iphone puzzle rpg

Community Forums/Showcase/iphone puzzle rpg

jhocking(Posted 2010) [#1]
A couple weeks ago I finally started developing an iphone game using iminib3d. Today I started a worklog for that project:

http://www.blitzmax.com/logs/userlog.php?log=1748&user=3087



The screenshots aren't terribly interesting yet, I still haven't applied textures to any of the models. I figure it'll be instructive to read along with the development process; even if I don't get around to updating this worklog, the beginning may be useful.

Here's hoping I see this project through to release!


GaryV(Posted 2010) [#2]
Worklog has me intrigued...


andy_mc(Posted 2010) [#3]
nice start. But why's this posted here?


*(Posted 2010) [#4]
because its minib3d in i form ;)


jhocking(Posted 2010) [#5]
iminib3d is an iPhone port of Blitz3D:
http://www.blitzmax.com/Community/posts.php?topic=85763


GaryV(Posted 2010) [#6]
But why's this posted here?
iMiniB3D (which is an iPhone port of MiniB3D) is distributed via the BRL site.


jhocking(Posted 2010) [#7]
The latest worklog entries show the level has textures now. Next on my todo list is modeling the characters.




jhocking(Posted 2010) [#8]
Just bumping the thread because I modeled characters:



Naughty Alien(Posted 2010) [#9]
hehe..kind a cute characters..i really like it :) nice work so far..


GaryV(Posted 2010) [#10]
I love the characters.


Blitzplotter(Posted 2010) [#11]
nice looking work.


slenkar(Posted 2010) [#12]
ive always wanted to make low-poly characters that look decent
got any tips?
which modelling app did you use?


ShadowTurtle(Posted 2010) [#13]
they looks funny. the story of the game is funny too?


jhocking(Posted 2010) [#14]
Not really funny, no. I mean, not serious either, just not overtly comedy. It's a light fairy tale. I'd written a story about a team of fairies journeying into the goblin kingdom, although now I'm wondering if it might work better in the other direction, a team of fairies escaping from the goblin kingdom.

got any tips?

um, well one practical tip that applies to pretty much any situation modeling extremely low-pol is that 4-sided shapes can work as round cylinders if they are aligned as a diamond cross-section instead of square. As in point a corner forward, not a flat side.

Beyond that, I mean that is a really broad question.

which modelling app did you use?

I modeled them in Maya, but pretty much any 3D graphics tool will work fine. 3ds max, Blender, Wings, whatever. For characters this low-pol (under 400) Maya is overkill anyway, even Milkshape would do.


slenkar(Posted 2010) [#15]
thanks for the tips, i always get stuck with joining (or extruding )the legs and arms to the body


jhocking(Posted 2010) [#16]
Well there's no real secret to joining pieces, although some modeling tools have a command called Bridge that can be used by selecting the polygons you want to bridge between.

Combine the pieces into one mesh, delete the polygons on either side of where you want to join them together, and then weld vertices together to seal the join.


jhocking(Posted 2010) [#17]
Just a quick update to link to the gameplay video I just recorded:
http://vimeo.com/11385987

You can see that the enemy isn't functional yet, but I've implemented stuff like locked doors and switches.


Why0Why(Posted 2010) [#18]
Looking good. I much prefer tap to move on the iPhone. For me it definitely needs to be an option. I hate the hold to move. Very cumbersome, IMHO.


jhocking(Posted 2010) [#19]
Thanks for the feedback about controls, once I start playtesting I'm going to be soliciting a lot of opinions about that.

At first I favored hold to move because that works well for me, but I found it feels very different on an actual device compared to in the simulator. For starters, in the simulator it's just a mouse clicking, but on device your hand obscures the screen!


Snixx(Posted 2010) [#20]
I am glad you have not lowered yourself to making rubbish like many others just for the appstore.


jhocking(Posted 2010) [#21]
lol well thanks for the thumbs up. I wouldn't put it that way when describing myself, although it would be an amusing marketing gimmick to use the slogan "This game isn't rubbish!"


Snixx(Posted 2010) [#22]
Lol I am just on a hating rampage about people making complete pants games that do bugger all and can be hardly called games. But I like this.


jhocking(Posted 2010) [#23]
ATTACK



FIRE




*(Posted 2010) [#24]
looks cool :)


jhocking(Posted 2010) [#25]
Now the AI notices the player and attacks:



It's annoying how much time I'm spending getting the combat working just right, since I don't anticipate combat being a huge part of this game. It's more of a puzzle game than an action game, although I'm designing the combat to be similar to the Legend of Zelda so maybe it'll end up with more combat than I'm expecting.


simonh(Posted 2010) [#26]
Looking good Joe. This seems to be progressing at a rapid pace - keep it up.


jhocking(Posted 2010) [#27]
latest video http://www.vimeo.com/11901647

Fully functional level, finally! The players all work, the devices in the level all work, the AI enemies work. Now I can start playtesting this level, while also starting to work on a next prototype level. This first prototype level had the following devices:

dropoffs
locked doors
keys
slippery ice
sliding walls
floorplates
written messages
treasure chests
end zone

The next level will have more devices I want to develop:

automatic cannons
switches
retracting spikes
moving platforms
water
drawbridges
magic chargers (ie. triggers you shoot)
blocks you can push


simonh(Posted 2010) [#28]
Looking better with every video! What software did you use to capture the video if you don't mind me asking?


jhocking(Posted 2010) [#29]
Screen captured with iShowU. I definitely like how the desktop on OSX is rendered with OpenGL so there's no distinction between capturing 3D graphics and other applications.


Robert Cummings(Posted 2010) [#30]
Looking great :)

The simulator is 100% software rendering though, for your info. It doesn't use hardware.


jhocking(Posted 2010) [#31]
That's not surprising, but it's a muddy issue with OSX anyway since all the rendering is done through OpenGL. "Software rendering" is an abstraction on top of hardware rendering. That's why it can do stuff like zoom in on the screen, Expose, and the Genie effect.


jhocking(Posted 2010) [#32]
Just made a trailer to show off the game prototype:
http://www.vimeo.com/11968512

Still not quite ready to post this on toucharcade and tweet about it, I want to improve the visuals a bit (level shading, draw the interface) before trying to really expose this. Plus the visual quality in the trailer is pretty crummy so eventually I need to redo it.


jhocking(Posted 2010) [#33]
Just updated the trailer to have better visual quality, and added block pushing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_zfF5RM01M


GaryV(Posted 2010) [#34]
New trailer looks really good, jhocking!


jhocking(Posted 2010) [#35]
I was pretty jazzed making the new trailer, it really feels like a proper game now. It's astonishing how much of a visual difference shading the level made; I devised a pretty clever method of cutting up polygons to optimize vertex colors for shading.


Nate the Great(Posted 2010) [#36]
nice job! I cracked up when on the trailer it said 'fly over holes' and showed the dwarf falling in.


jhocking(Posted 2010) [#37]
lol that is amusing, I didn't think of that. I was just intending to contrast a character who can't fly with the flying pixie.

(incidentally, good job on the verlet physics in your game! I'm thinking of trying to implement verlet physics in iminib3d.)


jhocking(Posted 2010) [#38]
Just updated the trailer to have better visual quality, and added block pushing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_zfF5RM01M


aw there's a dislike on the video

That gets me thinking, what is the worst thing about the game right now? It is certainly still early work-in-progress so I'm curious what progress I should focus on next. Do you think the person clicked "dislike" because of poor graphics in the game? Because I haven't drawn the interface yet? Because there's no music yet?


jhocking(Posted 2010) [#39]
Just added a new post to my worklog, including this screenshot:



I've started playtesting the game, and my worklog explains a bit about how that's going.


slenkar(Posted 2010) [#40]
the person could have clicked dislike just to mess with you.

The game looks pretty good overall


Brucey(Posted 2010) [#41]
Don't forget to support x2 resolution for the new iPhone :-)


slenkar(Posted 2010) [#42]
r u going to release a blitzmax version?


*(Posted 2010) [#43]
TBH compiling this with minib3d and blitzmax could get you another 'avenue' with someone like Bigfish they seem to snap up this sort of stuff :)


jhocking(Posted 2010) [#44]
Porting this to desktops after the iPhone release is something I've been thinking a lot about, and naturally BlitzMax is an attractive option for doing that port.


GaryV(Posted 2010) [#45]
Looks good, jhocking!


ErikT(Posted 2010) [#46]
That gets me thinking, what is the worst thing about the game right now?

Your use of color hues for sure. Especially the (seemingly) perfect gray ramp you have going which makes everything look somewhat drab and boring. Pure gray never works well imo, even for surfaces that are supposed to be all gray. I tried messing around with the colors some to rectify this, using a bit of purple and green for the midtones, blue for the shadows and moving towards yellow for the lighter tones.




The levels could do with some re-usable decorations: torches on the walls, a skeleton or pile of rubble in some corner, rats scurrying about, beams maybe? And if it doesn't make the iphone croak completely, a lightmap would do wonders too.


Kryzon(Posted 2010) [#47]
I tried messing around with the colors some to rectify this, using a bit of purple and green for the midtones, blue for the shadows and moving towards yellow for the lighter tones.

That mock-up looks very interesting.

On what grounds did you select the colors?


Robert Cummings(Posted 2010) [#48]
some form of realtime lighting would really make this even if vert lit torches


jhocking(Posted 2010) [#49]
@t-rek: Those are some great suggestions, thanks! I'm planning to eventually redo the level textures to be more interesting so that gives me a very good start. Among other things I've been thinking about adding color to the textures because completely greyscale is so boring, so thanks for the specific ideas.

With reference to your suggestion of re-usable decorations, I have been thinking about stuff lying around, but more importantly I've been planning to make a set of mix-and-match textures (floors with trims along the edges, floors with rugs, etc.) to give the visuals more variety.


ErikT(Posted 2010) [#50]
On what grounds did you select the colors?


A basic rule of thumb is to use cooler, less saturated colours on the dark end of the scale and warmer colours for the highlights. The less light, the less colour the human eye is able to pick up. But that rule can be broken in many wonderful ways :o) I've experimented with putting different colours together to see how they fit and found for instance that desaturated purples and (lime) greens play really well together so I often combine those.

I've been messing around with pixelling a lot lately and looked at various pixel work from the 8/16-bit eras. Back in those days people had to be creative with their palettes to compensate for the limited amount of colours and it led to some very interesting colour combinations. There's a thread over at Pixelation which takes a closer look at how the Bitmap Brothers did colours for their Chaos Engine games. Good stuff and I think these principles can be applied to textures as well, especially for lo-fi 3D games where there's less real-time lighting to do the illumination/colouring for you.

http://www.wayofthepixel.net/pixelation/index.php?topic=1025.0

but more importantly I've been planning to make a set of mix-and-match textures (floors with trims along the edges, floors with rugs, etc.) to give the visuals more variety.


Sounds good. Look forward to updates on this :o)


Kryzon(Posted 2010) [#51]
@T-Rek: I had imagined you had a pixel-art background. The amount of color study this field employs is really amazing.
Something of which I admire a lot.
It's a thought of mine to gather this "tried-and-true" knowledge and apply it to modern textures and environment coloring for 3D games (though I lack the force of will to actually put it in practice nowadays, when I'm concerned with other things).

Thanks for the theory and the link.

EDIT: Geez, just looking at that PixInSpace gallery again and I'm all fired up, wanting to make graphics like those...
EDIT2: JHocking, sorry for these off-topics. Good luck with your project.