gamedev Iiro

It's been a while since last updates, but that simply means there's more things to talk about. The last level sequence The last level sequence that plays after the boss is defeated is done, including more supporting characters, the Flower's sprite in perspective and new dialogue box art. The overall work on level sequences is not yet finished as they require hiding the gameplay UI and tweaking camera and character positions. The last level sequence. Menu art and updates UI art updates include inventory and character menus as well as progress bars for health, energy and such. The progress bar is a single widget that is re-useable for any purpose that displays a value and maximum value as well as smoothly changes the bar percentage when the value changes. Inventory tab of the menu. The character menu features equipment panel which allows the player to change blade and core mods and displays which stats each of them affect. The drop menu displaying all of the acquired mods of ...

There's not much to show this month, but generally, the sprite work is done, as are most of the level sequences. The sequence introducing the second boss is now in place, though the camera and some character positions require more tweaking, which is something I plan to do for all of the sequences later along with hiding the player HUD. A take from the second boss' sequence. When a cutscene is triggered they're added to the save file, so the game knows not to trigger them again. The sprite of the ship is now fully drawn with more detail. It is still missing perspective and some door animations. Full sprite of the ship.

October went by while working on sprite animations for the characters and implementing them in Unreal. The main character's extra sprite has her picking up the princess and jumping to safety during a level sequence. The rest of the characters got animations for walking in a set direction during sequences. Maia's extra sprite in action during a sequence. The final boss finally got its own sprite and two animations to complement it. The first of the animations is the boss ordering the ship to attack the player and the second one is a backstep that the boss uses to move away from the player. The boss moves by backstepping away from the player. The last piece missing from the final sequence is the main casts' ship. I took the sprite it had in Garden: Urada Chapter and put it in Unreal to get a starting point. The ship sprite from Garden: Urada Chapter in Unreal. To my surprise, the ship was already close to its intended size. I have some small changes in mind along with more de...

Hardpoint sprites in Unreal After importing the hardpoint sprites to Unreal and attaching them to the gunship I noticed that I had programmed the hardpoints to work as 3D objects. Meaning that for example rotation of the hardpoints wouldn't match with the sprite animation. I figured that in the case of rotation, each animated frame would have to be assigned it's own sector which would then be picked depending on the rotation. Wanting to move on instead of getting stuck experimenting, I decided to skip this for now and use a single sprite to represent the hardpoints and have that sprite rotate which looks fine except for the extremes of the rotation. Hardpoint rotated to face the right extreme. In an ideal situation I would probably have the ship and it's hardpoints made as simple 3D meshes with pixel-style textures. Effect sprites & light emissions Before I went to work on remaining character sprites, I did most of the sprites for the effects used in the boss battles. I...

August felt pretty slow in terms of progress probably because of only working on pixel assets. Anyways... The gunship sprite is now finished along with separate sprites for the hard points. The gunship sprite. The hardpoint sprites include a rotating turret and a rocket launcher that rises up opening the launch pods.  I also made sprites for the beams fired by the turret and explosions from the rockets fired from the launcher. Next up is importing the sprites into Unreal and putting them into use. There are also a couple of character sprites to do before I can start working on the remaining level sequences.

  June and July blog posts are combined into one, because of how little progress there's been due to me taking some time off during summer. The remaining level sequences The second boss' introduction sequence was a pretty straightforward process, with the most important thing being to disable the boss AI when the sequence begins and re-enable it with a delay once the sequence ends, so the boss doesn't immediately rush on the player. The sequence leading to the first boss fight. While writing the sequences involving the second boss I wanted to have all the assets involved in the sequence done. So I booted up Aseprite and started working on the pirates' spaceship. Other assets required would be the boss and a couple of characters that show up later on. Pirate gunship assets I spent a good while figuring out how I wanted the gunship to look. My initial thoughts on the shape were something similar to a turtle, a round-shaped middle section with a pair of wings. Before proce...

Sprites I started out May by creating individual NPCs from the existing base class and adding some necessary animations before I could tackle the cutscenes by using level sequences. Finishing up the animations for rest of the characters will be done after I know what each of them are doing during the cutscenes. Princess Unu's walking sprite. Level sequences The level sequences turned out to be pretty straightforward to use for my purposes, though there are lots of options and adjustments to make which take most of the time. The sequences in Garden 2 mostly control camera movement and trigger events from the actors usually for moving or playing dialogue. The sequences play out at the beginning of the level and when the player reaches a certain areas in the level, for example a boss introduction sequence plays when the player reaches the boss room for the first time. A take from the sequence that plays at the beginning of the level. Speaking of bosses, I had to add all of the dialogu...