Hello everyone!
I have decided to switch over to WordPress. I apologize for any inconvenience as a result of this switch. Please update your bookmarks to https://crcdevblog.wordpress.com
Moving on, the funding campaign is coming to a close with about a week left to go. Even though the goal hasn’t been reached, I’m still very thankful for everyone who came out and showed their support by backing the project, making a donation and spreading the news. During times like this I know money is tight for many people which is why I really appreciate that you’ve pulled money out of your own pockets and donated. Every single penny that has been raised so far will be set aside for development costs and every last bit will help me out in the long run. From the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU for your support.
I’d also like to post a small update on some of the progress that I’ve been making. First, I’d like to show some comparison shots of the previous dynamic lighting system and the new one:
The pictures on the left represent the old system and the ones on the right represent the newer one. I’m always going to strive for more realistic visuals and considering that everything is dynamically lit with no precomputed lightmaps, I think the new lighting is an improvement, what do you think?
The best thing about the newer system is that it runs even faster than the previous one (a few frames actually gained) This is about the third major iteration of the lighting system since I started and the setup is more optimized and much less confusing to work with.
I also had problems with interiors that didn’t respond properly to the light outside (interiors remained brightly lit regardless of obstructing geometry) I tried a couple of workarounds that ended up being costly in terms of performance and it wasn’t until recently that I had a ‘Eureka!’ moment and came up with a simple solution. Now, interiors no longer appear to be uniformly lit along with exteriors. Very tricksy indeed!
Below, I’d like to show a few in-game features that are running. The HUD graphics, layout, crosshair and default UDK Player model are temporary. Please keep in mind that these are placeholders and only serve to show functionality.
The 3rd person camera is working great. It follows behind the player and depending on the angle the player is looking, it smoothly pans from left shoulder to right shoulder. The camera may seem close in those screens but when the player is running, it zooms out so that most of the model can be seen.
You can also see the HUD extension of the experience system. At the moment, each monster that is destroyed will give the player experience points. When a certain number is reached, the player gains a level and new skills are unlocked.
I mentioned in a previous post that I discovered a (slightly hacky) method of doing foliage that I was quite proud of (looked great, modeled grass not billboard) but eventually became too inefficient for uneven ground and slope placement.
When Epic incorporated the new Foliage Toolset I was ecstatic at first but I must admit, I had a lot of trouble getting the foliage to look and function properly. No longer did it sway the way I wanted in the wind (my grass ended up looking like a bunch of flailing Ramen noodles sprouting from the ground) It wasn’t until 2 weeks ago in a sort of ‘Eureka, I’m such an idiot!’ moment that I figured out that I was approaching it the wrong way. The setup for the wind was fine but I was actually over-complicating things when the solution was to take a simpler approach with my grass geometry.
Don’t make your grass geometry too complex if you don’t have to and it will function better when affected by wind (examples on the right of the arrows) Now the foliage looks and works beautifully and I can cram much more grass into view with no extra cost to performance.
The below shots show the flashlight in action (the lens texture is only temporary) The flashlight is coded (no Kismet trickery) and can be switched on and off at any time. It also casts dynamic shadows, which it didn’t when I first brought it in.
So thanks for tuning in everyone! Work will continue as planned (albeit a little slower without the full funding needed) but some time after the funding drive is complete, I’ll post a more meatier update. I’m still looking for donations so if you are able, please contribute before the end of March! See you soon!
A huge and heartfelt thanks to those that have donated and spread the word about the funding drive so far! There is still a long way to go before reaching the goal and I cannot do it without your help! If you can, please donate!
http://www.indiegogo.com/Daemonicon
Thank you everyone!
The funding campaign has gone LIVE! It is done through Indiegogo and is located here: http://www.indiegogo.com/Daemonicon
I humbly ask the Out Of Hell community, the gaming public and all other supporters for assistance. I have started this crowd-funding campaign in hopes of raising enough money to help out with development costs. The goal is to raise $15,000 USD or more if possible. This is indeed quite a sum but by relying on your generosity and word-of-mouth I believe we can achieve it!
All of the money raised would enable me to bring more help onboard as needed (such as additional artists/programmers) purchase music and sound effects or cover any other related expenses. Building games is a time-consuming process but with your contributions and support, I can significantly reduce the development time by hiring more people to help out! This cuts the amount of work that I need to do and greatly lessens the workload I shoulder.
The campaign has been launched through Indiegogo.com which makes it super easy to donate and gives you the option of using either your credit card or Paypal to make a contribution. If you prefer to help in other ways, you can still do so by spreading the news by word-of-mouth or through social media! ANY and ALL help is sincerely appreciated!
I have also included some Perks (detailed on the funding page) which I hope would interest you enough to contribute! For example you can have your initials scrawled onto the stalls of one of Daemonicon’s many restrooms, spray-painted onto a wall or have one of the randomly-encountered NPC’s in the game named after you!
I hope that you will consider making a contribution to support Daemonicon and really, really thank you for following!
Please check it out! http://www.indiegogo.com/Daemonicon
Hello and thanks for joining me! The entire update was intended to reveal some more visuals and also provide details on a crowd-funding campaign for Daemonicon. Certain aspects are still pending on the funding side so it will be posted within a week or so. Please come back and check it out because the project really needs your help and support!
Now, let’s get on with the first part: Visuals!
MONSTROSITIES
I’d like to introduce you to 3 more grisly creations you’ll be running into (or away from) as you explore the haunted world of Daemonicon.
The Razorback demon was inspired by the Chupacabra (I’ve always been fascinated by the legends surrounding that creature) One of the Razorback’s alternate skins is grey and much more alien (along the lines of what a traditional Chupacabra is supposed to look like) A fast and agile demon with a deadly pounce attack and the ability to suck your brains out.
For the ‘Out of Hell’ fans out there, the Flayer is based on the broken-jaw ‘Mindless’ zombie and carries an even longer, rustier machete in hand! The Flayer is a hulking, relentless pursuer.
The Hierophant is a demon much like the ‘Hangman’ and may explain why the latter wears a sack over it’s head! My original design had an embedded porcelain mask in place of the Hierophant’s face. The idea was to get the player to destroy the mask, revealing the hollow you see now (the weak point) but I was afraid the idea would not come across well. It’s up in the air whether or not the mask will return in the final phase.
ACRE, THE PINE STATE!
This is a little section of ‘Acre’, the fictional American State that Daemonicon takes place in. The 3 regions in-game are large and allow for a lot of non-linear exploration. ‘Out Of Hell’ fans will also visit some familiar places like ‘Old Grinny’, although it is a much smaller town this time.
WEAPONS
Here are 7 of the 20+ weapons available to the player. Weaponry types include Melee, Firearms, Explosive/Traps, and Arcane. Some firearms can be upgraded with different accessories while some melee weapons can be altered or sharpened at certain places in the game.
WORKS-IN-PROGRESS
Here are some in-editor shots of one area I am currently working on. There are a lot of neat things going on under the hood in regards to shaders and post-processing effects and all lighting and shadowing is entirely dynamic.
Please note that all following screens are extremely basic builds with a few set pieces and still requires several more visual passes and details before it is complete. My intention is to mainly demonstrate the dynamic lighting and day/night cycle.
None of it came easy since many problems do arise when you start working with world dynamic lighting in any game engine (if you’ve worked with dynamic lighting before, you’ll know what I’m talking about) I’m glad to say though that after a lot of work I’ve set up a lighting system that looks nice and isn’t too costly. Of course, I’ll still be looking for ways to improve and optimize it over time.
I’ve also been much more mindful of the balance between visuals and performance this time around. It’s a struggle to get things to look the way that I want while maintaining an acceptable framerate but it forces me to be more efficient in building my assets and to think outside the box when coming up with ways to fake certain effects, which is a good thing!
Thanks for catching this update and don’t forget to come back in a week or so! See you soon!
I want to wish the community and everyone else out there a safe and happy New Year! 2012 will be a year of new opportunities and lots of work! Here’s hoping the sun doesn’t burn out in December and ends mankind as we know it!
An important update is coming in two weeks so please stay tuned.
I am thrilled to announce DAEMONICON, my new horror-themed project that’s been in the works for the last few months! It is also a spiritual successor to my previous project, Out Of Hell. So what exactly does this mean? There are a lot of details I’d like to discuss, so let’s just get right into it!
First of all, what is Daemonicon?
Daemonicon is a fairly open-ended adventure which will focus more on the survival aspects of horror games such as avoidance of hostiles, securing and protecting shelter, conservation of ammunition, exploration and seeking out food and other supplies. Foraging/hunting wild game in order to stay fed, periodic rest and managing your health are a few interesting aspects that will be incorporated into the game. One of my goals is to really emphasize the ‘Survival’ part of ‘Survival Horror’.
Daemonicon will include many gameplay ideas that I was not able to incorporate into Out Of Hell for one reason or another. A few examples would be a more open-ended playing environment, custom character creation, an RPG-like system complete with classes, inventory, abilities and stats. There are a lot of interesting gameplay features planned but they will be detailed in time as the project progresses.
Many may be wondering, is this a remake of Out Of Hell?
No, this an entirely new piece of Intellectual Property, however, it will borrow some elements and themes from Out Of Hell, which is why I like to label it as a spiritual successor.
After some deliberation and experimentation with different engines, I will be utilizing the UDK (Unreal Development Kit) as it offers both the power and versatility for me to achieve what I need to do rather quickly.
Now, let’s talk about the art.
The very first thing I did for the project was hammer out a design document and flesh it out as much as I could but the second was some concept art. Being an artist, I just couldn’t wait to get into that so I created all the monster models that were needed and then had fellow artist Julia Pishtar (http://juliapishtar.com) sculpt in some truly frightening details on the models.
As you can see by her work, she has a fantastic eye for detail and an exquisite art style. When she was done, I painted the beasts and the results can be seen below:
I am only showing 4 of these models (each monster model has 1-4 different texture variations) since this is only the initial unveiling. I pumped out all of the monster, player, NPC and weapon models during the concept phase to make way for mapping but I’ll have to keep them under wraps for now and reveal them over time because I am a big fat tease.
Please keep in mind, that from now until the final polishing phase, some things may change so please regard these as works-in-progress.
Now, the engine…
I spent the last while further familiarizing myself with the UDK and experimented with a lot of it’s capabilities, trying to see what was feasible, what I could get away with in terms of effects and complexity and what the limits were.
At this moment, I have fully implemented a Day/Night cycle with weather effects, dynamic lighting and shadow (this was a crucial element to the gameplay and was the first thing I set out to do in the engine) Here is an example of one of the initial tests:
Once I was able to implement a day/night cycle, I went on to see what I could do about having a lot of vegetation. One thing that I really wanted to include in Out Of Hell but wasn’t able to (fully, anyway) was trees and vegetation that convincingly moved/swayed in the wind. Another issue that I worried about was being able to have some fairly dense forest while maintaining an acceptable framerate.
I’m happy to announce that I was able to achieve this due to some clever techniques and optimizations.
In the image above, I’ve come up with a method of having large amounts of grass (there’s more around that is not in view) which flows back and forth really beautifully in the wind. Typically for grass like this a texture with an alpha is applied to a plane but in this case, each blade of grass is modeled geometry which I find looks better.
Those who know about Out Of Hell know that a lot of effort and care went into establishing some really atmospheric environments and visuals. It’s my promise that Daemonicon will receive even more effort and attention to detail and you can look forward to exploring more creepy and ambient locales!
Now, about the story and setting…
I will not be revealing much of it at this point other than it taking place in Northwestern America, the presence of many, many Demonic creatures, an artifact called the “Daemonicon” and a military compound known as “The Shelter”. Oh, and for the Out Of Hell fans, one word: Manipulators.
So, when?
As for how long this will take, it is hard for me to gauge at the moment, however, I do aim to take this game commercial and will be exploring funding options very soon. It is my hope that I can dedicate myself to the game full-time so that we can see this thing in action sooner rather than later!
Have a happy Halloween!
And I hope you like what you see so far! Thank you so much for joining me on this unveiling and please head on over to the forums if you have any questions, comments or suggestions!
Halloween is fast approaching! It is the second anniversary of Out Of Hell and to celebrate I will be officially announcing the new horror-themed project I have been working on. I will cover more specific details about it and show some of the artwork that’s been created. This new game should really appeal to the current fans of Out Of Hell and I’m hoping will spark the interest of other horror fans too!
There will be a new temporary place (in the OOH forums) set up for discussion of the new project and I hope to see you all there!
LONG NGUYEN | Digital Artist & Game Designer 