Prancing Fields GameDev 30-11-2022

Previous devlog: https://lerra.fanbox.cc/manage/posts/4362276

NOTICE: This game is not playable yet and is still in deep shit alpha. I'm hoping to push an Alpha V0.01 out soon.

Last devlog I ended talking about combat and the group system. You can read more about it in the above link. This devlog is about Creating a map, the main menu, updating the UI, a Dialogue system and reducing the scope/scrapping features for now in order to ACTUALLY GET A DEMO UP AND RUNNING.

I feel like it’s taking too long and it’s frustrating. Having worked on something this big with this much effort/time and still nothing to show for. I have to admit, MOST of that time was also spent on learning how to create 3d models, texturing them, animating them, exporting them into unity, see what works and what not in terms of character customization and bondage related items and re-iterate this loop in order to get code structure, model pieces and creation workflow together that allow me to work more comfortable on this project in the future without restructuring everything constantly with every update.

I guess this is the double edged sword of scope creep: Trying to create something big comes with a lot of rules and sentences that start with: WHAT IF-.

Long story short, I should’ve cut corners sooner and create something playable much earlier. Realizing this I’ve worked on elements that will actually be present in the alpha. As a result: I’m disabling save data and will work with standalone/linear stories for testing purposes while still allowing players to play the game and show features that I’m working on.

With this in mind I started working on the most obvious place where every player starts: the main menu. I took inspiration from a game I played a long time ago but is sadly no longer active/online anymore. The opening screen of that game featured a map with lore/locations and I tried to re-create it. Mind you, the map is not done yet but I like how it turned out and can see the game and the different locations in game taking shape using this map.

I posted this concept a couple devlogs back:

It’s simple but it gets the job done as in: it fits on screen and showcases multiple areas. So I refined it by fleshing out the story more and keeping an eye on future content/updates and the possible themes. I added more texture/detail in an attempt to recreate the art style I remember. It’s not as great as the map I remember seeing but for my game its good enough. Both as a background for my main menu and as an in-game map.

*Notice this map still needs a lot of work and details because I want to use it in the game for fast traveling/events/missions as well.

With the map (sort of) done I moved on to making more elements for the main menu. Like before, I was inspired by the older game and tried to re-create the title of the game but with some kinkiness added to it.

Notice the woman at the end is really just one of my own creations but re-colored with a gradient and a white stroke surrounding it. It’s simple but I love it.

I then puzzled for a day or two with UI elements and colors, mixing and matching what worked and what didn’t, combined with the menu elements I needed. The main menu now looks like this.

For the alpha I’m disabling the save system and many other features. In turn I’ve added “Library Stories” in the main menu. Clicking it will take you to stories that can be played separate from the main game. Including the first Alpha version and other future versions of the game.

With the main menu now set up and a way for players to actually get into the game, I realized I needed to change other UI elements as well in order to create a more coherent display. As a result I updated the in-game pause menu (but it still needs a bit more love since it's quite small still):

I also updated the Options menu (excuse me for the bad quality, I took a screenshot from a video I made earlier :P):

To the updated UI design:

For Alpha v0.01 I’m scrapping a lot of features (including AI companions etc) so I figured that story telling might be more difficult without other characters. In an earlier devlog I said that I didn’t want to create a linear experience but I realized it was the simplest solution and therefore built towards a simple story telling method involving notes/books/stuff to read and find for the player. Using these elements allowed players to solve puzzles and collect clues about what they should do in order to progress in the world.

For this, I needed books and papers… and of course I pushed it too far again. Because books and paper are usually placed on top of tables and cabinets…

So after creating a few book models… with different textures that allow me to quickly “change” the text of the book and not make them all look the same….

I also created new tables… and several chairs…

And then I created a book case…

...and a bar counter made up out of modular pieces so you can create a bar any way you like because you know... a deserted Inn or something with a bar in it seemed to be fitting for a game where you run around and collect clues...

THE POINT IS. Books and papers are now in the game and hovering over it shows a new mouse icon, letting the player know there is something of interest.

With these elements now in the game, I needed a system to show the text to the player… and of course I took that too far as well. Because I realized this was something I could re-use in the entire game and I therefore wanted to build it right, straight from the start.

I still can’t believe I made it all work in one go because this system now allows me to simply type text in the editor (instead of hardcoding it in scripts). Combined with commands that are filtered/read by the reader method, it allows me to do more than just show text. I can use this system for generated missions and future content. Below is a preview of the system.

2022-11-30 22-01-10_Trim

Notice how the screen fades to black and how the game UI hides itself before the camera zooms in on the player before the cutscene starts. All of that happens with plain text that’s read line for line and thus activating or deactivating elements on screen/in game. Below is the test sample I made and the commands involved to call everything you just saw.

You might wonder “why go this far?!” and the truth is: I like writing stories this way. Where I write and create the visual experience of the story in one go without needing to hop in and out scripts/different controls and elements constantly. I like writing it like this because I want the story to flow well. Another good reason is: language. I’ve had several people asking me if the game will feature multiple languages. For the Alpha: Most definitely not, there will not be multiple languages in the alpha. BUT with this system, where people simple can re-write the language in for example a .TXT file without actually messing with the in game files and having to worry about messing things up, it is very well possible to do it in the future. It would even allow mod support.

The camera/UI functions are just some of the examples I’ve created so far. In the future I also would like to implement character emotes/animations and sound/screen effects at some point. Also, for those that can’t wait for the talking to stop: there is a dialogue skip option too. (skipping the entire dialogue/text).

With that done, it now brings us to the sad element of this devlog: character models. In the past I’ve already re-worked my character once in an attempt to create a better looking model. In time, I’ve become better at working in blender and I’ve seen the flaws of my own work. As such, while trying to create new models I realized: Continuing now, with models that have elements that aren't ready for the future, would create problems further down the line. Because of this: I’ve began cleaning up my character model. This comes with some very unfortunate complications because : All the animations are now broken and all shapekeys need to be re-done.

For the past three days I’ve been busy working on these problems and the model now looks cleaner (visually there is little difference but under the hood its really better/futureproof). Below are some of the things I cleaned up/ran into when I created new clothing for the characters).

N-gons

N-Gon's are basically planes with more than 4 connection points. The reason these are bad is because a game engine doesn't know how to properly render them (Game engines are optimized to render triangles. 4 connection points are easily broken up into 2 triangles. 5 or more connection points will make the engine struggle with the right way to render it). This can create strange behaviours and it's also terrible when using them for clothing/transferring data. FIXED!

Jagged edges.

At some point I worked on the model and smoothed out the vertices. Without realizing it I accidentally messed up points that weren't supposed to be edited and saved my progress before closing the program. The model therefore had some strange edges here and there. Not terrible, but again, using these for the creation of clothing etc is terrible. FIXED!

Armpits creating weird visual glitches.

Now THIS is the reason I needed to break all the animations. Since I was a noob at blender when I started and knew little about weight painting I simply used more bones to keep bodyparts in tact when being bent and deformed. Turns out: the extra breast bones I added are connected to the armpits and are keeping the skin tightly locked in place. The result is an extremely ugly artifact that carries over to clothing when data transfering the mesh data. I thought about leaving the bones there and simply change the weight of those bones but realized all the animations used these bones for animation thus: strange visual deformation artifacs would always be a thing. Knowing it would give me a lot of shit I decided to delete the culprit bones and clean up the model (including new weight painting and editing/re-doing some animation work). I figured it was best to do it now, while the game isn't out and playable yet.

Instead of re-building all of the animations at once. I’m going to re-build the ones needed for the Alpha like the running animation (which has already been restored/fixed). I still need to fix many more sadly in order to create a “kinky gaming” experience. (A ponygirl prance, a tied leg hop, a squat f*ck animation etc etc).

At first I wanted to hire a 3d artist but I realized merely a few hours later that, since the game is complicated to set up, with bondage gear/latex suits/skin color/character customization still coming, I would not only have to explain everything in detail but I would also sooner or later be faced with the same problems again because I didn’t learn anything. Therefore, I decided to tackle this problem myself and learn from my mistakes. I hate how the game is yet again taking a hit due to my inexperience but in a way I’m happy I’ve come this far already and slowly but surely I can see light at the end of the tunnel where a playable game with bondage involved is becoming a reality.

I’ve created a few more models including shields and several pieces of character clothing but these will not make it into the Alpha and therefore I’m also not showing them yet.

Progress is slow but there are positive elements everywhere despite the setbacks. Maybe the game will never get finished but I’m getting closer each time I work on it and right now, with the main menu done, a better/cleaner UI style and the dialogue system ready to process content and allowing me to give it easy input, something playable is finally coming into reach. It’s giving me new energy and I’m really looking forward to the future. I’m holding my chin up, since I’m still able to keep creating this game, also made possible because of your support.

Thank you if you made it this far and read through all of this. Sorry if you were expecting tightly wrapped up ladies already (I'm saving those for when you get to play the game…). I hope you have a pleasant day and till next devlog!

Greetings Lerra.