UDK// Relikt - January Update²

I recently updated the IndieDB Profile of Relikt and felt the need to perform the same task on my blog.
Well, to be honest, I only planned to upload a few images but I have achieved a certain amount of features lately I don't want you to miss.

You see, I recently spiced up the visuals for Relikt by adding parallax mapping (best known from games such as "Amnesia: The Dark Descent" and future artworks added to the game will have a much higher resolution than those already in. They will be in the same art style, that way I doubt that they will stand out too much from the 512*512 textures I imported from the FPSC settings.

(CLICK TO SEE IMAGE IN FULL SIZE)

I am currently working (and I have already rather cool results) on a Physics manipulating system so the player is able to pick objects up, throw them, breakable objects etc. This is also why the future updates will be rather bare in terms of screenshots.

Damn! I had to do way too much paperwork this morning, just read how distant and "matter of fact" I type today. :P

So yeah! I finally have a pretty clear idea of what this game will be. Unreal's Drag and Drop Script Editor "Kismet" allows me not only to creat moving and vivid level's but also to implement most simple gameplay elements rather fast.. Especially puzzles like "assembling cogwheels" "find the key" or "push the statue" are really easy to accomplish. Almost as simple as FPSC...and a lot more reliable and robust. I wonder what held me back so long from moving to this engine. Its great fun and widely supported. I have not yet been active in UDK forums myself but I am aiming to.


Now here are a few images. Nothing really new, but I like to send out constant signs of progress:

You haven't spotted the little hole there, okay ;) There will be another room later.

I also noticed that the game increases in popularity which is not only flattering but also quiet astounding to me :)

Allow me to link you, dear reader, to some features this game has already made:

Indie Game Mag

PC Games (German)

Freegamearchive

the dark side of gaming

Thanks to all the authors and reporters of these magazines/webblogs :)

Thats it for now, stay tuned for more and have a nice week.

Old News// FPSC:Thanatophobia-> Free mini-game<-

This is a game I once made for a contest. Actually, I forgot that I signed up for it and made this short shooter with resources I already had in a mere 10 hours.

The Story: (COPIED FROM ITS INDIEDBPAGE)

The fall of the third reich, Berlin: You play as Alexander Zoller, a german mechanic. You seeked shelter in an underground bunker structure during an air-raid attack. Unfortunately the door locked behind you and you have to find another way out. But soon you discover that you are not alone...really not alone. Can you discover the truth and escape the underground nightmare? A one level survival horror game I made for a contest. It took me 10 hours to make it...it has guns and zombies :) If you're interested, read the description. It earned second place.

 Important

*use the launcher to start the game (adjust you're settings)
*Bulletimpactsounds are from Relict and might sound strange
*do not even think of saving you're game... it is not supported and will most likely not work. You don't need it in a one level game anyway
*Special Thanks to Ivan Ertlov for helping me out with the build.

 

You can download from its MODDB Profile (linked to above) or from this mediafire mirror.

This will usually not work on Win7. There is a way to make it function but I really don't know how and I am too lazy to dig through all my mails to find that (hey! I may be a lazy bastard, but I'm an honest lazy bastard)

-Adrien

UDK// Relikt - January Update

Hey guys!
I've had a whole lot of sparetime this week which means that I can present a new update. I was toying a litte bit more with UDK's Kismet and I'm getting pretty used to the new working environment. I particullary enjoy the material editor :)
This week I have been mostly busy experimenting with various settings/postprocessing for the setting and again: Creating new media for my game. Its something I will most likely keep doing for the next
few month's. I have started an Alpha Version of a cave entrance. (Cave's and catacombs will be a large part of this game).
I will incorporate a lot of stuff I really liked in other fantasy games in this one aswell so be ready to see a lot of huge statues and surreal vegetation in the caves. Gameplay wise, I have been adjusting some of the characters movement and jumping height. There is also a really rough version of "picking stuff up" already in the game. 
But well, I guess I can interest you guys more in some images:

 

Old News // Euthanasia, FPSCreator and unexpected consequences

You may have noticed that I try to have a certain pattern in my Blog. So I use labeled titles for you to navigate easier through the posts in this blog. If something is labeled "UDK" for instance, it is usually about the Unreal Development Kit. So, this new label "Old News" handles things I have posted a while ago somewhere else but I would like to have on my blog either because its important to me or because I haven't had much other news to write down.

Posted: 15th Jul 2011 23:48   


Hey people! I just woke up, haven't even had my coffee yet and saw a thread on the german FPSC Board about my older game "Euthanasia".

You might have followed its release and noticed that it had a few thousand downloads all over the world. I didn't see that "fame" coming nor did I really want it...but yeah...apparently due to its title "Euthanasia" which could have been anything else, but this sounded nice, it somehow came involved with actual debates about mercy killing in italy.

Now the mud is really hitting the fan because: The "mediaexpert" (according to his statement, I find this title highly debatable) Klaus Davi had a chat with the doctor and politician Paola Binetti
about the publishing (which never happened because the game is free) of my game "Euthanasia". Well, now you can already guess that as soon as this sort of folks talk about videogames...nothing good comes out. This "Expert" states my harmless little game to be:
" an harassment to all kids and teenagers".
Jaw dropping, isn't it?

The 68 year old conservative politician has been interviewed about the game and found its "Will to violence" and "culture of death" disturbing. (Well, apparently, these fellas are member of a party named "opus dei" which have extreme conservative points of views on everything including "the sims" supporting homosexuality).
I can not tell you what I personally think about these people because it would violate the AUP but isn't it obvious that they are just picking on the game due to the Euthanasia Debate going on in Italy?

The reporter however wrote nicely that the game was the result of months of work by a single person and is indeed just a normal first person shooter. But its now getting ugly:

The undersecretary of state, Carlo Giovanardi, also takes a position “I ask the Left-wing supporters and the anti-prohibitionists at every cost: after the videogame on euthanasia will there be a follow up with a videogame on racism? On anti-semitism?” “These videogames should not be permitted in the hands of children”, explains the undersecretary of the Department of Health, Eugenia Roccella, who believes that “this videogame is a product of a subtle and sneaky marketing operation that tends to advertise a pro-euthanasia culture in a very dangerous manner”. They totally got me...I work for the grim reaper

It also calls for rejection on behalf of Aiart, the Association of Catholic Viewers. “How can we put a videogame like ‘Euthanasia’ that explicitly promotes an illegal practice on the market? Self-regulation is false and undependable” affirms Luca Borgomeo, president of Aiart. “the videogames- he concludes – is no man’s land. It’s not enough just to not sell 'Euthanasia' to minors, we have to open their minds to reason regarding this situation. We cannot allow the culture of death to be promoted through fun”.

It really makes me feel bad to see my simple game being abused to fuel political discussions from people with medieval points of view... how sad

But well...thanks for reading. I hope TGC doesn't get any wierd mails trhough this. I doubt it...nobody even contacted me...

UDK// Relikt - slow development

Even though Relikt is my most ambitious videogame project to date, I just haven't found time and motivation to get it really far within the last couple of days. However, I did do a couple of changes and I present them to you of course :)

The Moddb Profile is updated now aswell so....check it out ;)

The most interesting new thing is the claymore blade which was a pain in the ass to get it to work. Its still buggy and won't play the animations correctly. However, Idle animation is working, its showing up correctly in the game, its placed on the right spot...thats already half the battle, right? ....right? :(

I really need to rebuild that lighting >.<

This is Melissa, my test mesh and protoype character. In the game, she will be an alchemist working on some potions here. There is also a Nice comparison to earlier versions on this game's Indiedb profile.

Well, I really don't have anything more to add so see you all next time :)

UDK// Relikt - things are getting unreal

You know the feeling that you really want to present your latest work but it isn't done yet?

I have been putting quiet some work in this, my very second UDK Map and start point of further development of my long lasting FPSC Project Relict (now retitled Relikt...because Relict was a typo and...thats a long story. Read it up on the TGC forums if you want to)

Anyway, long story short: Relikt used to be developed in the FPSC engine which proved too weak to carry the core gameplay and the larger more detailed levels of that concept so I finally moved on to something more complex: Unreal Engine.

There isn't much to show yet, and the only gameplay elements that already exists are doors and pop-up HUD's (exciting, isn't it?)

My level is really coming together and you won't see any of that because most spots do still have UDK stock checkered materials on them and the lighting isn't added/finished.

What I can show you is a collection of spots on the map that aren't finished enough to be concidered an alpha version...but at least they already look cool.

So lets start of with something that is done: This little hottie:

 

Characters in the game will be dynamic with multiple choice dialogue...IF the game will have voiceacting or not will show. 

 

 

The fire has a certain glow to it that makes it seem really warm. I just like that effect :)

Lightrays...yaaay! :)

So! I guess the point of this post was sending out a little lifesign of this project. Its back and it will most certainly end up being my most attractive game, I think.

Thanks for checking by!

FPSC // P S I S H O C K - First update and unexpected popularity

2012 everyone! I seem to get a little traffic on this blog now so lets get some more content on then :)





Thegamecreators.com Forum Members probably remember that after I finished Euthanasia, I said that I would never make a game as scary and dark ever again... I lied.




Doesn't he look just freakish trying to crawl out of that maintenance shaft to go Bruce Lee on your butt? 
No, its a directed screenshot, its actually stuck there. But I had you for a moment, right?
















I had a total gamemaking day...today. But I also made a nice sunny courtyard in UDK (you remember that sucky courtyard from relict? Its awesome now.) ...

Switching between editors is really a culture shock, believe me. I had 2 hours of UDK today 1 hour FPSC and 1 hour doing just crap on my computer. And whenever you just had a solid hour in one particular software you automatically try to use the same commands in another.

Yeah, thats boring...what am I typing here? So about the game: Its coming along, its scary and has a lot of blue stuff in it. There really isn't any new info except for the fact that its ...evolving.



So thats that. Its still going to cost 3 Dollars though




I didn't get the expected response after I published this little update...I got far more.

Seriously guys! Shavra - Dead Frequency (the project most of the media used in Psishock origins from because the project sadly got cancelled) was far more unique, artsy and enjoyable than this game. ... and nobody noticed it. But as soon as you make a game thats blue and dark and full of monsters, everybody reblogs it. Just google "PSISHOCK" and set "last 24 hours" or "last week" as google settings to find out what I mean.

And I would really enjoy a little attention but apparently, everybody thinks that this is a serious commercial production.

And right now, I'm going to take a statement to some of the comments issued on the game through out the internet...because Its late, I can't sleep and...fuck you! Its my blog, I write whatever I want.

To be honest, it looks quite similar to Doom 3. Contrary to iD’s little gem though, PSISHOCK features higher-resolution textures, which is a plus in our books. It looks promising and since it comes from a single guy, it really deserves your attention.

But...but... Doom3 isn't blue :(
No seriously... I don't try to copy anything from Doom3 but since both games take place on a planetar mining station, I see why people see a connection.

PSISHOCK promises to feature a really developed storyline, shader heavy visual effects, interactive environment, dynamic HUD system, first person adventure gameplay, intense ambience, as well as voice acting and dynamic Soundtrack. It surely sounds promising but will a single man deliver all those features in top-notch quality? We certainly hope so.

 Haha! No :) As I made that statement, I was referring to other FPSC titles. Not other big studio videogametitles. So no, compared to other videogames, I will not deliver these in top notch quality.

 You grab a shotgun, assuming there's one around.

 I'm still not sure about that yet...we'll see...

The game itself is actually being designed by only one guy and he has a lot of work cut out for him, mainly because he wants to focus on intense horror-survival elements as well as the thrills and danger of being trapped on a ship full of hideous creatures who like nothing more than to bury their claws into the juicy mush of your brain.

I'm absolutely going to quote that last line if I ever make a boxcover. :P

Doom meets Necromorphs in 2004 graphics.

2004 graphics? Let me google that....

...Half Life², Doom3, Unreal Tournament 2004 ... well thank you very much (:

 Inspired by Dead Space of course.

Inspired, yes! :) You are also the first guy I come across mentioning inspiration and not accusing me of ripping off. So kudos to you ;)

 Is it possible to rip off System Shock and Doom at the same time?
This game just proved it.

Yeah, you can go fuck yourself, especially because I never played System Shock.

The idea is cool but the screens make it look something between Dead Space and Doom 3 with graphics quality from Doom 3. Also the name... PSISHOCK? Really?

Yeah, really... Even though I do actually think about giving it another name due to the negative response to that title. Glad you actually took the time to look at the storyline though. And nice that you like the idea.

hmm.. looks interesting. But it could use some juice power in the graphics department.

Yeah! I just love people that have no idea how much hard work it takes to make a videogame and post this stuff under projects a single guy is working on...in fucking fpsc.

if it's like Amnesia, then i'll buy it. those screens won't impress anyone though...

Yeah, its totally like that game set in the 18th century. Seriously though, it is a bit like it.

 When I find the official webpage I post it too.

When you find this blog...you found it.

 "shock" in the name MIGHT... just MIGHT... draw some comparisons with another oh so slightly popular franchise also set on a space ship with survival horror elements blended into an fps.

 Yeah, I should have seen that coming. But then again, I didn't expect this much popularity.

 sounds good to me! good job from the one man team! Put it on Steam and I'll bite!

How about just buying it over paypal? Because thats how its going down at the end :) I doubt steam would release this on their plattform. Last time I wrote them, they didn't even reply. ..the schmucks :P
But thanks.

Lol why is it that when a poster criticises a game for being influenced by another, they usually name a game that has just as many influences?

I like this guy :)

Be better if the name didnt sound like a pokemon

Yeah right... whatever.

A survival horror game? Horror? Forgive me if I'm wrong, but the monsters in a horror are supposed to be frightening, correct? The design of that one monster in the screen looks like it needs a hug, a blanket and a warm cup of tea instead of a 12 gauge to the mallet. In fact, he's the only thing that looks as if he's in any kind of shock here.

Actually that makes sence in coherence to the plot...but hey! If you would ever stand in front of such a thing in person you would be scared too, fella ;) But yeah, its not that scary on a screenshot.

I'd like to see what the guy can do on a medium budget.

 haha! Me too... I would probably hire a few talented lads and start a really creative fantasy adventure game. But since my budget for videogamedevelopment is currently zero...this might take a while.


And to everyone who is so sure that this is the Doom³ engine ...no, it really isn't.

Thanks for reading, internet people... and I'm looking forward to 2012. Its going to be an exciting year, at least for me... and maybe this blog gets some visitors now, thanks to this project :)

Lets end this with a pointless screenshot: