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Son of Nor - Action RPG

Discussion in 'Works In Progress - Archive' started by ChrisPolus, Mar 7, 2012.

  1. ChrisPolus

    ChrisPolus

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    Pawl, it's a combination of both. It's terrain API combinedwith our own system. I'm not the programmer on this but I know that we had to do quite some hacks that it works the way it does, including a lot of performance tricks for the system so it doesn't break down under the load. :)
     
  2. ChrisPolus

    ChrisPolus

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    I discussed zen's input on our Dev Diaries internally. And it's also something we had a gut-feeling about but were too busy to act on it. I think we hit a point where we have to change something in order to make the dev diaries really interesting to a larger crowd again.

    I'd really like to ask you what you think.
    • Why do you think about the current dev diary content? Why could it be that we lose viewers? Isn't it interesting? Did we show parts of the game for too long, did it get boring?
    • What do you think would be a great dev diary then? What content would you be interested in that you think a lot of other devs or gamers would be too?
    • Should we direct the dev diary at developers or gamers?
    • Should we continue show the progress or focus on more general themes like "how to make a game". Concept, game design, programming tips... Showing more what we learned, soft skills, working in a distributed way...
    • Showing other devs and introducing their projects, or some tech talk interviews with other devs that have some cool tech? Sort of a indie podcast among game devs?
    • Other ideas?
    Thanks for any input. We're all learning here :) And a discussion is healthy.
     
    Last edited: Nov 4, 2014
  3. ChrisPolus

    ChrisPolus

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    Hmm, a bid sad we didn't get any answers how you guys would like the dev diaries to continue. What would interest you personally to see?

    If you'd watch a dev diary regularly, what should it contain?

    Meanwhile, here's our latest one. We're going behind the scenes again to show how cutscenes are made.
    • In our "behind the scenes" series we take a deeper look at how cutscenes are made in Son of Nor.
    • We programmed our own tool for creating cutscenes. See how it works and how Ricardo's daily routine looks like when he has cutscene tasks assigned by our producer Alex.
     
  4. zenGarden

    zenGarden

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    The cut scene editor is really good, why did you guys not baught one from asset store ?
    (You should make a new thread on uniy forum about the cut scene editor, i think you'll have lot more people responding.)
    I like this last video , it seems shorter, and talks about the essential directly.
     
  5. ChrisPolus

    ChrisPolus

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    Thanks zen for the opinion. Well you know how it is with self-made tools: They're usually built around one's specific needs. To put it on the asset store, you need to polish a lot of the functionality, you need to have a proper documentation and then usually also clean some stuff out. That's time we currently can't afford but maybe will in the future.

    We first bought one off the Asset Store but after using it we weren't happy with it's functionality at all. Julian is really a coder mastermind. He thinks in structures and in his code there usually is law and order. Most things are well thought out and structured. That's not the case with many of the Asset Store things. Often, when we have to adapt things to our needs and have to go into the code, we're not at all happy with the quality. Many plugins are straight out buggy and fixing those bugs in spaghetti code is not something we have time for.

    Since no cutscene tool fit our needs and requirements for the flexibility (after all the editor needs to work with our game objects and models, the right animations need to be triggered at the right time) so we needed to adapt the cutscene tool anyway, even if we bought one. But with the one we bought this was not easily possible. Don't remember the reasons anymore, it was too long ago. So we built our own one that really works well with all the things we need. Moving people, moving cameras, switch cameras, let game characters perform certain actions, let the cutscenes fade in and out if they start on a level and such things.
     
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  6. ChrisPolus

    ChrisPolus

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    HUGE Community Content Update out today on Steam Early Access!

    We have launched the second major update to Son of Nor. Watch our trailer that shows everything that's new since we first launched on Steam Early Access!

    Wanna help? We'd extremely appreciate you retweeting our announcement to get the word out: https://twitter.com/sasGames/status/532853002487754752



    • Several level overworks and community feedback integration - As per community request the abilities of the player to fight in close-combat situations has been improved so the entire combat feels more polished and smooth.
    • More sidequests in several levels.
    • Level: Taro A - A city frozen in time by a powerful spell, haunted by lots of ghosts and interesting puzzle situations to solve.
    • Level: Taro B - Players encounter the most powerful female mage in the game “Orare”.
    • Level: Future Edge - The level is set during a big invasion of the human hometown, which players desperately try to defend. At that point, players already have all the powers (wind, fire and essence) and are as powerful as they can be!
    • New Customization Option: Vanity Items (connected to collectibles) - Players can now receive decorational items that do not influence gameplay, such as bracelets, pouches, shoulder gear and the like.
    • Proving Grounds Update - Collectibles now unlock the ability to spawn enemies in the proving grounds!
    • emotiv EPOC support implemented
     
    Last edited: Nov 13, 2014
    Thonnawan likes this.
  7. Archania

    Archania

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    Really love what you are all doing with son of nor. Try to play as much as I can. Even had to get my youngest son a copy too! Keep it up and always looking forward to your next dev diary.
    The trailer is fantastic. Great work.
     
  8. zenGarden

    zenGarden

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    What a trailer ... awesome. The new characters and customisation are great.
     
  9. ANTMAN0079

    ANTMAN0079

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    There are many things to like about this game having watched it unfold since the Kickstarter. Yet, there's still thins I don't understand.

    - Why isn't anyone wearing any footwear? Have they not invented it yet? They have pants at least.
    - How are those lizard men capable of firing off their arrows at the speed of Legolas from The Lord of The Rings? Nobody can stop Legolas when he fires off arrows like that. I would imagine fighting a group of lizard men is very difficult.
    - A videogame, created by people on Earth, featuring an arid desert world... and you can't create a dark skinned hero...?
     
  10. gwubgwub

    gwubgwub

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    Great Trailer guys might have to jump on Son of Nor tonight!
     
  11. DeadKenny

    DeadKenny

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    Did I just see a giant floating carrot lol? Anyway, looks good and seems to have a lot of content.
     
  12. ChrisPolus

    ChrisPolus

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    Thank you folks! We really appreciate it! It's been a long way here. Yes, CARROT! We prepared a new dev diary for today. I'm going to write up the description and then post it here as usual, Sunday afternoon.
     
  13. ChrisPolus

    ChrisPolus

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    And here we go! Community feedback cuts out the work for us these days. We're polishing and removing annoyances.


    • As you may have heard we released a big content update on Steam and produced a trailer to show what's new since we first launched on Steam Early Access:
    • The past weeks was defined by polishing work. Look at Julian's list of smaller and bigger things we worked on.
    • NEW DEV DIARY SCHEDULE: We'll release a dev diary every 2 weeks from now on. We need all the resources to ship Son of Nor.
     
  14. Archania

    Archania

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    Nice. Updated Son of Nor too. Now just need to play and run around the new stuff.
     
  15. zenGarden

    zenGarden

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    The 106 eîsode is just great and shows all refining points that makes great games :)
    ( adding more life is great to make it alive , removing player annoyances , great features)
    Did you used some analysis tool giving number stats on your game during testing phases ? or was people feedback sufficient ?
     
  16. ChrisPolus

    ChrisPolus

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    According to our testers, our efforts to improve those little gameplay details have a big positive impact. It's rewarding seeing the improvements work!
    • More work on animations, visual effects, comfort features, spellbook, collectibles, and spell variations.
    • Indie Corner: This time we feature Team Indie, by our friends at Brightside Games. It's a puzzle platformer where current indie heros have to work together to succeed. All with their individual powers: BitTrip Runner's CommanderVideo can slide, Jitters can create platforms, Braid can manipulate time, and characters from Tiny & Big, Badland, Dustforce and others help you out! http://teamindie.brightside-games.com
    • NEW DEV DIARY SCHEDULE: Just as a reminder, we release a dev diary every 2 weeks.
     
  17. jkarateking

    jkarateking

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    Can you tell me the link to the game?
    Because it looks really good and I want to get it :)
     
  18. ChrisPolus

    ChrisPolus

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  19. zenGarden

    zenGarden

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    Great polishing.
    What could be added are more effect touches adding more life :
    - some wind dust effect on some parts of the town
    - light wind on trees and grass
    - particles on the air on some level parts
    - some animals like birds or insects on some level parts

    I don't like the last part of your video because it's pure advertisment , could it be another game or coca cola :p

    Keep the good work.
     
  20. ChrisPolus

    ChrisPolus

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    Hey Zen. I see your point. However, we're all indies trying to make a living and we have a lot of friends in other studios, some of which released a game they're trying to sell. We don't just feature any game. Only people we know and games we think are really fun to play.

    It's a bit too long now in retrospect, that point is taken. If we do something like this, we should only do a quick feature so you can check it out yourself, and not do such a long "peek" inside the game explaining everything. It's really hard to sell games and if we can help a friendly indie studio sell some more copies, then it's worth it. Unfortunately I just learned that it hardly helped. Ah well...
     
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  21. ChrisPolus

    ChrisPolus

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    We implemented THE FIRST VOICE-OVER recordings. It's amazing hearing townspeople and villains speak!!
    • This week: New Sarahul scout model, improved visual feedback on various spells, great news for all geeks who enjoy hidden secrets and story elements.
    • We also implemented voice-over recordings which were recorded in professional studios in LA by pro actors.
    • We show you Dave B. Mitchell, who voiced characters such as Ash in Alien Isolation, Ciggma Khint in Bravely Default, and the judge in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2022559/
    • And Liam O'Brian, who voiced characters such as Gollum in Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, Phillip in D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die, or Gaara in Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3). http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1240448/
    • HOLIDAY SCHEDULE: We're taking a break over Christmas. The next dev diary will air January 11th, with more voice-over integrations and new cool things.
     
  22. zenGarden

    zenGarden

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    Amazing work on the lizards different shapes , it looks really great now :)
    The voice really bring characters to life and brings lot of immersion.
     
  23. gwubgwub

    gwubgwub

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    great stuff guys!
     
  24. ChrisPolus

    ChrisPolus

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    thanks guys! :) we're extremely happy with how things are evolving. this voice over leveled-up son of nor quite a bit :) yaay
     
  25. ChrisPolus

    ChrisPolus

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    Next batch of professionally recorded voice-over!
    • This week: stillalive christmas party, final animation update, Sarahul can catch fire, visuals of spellbook improved.
    • We also implemented more voice-overs which were recorded in professional studios in LA by pro actors.
    • We show you Kate Higgins, who voiced characters in Legend of Korra, or Sakura in Naruto Shippuden and is our main female player voice http://www.behindthevoiceactors.com/Kate-Higgins/
    • And Oliver Vaquer, who voiced characters like Robert Lutece in Bioshock Infinite or played in TV series like Dexter or gave his voice to the Killer Queen in Family Guy. He's our Vuushaar http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1192100
     
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  26. zenGarden

    zenGarden

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    The running animation of characters could use some mocap ? they look not natural, but well the game has not same budget as big productions.
    Awesome about how much voices add a lot to believable characters :)
     
  27. ChrisPolus

    ChrisPolus

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    yeah you said it right, it's mostly a budget question. we spent so much time on animations, had animators working in our team, studied animators, we bought mocap data but nothing really fit. until we spent again some money and hired an external company who specializes in animations for games and did 2 or 3 passes and tested them in the game and tweaked them further. this is the max we can do and I think it's now looking quite OK to even good. but of course we don't have 100 pro people doing just animations in AAA studios ;)
     
  28. ChrisPolus

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    We completed implementing all English voice-overs! And: We have the voice of the Prince of Persia for our male player! WATCH!
    • This week: We spent 2 days recording German voice-overs and I thought it would be interesting to learn how such a session works. If you ever thought of integrating voice-overs, we show how we worked with 2 professional recording studios and several actors.
    • We also completed implementing all the English voice-overs!
    • We show you David Shaughnessy, who voiced characters in World of Warcraft, Elder Scrolls Skyrim, Mass Effect, and is our Tanath, vase artisan and a guy in town http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0789479/
    • And Yuri Lowenthal, who voiced characters in Diablo 3, he was Sasuke in Naruto, he was in Guild Wars 2, Mass Effect AND ... see for yourself. He's our male player character http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0523180/
     
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  29. zenGarden

    zenGarden

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    Amazing actors, it litteraly brings game to life :)
     
  30. ChrisPolus

    ChrisPolus

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    Coming ever closer to release! Kickstarter awards went into production!
    • This week: Kickstarter rewards (physical and digital ones) are being produced. Bible of Nor, game boxes, t-shirts, medallion of Nor, Kickstarter exclusive characters and vanity items are in, backer NPCs are in, too! Also, credits for the wall of heroes and end credits are finalised.
    • German voice recording was finished, edited and implemented. All translations are now done, too. German, Russian, Spanish, Italian and French.
    • Ricardo shows how he created the game's intro movie.
     
  31. ChrisPolus

    ChrisPolus

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    Son of Nor has a release date!
    • Julian walks you through all the little details we optimized in the tutorial level the past couple of weeks. There's so much we improved!
    • After integrating all the voice-overs, all translations, backer characters, credits, names, there's not much left to do. We looked for an optimal release date and hope we finally found it on March 31st.
    • It's extremely hard to find a release date for an indie project. We have ONE SHOT at getting a little press brouhaha and it's important not being drowned by AAA titles that will surely take away journalist's attention. We spent 3 years developing this ambitious title and it would be pretty stupid rushing it at the cost of nobody noticing. It seems March 31st is a calm week.
    • Having said that, we're pretty much done with Son of Nor and use the time to improve small things here and there and looking into some last bug reports!
     
  32. zenGarden

    zenGarden

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    Introduction gameplay and new visuals looks very clear and pro now, great work.

    About optimisations on the last part with many things going on, could you tells us what you done to optimize ? or talk about it on some next video ?
     
  33. MadMonkey119

    MadMonkey119

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    Watched some of the videos, they were quite enjoyable. The gameplay looks interesting and fun, good luck with the release!
     
  34. ChrisPolus

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    thanks! we'll need it :)
    @Zen: i'll see if i can get julian to respond here to the optimization question. :)
     
  35. umauj

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    Hey Zen!
    So the optimizations focused mainly on very specific things within Son of Nor. For instance are our ragdolls very performance heavy since they have a lot of colliders, so I added a script that would destroy them really shortly after they were spawned (just during this battle), since a lot of enemies die there. Another thing was intelligently activating the enemies just before the player sees them. Enemies take quite some impact on performance as well, so that was a major improvement too (although we have a "normal" creature LOD system in place anyways). Then I removed some dynamic colliders that are otherwise there, but during the fight are not really necessary, and I manually deactivated a lot of stuff in the level you just passed, as soon as the battle starts (assuming the player wont just go back).

    Hope this helped!
     
  36. zenGarden

    zenGarden

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    I see it's objects and physic management to make the engine easy with less things.
    Did you have testsed UT5 ? It is better for performance ?

    I know you guys had to split a big level in sub levels to avoid crashes.
    Did you have tested with UT5 also if the entire level can run andsmoothly without crashing ?

    Thanks.
     
  37. ChrisPolus

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    We need help! People in the office can't decide if the dress our female Son of Nor player character wears is blue, gold, white or black! What's your opinion?

     
  38. zenGarden

    zenGarden

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    Just make three textures with a different color.
    The player will choose color in the character creation menu, or in the options at any time.
    This is better to let some little customizing choice to the players :)
     
  39. ChrisPolus

    ChrisPolus

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    Yep, of course you're right zen. But this was about something else. I could not resist making a side blow at what strange things kept the internets up today. So much fuzz about a badly shot photo... Had to make fun of that ;)
     
  40. ChrisPolus

    ChrisPolus

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    We're wrapping up Son of Nor! It's almost ready!
    • It's less than 3.5 weeks until release! AAARGHHH! Release is March 31st 2015!
    • Intro movies are now rendered in full HD and with great sound for English and German voice over. Also the outro movie is now done!
    • Secret revelations about the Horastes statue.
    • Original soundtrack was wrapped up, too, and looks gorgeous in one's music library.
    • Chris was super busy the last few weeks creating all planned release trailers for the marketing and PR team. Sneak peek.
    • What's our next project? We're already working on a new game at stillalive studios. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook or subscribe to our YouTube channel to see what's next!
     
  41. zenGarden

    zenGarden

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    Good luck, and the game will success. Any Consoles versions ?

    Do you have some tips about the next project ? Son of Nor 2 ? a game in the same style action adventure ?
     
  42. ChrisPolus

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    No console versions planned yet. We will first wait and see how we do on normal platforms. Every platform costs a lot of additional testing and work for the porting process. First, let's get some sales and then if we see there's demand, we can still think about a console version.

    Regarding next projects. No hints yet, sorry :) But it's not an internal project. We actually are tasked by an external company to develop a game from an IP they own. It's nice to be recognised as a serious developer and see real companies approach us, put their faith in us and believe we can deliver a great game for them. This keeps us afloat moneywise so we can plan further things. Maybe Son of Nor 2, maybe something else. We're juggling some ideas around and have some ideas out there to see who'll finance development.

    Details will come at a later time. :)
     
  43. ChrisPolus

    ChrisPolus

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    This is the LAST dev diary before the release on March 31st!
    • 9 days from today, Sunday 22nd! YEEEAH!
    • The release will be THE most important event in the game's 3 years of development! Please spread the word on Twitter, Facebook, download one of our Facebook banners. We got really cool ones with 2 more to come: http://sonofnor.com/community/
    • Our focus has shifted towards promotion. Julian had some interviews and flew to San Francisco last week for a promotional tour. Chris is working on the 4 release trailers that will start appearing this coming week.
    • Because it's fun, Chris will appear on Hot Pepper Gaming, where he'll talk about Son of Nor but first has to eat a super hot pepper. Join in, we'll link to the video once it's out!
    • Curse's gamepedia will be the official place to go if you're looking for tips, secrets, tactics, or where you'll gradually find the location of all the collectibles. Curse hosts our official Son of Nor Wiki! http://sonofnor.gamepedia.com/Son_of_Nor_Wiki
    • What's our next project? We're already working on a new game at stillalive studios. Follow us on Twitter (https://twitter.com/SASGames), Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/stillaliveStudios) or subscribe to our YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/user/stillaliveGameStudio) to see what's next!
      http://forum.sonofnor.com
     
  44. Stiffx

    Stiffx

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    This is very nice. As a Third person game guy I'm already a fan.
    Good job
     
  45. ChrisPolus

    ChrisPolus

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    Our FIRST release trailer in a series of FOUR. Here, we focus on terraforming & telekinesis.

     
  46. ChrisPolus

    ChrisPolus

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    Son of Nor Focus Trailer #2. We're diving into the magic system. The video starts with a scene containing voice-over, which we're proud of as a small indie team.

    We recorded it in a professional studio in LA with voice talents that spoke for Diablo 3, World of Warcraft, Mass Effect, Naruto, and we even have the guy voicing the Prince of Persia in the Sands of Time trilogy. Enjoy!

     
  47. LongJohn

    LongJohn

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    Hard to believe its made with unity, good job :)
     
  48. ChrisPolus

    ChrisPolus

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    Thanks Long John! It was a long and rocky path. We're glad this project is finished. It was our first big thing and we learned a lot about what's possible with Unity and what is not.

    Our next project will be set up quite differently ;) And we're looking forward to using Unity 5!
     
  49. ChrisPolus

    ChrisPolus

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    In our 3rd trailer we focus on all the peripherals supported by Son of Nor. We had lots of fun experimenting with and implementing this awesome gear.

    Of course Son of Nor is primarily played with mouse & keyboard or game controller, but if you like experiments, being on the edge, these gadgets are for you! And Son of Nor supports them!

     
  50. zenGarden

    zenGarden

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    Turning the eyes left to right to raise sand from left to right : no thanks :D