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[WIP] Floatlands - lowpoly survival/exploration game

Discussion in 'Works In Progress - Archive' started by Studio-Techtrics, Oct 19, 2016.

  1. Studio-Techtrics

    Studio-Techtrics

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    Hi everyone,

    Floatlands is a lowpoly survival-exploration fps game in singleplayer mode with multiplayer to be added later on. Game is currently in early development with set goals.

    • You will play a robot as the main protagonist, going up against other robots. Game world will consist of several biomes: jungle, desert, sea and snow. These worlds will be unique all the time because they will be randomly generated. Islands and natural elements will have certain similarities, but altogether the world will be unique every time.

    • There will be random events/quests (defending, collecting, exploring) across the world for you to complete. Quests, missions will also be randomly generated in order to bring the unpredictability aspect to the game.

    • You can choose different play styles when playing in the world of Floatlands. You can be an explorer or you can be an aggressive player that wants to eliminate threats of well being.

    • Important part will be the resource gathering aspect. With gathered resources you’ll be able to build and upgrade your own custom base/shelter and defend from enemies. One other major feature in game is electricity which will provide you with different options in the game, from ability to defend yourself, power up your lights to see through dark nights.

    Intro

    The idea for a low-poly game came from our project manager Domen Koneski. He was having fun creating some floating islands in Unity and the colored only models really looked good to all of us.


    The train of thought naturally went to jetpacks and flying around, defending each island from enemies (mobs in the shape of a helicopter). Andrej, our 3d artist, quickly created a helicopter, a main character for a first person shooter with a cool looking double-barrelled shotgun, a few animations and we got THIS.

    At that time the first trailer for the upcoming Battlefield 1 was released, which includes a massive Zeppelin. We picked up on the idea and incorporated it in this Floatlands game (working title).


    We shared a few screenshots of the scene on Instagram and Facebook, the feedback was well beyond our initial expectations, since we immediately got offers for beta testing, requests for PS4 version and suggestions for further concepts.

    We’re really enthusiastic about this project and looking forward to working with the community! We invite you to contribute your thoughts and ideas on our website and social media profiles. We will also update this thread accordingly.


     
    Last edited: Oct 26, 2016
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  2. Studio-Techtrics

    Studio-Techtrics

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    Working on better visuals and general improvement of the scene

    This past week we’ve been working on improving the visuals of the scene (better foliage, fog and colors), here is a representation of that:




    Important part of the game will be the resource gathering aspect – we already created some basic ones:

    • shooting down robot enemies will provide you scrap metal;
    • by chopping trees you will gain wood;
    • sheep is a source for wool;
    • you will also find resources in caves.

    Our programmer Vili Volčini (kobi) was busy creating pathfinding for a basic island, which now includes automatic subdividing, really fantastic stuff! He will explain the whole work process in one of our next posts, so be sure to check it out!



    3d artist Andrej added some nice assets like stones and caves with stalactites. Speaking of caves, there will be a whole complex of them under the mountains for you to explore. We also added the first animal – a sheep with a few animations and ragdoll physics.




    The next challenge is creating wobbly trees – we’re already experimenting with wind animations for vegetation. That will certainly add some dynamic to the scene.

    We’re really happy with the progress of the game and we’re looking forward to implementing mobs, weapons and lots more…

    Until next time.

     
    Last edited: Nov 16, 2016
  3. Studio-Techtrics

    Studio-Techtrics

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    Completing the island generator, implementing a LOD system and adding ambient occlusion



    Hey. Domen Koneski (game director, designer and programmer of Floatlands) here! Welcome to the very first dev preview which is ment to showcase the progress of our development. We are very happy to be sharing our dev story with you. I’ve got some pictures for you.

    I’ve been working on island generator, I’ve added every asset Andrej (3D artist) had for me – from a small firn to a huge tree. With this I’ve also successfully implemented a LOD system and found a cool ambient occlusion system which was also implemented successfully. That’s it for the nature aspect.



    Resource gathering system is now improved, you can now harvest wood, wool, experience points and rocks. What we will do with it is still a mystery since we are developing this game very iterative.



    Cheers!

     
    Last edited: Nov 11, 2016
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  4. Studio-Techtrics

    Studio-Techtrics

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    VOLUMETRIC PATHFINDING GRAPH

    Hi, Vili here!

    I'm one of the developers in Floatlands team. I will explain pathfinding and the reasons why we need this in our game.

    Common pathfinding is for ground mobs only. I wanted to have also mobs that fly and walk on walls / ceilings. For this we need special path-finding, if we wish that enemies find a way to their target. I was looking for a solution and there was none, so I programmed my own.

    I used oct-trees, which are really just an extension of quad-trees. I constructed oct-tree by casting cube to world for each node – if anything is hit by BoxCast, subdivide. Repeat this until you hit maximum depth of nodes. I used Unity3Ds function ‘Physics.CheckBox’.

    I visualized my algorithm, and pretty pictures happened – what you see next is leafs of solid. You can see this can get quite heavy, because each subdivision generates 8 times more nodes.​



    If I wanted to have a proper graph, I needed to make it also topologically correct. This means I needed to do flood-fill algorithm to separate free-space from solid-space. This way mobs can exactly know where they can walk (and can’t).


    This is the result of flood-fill. I started from free-space (top most node) and searched through whole space. This way I could separate reachable and unreachable space.



    Did I mention before about the resolution problem? Well, there is a big problem. Each subdivision is 8x times more expensive. Time and space requirements grow exponentially. BoxCasting becomes expensive, so does flood-fill. But there is a simple solution: subdivide only parts that need to be subdivided :). So I coded a simple trigger, which will mark space that needs to be detailed.


    Each prefab gets its own trigger. It can be a box or sphere collider.

    Now, we have proper nodes. Now I needed to generate points (with normals) for each node. I did it by raycasting from many directions (borders of node) and then averaging the points. Also I calculated the average normal – slope, so I can separate ground from wall/ceiling.

    This is the result:


    Now another step – connect the neighbor nodes, so we get a point graph. Here, I used ‘moore neighborhood’ for connections, this way I also get diagonals.​
    If you want to see what a mess fully drawn graph is – including free-space nodes, look here:


    Then all I needed to do is input this point graph into A* Pathfinding Project made by Aron.

    Example of working path-finding:


    That’s all folks, quite simple eh?​
     
    Last edited: Nov 11, 2016
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  5. Studio-Techtrics

    Studio-Techtrics

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    Creating a lowpoly robot

    If you’ve been following our updates, you noticed that the main character is a robot. Our 3D artist (Andrej) put in the effort and also recorded the workflow in Blender. Enjoy!

     
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  6. Studio-Techtrics

    Studio-Techtrics

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    Bullets

    Hey, Domen here. My task was and still is to create at least reasonable bullet logic which is “kinda” realistic. For starters lets define what a bullet is. For the first N metres (or any other unit) the bullet reacts and is defined as a raycast from an origin point to a direction – in most cases a gun barrel or the middle of the screen (crosshair position). If nothing is hit then proceed with so called partly raycasts – cast a short raycast and if nothing happens move the origin of the previous ray to an end position of that ray.

    Here is an ugly paint sketch:


    standard bullet logic

    This got me quite a satisfying result but I wasn’t happy with it. Bullet isn’t only a ray, it has a volume and there is also gravity that affects the movement of the bullet.

    implementation of basic raycasting system

    The next thing was to implement basic gravity impact to the bullet. I also moved every physics call to the FixedUpdate() so the Unity physics has the time to refresh itself. I also added a simple TTL (Time to live) system, so the bullet “dies” at about 25 raycasts.


    gravity affected bullet

    Here is an example of an instant raycast (black ray) and the partly raycasts (red) which are affected by the gravity, kinda heavy bullet eh? The next stop was implementing the volume of the bullet, which is a simple raycast towards every directon. We can now change the gravity affection, bullet spread, bullet time to live and bullet speed, which is nice if we want to implement some sort of mortars, snipers, or weak pistols. Aaaaand the final result:


    poor drones getting attacked

    Cheers!
     
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  7. Studio-Techtrics

    Studio-Techtrics

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    Building structures

    Today we will present you another feature of our Floatlands game – BUILDING STRUCTURES. Players will be able to build their own structures to protect themselves from threats and store their possessions. This feature is closely tied with the resource gathering aspect of the game. It’s simple really, to build any kind of structure you need materials. That is why we first thought out a material scheme.


    Elements/materials differentiate between themselves in rarity and later on in tier usability (rare materials are needed for more fortified structures). From basic natural resources and animals that were already incorporated, we now had to convert this into usable materials for construction. Certain materials need to be processed and smelted in order to be used. This is where a FURNACE comes into play:


    Placing structures

    So, now that we have the materials sorted out, we get to play with construction. Constructing is based on one structure/element (foundation, floor, wall, stairs…) that you’ll be able to rotate and snap to another element-thus creating a building according to your wishes. In order for this snapping system to work, our 3d artist and programmer had to create all the elements and assign them locators and snap points. The positioning of these elements works through raycasting.


    Build tiers
    For now we designed elements for 3 building tiers: WOOD, REINFORCED STONE, ARMORED.


    WOOD BASE


    STONE BASE



    REINFORCED BASE


    www.floatlands.net
     
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  8. Studio-Techtrics

    Studio-Techtrics

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    A few keynotes on the developments so far:

    • No timetable for the alpha version yet, but we believe development will definitely speed up.
    • Singleplayer mode is targeted on being a survival and exploring type of game.
    • We have multiplayer mode in mind at a later stage.
    • Questing -> there will be random events (defending, collecting, exploring) across the world for you to complete.
    • Building system is nearly complete -> you’ll be able to build and upgrade your own custom base/shelter and defend from enemies (raiding).

    Extracting metal will be important for upgrading/fortifying your structures.


    Wood tier is the starting level of build mode.


    Stone upgrade will make it harder for enemies to destroy your base.


    Reinforced stone is the highest tier base/shelter you can upgrade to.
     
  9. Studio-Techtrics

    Studio-Techtrics

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    ELECTRICITY

    In our previous blog post we showed you the Floatlands build system and different tiers of structures. Then we thought about different props that could be used in the game, and some of them would need a source of energy. Generators will be that source, in fact, there will be 3 models with different power outputs (50W, 150W, 400W).



    You will have to fill them with fuel to get them to work. Energy will be used for lights, lamps, defense systems, turrets and more. You’ll be able to connect multiple devices to a generator and even go over the output limit, but the efficiency of that extra connected device will be lowered (example: extra connected light will generate less brightness). We already managed to connect several turrets to a generator.


    Turrets will target their enemies with laser light and bullets.


    Wall lamp connected to a nearby generator.


    Power up your lights to see trough dark nights


    We’re even discussing various energy sources, like wind (wind turbines), water (hydroelectricity) and sun (solar panels).

     
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  10. 00Fant

    00Fant

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    Looks very Nice
     
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  11. Studio-Techtrics

    Studio-Techtrics

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    WINTER IS COMING

    So, besides the 3 already made biomes (normal, sea and desert) we now finally implemented a winter/snow world and a day & night cycle together with weather system. It actually looks even more impressive in night time. With our build system already quite developed, we experimented in making this winter castle. That’s the beauty of custom build mode…


    Our 3d artist modified the terrain/mountains, trees, rocks and also recorded his workflow, if anyone is interested in having a look.


    Since we decided to go the lowpoly way and use solid colors, we’re looking into a similar kind of design regarding user interface and HUD. Domen went through a couple of UI mockups/revisions and also added a compass which already works. For now it shows just mountains and bases, later it will show all relevant points of interest (quests etc).


    Last couple of days we’ve been preparing for the upcoming Slovenian games conference where we will showcase our work so far. A demo scene is in place along with a slightly improved player controller, so our booth visitors will be able to get a very early sample of gameplay. In our next blog post we will update you guys with how it all went (pictures included) and what to expect in the coming weeks and months.


     
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  12. Studio-Techtrics

    Studio-Techtrics

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    SLOVENIAN GAMES CONFERENCE

    A few weeks back we announced our attendance at the Slovenian games conference where we would present a very early sample of Floatlands. Taking into account that this project is 4 months old, we put ourselves under a lot of time pressure but finally we managed to do it.



    So we concentrated on setting up a demo scene with a working build mode, the latest UI and an updated player controller. We came to the event with one purpose – to observe and take in the reactions, impressions and live feedback from the visitors and other developers. Of course there was an occasional bug or two, but players were genuinely excited to build their own bases – you wouldn’t believe some of the constructions they made.



    The conference itself lasted the whole day, it included speakers on various related gaming topics, such as design process, animation, audio, VR, marketing and much more. Throughout the event we met lots of developers with interesting and promising game projects. We were also offered help with marketing which we are so grateful for.

    To our complete surprise (since we haven’t really thought about the contest) Floatlands had been chosen for the best indie game of SGC 2016. This is a great honor for us, especially because we’ve been working on this game for only 4 months now. The reward for winning this contest were tickets to Reboot Develop conference 2017, which will take place in Dubrovnik (Croatia) in April.




     
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  13. Studio-Techtrics

    Studio-Techtrics

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    SINISTER ROBOT NPC DESIGN

    I was given the task to design NPCs for the game, so I started by coming up with ideas. At this point I was mostly sketching different designs, mostly throwing ideas against the wall and seeing what sticks. I progresively refined the design while getting feedback from my team-mates.



    When we got the idea we were looking for, I made a colour sketch and drew up some weapon ideas:



    Work in progress…


    The control rig for the animation is tested for bugs and the gun is modeled and added to the character. Now we can animate movements for the character and add him to the game. You are going to be harrased by this NPC alot in Floatlands, so make sure to run away from him… alot.



    Andrej Krebs, lead 3D artist

     
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  14. Hey guys! Loving this project. Say you were in need for a wind script, so i attached one.
    Really cool project, would love to be part of it.

    (Wind script was made by me, do whatever you want with it, no license issues)
     

    Attached Files:

    • Wind.cs
      File size:
      1.6 KB
      Views:
      795
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  15. stanislavdol

    stanislavdol

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    Love the graphics, you have really talented artisits in your team!
     
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  16. Studio-Techtrics

    Studio-Techtrics

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    Thx! Will try it out and see if it's something we can implement.
     
  17. Studio-Techtrics

    Studio-Techtrics

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    COMMON NPC ROBOTS

    • GUNNER - Is the most common type of robot in Floatlands. He is equipped with a standard rifle, has a great range and cooperates with other robots very well. He will be found near quest sites or freshly spawned islands.

    • GRENADIER - Grenadier is more trickier. He is equipped with a grenade launcher, which can cause lots of pain if he sees where you are hiding. He can be terminated very quickly so make sure to have an eye on him.

    • ABSORBER - He can be found in a pack of NPC robots. He is absorbing your incoming damage in a great range, so make sure to target him to weaken robot’s defenses. It does zero damage and has very little health pool.

    • HARDSCOPER - Sniper will appear less frequently than some other robot NPCs. His specialization is to cover large open areas, so you’ll have to watch out for him at every turn. He is likely to camp out in nearby bushes. Terminate him first to clear the path.
     
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  18. Studio-Techtrics

    Studio-Techtrics

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    ADVANCED PROJECTILE SYSTEM AND DYNAMIC CROSSHAIR



    Floatlands has another addition – Projectile system. Until now, only weapon animations were present in the game, without actual bullets, so the shooting experience wasn’t quite genuine. We go over how projectiles launch from a weapon, how they bounce from other objects and surfaces, and how much effect do penetration angles have.



    shooting quad walls



    dynamic crosshair


    read more at
    http://floatlands.net
     
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  19. Dennis_eA

    Dennis_eA

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    I love all this.


    :rolleyes::oops:
     
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  20. Studio-Techtrics

    Studio-Techtrics

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    SMELTING AND STORAGE

    Hi guys, working hard on various content for the game – recent additions are a Furnace/Smelter and a Storage box, with item system in the works.

    STORAGE

    There will be 2 variants of storage boxes. Smaller ones will be intended for fast and efficient storaging of your valuables. Bigger ones will be used for a specific storage and you’ll have to secure them from outer threats (mobs). Both kind will be craftables only, meaning that the only way to get them will be by crafting. You’ll be able to set them anywhere you want (no restrictions regarding that), most commonly in bases/shelters.




    SMELTING
    There is only one variant of furnace available for now. It transforms your raw gathered resources to a more refined (better) quality (example Metal Ore -> Metal Ignot). This transformed element can be then used for crafting better items (bigger storage box, weapons, other devices). Furnace works only if “fuel” is added as an energy source. The primitive fuel is wood, but you can use oil, coal or any other wooden element (wooden floor, foundation). So imagine that, instead of destroying your wooden base and previous elements going to waste, this way you’ll actually get something in return.



    When smelting there will be a variable duration period – for smelting rare items a longer time will be needed due to more difficult smelting process. This furnace will fit nicely to your base/shelter, and you’ll have the option to make several of them.


     
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  21. Studio-Techtrics

    Studio-Techtrics

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    PROCEDURAL ISLAND GENERATOR

    We’ve been working hard lately on reworking our island generator. At the beginning of development we had a weak system, where you placed ‘spawner’ on an island with a set of rules to follow. This system did work, but as the development continued we have found little to no variations at the end and we became bored of it. Floatlands needed a procedural island generator!

    Domen, our lead game designer, started working on his own procedural engine, which first produced simple islands with basic flora on it (trees, bushes and grass). The system can be easily tweaked as the development continues for optimization and gameplay purposes (e.g. too much trees at one spot – too much resources for player).



    Read more about island sizes, paths & biomes.
     
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  22. Studio-Techtrics

    Studio-Techtrics

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    POINTS OF INTEREST

    • SHACKS will be free to loot and the easiest way to obtain items. They will encourage you to explore every part of the world.

    • TOWERS will be heavily guarded by enemy NPC robots and the difficulty to overcome them will vary: more difficult -> more valuable the loot.

    • RADIOACTIVE SITES will be easy to spot, they will be filled with barrels that will emit visual green smog. Radioactivity will cause you a little bit of damage so you’ll have to watch out when deciding to loot there.

    • FLYING FORTRESS will be the most difficult to capture (master difficulty). For now it’s in concept stage and we can only show you some prototypes.
     
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  23. Studio-Techtrics

    Studio-Techtrics

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    WEEKLY UPDATE

    • LOD, DRAW DISTANCE AND CULLING SYSTEM
    • WEATHER, DAY/NIGHT SYSTEM - a procedural generated weather
    • THE “BUZZARD” – is the basic craftable aircraft capable of traveling medium to short distances at slow speed. It provides some mobility so you can visit and explore floating islands at medium range.
    • SHEEP ANIMATIONS, BEHAVIOUR; MOB DAMAGE
     
    Last edited: Feb 1, 2017
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  24. Studio-Techtrics

    Studio-Techtrics

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    WEEKLY UPDATE

    • PROCEDURAL WEATHER SYSTEM - it's voxel based, which means weather system is global and can differ between two world positions e.g. it snows where player is located – it is foggy on the other island.




    • FLYING FORTRESSES - they are going to be populated with enemy robots. If you succeed to capture them you will find a lot of loot which is spawned in loot crates around the fortress area.



    • DEER ANIMATIONS - we created several short deer animations which will later be imported in Unity3d and prepared for transitions between movements, behaviours and relationships.

    • CONSTRUCTION ASSET AND BUILDING MATERIALS - We have decided to completely overhaul the existing building that were in the game already. So we made a few concept sketches of structures made with the materials that could be found after the “disaster” that caused the floating islands.
     
  25. Studio-Techtrics

    Studio-Techtrics

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    WEEKLY UPDATE

    • DECORATIONS AND VEGETATION CHANGES - As a part of optimizations we had to reconsider the vegetation system. Up until now we were using modeled grass and bushes, but that required a lot of performance to render if we wanted a dense grass scene. We have now changed to using only a couple of quads per grass and a black/white texture to go along with that. Here is what I came up with.


    • MAKING OF THE WILDLIFE - This week we also finished the animations on the boar model, made the ragdoll systems for the boar and deer models for the green continental biomes. After some troubleshooting on those models we continued with the rhino, which will inhabit the desert islands and started working on the animations for it.

    • PRE/POST FLOATLANDS BUILDINGS - We needed to define the construction materials that can be found in the floatlands universe. After thorough research we found the architectural type and shape we’d imagine our buildings to exist. Then we broke them down into the materials which were used for assembly.


    • MOBS - Collision avoidance optimisation; Importing deer into Unity3D; Path mesh optimizations

     
  26. Studio-Techtrics

    Studio-Techtrics

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    WEEKLY UPDATE
    • PROCEDURAL ALGORITHM IMPROVEMENTS AND OPTIMIZATIONS - The nature of Floatlands is now more believable for every island possible, it can now spawn dense forest or a huge area of nothingness. Another nice addition to an algorithm is that generation can be tweaked in one file only with e.g. text editor.


    • DESERT BIOME WILDLIFE - As you may know there are 3 biomes planned (normal, desert, snow) and each will have their unique wildlife. So this week we finished preparing the rhino with animations and a ragdoll system and did most of the work on the hyena

    • NEW WEAPONS CONCEPTS - There will be a total of 3 weapon tiers. Tier number one will be the most basic craftable tier of weapons available. Resources for these type of firearms will be easy to find and easy to craft. The range of the arsenal varies from simple single shot pistols, assault rifles to powerful shotguns and even a grenade launcher.

    • POLISHING ANIMATION CODE, ADDING BEHAVIOUR - Behaviour tree has been growing for some time, it’s quite big now. Almost all Action nodes are custom written, like Attack, Move to random position, Looking Around idle, Move to nearest Enemy and so on.
     
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  27. UnityUser9860

    UnityUser9860

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    Seen this on Gamejolt.com looks good!
     
  28. Studio-Techtrics

    Studio-Techtrics

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    Thank you! Yeah, we're present on various platforms out there and we invite you to follow us further.
     
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  29. Studio-Techtrics

    Studio-Techtrics

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    WEEKLY UPDATE

    • SHACKS AND BUZZARD – from concept to game implementation



    • HUD LAYOUT - We’ve been studying some UI principles and gathered all of the available resources (menus, player stat variables) and tried to implement them in a clean UI. With Mito we slowly started to implement various new icons to replace the old ones.

    • ENHANCING NPC ROBOTS - We have decided to further enhance the existing NPCs so you’ll be able to distinquish them from eachother easily. For example, we will add various armour elements to the Grenadier NPC to appear more bulky and dangerous. The sniper NPC is also getting an overhaul, with added cloth cape so he’ll be harder to spot.



    • ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR - We’re in the process of finaly implementing animal behaviour. They are still buggy and we had quite a few problems capturing them on video, anyway, here are some clips of animal relationships and behaviours that they have between each other:



     
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  30. Studio-Techtrics

    Studio-Techtrics

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    WEEKLY UPDATE

    • GUI system - For the sake of Floatlands we've written our own GUI system that works upon the IMGUI and only uses one render call (OnGUI call) and can be greatly optimized and elements inside of the system can be also recycled (used multiple times). For now you can only draw text, textures, lines and points. This is going to be expanded so we can also draw curves, rectangles and shapes with multiple color definition (e.g. line with a gradient).


    • ENEMY ROBOTS - We already had basic robots prepared a few months ago, but some reworking was required. The sniper droid got a cool cape, and all the droids were equiped with an IK system that handles aiming, recoil and grounding.


    • WEAPONS - We also prepared weapon models for the player, but those still need to be animated for a good first person experience.



     
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  31. Studio-Techtrics

    Studio-Techtrics

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    WEEKLY UPDATE


    BUZZARD IN ACTION
    Buzzard finally comes to life, as it’s been a couple of weeks since the first concept design and last week the model was created. This helicopter is meant to be as an accompanied aircraft for traveling medium to short distances at slow speed. It is relatively small and light, therefore we set a very responsive handling for it. However it becomes difficult to handle in a situation where you run out of gas – speed decreases to 50% and the whole thing starts shaking, urging you to emergency land and refill.


    WEAPON ANIMATIONS
    Last week we started animating the player’s hands and weapons for the first person view. For the melee weapons we only had to animate the hands and the weapon slot, but the firearms have moving parts and have their own animations also.


    Revolver & Bolt action rifle reload​

     
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  32. Studio-Techtrics

    Studio-Techtrics

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    WEEKLY UPDATE

    MORE WEAPON ANIMATIONS
    We have some more weapon animations to show you, continuing from last week. Out of existing concepts, 3 weapons needed to be animated: single-shot pistol, assault rifle and pump-action shotgun.

    Assault rifle reload & melee

    Just for additional info, there will be multiple weapon tiers. Tier number one will be the most basic craftable tier of weapons available. You’ll be able to craft them with the materials found throughout the world.

    DECOMPOSE EFFECT
    This effect plays on dead animals. We needed a good looking way to de-spawn animals from this world and this effect is quite right for it. Looks even better in nature.

     
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  33. Studio-Techtrics

    Studio-Techtrics

    Joined:
    Jan 29, 2016
    Posts:
    36
    WEEKLY UPDATE

    PROCEDURALLY GENERATED DUNGEONS
    Dungeons will serve as a point in the gameplay cycle where you can stop exploring and surviving in the world just to challenge yourself in a procedurally generated fully-closed area full of enemy NPCs. You will be rewarded by rare loot at the end of a dungeon by encountering a final boss or doing a certain task. There will be a lot of dungeon types, for now we are sticking with cave-like dungeons.


    To give you a preview this is how it works – algorithm generates a right tile in a right direction and it makes sure that every room is connected with a previous one so there are zero dead ends or unreachable rooms. This is how it looks inside with prototyping tiles and with work-in-progress real cave tiles.



    RESOURCE GATHERING

    We’ve rewamped the resource gathering system and implemented a better one which uses Vili’s proximity sensors and new particle system. You can now mine different type of veins and chop down trees. Everything is then connected with an inventory system which also works flawlessly. The next thing about resource gathering is an implementation of crafting system, soon to come!

    More about Floatlands:
    website
    Facebook
    Twitter
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    RavenOfCode and alexanderameye like this.
  34. Studio-Techtrics

    Studio-Techtrics

    Joined:
    Jan 29, 2016
    Posts:
    36
    WEEKLY UPDATE

    ITEM MODELS FOR WEAPONS & TOOLS
    These are models with less detail and without all the fancy moving parts that you will only be able to see when you hold it in your hands and use it. These will be used as items in the world you can pick up.

    Weapon/tools lowpoly item models

    BUILD MODE ELEMENTS
    The visuals of Floatlands world changed quite a bit during development, consequently our previous build mode elements needed a revamp, so we were doing rework on the models. We did some optimization, but we mostly focused on unifying the style with the rest of the game.

    ITEM SYSTEM
    Floatlands has a custom item managment system that makes adding items or changing their description, crafting times, sprites, drop chances and other minor variables (smelt tiems, rarity,…) easy. Also we are going to use such model for modding purposes which is going to be added after the release of Floatlands.

    OTHER CHANGES & ADDITIONS:
    • we implemented “turbo mode” for our buzzard (helicopter), so you can travel at 250% speed when there is more than 75% fuel in your fuel tank.
    • Health managment system: Player can now take damage from different sources – physical damage (fall damage, mellee, etc.), bullet or other projectile damage and explosions. Everything is connected with the UI so you can find out that you took some damage.
    • Main Menu: We've managed to copy the main scene for the main menu, so there is a procedurally spawned island behind you with a faster day/night cycle. We’ve also implemented an update system so we can display announcements or update changes right in the main menu.
    More about Floatlands:
    website

    Facebook
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    _M_S_D_ likes this.
  35. Studio-Techtrics

    Studio-Techtrics

    Joined:
    Jan 29, 2016
    Posts:
    36
    WEEKLY UPDATE

    UI & HEALTH MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
    The inventory, crafting and build mode menus and their functionalities are now finished. All that is left is to completely rethink the UI design. NPC health bar was also added, it pops out whenever NPC gets shot or hit. There has been a lot of work done on health managment system and on the survival aspect. We’ve implemented a consumable type of items (repair kits and energy cells that Andrej and Mito designed and modelled) to manage your health and energy.



    ROCK TOOL, REPAIR KITS, ENERGY CELLS
    We realized amidst all the weapon creation that the player doesn’t have a certain initial free tool for mining/chopping wood, which jump-starts the resource gathering. To fix this, we first had to put some thought into it and in the end we came up with a simple solution – a rock!

    Then we added models for consumable items - so far we have two repair kits for the player to heal himself and two power cells to store and carry extra energy arround. This comes in handy when your robot runs out of energy and you have to replenish it.



    WORK ON WEAPONS
    • weapon logic (reload, shoot, zoom, bullets, taking bullets from inventory, meele, proximity)
    • implementing animations made by our 3D artist
    • implementing “weapon follow player” logic, so that movement looks much more natural
    • muzzle flash effect
    • projectile effect

    ENEMY AIRSHIP
    Another cool feature we’re working on is the airships that will patrol around the area. Airships will be dangerous encounters and will produce great rewards if defeated.

    More about Floatlands:
    website

    facebook
    twitter

    instagram