[Codexus]

Yup, that's going to be my WIP game title for now ;) (Edit: a name has been found!)

I haven't prepared anything yet so let's try to define some goals and ideas.

First, I'm not a huge fan of stat based games. All that stuff is just there to make the game too long and prevent me from having the time to play through more than 30% of the game and I just don't get why I should care about a bunch of numbers anyway ;)

So I'm more inclined to do something zelda-like or maybe something inspired by Little Big Adventure or Beyond Good and Evil.

Purists will object those are not RPGs but as far I'm concerned, coming from a pen and paper RPG background, I think using the word RPG for a computer game is already wrong by definition (but we lost that battle 20 years ago :/ )

But that's enough ranting for now. Some goals for this week:
- A good main character with cool animations
- A few fun weapons and game mechanics
- A real (short!) story for the game, playable from start to finish with some NPCs and dialogs
- Some enemies that do more than just standing there waiting to get killed
- An environment equivalent in size to one small "dungeon" (you get the idea)
- Reasonable level of polish: particle effects, music, sfx, title screen, should look like a finished game as much as possible.

As for the theme, I don't really know how to use it yet, I may end up mostly ignoring it at first to avoid the "blank page syndrome" and maybe adapt the game later as I get new ideas.

My main tools:
- Unity 3D Pro
- Modo, Cinema 4D, Blender
- Photoshop CS5 and FilterForge for 2D and textures
- Reason 4 for music

That's all for now :)

[dock]

People can spend seven days arguing about "What is an RPG?". XD Going the zelda route is definitely valid, especially if you're able to to integrate some sort of upgrade (more health/hearts, etc).

Good luck with it!

[Codexus]

Monday morning: a slice of pizza and red bull, the breakfast of champions!

I have an idea for an alternate history setting. Basically, I'm going for a steampunk-ish urban fantasy world.

"In 1887, the Michelson-Morley experiment successfully detects the presence of the luminiferous aether. As scientists begin to study the elusive medium they realize that human thought can influence its behavior. The invention in 1891 of the first aethereal lens allows the concentration of that power. Very quickly wondrous applications are possible: as a power source, to create vehicles that defy gravity or to animate mechanical automatons in a way that seems to give them life.

But it's the military applications that governments are most interested in. An arms race situation is created with all the major powers vying for superior aether-based weapons.

The year is now 1913, tension between European countries has risen to a point where most believe that war is unavoidable. But scientists and thinkers are warning that such a conflict using weapons of unprecedented power would only result in total mutual destruction."

So that's my idea so far. Still some unknowns, where is the story going to take place exactly? I'm thinking Paris but I'm not sure. Also, I was wondering if I'd like to introduce Martians in the story. Contact with Mars would have resulted in immigration of Martian laborers. That could be cool, but I have to keep things small.

Goals for day 1:

1) make most of the important decisions for the game

what point of view? from behind the character or from above? What is the gameplay going to be exactly? What kind of environment will it take place in?

2) create the main character

1 week is really short for an ambitious project like a fully playable 3D RPG game so I really need the main character today. The main character is going to be a 13 or 14 year old boy, a mechanics apprentice. The idea is that he builds automatons that can be brought to life with aether power.

3) test the main character in Unity with some minimalistic environment (a few textured walls)

Aha, that seems way too much for a single day (and I've to do boring real life stuff this afternoon too).

[Codexus]

Lol, I'm not really productive yet. I spent most of the afternoon just thinking about cool ideas and how awesome this game would be if I had 200 years to make it. Then I bought a domain name for the game and set up the hosting (I'll start adding stuff on it soon).

I started working on the concept art for modeling this evening and got totally carried away and wasted time coloring it. So here it is (sorry for the bad programmer art and abuse of filters).



I really need to start some productive work tomorrow.

[tcaudilllg]

I've seen significantly worse art... by myself in particular. Looks like you got the proportions down, at least.

[Codexus]

Day 2

The goals for today are significantly the same as yesterday, only for real this time ;)

- Model the player character, texture and animate it
- Use it in Unity, have some basic controls
- If I have the time start making some environment elements
- Waste an hour or two to create the game's website

Also I must resist the temptation to waste time on the new ZBrush version that just got released.

[Jinroh]

[Codexus]

Jinroh, I'm sure tcaudilllg didn't mean it that way. It doesn't matter anyway it's just a quickly sketched guide for modeling.

By the way, I totally cheated for the proportions, I used a DAZ studio character, then converted the render to just the outline and printed that to put under the sheet I was drawing on. That way, I could quickly draw clothes and stuff without first spending 10+ hours trying to get the base drawing right (which is usually what happens when I try to draw without help) :)

Thanks for the comments!

[Codexus]

Mmmm, I'm still not done with the modeling. :/

It's not going very fast, it's actually my first model in Modo, so even though I watched the tutorials I often lose time searching where commands and options are, but mostly I don't know how to use the tools efficiently yet. Modo seems really nice but it's going to take some time getting used to it. Also I need to stop being lazy, I only spent ~4-5 hours on it, today...

[Codexus]

Day 3. So goal for today is finishing that stupid model. I should also start doing some things that can be completed quickly like a simple creature and some props so that I can begin putting all that into Unity and have the feeling that I'm actually working on a game instead of just a long character modeling session...

[Codexus]

I'm done with the modeling! :D

[Jinroh]

Wow, looks just like your concept art. ^^ Whatever rendering parameters you have on it make it look like clay too, that's pretty nice. ^^
_________________
Mao Mao Games
The wolf and his mate howl, taking solace in the silver moon. Pressing ever foreward to see what the future holds.

[Codexus]

Day 5: No progress was made yesterday, I just watched 11 episodes of Doctor Who instead. Not a bad choice :)

[Codexus]

I spent my night texturing my little guy:



And some details:



He's still lacking rigging and animation. I'll do that tomorrow and then I'll make a game ;)

[Jinroh]

Wow that looks amazing! ^_^ Way better than anything I can do. I may have to see if I can hire you as a modeler in the future. ;) I pay real Ca$h money. ^^
_________________
Mao Mao Games
The wolf and his mate howl, taking solace in the silver moon. Pressing ever foreward to see what the future holds.