Coldfire Keep

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Just setting up a spot for myself for my new project "Coldfire Keep".

The game is an old-school, first-person, grid-based RPG. The game features lots of secret areas to discover, puzzles to solve, an interesting plot, and lots of interaction/dialog between the party characters.

I'm currently working mostly on the game systems programming and on environment modelling. Once all of this preliminary work is done, the game should just come together... a little like Lego

I have a couple of partners in crime who are handling the majority of the artwork (2D UI elements, 3D static props, 3D creatures).

I'll post anything interesting here that happens to come along during the development process. And I'll definitely post some screenshots shortly once I complete the layout of the first environment and get some of the temporary UI replaced with "official" stuff.

 

A little teaser video that I've put together...

 

Looks brilliant mate, can you shed some light on how you're getting that fog effect?

 

is that an awesome mist shader?

 

It's actually just the stock-standard GlobalFog effect included with Unity. Might be Pro-only from memory.

 

Great atmosphere you have going on in the video, already makes me want to play it!

 

It's amazing what you can do with 15 minutes, iMovie, and no skills what-so-ever

I agree though - it actually suits the game's mood really well...

 

Little proof of concept with Coldfire Keep running on my iPad2. Shaping up nicely...

Comment, thoughts, suggestions, criticisms welcome.

EDIT: By the way, I know there's some weird red patches and stuff in there. Beast went a little nuts on me and I need to redo the lightmaps.

 

Very old school, but I love it

It might be an idea to try and smooth the Stop -> Move -> Stop feel, but I'm not sure if that would ruin the retro feel or not... hmmm...

 

Yeah - I know exactly what you mean by that. I added a tiny pause between steps when holding the button for continuous movement to try and give it a "stepping" feeling. Some easing on the actual movement might help though. Will play with that.

 

Just a little bump to reassure myself (as much as everyone else) that I'm still working on this project and things are happening.

Currently redoing all of the environment pieces as I wasn't happy with what I created previously (seen in the videos).

New video coming soon.

 

looks interesting, are you possilbe going to add combat or is it like a complete maze type thing. also you logo is sweet looking

 

Yes, the game will have combat etc. The video "level" is just a sandbox area in which I'm writing all the code for the game.

 

Maybe you could make fog fade little better, right now it is little too hard blending between no fog and fog.

 

Definitely. Like I was saying, what I had in that original teaser was just the un-tweaked default global fog. It needs to be a lot more subtle.

 

Looks like it runs really smoothly on the iPad. Nice work!

 

I love these 'Dungeon Master' type games. Actually I am currently playing Legend of Grimrock and am loving it. Can't wait for this... keep us posted on progress!

Best Regards,
Matt.

 

looking pretty good.

you should also enable navigation to a touched location. you could easily tell which tile was touched with a raytrace and then walk there without move-stop-move-stop while keeping tile-based-navigation - but of course keep the key-control for the hardcore oldschoolers ;D

 

Looks phenomenal.

I was looking to create a dungeon like this, as practice on my modelling. But I want to do it a modular style so I can model a bunch of pieces, hallways, turns, etc, and then piece them together on a grid in unity.

Where did you learn to make modular pieces like that?

I am guessing its self explanatory, but I was wondering if there is any tricks I should know.

Thanks!

Dusk

 

To quote myself, "Currently playing the best game to be released since 1987: a little thing called Legend Of Grimrock"

I'm on my second playthrough - it's an incredible achievement for those guys. I feel like a little kid again playing it.

I'm not keen on messing with the formula when specifically trying to "revive" a style. The old square by square movement is the thing I love most about these games. Also, it wouldn't really be possible to "touch to move" as the screen space is where items are, you're throwing things, etc. I am thinking about adding a couple of small things like a "sprint" button that helps you evade some traps and monsters, and....... some other little tricks I have up my sleeve...

To be honest, this is the first serious modelling I've done, so I wouldn't put too much faith in my "technique" In my previous dungeon crawler (Descend) I used DeleD to build the levels as a single piece of geometry. This time I wanted to do things "properly" and make a much more flexible system. I just bought myself a copy of modo501, watched a few tutorials, and started making pieces. I did maybe 10-15 "prototypes" before I started to get the hang of things and then made the "official" parts. I'm putting the levels together in modo and then exporting an FBX to Unity. Apply occlussion culling, light mapping, and you're pretty much ready to run around and test some code. I will say this: modo501 is the smartest purchase I've made since Unity Pro.

 

Wow...

I am really inspired.

I've always wanted to make a game like this, but I think the idea is a bit too mainstream. Maybe one day I will experiment with it.

Great work man, really good.

 

Thanks for the encouragement - I appreciate it

 

Looks fantastic Steve! Very atmospheric.

 

Thanks mate! It will look even better once we get you onto putting in the interface graphics... hint hint

 

Yeah! Can't wait to get my hands on this

 

Some screenshots of the new look. I started playing with Jimmy Livefjord's textures and couldn't go back.

Thoughts?

 

Looks fantastic.

 

go go geppetto

 

That looks really good.

 

Thanks guys! Starting in on some interface stuff today. Will post more screens once things start looking significantly better. I'm working towards a new teaser trailer at the moment.

 

Looks pretty cool!

 

Nice work

 

Character Generator... Happening!

 

One more shot with a bit of interface.

 

Looking good.

 

Looks really good! I like the graphics

 

Nice, I see you're going with more of a Wizardry layout.

 

Wizardry 8 has actually been on my mind a lot lately

I've got this conversation system going in Coldfire where the "random" characters that the player creates are able to talk to each other "in-character". Like a warrior says warrior things, rogues say sneaky stuff, females are girly, etc.

I realised Wizardry 8 had something similar and since then I've been taking a few queues from that game. It's obviously starting to show, so I better dial it back a notch!

 

This is looking really sweet. Love Jimmy's textures in your really nice ambient setting. Things are shaping up quickly! Keep the updates coming (when time permits ofc! haha)

 

Will keep the updates coming. I'm hoping to put up a little web player in the not-too-distant. I'd like to get people's opinions on the overall feel of movement, character sheets, etc.

 

Wow that looks awesome! I like your artstyle

Keep it up!

 

Looking awesome! Interface might take up a bit to much space though.
Looking forward to a webplayer : p

 

I feel like the colour and style of the interface breaks away and distracts a bit from the visuals of the keep itself. The portraits themselves look excellent though! I'd just perhaps think they could be more sexily integrated.

Also, I was thinking perhaps the world could have a little more thrown in colour-wise. At the moment everything is rather brown, maybe some subtle additions could help break things up a little bit. Perhaps through some coloured lighting or grime or something?

All of that aside though, this is coming along very nicely! Keep going!

 

Thanks - I appreciate the critical response. I agree re the interface being a little clumsily placed. I don't think it's "wrong", per say - just that it doesn't necessarily have to be this traditional in the way it's presented. At the very least I think the size will be reduced, and the portraits will likely animate off-screen when moving around.

Regarding the environments themselves, there is actually more grime and "damage" added as the player descends further into the depths of the keep. This top level is actually sparsely inhabited - hence the little mini-inn, the beds, etc - and the generally "clean" look. Mold, cracks, and other elements are present on levels beneath this one. I also have areas that are lit in greens, blues, and reds where certain magical properties or devices are in effect.


AND, as a general note to everyone who is complimenting the artwork - all of the 2D art is in the hands of my friend David Hattori (nipoco) so I can't claim any responsibility for his awesomeness. I'm modelling the environments (with the help of Jimmy's textures), writing the story, designing the levels, and coding, and Richard Lems (rilem) is doing the 3D static props.

At this stage, no one is handling the 3D creature modelling/animation after several failed attempts to get someone working on it. That will come later once I sort out an answer to it.

 

A little video update on the happenings down at Coldfire Keep. Everything is WIP, but starting to take shape. Comments and feedback welcome.

 

It's been a while since I updated this thread so I just thought I'd drop some new screenshots to assure everyone that progress is definitely being made.

Development is progressing well and the depths of Coldfire Keep are really starting to take shape...

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Super excited to announce that Crescent Moon have graciously offered to help me out with, and publish Coldfire Keep! This is really going to take this game to the next level and I can't wait to get stuck into finishing it.

Yay

 

That is great news Steve, good job landing that. I'm looking forward to more as always.

 

Awesome work!! Will definitely play this!

 

Thanks guys - I really appreciate the encouragement. More updates soonish.