#silmarillion fangame

[dewffin]

soo... I think I accidentally began to make a Silmarillion Fangame...

For some unknown reason i was like "I wanna make textures :D" but i didn't want to model shit, so i just used VROID studio as a painting book... but then i was like "ummm, i never tried to draw a character an then tried to make it 3D in vroid" so uh-

yeah...

and then i was like "let´s drop this bad boy in Unreal to see how he looks" and because, well, i don't know why i decided to try to make him look a bit 2D? like he was drawn? like doing the complete opposite of what i just did?

so this is what he looked when i began to play with post process stuff

and because i wanted to look around and stuff i added a little guy i had, and it turns out that he was really little and i had to make him a box to take pics of Fëanor's face

Then i did more stuff and i ended up with these cute flowers :D

And then I said fuck it, i think I'm making a game...

So the thing is that doing a game doing a game while being a one person studio is a biiiiiit difficult.

By that i mean i had to try to keep my head leveled in what i could do, so I ended up with this...

Tecilwë's Adventures in Arda

(yeah, i don't have a name for this)

So, you play as Tecilwë, a noldorin journalist that travels around trying to document the best stories of Arda. You can find out what is happening around by talking with people, sneaking around or finding clues. Then, you can write your take on what happens, and depending on what you say, how you say it and what secrets do you keep your reputation as a journalist and your relationship with the different character you find can change for better or worse.

A little bit about Tecilwë...

Q Tecilwë Autanna -  S Tegilu

Tecilwë - The one who writes [tecil “pen”, wë “person”] or as i like to call them "El pibe birome"

Autanna - the lost sign, the fool sign [au “away, lost”, aut “fool”, tanna “sign, token”]

A young lore master from Tirion. Studied under Rumil, and is excited to document all that happens in the course of the story. 

Curious and eager to learn. More often than not ends up in trouble for documenting what was not supposed to be seen.

Tecilwë believes in the power of the word, and on how truth is composed by those who write it.

Not often remembered, wants to be remembered as one of the great lore masters. But the curse of the Noldor runs deep…

Basically a player insert

Y alto chismoso

What i have for now in gameplay is that you can run around a location (and you'll be able to travel to different places, but time passes so, for example, if you leave Aman you cannot go back, or if Gondolin fell then you cant go there). There as i wrote you can talk to people and find out stuff, and all what you find you write in your journal, which you can check to remember what you have seen. With all of that you can unlock new dialogues, and when you get enough information you can end the day and write like a newspaper or magazine. If, for example, you found that gasp Maedhros and Fingon are being two love birds behind a tree, you can write about that in different ways. A- You just say thing as they are. B- You say that is great to see the unity in the House of Finwë. C- Accuse Fingon of corrupting the innocent eldest of Fëanor. D- say nothing about this. With A you get lower relationship points with Russingon for exposing them. B gets you a good realtionship with them, but lower with Fëanor. C gets you a good amount of points with Fëanor, but the other two will hate your guts. And with D, nothing changes, but you can confront them about their relationship and tell them to be more careful if they want to keep it a secret.

Also if you write a lot about gossip stuff you will lose credibility and that is kinda a way to not being remember as the great Lore Master you want to be...

Also i love how FIngon's hair is coming out. This is like a first draft but it was fun to make.

Also this motherfucker is so fucking tall

And this is one of my favourite screenshots from when i had Fëanor as the playable character

(also here is really noticeable that i added lights to their eyes, and it switches form golden to silver light)

In short, a gossip simulator

Also i cannot wait to make the "Who is Gil-Galad's dad" level

Version 0.1.0

Other updates

[eigwayne]

For blog maintenance:

Soooo my queue is up to 99 thingies (I checked) so back to twice a day it is! That means the barrage of old Silmarillion posts is only two weeks away instead of four, you lucky dogs~

And for those of you who remember I was retagging stuff- I’ve pretty much given up even though I only had 200 pages left out of a starting 900+. Once I found out that the remaining tag cloud generators can’t handle a blog this size, I lost all steam and will. I may do a tag list by hand, but that’s back burnered because I’m annoyed.

In writing news:

I... would have to do copious amounts of explaining to make any of it understandable to anyone but myself. Shit. I guess to summarize, I accomplished a little but ‘a little’ is still an accomplishment. Also, dragons are now more important to one story but I still don’t know what type of dragon to use. 

I still don’t know if I want to try to publish in the future. I want to babble so much but if I do publish someday, this is not the place to do so.

In other hobby news: 

I worked on my FF13-2 game a bit. I am in dire need of Wild Artefacts, though, so it will be a FAQ-checking-heavy session next time I play. I am also not a huge fan of the chocobo racing. FF7 still has the most enjoyable chocobo sidegames, IMHO.

For the game I am making, I am picking away at it. I have regrets. Alternate ending graphics was a terrible decision for a game that only takes 5 minutes to play.

I have not forgotten I was going to redo my Zestiria Ancient Tongue notes. I’m just distracted by Elves. Also a review of canon jossed my excellent idea for a fangame and I’m a little bummed.

Gundam-related stuff is also on hold because of Elves, too. Although the “Athrun Zala is a Noldo” thing I mentioned on an RP blog keeps coming back to me. I even did a sketch of Elf-thrun’s elfy hairdo (ie. Athrun’s side part and forehead of doom, but long, with braids~), but it is embarrassingly crooked and not fit for display.

I will, perhaps, someday, explain why the Tolkien thing hit me so hard, but already this post is long and full of terrors half-formed thoughts.

[dewffin]

Update 0.4.0

Maglor's rhythm mini game and more!

SO with this update is the same as always: redid some work, took me a lot of time, and everything looks the same, although I know there is so much more now...

Let´s start with the big thing of this update...

Maglor's mini game!

For some time now I decided I wanted to add a mechanic in the game so the player will be able to play an instrument to get through different obstacles. For now that is not done, but I have already added how the player can level up their... song level?

Depending on where the player decides to go next in the game they will get different characters to teach them, but the first one is Maglor.

For now, as it is the first level it is only one track were the player uses the up arrow key to hit the notes, but in future levels there will be multiple tracks to use the other arrow keys, or maybe use other keys.

Of course as with everything else the UI is not the final one, this was done for testing... Although I spent some time making these little guys.

Also now there is more music in the game, with a placeholder song in the main menu and different songs that play on the Formenos level.

And now the player character has footsteps' sounds that change according to the type of surface they are stepping.

In the more invisible part of the update now all what the player writes it's saved if they go to another level, and also the facts they learn do not respawn when the level is reloaded if they learnt them before.

Also, technically I redid the whole "writing down" thing as I added different objects that the player can interact with, and as "writing" in the code of the game is basically the same i just mashed everything.

So now Tecilwë can rest their leggies :D

I began to make new assets for the game. Here is an example with objects for Feanor's Forge:

And well, I also made a model for a swan ship and... well...

Things got a bit wild...

Version 0.4.0

Video showcase

Other updates

[dewffin]

The Fëanorian update!

Or the relationship/journal update

Now i just got to get everything to work with everyone...

The system i made works for now... and maybe it can still work for the final game, but I'm going to keep searching and trying new options. I think I remember a guide that could help me make a good relationship system if I change somethings, but it took me some days to make it work when i followed it doing exactly as said.

BUt it works

Now, all of this models are going to be updated in the future, and as reimporting is super easy it won't be a problem. Although that's the reason I haven't given everyone the hair physics i want.

It is really satisfying to finally have them all

For Maglor I went for a mix of tragic poet, but the only tragedy is that there are no stages in Formenos. Soo, he still wears jewelry and such, but that is his dressing gown, and he wears slippers.

I don't know why i gave him a boob window...

That's it, I don't have an explanation for this one.

I gave him some cool tattoos as like a thing of Oromë's hunt.

For Caranthir I wanted to do something more discrete, and I ended up making him emo.

Maybe i will add some embroidery to add more texture.

I literally just copy pasted Fëanor.

I changed the hairstyle and clothes...

and I made him shorter.

Same thing happened here. BUt now I didn't even change the clothes :D

And well, Meadhros is here

I'm still looking for the style I want to do, so I would know the level of detail to add. For now I'm going with simple outfits, as the post processing adds a lot of texture and distortion to everything.

That's why for now the walls of Formenos are quite simple, but I'm planning on adding details to the columns.

For now, I'm gonna try to finish the relationship system so that it is easier to implement.

Once that is ready, and all the things related to the journal are ready then I think I can finally try to do a, like, small quest? or like story?

There are a lot of things to do, like the main menu, the options menu, save system, make them less anime, the music, but I want to focus on this so at least the core mechanics are ready or i get to see how the concept works.

Version 0.2.1

Other updates

[dewffin]

Finally, some good fucking journalism

SO

All this morning was me realizing that what i wanted to do for the journal was technically an inventory system... and then i spent the whole day making the journal, while trying to integrate what you write there with the dialogue system.

The thing is that for months i have been collecting every single free asset that I find in the Epic Store, and turns out i had found this plugin that is amazing! But because i never used it before what could have taken maybe minutes took hours :)

BUt now, it works! The player character can walk up to some colliders and gets the prompt to write about that, so that is not like you don't notice what you write. Then it gets written in the journal, with an index of all the tea, and then individual pages for every entry.

In the dialogue system then as before, if the player character has the variable Russingon Canon (yep, that's the name) you get additional options of dialogue with Fëanor, and now he reacts to what you say!

Also I began to make concept art of this first level in Formenos, as all what is now in the scene is temporary and prove of my past hoarding plugins and assets.

Soon I'll have an update with all the fëanorians, as i have some of them made, and i cannot wait to use them as an AI crowd to make this not feel as empty as it is.

The one that is almost ready is a little Celebrimbor! why him? Because it was just copying Fëanor's model and doing some changes.

And yes, he has almost same hairstyle as Fëanor... let's say that Curufin would style his hair like this

Also i love how accurate the file name ended up being as i didn't change it before editing.

Also, i don't know if I'm gonna go for a more elaborate version of this for Maglor, because it crashes a bit with the style i gave the others, but on the other hand... it's a poet shirt- A POET SHIRT!

i think i need some sleep

Version 0.2.0

Other updates

[dewffin]

A bit on the soundtrack of this little game...

I decided to start trying to make some songs, melodies and such for the game, as a way to search a bit the vision i have of this game... And also it was really awkward to be testing the game without any sound on it.

SO this was a bit the process...

The first one was also the first one i made. It was really me trying to make something medievalesque and fantastical, and also trying to make something not that convoluted as this was the placeholder i would have for the background music in the game, although maybe i will use a rendition of this as a main menu theme.

The second one was a bit trying to find a main song or melody for the player character, trying to go in a more fantastical yet simple song that in case i make an evil route or some something like that i can completely corrupt. For this song i went for a feeling of wandering, curiosity, of a bit not knowing where you are going but you are going to get there.

Now the third one...

So, actually i was going for something completely different, as i wanted to make like a main song for Fëanor as i am focusing in his storyline first as i think it will be the shortest. But then i was like "Hey, i could make a sad, or just melancholic, rendition of this and just milk it for every time his sons get fucked by the Oath" and so this thing was born. For now this will be the sad rendition that plays while nothing bad happens, but you get a high relationship with Fëanor and get to talk about Miriel and stuff.

Furthermore, this song is plagued by one of the only musical concepts I know... and i think the name is anticipation, or at least in spanish its anticipio.

Now, what is this? This is when you anticipate one note or more from the next chord.

It was used a lot by Bach to show suffering, but not just like a bit of pain, it was to show the greatest suffering, but also a noble one, as he used this anticipation to show the suffering of Jesus while carrying the cross (trauma from catholic school? maybe). This anticipation makes you feel the heavy pull, the pain of carrying a chain that makes your walk impossible under its unbearable weight.

This has been used in a lot of soundtracks and such to show this pain, this suffering, this doom.

And also I learnt all of this from an analysis on the music of Star Wars and i was like yep, let's use this that it's in all of Anakin's songs and let's use it on Náro :D

More about the game

[dewffin]

Update 0.3.0

College destroyed my sleep schedule (as if i had one), so i had to left this little project to the side for a while.

But now it even has a name!

It means something like play gossip, and i got to say i love to have TM as a logo when I could get a cease and desist for this.

Well so this update has this:

Reworked relationship system

Main menu, options menu, new UI

Load screens and intro

Relationship system

Instead of being a fool and making the info of the relationship be inside of every character now it is in the main character blueprint, and with this is a lot more easy to make things change the values and show those changes. Also I'm doing the same for all the things that can be written, and of the things published.

Basically until now i had a system that worked in just one thing, as it was only possible to talk to Fëanor and to write like two things. What this change means is that now all the relationships are in the same place so is easier to get that information out, instead of it being a million variables.

Menus and UI

Now the game is no longer a level that cannot even be closed.

Now there is a main menu, where you can start the game, enter the options menu or close the game.

With the options menu now it is possible to change mainly the graphics, as I'm trying to make sure everyone can play this game.

Also now there is a pause menu which has similar options, but also shows the controls.

I think i change something of the relationship menu, i think i added a golden outline...

There is also now a minimap. I plan on changing it in the future maybe for a drawing, but for now it is like a screen that shows what a camera over the player sees. Here it is possible to see the names of the characters and the name of the location.

Load screens

It took me a while to find a guide to make a loading screen that wasn't just an animation you put over everything but that really isn't a loading screen. Luckily I found this plugin, Async Loading Screen, that makes it really easy to make a loading screen. It even lets you add little tips and everything. For now the tips that I have are:

Don't make any oaths!

Remember, no kingdom lasts forever!

Even in the most dire situations you can sing!

Spreading rumors is not the best way to make friends… but it can sometimes help…

This plugin lets you easily add videos to loading screens or even for an intro.

I also finally packaged the project and now I'll record my updates from them, at least the bigger ones.

Now i also know that i need to delete all the assets I thought i may use but now i know i won't, as the project has a bit of a big size, but i just need to delete all those things as I'll try to put my own models and everything soon.

Something I hope i have for the next update is at least a background song ready, but for now i only have little melodies that are not ready at all.

And also i hope I have Huan's new uncursed body ready!

Version 0.3.0

Other updates

[dewffin]

Silmarillion Fangame Updates

0.1.0 (Starting the project)

0.2.0 (Journal UI)

0.2.1 (Relationship system)

0.3.0 (Relationships reworked, UI, loading screen)

0.4.0 (Rhythm mini game)

Video showcase:

0.3.0

0.4.0

More stuff about the game:

Beginning to work on the soundtrack