Dare Looks posts
Posts: 85
Files: 162
Start on SFX work, Preparation for Steam Release
I thought I'd make a quick update post, because I haven't made one in a while! Currently, I'm working on a number of things in parallel; most importantly SFX and release things...Sound Effects: Of Sticks and StemsLast-minute Christmas shopping. Hope you've been good, this year!"Stems," get it? It's an audio production term. Oh, well...Sound is the biggest singular thing still missing from the game. I've been in talks with a professional sound designer for a while now, but because of unfortunate/unlucky delays and...
In-Game Sandbox Options
Here's a very quick update showing the in-game options for the sandbox mode!When in sandbox mode, you can open this menu any time during the game and change the values, on the fly.This works on a per-player basis, so when playing in split-screen, each player can mess with these sliders, independently!I'm glad I got this style of options menu (that is independent of the pause screen) to work—I want to re-use this style of UI for "photo mode" to give a bunch of camera options (i.e. focus, field of view, and maybe even filters?)T...
Sabbatical Update: WIP Sandbox Mode
I'm currently still stuck in my sabbatical, which is already going to end in ~2 weeks: Then it's back to work for me! Well, my day job, anyway.Which is to say, I'm not done yet taking breaks and getting some traveling done. Still, thought I'd put together a very quick update before I have to catch my next train, tomorrow morning—after all, it has been a while!WIP Sandbox ModeThe next topic is a fun one! Somewhere between travels and playing Cult of the Lamb I've actually found the time to start working on customizable game...
UI Styling Progress
Quick progress update showing the UI styling—I think it's done, for the most part!I still need to figure out what exactly I'm going to do for the menu backgrounds, but that's not the highest priority.(Of course I only noticed while reviewing the video footage that the control mapping headers all say "MOVEMENT", when obviously they should be different categories, whoops!)Patreon Video Uploads?Also trying out Patreon's new video upload feature. Let's see if it's any good. If it's any less convenient for you, ...
UI Styling, Misc
I've been working mostly on UI things, lately—it's one of the important things that still need to be done, even if it's not the most exciting topic.Small VIP Targets UpdateVIP targets now come in 1- to 3-star ratings: The more stars a target has, the more valuable it is. It's random what target is picked, but based on how far away it is from the player it's going to be worth more or less—so if a VIP target shows up far away from the player, it's always going to be 3 stars.Custom UI GraphicsI've started with UI st...
Quick Status Update, Coffee Jam 2022
Henlo! Sorry for the radio silence, the past 2 weeks!After over 2 years of staying clear of Covid (33 years, arguably) I finally did catch it, two weeks ago; which is why I took a week off, to recover. After the initial hit of fever and feeling very unwell, it went on to be a pretty mild case, luckily—mostly just a bunch of flu-like symptoms. And now I feel fully recovered, yay!Then, this week, I took a break to work on something completely different for a while: After 2 years or so, I finally participated in a little game jam, again!Coffee J...
Logo Update
I've been giving the logo a bit of color, and I'm pretty happy with the results, so far!This is the colored main version, at the moment:(I hope the colors turn out alright, after uploading the image to this website—color profiles hate me.)But that's how how it will probably look, when I throw it in the game's main menu!Alternative VersionsI'm also working on a few alternative versions, for special use. For example, here's an alternative, simplified version:(For this version it would be nice to maybe color in the window...
Name Poll Results, WIP Logo
Taking a break from playing Splatoon 3 to present the results of the name poll, as promised:The winning name is Pawperty Damage!If you look at the detailed results, you'll notice that this title came in first place with a bit of a lead, too:I think each name has its pros and cons and, all things considered, I'm happy with the result! The name has also gotten a bunch of positive feedback on Twitter and such, which also helps me feel confident about the choice!So much so, that I took the liberty to register the game under this title, alre...
Hints, VIP Target HUD Improvements
First things first: If you haven't done so, already, please take some time to answer the game title poll, to help find a good name for the project!https://freeonlinesurveys.com/s/5emXcXJJThe current favorite appears to be Pawperty Damage!I'll give the poll a few more days, before I will post the final results and (hopefully) decide on the final name.Gameplay HintsThis is something I had planned for a while, and then also came up in feedback from the showcasing at Eurofurence: Give players a few hints, for things that are not self-explan...
External Poll: Game Title Ideas, Part 2
Edit: Whoops, I think in the last version of this post, the URL to the poll got busted? Sorry! Just to be sure, it's this one: https://freeonlinesurveys.com/s/5emXcXJJI'm back from Eurofurence and had a great time in Berlin; thanks to everyone who said hi!I had so much fun showing the game to a bunch of people and give them the chance to play the current prototype!What's the game called?That's a question that came up a bunch of times, naturally. And, embarrassingly, I still don't have a definite answer to that!A while ago, I...
Steps and Stomps, Particle Effects
Edit: Now with a video that doesn't feature 1~2 minutes of nothing. That's what happens when you're in a rush, haha!Look at me put together a post, in record time! My train to Eurofurence is leaving soon, but I still wanted to give a very quick update about the VFX I have added to the ground crack decals, to add a bit more impact to steps and stomps!There's three layers to this (rather simple) effect: Small rocks get flung into the air The ring-shaped, dusty shockwave Some dust shoots up between the cracksFor the latter to work,...
Get Cracking: Decals, decals, decals
Here's a quick sneak peek at the decal stuff I've been working on!In games, a decal is a texture that is projected onto other surfaces; traditionally you use this for stuff like bullet holes, blood splatter, graffiti, etc. – and I've been planning to use decals to portray cracks in the streets, for quite a while now.However, Unity's "Universal Render Pipeline" is lacking a critical feature to make decals work, properly: Layer masking. Which means, yes, I can project a decal texture to the ground... however I'm also...
External Poll: Game Title Ideas
Hi, there!People keep asking me what the game is called, and I still don't have an answer for them yet—which is very frustrating, heh. So I thought I'd create a poll with some selected options from my long list of potential name ideas, to see what you think!The PollIt's not a Patreon poll, because I wanted it to be so that you can rank the options, from most to least favorite, rather than only picking a few via multiple-choice.So let's give this a try: https://freeonlinesurveys.com/s/KMpIGaTWI have one or two personal favorite...
Loading Screen Polish, Dirt Roads
I'm taking a bit of a break, to re-charge my batteries and avoid (or at least slow down) burn out—but there's always time for some completely random improvements!Dirt RoadsI wanted to have some of these for a long time, to help visually break up the environment a little bit and add more variety: So I present: Low-effort dirt roads!Loading Screen PolishI gave the loading screen some love, for the first time in a million years! Just some cute details, to give it a more polished look; it really helps make it feel like a 'proper' ...
Trees, Part 3: Tree Huggers Do Not Watch
There were no trees. Then there were trees. And now there can be no trees, once more.Time to live out your wildest deforestation fantasies!Respect the RustleThis effect I'm particularly happy with: The wobbly rustling of the foliage!It just adds a lot to the feel of tree-ishness and makes them a lot less static.There's two things going on, here: A wobbly vertex displacement in the shader, animated via script A particle system spawning a bunch of leavesThe shader trick works almost identical to the wind animation I have shown in the prev...
Trees, Part 2: Nature is Healing
Nature is healing.... until I have finished the trees' destruction effects, anyways!Vertex Colors Driving Shader PropertiesPublic Service Announcement: This is your tree on vertex colors.Here's a quick look at some technical art that goes into the trees! In my last post I have shown how I'm using a custom shader to animate the vertices, so that it looks like the foliage is moving in the wind.To have more control over what parts of the tree are affected by this effect (and how much) I'm using vertex colors, specifically the Green...
Trees, Woodwork In Progress
Here's a quick update with where I am with trees, right now!It's been a tricky process, because I still have to figure out the visual style for the vegetation – I need to find something, that fits well into the rest of the city.High-poly models of the elements that I'll build trees from; I already have all the low-poly versions of these, but still need the final UV mapsSo, the trees you can see in the city screenshots right now aren't actually the final models and textures, but rather mock ups of what they're going to look...
Details Placed: Look at the City
Finally done placing the details in the city, as well as properly setting them up for destruction, etc. – so here's a quick video, to show how things are coming together!HO T ELFor the large "HOTEL" and "CAFÉ" signs I have put in some extra effort, to make sure they fall apart in a satisfying way when destroyed:Trees are next, hopefullyI want to get started on a few trees; it's going to be very trial-and-error because I haven't created any vegetation for the game yet, but I hope it'll go well!There's a few...
Impressions: Wall Signs, Awnings and Fake Brands
This past week I've been busy jumping between Blender, Affinity Designer, Substance Painter and Unity, to bring you... A bunch of signs and awnings/sun blinds.Are there more important things to work on? Most likely. Did I get tired of looking at the same city, day in and day out? Definitely.So...Let The Decorating Begin"This is not even my final form."Yippie! Now I have a whole selection of new details I can decorate the city with! This will allow me to give the city a bit more variance and visual diversity. And by that I mean "...
Rooftop Details (Trying to get back into Modeling)
Easing my way back into using Blender, because I want to create a few more details for the city, next.So, for starters, I have just taken a few of the things I've already had and remixed them a bit: I've added a few details to the roofs of the brick buildings to make them less empty, and put together smaller versions of the satellite dishes and cell towers, to attach to buildings.What I really want to get started on are these things, though:Marquises and signage! I think these will add a lot of life, to the city.This is a sneak peek, be...
Which PS4/PS5 Controller Icon Style Do You Prefer?
Note: This is not confirming a PlayStation 5 port. In fact, I can pretty much promise the game will never come to PlayStation or Xbox, sorry. But if you want to use their controllers to play on PC—yippie!DualShock/DualSense Controller SupportOn the weekend, I have bought a PS5 controller to add to my collection and test the game with. This makes it easier for me to make sure the game works fine with this style of controller. (And if it works with DualSense, it should work with DualShock, too.)If a DualShock/DualSense controller is active, the...
Off-Screen Indicators, Screen Border Constraint Code Snippet
Do you remember the VIP Target indicators, that mark valuable targets you can hit for extra points? They will randomly pop up and disappear again after a while, so you really don't want to miss one of these showing up.VIP Target Off-Screen IndicatorsTo help with that, there now are off-screen indicators: So even if you are not looking their way, the game lets you know where they are!If you have played any video game, there's a chance you are familiar with this concept – as UI/UX goes, these things are pretty basic stuff!Implementation...
Kick It!
Here's a minor fun update to the kicking mechanic: Some sort of... kick assist?Generally, when a hitbox registers a collision with a physical object (i.e. a car) it will apply a force, calculated from the hitbox's current velocity. So if you hit a car just right, you'd send it flying—however, it wasn't very intuitive to pull off...You had to perfectly align yourself with the car, make sure the paw actually touches it in the right moment of acceleration and angle, etc.Now, there is an extra, dedicated hitbox that is in charge o...
4-Players Shared Screen Prototype, Main Menu Flow
I'm still stuck in menu/input hell, but an end is in sight (a thought I've had at least three times before, but this time I'm really, really sure!)So, let's get to it!4-Players Shared Screen PrototypeStarting with this topic, because that's what I'm showing off in the video, above!I've always planned to have local multiplayer in the game, and until now it has been split-screen only: However, I'm afraid that won't work well for 4 players, because the screens end up pretty tiny and hard to read...I only have my...
Menuing, Controls Settings
Here's what I've been working on, lately: Settings menus. Very unexciting to show off and surprisingly frustrating to implement... but, unfortunately, very important.I'm sure it's because of my lack of in-depth knowledge of Unity's UI event system and the finer details of using their new input system for local multiplayer, but the whole process has been extremely slow and frustrating. Plenty of edge cases, workarounds, and overall just a bit messy....(A lot of my pain comes from the fact that the game can be played in split ...
Height Meter, VIP Target Prototyping, Polishing
Originally I planned to get back into asset creation mode, to add a few more details to the city, but instead I've spent the time improving "playability," messing with balancing, adding a height meter, and prototyping a VIP target system... essentially, anything but.Height MeterIn the top-left corner of the HUD you can now find the height meter: Finally, you have a rough idea of how tall the characters are!"But what about metric units?"—do not worry, friends, I've got you covered...Of course, there will be an option to...
New Stamina Meter: It's basically BotW, now.
In another desperate attempt to make Nintendo finally sue me, I've taken some inspiration from BotW's stamina HUD!When I set out to prototype this style of stamina meter, I wasn't sure whether or not it would make the HUD too cluttered, since it's all floating around the character.But I've just found that thing so fun to look at, that I couldn't help but directly move on to polishing it..."Nah, you were right, it is getting cluttered."That's a fair criticism, honestly. One change I have made to help with that...
Input Controls Icons, Test on Steam Deck
Still working on the HUD for the on-screen button mapping: Almost done with this top, though!Controls IconsTo that end, I've been putting together a whole bunch of icons, this weekend, to display different controllers' styles of buttons, as well as some icons for keyboard/mouse controls:...just furthering my belief, that world peace could be achieved, if only we came together and agreed on a single set of icons to identify buttons on a gamepad.Edit: Whoops, forgot to add a screenshot of the keyboard controls:(Funnily enough, Unity recog...
On-Screen Button Mapping
This weekend I've worked on displaying the available actions and their button mappings, on screen.This is particularly important to me, because I want this game to very much work along the lines of "you pick up a controller and are ready to go, immediately."I've thought a bunch about how to best display this information, and this is my current approach!Alternatively, I could move the action labels to the left or bottom of the screen, but I think this is a pretty nice way of displaying all the available actions, you know... close...
Can't Rampage on an empty stomach!
Here's a small update, to show off the prototyping for stamina: Every time you deal a strong attack (kicks and stomps) you lose a bunch of stamina which you will slowly regain, over time. However, to instantly refill your stamina, you can always have a little snack!StaminaNow, there's a concept you'll know from other games. Just keep an eye on the placeholder UI, in the bottom left corner:It's working pretty well already, so now I have to try it out a bunch and see how it feels to play!So far I think it's an interesting chan...
