One Of Them

[Galavant Garde]

Latest update - I realised side-scroll mode is limited to the X axis only, which would mean I'd have to build levels with ledges/cliffs/whatever all facing the same direction.  Which is sad.  So I modded the engine adding side-scroll input from X/X-reversed/Z/Z-reversed axes! Here's a little snap taken out the side of the prison:



So you can be running around in 3rd person view with FPP input mode, jump out a window or whatever, and regardless of which direction you're facing or the ledge is pointing, you can land on that ledge and switch to side-scroll mode.  Walk left means walk left, and walk right means walk right, regardless of the player's orientation! Small thing I know, but it adds a lot in terms of gameplay dynamic - a lot more so than other bits I experimented with like yelling into vents and knocking out lights

[Galavant Garde]

https://youtu.be/IUqLXE6Ywe4 redid the opening sequence, a bit shorter and (I think) better

[Galavant Garde]

Fixing up the zombie model, better or worse?

[Galavant Garde]

Focusing on making everything look better at the mo...dark pictures I know, but the player and bot models have been redone with better UV mapping, and I've adjusted the geometry around joints to make for less jagged body parts when they move around.  Still have a few odd triangle shadows around the lower back which I need to improve...getting there

[Galavant Garde]

PS for anyone still following, I just made it so the player leaves blood patches when shot, and you can slip over on them!  So far it works pretty well, not ready for me to share a video or any screenshots yet, but it's a really fun interaction I don't think I've seen in an RPG like this before...can really save your skin if bots are chasing you but slip over

[Logan]

I'd like to play this at some point, do you think next time you put out a build you could do a windows version too?

[Galavant Garde]

Ah Windows. Well there is a Win32 build of dim3 already on http://klinksoftware.net/download/ so you could just add the data folder and it should work...only thing is that I've modified the engine a bit so the game can do side-scrolling input on the x, inverted x, z, and inverted z axis (the official build only does x) so you'll get errors and strange behaviour when you jump out windows and shimmy along ledges.

I'd love to get it on Windows though if you fancy helping me compile it?  I don't have any Windows machines you see...

[Galavant Garde]

Turns out Apple is killing 32-bit soon (amazed it lived this long to be fair), meaning dim3 needs a bit of work under the hood if this little project is ever going to be more than just a hobby. So I'm working on getting the PNG and MPG libraries inside dim3 upgraded to x86_64 (the PNG one is proving to be particularly difficult) so with a bit of persistence and luck you'll hopefully see "One of Them" published under the dim3 flag in future just like Ronja & Sinking Sally back in the day.  If I can successfully compile the engine without any i386 code I'll put it up for you to download!  If anyone wants to lend a hand upgrading the libraries I'd be eternally grateful!

I'm also brushing up on my Unity skills too as a plan B.  I know it's more up-to-date and flashy, but it's really resource-intensive, plus I'm really fond of dim3

EDIT - openGL and openCL are being killed off too...yeah that looks like the end of it

[Galavant Garde]

Ok so the latest with this project is I've got slipping over in blood working solidly, and when a bot slips over and you rush at them, they see you running at them and they freak out covering their faces.  You can slip in your own blood too, so be careful. It's really fun!

Ledge walking also works solidly, throwing rocks as a weapon/distraction works, lighting is a tonne better, checkpoints and auto-saving (custom scripted) work great, sneaking VS running is functionally integrated into the gameplay, and the enemy AI is at a point where they don't get stuck on anything really plus they store enough variable data that they can easily resume whatever they were doing if they're interrupted by anything.

With all that, it's pretty solid and playable now.  This is the point where I'd start building levels and assets to make the whole game, however with the upcoming changes to macOS killing 32-bit and depreciating OpenGL/OpenCL I've sadly had to start porting the project to Unity.  Big setback, but good to apply what I've learned from you all and from using dim3 to a more modern engine that'll make the game really pop.  Here's one last moody dim3 screenshot:



And here's a Unity screenshot:



I'll still do tweaks to the project for dim3 as it's a proof-of-concept demo I'll be using/showing people - when I do I'll post em here

[Galavant Garde]

I've done a few updates to the Dim3 version of this project - turns out Dim3 still works fine on Mojave so no need to kill it completely just yet.  Now there's a nice long desert freeway to run to freedom along.  Still need to add enemy banter and a proper menu, then it'll be essentially done!  Which is exciting - I put a lot of time into this.  But also sad, because it's actually really solid and playable, but it'll never see any consoles or phones / tablets in its current form.

RE moving over to Unity, Dim3 actually makes a bunch of things surprisingly easier.  For example, in Unity there's no easy way to work out how bright the light is over an object.  Dim3 made it easy to build light-sensitive enemies (thanks Brian!), but with Unity I need to attach a script to each light that monitors the player distance VS the range of the light, and calls the player to tell it when it's in the light or not.  Nuts!  Also, knowing if you're on top of an object in Dim3 is a piece of cake - I used this for my blood spills that you slip over on..  Not so easy in Unity...it seems I have to manually compare the Y position taking into account the object's Y height.  Brian, you really spoilt us!  But at least now I properly understand vectors

[Galavant Garde]

Nifty little addition to the Dim3 version of the game - enemy bots now turn their heads dynamically towards the player when walking nearby...it's kinda unnerving as you don't know if they will spot you or not.  The screen grab is dark sorry, but so is the whole game so hey :-)