So I’ve been making this indie game… | DEVLOG
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- čas přidán 5. 09. 2024
- The P&C discord server: / discord
We’re almost there! The finish line is fast approaching, but there’s still a ways to go. Here’s what I’ve been up to over the past little bit.
Ps. His name is Bobby. 🐈
Music:
www.purple-pla...
HOME - We're Finally Landing
#vlog #devlog #indiegames #pointandclick #indiegamedev #steamnextfest
You can now wishlist my game on Steam! steampowered.com/app/2967630
I'm glad you decided to draw the title screen instead of giving this task to MidJourney. This way you're keeping the consistent style. Great work. It's all getting in place now. Looking forward to experiencing your game
For the clouds just have the layers with transparency, bring them to unity and animate them (in the animation window) moving horizontally in a way that they'll loop. No need have that as a bunch of frames. Looking forward to seeing the finished product!
Oh, I also wanted to say that your art, I think, is improving, and that title screen looks excellent! I watched the whole timelapse, too. I waited months for this video, so I'm gonna squeeze every bit of entertainment from it that I can!
Thank you!
Sounds like you are finally on the home stretch 🎉. I am dying for the Steam page so we can ‘wish list the crap out of it!’
While point&click are not money makers anymore, this one will be a hit. Nostalgia vibes hit hard seeing these screens, so You will have tons of sales with the older generation for sure :) keep up the awesome work and finish it finally, i wanna play already :D
Great to know you've finally come to this point and the release is in your sight. I guess I'll keep supporting you on Patreon until the day the game comes out (maybe you don't need it anymore but it's like "wish you luck on your final stretch!"). Looking forward to watching the trailer 🙂
Easiest way to save space on your clouds is to just do what you did in Dreams in Unity. Animate your Layers just like you do in Dreams, so that they move along the x axis and then snap back to the first frame at the final frame. With keyframes it should be pretty easy. That way, they'll only take up as much space as the original layers do. Plus, it gives you flexibility to change the speed or layering or direction later, if you need.
Would that be using Timeline?
@@pcd I'm sorry, I use Godot, but I do know it's possible in both. Anything that can animate a 2d texture should work. You can animate the physical position, or just the UV coordinates. I'm really sorry I don't have a more specific answer.
Yeah, animate the clouds in engine. There is no need to bake the animation.
@pcd yes you can animate clouds like that in timeline, alternatively you can create a very simple animation that moves along the X axis and returns to original position when finished, then loop it. There are lots of resources online that can outline how to do that, you can even ask CoPilot or ChatGPT
@@pcd no need to use a timeline. you just put your layered assets in a container object, and place an animator component on that container. the animator on the parent will control all its children without the need for a timeline. in the animation window just hit record (it will create a default animation) and move the layers as you please and that's about it. if you then create a prefab out of it, that animation will play automatically whenever you add that prefab to a scene
I will not only wishlist and buy it but I will stream it on Twitch too. I don't have a big following but do have a lot of people who love point and clicks and will likely be up for purchasing it too. :)
I've been working on games for 30+ years (including some point and clicks). I try to keep the mindset that I am making the game for "me only". I am going to learn things, and have fun making it. If someone else likes the game and wants to buy it, then we're both happy.
That tends to keep me sane and happy.
It looks like you've had a great experience making this game, and that's important.
Bobby's close-ups killed me 🤣Great production on this episode and the game's looking better than ever. Main menu looks so good, loved those clouds! Have you tried converting the PNGs to WebP? Can't wait for the Steam page to drop 🙌
Regarding Clouds, I've had a lot of luck making beautiful animated clouds using particle emitters. You only have to load 2-3 very small PNGs of wispy cloud images so the file size is practically nothing. I know you are using a UNITY SDK and I'm not familiar with that particle system but I'm confident that it's possible. Another advantage is that the clouds actually self animate,(meaning that it's not a static cloud image but more like real clouds that are expanding and contracting) and you can make multiple emitters and layer them for distance, and focus control for depth of field, (by loading particles that are blurred and out of focus).
Another trick I've learned is to layer the emitters so that the clouds closest to camera are darker and cloud layers running closer to the horizon are brighter.
Particle emitters are very flexible, reusable from scene to scene and may be less taxing on the CPU than running 700 frames of animation that loop in the background of your scene. Can't wait to see your Steam page and trailer!
100% agreed, good advice! I was going to write something similar.
Ooh. I will dig into this actually because my rain is a particle system and that works like a dream.
@@pcd I was going to say the same thing, use a particle system. It will use slightly more CPU but way less RAM than those huge .PNG's. There must be loads of tutorials for something as common as clouds.
So excited man truly ,been watching for years waiting
For the clouds, there are three ways I could think about doing it. The first one instead of a PNG sequence just use a single PNG of the clouds or multiple PNG if you have different layers and then just animate them in Unity and then have unity Create a new version at PNG and put it at the beginning and loop it again. Somebody also said for the second one would be particles. And the last one you could actually use and noise to make clouds via shadergraph and apply it to a texture, but that might be a bit too involved.
Missed your devlogs!
Same here
8:14 never! ur hand drawn art has so much charm to it you have no idea! and as someone who has tried landscape-y drawings like this with weird skyscrapers, i feel your window pain!!
eey man! I've been following you for years now, I'm so happy that you are realising!
I am one step ahead of you! Already have a second steam account up and running :D
Good video as always, and great to see quite a bit of progress made since the last one.
love the game, the genre and the effort you're making. Thanks, I'll be playing for sure
You can use a single texture and some VERY simple shadergraph trickery and you could do it in under a hundred kilobytes. Super easy.
Always a pleasure to watch the videos! Bobby is great lol
Really loved the video, super interesting and the game looks like my cup of tea! I really miss Point & Click Adventure games so i am super exited to play this one! Subscribed.
Anyway, I am Quite new to programing but i do like problem solving so i have some ideas, they might not be great, but that is for you to decide. I denounce all responsibility for the effect they might have if implemented xD
To deal with the deluge of big PNG files. There are a few things I would try.
THE FIRST: the art you use for the clouds, although charming, doesn't seem to be detailed enough to need to be saved into such a big file format to be used in the game. I would archive the PNG and, if possible, convert them to WEBP or else JPEG for the final product.
THE SECOND: I would compile them into a looping video, this will make it be both less computationally expensive, so even if the file turns out to be huge, it shouldn't make it difficult to load and reload, and reduce its overall size me thinks. I don't know how it would effect the look, but you might be able to use GIF or the the webm equivalent.
THE THIRD: Another thing i might have tried would be to use noise to generate some of the mist. some of the layers of the clouds could, i think, be replaced by simulated mist made from a noise map. this would give those parts a more random look. they wouldn't be stored the same way, and would be computed on the spot. The noise map would be enough for multiple layers of mist effect i suspect.
Also, i would like to throw my hat in the ring and ask to audition for a voice. seem like it would be fun, and what is the harm in asking you directly ^^
Anyway, good luck with the game! And hope this helped.
Hey Adam! This game looks really cool!
Don't worry about the video being too long or boring I tend to run all my videos at double-speed anyway. I don't really care about steam -- but I'll wishlist it as I do have an account. If I didn't mention it already think of a GoG release later, because I'll definitely get it on that.
Glad to see another update! 1) Your art is indeed improving every day, it's looking awesome. 2) I love how you used AI just for the concept or "unblocking" your mind, but the final result (YOU drawing it) is amazingly superior, but more important: is UNIQUE, not some regurgitated pixel collage. 3) I've got some people reporting in my demo that video "flashes" before playing, I tried preloading but for some reason my actionlist got stuck if I checked the "wait until finish" setting. You managed to make them work? (the preload I mean). Does the actionlist have any specific config (as for instance: "run in background" or "run in parallel" etc.?). Thanks for everything!!
Yeah so I use a sprite that’s at like 1% opacity as the thing the video plays “on”. Have it set to invisible at the start of the scene, then make it visible when the video plays.
Always awesome to see new update videos from you!
Just have a few cloud textures in the engine and scroll them in-game. Same for many of the videos, animate the images in engine, no need to import so many video files
I need to know more about that globe on the right side of your desk.
It's supposed to be full of booze but it's too small to fit anything in. 😂
It's cool to see how AI can be used as a creative tool rather than outright vilified off the jump.
i was worried when i saw this comment but seeing how it was used i can totally get it! this perspective is so specific it’s hard to find a real reference
Did he and The AI worked together at the same time? That's teamwork, that's very rare to see these days
oh so excited
I think it will be a great game. I know you are using Unity. I could not know how to use the animator. Therefore I left Unity for now. I might need a tutorial. Thanks for the video. Keep up the good work.
Of course you can shrink those thousand pngs, you can do it by converting them to webp format, which is 1/10 the space and you practically don’t lose quality. You can do that easily with the Android IDE (android Studio)
xnconvert will also do bulk conversion to all sorts of formats including webp
@@AnthonyIrwinVideos oh yes, I didn't remember that I use that one for bulk conversions, it's great
Oh, and after doing the conversion, save the PNGs, the webp can't be edited in Photoshop as far as I know
Ah, and ask someone to do the key art for Steam for you if you can, it’s not an easy thing to do
Lol, you're at the point where you know exactly how much work you're willing to put into this channel and no amount of money is going to change it.
"I mean, you could pay me $3,000 a month, and I'd appreciate it, but uh, yeah, I'm not gonna make more videos than are called for, which at this point is very few."
Game looks like only a few more months to get everything sorted, so I'm eagerly anticipating. Thing is, this marketing works kind of well, because I'm going to buy the game whether it's good or not at this point, so you've secured my money. If it's genuinely good, hopefully it takes off.
Hi, I'm curious how do you blur the background at @6:13 ? assuming you're using a 2d camera, I thought 2d environment prevented that and you had to have "real" z space.
Hi! This is pretty simple: I’ve made a ‘blurry’ version of the background as a sprite that is set to fade in when the camera pans in, and fade out when the camera pulls back.
Nice update!
Lol. My dog’s name is also Bobby. 🐈🐕
I was trying think what to comment for Mr Alan Gorithm, and then I noticed your tablet stand - please can you tell me where you got it? I'm looking for something like that!
Here it is! www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08GFWFKH7/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Tell Bobby I said hi lol
Will there be a demo?
I'm not sure at this stage...
I think that's a legit use of AI, to help you organize your artistic vision. I struggle with that all the time.
Anyway, how was the pizza?
Incredible
Also, you were probably right for calling me out during the time lapse.
That WAS indeed pretty disgusting
Doubling my patreon pledge out of spite
What assets do you use as a foundation/framework? For instance Adventure Creator. Do you use that?
Yep, everything's built using Adventure Creator!
@@pcdcool! Thanks for sharing. I would love to see some videos about your findings, usage, tips/tricks of adventure creator. Some tutorials maybe? You could even do an affiliate link to the asset(s) if you’re eligible. People might get excited to do the same you’re doing right now and purchase the assets and or software you’re using. Just a thought. 😊🙏
Oh i see you already made such video. Haha. Cool.
not so sure you have your tech stack under control.. everything looks very blurry like a scaling issue..
What bit looks blurry?
@@pcd for example the scene at 35 seconds. the characters look sharp and all the assets look blurry. the picture frame, the drawer.. not sure i like the overall look.. i bet on a 4k monitor this is even worse.. in think using vector art would be a solution.. "gibbous" made the same "mistake" it looked like shit in anything else then 1080p.. what they could have avoided using vector graphics..
Did you order the pizza after all?
No comment
😩 this question will keep me up at night.
Can you not have the clouds pre-rendered as an MP4 instead of stills? Especially if it seemlessly loops, you just need one render then loop the video. You could pre-rendered the whole intro really and snap it back to "live" when the menu pops up. This may all be waffle as I've never used unity 😅
Why didn't you make a single spritesheet for those clouds?
Many mistakes have been made
please, release the game