Rathmor news

[Holy_Diver]

I think its possible to have blinking eyes by having a two sided round eye, one side having an open eye image and the other being closed. It would just be a matter of flipping the eyes.

I can't see that working for a round eye. I assume you mean the "flip" would be instantaneous. So that the blink would appear to happen in a fraction of a second. Not sure if that would look right or not either. It's possible. But often these kinds of strategies don't look right.

Just doing a flip for the eyes you got wouldn't be worth the extra procedure call to draw the tiny piece individually. I don't know how the animated textures are setup, but that would be one way to go.

If you made fairly high resolution eyeballs that are all uniform you'd have the advantage of being able to display them all at once. The colour of the irises could be changed with the material properties. The eyeballs could follow their point of interest. You could have an assortment of irises using something like the way some of the textures are animated.

For lids though I don't know a better way than just doing them proper. Probably the scarecrow animation format would be better suited to facial animation. That might be a good place to begin trying to export a scarecrow animation. Its better for hands too I reckon, because there are so many points of articulation. But hand animations would probably be best generated from skeletal animations.

[Holy_Diver]

EDITED: It would probably be best to use a built in sphere for eyeballs. I worry at a good distance depth precision would be insufficient around the lids. Could lead to eyeballs appearing bugged out or sunk in.

You know it would probably be best if the iris moved by adjusting the UVs. That would make precision a non problem at a distance. We'd just need to identify the eye material and project the eye texture from the center of a control point onto it. That way the lid can be attached to the eye. I think this is the best strategy.

[Holy_Diver]

I just wanna add. Don't ever give up. There hasn't been a single classic game produced independently (much less single handedly) that I know of even though the many classic games we have were simple enough to be made just the same way you are making Rathmor. It was a cottage industry then. Not a real industry. The people making "indie" games nowadays wanna take shortcuts to try to make a quick buck. The Microsofts of the world have moved on to court overgrown fratboys and and undiscerning toddlers. We have to fend for ourselves now. Show us the way.


Disclaimer: by classic I don't mean old. I mean things we still talk about 50 years hence. I can't even think of a single game like that spawned from the current generation of consoles. So its little surprise that so-called indie teams haven't been able to churn out a single classic. Even if Rathmor isn't a classic. I think odds are good its gonna look like a classic, at least remind some people that classic video games were once a thing in bygone eras.

[Verdite]

John,

"I really like how each NPC has its own character. I hadn't thought about that "individualism" being part of what was good in the King's Field games until you mentioned it earlier. Now that I think about it, it's really true and adds a lot to the game. Same thing for weapons, each had its own character."

When I think of my first time playing most games, I remember the NPCs more fondly than the first boss or whatever. When I first played Kings Field 2, the thing that caught me the most was the NPCs. I found Celffy Foss first and loved how he was animated, his character, model, the colours in the texture. After that I started looking forward to meeting other NPCs in KF2. Its only now that I realise most of my fondest memories of gaming come from NPC interaction, enjoying their character and tidbits of info. So thats probably one reason i've invested alot of time into my NPCs and it'l continue this way I imagine.

Holy Diver,

"The people making "indie" games nowadays wanna take shortcuts to try to make a quick buck. The Microsofts of the world have moved on to court overgrown fratboys and and undiscerning toddlers. We have to fend for ourselves now. Show us the way."

Sadly not everyone can afford to be careful and think outside the box when making "indie" games. I think if you try to make a living out of catering for a certain market or mindset, then generally you'l choose the safest route for profit. Especially if you have a team who need paid. Of course longevity wise and communally this is a route to nothing - when you make something and devote time to it there should be some degree of infrastructure or inspiration for people to take from it, to be of any use outside of profit. Not to mention how expensive game liscenses are.
Anyway I appreciate the comment on my game aesthetics, hopefully the other important factors in my game will be equally as good. The writing for my demos has been rushed or just not coherent enough to be attractive, things have improved alot since then in the writing dept.
I can see alot of my development time as 'learning the ropes' so alot of what ive created or written has pushed me onto creating better looking assets, and ive built a framework with it, which helps.
With constructive critiscism and encouragement though I have reached a good level quicker, great feedback and opinions, and non - gamer perspectives too help with it.

[Holy_Diver]

Not diminishing the roles of indie people, just wondering aloud why they haven't produced any indisputable classics (seeing as how all the classic games are pittances in terms of complexity set up against even the most modest efforts of our day)

There's a lot of chatter about Microsoft's New Xbox schemes causing a lot of chatter and divination as for what lies ahead for the future of video games. The taste that was ultimately left in my mouth is just what the hell happened to the classic video game?

I don't follow all of the PC games. But if you know of a game on the Xbox 360 or Wii or PS3 that is a classic I'd like to hear about it.

[Holy_Diver]

Just out of curiosity. Where are the textures for something like your boar there coming from?

EDITED: BTW, I liked the checkered shirt on the boy. It was different (the checkers appear to be gone now)

[Verdite]

I draw everything, so it was made by me.

[dmpdesign]

Not diminishing the roles of indie people, just wondering aloud why they haven't produced any indisputable classics (seeing as how all the classic games are pittances in terms of complexity set up against even the most modest efforts of our day)

There's a lot of chatter about Microsoft's New Xbox schemes causing a lot of chatter and divination as for what lies ahead for the future of video games. The taste that was ultimately left in my mouth is just what the hell happened to the classic video game?

I don't follow all of the PC games. But if you know of a game on the Xbox 360 or Wii or PS3 that is a classic I'd like to hear about it.

I am not sure I would say the Triple A titles these days are doing anything great either...just rehashes on the same old stuff in my opinion.  I buy few games these days, none attract me.  My current list of games I want to play is topped by Rathmor at the moment ;)

[Holy_Diver]

Not diminishing the roles of indie people, just wondering aloud why they haven't produced any indisputable classics (seeing as how all the classic games are pittances in terms of complexity set up against even the most modest efforts of our day)

There's a lot of chatter about Microsoft's New Xbox schemes causing a lot of chatter and divination as for what lies ahead for the future of video games. The taste that was ultimately left in my mouth is just what the hell happened to the classic video game?

I don't follow all of the PC games. But if you know of a game on the Xbox 360 or Wii or PS3 that is a classic I'd like to hear about it.

I am not sure I would say the Triple A titles these days are doing anything great either...just rehashes on the same old stuff in my opinion.  I buy few games these days, none attract me.  My current list of games I want to play is topped by Rathmor at the moment ;)

Yeah I think I took that for granted, or actually said the same thing a few posts up...

Disclaimer: by classic I don't mean old. I mean things we still talk about 50 years hence. I can't even think of a single game like that spawned from the current generation of consoles. So its little surprise that so-called indie teams haven't been able to churn out a single classic. Even if Rathmor isn't a classic. I think odds are good its gonna look like a classic, at least remind some people that classic video games were once a thing in bygone eras.

I am in the same camp. Why I work on SOM is games are just trash anymore as far as I am concerned. And I am pleased that Rathmor looks promising.

Not to single out games. Blockbuster movies have been trash for forever. So the "game industry" mirroring the movie industry is not surprising. The problem with games is just that apparently all games must be made in the mold of a blockbuster almost without exception, whereas there are non-blockbuster movies.

The only reason I singled out so-called indies is they seem to want to make pared down "retro" like games, so in theory it should at least be possible for them to make a traditional classic game. But so far nothing.

[Madison Lastrega]

hello all ..... I miss you all sorry to bust in on topic, been very busy for the last year with buying a new home, but finally got my old goodies out the box, and started modeling and organized my SOM GOODIES?     So can I still play with you guys:-)     got new ideas to share......... PS ben , todd miss you guys.    Love ML.........  Aka Joe :-)