So, I’ve spoken about the world system before, and, referred to [ Silver Tree ] before, about this…

But, what about bodies of water?

This [ Screenshot ] shows how SilverTree does it, but.. I think there is a better way to do it, really. The rest of the screenshot is great, and shows basically what I’m thinking of, really, a few differences, here and there, though.

I’d prefer something… similar to this [ Example ] for the water. (Taken from the [ BattleTech Total Control ] Project ) Mind you, I’d say it should be a bit prettier, as it were, less pixelated, and clearer/more water-like. In addition, I’d suggest that a beach transition should be done, for the tiles around it.. (again, similar things could be done for other liquid-ish terrain/objects, sludge, slime, lava, swamp, blood rivers, for darker areas. Even Mana-Pools could be derived from this! ) With this method for the water, more can be done with the underwater portions of the terrain, say, a giant rock spire sticking out of the water, or a sunken city, that the player could eventually access through some sort of means.

I’ve been working on some models, lately, and I’ve been using procedural materials instead of textures, recently, experiementing with them, really.

An example would be my [ Bio-Tube ] model, for [ StressFreeZone ].

I also plan on working out some planets for sfz, also. (StressFreeZone, see above)

I’d say sfz is a really promising project, really. Its enjoyable, even at the early stage of development it is currently at. Its not much of a playable game, yet, but, still, I enjoy just playing about in it, currently.

Started work on the Gatehouse, today, made a cut-down wall section.. a smaller square tower… that0 I’m not entirely sure about, and will get to work on the gate section eventually. All these are components of the gatehouse.

A new 3d-art contributor to Fortress has appeared, under the name of “tornado”. His square tower is much nicer than my smaller one, perhaps I can use his (slightly edited) for the gatehouse.

Hopefully we can work together, but, his stuff is looking better than mine, or at least this tower is.

Woo, moments before writing this entry, I finally had the idea I was looking for.

The gatehouse for [ Fortress ] is concepted. Today, when I get home from work, modelling will begin.

It should be good, and, I hope it is what Charlie (Charlie Goodwin, of [ Freegamer ] ) is looking for.

EDIT: So much for when I got home, but, today, it’ll get some attention =)

Rightio.

I have some more screenshots, this time from GalaxyMage.. (note, it turns out galaxy mage has a decent rotation mechanism, but, lack of documentation meant I missed this entirely.)

But, first..

With the maps, and the views involved, the objects would likely either be.. [A] Sprites [B] Simple 3d models. (not necessarily animated, though, perhaps idle animations could work, limited animations on, at the very most, characters is the plan, however.) Features like waterfalls could be animated, or have some sort of effect on them. (perhaps particle-effect shaders/animated texture shaders, or some such.) For art, and art style, I was thinking “Simple, but elegant/stylish.” (This is just a note for future reference, for myself.)

These shots are a decent example of a zoomed-in part of the map, with hills. I like the graphical parts of the terrain. They’re… clean, I guess you could say. the final product, would of course require tree models, likely simple ones, at first, because I’m thinking it might work nicely. Note, this is in GalaxyMage, so, interface design would probably change. (none of this is my art, please note.)

Anyway That’s probably all for this entry..

*holds up a sign*

Will Art for Food Code!

So, yeah. I have a game idea… But.. I have a problem. I’m an arter, not a coder.

So, coders out there? I’ll do some 3d-based art for your (open source) project. (please, not character art.. please?). If you can help me with this game idea (and by that, I’d love to have a coder do the coding side of things (I can do art, just.. not coding) and, yes, I’m an arter who’d like this stuff to be open source, preferably GPLv2 or GPLv3. Scary, huh?) Oh, I can also do concept art, if given a brief of some sort. (and a bit of pixel art, but, nothing that good with pixel art.)

Basically..

I’ll give the general jist of the idea, and fill it out in later posts.

You character is in a Fantasy-genre (generic, pretty much, with scope for making into a setting later, if all goes well.) world. Randomly Generated per-char, with options to keep changes between games, somewhagt like “bones” levels, in nethack. except.. it’d be an entire world, and actually specified by the player. The world would be persistant. if you move off space the world occupies, you get the option of: [A] Going back; [B] Generating a new world.

There would be an overworld, 3d, with sprites, (see attached pic) [NOTE: *not* my art, example comes from "Dave" from wesnoth's "Silver Tree" prototype, that screenshot is similar to what I have in mind.. I'm thinking more squares, now, and a true-rotateable camera, not just in steps. And more.. "clean" graphics.. if I could get a screenshot of one of the earlier versions of Galaxy-mage.. that is somewhat like what I'm thinking.. just a mix of the two, in a sense.. that. is very obviously overworld, with a massive mountain in the background, though it is travesable much faster as an overworld, rather than lots of little zoomed-in areas]
Which at pretty much any point, the user can “zoom in” basically, to a more detailed world with individual trees, etc, somewhat similar to, say.. “GalaxyMage”, though I’d prefer the camera to be non-fixed, so the issues in GalaxyMage do not repeat themselves. (Such as units/characters being impossible to see.) Again, this is 3d with some sprites. (Not sure about map format, either hexes of squares, unsure of which.)

Gameplay.. You are lost in the wilderness, with some food, water, clothing, and a knife, at the least. (you can have more, though) This does depend on possible special scenarios, which may be a feature. You can start in any season. (winter would be harder than any of the others, due to snow, etc) You must make a shelter, tools, etc, to survive in the wilderness. You may be lucky and be near a town, so, you may, for example, barter with the people, with items, or gold (you could perhaps sell items you make to the townsfolk, later, to get gold)., you could buy animals, items, including materials.

You are NOT alone in the wilderness. There are, monsters, raiders, adventurers, explorers, settlers, animals, etc. Some of these encounters will be peaceful, some not. You should be able to have a wide selection of options of what to do. Traps, a tool (mostly) for hunting, can be set, fences can be build (and, to some degree, jumped over/knocked down!) Preparation for winter is very important. When winter comes, you’ll need food, shelter, warm clothes, should be in good health, also, and don’t forget to stock up on water.

Clothing can be made, as can buildings, tools, weapons. You can fell trees / saplings / slender trees / other vegetation, with the right tools (not all of them require the same, and, the ones that require knives.. create the most basic stuff, you should always be able to lead to making the tool for the job, using things that can be made/acquired with a knife/cut down with a knife. A knife is /essential/.) Forest fires should be possible.

A lot of gameplay should be inspired by the shareware *graphical* roguelike “The UnReal World”. (not the combat, its too cumbersome.)

Combat… I’m at a loss, hopefully someone will have an idea for this. (was thinking a Seiken Densetsu 3 style but, unsure.)

Animals could be raised/taught to do things, monsters could be raised and taught also. (and perhaps bred, if the user can juggle this with surviving, though, after they get built up, and can survive easily, perhaps after guard-type animals/monsters are trained. or even after traps are set to protect the property.)

Trees should be climbable, but, simple graphical elements should suffice for this. In “zoomed in” areas, (and in the overworld, to the essense of what you can see also on the overworld) there should be a field of view/fogofwar/lineofsight. Being up trees/hills, should give better distance for viewing, and line of sight should take this height into account.

There is a possibility for mining, also. Perhaps ore could be used for things, eventually, as well as trading.

Its important that it be as open ended as possible, with no real “end”.

This should be multi-platform.

Its doable, I’ve seen something basically the same, (aka, The UnReal World)

I’m not expecting this to happen overnight, that’s just the ideas for it, as I’m thinking about this.

I’m reasonable, and, if something can’t work, well, it can’t work, its fine.

Thanks for reading this.

I have examples of map rendering to come, eventually. Just need to get them together.

Well, time for another entry, now I’ve found that someone other than me actually knows this blog even exists O_O.

Blast, can’t access half the stuff I wanted to link to, right now, will edit this when I get access to the content, and upload it. (At work right now, so, unable to get my personal renders..)

But, for now, here are some towers, I did for the [ Fortress ] open source game.

Tower Version 1 [ here ]

Tower Version 2 (Evil) [ here ]
Tower Version 2 (Neutral) [ here ]

Tower Version 3 (Neutral) [ here ]

Tower Version 4 (Neutral) [ here ]
Tower and Walls Version 4 (Neutral) [ here ]

Tower and Walls Version 5 (Neutral) [ here ]

That’s all I’ve got, at the moment, will add more later!

Well… The month of July 2007, I’d say has been the best month of my life. An (aka Cyan, aka my lovely girlfriend) came here from Belgium for the month. We went to the Friday the 13th Alice Cooper Concert show, then went down to the South West.. The week after that? We went up north, to Geraldton and Kalbarri. Geraldton has changed /so/ much. Kalbarri hardly ever changes, really, but, it had changed a little bit. An and I spent most of the time together, and I love her so very much. I miss her, now she’s gone home, too..

Anyways.. I guess that’s all for this entry.