Games Clive 'N' Wrench - 3D Action Platformer

Clive is built on Unity 4, as far as I'm aware emissive materials weren't possible until Unity 5 - correct me if I'm wrong though!

Glad you're liking it!

 

I mean a simple emissive model material, the 3D model have a texture that is lighten not dependent on directionnal light or point lights. This is possible on old 3D engines, and should be available i think in Unity 4 (i use Unity 5 mainly).

 

This just keeps getting better and better. I am very impressed that you are focusing so much on the actual game. I mean it certainly looks great too. But dang it looks very fun and it is easy to see all of the work you have put into the actual gameplay and game world in general. It looks like a fairly massive game world overall. What is the ETA for the release?

 

@zenGarden - Hmnn okay, I will have to look in to that then!

@GarBenjamin - Thank you for saying so! ETA I'm aiming for sometime either late this year or early 2017.

 

Damn, this looks amazing.

 

Thank you @WhatMade

Been a busy few weeks! Work on A Grave Mistake has continued, especially with the addition of a pumpkin patch adjacent.





We've also announced the boss for that level, Vlad the Impala



There's also been a whole lot more work under the hood, fixing long term bugs, overhauling the HUD system etc; I'm planning a video showcasing some of these features soon!

And lastly, there's been some more work done on the Victorian level, The Great Wen. A deliberately stark different colour scheme than any other level, and including out main villain, Dr Daucus' poison factory (masquerading as a cure-all tonic!). The tonic of course is a nice pink to contrast against the green hues of the rest of the level (thank you colour theory!)

 

The Victorian level seems too much lightened and lights seems useless , anyway you made again and awesome work.
Keep up the good work.

 

Im loving the feel of this game, reminds me of everything i miss in a 3d platformer from the n64 days.

Would you reconsider another go at kickstarter for a wiiu port?
Instabuy on that for me.

i think it would also be awesome to unlock and play as your original designs of Clive and Wrench.

 

Whoops! It seems I've been neglecting this topic... things are rather busy, regardless I'll paste in the latest news article as it'll cover most of the stuff I've missed!



First things first, the controls; things as always are being slowly refined over time - animations updated, input delay tidying etc. Long story short, our titular duo are now more acrobatic and easier to control than ever. The goal is to have a control scheme that's easy for casual players to pick up, but with some more complicated moves that can help more experienced players speed their way though levels! For example, they have retained their crouch jump move (requiring a crouch, and then a jump), but they also now have an additional side-flip that executes when the left stick is flicked in the opposite direction than they're moving.

Next up, worlds! Since last time progress has been made on 6 of our main levels as well as The Space Between Time (our hub world). I've been concentrating on a few different facets; mainly bringing parity to the art direction, smoothing the level flow and paying close attention to colour theory. This has resulted in much more interesting, fun and distinct looking worlds with unique colour pallets for each!

For example:



The Chimp, The Bag & The Bunny



A Grave Mistake



The Great Wen



Corsair's Cove



Iceceratops



Tempus Tombs (interior)

Lastly I think it's worth discussing release platforms. Back when we first launched this campaign we had Wii U as a main target platform. As I'm sure most of you are aware by now, the Wii U has ceased production and is fairly quickly being phased out, making room for the Switch. Whilst we definitely want CnW to appear on a Nintendo system at some point in the future, it seems very unlikely that the Wii U is a viable option any more. So I would like to apologise to anyone who was hoping to see Clive 'N' Wrench on their Wii U, but that is unfortunately no longer the plan.

However we still aim to launch with PC as our lead platform and with Linux and Mac hopefully following soon thereafter. As for consoles, we're also very eager to appear on one or more in the future, but that will entirely depend on how well our initial release goes! I do hope you can understand this decision, and feel free to ask any questions you may have!

Before I depart back into my creative cave, I'll leave you with the last couple of gameplay video's!

 

It is like Mario 64 with missions to select before starting a level ? Or it is levels you do in one run completely ?
Good progress, it just need a release date

 

You can do each level in a single run; I was never a big fan of Mario 64's mission approach, although it does have it's benefits from a design standpoint.

Glad you're liking it, I'm afraid no date as of yet though!

 

Wow... Im stunned. I am an avid fan of the N64/PS1 3D Platformers... and this blew me away. Will you be aiming to put it on Steam?

 

Thanks! Indeed I do, the game was Greenlight a fair while back now so the plan is for Steam to be the first release platform!

 

Well I'd sure as hell rather pay $80 for this compared to another generic shooter so you have my money my friend.

 

Wow, looks great! Keep up the good work!

 

It's been too long! Here's a new update, featuring The Great Wen as well as a peak at the game's first boss cutscene!

 

It lacks texture variation, we see too much same brick texture everywhere, it looks bland.
Adding vertical walls separations or splitting them and adding with new textures would break that repetitive visuals.

 

After a short absence (thanks Breath of the Wild...) I am back to working on CnW's medieval level, Middle Age Crisis!

I've been trying to find a balance between natural looking level design and making sure traversable areas are distinct from off-limits places. Using methods such as concave walls and large props around the level edges seem to have a nice effect so far, but I'll keep working on it.

I'm also finding that extra details such as tall grass patches, rocks, barrels etc really help to bring life to the area, especially when some of it is animated. For example in the scene below the trees blow in the wind, crows fly around and land at random, chickens roam the flat land, the wheel of the broken cart slowly turns and even the flag in the background flaps! It seems the lesson I'm learning is that all the small details really add up to a much richer feeling world, which pays off in a much more interesting place to explore!

 

The last few weeks have been spent polishing up and finishing the majority of Clive 'N' Wrench's 1930's level, Cajun Mob Bog. It's been an interesting world to design as it sees a mashup of stereotypical 1930's gangsters in a New York style section with a Cajun style bayou. However what has resulted is a really unique feeling level with lots of room for surprises, references and most importantly puns!

 

Beautiful. Brilliant work. well done.

 

Great.
I hope you won't forget to put some underwater parts or sewers ?

 

Thank you both!

This level actually features no swimming at all, the level works nicely and is big enough without it. I'm working to make sure there's some unique features to each level in an effort to avoid things feeling "cookie cutter". As such having the levels not all use the same mechanics should help things feel fresh!

I'm also very wary of the risk in bloating levels to the point they feel empty or intimidating.

 

The game features swimming, i hope you'll make some parts heavy based on swimming or some special level alsmot entirely based on swimming (petrol ocean platform, island with diving places and underwater tunnels ...) . Same for Gliding on the air, some special levels heavy based on gliding could be cool like a flying fortress or village on rocks floating on sky.

Yep un usual like
-Moving platforms above dangerous things or cliff
-teleporter to station platform in the clouds
-lava on some level with rocks falling from sky at some places etc ...
-drive some special vehicle or robot throught a shooting sub level passage
-events where you must defend some place against ennemies using a turret or a weapon
etc ...

Do you include specific tools gameplay ? like some tool able to break some specific walls to unlock new paths and places or hidden treasures.
Are you including some special arcade stages ? Driving , air plane shooting , jet ski like Crash Bandicoot game ?

I know it's tons of work to even implement correctly a small new feature with 3D art, effects and gameplay , so all that is only ideas lol.

 

The game does indeed feature swimming, and it is present in most levels. I just don't want to shoehorn it or any other mechanic into every level just because I can! Every mechanic has been designed to be used multiple times, so hopefully I can get the balance between overuse and underuse correct!

No specific tools as such, but certainly environmental interaction. For example breakable objects (the bank wall in the previous update video), puzzle specific switches etc. As an example in the level Middle Age Crisis, there is a dungeon with a set of rotating stairs which are triggered by switches (some of which are hidden).

Not too many "special stages" as such, possibly one in the form of a plane mini-game. However there may well be in-level special gameplay types. Boss battles feature some unique mechanics as you may imagine, but I'm keeping much of it under wraps for now!

 

Yep, races or challenges can happen in the same level , just spwaning the race points for example or the ennemy waves.
Characters animations are really good, it's the same level as Ratchat and Clanck.
Any demo planned ?

 

Yeah exactly, as much as I can keep "organic" the better. I never like the way Mario 64 handled tasks, taking you out of the level and then back in. I much prefer everything to be available at the same time. Glad you like the animation, it's definitely one of my favourite facets of game dev!

No demo planned at the moment I'm afraid.

 

I've spent this weekend gone working to improve the overall character animation. Bringing it's cartoony qualities up to par with the cutscenes, really aiming for a Tex Avery feeling. The beauty is that this has drastically improved the overall feeling of control too, animation is do darn important!



https://media.giphy.com/media/D0az4x34kl8as/giphy.gif

 

I still wasn't 100% happy until now. Just a few more tweaks to the jumping animation and I think I'm finally comfortable with it, again I'm amazed just how much of an impact a simple tweak to the jump animation can make to the "feel" of the leap (especially when using Wrench as the secondary to the main jump arc)!

https://media.giphy.com/media/8bKHe7mMTvqWk/giphy.gif

Along with that, I've also been working to improve their spin attack. It now has a nice tail-off tween that helps give a bit more weight to the attack as well as reinforcing the Tex Avery cartoon style I strive for (again, with Wrench as a secondary tool which is much inspired by Abu from Aladdin and Daxter).

https://media.giphy.com/media/D1XXDfyTEKB9e/giphy.gif

Lastly I'm now working on the "Daucus Industries Mining Operation" section of "The Chimp, the Bag and the Bunny". Should provide plenty of opportunities for platforming challenges with moving parts!

 

Yellow cristal with lights doesn't match well in a evel already full bright, some darker green ruby transluent material with some glow particle effect would look better with a sense of contrast.
Anyway good work.

 

They're "yellow" for storyline reasons; Daucus has convinced the prospectors working for him that it's gold!

I've spent a few days working on a horse that can serve as both an animated "prop" for the main level as well as the boss' (Annie Oaktree's)steed! Trying to go cartoony to fit in to CnW's world but also keep the twitch movement that a real horse makes.

 

The horse is welcome to add some races in the level.

 

Not a bad shout, but I imagine that'd require an awful lot of additional code work. The horse however is used during the boss battle as well; in fact I've been working on the galloping loop for that over the weekend:

 

Yes this is additionnal code , but nothing so complicated.
The race event spawn a first checkpoint , and next checkpoint is spawned when you pass throught one, with a timer and some oponnent following these checkpoints with it's own velocity.
I think this would add more diversity to your game, and could be reused to bring many races in each level like ground, air or water races with vehicles and different rewards based on your score, why not.

The character could be more stable, it looks more like a landing movement landing on floor after a big jump.

 

Perhaps not complicated if you're a decent coder, but I wouldn't put myself in that camp! Plus I have to focus on the end goal, I could add and add forever, but the game would never be done if I didn't use restraint.

Not much to share at the moment I'm afraid. I'm neck deep in some pretty complex cutscene animation; however, here's a peek!

 

Weeks worth of weekends spent working on cutscenes can be a lot of fun, but nothing beats level design! As such I've taken a break from the story-telling to work on the "training" level. Centred around an alternate larger dimension, it sees Clive 'N' Wrench embark on an journey... around their own house! At only 10cm tall, everything becomes and obstacle and allows me to create plenty of situations to dynamically teach the player specific moves that will be required in later levels. Plus, for younger or less experienced players there will be optional interactive screens for extra tips.

 

Apologies for the lack of updates, unfortunately my main PC died leaving me with the daunting task of replacing and rebuilding everything. Thankfully nothing was lost and I'm now back to it! - Always have backups kids!

I wonder how many references you'll spot!

 

References and Easter eggs are really fun to put in games. This is awesome. Glad to see One Eyed Knight there from you!

 

Yes indeed, and One Eyed Knight is a rather underrated classic!

Thanks to a recent hardware upgrade, I can finally show off some decent quality footage!

[video]

 

Amazing work as always

It just need some post effect subtle color gradding for each level instead of using full white lighting.

Also tone mapping and contrast post effect would enhance the game colors making them more vidid and less bland.

 

Thanks!

Post effects aren't possible in U4 unfortunately, but I am still working on lighting (most of which aren't full whtie).

I finally have a full cutscene to show, with music, foley and VO!

 

Why you're still on Unity 4 and not updating to 5.6 or 2017?

 

Lots of comparability issues; shaders, physics and a lot of code. The upgrade just isn't worth the months of extra work, especially as I'm flying solo at the moment!

 

Here's a quick preview of Baroness Samedice's boss battle!

 

Graphic upgrade for Cline 'n' Rench 2

 

You'll have to excuse my English before, it appears I hadn't had my coffee yet when writing it!

I've been back to Corsair's Cove over the last couple of weeks. It feels pretty good to be actually finishing off levels one-by-one. I have had the double edged sword of Mario Odyssey to contend with though (both as inspiration and a distraction!).

The focus of my work on the exterior section of Corsair's is to make sure there's plenty of room for creativity when it comes to movement. I want to achieve a feeling that you can go to any number of places from wherever you are in the level. This serves as a mini-sandbox which is a nice contrast to some of the more linear sections of the game.



I've also been working on further animation polish. Including both an added long-jump animation to telegraph that your trajectory is different when sprinting, and some updates to the pole climbing mechanic.

 

It's looks great.

Yep, Mario Odissey game has a lot of secrets, gameplay and stuff on each level, sure it's a good inspiration.

 

Thanks! Odyssey is crazy fun, and it definitely has been inspiring.

I've been back working on Iceceratops, trying to nail down an other-worldly prehistoric atmosphere. It's naturally pretty difficult to make a snow level colourful without taking away from it's cold themeing; hopefully I'm getting somewhere close!

https://media.giphy.com/media/26Ff6Llkf8TlQYmWs/giphy.gif

 

The animations are great as the snow effects.

 

Thanks!

I've been working away to launch Clive 'N' Wrench's Patreon page, Discord server, and the accompanying trailer. It's all finally done, and I can get back to work proper!

https://www.patreon.com/CliveNWrench

https://discord.gg/caSuZrX

 

Your trailer is perfect to start a kickstarter.