a large background area of one level is clearly visible at the start of the next level. This area is made of multiple prefabs and is quite complex. Prefabs aren't really appropriate here because you're doubling things up too much, and you might want certain minor elements to differ between levels.<br />
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The solution I implemented is a nifty trick I learned from using <a href="http://www.unrealengine.com/udk/" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">Unreal Development Kit</a>, and it's a special way of loading content called '<b>sublevels</b>'. The way sublevels work is that you can run a script at any time which loads the contents of one level <i>over the top of</i> the level you are already in.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHimS1mGfOU7uPHDH2D0-2mnAaonnWH1aA1no2kHdRhEcU8YoFDpwh-yaekIh_AMzhGTSYQMMwkqf2eunwp2NIyHPSGXF3ld4v85Nd4kVRnKIVZs6GuTcbBuMb0M4Q8nSpXsrjYZS3Oj2D/s1600/sublevels2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="176" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHimS1mGfOU7uPHDH2D0-2mnAaonnWH1aA1no2kHdRhEcU8YoFDpwh-yaekIh_AMzhGTSYQMMwkqf2eunwp2NIyHPSGXF3ld4v85Nd4kVRnKIVZs6GuTcbBuMb0M4Q8nSpXsrjYZS3Oj2D/s400/sublevels2.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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A sublevel can contain whatever you want (it's essentially just a bog-standard Unity scene) and you can load it into as many other levels as you like. You just need to be a bit savvy to make sure you have the right objects saved in the right scene, and that their coordinates line up properly. I achieved this quite easily by building everything in one scene, copying all the shared objects over to the sublevel, and then deleting them from the original scene (or, more specifically, I just <i>disabled</i> them for now so I can easily peek at where they line up).</div>
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The script to perform this is <a href="http://docs.unity3d.com/Documentation/ScriptReference/Application.LoadLevelAdditive.html" target="_blank">Application.LoadLevelAdditive</a> (the standard method would be to use Application.LoadLevel, which automatically <i>unloads</i> the current level). Then it's just a case of putting the script on an object in each scene that needs to use the sublevel.</div>
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Sublevels can be pretty handy if you have more than one person working on the same level, because they can both be working in separate scenes which then get loaded together.</div>
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You could even get really clever with this and create your own level streaming system, so objects are loaded/unloaded as you get near them. Using this method you could have one giant, continuous world with no loading screens.</div>
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Finally, there's the added benefit of drastically de-cluttering your main scene so Unity runs nice and smooth!</div>
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Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17574183434667093252noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1423223450207613409.post-44287608819338760622013-04-01T18:17:00.001+01:002013-04-01T18:17:08.432+01:00Luminesca on Greenlight!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Luminesca used to be listed on Greenlight Concepts, which is a section devoted to early ideas and demo builds. Now that development is well under-way, I've submitted it to the main Games section for approval by the community.</div>
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<b>Help get Luminesca on Steam:</b> vote for the game <a href="http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=133911386" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">here</a> and I'll be forever grateful!</div>
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Adding it to your Favorites, Following, Sharing and leaving a Comment all help too. (yes, even leaving a comment really does help its chances!)</div>
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Votes from the old Concepts page no longer count, so even if you voted there I'd appreciate it if you took a moment to do it again on the new one.</div>
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Thanks for your support!</div>
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<a href="http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=133911386" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="128" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAu6eHIxHubgrJ0z5Q6K6bFavEHhSndmGxkGH6f4BQ02oFXA8u-r2gkhW8zubLibjRW0fLeUxe0GoO9u0J7BPbavaSnOt5egYvdqQmmeEXC-ggjEH4xbxS204jlCOwsKr2nHpkotnjPLWX/s640/greenlight.png" width="500" /></a></div>
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Find out more about Greenlight <b><a href="http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/about/?appid=765&section=faq" target="_blank">here</a></b>.Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17574183434667093252noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1423223450207613409.post-53798553952549085352013-03-25T17:12:00.004+00:002013-03-25T17:13:22.597+00:00Name your price on IndieGameStand<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
For a limited time only, you can <b>pay what you want</b> for Luminesca over at <b><a href="https://indiegamestand.com/" target="_blank">IndieGameStand</a> </b>and get some <b>special goodies</b> to boot!</div>
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<li>Pay $1 or more to get a <a href="http://www.desura.com/games/luminesca" target="_blank">Desura</a> key.</li>
<li>Beat the average price to get special bonus content: brand new <b>soundtrack</b> and a sneak peak at two early <b>prototype builds</b>.</li>
<li>Pay $10 or more to make it a bundle with IndieGameStand's previous game, <b><a href="http://www.spacepiratesandzombies.com/" target="_blank">Space Pirates and Zombies</a></b>, and the next mystery game, plus all bonus content!</li>
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Head over there now to pick up a bargain, some special goodies, or both!</div>
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<a href="https://indiegamestand.com/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixpZ8MpDd03-TYXfquSugbk1yVhdEQBluyTQmmPn4KXqJZX74j5z3F-3fG-WlG16qiu8aTr16eaYy00l-X6uPTOmQU0jOAv7iX5KbObSKelhPGtBJGSxovhfa4WdVkcj9ZfhmIPGXY27Y8/s1600/IndieGameStand2.png" /></a></div>
<br />Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17574183434667093252noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1423223450207613409.post-24990944777924299102013-02-22T15:53:00.000+00:002013-02-22T15:54:56.020+00:00Luminesca now available for LinuxI'm very pleased to announce that Luminesca is now available for <b>Linux</b> operating systems! You can pre-order it <b><a href="http://www.luminesca.com/" target="_blank">directly from the website</a> </b>to get instant access to the pre-alpha builds. It's also available on <b><a href="http://www.desura.com/games/luminesca" target="_blank">Desura</a></b> and <b><a href="http://www.indievania.com/games/luminesca" target="_blank">Indievania</a></b>.<br />
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<b><u>Important note:</u> Unity3D's Linux support is still in very early stages, so several features simply do not work yet. </b>These are trivial issues for the most part, but please be aware of them before purchasing! I apologise for the shoddy nature of this first release but please remember that it is a work in progress and any issues will be fixed in subsequent builds. Read on for a full list.<br />
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Known bugs</h3>
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<li><b>No start-up options menu</b><br />This is usually a standard feature of all Unity games, and it looks like this just hasn't been implemented by the Unity team yet. I've tried to mitigate the problem wherever possible but it will still be less than ideal for some players, depending on their hardware.</li>
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<li>no resolution settings (defaults to 1024 x 768)</li>
<li>no fullscreen/windowed option (defaults to windowed mode)</li>
<li>no graphics settings (defaults to Low quality, but you can change it to Medium and High by pressing Escape in-game to bring up the pause menu)</li>
<li>no controls settings (most inputs are supported though)</li>
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<li><b>Fairly low frame rate throughout</b><br />Maybe this was just my system, but I was getting about 50-75% of the framerate I got under Windows 7 on the same machine. This may simply be down to a lack of graphics optimisation on Unity's part. I'll be doing optimisations across the board near the end of development anyway, but if it turns out to be a major issue I'll bring that forward in the schedule.</li>
<li><b>Progression-blocking bug where spotlight stops working</b><br />I experienced a bug where I was unable to turn on my spotlight (right mouse button, after transformation early in Chapter 1). I only experienced this once and was unable to reproduce it, but it meant I could not progress as you need it in several areas. Restarting the game should fix it, but please <a href="mailto:luminescagame@gmail.com" target="_blank"><b>let me know</b></a> if you experience it. Any additional information would be very useful!</li>
<li><b>Web links do not work</b><br />This seems to be another Unity feature than is not yet supported. There are a couple of icons when you start up the game which should take you to a URL in your web browser, but they simply do not work. These icons are the <b><a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dHRvdzhmNWppODhsTTVubmg5RFBRNEE6MQ#gid=0" target="_blank">"survey"</a></b> icon on the main menu, and the <b><a href="http://luminesca.blogspot.co.uk/p/data-collection.html" target="_blank">"?"</a></b> on the data tracking confirmation. Again, these should hopefully be fixed in time but if not I'll see what I can do!</li>
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If you find any more issues I would appreciate any information you can provide! Email <b><a href="mailto:LuminescaGame@gmail.com">LuminescaGame@gmail.com</a></b><br />
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Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17574183434667093252noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1423223450207613409.post-3618528987106993722013-02-20T13:33:00.000+00:002013-02-20T13:33:10.996+00:00Update 0.1.4 ReleasedLuminesca has just been updated to version 0.1.4, which you can download from the same place you purchased it (<b><a href="http://www.desura.com/games/luminesca" target="_blank">Desura</a></b>, <b><a href="http://www.indievania.com/games/luminesca" target="_blank">Indievania</a></b>, or <b><a href="http://www.luminesca.com/#buy" target="_blank">direct download</a></b>).<div>
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It's a little later than I had hoped, but it's a much bigger update than 0.1.3 with some significant changes. Read on for an overview of the main features, or view the <b><a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OdnD_khuxkuIxtxqxEVPtiLpa9gj5pjZ400nkDG0Je0/edit" target="_blank">full release notes here</a></b>.</div>
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<li><b>Characters & Story</b><br />The 'story stuff' I mentioned in my <a href="http://luminesca.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/saying-more-writing-less.html" target="_blank"><b>earlier blog post</b></a> is now in. As you explore the world of Luminesca you'll find people going about their business. You can see what they have to say simply by approaching them.</li>
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<li><b>Acrobatics</b><br />You can now jump above the water surface. This was a feature from the old prototype which was quite popular with early testers. I left it out of the recent builds because it's not integral to the gameplay of Chapter 1 and took a little bit of time to get working again, but it's pretty fun so now it's back! Have a blast leaping out of the water!</li>
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<li><b>Pipes & Water Jets</b><br />There were one or two areas in 0.1.3 where water currents would push you around. I decided to make this feature more widespread, so now various pipe outlets have currents that propel you at high speeds if you swim through them. There's also a 'soft puzzle' involving one towards the end. See if you can spot any jet-propelled crabs too...</li>
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<li><b>Planktid A.I.</b><br />The <a href="http://luminesca.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/ai-pathfinding-update.html" target="_blank"><b>improvements</b></a> I mentioned earlier are now in place. Planktids are now a little bit smarter when it comes to navigating around corners, and they can follow you over greater distances with less trouble. There are still some small issues which I'll work on in the coming weeks, but generally it's much less stressful! <b>Note:</b> most planktid problems can now be resolved by shining your light on them again. This resets their pathfinding and they'll come straight to you.</li>
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<li><b>Linux</b><br />I've got a Linux build ready and waiting. I'm going to run a few more tests and devote a blog post just to this though, so please be patient! It really is very close this time!</li>
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I hope you like the new additions! I'm pretty excited about moving on to Chapter 2. Let me know what you think in the comments or tweet <b><a href="https://twitter.com/Luminesca" target="_blank">@Luminesca</a></b>!</div>
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Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17574183434667093252noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1423223450207613409.post-18086864832618088822013-02-13T14:39:00.000+00:002013-02-13T14:39:00.529+00:00A.I. pathfinding updateA lot of players have reported problems with the pathfinding of the creatures in Luminesca (I call them planktids, but you can call them jellyfish, squid, glowing blobs, whatever you like).<br />
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In the current public build, they just swim towards you in a straight line. If there is an obstacle such as a rock in the way they will just bump into it and keep trying to push straight through. Obviously, most rocks are static, so they don't get very far and players have to keep backtracking to allow a clear line of sight for them to catch up.<br />
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The next build update (0.1.4) will include improvements to their navigational skills which should prevent problems like these. Planktids will now remember the route you took and use it to follow you, even over long distances and through complex, winding pathways.<br />
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Check out the video below to see this in action.<br />
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When this is released, as with all updates, it will be available automatically and at no extra cost to anyone who has pre-ordered the game. Head on over to <b><a href="http://luminesca.com/">luminesca.com</a></b> to try it right away!</div>
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Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17574183434667093252noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1423223450207613409.post-72450006363891632032013-02-11T14:05:00.001+00:002013-02-11T14:05:29.108+00:00Saying more, writing lessMy primary focus over the last week or so has been story and exposition. I've put a lot of thought into the kind of world Luminesca takes place in and what its denizens think about it. In fact, conveying these ideas is one of the primary reasons I'm making Luminesca at all. It's a project with which I want to <i>say something</i> and there are specific messages that drive everything in the game. The current build merely hints at these underlying messages, so I'm developing them further for the next update.<br />
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Ever since playing <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ico" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">Ico</a>, and seeing Fumito Ueda's efforts to strip out many of the superfluous elements that have seeped into convention in modern games, I have understood the value of minimalism in game design. This <i>design by reduction</i> approach is applied to Ico's story exposition and the result is a game that drip-feeds just enough ambiguous plot detail for the player to grasp what is going on without resorting to heavy-handed verbosity. It is this level of elegance that I want to achieve in Luminesca.<br />
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I've long believed that video games are at their most elegant when they convey their core ideas via interactive systems, so at first I was averse to using text. I was adamant that I could communicate all my ideas through interaction and imagery alone. I've come to realise that certain ideas are best expressed with words, strung together by a loose interactive framework, but to avoid the aforementioned verbosity trap I've restricted myself to a very simple dialogue box system (shown below).<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV7MLu5lXNUnu02zIgQsMJ2-WajWjA0YZr7rM5FGYaSUvS5tWXHQCxQll-nSNniCQws7QqHX0gMN8jqUsX-FXmOaiaBLAX24lEI57e4xfUEW7uggE0Hm88r_A2nNt9405kmHIALTg6Sfms/s1600/020_MapChat.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV7MLu5lXNUnu02zIgQsMJ2-WajWjA0YZr7rM5FGYaSUvS5tWXHQCxQll-nSNniCQws7QqHX0gMN8jqUsX-FXmOaiaBLAX24lEI57e4xfUEW7uggE0Hm88r_A2nNt9405kmHIALTg6Sfms/s400/020_MapChat.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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These dialogue boxes pop up when the player approaches another character, and disappear again when they move away. They can be displayed repeatedly in case they were missed the first time, and the player is still free to move around, unhindered, while they are being displayed.<br />
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While this maintains a lot of flexibility in the player's experience, this is actually a very inflexible system from a development point of view (the text boxes are a fixed width and do not support multiple pages). I've built them that way for two reasons: firstly, it is technically more simple to implement but, more importantly, it forces me to condense my writing into smaller chunks. These small snippets of characterisation tend towards quick adsorption by the player, which is crucial if you want to attract their attention and discourage them from skipping through lengthy dialogue.<br />
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But this is not the only advantage of concise writing. <b>There is a gap between what stories say and what the audience hears.</b> The more a game withholds such information, the more players must step forward to bridge the gap with their imagination and personal reflection. Players must engage with the text if they want to make sense of what's going on, rather than just sitting back to be spoon-fed messages. Will players <i>want</i> to make sense of it? I hope so, as this desire ties closely into the central themes of the game.<br />
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So what are these <i>messages</i> in Luminesca I've been referring to? You'll have to play (and read) the finished game to find out, or <a href="http://www.luminesca.com/" target="_blank"><b>pre-order now</b></a> to get a sneak peak of it in development!<br />
<br />Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17574183434667093252noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1423223450207613409.post-64569762329358355562013-01-26T18:17:00.000+00:002013-01-26T18:20:20.599+00:00Update 0.1.3 ReleasedLuminesca has just been updated to version 0.1.3, which you can download from the same place you purchased it (<a href="http://www.desura.com/games/luminesca" target="_blank"><b>Desura</b></a>, <a href="http://www.indievania.com/games/luminesca" target="_blank"><b>Indievania</b></a> or <a href="http://www.luminesca.com/#buy" target="_blank"><b>direct download</b></a>).<br />
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This patch fixes the bug which prevented some players from finishing Chapter 1 and adds a few small changes. You can view the full list of changes <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OdnD_khuxkuIxtxqxEVPtiLpa9gj5pjZ400nkDG0Je0/edit" target="_blank"><b>here</b></a>.<br />
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I was working on adding some substantial 'story content' but decided it would be better to just get this bug fixed as soon as possible. There will be another (bigger) update to Chapter 1 in the next week or so before I move on to Chapter 2.<br />
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Also, Linux support is coming <i>very</i> soon!<br />
<br />Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17574183434667093252noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1423223450207613409.post-61145761854494791892013-01-15T14:52:00.002+00:002013-01-23T16:48:45.166+00:00Those pirates are fast (and... helpful?)Piracy is something every game developer must come to expect. It's unavoidable in this age of widespread connectivity and was certainly something I was anticipating with Luminesca. What I did not expect was just how quickly piracy would become an issue; I made the game available for pre-order on Friday and noticed it listed on <i>certain sites</i> within a few days.<br />
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Luminesca utilises a piece of opt-in data tracking software called <a href="http://www.uselumos.com/" target="_blank"><b>Lumos</b></a> (no affiliation!). When the game starts up players can indicate whether or not they are happy to have Lumos send me anonymous hardware, software and session data about their system and experience with the game, which I can then use to improve it.<br />
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I knew something was amiss when I checked the Lumos figures and noticed that <b>the recorded number of players was <strike>triple</strike> <i>ten times</i> the number of sales</b>. Of course there are bound to be some players who chose <i>not</i> to enable data tracking so the actual numbers will be even higher.<br />
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I'm not here to rant about the evils of piracy or propose a solution. As far as I'm concerned there is no solution and the evils are irrelevant; there will always be people trying to get something for nothing. For a small developer it seems so futile to waste time on preventative measures.<br />
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I did, however, find it interesting that so many pirates were willing to permit illegally-acquired software to send usage information back to me. They're providing me with helpful data, whether they are supportive or not!<br />
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Of course there is always <a href="http://www.luminesca.com/#buy" target="_blank">another way they could help</a> which I would not object to in the slightest, and I can only hope they anyone who played Luminesca for free enjoyed it enough to make a contribution and help spread the word.<br />
<br />Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17574183434667093252noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1423223450207613409.post-30543599923120303942013-01-11T17:53:00.000+00:002013-01-11T17:53:47.266+00:00Pre-order Luminesca now, get early access!<b><a href="http://luminesca.com/" target="_blank">luminesca.com</a> is now live and you can pre-order the game <i>right now!</i></b><br />
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The sooner you pre-order, the cheaper you can get it for. It's currently <b>50% off</b> and this price will creep up as more content is added and the final version approaches, so get your pre-order in ASAP!<br />
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<b>PRE-ORDER NOW!</b></div>
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<b><a href="https://gumroad.com/l/hxggL" target="_blank">for Windows</a> | <a href="https://gumroad.com/l/AWwE" target="_blank">for Mac</a></b><br />
(Linux coming soon)</div>
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<b>Also available on Desura!</b></div>
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<a href="http://www.desura.com/games/luminesca" title="Luminesca on Desura"><img alt="Desura Digital Distribution" border="0" height="54" src="http://button.desura.com/play/outline/games/14483.png" width="252" /></a></div>
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<b style="text-align: start;"><a href="http://luminesca.com/" target="_blank">luminesca.com</a></b><br />
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Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17574183434667093252noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1423223450207613409.post-90897099726483638032012-11-22T18:00:00.002+00:002012-11-22T20:26:13.439+00:00Episodic Pre-Release on DesuraI'm very pleased to announce the details of how Luminesca will be available to purchase!<br />
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<img border="0" height="61" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjARjsOm1AecEpZNiT1OBCLNZn1WvJO_B0k5lCTCnhrRcBs6C-3kfKP-9oDNEsjACgQrlrkf-_0wdRdy_ZkOOIPIN9mqV0yWzZp1X2_dBR1feBa6OBYhhgRxpD9uQ0rfR0pLVaY6H7ePnfH/s400/desura_728x90.png" width="500" /></div>
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<i>Here's a clue.</i></div>
<i style="text-align: center;"><br /></i>You will soon be able to pre-order Luminesca, which will be released in 5 chapters via <b><a href="http://www.desura.com/" target="_blank">Desura</a> <a href="http://www.desura.com/groups/desura/news/alphafunding-for-indie-games" target="_blank">Alphafunding</a></b>. These chapters will be made available, one after the other, in a pre-release <b>alpha </b>state. Once all 5 chapters are released, the whole lot will be polished up for the final version.<br />
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<b style="text-align: center;">Will I have to purchase chapters individually?</b></h3>
No, this is just for the pre-release schedule. Luminesca is a full game which you only have to pay for <i>once</i>. If you pre-order then you will have early access to all available chapters, with new ones being added over the course of the game's development.<br />
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<b>What is Desura Alphafunding?</b></h3>
<a href="http://www.desura.com/" target="_blank"><b>Desura</b></a> is a popular digital distribution platform (like Steam) for indie games and mods. <a href="http://www.desura.com/groups/desura/news/alphafunding-for-indie-games" target="_blank"><b>Alphafunding</b></a> is a tool they use to allow developers like myself to sell early work-in-progress builds of their games, helping to fund ongoing development. When you purchase or pre-order the game through Desura you will receive automatic updates as they are released.<br />
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<b>What is an alpha build?</b></h3>
"Alpha" is term used in software development to indicate that something is not finished, but contains work-in-progress versions of all the main features. This allows you to get an overall impression of the software (or game, in this case) and then see which areas need attention, and perhaps readjust some of the design.<br />
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<b>When will Chapter 1 be available?</b></h3>
I'm still working hard on it, but it's very close! As it's the first chapter, it's going to be put through a private testing phase before being released publicly. Once things are confirmed to be in a reasonable state, it will become available for pre-order.<br />
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<b>Do I still have to pay if I donated to the IndieGoGo campaign?</b></h3>
Absolutely not! I'll be contacting everyone who donated funds and sending out keys to get free access on Desura, or alternative download links if preferred.<br />
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If you have any questions don't hesitate to give me a shout at <b><a href="mailto:LuminescaGame@gmail.com">LuminescaGame@gmail.com</a></b> or tweet in my general direction: <a href="https://twitter.com/LuminescaGame" target="_blank"><b>@LuminescaGame</b></a>.<br />
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<br />Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17574183434667093252noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1423223450207613409.post-67738277297779559632012-10-29T13:15:00.001+00:002013-03-25T20:16:31.098+00:00Greenlight Concepts Stats<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Luminesca has been quite well received on Greenlight Concepts. Here's hoping it would be the same on Greenlight Games!</div>
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<a href="http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=104169285" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvzx0gLwtf2OG58FXPM9vEUGisUEPcBHkDjBK1Z1urYXZzkSK7FR1NbVuRoY1DxkJzoQ_sKgEdhPj5ovnENZhpjoKL6-yxtnZZKIUhk7SRaHlUyk6uUn8MI98048us6oOAk_UHK209u4c5/s1600/greenlightstats.png" /></a></div>
Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17574183434667093252noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1423223450207613409.post-85549485760769136302012-10-22T22:36:00.002+01:002013-03-25T20:16:02.222+00:00Steam Greenlight Concepts<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Guess who's on <b><a href="http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=133911386" target="_blank">Steam Greenlight</a> <strike>Concepts</strike></b>...</div>
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<a href="http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=133911386" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQigX02rJZXOQXVrPMqIjQgTgwoXf7TKXGxbzbbnHzvhJscmXnMT4NdeguV5dMl0kJ9GstP7eNzVDPMJ1JzPC3xf3jp0Fuc4RPbk9Ahojv42FNDGHsYcHpc0g8K5Wv-IjtVrNXLSa2LSQ2/s1600/LumGreenlight.png" /></a></div>
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For those who are unfamiliar: <b>Greenlight </b>is a community-driven feature of the megalithic digital distribution platform <b>Steam </b>which allows players to vote for which indie games they want to get published there next. The <b>Concepts </b>section is for projects which are early in development or simply just idea pitches.<br />
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I figured it would be a good idea to try to get some more exposure for Luminesca and gain some useful feedback from a larger audience.<br />
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If you have a Steam account you can help out by voting for <b><a href="http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=133911386" target="_blank">Luminesca</a></b>, engaging in discussion or adding it to your Greenlight Favourites!<br />
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<b>UPDATE:</b> It's now on 'proper' Greenlight, <b><a href="http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=133911386" target="_blank">here!</a></b><br />
<br />Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17574183434667093252noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1423223450207613409.post-22013641272720400382012-10-19T19:00:00.001+01:002012-10-19T20:28:57.144+01:00Video & Wallpaper - New Title ScreenHere's a video of the new animated title screen, and a hi-resolution wallpaper too! It's still a work in progress, of course, but I think it demonstrates some of the progress I've been making quite nicely!<br />
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<br />Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17574183434667093252noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1423223450207613409.post-59525257141061348982012-10-17T15:49:00.001+01:002012-10-17T15:50:35.685+01:00Carving SeascapesThis post is an overview of my process for building environments for Luminesca, intended to be a look into my development process and potentially a useful guide for people wanting to make something similar. This process won't be right for everyone; we've all got our own little quirks and techniques that we feel comfortable using, but will hopefully provide some interesting insight!<br />
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As you may already know, I am building Luminesca in <a href="http://unity3d.com/" target="_blank"><b>Unity</b></a> which has a simple, fast pipeline and supports some useful plugins, namely <b><a href="http://u3d.as/content/divide-software/polygon-tool/1Zz" target="_blank">Polygon Tool</a></b> and <a href="http://u3d.as/content/unikron-software-ltd/2d-toolkit/1Wi" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">2D Toolkit</a> (among others).<br />
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<b>1. Layering Up</b><br />
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A key thing to be aware of is that Luminesca's environments are built in 2D layers, set apart at fixed distances on the Z axis to give them depth. I always use a Z depth value of zero for the gameplay layer, where all the action takes place. This just makes it easier to remember and helps working out whether everything is aligned correctly. I use a Perspective camera (as opposed to Orthographic) with a very low field of view so I can get some nice parallax effects on the background layers.<br />
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I use empty game objects as 'managers' for each layer so I can find them easily. All of that layers components (like meshes and sprites) are children of these manager objects, and are all assigned to a visibility layer in Unity so I can hide and show them when necessary.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJRl0r9WREy_bylANlUWF_Ddy_2BLDTwtQokWp4_LVgYF9jLDfxwZwpn2l4FONeHiJh9AVbwlFYH4e9FMmi6DbZgzSLuTbFNHaqjze-R_yrZYIp5Rh23_cPvzuIGgg3lpj6fWUsvLRKroi/s1600/workprocess02b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJRl0r9WREy_bylANlUWF_Ddy_2BLDTwtQokWp4_LVgYF9jLDfxwZwpn2l4FONeHiJh9AVbwlFYH4e9FMmi6DbZgzSLuTbFNHaqjze-R_yrZYIp5Rh23_cPvzuIGgg3lpj6fWUsvLRKroi/s200/workprocess02b.jpg" width="167" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEk8c2C8FGuYY6BD2zsmXys-S1kq4F5Q-6iAEQn_L7bZ5aXaAWL-PPBJi55cJUul9wwyURdc8fLiMu32T9QUZGOPHs_tSU830Bm1w-vTPYPK9e6CA7XYKDn-yn9Vc6eZjJ3J_AIRNs4ds4/s1600/workprocess02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEk8c2C8FGuYY6BD2zsmXys-S1kq4F5Q-6iAEQn_L7bZ5aXaAWL-PPBJi55cJUul9wwyURdc8fLiMu32T9QUZGOPHs_tSU830Bm1w-vTPYPK9e6CA7XYKDn-yn9Vc6eZjJ3J_AIRNs4ds4/s200/workprocess02.jpg" width="144" /></a></div>
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<b>2. Shapeshifting</b></div>
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Once I've got my layers set up I'm ready to start drawing out a rough shape for the environment. To do this I use a plugin called <b><a href="http://u3d.as/content/divide-software/polygon-tool/1Zz" target="_blank">Polygon Tool</a></b>, which is available in the Unity Asset Store for a very reasonable $10. This tool allows you to draw out 2D meshes simply by clicking to place vertices, and it automatically builds a collider from the shape you draw. So using Polygon Tool I sketch out a crude outline of the level.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9HJIbJuNrjMLMDhFfqlpPJ9_tpSoeF5DZuejEEcS9OMoUlIvKiQhlAbcmXJjB-jq3QH0COVYmSZODwBtEE-klNGXHnyIpFKdHkDdNksld4_7VeYH2X2EMxZD6p3lCF7tF2h8tX2UvjROJ/s1600/workprocess03.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9HJIbJuNrjMLMDhFfqlpPJ9_tpSoeF5DZuejEEcS9OMoUlIvKiQhlAbcmXJjB-jq3QH0COVYmSZODwBtEE-klNGXHnyIpFKdHkDdNksld4_7VeYH2X2EMxZD6p3lCF7tF2h8tX2UvjROJ/s400/workprocess03.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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At this stage I don't really bother adding much detail or making it look nice. It's just there to get a feel for the size and shape of the environment, so I have a swim around and maybe make some adjustments until I'm happy with it.</div>
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Next I'll add in some simple more polygons for the background layers. This just helps to give the empty spaces some definition, which helps to navigate the open bodies of water where there are no edges. I make sure collision is <i>disabled </i>for these layers; the player will never be able to get back there so we don't need Unity to calculate any physics interactions for them. You may also notice the unsightly angle in the bottom-right corner. Well, that's fine, because that will be hidden behind the main gameplay layer!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQDyynzdTM3gJlr5aqAiAknEiLvPp_In70aOglbL40ONyNthrIldfsaBcT6P4wrxUtzjGYW5Cam51qkX-BjmPMrDZXLfi8fdjYcP3qCiUMksKUxuLj3hwsMI8CXiy879xsBe6sxSStWTCW/s1600/workprocess04.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQDyynzdTM3gJlr5aqAiAknEiLvPp_In70aOglbL40ONyNthrIldfsaBcT6P4wrxUtzjGYW5Cam51qkX-BjmPMrDZXLfi8fdjYcP3qCiUMksKUxuLj3hwsMI8CXiy879xsBe6sxSStWTCW/s400/workprocess04.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b>3. Less Talk, More Rock</b><br />
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I've now got a rough shape for my whole level. By this point I've added some gameplay objects like creatures so it's time to start adding rocky visual detail to the main level collision. To do this I use the excellent <a href="http://u3d.as/content/unikron-software-ltd/2d-toolkit/1Wi" target="_blank"><b>2D Toolkit</b></a> plugin ($65 on the Unity Asset Store). The sprites themselves are simple black textures with an alpha channel for the transparent parts. 2D Toolkit lets you bake collections of sprites down into a mesh for a single draw call, so it's all nicely optimised at runtime.<br />
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Creating the terrain is just a case of chucking sprites in and matching them up to the polygon mesh I made earlier by rotating, scaling and flipping. This time I'll take a bit of extra care to make it look nice and convincing, using the polygon mesh as a basic guide for the overall shape.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdtmtQLirTUXdfl0m1xYxINpViINar_snyQKIm4YrG7ZkzOZ__DU8AKyjEIiCYLMaHolplE4tOc7vKhioCl42XKPXuGtmm97MKGaly143H05Q0WwYiNyg7Z2xkC_YNDiXFriVR4UIrVLt1/s1600/workprocess06.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdtmtQLirTUXdfl0m1xYxINpViINar_snyQKIm4YrG7ZkzOZ__DU8AKyjEIiCYLMaHolplE4tOc7vKhioCl42XKPXuGtmm97MKGaly143H05Q0WwYiNyg7Z2xkC_YNDiXFriVR4UIrVLt1/s400/workprocess06.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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By the way, all of the rocky terrain is just made up of different configurations of these three sprites. Efficient!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCLrJYuHh9xAgeCizXoLPzlyf66XH0vII_HUtpMi9RMHCmAMG9_6wzf0W3xMwRUKnfo-eIkRSC8S3bPwRgbm71mGTrAknjG9E9cRQ_4EYqwTUtwwbSmBoIHSzR8TX7W8X00yolzInEAEfY/s1600/workprocess05.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="142" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCLrJYuHh9xAgeCizXoLPzlyf66XH0vII_HUtpMi9RMHCmAMG9_6wzf0W3xMwRUKnfo-eIkRSC8S3bPwRgbm71mGTrAknjG9E9cRQ_4EYqwTUtwwbSmBoIHSzR8TX7W8X00yolzInEAEfY/s400/workprocess05.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b>4. Chiseling Away</b><br />
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We now have a problem: the sprites do not have any collision, so what the player bumps into (the collision mesh I built earlier) does not match what they can actually see. There will be rocks which look solid, but the player will be able to pass right through them, highlighted in red in the image below.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkqRLsrwXbfckcIld1urvWsZp0azCu4Ig-mJqzeL3GBGpgjKno3LV4FTiKamvrqVN4FzXNHqDanvu3iAG6pxkp2FO5CERchkaPzUiGBVv5r0SOByiDjKrI6txung5cG_chJ0L7SBE2Hpvk/s1600/workprocess07.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="311" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkqRLsrwXbfckcIld1urvWsZp0azCu4Ig-mJqzeL3GBGpgjKno3LV4FTiKamvrqVN4FzXNHqDanvu3iAG6pxkp2FO5CERchkaPzUiGBVv5r0SOByiDjKrI6txung5cG_chJ0L7SBE2Hpvk/s320/workprocess07.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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To fix this, I go through with a fine-toothed comb and make sure the vertices of the collision mesh match up with the finer details of the sprites. I don't add <i>too</i> much detail though, as collider complexity ultimately results in more physics calculations, which slows the game down on less powerful machines. Therefore this stage results in an <i>approximation</i> of the visuals, albeit a fairly accurate one. There's still a bit of a rim around the edges but this is acceptable as it just looks like foreground detail when the player sprite goes behind it. It's far from being misleading like it was before.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGyUUV7f_3MwCfWIY8WSlGWxERXqQxLxdHaYnzFJ2IyPEqWsCA8nfxVv-ij9T8kixhI7eX7B1w2FCLtp8S0BnzXaJgmsP7iEjSinydwjOIHmHLX_f3mXdrhpuvgYFoJiyH1LtMK4ocFqda/s1600/workprocess08.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="311" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGyUUV7f_3MwCfWIY8WSlGWxERXqQxLxdHaYnzFJ2IyPEqWsCA8nfxVv-ij9T8kixhI7eX7B1w2FCLtp8S0BnzXaJgmsP7iEjSinydwjOIHmHLX_f3mXdrhpuvgYFoJiyH1LtMK4ocFqda/s320/workprocess08.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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It <i>is</i> possible to create a mesh collider for each sprite and have 2D Toolkit instantiate them, but I decided to manually shape the collision because there's a lot of sprite overlap which would result in unnecessary vertices existing, and I also wanted more control over the collider.<br />
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<b>5. Let There Be Life!</b><br />
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Of course, I could leave it there, but this would look even better with some details like foliage in the foreground and background. These are placed just like the rock sprites, only they don't have any collision (nor do they require it).<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn_mhSkSve5yJPqrqZfIOnGdU37CH9eWf62RsPIFE0Klb-14AGjVs89fRLQ-b6rPixFiW8FZKBPHq2Y6Zg3QNxx4XyOQFOoAW81IBRJ6UV-5G-ENXZ3G0rYGXekkqKpumfAmjL3JxEy8T4/s1600/workprocess09.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn_mhSkSve5yJPqrqZfIOnGdU37CH9eWf62RsPIFE0Klb-14AGjVs89fRLQ-b6rPixFiW8FZKBPHq2Y6Zg3QNxx4XyOQFOoAW81IBRJ6UV-5G-ENXZ3G0rYGXekkqKpumfAmjL3JxEy8T4/s400/workprocess09.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Finally, I'll probably add some more background detail and maybe an extra layer or two. Then just click Play!</div>
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<br />Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17574183434667093252noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1423223450207613409.post-9136634859378083472012-10-10T17:45:00.000+01:002012-10-10T17:52:11.961+01:00Reboot ProgressI've had some free time to work on Luminesca recently. There have been some interesting developments and I'm feeling happy with the new direction so I thought it would be an appropriate time to talk about the game again.<br />
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As I mentioned in my last update, I've gone back to the drawing board with the overarching game design and structure and I'm now taking a less challenge-focused approach to gameplay, with a stronger emphasis on exploration and atmosphere. That means fewer reflex-based scenarios and far less penalty for failure (if any). It was a tough decision to make. I'm a big proponent for elegant systemic game design, but I was starting to feel like I was bashing my head against a brick wall in some ways. I was trying to shoehorn in mechanics and challenges where they didn't fit and were not appropriate. Simplifying the game has made it feel a <i>lot</i> closer to my early conceptualisations and I'm feeling confident about pursuing this style.<br />
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Another significant change to my plans is the shift to an <b>episodic </b>format, which has helped a great deal in breaking the project down into manageable chunks. I'm really keen to get something playable out there as soon as possible. I'll be revealing more details about the release schedule in the near future as well as new images and videos.<br />
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Be sure to follow the game on <a href="https://twitter.com/LuminescaGame" target="_blank"><b>Twitter</b></a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Luminesca/147080558689456" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">Facebook</a> or the new <a href="http://luminesca.tumblr.com/" target="_blank"><b>Tumblr</b></a> to stay updated, and please help to spread the word! Until then, enjoy these new screenshots of Episode 1.<br />
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<a href="https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.415857985145044.98386.147080558689456&type=3" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg04_xW9samXtOjgitwu65rcCVi50D4n8FFUqHLElgp7IixGvzt8H5geL6RmGD3_wMWweYvs4Kb-yus3HEK0dmZKy4o1nZF5YUdYe9v9Aps0aLg1lMBwUfsvdfVYG3zBveygXYY-nZjb_R8/s400/DeepBlue.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.415857985145044.98386.147080558689456&type=3" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbIbV6M-iV94iLcfC-xo2qBLCyDb7PJdVgxKcuxQbE604jHgxq_po984BlxP9isbnWzUVzOUHggeSD7kY_MIMtG_EBKSGrkW21TcVgmzwyGukcNJ9rxhTMG43FFSW4XnVOhJRz5HM0wt5R/s400/HiddenLum.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.415857985145044.98386.147080558689456&type=3" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggb0bVsJUIhaP_9p8D2YMc6Qu966DeEGVziqI0NriexK2gUwOjE-AKKqJlUuAEHd2xePxbTfoxDmgDcuTmxrVCE2GefnjAMgv2wEyfWi0OhMWUBZ_nNeDi1LHShXBy-kpkTmj5GPYWLCS7/s400/happyworms.png" width="286" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.415857985145044.98386.147080558689456&type=3" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh14CkoiRUFDpEwuKxduJ79BnPkit-VL5DiOVCoDe8FPbIzqJpDhXNoXRFL_yO4VlgbuejGXMO-FQSB5a_p5-2Fbfva0svmT1DJ5XDiqtlnRKrtayPZ96YmPL5wGq2ObFDgI5cSZP2c1uiL/s400/lumtitle.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<br />Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17574183434667093252noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1423223450207613409.post-39831321519698848902012-04-01T21:14:00.000+01:002012-04-01T21:14:15.488+01:00An Open and Honest UpdateIt's about time I explained the current state of Luminesca. The project has now been running for over a year and, for better or worse, where I am now is nowhere near where I planned to be by this time. Focuses have shifted, certain constraints have arisen while others have relaxed, and my general outlook on the project has changed.<br />
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In this post I'm going to highlight changes to some of my former intentions and explain how they came about.<br />
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<b>Full-time development</b><br />
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By far the most significant change to the development is the amount of time I am dedicating to it on a weekly basis. The key purpose for <a href="http://www.indiegogo.com/Luminesca"><b>the IndieGoGo campaign</b></a> was to raise enough funds that I could take some time out from work and dedicate all my time to Luminesca. I raised a notable amount from the campaign for which I am hugely grateful, but the high cost of living meant that this money pretty much only covered the time I spent promoting it. Perhaps this was a lack of foresight on my part, perhaps I should have been more prepared and financially stable before starting the campaign. This is something I actually deeply regret because I have been unable to fulfil my plans as quickly as I had hoped.<br />
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What this meant was I had to go back to full-time work and shift Luminesca's development into my free time. This has significantly slowed down development, I can't deny that. On the other hand I have picked a lot of very valuable skills in my new job which I can apply to Luminesca, and it will be a much better game for it.<br />
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<b>Project scope</b><br />
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I had high hopes for the game in its early days, and a lot of this was probably due to over-ambition and naivety. Luminesca was planned to be a 4-6 hour game with 3D graphics, hopefully delivered to a variety of platforms such as Xbox Live Arcade and iOS. Since then I've come to realise what a massive amount of work this entails and have re-scoped the project accordingly. If I stuck to the original plan I think the game would simply never see the light of day, or at least not for a <i>very</i> long time. I don't want it to take that long, I don't want to get to the point where I'm sick of it, and I don't want to keep the IndieGoGo funders waiting.<br />
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I'm now looking at a much more focused design, closer to 1-2 hours in length, using 2D art which is much quicker and easier to produce in the quantities I need, and I'm aiming to develop only for PC/Mac/Linux at this stage. If the game is successful I will consider other platforms, but it would take too much time and effort to work them into the plan at this stage.<br />
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<b>What comes next?</b><br />
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<ul>
<li>I will continue to develop Luminesca in my spare time.</li>
<li>I recently cleaned out the Unity project folder as it was getting bloated with obsolete code and art assets. It was becoming too big for what it needed to be. This reboot has given me a jolt of enthusiasm and made the whole thing far easier to manage.</li>
<li>Some of the IndieGoGo funds have gone into purchasing Unity extensions - namely <a href="http://unikronsoftware.com/2dtoolkit/"><b>2D Toolkit</b></a> and <a href="http://www.uscript.net/home/"><b>uScript</b></a> - which speed up my workflow immensely, so this is getting faster and more productive.</li>
<li>I now have a much clearer idea about how the full game will take shape and I'm working on a demo of the opening sections using my new 2D art style. As soon as this is ready I will make it available to everyone who donated. I really can't wait to show off all the ideas I've come up with in the last few months!</li>
<li>To all the people who donated: I have not forgotten about you! I will continue to work towards making the game the best it can be and making your donation worthwhile.</li>
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<b>All I ask of you now is patience. It will be worth it!</b><br />
<br />Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17574183434667093252noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1423223450207613409.post-109992203811250852011-12-31T16:35:00.002+00:002011-12-31T16:35:32.243+00:002D Lighting SystemToday I got a new 2D lighting system working. The old system was simply a big black square with a hole in the middle. The drawback of that system was that it only supported one light at a time, but the new one allows an unlimited number.<br />
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Please note that in this video the glow from Lum's esca does not grow when you collect planktids. This will change!<br />
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For those interested in the technique I used: it's really simple! I just attached a flat plane to each light source with a glowing sprite material. The material uses a Particles/Additive shader. Behind all this is another large plane with a semi-transparent black texture applied which darkens the background. The foreground rocks and creatures and all rendered in front of the glows so they are not obscured.</div>
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<b>Happy New Year!</b></div>
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<b><br /></b></div>Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17574183434667093252noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1423223450207613409.post-73997096696035045472011-12-19T23:20:00.001+00:002011-12-19T23:20:10.494+00:00ENTOMBED<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
My daily commute by train has become a great opportunity to sketch up some concept art for some of the key moments in the game. Thus:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJqnkRLznnKHRCYO22N8X2pNYAArvHB2UprCDeVuaWMJ4vpbWOczQ8osviwTGoz5Xz6_4G_8ncuWuvMXvDSUrzX01Tio6pn5Yol8RrmsJFYgHwAGY4t8qqXmf2mSx81G-fffFnGhK7sehC/s1600/Sacrifice2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJqnkRLznnKHRCYO22N8X2pNYAArvHB2UprCDeVuaWMJ4vpbWOczQ8osviwTGoz5Xz6_4G_8ncuWuvMXvDSUrzX01Tio6pn5Yol8RrmsJFYgHwAGY4t8qqXmf2mSx81G-fffFnGhK7sehC/s640/Sacrifice2.png" width="480" /></a></div>
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Development of the game has picked up again in recent weeks. The 2D art style is working really well for me and allowing me to get my ideas implemented <i>much </i>more quickly and painlessly. One of the benefits is that concept art like this can be recreated in the game far more accurately than it could using 3D assets.</div>
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I've set myself the goal of creating an introductory sequence made up of about 15 rooms, which will ideally act as a kind of new pre-release demo to replace the old IndieGoGo prototype build. I plan to use this demo to show off the darkness effects, demonstrate how the world will be explored and start to introduce the story.</div>
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More news to come in the next few weeks! Follow Luminesca on <b><a href="https://twitter.com/#!/LuminescaGame">Twitter</a> </b>or <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Luminesca/147080558689456">Facebook</a> </b>for the latest.</div>
<br />Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17574183434667093252noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1423223450207613409.post-39583667932605137782011-11-23T22:08:00.001+00:002011-11-23T22:34:34.436+00:00black jellies in motion<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
I previewed the 2D art style in my previous blog post, but <b>here's a video of it in motion:</b></div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/qjmEQWDjbEQ" width="480"></iframe></div>
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The video demonstrates two key features:</div>
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<ol style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<li>The dangerous <b>black jellies</b>, which close in on light sources and constrict your movement. Their poisonous tentacles slow you down and make you easy pickings for the ominous, eyeless maws.</li>
<li>The use of <b>light </b>to create more dynamic situations. The brightness of your light now affects how far you can see in the dark and changes your relationship with other creatures. If it becomes bright enough you can scare away weaker enemies like infant jellyfish.</li>
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I'm making headway with <b>refining the story</b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"> and trimming out the </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">superfluous</span> parts, which is helping to shape the overarching level design. This in turn is helping me decide which gameplay elements (creatures, obstacles, etc.) no longer fit the game, and <b>I'm building a much clearer idea of what Luminesca is <i>about</i></b>. To me, this is a very important part of its design.<br />
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And finally, some good news. I'm working on <b>a new playable prototype which should be available via certain digital distributions platforms</b>. If you pre-order the game you can get early access to this for a discounted price. If you donated to the IndieGoGo campaign you will get a key to download it at no extra cost (this is essentially an updated version of the 'preview build' being delivered in a more secure way).</div>
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<br /></div>Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17574183434667093252noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1423223450207613409.post-72582138791403432542011-10-10T18:51:00.001+01:002011-10-10T18:51:51.433+01:002 new screenshots to start the week<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC4RLI-z-YxfghV0gwCLCRBZOO1WPzF0QUK1N1KC5C3H5-yKL8XT34kPfGcQ4rsYmUQ8m6P0UR_VCc4tLW_FOR0oMQrU_0AXmfvz6Q2Ek0dJIoRUJRXJSVDn5kRIpGG4iFA78asTjrVhp5/s1600/LuminescaSS3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="375" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC4RLI-z-YxfghV0gwCLCRBZOO1WPzF0QUK1N1KC5C3H5-yKL8XT34kPfGcQ4rsYmUQ8m6P0UR_VCc4tLW_FOR0oMQrU_0AXmfvz6Q2Ek0dJIoRUJRXJSVDn5kRIpGG4iFA78asTjrVhp5/s640/LuminescaSS3.jpg" width="500" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimWPwx9_vfVpQwuO4okjbsJAIO-K3naBT3AhkpRv5ZeBM3AO_Z2njwFjRqqo8km5WlVGNeo52tloR0xDmsGMKz5b_73ayyAEcRIyIE_89TQpofz6xY6tGUj_3vtQMxT6YJirZNklE9EiSw/s1600/LuminescaSS4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="375" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimWPwx9_vfVpQwuO4okjbsJAIO-K3naBT3AhkpRv5ZeBM3AO_Z2njwFjRqqo8km5WlVGNeo52tloR0xDmsGMKz5b_73ayyAEcRIyIE_89TQpofz6xY6tGUj_3vtQMxT6YJirZNklE9EiSw/s640/LuminescaSS4.jpg" width="500" /></a></div>
<br />Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17574183434667093252noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1423223450207613409.post-17111610289425487372011-10-02T11:41:00.000+01:002011-10-02T11:41:39.383+01:00tardy update<div style="text-align: justify;">
Sorry for the lack of updates, etc. etc. I'm going to be open and honest about where Luminesca is at the moment.<br />
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The donations the project received via IndieGoGo were incredibly generous and allowed me to spend time developing an actual working prototype, which has helped me more than I could have possibly imagined. But the funding only lasted for so long and I've had to return to full-time work so I can pay the bills. Unfortunately, progress on Luminesca has slowed down quite a bit as a result.</div>
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But it hasn't stopped completely! Luminesca is incredibly important to me and has been slowly simmering for several years in one form or another. Developing a working version of the game has opened my eyes to a lot of realities about the project, from high-level project management issues (e.g. <i>it takes a lot of time and effort to make a game on your own</i>) right down to the nitty-gritty quibbles (<i>this camera is too close, and that move speed is too slow</i>).</div>
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Ultimately, I decided that I wasn't happy with the direction that the game was heading in and that it had grown into something quite unmanageable taking my budget and time constraints into account. So I've taken a step back from the game, looked at what wasn't working and now I have gone back to the drawing board. Here's what I've come up with:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj137kpaO7waSyARGnFihXbqNHp6VaIF6HOdLoyvO5Z3AJGSCbv5hOk5sjOHIYxE9QyfapvAKGOR0IjAoHojJYBUaRhuOXtpO787eMHdOcm_j5Tmmkpu1RUhCzVkdtq7-A9l4-10CbgfnBO/s1600/LuminescaSS1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="375" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj137kpaO7waSyARGnFihXbqNHp6VaIF6HOdLoyvO5Z3AJGSCbv5hOk5sjOHIYxE9QyfapvAKGOR0IjAoHojJYBUaRhuOXtpO787eMHdOcm_j5Tmmkpu1RUhCzVkdtq7-A9l4-10CbgfnBO/s640/LuminescaSS1.jpg" width="500" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjat0wddlkPpNRnoaRR3Rr054_5ncUZPO_Fgjn4x1AoGrj3a3FVBGFZMBxP_jZ_wiC7moWoz0RlTiHYaZaeYsiCZp6lwYrYjrh2467Q3s8YzgbIks6BCMh5jMk-7V21KnXbdyycV9AVLv-C/s1600/LuminescaSS2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="375" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjat0wddlkPpNRnoaRR3Rr054_5ncUZPO_Fgjn4x1AoGrj3a3FVBGFZMBxP_jZ_wiC7moWoz0RlTiHYaZaeYsiCZp6lwYrYjrh2467Q3s8YzgbIks6BCMh5jMk-7V21KnXbdyycV9AVLv-C/s640/LuminescaSS2.jpg" width="500" /></a></div>
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As you can see I've gone back to 2D, this time using a plugin for Unity called <a href="http://www.wyrmtale.com/products/unity3d-components/orthello" target="blank">Orthello</a>. I came to the conclusion that 3D art is not my forté, and implementing it has a tendency to increase the number of bugs and graphical oddities tenfold. 2D art is simple, clean and (most importantly) quick and easy to create. This means it's way more manageable for a one-man team and I have a much greater chance of actually finishing the game!</div>
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I'm not showing off the game in motion just yet as there are still some kinks to iron out, but I'm already feeling much more confident about development and I'm progressing much quicker than before.<br />
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What do you think? Do you like the new style based on this early look?<br />
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Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17574183434667093252noreply@blogger.com3