Mudtato
Go Frog, Go!
Today I came across Hop For The Best which is a “clay-style” platformer currently in development.
With it being a solo project by a fellow dad with two kids, and a similar concept, I felt compelled to contribute to the Kickstarter campaign.
It may not get over the line, being less than half way to the goal with just over a week to go, but we can still hop for the best!
In a past life I may have been discouraged or dismissive of a project that could be considered a competitor to my own, but I’ve come to appreciate the following quote - “Blowing out someone else’s candle doesn’t make yours shine any brighter.”
Modelling and Stuff
Since the last post I’ve continued to work on building assets. I built several more environment assets, like panels, girders, chains and organic objects like mushrooms (with bioluminescence!).
I’ve also been making a ‘toolkit’ of hard items like spikes that I’ve baked and can add to soft models as required.
More recently I’ve been building armatures for the two main characters, to get the scale and materials worked out. I’ve settled on 10-12cm high which is manageable.
For the internals of the armature I’m using compacted aluminium foil, baked inside a layer of Fimo. For limbs they’re made from armature wire, with some baked elements to help keep bending in the right place and maintain form when animating.
For the skin of the models I tried my usual Jovi plasticine, but it was a bit too soft for the amount of handling I need to do with the characters. I’ve found Sculpey III to be almost perfect and will be using it as much as possible.
This is such a big project with so many things to do… I’m hesitant to work on components to completion, as the things I produce later in the project will inevitably be of a higher quality than the things I’m making now, simply due to practice over time.
The main thing I need to keep in check is the usual “everything sucks, I should quit or start again” issue that always comes up in a long running project and just make sure I finish it!
Seeing the photos (like the Pipes below) is pretty motivating. Unfortunately I’m unable to have my camera equipment permanently set up in my workspace, so it’s too much of a hassle to do it bit by bit as I’m working on models.
Pipes!
I’ve been working on some environment assets, mainly pipes, and thought I’d capture some test images to see if it was going to work.
I think it’s going to work!
The focus is a bit off, and I didn’t capture enough angles to really have a ‘lego set’ to play with, but for a proof of concept I think it works really well.
The final models will include more details, like bolts, leaks, panels and so on, and I’ve also got other interesting pipe shapes to work with.
Getting My Hands Dirty
The concept art phase is almost done, and it’s been a really great process. I feel lucky to have found an artist that is easy to work with and who creates good quality work.
I’ve acquired the last few bits and pieces and tools that I need to start building (clay) models.
I don’t think I fully comprehended just how much effort (and clay) will be required to build the environments… I’ve already decided to scale down my models slightly, as at the scale I had previously decided on I’d have very quickly run out of space and materials.
Everything is scaled according to the main characters, so I need to make sure they’re just big enough to have a good level of detail and animation, and everything else should fall into place around them.
Working with the clay is a lot of fun, but it’s not easy. I can see why it’s such a niche artstyle.
Flying
It’s been a productive couple of weeks, and development has been going consistently well. I’m still having great success with Unity, so I’ll stick with it.
Most of the core game mechanics are done, to at least an MVP level, including:
- Camera controller
- Character controller (run, jump, double jump etc)
- Background/foreground parallax
- Slopes
- Disappearing platforms
- Falling platforms
- Moving platforms
- Conveyor belts
- Sticky surfaces
- Slippery surfaces (needs more work)
- Climbable objects
- Launchers
- Spawners
- Enemies (idle, moving, flying, jumping, following, projectile)
- Collectibles
- Breakable objects
… and more. So yes, quite happy with the progress in a limited amount of time.
To be fair, most of this stuff was already in my previous, custom engine, but it’s been much faster and easier to do in Unity.
The progress on the development side of things has enabled me to spend some time on the art. I’ve created a few prototype models of some enemies and have been looking at some different colour palettes.
A lot done, a lot still to do.
Unity
Well I’ve only spent a day in Unity so far and I’ve already got a surprising and significant amount done (incl. movement, camera, moving platforms, death/restarting). It was definitely the right decision to make the switch.
I can’t see the core platformer mechanics taking more that a month to iron out, and then I can focus on level design and asset creation.
Excited.