Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

Vapourware Codexian Game Development Thread

ERYFKRAD

Barbarian
Patron
Joined
Sep 25, 2012
Messages
28,240
Strap Yourselves In Serpent in the Staglands Shadorwun: Hong Kong Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Those backgrounds look great.
 

gaussgunner

Arcane
Joined
Jul 22, 2015
Messages
6,151
Location
ХУДШИЕ США
But yeah, color grading is pretty awesome. Instant color correction just by adding a lookup table. And you can do tons with it. Did you ever notice in Diablo III, when you take those secret passages through a dungeon and everything takes on a green tint? Color lookup table.

Dunno if I'll do much with it, but I love this shit about color & lighting and our tendency to focus on new technology & algorithms to the detriment of artistry, and there are simple things we can do to make our games look better on ordinary hardware. Like old 256-color 2D games did.
 

Nathaniel3W

Rockwell Studios
Patron
Developer
Joined
Feb 5, 2015
Messages
1,226
Location
Washington, DC
Strap Yourselves In Codex Year of the Donut Codex+ Now Streaming!
Agesilaus Whenever I see someone do something I can't do, I assume it must be magic, and that only those born under the right stars can possibly wield such arcane power. But then when I give it a try, I usually realize it's not that bad. Art is one of those that really anyone can learn to do. Dark Souls, meanwhile, is not. You have to be a frikkin videogame warlock to beat a single enemy in that game.
 

Tavernking

Don't believe his lies
Developer
Joined
Sep 1, 2017
Messages
1,216
Location
Australia
Looks nice. A pity it's anime :negative:

Such a shame that I automatically assume the story will be for children 4 years and above and the combat will have overly spectacular special effects with highschool teen girls making annoying squeals everytime they take a hit.
 
Joined
Oct 19, 2010
Messages
3,524
Duckard (and everyone else) you need to go read this dude's post. https://ventspace.wordpress.com/2017/10/20/games-look-bad-part-1-hdr-and-tone-mapping/

Stuff I didn't even know I didn't know. I always thought the default tone mapping looked OK. Now I have this nagging doubt, and I'm wondering if everything I make is uglier than I thought.

For the uninitiated: Real light has a brightness from 0 to infinity in infinite shades of color. That's high dynamic range, or HDR. Your monitor has brightness from 0 to 1 on red, green, and blue channels. That's low dynamic range, or LDR. A tone mapper will take HDR light information and turn it into LDR that can be displayed on your monitor. A good tone mapper will preserve the color of bright lights, and not make them all white; will put a "bloom" of color around bright lights; and will provide interesting contrast without making all the dark shades black (A.K.A. "crushing the blacks," a totally not racist term when used in context). Color grading is done after that, to get customized fine-tuned colors. It's usually done with a lookup table or LUT. But if your tone mapper has already destroyed all of the lighting information with too much contrast, then there isn't much that post-process color grading can do for you.

The guy who wrote that post basically rants about how every AAA game looks the same and they all look like crap because they're all just a bunch of default tone mappers with too much contrast.

But yeah, color grading is pretty awesome. Instant color correction just by adding a lookup table. And you can do tons with it. Did you ever notice in Diablo III, when you take those secret passages through a dungeon and everything takes on a green tint? Color lookup table.


While I agree with his premise I think pretty much none of the screenshots in that article look good. The vast majority of films do look better than games, definitely, and he's right a lot of it is in heavy handed use of visual adjustments and effects by people in games who aren't trained/experienced. But that Zelda screenshot to me looks really washed out and makes me want to adjust it in the options menu. The Resident Evil screenshot is extremely over processed and I find it more distracting than unsettling. Some of the comments point out quite a few issues in his article and I think it all goes to show in the end even his conclusions are heavily subjective. Still, I think there's a lot of good to be had in pointing out to people how widespread these mistakes are. Game visuals have been a slave to technical quirks and bad engineering for a decade or more in a way that older games simply weren't.
 

Tavernking

Don't believe his lies
Developer
Joined
Sep 1, 2017
Messages
1,216
Location
Australia
Rebuilding my game in a new engine and art style. Here is the HUD design and first screenshot I've ever shown:

fQDOyzc.png
 

Pope Amole II

Nerd Commando Game Studios
Developer
Joined
Mar 1, 2012
Messages
2,052
In addition to my own game projects, I'm doing some freelance game design job and here's a long-ass vid of the first such project (darkest dungeon-inspired):

 

Tavernking

Don't believe his lies
Developer
Joined
Sep 1, 2017
Messages
1,216
Location
Australia
Okay. this is unironically the graphical style I've settled on. It will have a ultima 3 type combat system.
If you saw this on steam for $6.00 would you buy it? If it had very positive reviews and promised a lengthy campaign with tons of choice and conquence and deep decision making?

Part of the reason for the low-effort graphics is that it's so damn efficient to mass produce. It only takes about ten minutes to make a new portrait. I have written 206 recruitable companions for the game, so I don't want to spend ages on a portrait for each one. Is it good enough for $5-$6?

oay29TS.png
 

Pope Amole II

Nerd Commando Game Studios
Developer
Joined
Mar 1, 2012
Messages
2,052
The game looks solid, but you gotta edit that video down to 5 minutes, and replace your voiceover with text-to-speech.

That's not a promotional material, that's just discussing the game with my own audience. My audience knows how I roll and is ok with that.
 

Zep Zepo

Titties and Beer
Dumbfuck Repressed Homosexual
Joined
Mar 23, 2013
Messages
5,233
Okay. this is unironically the graphical style I've settled on. It will have a ultima 3 type combat system.
If you saw this on steam for $6.00 would you buy it? If it had very positive reviews and promised a lengthy campaign with tons of choice and conquence and deep decision making?

Part of the reason for the low-effort graphics is that it's so damn efficient to mass produce. It only takes about ten minutes to make a new portrait. I have written 206 recruitable companions for the game, so I don't want to spend ages on a portrait for each one. Is it good enough for $5-$6?

oay29TS.png

From that screen shot?...No.

Zep--
 

Nathaniel3W

Rockwell Studios
Patron
Developer
Joined
Feb 5, 2015
Messages
1,226
Location
Washington, DC
Strap Yourselves In Codex Year of the Donut Codex+ Now Streaming!
Am I about to agree with Zep? I think I'm about to agree with Zep.

Tavernking graphics do a lot to set the tone of your game. Even if you had the best mechanics, gameplay, and story in any RPG ever, I would still have a hard time taking it seriously. If your game had really good reviews, I might get it on sale if it were under $2 because I'd be curious why everyone liked it so much.
 

Zep Zepo

Titties and Beer
Dumbfuck Repressed Homosexual
Joined
Mar 23, 2013
Messages
5,233
The graphics look fine for a $5 game, but the screenshot shows no detail about what's going on in the game, was my point.

Zep--
 

Tavernking

Don't believe his lies
Developer
Joined
Sep 1, 2017
Messages
1,216
Location
Australia
The graphics look fine for a $5 game, but the screenshot shows no detail about what's going on in the game, was my point.

Yeah I was just giving an example of the graphical style I'm going for. Actual promotional screenshots would be more interesting.

Am I about to agree with Zep? I think I'm about to agree with Zep.

Tavernking graphics do a lot to set the tone of your game. Even if you had the best mechanics, gameplay, and story in any RPG ever, I would still have a hard time taking it seriously. If your game had really good reviews, I might get it on sale if it were under $2 because I'd be curious why everyone liked it so much.

The idea is to sell it for $6, and also have 50% off sales at $3 one year after release.
 

Tavernking

Don't believe his lies
Developer
Joined
Sep 1, 2017
Messages
1,216
Location
Australia
What do you guys think about this kind of artstyle
KnWRTcA.png
aHMCf6H.png


compared to mine?
A2bccZ9.png
ZkPGAb3.png


Is it worth spending the time to upgrade the graphics to this level or are the first two still too shit? Would it be a massive improvement that would lead to you reconsidering buying the game? I got a lot of negative feedback on 4chan. They said they wouldn't even pirate my game and to kill myself.
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom