Unmapped

Unmapped (provisory name) is a game about exploration and cartography.

[unmappedgame]

Devlog #15 - Girl vs 3D-Coat pt 2

I’m super late this week because I wanted to finish the only asset I made this week, or else I wouldn’t have anything to show. But then I spent the weekend on global game jam making penguins, and yesterday was my B-day, so I’m writing it now. It’s short and I didn’t even make jokes.

First, I retopo’d the trunk. 3D-Coat does an amazing auto-retopo and I was really surprised in a good way, I only had to make some small changes.

I’m still not sure about the number of polygons. It looks good from afar but this will be seen from a close distance.

Then I tried painting some textures. I’m not super happy with it but it’s a start. I don’t want to have very detailed textures but I think it looks to plain right now.

Rendered on 3D-Coat

Rendered on Unity

Next Week

I will stop making weekly devlogs for now. The truth is that I’m worrying too much about finding freelance work and working on things for my portfolio and I feel guilty paying attention to this project. 

I’ll still work on finishing some assets for the game that I can put on my portfolio. But I don’t like the pressure of having to do something that I can show every week.

I’ll go back to the weekly devlogs once I feel better about my life.

-Fi

[unmappedgame]

Devlog #14 - 3D-Coat

So I finally bought 3D-Coat so this week I spent most of the time reserved to unmapped dev learning how to use it. 

Book

To try painting textures I decided to make some tests on a book. I think that PBR with simple textures without much noise is a good look for the game, but to be honest I’m not sure. I’m lacking direction and it’s not helping with the motivation.

It was supposed to look old, but lets say the cartographer keeps their books in very good conditions.

Is there any need to have a leather normal map texture that you can barely seen unless the book is extremely close? Probability not, I’ll have to change it.

I did this just to try making all the maps (albedo, normal, metalness, smoothness), it’s not necessarily going to be in the game.

Weird Cube Tree

I hate sculpting. In every sculpting software I tried. 3D-Coat was not an exception. I don’t just hate it, I suck at it.

Here’s the hideous weird cube tree after 2h30 and 3 start overs. And this is the best side! The other sides looked like a slug with tentacles.

This side also looks like a slug with tentacles

It ended up looking a little bit better. If I’m using it for retopo and AO baking I’ll leave it like this, maybe just making the branches look more branches and less tentacles, but if I’m using it to bake normals I need to clean it up a bit.

It’s not going to be green,  I just used a random material

Next Week

I’m seriously reconsidering writing weekly devlogs. I want to reduce the time I dedicate to this project, and I’m not sure if I should write devlogs with: this week I did one asset. I started this weekly devlog to force me to do something every week, and it’s working, but I need to keep my priorities elsewhere. 

I’ll keep writing every week for now, even if I only make one asset.

Next week I’ll keep making textures, for the furniture or tools. And/or retopo the weird cube tree.

[unmappedgame]

Devlog #14 - Lighthouse from Hell

This week’s task was a pain and it’s not even finished. I wanted to finish the lighthouse. I did a lot but I definitely underestimated the complexity of the task. 

The most important progress it that now it’s possible to enter the lighthouse, go up the snail staircase, go out to the first balcony and go out to the top balcony with next to the glass part.

So I think I’m gonna write a bit about the difficulties. 

First, when I started modelling I wasn’t really thinking that it will be really big in game, so I looks good from afar but terrible up close. It’s not as round as it should, there’s lack of details everywhere. There’s some things where the mesh is not connecting right so there are still some holes.

Second, the collider was a pain, it’s a bit more complex than the ones in other objects, because there’s an outer wall, an inner wall, the stairs (the collider is a ramp), the holes in the floor/ceiling to access the upper levels.

Accessing an upper level. You can see ugly polygons everywhere

Third, why can’t I get decent shadows in unity? I really need to make some research on that.

Fourth, why are the materials looking so bad? I still have to make textures but they’re gonna be minimalist so I’ll still have to make the materials look decent.

Fifth, what do I put on these giant white walls? It looks so empty and boring and fugly.

Stairway to hell

Oh look it’s my furniture

I still haven’t made a shader for the glass.

When I started I imagined when the colliders and doors would be working, and I would enter the lighthouse and climb the stairs to the top and it would be magical. But the first time the stair’s collider was not working, then I forgot the hole in the ceiling, then I couldn’t pass through the hole, then there was a random hole in the wall, then the ceiling and walls were not connecting. It took a dozen tries, not magical at all.

I can’t look at this anymore. I’m gonna leave it like this, and maybe I’ll come back in 2 or 3 months. Or never.

Next week

Something more fun or motivating. I don’t want to suffer 2 weeks in a row. Making the textures for the furniture and home objects should be fun. Or take another look at the pine trees, plants are always fun.

[unmappedgame]

3 Months Progress - Slow Start

December 28 marked 3 months since I started this blog and started working on this game (not counting the Ludum Dare version). I liked the idea of my LD36, because it would be a chance to do an exploration game where the exploration was a means to an end, not just exploration for exploration sake. I also though that even if it failed I would gain a lot of experience doing environmental art and level design, so it wouldn’t be a waste. Some friends also said it was a cool idea.

After a month to think through, I decided to start making the game at the end of September.

3 months late I haven’t made as much progress as I expected (I guess it’s always like that) but I’m quite happy for what I’ve managed to do. At least I already have a working prototype

Things I’ve done

- An interface to draw the map freehand with different

- Special landmarks showing up on the map on the right place

- Teleporting to landmarks (sort of)

- A terrible but working UI for the map.

- Some assets for the first area.

Things I should have done

- Thinking of a name. I have one but I’m still not 100% sure.

- Creating a function to evaluate how good the map is.

- Deciding on an art style. This indecision is getting ridiculous.

- Making concept art. I did some, but I should have done more.

- Deciding if that game is first or third person.

I was planning to have a sort of “vertical slice” done by the 6 month mark. I used the word loosely, I wanted to have all systems implemented, UI implemented and all assets for the first area, but I’ll push that goal to the 9 months or 12 months. But this game is mostly content so I hope I don’t take too long to implement everything.

For the 6 months mark I want to have done:

- All the things in the “ Things I should have done” section

- All main systems implemented so everything is playable (they’re not many, just the map and interacting with some objects environment)

- All assets for the demo area done, except animals, people and water. They don’t have to be final, since I like to iterate a lot, but decent enough with the models and at least albedo. To be more specific I want to have all plants, rocks, modular houses, furniture and special landmarks done.

- The graphics for the map at least somewhat decent.

I’m still quite passionate about the project, I would say I’m still in the honeymoon phase. Let’s hope it stays like this for a while. I want to make some smaller games (really small) this year, but I think I’ll wait until I’m 6 months in to do it.

I want to start working less on the game, because I want to take more paid work. But if I can be more focused instead of doing random stuff I think I can still do a lot of progress

(I was supposed to write this post days ago, but it’s been a difficult week. With the end of the year I started thinking about where I am and what I accomplished and I feel so alone, and I’m doubting a lot of my choices)

[unmappedgame]

Devlog #13 - So short it doesn’t even have a title

I promised myself I would write every week so I’ll do it, even tho I haven’t made almost anything. I did not feel like working because of holiday season and some personal problems. More like internal struggles. 

This past day 28 marked the 3 months since I started working on the game (excluding the ludum dare). So before the end of the year I’ll make a post with a summary of the first 3 months and what I plan to do on the next 3. I really like logging my process, it motivates me.

Now for this (short) week

That’s all folks, see ya next week. I may buy 3D Coat on this sale and start making textures.

[unmappedgame]

Devlog #12 - The hardest task is organizing the assets folder

I was a bit sick last weekend so I ended up not doing a lot of work. I also spent too much time organizing my assets folder in unity and my other folders with concept art and blender files. It needed to be done and the year is ending so it was a good time. I need to try keeping things organized from now on.

Besides that I only did a couple of things

Compass

I’m not even sure if I want the view to be first or third person, but if I decide for first person I already have a DIEGETIC COMPASS! Yeah I should set some priorities and work on important things, but I like having some fun. It works but obviously the hand is placeholder.

Amazing blue metallic hand

Furniture

I made some more furniture and unwrapped and textured the furniture I had. I would like to make the full texture by hand but that will take me a long time so for now I only made a subtle tiled wood texture with albedo and normal maps. I half-assed the texture in 10 minutes but I’ll full-ass a new one. I like that it’s subtle but it’s missing some details to make it less boring.

 It looks like wood so it’s fine for now. Maybe I’ll want to come back to these models and make a better texture.

That chair is floating

I also tried some colors for the workshop interior walls and floor but I did not like any.

Next Week

I guess this is all I did this week. Next week I’ll continue the furniture and tools. I want to make some books and rolled up maps and finish the things I started.

And I’ll finish the model for the damn lighthouse! I started it forever ago.

[unmappedgame]

Devlog #11 - Workshop Assets pt 1

It’s wednesday, which mean I’m on schedule again.

Since I decided not to participate on Ludum Dare (simply for the reason that working on this game would bring me more joy), I spent most of the weekend doing things for the game.

I said I was going to do some tools and furniture and I did. I haven’t finished anything actually, I did only the modelling part, my favourite part. Next week I’ll paint some textures and make details and bake them into normal map.

(These are rendered in blender with default shader, I’ll try to show a unity render next time)

Drawing tools

Other tools

Furniture

Like I said, next week I will keep working on these props, I’ll probably start the textures and import to unity to set the right materials. I also should make concepts for the workshop’s mood and plan, but I doubt I’ll feel like it.

[unmappedgame]

Devlog #10 - Open, sesame

I had almost everything written but I lost it, so I had to write again.

This week I've quite a bit of progress in the meantime of playing pokemon.

Open Door

It’s now possible to open the door from the workshop and enter (I haven’t made the interior yet, it’s just cubes). If the player is close enough and clicks on the door it will open. I copied the code from another one of my projects so it was quick.

My problem is that I’m loading the interior when the player opens the door, but I don’t know when I should unload. a) When the player leaves the house (but in that case I’ll have to either close the door behind them or make the interior not visible, all black) or b) When the player is far away (in that case I can leave the interior visible.

Lighthouse Crystal

I tried to make a crystal for the lighthouse (from the concept I made a few weeks ago), but it didn’t work so well. I tried sculpting and making retopo and baking normals, but it looked terrible. Second try looked less bad, but I still don’t like it.

Here is it without the final shader and with just normal map. I will probably have to hand paint to make it the way I want. And I’ll have to make a custom shader. But for not I’ll leave this as placeholder.

The top part of the lighthouse could use some more polygons

The only positive was that I accidentally found unity’s lens flares! I’m gonna be the J.J. Abrams of gamedev!

Teleport

It’s now possible to travel to other landmarks as long as they are already marked on the map! For now I’m just changing the position of the player to the position on the landmark, but it’ll look fancier in the future.

The map UI is getting really messy. I don’t like making UI and for now it’s fine as long as it works, but I’ll need to start thinking how to clean it.

Next Week

I was gonna join ludum dare but I decided not to. It’s not like I get anything for keeping a streak, and I’m having more fun working on this game. Instead I decided I will work on the game.

I feel like making assets, so I’ll make some cartographer’s tools. I’ll put them inside the workshop as decorations and use some in game screens, like the main menu. Maybe tables and chairs would be nice too.

And some of the tools I want to make are pretty complex, like a sextant, so it should be fun.

(As I wrote that I started to think of uses for the cartographer’s tools. Maybe collectibles? I’ll think about that)

[unmappedgame]

Devlog #9 - Landmarks

It’s been almost one week and I haven’t written this. I haven’t done much so I’ll keep it short.

I’m thinking about naming the workshop (and perhaps the game) Cartographer’s Reverie. But it’s still not closed. But I really like this shop sign I designed.

Now to more important things. I added special landmarks to the game. Now, when the player opens the map close to a special landmarks it’s automatically marked in the map. 

The reason I’m doing this is because I need a way for the player to be able to calculate positions and distances in the map. But I’ll try different solutions (I’ve though of a few) and I will have to test them with people to find out what works best.

Right now this is pretty hard even for me and I made the level.

I was supposed to keep working on making the map prettier, but I don’t know if it’s a priority now. I need to test it before it is pretty, I don’t want people to focus on the art for the map. Thinking about a function to calculate how good the map is is a priority. 

Next Week

I have no idea where to turn to next. I’m having a lot of doubts mostly concerning the design of the game. I may make art, at least it’s useful for me to improve at art. But I probably won’t do anything, I’m playing pokemon moon.

[unmappedgame]

Devlog #8 - Maaaap

Not a very good week for the game, I’ve been doing other things and I've had a cold with headache for several days and it made thinking hard, which is not very good for programming.

I still made a small progress. I’ve been postponing starting to work on the map graphics, because it will require stuff that is not easy - for me I mean. But I’m a great apologist of starting anywhere, even if I’ll have to change everything in the future. I think it’s better to find the right way to do something after having tried the wrong way and seeing the problems I have to solve.

So I started by converting an array of 0s and 1s (or blacks and whites - I like working with textures) into a map with lines and corners. It still looks terrible and too “geometric” and I forgot to put some cases in my giant decision tree to decide what kind of tile I should put in every position of the array. 

Also I’m just drawing sprites to the screen, but it’s just placeholder, it’s not the way I wanna do it. And I  still have to think how I’m going to do this in real time while the player is drawing. 

I feel ashamed of posting something so ugly, but here it is:

Color Grading

I tried some LUTs (Look Up Table) just for fun and it’s pretty cool. Can’t wait to actually do color grading for the different areas. But that’s for another time, I still don’t know what colors I want in the first level.

Concept Art

I always make super sketchy concepts in a notebook for the objects, and I want to have prettier concept art with colors so I tried to paint some. 2d art is not my strength.

I made some concepts for the lighthouse.

And one for this weird cube thing.

Next week

I need to continue the map, not my favourite part to do but I can’t wait to see it looking like a map. I’ll add the water, the trees, the mountains and the others stuff, and I’ll start to think in how to integrate this with the interface for drawing the map.

And probably more concept art when I get bored. May help me decide on the colors for the level.

[unmappedgame]

Devlog #7 - Level blocking in

I’ve kept my decision of only working on blocking in the level, and it was a pain. I’ve never did something like this before (designing a big open area), and making random hills is not the way to go. I’m also not having a lot of luck finding articles and videos on the subject.

Making the terrain realistic is not very fun, but deciding where the landmarks will be is. I don’t want to post any images of the level from above, since the goal of the game is figuring it out and if I ever launch this I don’t want the solution posted by me.

But I’ve decided on some things that I’ll have in the first level. I know it looks hideous for now, but I hope it will look pretty in a few months and we’ll look back and see it evolved a lot.

So, stuff there will be on this map:

Beach

More beach

Bridge

Stepping stones (lol at those submerged trees)

 A town

The workshop (not final colors)

Trees (not final shader)

A waterfall and lake (look at this next gen graphics ahah )

And a lot more stuff that will be showing later. There’s still a lot to do, but I’m glad I finally started this. But I noticed that I’ll need a smaller area for a demo so I’ll make a similar area with only 1/4th of the size.

Also I spent less time working on the game than in the previous couple of weeks, and I think I’ll keep it like this, I’m not working on the game full time.

Next week I’ll either continue working on some of the assets and shaders (lighthouse and workshop needs finishing, trees need LODs, water needs to look like water), or I’ll go back to working on the map and finally make it pretty.

[unmappedgame]

Devlog #6 - Rocks, grass and lighthouse

This was the week since I started the game that I learnt the most, especially techniques for 3d art. And also the most productive week so far, even though the sculpting and baking part took a lot of time since I had to learn.

Stone Bridge

I kept working on the bridge and re-did the arc. I decided to do a style different that I usually do and I baked normals for the rocks. I sculpt the rocks, did the retopo and baked the normal map. It’s the first time I did this kind of work for a finished asset and not just a test (the normal baking from high poly to low poly, sculpting and retopo I already knew how to do) and I’m really happy I learnt it. I’m doing this project not just to have a finished game but also to learnt new things and practice my 3d art.

Rocks

I used the same technique to make some rocks. They look alright but there’s some things that I will still change (like making them less soft), and I need to make more variety, but I’ll leave them like this for now, it’s enough.

I’m not really experienced in doing this stuff, so I’m always worrying if I have to many polygons, too little polygons, textures too big, textures too small...

Grass

I tried some different grass textures to use in the unity terrain, and decided on one for taller grass and one for shorter grass. I also tried a really quick texture with yellow flower and I think it looks pretty neat so I’ll probably have one or more flower fields in the game. I really like flowers.

Also a fern plant to add to my pine tree forest. Looks a bit fake. I need to see what I can do to make it better.

Lighthouse

One of the most important landmarks of the first area will be a really tall lighthouse. My idea is that the player will be able to go up there and see the area from above. The design is inspired by this lighthouse. Still lot of work to do on this one.

Strange pine trees

Sometimes I do weird stuff, like this gradient pinetrees. I don’t want the game to be too realistic so some weird colors will look good. I’m using vertex colors for the gradient ramp, so it doesn’t have to be vertical. But now that I found the beautiful world of vertex colors, I wan’t to use the vertex colors for other things too, so maybe I’ll have to use only one channel for this.

I learnt to use blender to bake for vertex colors which was cool too.

(This will not be in game, don’t worry)

And I really need to make some changes on the pinetrees models and texture. 

Next week

Next week I’ll stop making random assets and start blocking in a level (first level, or a level for a vertical slice - or both) with Unity terrain, cubes and the assets I already have. It’s something that I’m postponing because I feel I don’t have the skills to make a level, and I have skills to model random assets or to code so I do that. But it’s really important part of the game so it’s time to start and not get distracted doing other stuff. So next week, only level design!

[unmappedgame]

Devlog #5 - Stone Bridge and Texture Splatting

I’m sort of back on track again. Also, 5 weeks since I started the game and still no title.

Texture Splatting Shader

This is not really something I did for the game, but it’s something I hope I can use on the game once I have more graphic stuff set up. I just tried to did this effect I saw in some games. This shader is specific to make texture splatting when one of the textures is a surface that is supposed to have variable height (like a stone floor).

It adds the second texture according to the splat map and the height map, so, in my example, the grass will appear first in the floor cracks.

I have 3 different variables. The threshold for the splat map, the “height” of the grass and the blending. More blending means the grass will have an alpha and we can see the rocks underneath. 

I don’t wanna get too technical so there’s no point in explaining the details. (but if anyone wants to know you can ask.

I used Amplify Shader Editor, because if I can avoid coding shaders, I will.

I can’t really recommend or not recommend this asset yet, because I haven’t used it much, but it seems cool.

Stone Bridge

This stone bridge will be a special landmark of the first area and... well... it can be used to cross the river.

I’ve been avoiding making textures because I’m still not sure about the art style but I’ve decided to make them for the bridge, even if they’re temporary. I’ll only know if I like a style if I try it.

This also shows the type of terrain where the bridge will be.

I made a tiled texture for the walls and one for the floor and one non-tiled texture for the rest.

Screenshots in Unity, using normal and bump maps.

I wrote this on Tuesday and on Wednesday I did some small changes

This one also has the shader, but it’s just for testing. The shape looks kinda weird when it’s not on terrain.

I decided that I will change those rocks on the side but I’m still not sure what. I’m going crazy doing and redoing stuff and thinking about the art style of the game so I’m having a break.

Next Week

Probably more assets and graphics stuff. Starting the river would be nice. And some rocks. I don’t really feel like going back to the map just yet.

[unmappedgame]

Devlog #4 - Map UI

This week was 95% coding the map UI. The other 5% was some concept sketches for the river.

Buttons

I added some placeholder buttons to select the type of brush as well as brush size and stuff. (Cursor is placeholder. Everything is placeholder actually)

Before you had to use random keys to do that. Obviously there is still a lot of work to do.

The types of basic map elements I have now (it probably won’t change much) are land, water, forest, mountains, houses and paths. All the other elements will be special landmarks.

Panning and Zooming

For the panning I used a UI mask with an image behind that moves using the arrows. I still want to make panning using a key (which key?) + mouse.

For the zoom in and out, the image size is increased/decreased using the scroll wheel. I’m using 1x, 1.5x, 2x, 4x and 8x for the zoom but it will depend on how the map will look like (when it actually looks like a map and not a pixelated thing with ugly colors). Also works with the buttons but I forgot to record that.

Undo/Redo

For now I decided to have only one undo/redo, which is better than nothing. While testing the map I was always trying to undo with ctrl-z so I though this function was necessary. For now I’m just saving the whole old texture before a stroke is made and then replacing the new texture with the old when the user presses ctrl-z and back to the new when doing it again. Also works with the buttons.

I may do this is a better way and make more than 1 redo, but it’s not urgent.

The next tasks related to the map are making the map look like a map, including drawing better icons and making the function that will evaluate how good the drawn map is compared to the original.

And here are the concept sketches. A river that I want to have across the first area.

Next week I’ll get back to making assets. (Maybe I’ll alternate weeks of art, programming and design)

-Fi

[unmappedgame]

Devlog #3 - More workshop, more pine trees

What a bad week. I was supposed to write these on Wednesday but I’m writing on Sunday, and I haven’t done much this week. I’ll need to compromise and write next one on Friday.

I kept working on the workshop, did the back and fixed the geometry. It looks decent for now. Of course I still have to make the textures and some details, but it looks nice for now.

I made some more pine trees, it was quick since I could use the same leaves. I can make a full forest now uhuhuh. Same as the workshop, I still need to make textures. The truth is that I haven’t decided 100% on the art direction, so I’m postponing making the textures and I’m keeping the models with flat colors.

The dead pine tree looks too stylized, but I’ll go back to it later.

(This gif looks so bad, tumblr gif limits are the bane of my existence .-. )

Eventually I’ll have to start thinking about the level design and it scares me a bit. I’ve never done anything like that, I have no idea how to make a level that is interesting and makes sense.

On another note, I need to stop making random assets and focus a bit on the map which is supposed to be the base for the rest of the game. 

See ya next week, with more things to tell than this week I hope.

-Fi

[unmappedgame]

Devlog #2 - Workshop model

This will be a short post, I haven’t made much progress this week since I spent a lot of time designing and modelling what will be the cartographer’s house and workshop/store. 

Workshop model

I made a concept but my 2d painting is really messy so, like all my concept art, it’s not a masterpiece, it was just to give me an idea of what to model and the colors.

It’s a bit more “modern” than I had in mind initially, but I don’t want the world to be “too medieval” so this style fits better. 

The ground floor will be the workshop and shop where the maps are sold. The top floor will be the cartographer’s home. The basement will be storage and I still don’t know about the attic. I will model the inside of at least the shop and home floors.

I started modelling the house but it’s still a long way to go. And I still don’t know how I’ll make the textures.

There will be more houses in this style in the first area and maybe in other areas, I’m still not sure how big the areas will be. I want to make them modular so I can easily make bunch of houses with variations.

Project Setting

I finally created the Unity project and the repo for the game and started adding the mechanics and other things that I was trying and also things from the Ludum Dare version.

 So I guess I’m now on full production!

Next Week

Next week I will finish modelling the house, but probably not the textures. I also want to have the walking and using the map working and integrated. 

Besides that, I may do more assets, like more trees or some rocks and start building a test level. Or I may continue to work on the map drawing.

[unmappedgame]

Devlog #1 - Pine trees and map drawing

Pine tree model

I made the first model for the game, this pine tree (or maybe it’s a spruce - I’m not good with tree names). It’s not final, especially the texture, but it’s pretty much the style I had in mind for the models, stylized realism like some call it.

Drawing on textures

The original idea for the game was to have the map being hand drawn, but in the jam version I made the landmarks being placed in a grid because it was faster to implement in 48h.

But now I’m going back to the original concept. I implemented drawing on a texture by converting the position the screen position of the mouse and converting it to texture position and using SetPixel (will maybe change it to SetPixels32) to change the color of the pixels. 

Obviously it won’t look like this in the final game, but the medieval looking map will be drawn on top of this base.

There are different sized brushes too. Some things I still need to implement is undo, zooming and panning and all the UI.

I also implemented the function to compare 2 maps of the same size, but for now it’s only checking how many pixels in the same position have the same color. 

Unity terrain

I’ve never used unity terrain before so I took some time to learn the basics, like changing the terrain height, painting textures, placing grass and other objects.

Next week

Now that I have made all the tests I wanted I’ll set up the unity project and repo and everything for the project and start working on it. I’ll also make the concept for the protagonist’s house/cartographer’s workshop and hopefully start modelling it.

Bonus sketches

-Fi