Game dev update 505 (31-05-2022)

Last month I focused on getting the character creator ready. Right after posting it I received a message where someone had some critique on the game, specifically the looks. It wasn't looking particulary nice... I don't blame him/her. Back when I started this project I had little knowledge of blender and texturing objects properly.

On top of that: I see too many people getting lured towards games that look absolutely stunning but have terrible performance and are riddled with bugs. There's nothing more I hate these days than games with thousands of bugs, terrible performance, endless lootboxes and still costing over 70 bucks...

But back to the original topic: Looks of the game. Below is a screenshot of the visual style that the game had about a month ago.

The textures were seamless but kind of flat/without detail. The same could be said about the stone fence and some of the other items standing around. In a way, it's all a bit "too clean". Not to mention that I'm building a game where bondage is a thing and that alone deserves some kind of 'dark/gritty' setting.

At first I thought about filling the map up with more grass/props etc but in my attempt to do so I quickly noticed how the props weren't the problem but the poor textures that were given to them. There's little to no cohesion and if people didn't know any better they'd say this was some kind of kids game.

While considering adding new textures I took a look at other props in the game (like the house and the fence above) and realized they weren't bad, they just needed a bit more love. If I had spent more time and put a bit more effort into them they could've looked a lot better. However, as mentioned before, my knowledge about 3d props and texturing has grown over time and thats why I didn't see these things earlier.

I think this last image is the best example. Not because of the trees or the grass, but because of the rocks that (other than their shape and color) have a terrible flat texture.

So I spent the last 10 days this month working on new 3d models and re-texturing old items. This cost a lot of time and effort but the result is there (I think...)

It's not noticable when looking at the models like this, but the faces of the models are all made in a way where it looks seamless or connect to each other. Not to mention the small details now visible on the textures that give a richer/much deeper feeling to the object. It makes it far easier to recognize what they are.

Now of course I'm not going to show everything just yet... There are items I like to keep secret or as they say: keep the best for last. But when replacing the house with the newer models and textures, the game instantly becomes much more interesting to look at.

Now this is without any postprocessing turned on but after fiddling with that a bit I managed to get something that felt like it fit the game well:

It's a bit darker, with ambient occlussion and some blur at the top and bottom of the screen, indicating things are too close or too far away for the camera to focus. (don't worry, you can turn all of these off since these effects are performance heavy)

Don't mind the apples and props at the bottom left (they're test subjects :P ) Now you can clearly see the blur at the top of the image, making the house seem as if its out of focus.

Above are a few simple building blocks but now, due to the texturing, they don't look as flat as before and I could easily use them now to create some kind of abandoned ruin in the forest.

Above are the same rocks I showed before and I changed nothing about them except for: the texture :D . They are still not beautiful but the small change definitely shows what kind of impact these new textures have and how it changes the scenery.

I also like to point out the grass that now has different tints of green and even some brown mixed in to make the soil more variable. Again, these are just textures, but the difference is quite noticable (for me at least).

This is the same image but with post processing effects turned off completely. So even if you don't have a beefy pc, you are still be able to enjoy the game with a graphical art style that is somewhat acceptable :D

I forgot to mention how the building blocks I set up are modular, allowing me to create new (but similar styled houses) fast. The above building received slightly different textures and I elevated the back part slightly before adding a front door that sticks out. I'm planning on adding different wood colors/door styles too for some more variation.

Despite all of the work I've come to consider how much work there is still left before being able to output an actual demo. Combined with doing the regular artwork and writing and moving into my new house this was (believe it or not) a race to get done in time before the end of the month.

Still, I can feel something inside of me telling me that the game is somewhat "ready for feedback" and that a playable demo should be possible soon. Therefore, I'm going to follow a different route, releasing smaller parts of the game in the form of chapters. Each new chapter will have new updates etc added to it and thus, I'll still be able to slowly but surely build towards a much bigger game in the end.

The first chapter will be more of a exploration/solve the puzzle game where in the end the player gets caught in a tight rubber outfit with no way out...

I hope you enjoyed this devlog. Thank you for reading if you came this far. There was not a lot of coding involved but the work paid off I think. Now I can work towards the first chapter of the game :P

Until next month's game dev blog!

-Lerra