Left Hand Magic - Magitech
Added 2021-10-08 23:36:00 +0000 UTCFirst, don't forget that the monthly polls are still running! Particularly important is the poll regarding Left Hand Magic's Protagonist.
Beyond that, I promised I'd be keeping everyone more informed on progress this month. So far, most of what I've done is boring. I've been relearning Ren'py (haven't used it in a few years at this point) and creating a storyboard/development timeline for the game. Essentially, hammering out exactly what the main story is going to look like and how each of their routes are going to fit in, as well as what systems I need to build in straight from the start.
There's not a lot I can show for that sort of thing...but I've also been starting to fiddle with some of the environments and details I need. One of the things that I knew from the start would be an issue is that I'm aiming for a magictech setting...and premade assets for that just flat don't exist. Not in any significant numbers. Which is why I had planned all along to mix elements of steampunk and magic into Cyberpunk environmental assets in order to get the blend I wanted. The attached render is one of my earliest attempts to create a magitech style item. Specifically, a computer that's as much magic as it is technology. I'm fairly happy with it, though I'm still tweaking it a bit. It's a half decent proof of concept for the mix-matching I'm needing to do, though, so I thought I'd go ahead and share it.
Comments
That's fair. I picked it mostly as an experimental piece. I worked on two locations yesterday (and will be doing two more today) where I took what I learned and applied it, along with another set of assets (crystals this time instead of gems). I think it they came out better (I'll post them in a day or two) though the effect is a bit more subtle then I'd hoped for.
Novus
2021-10-11 21:21:32 +0000 UTCThe updated one does look better, but is still lacks a certain ... je ne sais quoi. But for a background piece, perfectly acceptable.
George Lever
2021-10-11 01:39:25 +0000 UTCSadly, those glyphs are build into the material for the holoscreen. Changing them would be an extremely time-consuming effort unjustifiable for what is, ultimately, a background prop unlikely to be focused on. I wasn't happy with the result myself though, as the magic circles at the four corners just couldn't be made to look right. So I redid it (alternate version attached). I think it's a little better, though I need to tweak the locations of most of the gems to be more uniform. I'm also annoyed that my attempts to make the gems themselves glow have thus far failed completely. And I'm not sure why. Unfortunately, the Daz lighting system is Black Magic to me even after years of using it. Highly inconsistent Black Magic that seems to contradict itself routinely. And that despite actively trying to learn how it works several times over the years -_-.
Novus
2021-10-09 03:47:44 +0000 UTCIf the teal glyphs in the screen are supposed to be a border layer of magic I'd recommend a different color to contrast, otherwise it just looks like the rest of the random text on the screen. If not there needs to be another "magic" element to it, otherwise the base glyph and the gem borders get lost in the clearly "sci-fi" holoscreen. Other than that, I agree, it does look decent for a kludge of steampunk and magic, nice job!
George Lever
2021-10-09 00:23:07 +0000 UTC
