Alora Fane

I've mostly focused on visual effects this week!

I thought I'd have a demo by now, but I've been stuck at what I thought would take about a week for what feels like more than a month now. I did take a week off recently, so that comes into it, but still.

I'm trying to get to the point where I can run around a little dungeon and have battles, and everything works and looks as it should. I've already had the basic foundation of that for a while, but I suppose what I'm doing now is the equivalent of adding detail to a blocked-out sketch.

Here's a random video (not by me!) of a digital portrait timelapse, as I feel the processes are abstractly similar:

The big picture's roughly there in the first minute of that video, and the rest of the time is devoted to making slow, detailed additions such that it looks like there's little to no real progress if you just sit there and watch it (I couldn't be bothered to stick with that video myself, but it's interesting to just skip ahead a few times). At the end you can look back and see all the work that was done, but those small, incremental changes do take a lot of time and might not be individually very interesting to be there for if you're not the one making them.

So chances are it'll look like I'm stuck at the same place for a while, as I fill in these necessary details bit-by-bit. I just have to stick with it! Thanks to those of you who are checking in through this slog stage, though!

Here's an enormous (~70MB) gif which includes much of what I've made this week:

Before I comment on anything else: those silly dances they're doing while 'cheering' make me laugh, but I'll change them to less stupid animations eventually! (Probably just waving their weapon in the air or something.)

The spell/hit particle effects are the most obvious thing here, I'd say. I watched a few tutorials to familiarise myself with Unity's particle system before starting, but actually creating the effects using the tool was very similar to what I did with my old games like MARDEK. Now that I know what to do and have made a few, adding more should be fairly easy. They don't take long, either; I added the eight currently in the game in a day, while still figuring things out. The Stonesplosion one (a spell lifted from MARDEK) is probably the most impressive of these!

When casting a spell, an elemental glyph appears on the floor like in MARDEK, as a reference to that.

Sword attacks have a slash trail effect, which lasts for a split second and took several hours to add. Time well-spent, right?? It's something I've been wanting to add for a while, and figuring out how to add such a thing was an interesting technical challenge (I settled on writing code to procedurally generate a mesh based on the weapon's position during a specified window).

I talked about Deugan's greatshield last time, and there were comments about how it'd be used. The animation here lacks sharpness; I intend to improve it. Someone last time mentioned how maybe he should slash horizontally; I've done it this way because I was essentially recreating MARDEK's animations, but maybe both characters should use horizontal slashes now that I don't have the restrictions of 2D. The edge of Deugan's greatshield was always intended to be bladed, but it wasn't clear before. I've added some details here that maybe make it clearer? Though I'd also like to make it somewhat metallic, but that's non-trivial with the flat shaders I'm using here.

Speaking of shaders, I did a lot of work on those these week. If you don't already know, a shader is essentially a thing - kind of a mini program, I suppose, or a script? - written in a particular shader programming language which determines how the object is rendered: the colour, lighting, transparency (if any), layering, etc. I've been editing them for a while now, though I'm still very much an amateur. I've coded a general character shader which supports outlines, transparency, glow, and the dissolve effect on death, many of which were either in separate shaders or didn't even work before. Boring behind-the-scenes technical stuff! Compare the old Neuronaut (uisng some standard Unity shaders, I think?) with the one using this new shader:

Characters hop forward when its their turn; they didn't before.

I've changed the Creation glyph to a spiral proportioned after the Golden Ratio. Seemed fitting!

I've added icons for moods, though they're not fully implemented yet, so these all just show neutral moods.

I talked about 'concords' in the previous post, and I've implemented most of their effects now. You can see the Cheer and Avenge effects here. The damage on Avenge is currently really poor though; I'll edit that. The Mind gain from Cheer might be too large, though. Balancing is a long process!

That's it for this week, so this is a shorter post than usual!

19 COMMENTS

Maniafig222~5Y

That Dance animation better be used for SOMETHING. Or else. Maybe a victory animation.

I do like the Stonesplosion one a lot! It conveys the exact same idea as the 2D one did, but in 3D. The way the avenge works is very snappy, but it's also a bit disorienting since it happens while the previous attack animation's still going! I think the way counterattacks functioned in MARDEK are a good benchmark for timing. Speaking of, are there going to be enemies with (conditional) counterattacks? Those added some extra depth to the few battles where they happened in MARDEK 3.

I like the sentimental glyphs! Interesting how some changed from AF:C/TD but others remained the same. I think it's only Creation and Destruction that changed? Those two were always the hardest sentiments for me to get a good grasp of. Has any of the characterization and such of the sentiments changed since?

I look forward to what's next!

Tobias 1115~5Y

Currently the dancing is used for both cheering and a victory celebration, and I am tempted to just give every character their own unique looping dance to use in those places. It'd be really stupid and might take away from any drama, but I find that hilarious anyway (maybe you end some tragic, important battle and everyone just starts dancing... maybe with sad faces), so who knows! I don't know anything about dancing though, and it seems like something that'd make people bring up Fortnite (which I've never played).

Technically the avenges trigger at the end of the turn, but the turn ends just before the animation ends so it does look like there's some overlap! The only thing I remember about playing FFX-2 years ago is how there was a lot of timing overlap like that in battles, and how appealingly fluid they felt as a result. So I don't see it as a bad thing!

I don't see why I couldn't add counters, since it's essentially the same thing just with different conditions for triggering!

I actually haven't given much thought to how elements affect personality, and I'm not sure I'll push that in the lore since it seems more limited than, say, runes. It seems silly to have no influence from the elements though, so maybe it'll be a relatively minor part of characters' personalities rather than something that defines them wholly? I haven't really changed how I see any of them, except maybe Creation is more clearly trait creativity, so high Openness?

Technically the avenges trigger at the end of the turn, but the turn ends just before the animation ends so it does look like there's some overlap! The only thing I remember about playing FFX-2 years ago is how there was a lot of timing overlap like that in battles, and how appealingly fluid they felt as a result. So I don't see it as a bad thing!

I don't see why I couldn't add counters, since it's essentially the same thing just with different conditions for triggering!

I actually haven't given much thought to how elements affect personality, and I'm not sure I'll push that in the lore since it seems more limited than, say, runes. It seems silly to have /no/ influence from the elements though, so maybe it'll be a relatively minor part of characters' personalities rather than something that defines them wholly? I haven't really changed how I see any of them, except maybe Creation is more clearly trait creativity, so high Openness?

Maniafig222~5Y

I did like how in MARDEK and TD every character had their own unique victory pose, that's definitely a good JRPG staple! I know some games actually had a variable so that solemn and sad battles don't get interrupted with the silly victory dance routine.

That also reminds me of a joke made in the Gumball series, the "and then they do a victory dance with sad faces" gag. That one made me laugh a lot! [LINK]&feature=youtu.be&t=250 (This whole episode is worth watching, it's an amazing parody of JRPGs!)

I guess the elements will be similar to how they were in MARDEK, where they weren't really that important overall. Thinking back to MARDEK, it's weird to think the Encyclopedia listed everybody's alignment of all things!

Dingding32167~5Y

Your progress with the demo looks amazing! You've managed to get a lot done and comparing before and after really emphasizes the difference. The animations and particle effects add a lot of flavour to the game and the changes to individual monsters with the shader makes it look a lot more polished. I quite like the cheer animation and the silliness itself personally! 3D is going to take some getting used to but I'm already excited for when the demo will be ready!

Tobias 1115~5Y

Thank you!

kalkra19~5Y

The feature creep in me wants to be able to unlock different dances. The grinder in me wants to able to disable the graphics entirely to improve runtime. The human in me feels bad for the dev who has to accommodate people like me.

All that being said, it looks good, and good for you for slogging through the asymptotic quality slog. Did that make sense? If I keep reading it, I'll delete it, so I'mma just post this now.

Tobias 1115~5Y

It made sense to me!

If you ever played Pokemon, were you one of the players who disabled visual effects for skills? I've always wondered who'd actually use that option. But then again the idea of muting a game I'm playing - and removing some of the immersion - feels like blasphemy to me!

Ptyrell37~5Y

It strikes me as odd that Deugan's shield has such an elaborate design, while Mardek's sword and shield is so plain. Been forever since I've played, but I don't remember him being so "flashy". Perhaps I'm remembering wrong, or perhaps there is an explanation for how he got the design? Or perhaps that says more about Mardek than Deugan?

Love the dancing! ðŸ˜…

SafiyaMukhamadova11~5Y

I think that you're always going to be more critical of the little stuff than other people are (and that's generally true for all artists). You can look at it and see the six pixels that you're not happy with yet but someone else will look at it and think it's adorable, and conversely your art decisions might seem perfect to you but other people might find them annoying for whatever reason. When making any kind of art professionally you kinda have to balance your idea of perfection against the feelings the audience has.

Tobias 1115~5Y

Very true!

MaxDes45~5Y

This looks so great. I'm really excited to see what's coming next since so far this project looks incredible, and your new shading on the nueronaut is especially stellar!!

Stylistically, though, the encounters so far don't feel like they are real encounters since the monsters' battle animations feel too relaxed. How do you feel about them? To me, the monsters seem to move absentmindedly, as if they're too calm. It feels like the monsters aren't stressed enough when in their idle animation, like they're just inattentively chilling around.

Did you choose to make them move more idly since they're miasmon (that is their name in this universe, right?) and not the normal generic beasts usually seen in rpgs? It's distracting I have expectations based on past games of seeing the monsters move less relaxed and more erratically. I'd recommend trying to make the miasmon look a little more otherworldly, so they're more explicitly shown to be distinct from the usual generic monsters that are seen in other games. Maybe you could do this through adding effects like a glow? Unless you've already tried that.

Besides that nitpick, I really like where this is going!

This looks so great. I'm really excited to see what's coming next since so far this project looks incredible, and your new shading on the nueronaut is especially stellar!!

Stylistically, though, the encounters so far don't feel like they are real encounters since the monsters' battle animations feel too relaxed. How do you feel about them? To me, the monsters seem to move absentmindedly, as if they're too calm. It feels like the monsters aren't stressed enough when in their idle animation, like they're just inattentively chilling around.

Did you choose to make them move more idly since they're miasmon (that is their name in this universe, right?) and not the normal generic beasts usually seen in rpgs? It's distracting I have expectations based on past games of seeing the monsters move less relaxed and more erratically. I'd recommend trying to make the miasmon look a little more otherworldly, so they're more explicitly shown to be distinct from the usual generic monsters that are seen in other games. Maybe you could do this through adding effects like a glow? Unless you've already tried that.

Besides that nitpick, I really like where this is going!

Tobias 1115~5Y

The animations that they have come from the physical designs; how would you imagine things that look like this would animate in a more erratic way?

I'm curious about what you're thinking of as a reference, since a lot of monsters in JRPGs I've played could be described as 'relaxed' in their animation (if they even have any at all), and that was probably the case for MARDEK too.

Elfangor8~5Y

I would think it's mostly the speed they move at? Like, they seem to be daydreaming perhaps?
It doesn't disturb me, but if you look at FF VII for exemple, most ennemies seem to be moving somewhat quickly. I guess that's what MaxDes means?
Anyway, glad to be on your website again. I left looong ago, just before Alora Fane came to be. And I wanted to say hi, or something!
So here I am : Hi, or something!!

Tobias 1115~5Y

Hello! Are you using the same username as before? I'm no good at recognising people.

Elfangor8~5Y

Well, yes. But I don't think we interacted much on fighunter, so that's probably why!

MaxDes45~5Y

Actually, as I think about it now I can't think of many games that use animations where characters act more erratic. Characters having relaxed animations in battles is pretty much a negative opinion I have about most games. It's always kind of irked me how their body language doesn't portray stress even though they're in stressful situations, and it makes me less immersed, but I guess not many people notice this sort of thing.

ChuckNorris18~5Y

The particle and tracer effects are sweet! This is a small feature but it really enhances the battle.

As usual, it's a treat to drop in and see what the latest updates are on this project. I'm hoping we'll see some sort of playable demo soon, especially now that people are spending more time indoors.

I hope you are staying safe, and doing OK. As a side note, I think this is the ideal post length.

Chris

Tobias 1115~5Y

Hopefully I'll have a demo out before everyone's dead and the world's fallen into chaos!!

I'm reminded of a famous quote of uncertain origin:

"If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter."

Often there's too much to say, and editing down takes too long, though maybe now we're past descriptions of key features, shorter posts will be more common.

LotBlind53~5Y

Haha! That cheer dance looks hilarious. That would be an easy way to add some comic relief if this was in demand. Everyone having their own style would also make me look forwards to seeing all of them.