Boreal

A blog with posts and updated about the web-based 2D puzzle-platformer game Boreal.

[borealthegame]

Suspended

I’m sorry to say, but Boreal development has for the time being been suspended. This is due to a lack of time (with my new job), other projects taking up the time and a loss of motivation. I’m stuck in a “writers block” of game development, and cannot continue until I’ve figured out what I want to do with it.

I will most likely pick up this project again when inspiration strikes and time is plenty, but until then this project is frozen (pun intended). In other, happier news, my other projects are looking promising, and you can follow the development of them over at my main dev-blog

kittysgameden!

Hope to see you there!

[borealthegame]

Progress

Alright, so I rebuilt the shader system (again). This time it allows for more precise selection of shadowcasters and what gets affected by them. There’s also a huge memory improvement (no longer scaling with the amount of lights). On the fly changing of quality is also a nice feature.

Now I’m just going to add some more customization to it and a global editor to make it easier to edit big chunks of shadowcasters.

[borealthegame]

Here’s the base image before the lighting pass:

and here’s the after:

I think it turned out pretty nicely

[borealthegame]

I’ve successfully implemented the same technique as found here, in Unity. You can easily add new lights, set the strength of the shadows and what blending modes to use, the resolution of the generated lightmaps (for performance to quality options) and set the color of the lights. Now I just need to implement a light-cone limiter and it’s good to go!

[borealthegame]

Here’s the debug render textures from the new lighting system using the theories from here. Now I just need to render them out to the scene properly and blend. More updates will follow.

[borealthegame]

Got the algorithm to work and produce the lightmaps I need. Now I just need to render them out properly and apply a fitting blend mode. Pictures coming soon

[borealthegame]

A bit of a different approach to 2D lighting than you see usually (meaning not using raycasts) I’ve found might speed up the game considerably. Using the techniques described here I’ll hopefully achieve much greater performance and also better visual results. If I manage to pull it off, that is. Updates will follow shortly.

[borealthegame]

Performance issues

Okay, so apparently (duh) creating a mesh every frame for each light isn’t exactly... fast. So, I’m opting to try out another technique that looks very promising, if I can wrap my head around it that is. I’ll be posting updates on how it goes and what sources I’m using along the way.

[borealthegame]

Alright! Lots of mixed reactions to the concept demo, and a ton of great feedback! Now it's time to sort through it all and decide what to make of it all. After that, it's time to plan out improvements, further developments, story, a full list of levels and finally what can be kept!

[borealthegame]

Okay! Day after release of the concept demo! Now it’s just about collecting the reactions and expanding. I’ll try to be more consistent with updates now.

[borealthegame]

Boreal

2D Physics based puzzle shooter in Boreal environments

Boreal is up, play it on new grounds!

[borealthegame]

So close to release, which is tomorrow, the 23rd on Newgrounds.com for Pixel day. The first part of Boreal will be a proof of concept, and I’ll adapt the coming parts to it (meaning more levels) after the responses I get. Make sure to follow me on Newgrounds if you haven’t already to stay up-to-date with the game.

[borealthegame]

Camera shake effects are in place. Game just got some juice!

[borealthegame]

Made a little popup for the tutorial level and for story texts

[borealthegame]

A bit more progress. Shooting mechanics fully working, hit splashes, hit detection, mouse follow and such!

[borealthegame]

The bunker entrance

[borealthegame]

I’m ditching soft shadows for now, I’ll fix it later on since it adds too little for it to be important now. Working on triggers and more art!