Alpha IzoProject - Isometric Story Driven Boss Battle ARPG

YanBG

Member
Shadows are tricky to do, Diablo1&2 shadows have similar length like yours but they are casted on the other side(or maybe you use mirrored?), having the torch's color match the floor tiles would also help.
Notice the grid lighting on the tiles, for that you can use "bresenham line".

Btw i think that the soft shadows in Diablo 3 can be confusing and bad for gameplay.
 
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Felipe Rybakovas

Guest
Shadows are tricky to do, Diablo1&2 shadows have similar length like yours but they are casted on the other side(or maybe you use mirrored?), having the torch's color match the floor tiles would also help.
Notice the grid lighting on the tiles, for that you can use "bresenham line".

Btw i think that the soft shadows in Diablo 3 can be confusing and bad for gameplay.
Thanks man, i´ll take a look on that for sure!
The level itself need much attention.
 
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Felipe Rybakovas

Guest
i aways saw the diablo`s darkness as fog of war/revealed area, and not as a light cast.
I think there was some lighting by HUE control... There is a talk at the GDC vault from the master himself explaining this
 

Carloskhard

Member
The game concept and gameplay are very nice! However I think you should work on the lights because right now there's alot of contrast and lights are not very smooth or natural.I know it is hard to make good isometric lighting in GM because it is not design for 3D but try to improve that and the game will gain a lot!
Also try making the main caracter more differentiable from enemies since sometimes it is confusing.

Keep up the hard work!
 
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Felipe Rybakovas

Guest
How Path of Exile started and to where it is now.
Yeah, this game is on the run for a long time now! And continue to be great! I still play it to get more ideas!

Thanks, this is motivational
 
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Felipe Rybakovas

Guest
The game concept and gameplay are very nice! However I think you should work on the lights because right now there's alot of contrast and lights are not very smooth or natural.I know it is hard to make good isometric lighting in GM because it is not design for 3D but try to improve that and the game will gain a lot!
Also try making the main caracter more differentiable from enemies since sometimes it is confusing.

Keep up the hard work!
Hey, thanks for the feedback!

Yes the light in those old videos and gifs are very wrong.

Firts because I was playing the game on my notebook with an IPS screen that get the game darker. Now I´m test playing it on a TV to get the right dark amount.
Also, the shadow mesh was for top down games and not isometric.
This is also fixed now.

About the character I agree... I still do not worked so much on content and graphics since I´m doing it all by myself.
I´m trying to build the core mechanics first and in a good shape to be easier to put content later on the game.
 
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zendraw

Guest
btw i assume your going to add weapons and armor? how do you plan on managing that?
 
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Felipe Rybakovas

Guest
btw i assume your going to add weapons and armor? how do you plan on managing that?
Ow, there is already weapons and armor there.

The Weapons set the main attack skill, almost like a shooter. Armor get you some protection, but It´s almost only for visual stuff since this also change the chars sprites.

This is an old gif showing this.
 

YanBG

Member
He probably meant the paper doll system. This character is from FLARE(not a huge fan of the characters there, overall good-looking game though), i assume they meant it's lighting. It's diificult to set the correct one in blender, in order to make each piece of cloth stand out colorwise. Mine need some work too.
 
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zendraw

Guest
yeah i meant do you make different sprites for all character animations or you cut the character in parts and combine them? in particular how wuld you code that? in a platformer you just stack them one over another, but here certain frames, the weapon will be in front where the player can see it and certain frames behind where you cant see it. how do you manage the depth? you cant just cut the weapon from the armor since you change armors and the cut will be out of place for the rest.
 
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Felipe Rybakovas

Guest
yeah i meant do you make different sprites for all character animations or you cut the character in parts and combine them? in particular how wuld you code that? in a platformer you just stack them one over another, but here certain frames, the weapon will be in front where the player can see it and certain frames behind where you cant see it. how do you manage the depth? you cant just cut the weapon from the armor since you change armors and the cut will be out of place for the rest.
As @YanBG said, this model is from flare RPG (https://github.com/clintbellanger/flare-game/tree/master/art_src/characters/hero ).
Also in this repository have all the blender files and also a python script to render the model in isometric perspective and frame by frame each animation. Not only that but also the base blender file for all equipments.

So each equipment is render separated for each animation section. In the code, the item object already have the array with his sprite set, when I equip it, this reference is set to the draw script of the player
Code:
///scr_draw_equipment(action,direction)
var action = argument0;
var direct = argument1;

if(inventory.equip_arr[2] != 0){ //WPN
    var sprWpn = inventory.currWpn[action, direct];
    draw_sprite_ext(sprWpn,image_index,x,y,1,1,0,c_white,1);
}
if(inventory.equip_arr[1] != 0){//ARMOR
    var sprArm = inventory.currArmor[action, direct];
    sprite_index = sprArm;
    draw_sprite_ext(sprArm,image_index,x,y,1,1,0,c_white,1);
}else{
    sprite_index = arr_default_spr[action, direct];
    draw_sprite_ext(sprite_index,image_index,x,y,1,1,0,c_white,1);
}
if(inventory.equip_arr[0] != 0){//ACCESORY
    var sprAcc = inventory.currAcc[action, direct];
    draw_sprite_ext(sprAcc,image_index,x,y,1,1,0,c_white,1);
}
//
So all the work with depth and etc it´s all set in the blender models.
 
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Felipe Rybakovas

Guest
He probably meant the paper doll system. This character is from FLARE(not a huge fan of the characters there, overall good-looking game though), i assume they meant it's lighting. It's diificult to set the correct one in blender, in order to make each piece of cloth stand out colorwise. Mine need some work too.
Yes... I have zero ability to work with blender... That´s why this is getting to the last thing to be changed... I dont like the char either.

I´ll ask for a friend that works with blender if he doesnt want to do that for me... and render new armors, weapons and enemies based on those files from flare.

They are not bad at all, but with a litle work can be the best!
 
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zendraw

Guest
i was talking about the sprites themselvs, so from what i see in that github, you have to render the same sword animations for all armors.

btw in blender you dont render them frame by frame. how i do it i simply set the camera pos and setting to ortho, then the render settings like size and filtering, and just render with animation. the only thing i do is make the model and animate it. and everything surrounding a single element shuld be in one blender file.
 

YanBG

Member
It's doable, that's old but you get the idea:
Listed in the draw event, torso is first, then helm, and last weapon/shield(e.g. always on top), the weapon in certain angles is rendered obstructed by the naked/main body sprite, armor usually don't add too many pixels on the width.

Edit: major issue are the shadows, if the render has alpha of 0.6 and then draw the weapon, helm etc on top of the character's base shadow, there will be darker spots.
It can be fixed with black renders and then combined in to one surface, which is drawn with the correct alpha.
 
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zendraw

Guest
but my point is, you will render that club for all the armors? for instance he swings his club to the north, and half of the club is cutoff from thehead, but then you put a helmet that has spikes, so now you will have to display the sprite with the club that is cutoff from the spiky helmet. otherwise the the club will cutoff the spikes of the helmet.

i get the layering thing, ive done it in 2d by the side, but when you view only by the side parts wont appear infront or behind.
 

YanBG

Member
Yeah i had some overlaps or cutoffs in that vein but it probably can be fixed by having the weapon in the left hand and then using mirror for the right angles, also the weapon have to be drawn infront on angles facing to the camera and behind armor/helm when facing north. Then the animation should also follow a pattern, e.g. swing away from the body.

I'm pretty sure Diablo 2, use the same weapon animation for all armors(?), gotta check their sprites.
 
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Felipe Rybakovas

Guest
but my point is, you will render that club for all the armors? for instance he swings his club to the north, and half of the club is cutoff from thehead, but then you put a helmet that has spikes, so now you will have to display the sprite with the club that is cutoff from the spiky helmet. otherwise the the club will cutoff the spikes of the helmet.

i get the layering thing, ive done it in 2d by the side, but when you view only by the side parts wont appear infront or behind.
In the flare case... All equipments follows a default animation.

So all weapons have the same atk animation, the same hit animation, the same everything else... So you just need to render the equipment in the default animations. You dont need to do it for every armor....

Only if the armor is too different from the other... like... i dont know... taller or larger than the others.

Than you would need to render the weapons and equips for that armor all again... and set the correct sprite if needed.
 
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Felipe Rybakovas

Guest
i was talking about the sprites themselvs, so from what i see in that github, you have to render the same sword animations for all armors.

btw in blender you dont render them frame by frame. how i do it i simply set the camera pos and setting to ortho, then the render settings like size and filtering, and just render with animation. the only thing i do is make the model and animate it. and everything surrounding a single element shuld be in one blender file.
There is a Python script that does that.

Frame by Frame at the correct isometric angle.

Is on the github repository aswell.
 
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zendraw

Guest
im also almost sure D2 uses a single animation, infact Felipe`s post with the code gave me an idea of when to draw things infront or behind the character. basically you have x amount of slots to draw and while animating you set which slot what sprite to have at key moments, like after frame 5 you set the weapon to first slot so its drawn behind the character and you set the turso to slot 2 then head to slot3 etc. get my logic?
 
Here's an idea for the fireball, instead of casting a shadow (which makes no sense, since it's basically a mini sun), make it so when it hits the grounds it leaves a scorched/cracked earth mark on the ground and maybe a little fire shockwave.
 
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Felipe Rybakovas

Guest
im also almost sure D2 uses a single animation, infact Felipe`s post with the code gave me an idea of when to draw things infront or behind the character. basically you have x amount of slots to draw and while animating you set which slot what sprite to have at key moments, like after frame 5 you set the weapon to first slot so its drawn behind the character and you set the turso to slot 2 then head to slot3 etc. get my logic?
Get it, but I think in Flare case..... What he did was in somekind put layers on the blender.... and set the depth there

If the char is in front of it.... it would be "deleted" from the image by the armor layer.
This would be easier to set all at blender.

But i dont know blender to say if it is that way or not.
 
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Felipe Rybakovas

Guest
Here's an idea for the fireball, instead of casting a shadow (which makes no sense, since it's basically a mini sun), make it so when it hits the grounds it leaves a scorched/cracked earth mark on the ground and maybe a little fire shockwave.
hey, this is great idea indeed! =)

Tks for sharing!
 
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zendraw

Guest
you cant really set the depth in blender, you can create that illusion by cutting parts of the object like what the guy from github did, but that comes with this issue that i mention, where if you change armor you will also have to change the sprite for the weapon. yes this will be a bit easyer but you will have to export a ton more sprites then you wuld have to if you set up the depth dynamically. i will work on this idea in the near future and perhaps write here for how ive established it?
 
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Felipe Rybakovas

Guest
you cant really set the depth in blender, you can create that illusion by cutting parts of the object like what the guy from github did, but that comes with this issue that i mention, where if you change armor you will also have to change the sprite for the weapon. yes this will be a bit easyer but you will have to export a ton more sprites then you wuld have to if you set up the depth dynamically. i will work on this idea in the near future and perhaps write here for how ive established it?
For Sure, you are very welcome to post the solution here ! =)

Well, you also can try to contact Clint(http://flarerpg.org/) himself and ask him how he did it.
 
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Felipe Rybakovas

Guest
A friend of mine just built a game trailer for my game, so i'm posting it here....

How does it looks like? =)
 
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zendraw

Guest
tbh, like a project in alpha stage, which it is. cant really judge the game from it.
 
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Felipe Rybakovas

Guest
tbh, like a project in alpha stage, which it is. cant really judge the game from it.
Yes... I just asked him to put together some footage so I could show for a wider public for now before the beta demo...

So maybe I could get some curiosity for the game before that...
 
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Felipe Rybakovas

Guest
I like it, maybe the music should be more gothic?

How far are you with the story?
Yeap, I wanted it too, but didnt find any that I could use... So I just used one of mine that I bought for the game.... At least I can use it freely. I'll build a new trailer for the demo... This one is more to build up the curiosity.

So for story until now I just have a base text. I'm first trying to implement how the game will play and then everything else will be constructed to sustain this mechanics... That's why I'm also slowly changing the sprites / art direction / etc .

But the base for this will be something like dark souls... You and all those people(NPC's at the hub city) are trapped into this strange living world that is always changing it form and ways(to sustain the random generation), with somekind of curse that they cant age inside this 'maze world'. The only option is try to find a way out, but nobody really know how they ended up there.

So there is this kind of historian NPC that is writing everything they know and what is happening every day inside that world (To sustain the idea of the book, that will save all your game progress. what you did, what boss you killed,what skill you've unlocked, etc... Because it's a roguelike... if you're dead, you're dead.), trying to find the truth and how to escape from that reality.

So he have all the information of all heroes that pass by and how they changed that world... How their deeds has influenced their lives there.

So it's not a story focus on the heroes.... But on the world, how that world continued after a hero.

I have an idea to implement kind of 'story generator system' to sustain that world change cycle based on what happened on the last play session. A friend of mine has got interested by the project and said he could help me with that =) .


But I must say that I really dont know if I'll be able to do it so... In fact I'm working hard now to get the demo out... see the reactions and then see if I'll keep working on that or not.
 
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gamedev4life

Guest
from op |"...about 80% of the facebook page likes were from India..."

why is that? ive heard of that before. like bots?
 
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Felipe Rybakovas

Guest
from op |"...about 80% of the facebook page likes were from India..."

why is that? ive heard of that before. like bots?
I dont know for sure. Most of then don't look like bots.

I've talked with some other devs and also google it a little bit and I've founded that India will spent billions on the game market until 2020. The mobile audience is the biggest compared with many other countries just losing for China.

So I think is safe to assume that India is a real deal when talking about games. But also we need to take in consideration that they have a completely different culture and that may reflect in what kind of games they would like and fit in their culture.
 
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Felipe Rybakovas

Guest
Any updates? Fun looking game. I found this while doing research for my own diablo-like
Hey, thanks for the heads up!

In fact I'll post a big update on the project in the next couple weeks.
This update will also have a playable demo of the game!
 
Haha very nice! I'm interested in where you see this project going. I'll try out the demo

Do you think you'll eventually grow a team, like hire on an artist or do you plan on staying solo and just continue using the models from that open source game?

Any plans for crowdfunding etc.?

I'm just curious what your vision for this game is and what your goals are
 
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Felipe Rybakovas

Guest
Walking Dead meets Medieval dungeon kind of feel.
Wooow, that is really another big idea for a game... Medieval Zombie Apocalypse... Dont know if we ever have seen something like that...
 
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Felipe Rybakovas

Guest
Haha very nice! I'm interested in where you see this project going. I'll try out the demo

Do you think you'll eventually grow a team, like hire on an artist or do you plan on staying solo and just continue using the models from that open source game?

Any plans for crowdfunding etc.?

I'm just curious what your vision for this game is and what your goals are
Hey, in fact this is one of the things that I'll announce soon here...

Yes, the project is getting bigger and the lack of content update here on the forum it's because I'm reuniting some people that got interested in the project.
So we are talking alot now to decide the future and roadmap of this game =)

About the assets, some of the enemies already are final probably, I have many others that does not are in the video.
For the characters, they are placeholders. I'm using some Flare RPG models for the sake to test and code the logic to have many different equipment sets / abilities.

In the future I want to delivery a more Gothic atmosphere.

This is a really big project, This is running for a year now and what I've done until this point was mostly the core gameplay mechanics... And sometimes is hard to keep pushing this alone as I'm doing until now.
What really keeps me moving on here is that I can feel people having true fun during the gameplay, even with all the bugs that current have (there's really a bunch).

But now with all those recent talks I'm really confident that this project will have your release, sooner or later =)
 
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Felipe Rybakovas

Guest
[OLDER 11/29/2017]
Hi folks!

So I'm here to present you my current situation at IzoProject, an isometric ARPG that I'm building using GameMaker : Studio.
Current features :
  • Isometric ARPG with RogueLike elements
  • Inspiration from Diablo / DarkSouls
  • Never Ending game. Go as far as you can
  • Online/ Offline Ranking
  • Co-op gameplay for 2 players.(PVP on the way)
    NOVEMBER 29, 2017
  • 1 Class... Many Skill set combos. Unlock, select and combo skills to achieve victory
If you want to subscribe to receive news:

Please feel free to give any comments or critics about it, just please tell me why the reason.

[ALPHA GAME TRAILER]

[UPDATE 10/20/2017]

Hey...

So this last month I had to do a big refactor in many parts of the code to get better performance... And still have room for more from what I´m aware about..

First, I really want to thanks for the community that has being helping me since then... I´ve learned alot about this engine and still learning how to use it properly... Is really hard to get good information out there... so without this community I would never reach this level.

Now...

Central objective of the game has always been a fast paced gameplay ... so 60 fps was essential in this journey ... And since I want to reach a bigger audience (even more considering that about 80% of the facebook page likes were from India), I needed also run well on low end machines!

Here it´s a video showing the results on an i3 and Intel HD 5000



I still have more 12 days on vacations soo... Now, let's get back to the new content !!!
 
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Felipe Rybakovas

Guest


(Some NPC, when asked about the "sorcerer")

He was a good person. He really wanted to help others and make the world a better place. And he could!

He was one of those who consider your faith as a shield, and you know how faith works: The more you have, the more it actually works.

It must have been a difficult journey so far, I'm sure. He came from a land far away, alone, to do good here. And we needed that, you know? When we asked how he dared to come to this cursed place, he would say, "Even though I walk in the valley of the shadow of death, I will not fear," and several other things motivating that holy book he always carried ... He said things so beautiful...

And he really did not fear anything! That impressed everyone, and inspired us. He built this church here, and took care of everyone with the power of that god. The village got a lot better, you know? Never hear so much peace, we never feel evil so far and the beauty of goodness so close.

He cured diseases. He exorcised the demons from the forest. He worked miracles.

But he was foolish not to fear, for there are things here which neither this omnipotent god which he so much preached could protect him. Like that evil thing we dare not speak the name. That thing that lives in the mountains.

His god may have created the universe, but that thing is not from this universe: The holy man did not expect to find another god.

Everyone in the village feared that mountain, for everyone knew there was a god there. A god that could not be understood. He did not believe it. He said there was only one god, and all the rest were just devils of evil.

They all mourned when he went up there to exorcise that demon. It would not be the first time that he would use his divine powers to confront evil beings, but it would be the first time he would fail. Everyone knew this, but he did not believe them.

"Have faith," he said. "I fear no evil, I fear not the devil"

His faith was too strong. After all, his powers could eliminate and exorcise any evil, but the mountain thing is beyond that. She was there before good and evil existed.

We do not know what happened there, but we know that what exists up there did not make him abandon his faith. No, that faith, that willpower was too strong to disappear. It just became dedicated to another being.

Did he really love his god? Or did he just believe in his power? Is faith just an exchange? Could it be that the only thing that could shake that faith was more power?

We do not know if the misfortunes that happened in the village happened because he awakened that thing. We do not know whether God was angry with the blasphemy of being betrayed by such a pure servant. Or, perhaps, if God just walked away, seeing that this village was not his territory.

We just know he's up there. The missionary of divine power has not lost his miracle power.

He just does another kind of miracle now.


PS: read the first post of this topic to understand better the new direction on the game
 
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YanBG

Member
I wouldn't include Diablo's name in the marketing sentence. Many small games does that but for something more ambitious could be even a deterrent.

The story is promising, keep up the good work!
 
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Felipe Rybakovas

Guest
I wouldn't include Diablo's name in the marketing sentence. Many small games does that but for something more ambitious could be even a deterrent.

The story is promising, keep up the good work!
Totally agree on that !
I'm doing that on this forum so people can get the reference, but will not be used in marketing for the final product!

Thanks mate, we are developing this... I think doing a story driven game will be more easy to delivery something with quality than procedural generation.

But I'll still use one dungeon that will be procedural generated for one boss, like a maze! =)
 
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