Anal loop, BG sets and update news.
Added 2017-03-25 07:57:49 +0000 UTCHello again, was back to crunching at the stage demo yesterday. The current state is a mess, but I'm doing my best to deliver it before the month ends. Had to go back to some areas as they're showing some awful leaks and lag via adobe scout and it does pester my mid-range machine.
I've already done some optimized sprites and solutions to this and it just needs a lot of adjustments due to the game's z-sorting. Basically what it means is, since this is a 2D game trying to look 3D topdown, some fake z-sorting needs to be done to not break visual immersion. I am starting to hate flash because of this, but luckily it can be fixed.
I'll have a picture in a few hours and will edit this post, but basically, some areas will look like rooms in rogue-like-like games (binding of isaac and tilesets from topdown rpg's etc) but not fully. It will be mixed just to find the balance so it won't lag so much.
Since I'm also the one doing the seamless sprites and coding them, it's what stressed me to take a few days off. But I'll finish this. I just did not expect the output to lag so much. Adobe's garbage collection is beyond anyone's control. (I can hack it, but it's gonna fuck more shit up)
Tutorial stage may be removed at the moment until I can also fix that one. I'll fix the leaks first, so yeah, no Mahalai talking for the stage demo.
As for the anal loop you see above, Chris is almost done with the brute. Seeing its glory somehow eases the stress for me as it just looks awesome. I also saw a comment suggesting for the indulge scene. If Chris thinks its a good idea, we'll make that one as well.
As for the BG's, Redd is almost done with the Forest and Ruins shots.
I might go super saiyatama blue for this. Wish me luck. And thanks for understanding.
-kReig out (of my mind)
Comments
Ooof... anal hurts..
SJ Finch x
2018-02-01 14:33:28 +0000 UTCdemo progress?
Jonathan Marlow
2017-04-01 08:20:47 +0000 UTCcant wait, have been following this for years and finally can support you :D
2017-03-28 03:29:02 +0000 UTCthanks! we'll get there inch by inch. can't wait to show everything we have so far.
ViperV
2017-03-27 19:08:54 +0000 UTCvolar does caves and dungeons better so we will still hire him for those. as for redd, i got to borrow some paypal credits from mys sister. still hard to get enough pp creds until they replenish from my other sources monthly. And yeah I'm as irritated with my own setbacks. Just as soon as I'm sure I will finish a task, some shit comes up. I may drop the programming after Divine Arms and hire someone more competent haha.
ViperV
2017-03-27 19:08:15 +0000 UTCglad you noticed that! :D
ViperV
2017-03-27 19:03:57 +0000 UTCthanks!
ViperV
2017-03-27 19:03:38 +0000 UTCmostly performance and memory leaks. (that part was my fault, tho i wish adobe has a way for me to call it's ram-free-er command)
ViperV
2017-03-27 19:03:31 +0000 UTCeach biome is expected to have 6 enemies. we have 5 biomes planned, so that's about 30 enemies total. each enemy having 3 scenes, main, gameover and indulge. so about 90 total sets. Our initial goal is to finish the first biome as a milestone then hire 2 more animators.
ViperV
2017-03-27 18:56:35 +0000 UTCto be precise, this image is one of the stuff I mean. and there's a ton of these pestering the current build. I have the best possible solution being worked at right now and at the same time, saves extra objects from cluttering the stage so in a sense, optimizing it. By tomorrow I'm done with the redesigned tilesets and slap it on all 25 areas one by one. haha. <a href="http://i.imgur.com/OU31k1n.png" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://i.imgur.com/OU31k1n.png</a> the image on the left displays the correct sorting. But as zsorting comes into play and siggy moves further down a certain sprite, you see what happens. this happens to the spells and everything else. took a lot of my hair to figure out a workaround. hopefully the 'solution' grows with the players as its a somewhat extreme change in terms of technical overall design.
ViperV
2017-03-27 18:46:28 +0000 UTCI believe he mentioned this "z-sorting" which is now causing lag issues in one of his old blog posts about the game (4th picture): <a href="http://blightspawn.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/background-visual-update.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://blightspawn.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/background-visual-update.html</a> So it's basically used to create the illusion of depth, and now it seems that some sprites will have to be modified/redrawn to appear as if we are looking at them from a higher angle. Who'd have thought something like this which we took for granted in the old demo would be so resource-heavy?
MartinX
2017-03-27 17:49:22 +0000 UTCAdobe software especially for app development (the inheritors of flash and what Not) is most of the time only made in 32 bit code with very horrible memory management. Even their more intensive software like After Effects has Memory leaks issues. That being said even a budget gaming rig i5 to i7 skylake with 900 GTX series or better would struggle after a few moments of work cause of the poor memory performance of the software (even if you gave it up to 32gigs of Memory).
Wesley Gunder
2017-03-25 21:57:17 +0000 UTCmid range machine? what are your PC specs?
Jonathan Marlow
2017-03-25 16:02:28 +0000 UTCjust curious how "big" the game was planned to be? How many more stages and foes were to be added on top of the current number finished... as everyone else has said, there is much personal anticipation and excitement for the release of the demo and eventually, game. The work has been absolutely superb.
2017-03-25 12:50:21 +0000 UTCWow, great to see you progressing through all the problems. But I'm curious, what type of problems did flash give you?
Felix1
2017-03-25 11:06:55 +0000 UTCIt looks awesome! Backgrounds are beautiful and the animation is smooth, (Love the facial expressions). Keep up the good work guys!
Q
2017-03-25 10:15:27 +0000 UTCnow that's gorgeous <3 even the way his "barbs" move as they slip back out is amazing
Alexander
2017-03-25 09:15:31 +0000 UTCThere is one already: <a href="https://www.patreon.com/posts/storm-survivor-7589860">https://www.patreon.com/posts/storm-survivor-7589860</a>
MartinX
2017-03-25 09:12:44 +0000 UTCI can't wait to see the finished product! I'm so excited for this game. I absolutely love that her toes are curled in this too. Is there any plans for a minor foot fetish scene?
CJ Campbell
2017-03-25 09:09:13 +0000 UTCWell, at least you've apparently managed to solve those international payment issues and rehired ReddArt so he can once again work on beautiful backgrounds for Divine Arms. In that case, I suppose BGA from the previous post was Chris's friend Volaberg - will he no longer work on the game now? But yeah, I can't wait for Divine Arms to finally break free of the vicious cycle of "setbacks->reaction to setbacks->setbacks" it's been stuck in for so long. Hopefully that day is very, very soon.
MartinX
2017-03-25 09:09:12 +0000 UTCThe anticipation of this release has been on my mind for months & I can't explain the excitement I get from seeing that loop. And it's not even just sexual excitement either! I'm genuinely happy with all the progress
Valminumaru
2017-03-25 08:59:25 +0000 UTC
