garcia-luis-development

[garcia-luis-development]

Update of the week!

Game development tip: 🎮 Keep it modular! Making your games modular means easy re-use of features and content. Imagine creating a mech suit - instead of one solid mesh, go modular! Build separate pieces for endless possibilities in model customization. �� #GameDev #ModularDesign

[garcia-luis-development]

Pooled Actor Subsystem and Component The new update enables me to recycle actors, essentially allowing me to skip any performance issues related to large allocations or deallocations. For example, in the GIF the pooled system is being used to "Destroy" a large number of grunt enemies all at once during the same frame and then "Spawn" a large number of grunt enemies all in the same frame, this type of use cases would normally cause performance issues, BUT NO MORE! The reason why is that there are no new allocations/deallocations happening we are just resetting locations and data for the already existing actors.

If you eat a live toad first thing in the morning, nothing worse will happen all day long. -California Proverb?

[garcia-luis-development]

Now we have reached a point where we can better showcase the versatility of the AI Utility Scoring System. In the first GIF you can see the Puppeteer using the Launch Attack, to get close to the player and then using the Vice Grip to deal the damage. In this example, the AI Utility Scoring System is evaluating the Launch Attack & Vice Grip combo to be the best course of action for the situation. But in the second GIF the same AI Utility Scoring System and corresponding abilities are allowing the system to decide that for this situation it's better to only dash with one side of the "Vice Grip" and allow the other side to continue attacking and chasing the player.

Overall I hope these 2 GIF showcase how the AI Utility Scoring System can be used to combine abilities to create combos and then help decipher what situations these combos would be best used in.

The hunter in pursuit of an elephant does not stop to throw stones at birds -Uganda Proverb

[garcia-luis-development]

Finally, we get to a more unique attack style! The Vice Grip Essentially enemies line up on opposite sides of the player to then after a certain amount of time, dash into the player causing damage. The player then has to predict the timing correctly and dash out of the vice grip before he gets caught. So far this is a pretty fun mechanic, it feels pretty unique also. Having the enemies walk next to you waiting to dash in together, feels ominous and keeps me on edge, which helps the whole feel of the boss fight. With some effects to "juice up" the attack and inform the player of other essential info, this has the potential to become a very unique mechanic. A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step. - Chinese Proverb

[garcia-luis-development]

New attack for the Puppeteer, The Launch Attack The puppeteer can now flick his hands to launch the puppets at you and close any distance you may have created between them. This attack is meant to keep the player running and moving while the player is trying to take down the puppets chasing him.

While the visual front of the Puppeteer currently looks simple the architecture in the background is using an AI Utility Scoring System to help the Puppeteer choose the best action to take. The utility system is still only in the early stages since we don't have many actions the puppeteer can take yet, but overall this system will be important in how the Boss AI will choose what actions to take.

You eat an egg, but you don't understand how painful it was for the chicken -Antilles Proverb

[garcia-luis-development]

Set up the boss AI reactions for when the puppeteer gets damaged/concussed! As you can see in the GIF above the boss recovers after a short moment and then begins spawning new puppets to use against the player, since the puppets will be his main method of attack. More on that later! So far my focus is setting up a full basic Boss loop before getting into the more unique attack stuff. Acquaintance without patience is like a candle with no light. -Persian Proverb

[garcia-luis-development]

The Puppeteer's hands now move!

I updated the hands to follow the player instead of the puppets since the hands should look like they are leading the puppets instead of following them. Aside from that small change, the puppeteer is looking awesome! The hands following the player make it look so amazing, I am really loving the way this boss is turning out! Next is beginning to add unique boss actions, I am thinking depending on the player's position the puppeteer could flick its hand causing the puppets to launch at the player. This is still an early idea so I might come up with other more interesting attacks the puppeteer could do with his puppets. A wise man never knows all, only fools know everything -South Africa Proverb

[garcia-luis-development]

The Puppeteer now has puppets! setup some rope then connected that rope to little grunt enemies that the puppeteer commands. So far it's looking pretty cool, I am looking forward to seeing how multiple ropes connected to 1 bigger worse enemy will look like. Can't get ahead of myself tho, one step at a time. The next step is to get the hands moving in conjunction with the enemies it's controlling, back to blender! A good guitarist will play on one string -South American Proverb (P.S. 10 MB GIF limit on Tumblr, makes it hard to post good quality gifs)

[garcia-luis-development]

I heard people are looking for Boss Encounter AI Introducing The Puppeteer

First day working on it, but so far I got a "head look" algorithm going where the Puppeteer's head follows the player. To achieve this result I had to set up a bunch of 3D math, and take it down to the 2D level, essentially only caring about the horizontal angle for 1 calculation and then the vertical angle for another calculation. Once I had those angles, it was a simple use of the Dot product to define which side of the head the player was on left or right, top or bottom. Voila!

In the next updates ill be posting more about the method of attack this AI Boss will have.

A sitting crow starves. -Iceland Proverb

[garcia-luis-development]

Another one bites the dust! Added the ability to throw the weapon, now a SPEAR, at walls, enabling the player to teleport and hang hang from the spear. I think this could enable the player to do some cool traversal mechanics especially if I allow them to jump or swing from one thrown spear to another. The vision could be: - throw a spear at a wall - teleport to the spear, - jump, - throw another spear at another wall, - teleport again, - then finish with a sweet ground pound attack on top of an enemy? Fuck it! I'll try that next! If I have time.

An old chicken makes tasty soup -Monaco Proverb

[garcia-luis-development]

Replaced the axe with a spear since it could be fun to see the enemies pierced with all the things you have thrown at them. Plus I was thinking of using the spear to make other functionality related to the teleport on object throw. Overall here is a GIF of the poor test dummy I had to use, kinda fun to see the spears move with the enemy's animations. What cannot be cured must be endured -Scotland Proverb

[garcia-luis-development]

Playing with the gameplay idea of the character having an axe that the player can throw and when the axe hits something the player is teleported to the axe. This could be a form for the player to get up close and personal with other enemies. So far, this feature looks pretty sweet and works pretty well in combat situations but this seems to make the player overpowered when a player also has a dash. Could this replace the dash? P.S. Excuse the bad GIF quality Tumblr has a 10 MB gif limit :(.

Don't call the alligator "big mouth" till you have crossed the river - Creole Proverb

[garcia-luis-development]

Just made a dash effect for a new game I am tinkering with in UE. I always loved the Second Son smoke dash effect they made so I tried to replicate it here. All the particles are following the mesh and animated bones as the character travels. This adds so much more juice to the dash ability! So far I am loving the effect, I have more plans for this effect to work together with Throw a Spear in the future but for now the dash effect looks SWEET!. “The work will teach you how to do it” – Zen proverb

[garcia-luis-development]

Turret Customization is now is almost done, now comes the polish.

Currently this features has not changed, just like before as you change your turrets body, head or nozzle it will affect how the projectiles behave, how they will be shot, and what they will be.

The system is already in place only thing left is to polish and balance.

P.S. Turret Mesh’s are still placeholder for now.

[garcia-luis-development]

Lots of improvements have happened to the game, while i have not been posting as often I have not stopped working.

First thing to showcase is that the forest only at night now has more of a magical forest feel/look inspired by Alebrije from the Dia de los muertos Mexican tradition.

Also there have been some UI updates, this are not final but better fitting.

[garcia-luis-development]

The new day night cycle in the game! i really love this system.

Currently the game is no longer setup by waves but by day and night. During the night the enemies come out, and during the day the player will have a chance to recuperate and rebuild his defenses.

Here you are currently trying to protect your home which is the log cabin.

[garcia-luis-development]

Here is the current comate It is still just like it was before not much has changed other than the aesthetic and look! There are still a lot more assets to be updated and improved but so far here is what we have.

If you are an artist and you wanna help a struggling fellow indie game developer let me know what art you would like to do for the game.:D