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Jet Force Gemini: Resurrection

Discussion in 'Works In Progress - Archive' started by Zed134, Feb 6, 2012.

  1. Zed134

    Zed134

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    Maybe some of you remember the good old Nintendo 64 days... In 1999 one special game was released which I fell in love with and it continues each day.

    Since it became clear that Rareware Ltd. and Nintendo are going sepeate ways, it became obvious that there would be no sequel to this awesome title, so a fiend of mine and I said "we are going to make this game" ... and we had no plan what to do. It was like building a car when your only knowledge bases on the fact that it has wheels... probably four but not quite sure... Well, it ended up with me doing 3D modeling, scripting, animation and sound and my friend dealing with design, textures and everything that is 2D.

    Thanks to the fabulous Unity3D Tool we were able to learn fast and are now, after 1.5 years of hard work (in free time of course), ready to present our first little trailer which first references the original and then shows the stuff that we have made by ourselves:



    This game will contain 2 characters (the second one is currently in the making), 8 weapons and 10 Planets to visit. Gameplay stucks close to its predecessor but we had to move N64 controls to PC. With your weapon holstered you can look around with a free, mouse controlled camera and interact with things. When a weapon is your hands camera control remains the same but you can shoot inaccurate. When holding your weapon and raising it with the RMB, Camera zooms in and you can shoot precisely but then you move slower.
    Enemy AI has been created from scratch. Drones always know where their collegues are and so you get a quite groupdynamic behaviour when they spread across the level. They are searching for cover and are often trying to shoot you in the back or attack from ambush positions.

    Of course this game is NOT going to be SOLD. We do not intend to make money with this title and harm any copyrights. This is just a fanmade project, done for fun, education in game making and of course to honour Jet Force Gemini and the people who made it.

    Thank you for those great days back in 1999!
     
  2. Earthquake

    Earthquake

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  3. Obatztrara

    Obatztrara

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    Looks really nice!

    The animations could be a little more fluent/natural I guess, but apart from that I like your style!
     
  4. JohnnyA

    JohnnyA

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    A good effort so far, but the art style seems to have diverged from the cute stylings that made the original so well ... ahh ... cute.
     
  5. angel_m

    angel_m

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    Good job!
    I wish a Jet Force Gemini remake on Nintendo 3DS :)
     
  6. Astero

    Astero

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    I never played that game but : "Incredibly ahaid of its time" are you serious ? when you says that , I remember Perfect Dark, SmashBross Melee, etc .. BUT NOT THAT ! :)

    Good luck with that remake.
     
  7. Miloco

    Miloco

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    I have very fond memories of Jet Force Gemini so would love a chance of playing this. I can see the enemies and level design look a lot like the original which is great. Having seen the trailer I would definitely try and improve the running animation and make the character controller look a little more "real". I'm sure it's just an early preview and these things will be fixed.

    Good luck with it though, it's definitely something I look forward to playing.
     
  8. Zed134

    Zed134

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    Thank you! I am very glad you like it! And yeah Obatztrara you are right, the animations of the main character are the biggest weakness of the game at the moment.

    But there is a lot more to improve. The splatter effects of the Drones need to be overworked too. You haven't got blood on the floor and on the walls yet, which is a must when you can blow them up. But the dismemberment works very well. Explosion effects also need some improvements. As I said this is our first approach tof making games and we still have VERY MUCH to learn. Hopefully this project will be finished some day! :)

    In terms of style the aim was to keep the player reminded of the original but without this overflow of "cuteness". Comic violence and the colorful presentation of the different planets was okay for us to keep, but the characters and enemies should have a look which is more ... well ... mature. That is the main reason for changing a lot of the style elements.


    You can see some Screenshots and also Concept Art on our blog:

    http://jetforcegeminiresurrection.blogspot.com/
     
    Last edited: Feb 6, 2012
  9. MABManZ

    MABManZ

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    I think by removing the "cuteness" you have also removed the artistic connection with the original.

    Definitely a lot of effort done here though. The animations, as stated, need a lot of work and IMO a more cartoony look would do heaps to identify this project to the original JFG. For now it looks like any other generic sci-fi shooter, whereas JGF did not.
     
    Last edited: Feb 6, 2012
  10. Ratchet

    Ratchet

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    It now lacks the spirit of the original : non serious and cartoon look , and good humour on animations, green blood splatters everywhere etc ...
    it's lot more like some generic TPS shooter, even the character has nothing in connexion with the original, it's no more some kid , but some angry mature soldier futurist.
    You could sell it indeed, by modifying some more the ant ennemies, even levels and dark lightening make it some very different game, more serious and dark.

    I found another game more closer to Jet Force Gemini in terms of cartoon design :



    Anyway great TPS, you should make some mobile version.
     
    Last edited: Feb 14, 2012
  11. Zed134

    Zed134

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    Well, style discussions were always a big deal with Jet Force Gemini. And I also think style was also a reason for the game to be not too succesful (in financial dimensions) although it featured great gameplay. Western Game Designers shouldn't play with japanese anime figures... When you take a look at early beta footage from JFG (e.g. here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpTZ72aWWG8 ) you can see that even Rareware itself made the characters MUCH more adult in the final version... so I think this game shouldn't be TOO cartoony in the end.

    We plan to set up more characters in the storyline which will revive the "cuteness". The basic idea was to make the action more mature, atmosphere and enemies a little more sinister (like in the gloomy Spawnship-Level) and serious (because this is still a war!), but then in contrast show a lot of the original cuteness at special places where you interact with civilians and when you use the second player character. But hey - I know this isn't very obvious in the video - it's only in the developer-heads right now and I understand and appreciate your critics :)

    @Ratchet: I have played this game on my iphone - and yeah it reminded me of JFG too, but this one was too colorful and too cartoony in my opinion. Looks more like the Rare beta footage, but thanks for that video! :)

    Due to a lot of work with my diploma, progress wasn't that big in the last few weeks, but we are setting up the first real level right now, and I also improved our Enemy AI. How this works can be seen here:

     
  12. Ratchet

    Ratchet

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    And I also think style was also a reason for the game to be not too succesful (in financial dimensions) although it featured great gameplay.

    Im'n ot sure the design was made it no so successfull ! I think the advertisements weren't enought in another side ?
    And games with cartoon look can win lot of people , like Conker's bad fur Day or Banjoe Kazooie !
    That was really very fun games, with non serious things.

    Even war don't need to be serious, take the game Conker Bad Fur Day, it has some very fun stages based on the war them , but with cartoon side.

    Good progress on your game :)
    And like i said your game will be just inspired, so you even could sell it (and there is noather 3D platform game using ants also, so Nintendo or Rare shoudln't says something if you would sell it !)
     
  13. JamesArndt

    JamesArndt

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    Ooh the walk animation needs some serious fixing. I just couldn't see anything past that.
     
  14. Priske415

    Priske415

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    The combat system looks really very nice! However, James is right, the run cycle needs a lot less arms and a lot more chest/hips. Use exaggerated references.
     
  15. JamesArndt

    JamesArndt

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    Yeah not sure if I gave a true critique. I agree it could use more hip movement and chest movement. The biggest thing I feel it's missing is the up and down arcs, his legs move, but the body doesn't shift weight side to side or up or down. If he bobbed up and down a little and shifted weight from one hip to the other it would look a lot more realistic. Otherwise, the art is looking solid and I really dig the ambience of the environments. :)
     
  16. Zed134

    Zed134

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    Thanks for your critics :)

    Yeah, as already mentioned above - Animations need serious overwork but the first target was to create a cool gameplay at first. I am not a real programmer/3D Artist at all. This is just a hobby project. I REALLY COULD NEVER imagine getting so far (and it may sound arrogant, but I am a little bit proud of it :D ) And now I try to make the game completely playable (Movement, AI, Save/Load, Map, Level Changing etc.) before I start working at the visuals. Although I am trying to visually complete the levels in terms of their mood (e.g. lights and a few detail models), structure of the rooms and enemy placement/movement.

    Do you have any specific ideas how to smooth and improve animations? I am working with blender (2.58)
     
    Last edited: Apr 10, 2012
  17. Zed134

    Zed134

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    I don't know either, I was just speculating :) We had TV ads here in Germany for Jet Force Gemini but I am also not sure if it was enough... I still have the "feel everything"-promotion VHS from nintendo and there was the same video on it as in my previous post. And I loved it from the beginning because I always was into scifi games, so I can't speak for the masses :D

    You're right, war wasn't serious in these games, but I think if war is serious or not depends on the story-framework it is set in. Neither Conker nor Banjo had a serious storyline (Grunthilda the Witch and a dunk Squirrel? Comedy. ok :D ). They were both funny and ironic. And I personally think Jet Force wasn't supposed to be funny and ironic in terms of storytelling - with a few exceptions like searching the (porn?) magazine for that mine owner :D But this game was a big space opera with Mizar as an evil looking and giant villain which emerges to be King Jeffs jealous brother who kills his own folks. Not too funny at all. Also the bosses weren't cute. These were big, disgusting bugs and they could be blown to pieces... It always looked like a (much better) copy of Starship Troopers, which was also funny sometimes but told a serious story with some brutal splatter.

    But anyway thanks for the idea of selling it :) I will think about that once again when every gameplay element is doing what I want. And maybe, when we got enough attention we will remove Mizar's logos and change Character names :D Story could easily be rewritten to fit a Non-Jet-Force-Scenario, that's not the problem... But at first it will stay a hobby project. Time will tell whats coming :)

    Currently I am working on the first real level, which revives the "Spawnship" from the Original and I also develop a Level Changing Systems which is able to connect the different scenes completely flexible, keeps on playing music during load times and supports spawning at different positions depending where you are coming from. Nothing special in the eyes of professionals but there will be non-linear levels :)
     
    Last edited: Mar 12, 2012
  18. Zed134

    Zed134

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    Thanks to the diploma again, I was not able to create that much content in the last few weeks. Also my friend who makes the textures and a lot of the design is involved in other projects that have priority. But as I said, at the moment I build up the "Spawnship" level. Most rooms are almost completed and have their complete interior models. So there IS a slow but steady progress.

    Currently I work on the exterior of the ship. You will land on a take off pad a few meters away so you can see the entire ship. It can be reached by a holo-bridge which is used for maintenance. The 3D-model, concept art and the idea to integrate and extend the original Spawnship from Jet Force Gemini can be viewed on the picture below:



    Also created a lot of small stuff for the interior and some sentry guns which aim at you and shot at a fixed fire rate.



    Since the scenes inside the ship are almost completed in size and interior I can test and complete the promised scene-changing/level-changing system as well. I will create a new video when this is done.


    I hope you had some good easter days!
     
  19. Eric5h5

    Eric5h5

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    You shouldn't have duplicate topics, so I merged them. Showcase should be used for finished projects.

    --Eric
     
  20. tripknotix

    tripknotix

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    i think the last remake of a game that Nintendo held "publishing" rights to, was given a cease and desist letter as a warning of a law suit.

    it was a fan made project.

    i hope you have a back up plan, like to change the characters, textures, and models in a quick manner and call it something else asap, incase you get a letter =X . i would hate to see the years worth of work gone to waste.
     
  21. Zed134

    Zed134

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    Thanks for the advice, me and my friend had a lot of discussion on this when JFGR began to get playable...

    Do you know which game that was? I also know about a few projects that were shut down, and some which survived.

    One that survived and seems to be still downloadable was Project Valkyrie, a Metroid-like Half-Life2 Mod. Another one is Command Conquer Renegade X which revives the old Command Conquer Renegade with a new campaign after 5 years of work. And also a 007 Goldeneye Remake which revives a Rareware title published by Nintendo is avaliable as Half-Life 2 Mod.

    A big project that was shut down by Nintendo itself was a Pokémon MMORPG (I think the game was called Pokénet) and a Chrono Trigger Remake was shut down by Square Enix. Activision shut down a Kings Quest remake even after they have given a non-commercial license and SEGA killed a Streets of Rage remake.

    So let me tell you what I personally think:

    You're absolutely right - fan games can be a double-edged sword. It depends on the developer if it does survive or not. But Jet Force Gemini is 13 years old now (I think a copyright lasts for 25 years?) and no one cared about a sequel or even a remake on VC or XBLA. And since Rare and Nintendo go separate ways I think they care even less because no one will make money with it again. So hopefully there won't be any interest in shutting down this project.

    But if this would happen and we would receive a letter some day telling us to stop this project we have a plan. The game itself and all of its content is created by ourself. Characters, gameplay, AI, textures, music ... it is indeed inspired by the original in design and coloring but it is no direct copy (especially in style issues) and it has a storyline which can easily be brought to life without any reference to the original.
    This means by replacing names and symbols it should be able to stand for itself. We did that for 2 reasons. Reason 1: Copyright Claim. Reason 2: A lot of peoply might not know JFG, so we wanted to create a game that can stand for itself and has a good story but references the Original.

    The only things we used directly from the orginal so far is the outline of middle-part of the Spawnship, sound files for weapons, aiming and screaming drones and the JFG/Mizar Logos. All exchangable without loosing to much time - so I guess the project should be on the safe side, whatever is going to happen :)
     
  22. Zed134

    Zed134

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    Ok, the Jet Force seems to face some problems. At first, with Unity 3.5.0 the web player did build but the game but it didn't start in the browser after the loading bar was full. The Browser got stuck and I had to stop it via Task Manager. Now I've updated to Unity 3.5.1 and I get THIS error message when I try to build a web player:



    And now something like that even shows up when I'm trying to create normalmaps in Unity ... WTF!? Does someone know what to do?
     
    Last edited: Oct 24, 2012
  23. reissgrant

    reissgrant

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    ^^ Never seen that error before!

    How large is the game??
     
  24. Zed134

    Zed134

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    Hm, the whole project folder is about 1,4 GB, I guess this is because of the textures... is that a lot? Oo I'm currently busy with cleaning up the projects hierarchy and deleting a lot of unused assets. But the project itself is supposed to grow a lot larger because I don't want to build only one level... :D

    In the web player build I only selected one scene for the build, not even the complete level with different scenes.

    Is the complete project permanently in the RAM of the PC? Because if this is the case, the 4 GB RAM that I have (of which 3GB are useable in a 32bit Win 7) might really be too little!?
     
    Last edited: Apr 30, 2012
  25. Zed134

    Zed134

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    Hm, making some progress in locating the error's source.

    Well, I haven't tried to build a web player in the last few days but this kind of error (with another log as in the picture) ALWAYS shows up when I was trying to create normalmaps in Unity with the "out of greyscale" checkbox checked. After cleaning up the hierarchy a bit (still continuing) it only happens when I try to create 4096x4096 normalmaps out of greyscale.

    I checked the forums several times and this seems to be a Unity Bug due to asset organisation because there is no direct solution to it and it doesn't seem to appear that often. I also checked my RAM with the Task Manager/Perfomance tools and Unity never needs more than 1,2 to 1,5 GB so there is plenty of RAM left...

    After a lot of deleting, reorganizing and reinstalling I create my 4096x4096 normalmaps with a plugin for GIMP 2.0 and when the "create from greyscale" box in unity is unchecked normalmaps of this size can be imported as usual... At least the project can continue, but due to this error I can't promise you a web player demo in the near future. I'm sorry :(

    It depends on if cleaning up the hierarchy will work. Any ideas how to make a "good" project hierarchy?
     
    Last edited: May 3, 2012
  26. Zed134

    Zed134

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    Things are getting better!

    After killing almost every memory error the Spawnship exterior is complete and is presented as an epic intro to the first level. Hidden in an asteroid field something weird is going on and you are about to find out!

    You will enter the Spawnship through the hangar on the back where the holo-bridge is leading after you have activated it on a small landing pad a few meters away. Veterans will immediately recognize the original Spawnship in the middle with its "I-22" writing on the hull.

    Video of the full scenery and the capabilities of the level changing system coming soon!



    Also the web player build works again, but only on several scenes and the graphical quality unfortunately sucks ass. Textures look wors than on the N64 :( But I will soon try to set up a room where you can shot some enemies to get a basic feeling of the gameplay :)
     
    Last edited: Oct 24, 2012
  27. Zed134

    Zed134

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    Well, I know you haven't heard anything for a long time, but we were busy building and texturing quite a lot of rooms of the Spawnship interior.










    In the mean time we also created our first Boss - the "Devastator Drone" which was an experiment by Mizar to test how large he can grow his armed drones and the result was this heavy, nearly immobile monster



    It's already modelled and textured and it has a rig so it can be animated right away, but I do the scripting first and you can already fight him in two of the aimed three phases. When the scripting is done, animations will follow and then we will have our first real Boss challenge in JFGR.

    As you can see on the picture below we managed to fit the proportions of the concept art quite well. But I have to add that the boss doesn't stand in the right room yet. This is just the test environment where the fight against some drones took place in the trailer.



    You will fight the so called "Devastator Drone" from a bridge in front of it and the game switches into the typical JFG-"Strafe Mode" in boss battles.
     
    Last edited: Oct 24, 2012
  28. Zed134

    Zed134

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    So, the Spawnship Interior is 90% complete and because of that I thought you might be interested in some new video material ;)

    Have fun with the "Spawnship Trailer" which shows a lot of different rooms, enemies and also a short preview of our first boss in motion!


    Stay tuned! :)

     
  29. Zed134

    Zed134

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    The Devastator Drone is in place, nearly fully animated and also has its own big room. Maybe I'll still need to add some details here and there but I personally think the Devastator Drone got a very nice housing :)

    Well now, after coming back from my vacation on tuesday and due to a really BORING friday night I've finally implemented the strafing controls for boss fights and also the automatic and very fluid switch from normal controls to boss controls and vice versa.

    Therefore I have created a quite similar control style for boss fights as in the original JFG:

    Reference here:


    Since we now have animation, controls and scripting of the boss in place you can finally fight it completely. A few animations, balancing and effects are still missing - but hey - you can finally challenge a boss in this game!

     
  30. Zed134

    Zed134

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    Jan visited me this week and so we were able to work together on this project for a few days - because normally we work via Skype and 500 kilometers are seperating us. But during this week we made serious progress:

    -Boss is completely animated, has all effects and can be fought (blood spilling, smoke, explosions, animated fluids in the two tanks...)

    -The main passage of the first level is nearly complete, I am currently working on the last room and then we can start with the map screen and the second level

    -We CHANGED the original gameplay and introduce the "UAS" which stands for "Universal Ammunition System". This System has only ONE amount of ammunition for ALL Weapons you have found. They just expend a different quantity of it when you shoot them. Capacity crates will increase the total amount of ammo you can carry and ammo boxes will fill it up.
    The "UAS" forces you to use your weapons strategically, because if you use strong but energy-hungry weapons too often you'll run out of ammo immediately... ;)

     
  31. Zed134

    Zed134

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    News again!

    I've implemented the health system, so now you can collect the famous color gems to increase your health. The items for increasing your max health will also come to life soon



    I also was able to finally connect all the scenes of the spawnship level to one big game world using the level changing system I announced months ago. There are still missing a few details but soon I can start with the map screen and the second level! :)



    In the meantime I had some serious problems with the framerate considering my ATI graphics card. If you are also experiencing framerate problems running Unity in Editor and Standalone on an ATI card you could look at a thread I opened here. I explain my solution to get a boost of ~50FPS.

    http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/148510-ATI-Graphic-Card-Problems-%28FPS%29-with-Unity-3.x-will-this-be-fixed-in-Unity-4.x
     
  32. Zed134

    Zed134

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    A lot of small updates, first motion pictures of the boss fight and a several additions that make this whole thing a "game" instead of a collection of rooms. Level changing, Health- Ammo-System and the ability to interact with objects is introduced. Have fun with this 10 min. video of commented gameplay! :)

     
  33. Zed134

    Zed134

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    Due to the fact that our direction of style seems to devide the masses, because some people say that our trailers do not look like Jet Force Gemini at all because its missing cuteness and humour and other say that they like the newer mature and more sinister atmosphere I can announce that both of these two groups hopefully will be satisfied because we now have our first "cute" gameplay element in the making and it also gives a hint what the second level will be... ;) And you can be sure that it will be a lot more bright and colorfull that the spawnship level!

    Tribal 3D Model Prototype:



    Tribal 3D Model in Unity with Fur Shader applied on a non-fitting texture:




    At least I have to somehow explain myself for the spawnship level and its style. The original Spawnship had nothing to do with the creation of Drones. You could not find one single evidence in all of these rooms for the creation of drones besides the besides the title of the level. If they hadn't told you that Drones were created in the Spawnship you just wouldn't have noticed. Therefore we had to insert a lot of technical elements, machines, laboratories and also narrow maintaince hallways with a lot of steam and sinister light and there was just no possibility to keep the style of the Original in this environment.

    So I have to admit that in some ways people are right when they say that it doesn't look like JFG so far - but we already have a lot of small elements that reference the Original as well.

    -The whole weapon arsenal is kept in the same colors but was redesigned in shape.
    -The hero's suit (his name is Nash and he is not affiliated with Juno) is a reminiscene of Juno's suit
    -Color gems, ammo crates, the poisonous barrels and capacity crates also have the same shape and similar prints as in JFG.
    -The two perspective gameplay which transforms the third person shooter in some kind of ego shooter and the strafe-mode in boss battles was also kept
    - The Original Spawnship was integrated in the middle of our extended version
    -Tribals will be presented in the game soon and also the second playable character will be a true reminiscene in design

    If you look close you can find those references but at the moment I admit its a little bit hard to see and this will change dramatically in the further levels :) This is only the beginning... :cool:
     
  34. Zed134

    Zed134

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    This place is familiar to all JFG Fans out there... welcome back in the second level: Goldwood! (Of course this is a WIP with many untextured surfaces. The floor-texture is just a placeholder and the plank bridge is still to come)



    Phew! Also succesfully recovered some Terrain Data and data for a complete scene from December 2011. Made them for the first trailer and as test environments, but they will be smoothly integrated in the Goldwood level and saves us tons of hours re-doing those areas :) But they maybe need a little bit more colour... we will see about that - but anyway:

    Lucky Day!


     
  35. Zed134

    Zed134

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    Now the Landing Zone has been finished:



    We've also remade the area where King Jeff's house was built, but you will experience a lot of differences in comparison to the Original due to our new storyline as well as through new enemies and new routes.

     
  36. Zed134

    Zed134

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    Finally completed the canyon area! You'll now find a 3D-skyline with trees and tribal huts, distance fog and a small Drone Outpost!



    Some of you might have been wondering if Floyd will be on your side again in this sequel. Well, as you all know, the little robot sacrificed himself in the Original JFG and therefore he won't show up in JFGR - but the Jet Force has implemented his "Drone-Warning-System" into their new suits ... and now you can guess what the four shiny stripes on Nash's back are doing...



    We've also optimized the enemy AI again, especially in terms of code efficiency, physics of the dismembered body parts and splatter effects. But there's not only optimization... there is also new stuff. Some is already finished, like the Sniper Drone - also a well known enemy type...



    and there is new stuff in the making. Missle Drones!






    We've also optimized the code for the flying units, so you'll also often ambushed from the air and the next area is planned as a wide, open forest area with some obstacles like trees and stones to deliver a full scale field combat instead of narrow walkways!
     
  37. nharde20

    nharde20

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    Pretty cool. I was kind of hoping you would take the art style in the direction of Nuts and Bolts. It high definition, but still kept the blocky forms and shapes that were required by the limited capabilities of the N64.
     
  38. EnigmaFactory

    EnigmaFactory

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    Hey, this is looking pretty good, but I don't understand the decision to keep the JFG branding. Truth is you've really deviated from what made JFG special (the art and aesthetics). If your art is completely different anyways, why not just create an original IP? I mean, you practically have. There is hardly anything keeping this a JFG game. My strong suggestion would be to modify the things that are and make it an original. That way you can actually distribute it and not concern yourself with cease and desists. Nintendo is notorious for shooting down fan projects. I've seen literally dozens of fan-made Nintendo titles get shut down. And those projects were actually using the assets, style and theme of their source material. Since you are so close to your own original product here, why not take the final steps and liberate yourself from legal issues and allow you to distribute it? I promise you, to spite your warning up front, if the game starts getting passed around (even for free) and Nintendo catches wind of it (and I've seen them catch wind of GameMaker and RPGMaker fan games) they will shut you down. Once they've hit that point it will be on their radar so if you do remove the branding and launch as your own IP, they will still have an eye on it.

    Just my recommendations (coming from a guy whose gotten cease and desists before! From Nintendo in fact).
     
  39. Mauri

    Mauri

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    -zip-
     
    Last edited: Dec 15, 2012
  40. Zed134

    Zed134

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    Hey guys!

    Thank you for your replies, sorry it took so long to answer.

    Yes we are aware of that, I've also written you a pretty detailed PM considering that point. But I personally think (leaving out the points we discussed in this thread) that we are the first one's who go a different way in fan games. This isn't a fan game which features known protagonists in new or even known levels. We don't really try to remake or copy Jet Force Gemini. Jet Force Gemini: Resurrection is supposed to be a game with new protagonists, a more mature style (which, accordant to our "research" on deviantart and other fan sites, is demanded by a great amount of fans) and graphical development as well as gameplay development BUT JFGR will be placed in the Jet Force Gemini universe and you will be able to meet known characters. JFGR will try to give JFG an extended universe it never had and which players never experienced due to the narrational limits of the N64 title. But even with all these justifications the copyright problem still persists and you are completely right.

    Hm, I've actually never played it 'cause I don't own a XBox360 but I don't think it looks blocky Oo Hm, but as explained above - we we're into a more serious style. But be aware that we will also have humorous and cute elemets ingame! :)

    Character is our biggest headache, he was our first model with our first try of animation and he will get a serious overwork and most likely proportions like a comic hero to be closer to the orginal. I answered your PM.


    Well now the news:


    The times of flat plant walls on Goldwood are over... if you have ever dreamed of fighting Mizars Drones in a three dimensional forest while the sun shines through the treetops ... be aware that we can deliver! :)





    I've also added the well-known Life-Force-Doors and they work like a dream.



    Had serious issues with the framerate being caused by the mass of plants, trees and their shadows in this big area. Combined with the large number of enemies hiding there it has been a real pain. But now everything seems to be in control due to the fact that we now can generate enemies at runtime which act correctly (even corresponding with Life-Force-Doors) instead of placing them all at once in the gameworld when you start a level. Besides that a few tricks in the level design made it possible to get an acceptable framerate .

    So far for the news :) Next will be the Missle Drone model and the cave-area below Goldwood's surface
     
  41. Zed134

    Zed134

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    New AI-Demo video of the Missile Drone is now online :)

     
  42. Zed134

    Zed134

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    You might remember that day when I told you that I've recovered the canyon area and cave data...

    Well I improved the canyon and now I am improving the cave area as well. The upper picture is the orginal and empty cave, On the picture below you can see the improved one. Mostly with a lot of technical stuff for the environment, life force doors, proximity mines... - oh and don't mind the drone parts, just had a little fun back there :D



    More technical stuff and new rock plates on the ground and at the ceiling... Oh and I've also added my first elevator which works in both directions, it brings you down into the cave/new Goldwood Depths




    Also the basic design of the Goldwood Boss is ready. This should be the first time Jet Force members face organic air units... Be sure to have a tough fight against Wonder Wasp! The boss with the cheesiest name ever!



    I wanted to start the Boss Room already but I experienced some troubles with the elevators and FPS issues again in the compiled game which didn't show up in the editor (which is pretty weird). Well but now I can say everything works fine and I am really satisfied with the results. I also learned how to load and unload rendered objects during runtime without any slowdowns which is very nice to create bigger environmental sections.
     
  43. progmeer

    progmeer

    Joined:
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    This project looks really good. I like the concept art you guys made. JFG was one of the best games for the n64.
    As much as I would love to see JFG come back to life, I agree with the members suggesting a change in branding. Now that Microsoft owns(and killed IMO) Rare, things might get bumpy.
    It can still be awesome if it was a homage to the original game, to capture the essence of JFG while building on it(lots of bug guts please ;))

    Good luck and good work.
     
  44. Zed134

    Zed134

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    Thanks :) I'm happy to hear that because it's our first one and none of us had any experience. Jan didn't know anything about texture drawing and I didn't have a clue about 3D modelling, animating and especially about programming. But we're still on it and learn new things every day. Yeah, you're right, Microsoft "killed" Rare in some way. A lot of creative heads (as well as the great JFG soundtrack componist Robin Beanland) have left Rareware and after the moderate success of Kameo and Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts 'n' Bolts they are about to produce some party game crap now :( Sad story... Sometimes I REALLY miss the 90ies.

    Thanks again for the advice, we always have that in mind and have a plan and an alternative story if that happens. Our style should be independent enough to remind but not to copy and we would have to exchange a few sounds, symbols, maybe colours and the name... would also be sad somehow because I personally dreamed of a JFG2 since I played the original in '99 and this is really just a hobby project which tries to enhance a universe with new protagonists, a new storyline, some levels with the original name but different environments, some new game elements, new bosses and enemies and a different and a little more mature style. This is no remake and no real copy ... it's like a fan fiction which became actually playable and also an hommage to the great work Rareware and Nintendo did in those past days and we hope IF they ever get an eye on this they will understand it that way.

    No one really knows who owns which copyrights of JFG, but as already discussed in this thread, we guess neither Rareware nor Nintendo is able to make money with this francise because they had to rebuy some copyrights from each other. IF we are lucky and receive a JFG2 or a JFG HD we of course would shut down or change this game ourselves. But as long as that's not the case we hope they won't sue us just to adhere to their copryright principles.

    Anyway - you've seen the concept art for our second boss with the cheesy name. Here's the WIP and it's now textured and ready to be animated:





    Finished but untextured Wonderwasp model ingame, scaled to real game size and in front of its neat housing. You can see giant comb structures and we managed to create a hangar hall with an open environment in the background and alpha mapped holes in the roof.



    Wonderwasp is textured and ready to be animated! And I think at least it's cute somehow... unfortunately we have to kill it... soon...



    Hope you like it :)
     
  45. Zed134

    Zed134

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    New stuff! The second level is complete!

    This is our new trailer which shows some footage of our second in-game level - Goldwood with a quick reminiscene to the intro of the original "Jet Force Gemini". You also can see our new enemy types "Missile Drone" and "Sniper Drone", we have implemented life force doors, the floyd warning system which is integrated in Nash's suit is working, you can meet a tribal along the way, the soldier drones got new splatter effects and you can take a look at the second boss "Wonderwasp". The overall level of details has been increased and we've experimented with new effects!

    Hope you guys like it! :)

     
  46. mightymike5321

    mightymike5321

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    I most definitely thought it look great :D
     
  47. impheris

    impheris

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    ...and now a download link :) :) :) yeah? yeah? no? :( jajajaja
    good work really
     
  48. _RC

    _RC

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    Aug 21, 2011
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    Wow! Besides the realistic player character it really reminds of the N64 version!
    Combat system and AI looks super cool.

    Are you going to implement crawling and rolling like in the original game?
    I always crawled and rolled because it was more fun than walking.
     
  49. brilliantgames

    brilliantgames

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    Cool stuff. Honestly I've always wanted to make an exact remake of Goldeneye. Its never been done properly.
     
  50. _RC

    _RC

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    Aug 21, 2011
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    There is a HL2-mod that is pretty close to the N64 goldeneye.
    But its not that fun because it lacks N64-controllers.