A book cover for... you!
sublime tool
So I'm trying to develop my first game. When I first got into indie game making, I wanted to make some sort of epic MMORPG that would easily rival WoW, and that combined the best of all that I've experienced in PC gaming.
The idea turned into a isometric d3 scifi multiplayer rpg...
That turned into a single player, Half Life 2 type game...
Which turned into a single player first-person mystery game featuring intricate UE4 materials and eye-candy graphics, inspired by Gone Home... I was also inspired by the Harry Potter book that was posted here a few weeks ago. Pretty awesome stuff!
Now that I know a little bit more about making games, I've decided that, even though I know the basics of 3d modeling and animating game assets, it's too much work for one person to make an entire game, with 3d and animation as one of the main features (unless you're animating boxes around like Minecraft, or if you're a fantasmagorical game-making unicorn-god/goddess).
So I've decided on making a choose-your-own-adventure text game, with character stats as in-depth as Morrowind, and also featuring turn based combat.
The book asset will be fancy and 3d though (sort of like hearthstone, but with a different, more realistic art style), and have animated pages.
I want to capture the feeling of exploring Morrowind for the first time, entering the Den of Evil in Diablo II for the first time, or jumping around in WoW in the early days, when the community was amazing, and you could buy ice cream or flowers, imported from all over Azeroth by players in Stormwind.
I've started by cobbling together a bunch of images into a frankenstein book, and imported it into zbrush. This will be the reference that I make the actual book cover details on.
It's detailed, but that's exactly the kind of thing I enjoy making!
The idea turned into a isometric d3 scifi multiplayer rpg...
That turned into a single player, Half Life 2 type game...
Which turned into a single player first-person mystery game featuring intricate UE4 materials and eye-candy graphics, inspired by Gone Home... I was also inspired by the Harry Potter book that was posted here a few weeks ago. Pretty awesome stuff!
Now that I know a little bit more about making games, I've decided that, even though I know the basics of 3d modeling and animating game assets, it's too much work for one person to make an entire game, with 3d and animation as one of the main features (unless you're animating boxes around like Minecraft, or if you're a fantasmagorical game-making unicorn-god/goddess).
So I've decided on making a choose-your-own-adventure text game, with character stats as in-depth as Morrowind, and also featuring turn based combat.
The book asset will be fancy and 3d though (sort of like hearthstone, but with a different, more realistic art style), and have animated pages.
I want to capture the feeling of exploring Morrowind for the first time, entering the Den of Evil in Diablo II for the first time, or jumping around in WoW in the early days, when the community was amazing, and you could buy ice cream or flowers, imported from all over Azeroth by players in Stormwind.
I've started by cobbling together a bunch of images into a frankenstein book, and imported it into zbrush. This will be the reference that I make the actual book cover details on.
It's detailed, but that's exactly the kind of thing I enjoy making!
Replies
I'm now thinking of using reference, and painting in PS. I'll use the end result as an alpha (for Zbrush) and probably the basis for my diffuse map.
I heard that there are new kinds of maps though for UE4, which I'll have to look into.
I'm developing the character's personalities as I go along, so progress is a little slow for now, since this game will be heavily story-based. Once I'm done developing the characters, the detailing will go by faster.
I try to work on this at least for a few hours every day, we'll see where it goes.
I improved the face a bit, and marked areas where I'll add hinges and locks, just so I have a sense of proportions and don't get carried away with detail just yet.
Here's a *really* rough excerpt I'm working on, for the beginning of the game. Of course, I'm not going to use names like Nerevarine, or Daedric Prince.
"Avenger... Champion... Hero. Nerevarine... Daedric Prince... God.
Countless masks you have worn. Countless universes you have wandered, playing a deft hand in the destiny of all.
Countless have you slaughtered; with cold sharp blades numbering thousands, obliterating those who stand in your path with your very will, and gunning down all who oppose your ideals.
***blah blah blah blah blah***
But it is time. Time for you to wake up...
Wake up, and smell the ashes of your creation. "
You bring up a good point though! Now is the perfect time to get the dimensions completely down before working on anything else.
http://grooveshark.com/s/Saesons+Of+War/3xVn9O?src=5
"The player is a time/space/dimension knight trapped in a universe with the one he pursues. With sheer force of will, the player is capable of ripping the fabric of time/space, summoning ancient heroes, armour, weapons, or anything of all ages to his command, within limits of his own power.
He is the ultimate warden, wielding creation and destruction in either hand.
The player chases after an enigmatic intergalactic psychopath that has done crimes that would make all wars (WW1, WW2, etc), genocides, monstrous 'scientific' experiments (Unit 731), tyranny, and the endless list of all of humanity's crimes...
seem like mere child's play.
Jumping through history and time, the two wage war, commanding the world's armies against each other, Fireballs and angels of unimaginable power fall from skies, blasting holes through intergalactic motherships, as legions of demons and undead pour from the bellies of necrotic slave-dragons, which are blasted to bone-dust by Merlin and King Arthur's Army.
Characters will be incredibly detailed and realistic. Situations and dialogue will make you feel like you're really there.
I'll shatter my personality to hundreds of different characters, and handcraft a universe of epic proportions.
That's what artists do... We make universes and everything in them."
-DING!-
"Well, this is my floor."
-Tips Fedora-
"Mi'lady."
Your elevator pitch is too long and doesn't sound like a game. Potential publishers, investors, other game developers would most likely dock you for points. On the first count, I admit, my expectations are that pitches are at most 3 sentences, preferrably 2 at longest. And those several sentences need to encompass several things:
What is the gameplay (i.e. how am I interacting with this interactive media)
What is going on?
Why should I care? (sometimes this is just implicit)
At first read, your elevator pitch reads more like a book or movie synopsis. There's little in it that suggests this is a video game, or anything that necessitates that I control anything as a player. This is bad. What makes video games unique is the interactive portion, not some specific story that can also be done in other mediums.
Here's an example of an elevator pitch for an existing game.
"Four Player Hunters are hired to hunt down and track one huge, goliath player Monster, who's hunting them as well."
I just gave my version of an elevator pitch for "EVOLVE" in 1 sentence, and it encompasses a large portion of what the game is about. The Player action, the primary characters, what genre it may be, etc.
I really recommend sitting down again and retooling your pitch so it can be communicated much more quickly. One has to assume people's attention spans are not that long.
Haha, sorry. I'll be more professional! Thanks for explaining what a logline is.
"Through time and space, the player is on a personal vendetta to hunt down one of the universe's most infamous criminals, using any means at their disposal."
Small things like that are real important when making a game, huge detail make a story, small one place the player INTO the story.
The game's main focus won't be angels, I know it looks that way though; what with my descriptions so far, and that the cover features angels.
Currently I've been working on the UI. I think that it's more important to get the mechanics (UI size and proportions, font size, and I still need to get this into Unity, and get an animated book working, as well as working buttons and more) of the game down first, before actually working on the story, even though I am floating a few ideas around in my head.
I haven't posted in a few days, I'm sort of on a Sydney vacation for a week. I've taken several nice pictures that I might use for texture references, from the royal botanical garden, trees, lichen, fungus, moss, grasses, sandstone.
Anyway, this is my progress so far. After I get tired of walking around and exploring Sydney, I work on this project.
Icons (placeholder icons) to the right are buttons. Top panel is anything map-related, like global, region, local, personal house, personal house expansion, quest log, and I'm still thinking of other features.
Bottom panel is related to the character, featuring Equipped/character status, character stats and skills, spellbook, three inventories, and I'm still working on the last two. Perhaps companion inventories/status, but I want the player to be able to solo the game if they choose.
The book cover is still under major construction, haha.
So I reached the wifi limit at the hostel I'm staying at, and found a pretty neat library just down the road. Aus is really amazing place. It's like a mix of San Francisco and New York, but with none of the dirtiness and grime that usually comes with cities, and the people here are very friendly and open. I think it has something to do with the weather, since it's sunny nearly every day, with a nice breeze.
There are also a lot of european people here. I've learned that Germans are awesome people who love great food, beer, and parties. In fact, I went to my first bar here in Sydney with a few of them, it was nice. Lots of really good EDM with professional DJs, and I found out it's difficult to get me drunk. I recommend the "Side Bar".
Swedes are basically twice as tall as I am. In fact, everyone in Aus seems to be taller than me, and have about three times my muscle mass, and I'm 183cm, or 5'10".
In Aus, it is common to see herds of perfectly in-shape Aussies running around in the fields of the royal botanical garden. Have you ever seen a herd of humans galloping in the fields? It is truly magnificent!
Anyway, enough about Australia. This is what I've gotten done without internet access.
I've created a pixel-perfect 3d model of the game in modo, and have written a lot of notes down for my game. I'll show the images first, and you can check out the game notes below at your leisure.
For the main menu, I'm planning on making a few semi-animated scenes from the game, accompanied by music I'll also be making, using a synth program.
Game notes:
Main Menu Panel: Takes up entire 1/3 of screen with short, repeating hand-drawn animated scenes.
Scene Ideas:
-Maiden blowing a flute by a mountain stream with autumn leaves falling.
-Blacksmith working in his shop, sparks flying.
-Girl putting on makeup and trying on different hats in front of an boudiour
-An army charging against each other
-Farmers working in the fields as airships (or giant floating bugs) sail over.
-A desert-equipped caravan travelling through a sandstorm
-A knight, dancing with a girl in a courtyard.
-A band of people fighting wolves off in the snow with swords and blazing torches.
-A deer being alerted to a hunter, and dashing off as a bullet hits the tree behind it.
-A high ranking officer being saluted while walking down an isle.
-A couple with their backs facing the viewer, watching the full moon while sitting on a tree branch. The girl snuggles up against him.
-A zeratul-like character dancing around guards with blades, slaughtering them in an instant.
-A girl and a boy crying, looking around for their parents in smoking debris. The girl is holding her brother's hand, and a doll.
-A skeleton archer platoon on a cliff, firing flaming arrows.
-A zombie roaring and taking a swipe at a person (first person view), then insta cut into several pieces.
-Zetheros raising one hand, cracking the ground around him in a orb, and blasting enemies back in a shower of gore.
-A ballerina dancing alone.
-A rich businessman walking along the streets of a city, with a shadow of a thief dashing past the camera view.
-People boarding an airship.
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Photoshop Colour Pallate
0,50,50 = neutral red
25, 50, 50 =neutral orange
50,50,50 = neutral gold
75,50,50 = neutral green-gold
100,50,50 = neutral green-green-gold
125,50,50 = neutral green
150,50,50 = neutral blue-green
175, 50, 50 = neutral blue-blue-green
200, 50, 50 = neutral light blue
225, 50, 50 = neutral blue
fg,mg,bg,ebg layers in increments of 10% black. fg starting with 100% black
300,25,95 moonglow pink
275,50,90 moonglow purple
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Character overview:
-Name
-Level
-Health
-Resolve (mana)
-Fatigue
-Oxygen
-Status Effects
-Encumberance
Survival:
-Hunger
-Nutrition
-Thirst
-Hygiene
-Shelter
-Sleep
Character Description.
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Character Skills & Abilities:
Attributes:
Fitness - Partaking in athletic endevours makes you faster, stronger, and harder to kill. (Increases melee and bow damage,
chance to hit, decreases encumberance, increases Health, Fatigue, Oxygen. Increase in Hunger, Nutrition, and Thirst. Unique
dialogue options. People either like you or dislike you more depending on individual personality and gender.)
Knowledge - Partaking in scholarly pursuits makes you more aware of the universe and everything around you, unlocking
understanding of the mechanics of the world around you, giving you the mental tools to exact your will. (Increases Spellpower,
unlocks more spells, unique dialogue options, better personality. Slight increase in Hunger, Nutrition, Hygiene, and Sleep.)
Willpower - Your inner strength radiates from your very being, allowing you to conjure and destroy with your mind. You become a
true being of creation and destruction. (Increases Resolve, Fatigue, Attack. Unlocks spells, unique dialogue options. More easily
resist negative status effects and spells. increases initiative, lengthens time between requiring survival necessities.)
Talent - Pursing talents such as art, music, survival, blacksmithing, armoursmithing, swordsmithing, horse riding, leatherworking,
etc. Unlocks additional dialogue options.
Alignment - Affects the effects (and chance of success) of dialogue choices. Naturally gained through dialogue choices, and
through player actions.
Weapon skills:
Bow
Crossbow
Blowgun
Throwing weapons
Dagger
Shortsword
Longsword
Two-handed sword
Mace
Axe
Polearms
Shield
Skills:
Stealth
Combat
Magic
Crafting Skills:
Art
Music
Survival
Fletching
Blacksmithing
Armoursmithing
Swordsmithing
Jewelry
Leatherworking
Tailoring
Cooking
Alchemy
Magic:
Skill:
Arcane Focus - An Arcane Focus is a mechanism used for storing and condensing paranormal elements. Linking this focus to a
weapon or object with a siphon of magicka will imbue that item with the properties trapped inside the Focus, and will drain an
equivalent amount of element from the Focus. Increasing this skill (and Focus) will allow the user to capture and store more potent
elements, and imbue objects with greater power and efficiency.
Skill: Artificer
Artifact - An Artifact is a small object with magical properties that can be beneficial or extremely dangerous to the user. The only
thing common with artifacts is that they drain a user's resolve while in use.
With origins often unknown, these objects are often difficult to come by, or very rare. Without the proper knowledge, identifying an
artifact's potential properties or uses is often impossible. Increasing this skill allows the user to identify an artifact's properties, and
learn to find more rare and potent artifacts. It is possible that an advanced user of both arcane focuses and artifacts can link both...
to extremely potent or unexpected results.
Skill: Deconstructed Reality
Your character is imaginative, and has become near-omniscent in how physical objects are put together, whether man-made or
naturally occuring. With this knowledge and understanding, the effectiveness of your resolve and power grows.
This skill unlocks resolve actions for dialog and combat, as well as all of the known sciences on the path to completion, every 3
levels of this skill will unlock one branch of; Geology, Chemistry, Anatomy, Astronomy, Psychology, Biology, Microbiology,
Herbology,
"Want to lacerate every vein in your enemy's body? Done. Want to impale a charging bear with a tree root from the ground below?
It'll take quite a lot of resolve and energy on your part... but, done."
Skill: Awareness
Combat:
Skill: Swordsman
Through repeated, rigorous training, you have come to become competent in the use of swords, posessing true understanding
the of the fine intricacies to the brutal, unceremonious warfare of swordsmanship. This skill unlocks additional combat actions for
swords, and (some) dialogue options.
"A master swordsman is precise in predicting and evading the actions of others. He does not falter. Is impossible to predict.
Bleeds and carves the enemy's resolve, mind, and body all at the same time. Does not hesitate to take advantages of his target's
mistakes, toppling it screaming on it's back, pinning them down and bashing the quillions of his sword into an eye socket, over and over again, until there is nothing but a mess of blood, bone fragments, and gore."
Skill: Marksman
Skill: Lancer
Skill: Defender
Stealth:
Skill: Thievery
Skill: Assassination
Skill: Manipulation
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Spell/Ability Book
Subcategories for Combat, Magic, Stealth.
Hard limit of 24 memorized spells/abilities for each category.
Hard limit of 5 unique combat/dialogue choices per player turn.
********************************************************************************************************************
Crafting
Crafting will be very realistic, yet simple at the same time.
List of crafts:
Painting
Pottery
Music
Fishing
Trapping
Fletching
Blacksmithing
Armoursmithing
Swordsmithing
Jewelry
Leatherworking
Tailoring
Cooking
Alchemy
List of crafting items
Naturally Occuring:
Painting will make use of paints, however stores that sell paints and painting equipment are often rare to come across. Instead, the
player will generally make their own paints using dried flowers, berries, bloods, minerals, hair, and similar items to create art
supplies. Some paints are very expensive, or require expensive ingredients, such as gold, to make. Paints can be used to make
paintings, that can be sold for coin, or paints can be applied to armour, as long as they can adhere to whatever material they are
painted on. Linen = any water, oil, alcohol. Leather = oil, alcohol. Metal = alcohol.
Pottery relies on using clay. Clay is difficult to buy unless you are where pottery is produced. Low-grade firebrick clay can
generally be bought, but it is not suitable for making fine wares to sell for money. Pottery synergizes with alchemy and cooking
very well, and many other trades make use of urns or pots.
Music...
On the subject of a game pitch, I think your shortened version is still kind of missing the mark.
Here is your quote :
I think it misses the point of successfully hinting at gameplay. For instance, you could phrase it like this :
Or even like this :
The point is that this pitch should make the person in front of you imagine him/herself playing the game.
Now of course not every game needs to be necessarily ground-breakingly original, as most AAA releases often show us. But when it comes to indie titles, I think it's all about standing out and executing on simple concepts extremely well. Super Meat Boy is basically Super Mario Bros. stripped out of all the fluff, with very cool and clever twists. Ridiculous Fishing took inspiration from a tiny Zelda minigame and turned it into something crazy over the top. Flappy bird took the most simple input scheme ever, and made an extremely addicting game out of it. I think this is all just as important as visual research !
But above all : good luck man, and keep at it !
What I do know, is that I want this game to be a story of a long, epic journey. Just imagine reading LoTR, but actually being a key character in one of the books.
I want to be able to make sequels, and they'll come in the form of a new 3d book, and you can swap back and forth between all of the novels I plan on writing.
I'm beginning to realize I really enjoy indie game developing. If I work with others, it takes too much time to describe what I'm thinking, or I don't describe it well enough, and sometimes I jump back and forth between tasks, which can be very confusing, I imagine.
I'll come up with a log line soon though, and also a title for the game. Thanks for the examples Pior! I'll remember them when I come up with the logline
Anyway, about my game. I'm still working on it, but there are a lot of little things that need doing, and a lot of smaller things to pay attention to. My brother's been goading me to work on the gameplay (as in, making a working model of my game first), but I'm sure that it'll be fine if I just work on the art and 3d assets first; even knowing how complicated the programming side of making a game can be.
I've added a few new panels and adjusted the game UI a bit. It's now expanded from just a book to sort of a mechanized table-top game. The new additions are a sound system (powered by a crystal that feeds harmonic resonances into tubes at various frequencies) and an options menu above it. Both of these slide under the 'main menu', the empty rectangle that takes up a third of the device to the left, which is usually covered by the book when it is open.
I'm spending a lot of time on parts of the game that aren't often seen during most of the game, since I already know what will decorate the areas that are seen more often, and I enjoy doing difficult things first.
A shot of the updated character screen:
Also, I'm shifting my attention more towards the characters. I find that having a good, solid imagery and description for several of the characters will more firmly place the story's setting, than if I were to imagine one on my own.
One of the characters will be Zetheros. I already know his character, since I am he, and vice versa.
Also an update on 'flute girl' one of the characters of the book.
I'm going to keep coming up with new character designs, as well as working with what I have right now, while listening to The Kingkiller Chronicle!
Edit: Nevermind, they seem to be back... by their own free will...
So I didn't post anything for about a month because there wasn't really much to show; most of what I worked on were a ton of notes on gameplay, characters, monsters, creating new languages, cultures, currencies, races, and basically anything I could recall from dreams. There needs to be a lot of content, since I'm planning on having 25 chapters (and an epilogue) each being 8-10 hours worth of gameplay.
I've also been updating the book UI, studying basically everything under and over the sun (crafting is going to be insane; combining magic, real-life sciences, Resolve (magic), combat techniques, armour, weapons, and even the crafting tools themselves. Just imagine combining a physical technique with lessons in anatomy, AND combining that with an altered artifact that powers your weapon (that is also crafted) AND combining everything with the force of your Resolve, which takes the form of a spell that can also be customized to your liking, using rare (or mundane) reagents and materials, lesson books and more, found in the world.
The game will also be highly logical. Cause and effect. No loopholes. The rogue 'class' does not exist. There is only the power of your Resolve, or force of will, combined with the player's competence and knowledge, and combat and martial techniques. However, the player certainly can steal things, rob people, and eventually simply be called a 'rogue' or a 'thief', but NPCs will be alert, intelligent, and just as suspicious as in real life.
For instance, if the player swipes something in front of a person who can hear or see the player in their peripheral vision, they will very likely be caught. Robbing something like that in plain day requires real knowledge and experience; such as manipulation, bribery, distraction, and paying attention to schedules. Look suspicious or nervous around a guard, and the player will be questioned, ranging anywhere from suspicion, to an air of humor, depending on the player's appearance, age, height, race, gender, stats (strength, intelligence, etc), reputation, alignment, and lastly, comparing all these factors with the guard's race, age, height, and personality, gender, time of day, and weather.
The complexity of this game stems from an annoyance that I've had about current games; they're always too easy, and I've noticed a HUGE dumbing-down in complexity. (except for PvP games). There are many gamers who are fully adults, (and some of us have even passed on :P) it's high time to make a game for us.
Have a job in genetic engineering, or want to learn the basics? Now is your chance to roleplay as a sorcerer (or sorceress) who creates virulent diseases that wipes out entire races with a well-aimed toss of a glass vial.
Anyway, I've expanded the book to a small room! It is integral to the storyline that I'm piecing together.
It's super duper conceptual at this stage. To be honest, I just threw together all of my junk practice models I did from almost half a year ago together (for placeholders), and am currently messing with the wall texture.
Yes, there is a defunct robot sitting on the crate, alongside medieval weapons and helmets, and a drone ship (I call it a "Blade of Starsunder", Starsunder being the mothership.) This game will run the player through multiple timelines, starting from Haven's Harrowing Region, Isthanoth, Palendrast, the "Incandescent Ruby of the West" hewn from white sandstone and redluster, to... where fate takes the player.
Here's the camera angle I've decided on.