I was playing the game "Dear Esther" and I must say it's one of the best looking games of all time in terms of a realistic feeling, immersive environment. So I thought it would be interesting to look at some of the deign elements the game uses.

The game seems to avoid straight polygon lines such as on the roof line in this picture. Lines that are straight, like the boards piled against the wall, are posed in irregular angles and textures use an effect similar to camouflage with irregular color blobs along the edges to mask them.


You can see the same thing here. ‎  I couldn't find a crate from the wrecked ship that was a perfect cube. Everything was bent in a slight angle.


The ground of the map is raised in a very realistic land-mass shape. Even though it's mostly just covered with a flat texture, the realistic shape of the land makes it feel far more immersive. ‎  I'd guess that real reference data (photos, maps etc) were used ‎  in the construction.


Choosing to model subjects with expectedly straight lines can enable low polygons with a feeling of high detail. A lot of the models in the game use quite a low-polygon count but still look amazing and it frequently chooses to model parts made after real objects which have straight lines. For instance, I've seen real walls constructed exactly like the ones pictured below. They use a cap of flat cement on top of natural curved rocks. So even though the wall model is extremely low polygon, it doesn't look as fake as it would if the model was a mimicking a pure natural-rock wall.


The rocks are quite low-poly too, but the game uses the polygon lines to reinforce an appearance of natural striation layer lines.


Plant positioning, coloring and type are consistent to what you expect to see together in the real world. They are actually just flat single poly "billboards" with undetailed, blobby textures, but their positioning, coloring and type make an overall immersive feeling.


The game uses a staggering amount of subtle motion at any give time. ‎  In the picture, the horizon fog was drifting right, clouds drifting overhead, waves toward shore, sporadic dust clouds blew toward the player, and plants bobbed in the wind. In the real world things are almost always moving subtly so this seems to add a lot of immersion. ‎  I've seen some games that use excessive motion (Gothic 4) and can become very obnoxious. I think slight, slow and sporadic is the way to go.


Sound unquestionable plays a huge part in this games realism. Wind-gust noises are played now and then as well as occasional unexplained, but natural sounds nearby- cracking wood etc. Sound may be one of the easiest things a game maker can use to create realism. Again, I think subtle and sporadic is the way to go.

It thought it might be good to collect some general "tips for success" for aspiring game makers. These are some tips I've read from successful game producers here and on other sites.

Work steadily.
Serious game making requires momentum. Setting aside time to work on a project regularly (several times a week) should increase the odds of completing the project successfully.

Have realistic goals.
Everyone would love to make an epic game their first time out, but it requires a huge amount of talent and labor to produce such a masterpiece. Start off with making a small simple game increases the odds of success. You can always move on to an "epic" after you get a few simple games under your belt.

Start with the "hard parts".
People often start making a game by tackling the easiest parts- writing the story or making items/weapons. The hardest part of making a game is usually map/level design and creating entertaining events to fill in gameplay time. It's normal to be more enthusiastic when a project is new, so projects often stall as the newness wears off and they hit the "hard" parts of game-making. If you tackle the hard parts first - make your maps/levels and design entertaining gameplay event layouts, you should have a much easier time efficiently filling in items, story and decorations.

Have a good plan before you start building.
Sketching out map/level designs before you start building can save a lot of wasted effort. Make sure you have enough entertaining gameplay events to spread across and fill your map before you spend time building. ‎ 

Don't let perfectionism shackle you.
It's tempting to give in to perfectionism and expend a lot of time/energy trying to make a game exactly as you picture in your mind, but that makes it easy to become burnt out. If your game has a good solid idea behind it, people will enjoy playing it even if it is a "pale shadow" of your perfect vision. Most gameplayers are trained to not even notice minor imperfections. You can always "add frosting" to your game at the end, or better yet, ‎  use your experience to make a sequel that moves closer to your "ideal" vision.

If anyone has more tips, please add! ‎ 

I've always thought "HP" was kind of a cheap, lazy way for games to measure a player's condition. It seems like it would be neat to implement a system of "wounds" as an alternative to HP.

Taking damage would cause long lasting negative statuses like bleeding, sprains, disorientation etc which would hinder the player's abilities till they slowly heal. Armor could protect against specific types of wounds (helmet=resist disorientation etc). ‎  Severe wounds could cause unconsciousness or ultimately death (game over). ‎ 

If balanced properly, it would be a way to make the player's performance have a lasting, but not devastating impact on the gameplay - beyond just having to "chug a potion" to heal at the end of battle.

Opinions?

sup! just lettin you know sorry about the let down on cursed dungeon dream realm, i lost the project folder and the computer it was in is now gone and im working on a new game on a laptop, game is called record of highgate :P

I am pretty new to SoM and would like to know how exactly I would go about adding water to my maps. I know that I would have to import some models but that is where I get lost, can anybody set up a tutorial on how to do this (preferably using pre-made water, as I am no good at modeling)? Thanks.

Edit: I have found some water sheets here: https://jdo-translations.100webspace.net...loads.html
Unfortunately, I have no idea how to install or use them. ‎ 

Ive got moderately far in eternal ring after rebuying it.

Something i noticed is that alot of cavern areas have map tiles with no roof. Theres a cave section in the game where i looked up, and saw no roof model and around the highest sections of the walls, there was a purple hue (receeding colour)

Its probably not a big deal for people, but do you think having no roof model is noticable? Im asking this because im about to start redeveloping my entire cavern set once and for all.

Hi ! I figured I'd finally poke my head in here and say hey. I kinda found all this by accident really. Around christmas last year I wondered if there'd been a new KF release so i did a search. I'd only ever played the 1st US release when it was new and TAC on n off over the years. ‎  I Had no idea Agetec had officially discontinued the series when I stumbled across SOM and eventually in here.

‎  All I could say was "WOW" I quickly realized what was goin' on. ‎  I thought , instead of one new game I'd found three with others in the making plus the ability to make another! I was excited . It was like getting a new box of lego's for christmas lol. ‎  So I downloaded Som and the new games. got stuck in DoM where the rising symbols won't come back down though lol. read some fixes for that somewhere.

‎  I soon learned Som's map editor wouldn't run on our win 7 machine so I figured out how to set up virtual box with XP. ‎  The editor runs fine but I test on the real machine. The little .bat file for direct test really came in handy. Thank you :)

‎  Over the past month I've scoured the forums here looking for tutorials and info along with the information at the main tutorial page (some topics weren't up and running yet) and have learned quite a bit i think. I've never even thought about 3D modeling or making my own game before but now I'm hooked lol. ‎  Even the wife doesn't mind. she's as interested as I am. :D

‎  So far I've downloaded metasequoia and have learned most of it's ins and outs I think. At least enough to make models. UV was tricky at first but the info here really helped. Learned to use the hex editor for the .prf & .prt files. I've made a few items and weapons that work in the editor so far. I noticed SOM has no leather helm so I made one. I made a bmp of the texture on the leather armour and got it looking close to the other pieces in the set. I got an idea to mabey have your character collect & trade in the old 'antique' set to someone later who's eager to get them for a more powerful set or weapon. I dunno lol. Just thinkin. Been keeping a note pad of ideas as they come. ‎  Haven't played with keynote just yet but I will eventually.

‎  I am currently figuring out custom map pieces. Making the custom .mhm files is messing with me though. I tried dropping the .x file into x2mhm with and without the .bmp. Didn't think it made a difference (and it didn't) but tried anyway just to satisfy my curiosity. I tried cutting the model into more polys (it only had 5 to begin with) got the same results. It's just a 2m x 2m slope with a 1m rise. It looks like a typical ramp with 5 faces, 6 verts ... nothin special. ‎  I tried 'borrowing' a .mhm from an almost identical piece (outdoor set 1m slope) but it didn't work either for different reasons. It had me sunk into the piece up to my knees and I fell through when coming down lol ... wheee ! My friend said it would make a good 'quicksand' piece though lol.

‎  I dunno why x2mhm isn't mapping the collision to the shape. I made a hillside of ramps 5 tiles by 3 tiles wide rising from 0m to 3m. everything lines up great. I can walk up the ramp and go east to west across the ramp as you face it (screen jumps at the seems) but as I go down the ramp or west to east i get invisible walls. Is it something simple I'm missing ? going to try it without faces on model. just verts and lines. I remember reading in Verdite's post to be careful with faces. I also thought about making a seperate .x file for the .mhm file with the model below the ZX plane to lower the collision but i dont think it will work. I can stand on the tile just fine. Any help would be much appreciated.

‎  Well, this post has gotten very long. Had more to say than I thought I guess. I do want to thank all of you guys for the work you've put into this project. I'm not much for programming but I'll contibute what I can. ‎  I'm really enjoying this guys ... One of the best christmas presents I've ever gotten :) Thank you all very much. I have a greater understanding and appreciation of how much effort is put into a game now. Gotta get DoM fixed and played through. Then DD and Tris and eventually Rathmor. ‎ 

‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  Take care :)
‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  ‎  Chris


Edit : Please forgive me if I ask any question concerning a topic thats been answered elsewhere already. I search the forums but sometimes I miss things :P . Judging by the dates on a lot of these posts I feel a litle like a 'johnny come lately". Better late than never though right ? Again, Thanks folks for all the effort and addons :D ‎ 

FYI: I noticed just now that this site seems to block hotlinks on the internet. So like if you go here (\<span> site blocked, contact your administrator/archives/sword-of-moonlight/2012/12/rathmor-project-demonstration/#comments) and try to access this thread via the posted link you will go to various crazy places each time. But if you copy the link and post it into the address of your browser you will get there.

Usually hotlink prevention is used for embedded images and other kinds of large files only. Not links to webpages. Kind of prevents people from linking to this thread

About half a year ago I was looking through PS2 games at the local Gamestop, since they were having a sale. Amidst crappy titles and even more crappy sports titles, a familiar logo stood out: From Software. The makers of the Armored Core, Souls, Shadow Tower, and ofcourse, King's Field series. But what's this? "Kuri Kuri Mix!"

When I think of From Software, this is generally not what comes to my mind:



But yes, this is actually a game developed by From Software.

So a few weeks ago, a friend was visiting, and we wanted to play a co-op game. Sadly, I don't have too many co-op games, but then we found this game in my shelf. So we figured, why not just give it a try? And I must say, I'm really glad we did!

The game lets you control the two rabbits Chestnut and Cream as they try to find the moon, which - according to a rooster - has vanished from the sky. And without the moon, there will be no festival! Oh no! So our two rabbit heroes take it upon themselves to find the moon!

Each player controls their own half of a vertically split screen. You have to get from the start of the map to the goal at the end of an obstacle course. The obstacles are different for each of the two players, and they have to help each other out by doing actions in one player's obstacle course which affects the other player's obstacle course. Sometimes you also get to control a vehicle of sorts together, for example an airplane where one player controls left and right movement, and the other player controls up and down movement, or a boat where you each have one oar to row with. As it says on the back of the cover, "love is optional, but co-operation is essential ..."

The graphics reminds me a lot of N64 graphics, similar to Banjo Kazooie, and the like(although slightly better). Which is weird, considering this game is for the console generation after that. Also, the audio is just plain weird! Lots of strange sound effects, and the music is just plain crazy! And I actually consider that one of this game's highlights!

The gameplay is simple: One control stick moves your rabbit around, while you've got one button for jumping and one for using stuff on the map. You can play this game with a single controller, controlling one character per controller half, but even though i haven't tried it myself, I think this might be a bit hard. And much of the fun in this game comes from playing together with a friend.

My friend and I completed this game today, our third evening playing it. Probably spent a total of 12-15 hours in it - it could be quite challenging at times, but we eventually got through it every time. I highly recommend trying this game out! I can't remember how long it is since I last played a game that was so much pure fun!

This game has pretty much made me come to the conclusion that From Software is able to create any kind of game and make it a complete gem!


Note: The game is known as "The Adventures of Cookie and Cream," in North America.

I've already got the game, but otherwise I would definitely buy this at once: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Kings-Field-3...2c6b64529d