Something is really worrying about how many people are pursuing what would be only important for the past/future but not even theirs.
I wish you to pursue only what's important for future you instead, in any way you can.
Happy New Year 2024, everyone ~
Art by GENTLECAT
Short summary of past years
In December 2022, 1 year ago I was working on liquids for PB3.
In December 2021, 2 year ago I was working on Level Editor f...
Today's development update video does include new grappling hook and various network connection simulations with on-screen keyboard info to notice latency easier.
On-screen keyboard could be used to simulate quite non-standard keyboard & mice controls on tablets in future (something very similar to how it is done in Star Defenders 2D. Has anyone checked that on tablets/phones already by the way?).
I have a feeling today's video clips were recorded with my system's equali...
2023-12-08 20:49:04 +0000 UTC View PostThis must be the first time I'm showcasing a multiplayer mode as well as some features like replay mode. Previously I've only described them in my twitter posts.
It is not the most accurate representation as both server and client are running on the same machine, but I do feel like local area connection & low ping experience should be pretty similar to what you see in a video. Maybe I'll also show high ping/heavy packet loss/packet shuffle experience later too.
Shadows a...
2023-11-12 00:29:00 +0000 UTC View Post
Still working on addition of new "T" entity as I do plan to at least use it in few campaign levels. Though, generally, this new entity could be used in many other cases. Meanwhile, there was also entity scaling added and plenty of optimizations (walking in mini-Hound Walker-CS or Jeep-like entity is silly enough experience, yet quite unstable). For the most part, scaling was needed by this new "T" entity initially.
New "T" entity does not react to driver input yet (except for flip...
2023-10-10 21:25:32 +0000 UTC View Post
Still, the most time consuming thing is a model for new entity - I believe there are 3 models like that in a game in total now (not counting PB2 crate). Felt like I wanted to switch to something else from coding for some time. New model seems finished for the most part, then new "T" entity still needs an in-game logic, physics, sound effects and network sync logic.
Preview of this new "T" entity is confusing but you'll likely recognize it in the game itself. Probably not instantly.
<... 2023-09-10 08:16:50 +0000 UTC View PostMore important polishing and optimizations. Due to request, video of this post showcases Skin Editor in its' current state, fairly unfinished in few aspects. Found at least ~7 bugs during recording and have fixed some of them.
Also, apparently my twitter tweets past 2021 year aren't visible for unauthorized users anymore. Looks almost as if I just stopped posting there...
Interfaces
- Made it possible to cancel search in lists via pressing Esc key...
2023-08-10 23:49:44 +0000 UTC View PostMuch more AI fixes and improvements this time.
AI characters are able to almost completely autonomously use elevators and find their way through breakable environment, even use some of breakable movables to break in order to pass through and use others to perform any kind of regular movement in order to reach their goal.
In case of elevators, level designers only need to tell AI which points can have unobvious paths built through them. Essentially just making an AI Pathfindi...
2023-07-06 21:21:10 +0000 UTC View Post
Just did a test to see how much framerate differs with and without screen recording on my PC and it really is quite significant.
60-61 FPS without screen recording
30-38 FPS on a same scene with screen recording (Streamlabs OBS, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M)
My PC (notebook) does also seem to overheat solely when I'm recording videos for Patreon - this does not ever happen when I'm testing PB2.5/3 for multiple hours straight otherwise.
It is not really an issue of screen re...
2023-06-18 20:35:18 +0000 UTC View PostToday's video will mostly showcase the current state of AI - quite unfinished. Shown AI was made long before Level Editor was made, I've already spotted multiple bugs that should be fixed. But at least final footage is 1 GB+ in size. Would have recorded it on a better PC but I think I won't be able to use it for a while.
Monthly work was put into fixes, improvements and re-addition of antigravity fields. They are no longer a pushers masked with an invisible doors and a decoration - they...
2023-05-31 21:42:34 +0000 UTC View PostDoes new lava look better (02:07)? It was suggested that old lava was too realistic.
Most changes done in April involve preparations for natural world designing as well as level designing features in general.
I also did some work on Star Defenders 2D updates such as open world support and admin tools.
It is somewhat interesting to me how many of Star Defenders features were originally intended by me for Plazma Burst series (such of open worlds that consist out of connected s...
2023-05-04 15:50:13 +0000 UTC View PostBeen working on new features and more bugfixes for PB2.5/3. Was more busy through month so I decided to skip the April 1st PB2 update, for the first time.
I have also picked few songs to be potentially used in PB3 campaign levels and every time I wonder, whether I will be really able to even contact their authors. Somehow it was possible to this day, yet it seems usually impossible to contact almost any popular youtuber/streamer in order to ask them to play my game (I have given a...
2023-04-01 17:15:00 +0000 UTC View PostGameplay
- Added shadows under background trees;
- Fixed eventual rain particles disappearance bug;
- Made background walls stop background rain;
- Fixed bug causing grappling hook length change sound to remain played if rope was cut;
- Removed grappling hook break sound on world restart;
- Fixed issue causing swords to sometimes appear at zero coordinates;
- Implemented climbing prevention logic whenever player tries to jump on top o...
2023-03-02 20:48:42 +0000 UTC View Post
Lots of polishing of movement on custom shapes, specifically when it comes to proper sliding and ledge grabbing. Also taught myself to draw trees and drew them. Then, worked on more issues and bugfixes.
Showing background terrain generation for the first time, though with rather vibrant color scheme which is possible to with Level Editor. World generation does take long time - I had not decided whether it should be baked into map itself or be calculated on player's PC. It would take a l...
2023-01-28 20:59:59 +0000 UTC View PostShowcasing sword sound effects that I've made some time ago and the new ones I've made less than a month ago.
Tried to make second ones sound a bit closer to what they were in PB2, though, still a bit far from that and maybe I should try more. Won't be able to use PB2 sound effects for swords since they are based on edited sound effects from another non-mine game.
I'm considering either keeping only one of these presets or making both presets available as alternative options in Sk...
2023-01-15 20:15:03 +0000 UTC View PostLots of visual optimizations that mostly benefit single-player experience and multiplayer mode on a large maps, then bug fixes related to them and not only them.
I've also did many Star Defenders 2D updates through December, in addition to updates that were done by other SD2D Discord server developers. Plazma Burst 2.5/3 will likely use similar approach to translations as it is done in Star Defenders 2D except it won't delay downloading of translated phrases. But I guess I should try di...
2023-01-02 20:31:01 +0000 UTC View PostPublishing this video with delay due to outages Ukraine has these times and due to being a bit sick by the time I usually upload these (I'm fine now).
In November I've mostly worked on re-implementing bullet reflections with swords and new liquid kinds as you can see them on a video:
- Regular water;
- Corrosive damage liquid (damages both health and limbs);
- Lava (damages health and limbs + sets on fire);
- Freezing water (freezes and damages health slightly, n...
2022-12-01 20:04:42 +0000 UTC View Posthttps://www.gevanni.com/projects/pb3/VirusGrows.mp4
Made a video of me throwing virus grenades into a small water pool. Basically something that exists in Star Defenders 2D but with higher level of details. I'm still not fully certain it will be in a final game (at least they might not grow to this big size) but this gameplay mechanic seems interesting none the less. Video contains viruses, blood...
2022-10-31 19:23:35 +0000 UTC View Posthttps://www.gevanni.com/projects/pb3/ProxySinging.mp4
Made a short video demonstrating lipsync. Might not be the best lipsync ever but could be enough for game like this. No multiplayer sync yet. Other than that - more of new sound effects, lots of bug fixes, flyby effect for bullets, sounds for falling particle debris.
Gameplay
- Done mouth animati...
2022-09-30 23:41:08 +0000 UTC View Post
More progress on possibly more of an up-close shots, maybe it would be good to zoom-in camera whenever cut scene-like moments happen. Or maybe custom maps would like to introduce fighting modes, could be cool too.
For that - been fixing issues related to particles, bullet holes, did some progress on lip-sync. I'm not sure lip-sync will be anywhere great but maybe it will be alright if it will introduce 2 extra frames for slightly open mouth and a bit more open mouth.
More so...
2022-08-29 05:09:42 +0000 UTC View Post
To summarize, more work was put into new boss entity sub-type for potential campaign mode as well as into rewriting message service to be able to handle more online players.
I did rewrite message service into other programming language - in order to optimize its' performance and thus allow more online users at the same time. This service is used for direct message notifications, cooperative level editor data transfer, global match announcement, match browser, match start & assign ta...
2022-07-28 03:28:40 +0000 UTC View Post
Most effort has gone towards making new entity. With level of details game has - it does take more time than making of some new entity for Star Defenders 2D would.
Screenshots include 2D mode, movable sound preset properties, glass, and settings using which glass material is made in Level Editor. Glass material does have dust particles on break - it is still something to change.
New entity does not have 3D model and probably doesn't need one. These seem to also take a lot of time ...
2022-06-24 04:49:03 +0000 UTC View Post
More sound effects done, more fixes as well as some changes done to both game and Level Editor. Screenshots include trigger action types making example, how they look like and how glowing surfaces generate light that I personally really like.
Also, decorations that use animated sprite sheets from Star Defenders game - simply because I don't really have any else right now. Animated sprite sheet decorations are made with code snippets - it is currently not possible to make these eas...
2022-05-23 06:57:13 +0000 UTC View Post
I've done more changes since last update. Here is a full list:
Level Editor
- Selected objects can be moved by pressing arrow keys in Level Editor now;
- Added tracking of infinite loops when movables are attached to each other;
- Almost all key presses activate specific tool in Level Editor. Not rebindable so far but maybe support for that could be added later, if anybody would actually use Level Editor that seriously;
- Implemented p...
2022-04-29 21:19:00 +0000 UTC View Post
Been working on features for Level Editor such as:
- Sound effects for various events (selection change, key presses, deletion, preview building completion, error messages). Same for settings screen and main menu + notifications;
- Changed font to one where spaces between characters are more consistent (globally in game);
- Added timers as well as in-between action timers (no need to connect numerous triggers if you want to build a certain sequence or cut scene);
-...
Been working on leaderboard as well as been implementing synchronization for custom interfaces (windows, buttons, captions). Has written lots of code but could not test it too much yet. These should be lightweight and be sent to players only when something really changes about them. Probably these will support ignorance of cursor, configurable corner radius sizes, requirement to hold Ctrl key.
Game's interfaces do also run in 1920 x 1080 resolution but will properly scale to any e...
2022-02-23 17:03:55 +0000 UTC View Post
Decided I should maybe use same leaderboard across cooperative level editing lobby and multiplayer matches.
This is how it probably will end up looking like, more or less.
Most probably columns will be customizable with level logic.
Score graph is perhaps how good player or team performs, with possibility to hover over random player and see his graph.
Visiting profile and spectating could probably be moved to right click context menu and left click. For that matter, ma...
2022-02-11 14:00:41 +0000 UTC View Post
Working on multiplayer (cooperative) level editing, so far players can send invites to join map editing together (with more than 2 players too, there is no top limit but most likely server won't be allowing too many since it will cause high traffic usage) connect, disconnect, see each others' selected objects (and conflicts, in red), change stuff.
Not complete yet is: object creation, deletion, chat, cursors(?), camera positions(?), some sort of connected level designers list.
M...
Been recently working on catching Level Editor crashes, error reporting, saving/loading, added option for teams to show/don't show overhead HUDs (perhaps for some more immersive game modes?).
Had to be more busy with my primary work recently though - missing having more time to work on games. Because of that it feels like I'm not getting better at anything these days - which always was most fun component of any job for me personally.
2021-11-11 11:30:23 +0000 UTC
View Post
https://www.gevanni.com/projects/pb3/BoxFight.mp4
Some old video of me testing out and later patching "crate boost" technique that I accidentally discovered. Grass looks fancier now.
This video also showcases player, weapon and crate collision models. I figured there can be much more optimizations if they are exactly the way they are here:
- Weapons can be flipped only visually w...
2021-08-07 07:27:44 +0000 UTC View Post
Been working recently on user permissions as well as hash checks when it comes to Creations being sent from multiplayer servers towards players as well as implemented Images upload similar to one PB2 has now (at PB2.5/3's core, Images have more in common with Custom Maps including description, title, preview, source availability, permissions, should be also possible to update Images that are already used in Custom Maps or Modules). Like in case of Skins, Image updates would most probably will...
2021-05-23 18:34:12 +0000 UTC View Post