Nemox

I'm just not fond of Final Fantasy or Pokemon styled RPGs. I just don't have the attention span to find them engaging, so I turn to either tactical or action RPGs. While I can enjoy some JRPGs, I much prefer western ones. Regarding western RPGs, I think a lot of the bigger-budget ones like those of the Elder Scrolls series should really focus more on the depth of the world's procedural mechanics. Dynamic economies and social mechanics, a Shadows of Mordor style of social hierarchy and such. This doesn't mean the whole world necessarily has to be procedural or anything, but it would be nice to see at least more of it as such. For the most part I like what Skyrim is doing with the Elder Scrolls series. Morrowind was not as spectacular in these regards as people like to think. There were many instances were social mechanics made absolutely no sense and totally broke the very concepts that people say it mastered. Skyrim is making the series smarter by cutting out unnecessary and broken mechanics and emphasizing the roleplaying. That said, it is simply lacking in depth in many ways.

SA1&2 were pretty rudimentary, but it was far better than what came between them and Unleashed. Heroes' physics canceled a lot of momentum in weird ways (mostly vertical, which includes going off ramps), and there wasn't even a way to just walk. Holding the movement lightly only slowed acceleration rather than the desired speed. Then Shadow's basic acceleration was slow while deceleration was far too sudden, and the turning was really slippery, and momentum got canceled all weird.

Bit of an update. I've finished all I care to of that fursuit project I mentioned, and probably won't be doing any more work on it for a while. After I catch up on some homework I can get back to work on the game.

They had great character physics in Adventure 1 and 2, then threw it out the door with Heroes, and again in Shadow. By the time Shadow came around they really had to completely rebuild character physics from scratch. Without any sort of conservation of momentum, '06 hardly has "physics". More just like... controls.

When reinventing the wheel, one must actually take the time to make sure it's wheel-shaped. Otherwise, don't reinvent the wheel.

Cool. I notice there are a couple of homing-attack-chain points over chasms. Where do you go if you miss? That'd be a good opportunity to make failure just as interesting as success.

Really cute! I like the visuals and music a lot. The layout seems a tad flat and linear though. I noticed that there are a couple of paths in there, but the 3rd dimension adds so many more opportunities for alternate paths and exploration. Still way better than most 3D fan levels I've seen.

Oh man, I hope I can get my Youtube channel running before it comes out. I've got a lot to do before then, but it would be the perfect game to start doing Let's Plays on. ... more information on why later.

Dunno anything about Street Fighter, nor what RoL stands for. A gravity system like Lost World is already mostly functional though. I suppose eventually I could expand on it, but it's good for now.

Kind of. In terms of what's left to be worked on, there's not too huge an amount left. I've just got a lot going on with school and other projects. One project involving a fursuit which I have about a week to finish. Possibly a second one after that (though that one would take much less time). Could end up getting me some income, and thus more time for programming. Better to get the hard stuff done first, ne? I'll definitely try to get a tech demo out before the holidays.

I'll make stat editing a part of the demo menu. It's one of the last things on my mind since it's so minor. But yeah, I could do a video with some variable physics demonstrations. Maybe I'll get Espio or something to demonstrate the traction system.

It'll be as easy as tweaking values. I'll even include a way to do so in the first tech demo. I've managed to recreate a feeling similar to Generations, Unleashed, Adventure, and even Shadow and '06.

Water is pretty easy to manage with my system, albeit the visuals are lacking since I don't have Pro yet. All you have to do to create a volume of water is attach the FluidVolume script, add a trigger collider, and put the object on the Water layer. I still need to work more on water physics, but what I have now is functional enough. Characters currently work based on the default rigidbody water physics I've scripted, and it has some bothersome limitations. It would really be nice if I could open up the rigidbody class and tinker with it, but Unity isn't open-source.

Oh right, the camera! Knew I was forgetting something. That'll be a separate system.

Eventually, yeah. That'll probably be next after I finish basic actions.

Not sure. I've been really busy with school and some other junk. Things are easing up though, and as soon as I get this one project finished with, I should have more time to work on it.

D&D style graph paper sounds good for this.

I can't help you myself, but I can share what I've learned. My views on level design changed SO radically after I got my character physics in Unity working better. Excepting the case of high-traction characters like Mighty, my Sonic now has very, very predictable limits. I can now calculate exactly how tall a wall Sonic can run up before he loses all momentum; even turning around to run back down will not build enough momentum to overcome this limit. If the player does try this, the speed loss will always halt Sonic at the same height. This predictability makes it much easier to design ramps, pipes, obstacles and such. If you can understand the maths behind SonicGDK's physics and make such predictions, you can design better levels. Start by a vague concept of scene set pieces, merely in terms of their general geometry. Spagonia's clock tower and city wall, for example. Then think of how you want the character to interact with those larger set pieces. Do you want Sonic to run up the side, use it like a tunnel or building, or perhaps travel around it? Perhaps multiple options? From there, think of set pieces which make sense that could provide this functionality. Like Spagonia's rooftops and streets, leading from interesting setpiece to setpiece, with those pieces being interesting to traverse in themselves. If you have predictability, you can know exactly how to place the parts that lead between these zones.

Thanks for the offer, Miru! Pulse0 is kinda right about BlitzSonic levels... but eventually people will be able to make their own levels for Project Nexus, so I won't even need the levels. Actually I hope to create a whole bunch of pre-constructed set pieces. Pipes, ramps, grind rails and such. Maybe piggy-backing off of an editor extension. Pretty much all that's in the way of me getting a tech demo out is the camera system, some basic RPG functionality, and the water physics. I'll start analyzing some other camera systems when I get time, but what I am particularly interested in is how fluid drag works in Unleashed and/or Generations, as well as the precise logic behind the force slowing Sonic down while water-running. If you'd like to poke around and find out how drag and water-running work, that could help me complete the basic physics faster. For the RPG functionality, I'm basically trying to think up a good way to handle actions. As I've mentioned, I want them to work in a system similar to what you might see in an MMO like WoW or something. That way creating larger, more complex button mapping will be easier, and adding new characters will be much easier. My current idea is to make actions ScriptableObjects Since they don't get any Updates, I might have them all just work on some kind of "Tick" event system built into the character. Then if they need any additional functionality in-world, they can simply spawn some GameObjects or something.

Keep in mind folks, it's a Game Development Kit. It's essentially an extension of the game engine to give characters better physics, as well as a few additional mechanics; not a full game. This is essentially the same thing as what I'm doing in Unity.

Don't expect to make anything for months. Instead, take this time to screw around with simple game engines and learn a little bit here and there. With enough time doing this sort of thing, you'll start to see how games fit together. I've heard good things about the Game Maker programs. I think they're best for RPGs or something, dunno. Might be a good place to start. Also, Youtube. Youtube everything. Youtube has all answers.