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Author Topic: Barricade: My Next Project  (Read 1901 times)

Araph

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Barricade: My Next Project
« on: October 20, 2014, 11:15:20 pm »

So, some of you may remember that I previously had been working on a survival-horror game called Warden. It got pretty far into development, but eventually I decided that it was too weighed down by my own mistakes from early on in the development cycle and I put it to rest. I planned on taking a breather for a few weeks before beginning work on a new project: remaking the project from before Warden, a multiplayer magic-combat-thing called Duel.

Well, I was wrong.

You see, last year I started working on Warden because I wanted to make a horror game for Halloween.

Now Halloween is coming up again.

You can see where this is going.

Barricade is the working title of the new game. It's a spiritual successor to Warden, though the protagonists and enemies are entirely different. In the game, a group of players must fortify a building (different maps are different buildings; churches, ruins, houses, and so on) with limited supplies against a variety of monsters. Each game, only one monster will be pitted against the players, and the players get a hint as to the monster's form at the start of the round.

After a brief time for the protagonists to put up initial barriers, the monster is unleashed (the monster is controlled by one of the players). The other players must try to predict where the monster will attack, divine the manner in which it will attack, and respond accordingly. Only by surviving until sunrise will the protagonists win the game. The monster wins if all of the protagonists die.

So, what do you have done?
I took what I learned from Warden and recreated some of the basic systems (with far fewer complications and bugs, fortunately!): server management, scene handling, networked movement, and win conditions are in place right now (in very basic forms, but the framework is there). My goal is to approach it as minimalistically as possible: starting with a single monster, a single map, and only the barest mechanics (making sure the gameplay is actually good before building on hypotheticals).

Why are you posting this?
I'd like to talk about monster ideas and gameplay with you guys before diving into the nuts and bolts of the game. I'm trying to avoid jumping in with half-baked ideas, so covered some of the stuff I'm certain about and am leaving the rest blank right now.

The basic gameplay just entails the players having access to various items scattered across each map (movable heavy objects to block doors, salt, iron, silver, and whatever other monster-specific objects might be useful) that they can use to create barriers. That's the core mechanic of the game, and each monster should be approached with that mindset:

The players have no other defenses than what they can make with items.

No fighting mechanics, no magic, and only a simple noise-and-shadow-based stealth mechanic. There may be exceptions, but for the most part, that's it.

My current ideas for monsters are pretty generic (which is kinda what I'm aiming for): a werewolf (which can be stopped with physical objects and silver traps), a fae creature (which can be stopped with iron and some physical objects), and a spirit of some sort (which can phase through most physical objects, but can be blocked with salt). The thing is, that only leaves a small number of possible defenses for each monster, which is why map design would be very important (for example, having two possible, yet moderately exclusive routes of attack, which would require deciding about splitting up supplies or focusing on the one they think the monster is coming through). It just needs some more thought.

So, yeah. Any ideas? Suggestions? Criticisms?

EDIT EDIT: Nope, yeah, this is still a thing.

« Last Edit: October 26, 2014, 11:00:31 pm by Araph »
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Orange Wizard

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Re: Barricade: My Next Project
« Reply #1 on: October 20, 2014, 11:21:46 pm »

Sounds interesting. If you don't screw up it could be pretty fun.
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Hard science is like a sword, and soft science is like fear. You can use both to equally powerful results, but even if your opponent disbelieve your stabs, they will still die.

Araph

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Re: Barricade: My Next Project
« Reply #2 on: October 20, 2014, 11:27:29 pm »

If you don't screw up it could be pretty fun.

Your vote of confidence is overwhelming.
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Araph

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Re: Barricade: My Next Project
« Reply #3 on: November 02, 2014, 12:31:10 am »

Good evening Bay12, it is [snipped lamenting of my lack of friends and hobbies].

Okay, got that out of my system. Sorry, I've spent pretty much all of my free time for the past few weeks now working on this and I'm a little burnt out at the moment.


One big thing I've been experimenting with is Mecanim, Unity's animation handling system. The results have been surprisingly good; animation transitions are smoother, easier to put together, and are altogether cleaner on the development side. There are a few holes, but they're the kind of things that just need more time spent filling in missing animations to correct.

EDIT-THING-I-FORGOT: I'm also trying out animating with an IK rig instead of an FK one. There have been a few bumps in the road, but so far it's going well. I really wish Maya had some built-in system for transitioning between IK and FK, but alas. Maybe they'll put it into Maya 2016.


Another thing that had been a problem in the past for me was scene composition and level design. That is technically two things. Ignoring that technicality for the moment, I spent some time drawing up map ideas and then spent a whole lot of time churning out simple models to start building the first scene with.

The first map will be a cathedral, so I looked up existing cathedrals' floor plans to work off of. This one is scaled down somewhat, but proportionally speaking, it's by far the most realistic map I've created. The main idea of it is that most rooms are dead ends, but the dead ends connect to the catacombs underneath the building, so players are forced to choose between barring the doors and risking the monster ambushing them from below or not barring the doors and risking letting the monster through the main entrance.

Stylistically, the game will be fairly minimalistic. I have some ideas for adding depth to the scene with lighting and custom shaders, which will hopefully let me leave the objects flat-shaded and starkly colored for now (at least until it's actually playable and fun, which is my singular goal at this point). That's still just at the concept stage, though.


Shadows will play a big role in Barricade, much like they did in Warden. The only real sources of light are going to be pre-baked area lighting in open spaces (giving the monster a way to see and the players places to avoid) and player-controlled candle sconces placed around the rooms. Because the candles all have dynamic shadows, it might open up some interesting mechanics to keep the monster-player's eyes adjusted to brightness so they can't see into the deep shadows, but that's also just an idea at this point too.

One final thing is doors. Doors are Amnesia-style rigidbody doors (which means they're affected by physics; if you walk into a door that's ajar, it'll swing to let you through). They can be opened, closed, barricaded with boards and nails, and smashed open. Barring doors drastically increases the odds that they'll resist being broken down, but there's still a chance the monster can get through. Getting the doors to reliably sync up across all the clients without have wacky physics shenanigans was a challenge, but it works decently enough. We'll have to see how it hold up when actually under pressure from players, though.

ANOTHER-EDIT: Ooh, I forgot. They also have a little shake animation that plays whenever the monster tries to break them down, so the players can cower in fear as they hear the ominous thumping and see the doors rattling on their hinges.
« Last Edit: November 05, 2014, 04:02:29 pm by Araph »
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blazing glory

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Re: Barricade: My Next Project
« Reply #4 on: November 03, 2014, 06:34:11 am »

Cool, will be observing.
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Araph

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Re: Barricade: My Next Project
« Reply #5 on: November 05, 2014, 04:10:54 pm »

The monster's model and a few animations are finished, so I think the next couple tasks are finishing up the map, adding in some sounds, and then trying it out to see how borked it actually is because of all the things I'm sure I'm forgetting.
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Fniff

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Re: Barricade: My Next Project
« Reply #6 on: November 05, 2014, 07:08:16 pm »

Posting to watch again. Did you check out Knock Knock?

Araph

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Re: Barricade: My Next Project
« Reply #7 on: November 05, 2014, 08:01:26 pm »

Posting to watch again. Did you check out Knock Knock?

I did! Techically I am, present tense. I'm on the fourth video in Markiplier's playthrough of it.
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