Ooooh So Pretty - 18/10/15

So what's been happening?
Alot has happened in the way of progress towards this game as a whole. Not alot has been done this round coding wise, though there have been a few, however aesthetically we have a different story in my opinion. Let's see if i can list all the changes that have happened since the last progress update.

Features Added/Changed:
- Sounds
   - Pickup sound for key
   - Laser sound
- Yes you read it right! LASERS! I have implemented lasers into the game. currently they do nothing    other then sit there and look pretty but the future will be that the lasers will trip an alarm and to get     around them you'll need to deactivate them
- On the subject of lasers and also sound, i have modified a code that i got online to make the audio       source of the lasers follow a path towards the characters position. The reasoning for this was that the   lasers are a straight line and the audio source 3d sound distance detection is a sphere so simply      putting this at the center of the lasers isn't going to cut it because the sound will fade at both the          furthest ends even though you are still near the laser. Multiple audio sources didn't work well either    the change in volume while still at the lasers was still there, however this script allows for the need     of only one audio source and the sound stays constant.
- The floor is now shiny and reflective, i wanted to give the game a polished floor look because it was   something i felt was needed for the feel and also to make the game less visually dull. And after        much mucking around with reflection probes and cubemaps i managed to fake a solution using a      script and a shader and it looks quite decent.
- Speaking of visuals we also have some new environmental props to spruce up the joint.
-Props
   - Lamp
   - Cactus Plant
   - Desk
   - Mug
   - Picture Frames
- Once again the camera has been changed, i managed to get a camera that behaves similar to the one  in 3dsMax, i have modified it a bit to work for how i wanted it to, i think also it didn't work straight  out of the box (pun intended) anyway.

As always many a picture and video to also visually show the progress.

Reflections and Laser

More Reflections and Lasers. Please note i am

aware that the shadows(not on the floor because that

creates shadows differently) look horrible, i have the

shadow quality crank up and have messed around

but can't make it look right

 Here we see a room with all the props before

mentioned

Key Pickup Sound

This video shows the laser sound plus also

how the follow script for the audio source is

working

Whats New? 13/10/2015

So what's new?

Not really anything i can show visually this time around but we do have a fair bit of progress made.

Features/Add-ons

- We have sounds! Yes that's right i have for once in my life added some sounds to a game of mine.

   These sounds currently are.

      - Guard reaction noises

      - Camera movement sound

      - Character Footsteps

      - "Book it!" sound

- Also now modular walls have been created for the game, which should aid immensely towards the 

 efficiency of the level designs. I've already made a test level however its not really anything new to    look at in my opinion.

Guard Noises

Footsteps

Camera Rotate

Book It

Latest Updates - 7/10/2015

Hey sorry for the slight absence. I have been working on my final game for the year, this game infact and because of this i've been too busy to post regular blog for a bit.
Well alot has changed when it comes to this game. Hopefully the snapshots i've captured do it justice.

New Player Model

New Guard Model

Camera Model

Key Model

Old Vault Door Model (Forgot to post a pic of it)

Latest Model Shader in use

Features Added/Changed:

- Updated the default red square of guard to its own model made in maya

- Created a new model for the character to better suit the bank robbing theme

  (this was done as a massive stray from the original concept but i felt for the time being

   would suit where the game is heading better)

- Added a camera model plus its own field of view system slightly different from the guard FOV 

- Added a key model, to which i eventually want that some levels you'll need the key to get to the

   door

- Added a different shader to all the main models in the game. You'll notice that now the models can

  be seen through objects in the way. they each have their own unique colours too. Green for the 

  characters, red for the Guards and yellow for the key and gold.

- Added a new camera script which will follow the character and mouse drag orbit around him.

- Changed the player move completely from mouse clicks to arrows/wasd 

- Added an animation to the character movement based on speed.

I'm sure there are a few other things that i'm forgetting. But sofar this was a huge change to the game in many regards. Next on the list is to provide some sound feedback. I'm hoping to have a majority of this done by the end of the week. The game is a far cry from what i initially envisioned but that is fine. Considering i'm doing this solo, i am very limited in what i can realistically achieve. It does not mean however that the original idea will be forgotten, i will use what i'm learning here as a stepping stone towards it. 

Sword_Model_01

So i challenged myself this time to do a sword model from start to finish. Took a bit longer then i had hoped for but im pretty happy with the result. Basically im challenging myself to get better at various aspects of game development but also challenging myself to complete these within a reasonable to quick time frame. After all game are made up of many assets and if i being a solo developer(currently) dont allocate my time wisely and efficiently, things will take too long. but here we go from start to finish taking roughly two-ish days(modeling was smashed out on the first day,texturing back and forth between 3d and photoshop took a bit)
.

Original Concept Art Created

Wireframe topology for the full Sword

some adjusted to the blade length were made

to make it look better in my opinion

The lion head at end of handle. Ended up rotating it because i

front on didnt look right.

Sword fully textured using brush strokes and a bit of an artistic filter

in photshop.

Playing around with the filters in photoshop to see what a pixelated 

texture might look like.

The lions head fully textured 

This was modeled to be as low poly as the rest of the sword so

trying to find that balance was hard. But im pleased with the end 

result.

Pixel Art Practice

So i tried my hand at doing some more pixel art, something that i haven't done in quite a while but stylistically i really love. i think i took about 30-40min start to finish. Id like to try more speed art in the future. Below is my reference pic and then the result.

Achievement Icons For Tafe

Hey so i've been tasked with the job to create 10 icons/pictures for possible achievements for the game that we are each working on. The style that is being explored is a flat style and also cutout style. So remember i only had to make 10.

So i kinda ended up doing 22 instead. I have literally no idea what some of these would be for but basically what i did was go with the overall theme of my game which is kinda bank/robbery/oceans 11/money and just brainstormed a whole bunch of possible ideas. After they were sketched out i then proceeded to go over each of them regardless if they were good or not. Wasn't taking me much time to do them anyway so i didnt mind. Over the course of this year my photoshop skills and comfortableness with it, have improved significantly. the icons you see before you are a combination of some hand drawn, some with the pen tool and mainly the clean shape ones where the marquee tools and a few were a combination. I enjoy do flat images and also trying to think about negative space too.

Rime_Like Cliff Model

So this is one i did a while ago, once again it is modeled and 3D painted in maya, using flat lighting.
I was searching through various different game art styles and saw a screenshot of rime and thought itd looked like a very nice very clean style. So i tried my hand at it.

This is the reference image i was using for colour scheme and

general lighting and shading

i wasnt able to get it exactly how i wanted it but not bad 

for a first effort

Pokemon Flower Maya Model

So it s roughly 12:30 am currently and ive probably spent bout an hour and a half on this. Basically what i wanted to do was try my hand at some environmental props. i got the idea to do this flower whilst i was playing pokemon shuffle. Modelling the flower was extremely easy and quick. the majority of the time was spent in 3D painting the model. i did have to at some stage tweak the 3d model itself because with the low poly count that it was, some of what i was painting either looked very rigid or it wasnt in view. im trying my hand at painting mostly with flat lighting and hand painting in the areas that need shadows and highlights.

Reference image i was using off my mobile phone screen

The Maya 2015 3D model rendered pretty much in flat lighting