A little Dev Video about tackling Character Animation in Unity.
I'm trying to get my head fully around how to use Root Motion versus In Place animations, setting up good motion and blending on animations, etc.
Character Animation really gets into this vortex of where models, animations, AI, behaviours and logic all come together! It's complex!
Making some progress... :D
Going for a nice walk in the forests and gardens, and thinking about how to tackle the design of the story and the world.
I've decided to step back from designing the Scenario System itself, and instead look at my World Design more broadly, as I think this needs to come first.
I've been laying the foundations for the technologies of my game! Now I need to lay the proper foundations for the world and setting of the game.
I've realised I need to go deeper into the specifics of designing the broader realms and creatures of my game world, to have a proper foundation to build on.
Here's an overview of my vision for the game.
Lots and lots and lots of work to do to make it a reality! :D
A FROBBING GOOD TIME WAS HAD BY ALL.
I've implemented the foundations of the interaction system, for examining objects, and picking thing up. Very excited to be at this stage after so much tech & architecture work!
Disclaimer for all these early videos:
Lots of sounds from "Thief: The Dark Project" are used for prototyping purposes! :)
I created a new Blackjack model in Blender, and tweaked up how the menus work with gamepad and mouse.
Some more testing of different lighting and weather conditions, and how they affect interiors.
I researched, fiddled, and tweaked interior lighting, so there's more consistent and decent looking lighting inside castles!
This involved putting in Reflection Probes in each room, and also tweaking Enviro Volume Lighting settings to stop the sun shining through walls.
Much better!
It's been a while! I took time off work, and built a home office / studio to work in!
Now I'm back, and excited to be working on Secret Keep again. I've gotten back into the Tower Generation algorithms, filing the interior up with more logical rooms and stairways to reach the top.
This provides a good foundation for putting some actual playable missions into the game! :D
I generated some more concept art using MidJourney. Fun!
I generated a bunch of concept art using Midjourney. I had a surprisingly productive experience just using the 25 free "attempts" you get with the free intro trial.
Midjourney is an AI tool where you describe images with text input. I planned these out pretty carefully ahead of time, to cover the sorts of things I wanted to achieve, and also basing my inputs on a bit of research looking through the existing efforts of other users.
It was a surprisingly exciting and fun process! It really felt like working with some kooky collaborator, and came back with great images very consistently based on my input descriptions.
Without further ado, here are my concept art images generated with Midjourney!
I was kind of shocked how well it worked, and I'd love to keep doing it for hours and hours more... but I limited myself to the free trial for now. :D
In many ways, "jamming out" these concepts in collaboration with an AI program felt true to the spirit of my game itself, because Secret Keep is a generator as well (in many of it's parts), and I want to engage the player as an active participant in shaping the events and outcomes of their playthru.
I want Secret Keep to reflect something of the player's inputs back at them, generating surprising missions, unique to their playthrough, based on how they act in the game and the goals they choose to pursue.
Made some more good progress with the towers.
- Can build any sized tower.
- Land around that tower is automatically flattened and reserved, so that no trees, grass or other objects get placed there.
- Discuss thoughts on future tower generation & mission activities!
