Blogs - BrokenHelmet

Hi everyone, here we are at the end of another month. I do hope that it has been awesome for you all.

So as February draws to a close, I figured I would do another wrap up post of the month. Unfortunately, it has been a slow going month in regard to the project; a lot of grown up, life stuff has been getting in the way. However, that will not keep me from my work for long.

Now in brief, it has been a month dedicated to The Orchard’s player inventory system. That is, the picking up, dropping, swapping, using and so on mechanics of in game items. Majority of these mechanics are already functioning in the inventory system asset that I am using. It is a simple matter of applying the right script. After finishing up the tutorials, reading through the documentation and forums, and of course pestering the creator, I figured out how to implement these even more easily. However, there is a limit to the out of the box settings, and therefore, I have had to create a bunch of custom scripts, to expand functionality.

In as much as “custom scripts” sounds ominous, it is simply building on the already existing framework, and maximising on the already existing scripts; which the creator of the asset already expected. In fact, the most difficult part of all of this, is figuring out of the behind the scene functions that should exist.

For example, when the player tries to pick something up, and there is an item already in hand; I figured that the item already equipped can get tossed back into the inventory, and this new item takes its place. However, what happens when the inventory is already full? Swap out the items by dropping the old and equipping the new? What if the item in hand is a key item that should not be dropped? And so on, and so on…

And that mental knot is but one line of thinking that I have to work through. In addition, I want there to be bags to extend the inventory slots, hot key binding and several other mechanics.

Regardless of how tricky it may get, so long as I can work on one thread at a time, I am sure I will be able to get a good customized inventory system worked out. Then after, I need to fix up one for the NPCs…

([^.^])”

More to follow…

Hey everyone. Sorry I am a little late sending out this week’s post, but better late than never.

Due to the fact that I am still in the learning process (kinda stumbling in the dark-ish) of this inventory asset, there is still not much to report on. Therefore this post will be a little brief.

So far, I am getting into writing custom code to further extend the inventory system asset. Not too difficult, but not that easy as well. In the same breath I will say that I am also trying to implement player interaction features such as picking, dropping, swapping and basically using of items from the inventory. Still a lot of work on that front.

The further I get into writing custom code and exploring the plugin in general, the more I realise how flexible and powerful this asset is. This is made further clear by the fact that new features are being added on and previous functions are also constantly updated and polished.

All in all, learning and getting the most out of this asset will be a huge boost to further developing The Orchard.

More to follow…

Hello everyone. It is that lovely time of the year were everyone gives their special variable a gift, for example, a unique name, making it private and/or protected or even static, so that it is the only one… instance (if the code will still work) and even a //(double front slash) comment (/* if your feeling naughty ;) */), that makes it stand out from all the other variables :D

HAPPY VARIABLES DAY, EVERYONE! #> #>

Now that that is out of the way, it is that day (+1), where I make a summary of my doings for the week.

So, for those that have been following (and for the benefit of those who have not), you know I have been working on an inventory system for The Orchard. Last week but one was basically a refresher course on the asset, by going through the available video tutorials.

With that done, I have been attempting to build on these lessons and implement my own custom codes and functions. Due to the simple fact that it has been a lot of trial and error, I have not gotten that far.

However, I can say that I now have the simple pick up and drop mechanics, and of course, recognition of intractable items via the asset’s raycast. These rudimentary functions are the bulk of the system, with the everything else building on them. Therefore, I really want to take my time on them and thoroughly build a strong foundation in this regard.

So without much more to add, I will keep this post short, with hopes that this coming week’s will allow me to elaborate.

More to follow…

Hi everyone. Here we are at the end of the first week of February. I hope the new month has been kind to you all :)

So, if you have been following my posts for the past week, you will have seen that these were links for tutorials I was working through for a Unity 3D asset titled Inventory Pro.

As previously mentioned, I had a semblance of an inventory system before, but poor decision making on my part resulted in work getting lost. Now that I am little older, arguably, a little wiser and kinda, sorta, more experienced in video game development stuff, I do not expect to make the same mistake twice; well I hope not to make the same mistake a second time.

Due to the fact that I have just finished the tutorials, there is not much to report, apart from the fact that the inventory system asset is quite powerful, requires a bit of time to implement and what’s more, is being constantly updated; in fact, I am waiting on an update, so I can get started on work.

Boasting so many options, customizable features and generally speaking, plenty of flexibility, Inventory Pro required me to go a little old school and get back to the pen and paper design. This was after tinkering away on it when I was done with the video tutorials. So many new things to add into my game \:D/

So design wise, I have a kind of skeleton put together, now I just have to digitize that skeleton, add a few more doohickies here and there, I should have something to show by the end of next week :)

More to follow…

P.S.

I am still working on the design of the blog website, so expect a few more changes. Suggestions are welcome.

Hey guys. I hope you have all had a great week?

It is the end of another week, and the end of a month altogether. So what have I been up to this week?

Unfortunately, it was a super topsy turvy week and I did not manage to get much work done. If you have gone through the last couple of posts, you will notice that they are mostly links to YouTube tutorials that I have been working through. Even still, I am yet to get through them all :(

In brief, I am working towards implementing an inventory system for my game (titled “The Orchard”, because I rarely mentioned it) and in addition, an in-game buy and sell kind of system. In the meantime, I am doing my best to power through all these tutorials and additional documentation, so that I can inevitably bend (write custom code) this asset to the direction that I want.

Until then, I do not have that much to write about in that departement, and will ask you all to be patient until I start getting into it good and proper :)

A wrap up of the month

I suppose it would make sense to state all the things that I managed to get done this month, in case someone is just joining us. Here we go:

• Created and fleshed out quite a bit of the full body, first person controller, including a script to lock the camera to a position representing the eyes and follow this position, another script to work out animation events representing footsteps and playing the actual footstep sound, and in addition, recognizing the surface the player is currently on.
• Basic animation of the character, including walking, running and sprinting, jumping, crouching etc and their respective blend trees and layers in the character controller.
• Initial work on the in-game inventory system. (CURRENTLY)

More to follow…

P.S.

For the more avid followers of my blog, you may have noticed that its theme seems to keep on changing every other minute. Sorry about that, but the previous one that I was using did not have video support, and a bunch of my posts went missing. So I got this new theme, and I am in the process of customizing it; therefore, expect a bunch of changes now and again, until I get the colours and such just right.

P.P.S.

Isn’t it awesome how this month is ending? 31st on a Sunday, 1st is on a Monday. I don’t know why that makes me so happy \(^.^)/

I suppose it is O.C.D. things…

Hey guys. I hope you have all had an awesome and productive week.

Now unfortunately, there will be no GIFs this week (or fortunately for those few who are tired of all the GIFs).

With that, I will try to keep this week’s post as brief as I can.

Of the full body character controller

For those who have read the previous 2 posts (”Where are his legs: Part 1 & Part 2″) I can not say there has been much more notable content after that, except of course some fine tuning here and there and adding the footsteps’ sound effects.

I will do my best to put up a video later… in this lifetime :)

New objective added

So, after having my fun with full body character mechanics and stuff, I am moving into new(ish) waters (that had been previously explored, however due to poor decision making on my part and an upgrade of said waters, I must re-explore).

What am I talking about?

Simply put; sometime mid last year, I was working on (and had made great headway) an inventory system I had purchased from the Unity Asset Store. Said system required quite a bit of tweaking on my part, by way of custom code, and changing a bit of the source code itself. When the developer released an update of the system, instead of backing up my project first, I just went ahead and updated.

Long story short, I lost all of my work in that area, and a lot of code broke (associations being lost and stuff). After that blow, I put the inventory system on the back-burner and worked towards a pre-alpha demo for an exhibition last year in December (Nairobi Comic CONference).

Cue 2016. The developer of the inventory system has made great headway and has been constantly updating it.

Therefore, having gotten back into the mood of working on it, I want to flesh out a new inventory system for the game.

This week was a re-introduction to the asset. This is basically reading through the documentation and change logs since then, as well as watching his tutorial videos.

Next week, I hope to really get into the nuts and bolts of it.

More to follow…

Hey guys. Here is this week’s post, a follow up on last week’s work.

Simply put, this week consisted of adding a few more animations and blending them together. In addition, I started adding the SFX (sound effects) to the footsteps, which is easier said than done; a script and animation events are involved. I will try and make a video with the completed character, plus effects and all that, sometime soon.

This week’s work

So, here are the animations, presented in GIFs (again) (Yes, I’m excited to be able to make nice, clean GIFs)

Simply walking backwards

Walking backwards at an angle to the left

Walking backwards, angling to the right

Walking forward angling to the left

Walking forward angled to the right

Strafing left

Strafing right

That is really all there is to it. I will need to look for slightly more refined animations though. However, so far, these have allowed me to do quite a bit of testing.

As previously mentioned, I am currently doing the SFX for the footsteps. This involves one script to establish the surface the avatar is on and the other plays footstep effects at the correct time; that is, when the individual foot “touches down” on the ground. This is “easily” do-able, using animation events.

That is about it.

More to follow…

P.S.

For those of you who may have been following this blog from a while back, you may have noticed that the overall theme has changed. I just figured I would try something new. Thanks for following since then :)

Hey guys, I hope you have all had a wonderful holiday and are enjoying what the new year has to offer.

It has been a long (looooong) while since I have written here on the blog, and I will make no excuses, especially with all that has been going on; there has been more than enough content to write on. So without putting too fine a point on it, I hope to be updating the blog every week (with gifs as a way of apologising).

Now, into this week’s post.

Some time back (before I had delved into the “wonderful” world of game development), a friend of mine and I were having a discussion related to first person and third person views in games. For those not acquainted with the terms, it basically relates to the view you would have in relation to your character/avatar etc. in-game.

First person, better known as FPS (First Person Shooter not to be mistaken with frames per second), is in fact a genre, whereby you view the world from the avatar’s “eyes” viewpoint, basically how you as a human perceive the world. This allows for a “realistic” feel while in-game, and is popular in shooters, because it adds the feel of action and immersion.

Third person, (Third Person Shooters), another genre, basically refers to the viewpoint being behind and a little above the avatar. Of late though, the camera angle has seen significant revision, with it sometimes being manoeuvred a little behind the right shoulder, to give a sense of urgency in action games. I also believe that, this view is a way to make up for the lack of peripheral vision that would be sort of difficult to duplicate in FPSs.

Due to there being a divided preference to these camera viewpoints, some games have the choice of both first and third person views. This then creates a bit of an exploit, especially in multiplayer games. When hiding behind a wall or corner, players can make use of the extended view of the third person camera, to “peek” around. Their opponents however will not see them, until it is too late.

Now, it is easy to argue that it is just making use of the game mechanics, which I will concede. However, this, especially in a role playing game (for me anyway), breaks the sense of immersion. I try and imagine playing games like Half Life, Skyrim or Fallout in third person, and I know it would not be as enjoyable. Side note: Let’s completely avoid the racing genre.

In addition, during a recent exhibition, NAICCON (Nairobi Comic Conference), I participated in, a few of the guys having played a pre-alpha of the game, asked about third person support, of which I quickly explained, will notbe available.

So apart from the extra viewing distance, it came to my attention, that players like to know how they look. I mean, it is rather vexing to get some sweet amour and not be able to see it on the player; hence why I modded Skyrim, to be able to see the rest of the player’s body and not wait to be told I am naked by the guards :’) However for said friend, where it is possible, he prefers third person, making the point, that it bugs him that theavatar’s feet, legs and general lower body are not visible, except of course for the arms.

So, now what?

Taking all this as a cue, I decided to make a full body, first person rig, complete with the necessary animations. I started this idea on Monday (4/Jan/16), and so far, I have gotten the basics down, and they are still quite rough. Here are a few gifs to show how far I have gotten:

The general running movement

Crouch and move forward movement

Jumping with the left foot leading to a land

Jumping with the right foot leading to a land

Please excuse the super jump for the last two.

There is still quite a bit of work left to get done, but I feel as though I am on the right track. I especially like that the shadow fully represents the player avatar; the capsule’s shadow was a little, unrealistic in the pre-alpha, and disabling the shadow all together just made the effort of putting in a weather system feel like a waste.

After a few more animations and scripting, I hope to get the basics fully fleshed out before I get into the more demanding actions, like using/picking up items, climbing ladders and such.

More to follow…

P.S.

I finally got my hands on a working super easy to use gif maker, GifCam, and I dare say that the quality of my gifs has improved. This was thanks to this Gamasutra post and I encourage everyone to give it a good read and improve on their gif making skills, like I did.

Hi there! I’m back with more model making things

Here we have a petrol station which I have been working on for nearly a month (and it feels like a year), which explains the previous model of the pump.

This is an ongoing asset, which is why it looks a bit incomplete. I will try and post screenshots of the game ready prefab soon(ish).

So, this model added on to my U.V. mapping XP points. I now have a better understanding of where to place seams to get well unwrapped islands in Blender for the U.V. maps.

Though it is not very clear, the model was to have a very gritty, worn and weathered kind of finish. It is mostly observable during runtime. With this in mind, I learned how to add on decals in the right places to give it that effect. However, I feel like there is room for improvement, and I will continue polishing up all future work.

An example, is when I was making the normal maps for the model, and unfortunately forgot that some layers in the texture map should be hidden, as they will affect the final map. Though it is not a particularly project halting error, it gives some stains and such an unrealistic “pop”. Lesson learned, I’ll be sure to get it right in GIMP the next time.

Now back to writing code ([“,])” (Mixed feelings about that one)

Thanks for reading and as always, more to follow…

Hi guys. I figured it was time for another update. This was supposed to come out on Saturday, but better late than never (I think)

So, for some time, I have been talking about Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Mecanim and what not, but there has not been much by way of screenshots. HOWEVER, that is no longer the case

Without further ado, I would like to introduce Juma (the dude) and Tema (the dudet), the two NPCs who are helping pave the way for the rest of the Amboseli Town folks

A brief on the situation. These guys have been designed in UMA (Unity Multipurpose Avatar), animated using Unity 3D’s Mecanim system and finally, the AI is run by RAIN{indie}. Please look here at an earlier post, as I have covered this before…

They still have a ways to go, but I wanted to introduce them as they are the “Adam and Eve” of all the Townies that will exist in my game.

On a side note, I have updated to Unity 3D version 5 and I’m absolutely loving it! I have to update my project, but, I am looking forward to it

More to follow…

P.S.
Still trying my hand at making gifs so please ignore the quality.