Putting Project Hornet, a tactical CRPG inspired by Fallout, Jagged Alliance 2, and Kenshi, away into the desk drawer for now. Turn-based grid combat in a 3D engine seems quite hard to code.
Announcing Project Wasp, an ImSim inspired by Thief, System Shock 2, and Morrowind, with comparable graphics.
While looking for examples for games similar to what I want to make with #HornetEngine, I noticed that Wasteland 2 seems to be extremely close to what I have in mind in gameplay and graphics (basically a blend of Fallout and Jagged Alliance 2 in a 3D engine), and it's available on PS4 so it can be played with a controller.
Only played half an hour in the first area yet, and I already have so many notes about what I like and what I would do very differently. 😄
Having a fairly well worked out concept for gameplay and mechanics, and starting to get an idea for what kinds of assets I could realistically create myself, I think that my planned game would be best served with graphics and controls similar to Wasteland 2.
The only thing this would be missing are views of the sky, which are a big part of the aesthetic I have in mind.
Any ideas how to sneak in occasional views of the sky in such a game?
Entering an area in FF12 that has a sandstorm going on made me immediately realize that with wind being such a prominent element in my aesthetic vision for #Kaendor, the #HornetEngine absolutely must have floppy hair and cloaks.
Tree leaf and grass sprites moving randomly in outdoor areas won't do it.
I imagine this will make character models significantly more complex and increase the work load, but this feels like something that should be given high priority.
Sitting down with #blender to make the first assets for my early 2000s retro-ish game, and immediately facing the question how many faces a standard cylinder should have.
This seems like something I should lock in now, as it would probably a huge pain in the ass to change later.
And now I am thinking really hard about what this could mean for my game idea that deliberately goes for an early 2000s graphics fidelity that targets a 70s/80s adventure movie aesthetic.
Simply going with high quality stock sounds of nature now feels like it would be completely out of place.
Thinking about a tactical fantasy RPG that has no spells. What could characters even do in combat to make it interesting and give it depth?
- Throw any weapon currently equipped.
- Thrown weapons land on the ground. Disabled enemies drop their weapon.
- Pick up and immediately equip any weapon from the ground.
- Wrestle with an enemy to pin him down.
- Tie up an enemy pinned down by an ally.
- Demoralized enemies flee combat.
- Win combat by causing a rout.
New Site Post: A Color Palette for Hornet
https://bumblebeegames.eu/a-color-palette-for-hornet.html
Now I am actually a #gamedev. I made an actual thing for my game on a computer.
I made a color palette for making textures.
What a milestone. I now actually did game development in software rather than just pure concept work on paper. I created a color palette for the Hornet Engine. While I want to go with an overall naturalistic look for both Kaendor and Iridium Moons, I also want it to be slightly stylized. The visual style that I have in my mind combines relatively low polygon models for characters and environments while maintaining realistic proportions and colors that are bold but not too striking. It's a style that I think can look very evocative while at the same time letting you get away with fairly crude models and animations. Like in impressionist paintings, the color and the light and shadow do all the heavy lifting, while shapes and outlines can be mere suggestions of the actual thing. I really like the look of Mike Mignola's Hellboy comics, and the 15 primary hues of this color palette are directly inspired by it. It might look a bit cartoony any overly colorful for the kind of environments and creatures that make up my settings, but in the game all textures will be affected by shaders and environmental lighting. The color palette above shows…
So this now took me about 8 hours of work in total today (that's how I spend my Saturdays), but I made a second color palette that I think is even nicer.
15 main hues, 9 steps of decreasing brightness, 6 steps of decreasing saturation, and an 11 step gray scale. Which makes an attractive 16x16 grid. 😄
Decreasing saturation by 10% steps produced more indistinguishable whites than I'll need, while more greens and a red purple will be useful.
Yora