(http://i.imgur.com/e8qkDdm.jpg)
Like a bad entry in a Hollywood franchise, Warden refuses to die. It really is it's own unkillable B-movie monster, in a sense. That being said, I've been thinking about it and I'm gonna JUST DO IT NOT LET MY DREAMS BE DREAMS take another shot at it from scratch, hopefully avoiding the pitfalls I fell into last time I tried this.
Where gonna make this hapen.
Overview
For those of you who weren't around for the ride last time, Warden is a multiplayer survival-horror game that pits one player (controlling a demon) against all the other players (controlling the titular Wardens). Each game is over when either all of the Wardens are dead or all of the demonic altars have been consecrated. However, each time an altar is successfully restored, the demon shifts into a new, completely different form. In order to survive, the Wardens will need to understand what they're up against before it can catch them off guard.
Objectives
The demon's goal is to kill all of the Wardens. The Wardens' goal is to cleanse the evil altars scattered across each map.
The Wardens
The Wardens are split into three classes: the Vindicator (formerly the Tank), the Abjurer (formerly the DPS), and the Seer (formerly the Seer. Still the seer now, but he was then too).
The Vindicator's job is to keep the demon away from his teammates. He wields a fiery lasso and a short-ranged blast of flame with high knockback. In addition, the Vindicator can place Shield Wards: proximity mines that create an impassible barrier of - you guessed it - fire! Fire is a big thing for the Wardens.
The Abjurer is the team's glass cannon. With his long-ranged and high-damage attacks, he's the only one who can reliably force the demon back into the shadows. He can also place Explosive Wards, which cause high damage and high knockback when triggered.
The Seer can use darkvision, which allows him to both see through the blackest of shadows and uncover the demon's tracks and wards, but only within a short radius. Each demon form leaves a trail in one way or another, making the Seer invaluable for spotting traps. To support his teammates, the Seer can place Slow and Blind Wards, which (as you might expect from the names) temporarily slow and temporarily blind the demon when triggered.
The Demon
The demon is bound to the material world by multiple altars tucked away in the dark corners of each map. Each time an altar is destroyed, the demon 'dies' and respawns in a new form, wielding powerful new abilities in its hunt for the Wardens.
In general, each form has two phases: the preparation phase, and the attacking phase. During the preparation phase, the demon is incorporeal and cannot be seen by the Wardens, allowing it to prepare fiendish traps before attacking. During the attacking phase, the demon manifests (with various failsafes to prevent them from spawning on top of a Warden) and begins its hunt in earnest. The attack phase has a timer, and when that timer hits 0 seconds, the demon returns to the preparation phase. The time left in the attack phase can be reduced by the Wardens dealing damage to the demon - meaning that the Abjurer can significantly reduce the amount of time the demon has left to attack before it needs to recuperate.
All of the following forms are tentative at best. After considering the areas Warden's monsters seemed to fail during testing last time, I've tried to make the forms both more distinct and more fun to play (both as and against).
The Mimic
Preparation Phase: During the preparation phase, the Mimic places a multitude of inanimate objects around the Wardens. It can teleport to and hide within any of the props it places, as well as place pairs of Repeater Sigils. When triggered, the first sigil teleports the unfortunate Warden to the second sigil's location, allowing the Mimic to both split the team and keep at least one Warden trapped in its minefield of props.
Attack Phase: When attacking the Wardens, the Mimic can leap out of any of the props it placed during the Preparation Phase (the prop in question is destroyed by doing so) and set upon our heroes. After taking damage, the Mimic will be forced back into a different prop and repeat the cycle. This form is the demon's weakest, but it makes up for it by being able to rapidly attack the Wardens from many directions.
The Mimic has two timers during the attack phase, both of which are decremented by taking damage. Timer 1 tracks the total amount of time left in the attack phase. Timer 2 tracks how long the Mimic has left until it's forced back into a prop.
The Mimic tracks the Wardens by always knowing where they are, predicting where they will head next, and preparing traps.
The Banshee
Preparation Phase: The Banshee's preparation phase is unique in that the Wardens can see the Banshee during the phase. In this form, the demon appears to be a floating, crying woman in white, and can track the Wardens using a form of echolocation. When the Banshee cries out, any moving players become visible through walls - leaving the Wardens with a very short window of opportunity to progress before they must freeze in place.
Attack Phase: This is the most powerful form the demon has. The Banshee's screams deal tremendous damage, can hit from a distance, and are difficult to avoid. However, the Banshee's attack phase is relatively short to compensate for this.
The Hound
Preparation Phase: The Hound can place Baying Sigils, which can be activated at-will during the Attack Phase. Baying Sigils play the Hound's howling sound effect (which the Hound can also play at-will during the Attack Phase), useful for either herding fleeing Wardens towards the demon or for tricking Wardens into thinking the demon is in a different location.
Attack Phase: In this form, the Attack Phase's timer does not decrement automatically. The Hound can only be forced back into the Preparation Phase via direct attacks.
The Hound tracks by scent trails, which Wardens leave behind when walking. The Hound cannot climb or even jump well, allowing Wardens to take shelter on ledges and rooftops. However, if the Hound stays to puppy-guard (ba-dum, tshhh), it leaves itself vulnerable to both the Abjurer's ranged attacks and the Vindicator's lasso. From there, the Wardens must decide whether to make a break for it (and if so, what their escape strategy is) or to stay and fight.
Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Wondering why I'm still bashing my head up against this game? Let me know! Sorry if the descriptions are worded poorly in this post; it's late and I'm kinda braindead right now.
In the near future, I'll be posting concept art, dumb lore bullshit, and monster ideas as I finish the flowchart. Then... Then the real work begins.
Just a Reminder
Previous version's IndieDB page (http://www.indiedb.com/games/warden)
Warden was not a small project. It was not an idle pursuit. For the sake of my blood pressure, check out the videos on the IndieDB page and maybe even download the demo to see the state the game was in when it was abandoned before posting anything in the vein of 'think about your limitations/try making a smaller game first'. If you don't, the rustling of my jimmies will echo throughout eternity.
(http://i.imgur.com/LI5WgPH.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/aOM2Wbj.jpg)
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Do you intend to program light and darkness and whatnot, making torches, lanterns, and fire magic more valuable against the demon? (naturally I think the demon should have dark vision.)
Also... here's one demon idea: The Troll. Despite looking... trollish... the Troll compensates... er I'll just summarize the idea.
[snip]
Lights are a pretty important part of the game. The Wardens are equipped with lanterns, which they can light and extinguish at-will. In the darkest shadows, it's almost impossible to see a hiding Warden, which is why giving the demon ways to track down careless players is vital to keeping the game playable.
I have a few comments about your idea as well as a little monologue about a things I noticed during testing, but my brain is not functioning well enough for me to put it into coherent sentences right now. I'll come back to your suggestion tomorrow, though.
So this is a thing again. Great!
It is!
PTW; If you need it I might be able to look through code or bug-hunt sometime, depending on the language/system. Currently at University for Comp. Sci., so I might not know the language.
Best of luck, though. Post at me if you would like a hand anywhere, and I'll do my best.
Thanks! I appreciate the offer. The game will be built in Unity 5 with C# as the scripting language.
(http://i.imgur.com/4qGjVBi.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/YXCrq4j.jpg)
Ancipes is full of old stone buildings, narrow alleys, and winding streets. Being built in a mountainous area, the city has lots of slopes, stairs, and bridges connecting the different levels' streets, which adds a new factor into gameplay: height. In the original game, there were several plateaus that players could jump up onto - a feature that I'd like to use more fully this time around. The alleyways should also provide the Wardens with plenty of hiding spots when trying to shake off the demon.
I've started working on assets for a demo scene. Once the scene is done, I'll put up a build that includes the scene, basic multiplayer, and movements (including climbing walls and whatnot). It won't be much, but it's a start. After that, I'll start working on gameplay and Warden models.
(http://i.imgur.com/3T0bHow.png)
(http://i.imgur.com/fSqo49K.png)
(http://i.imgur.com/3T0bHow.png)
(http://i.imgur.com/fRI6lTN.png)
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As it stands now, I already have the following models sculpted, painted, and baked:
- Two boulders
- Lamp post
- Broken stone pillar
- Tree
- Stone block
- Stone fence
- And a lantern
Buildings will be made out of the following objects:
- Wall
- Wall with window
- Connecting pillar
- Linear roof
- Four-way intersection roof
- End roof
- Closed roof window
- Plain door
- Ornate door
For the time being, I'll be limiting it to walls, pillars, and roofs to avoid having to create models for interiors.
After buildings are altars, then Wardens and demons. For the PCs, I'll make simple placeholder models that will work until the gameplay is mostly complete before going back and replacing them.
Sorry if this sort of post is a bit too bloggy. It helps me organize my thoughts.
I finished the basics of the building parts a while back, but I've been otherwise occupied for some time.
(http://i.imgur.com/CEQBslb.png)
A stables-lookin' thing. I still need to make the (unenterable) window boxes for the roof and an unopenable door.
Looks really nice. In the long term, do you plan to have openable doors?
I wrote a system to have openable doors a while back. It's a pain in the ass that might be added later, but I'm going to avoid it for the time being.
Also, I really like the idea of Assassin's Creeding through open windows.
The basic Warden UI is done, along with the escape menu (which lets players disconnect, change settings (...except that their aren't settings yet, making this a placeholder), and return to the server lobby). The UI includes health, stamina, casting, and ward-placing meters, as well as a compass that directs the player to his or her ward (if they have a ward placed). I've also taken the liberty of replacing the fireball attack with an actually decent particle effect, which will work until graphics come back into focus. The fireballs now explode on contact, making it more apparent when they collide with something.
(http://i.imgur.com/mYtc3RT.png)
See that dial at the bottom of the screen that's pointing to the blank cube (a placeholder for the actual ward models)? That's the ward compass. Let me talk at you about that for a second, because I'm really happy with how it turned out.
It is probably the most spit,-gum,-and-prayers part of this game, but it works perfectly. To avoid having to do any complicated math, the UI object positions itself at the player, orients itself towards the ward's position, positions itself back at the correct spot to be rendered as part of the GUI, flattens the X and Z rotations to 0, adds the player's Y rotation, then switches the Y and Z axes.
Is there a simpler way to do that? Probably. Does this method work? Definitely.
(http://i.imgur.com/kgMpwSf.jpg)
All four of the Warden wards are working now (shield, explosive, blind, and slow) and have placeholder models. You can see a blind ward glowing on the back wall of that barn thingy in the picture. The next item on the agenda is adding the other class-specific abilities (lasso for the Vindicator, darkvision for the Seer) and then a quick round of basic polishing for movement and magic, which in this case is less 'polishing' and more 'de-crapifying'.
(http://i.imgur.com/qGYys3o.jpg)
Darkvision and movement trails are working. When the Seer activates his darkvision, the screen goes completely black for a couple seconds, making it risky to activate if the monster is nearby. The trails (which would be used by the Seer and Hound to track other players) are created with Unity's Trail Renderer component. I tested out using particle systems instead, but they ended up being too resource-intensive.
I'll probably work on demon forms after this, starting with the Hound, then the Banshee, then the spider-monster thing discussed earlier in the thread.
The forum software has informed me that this topic has not been posted on in over 120 days. Apparently I've been slacking somewhat (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/understatement). Nevertheless, I finally stopped being useless and started working again.
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The first map I had planned was a section of the city of Ancipes, which is finally underway. I decided on using a location called the Quarry District: after the death of the leader of a cult dedicated to a particularly violent spirit, the district was evacuated and quarantined until the Wardens could be called in to deal with the lingering entity.
The map has been entirely blocked out with primitives, and I'm currently going through bit-by-bit and filling in details. It was interesting carving this map into the terrain - there's a 50 meter difference in height between the northern end and the southern end, which makes freerunning a lot easier in one direction over the other. I've decided to use very, very simple graphics for now and instead focus on the bare minimum of what's necessary to make the game technically playable, even though it may not be particularly striking at first.
(http://i.imgur.com/5opSxd0.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/lcB6E3I.png)
With that in mind, I've also created a new placeholder model for the Wardens using the new rigging techniques I've learned between the creation of the last character models and now. Placeholder animations are in-progress: walk cycles are finished, running is almost complete, sneaking is barely started, and climb animations are complete. Speaking of climbing...
(http://i.imgur.com/UBdUX8E.gif)
Freerunning has been significantly debugged and animations have been implemented. Your character now actually appears (more or less) to climb walls rather than zooming to the top of them and then momentarily freezing in place. The animations are still rough, and, although I would like to implement IK hands (so that the Wardens' hands actually make contact with the surface they're climbing) I'm not even gonna take a shot at that until the game is playable.
A thing I've noticed about the 'scary-dog' type is that a good method is to increase the forelegs and shoulders a noticeable amount such that the head hangs down, along with rough and raised hair (obviously not in early models, but a thing to think about).
(http://orig13.deviantart.net/3ee8/f/2015/041/7/2/weeping_wolf_by_sandara-d8he06n.jpg)
Actually looks quite nice.
You're too hard on yourself too; this stuff looks pretty damn good. (At least from a software guy's perspective. Modellers may have a different perspective, but alas, I cannot asses that.)
Thanks! While I'm not exactly satisfied with the game's current graphical state, it's an improvement over the previous version and I'm learnin'. Counts as a success to me.
(http://i.imgur.com/8IlmGzY.png)
Also, progress. In addition to the big door-framing-shed-thing, I've been playing around with detail maps. Unity has a feature that allows you to layer a tiled normal map over the object at a small scale, adding detail when players get up close to the scenery.(http://i.imgur.com/wPbNcNU.png)
EDIT: A post I made about modelling game assets (http://imgur.com/gallery/Ax1B3) hit the front page of Imgur, which was neat to see.