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Messages - Thalanor

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Computer Game Development - The Indie Alley / Re: Devlog: Cogito Colony, a Sci-Fi metroidvania with some unique mechanics
« on: August 11, 2019, 09:29:22 AM »
I too hope to make it one day. Snail's pace with the little time I got really is a bummer  :-\

But tackling the little steps! Small update, not warranting a billboard but here we go. First of all, more animation work. The basic attack combo will be so common that all the effort to make 1:1 frames is hopefully worth it, and now it includes 5 attacks before it cycles back:
https://twitter.com/Thalanor/status/1157745690698768384

Also two new OST tracks (all soundtrack pieces are more or less getting improved over time, thats why everything has version numbers):
https://soundcloud.com/thalanor/plaza-20?in=thalanor/sets/cogito-colony-soundtrack
https://soundcloud.com/thalanor/bridge-09?in=thalanor/sets/cogito-colony-soundtrack

Hope to actually get some coding done. The engine can't even render pixels yet! (But it now does have a completely custom script language that supports higher order functions and lambdas... because I am a nerd and fail to prioritize)


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Computer Game Development - The Indie Alley / Re: Devlog: Cogito Colony, a Sci-Fi metroidvania with some unique mechanics
« on: April 22, 2019, 11:11:54 AM »
As a matter of fact it is. The hardest part is having SO LITTLE sparetime after work and responsibilities. I feel like getting even a medium sized project done is easily estimated at half a decade at this point. But "the path is the goal", for me. The primary aspect is having fun and staying young by doing it, not the release.

Having fun learning handdrawn animations so far. Newest update: https://twitter.com/Thalanor/status/1119505819261964288
Of course this will mean a lot of effort, but regular enemies won't of course receive the same investment as the player character in terms of fluidity. So far the light attack combination has been mostly drawn (clocking in at 44 frames), next up is probably heavy attacks, walk cycle and the sort.

The engine itself is still in R&D stage. Basically had zero time to really dive into coding between christmas and now easter. Life happens! But it is fun to come back to things. This is also why the soundtrack progresses much faster, since I code for work, so doing the artsy/creative stuff feels more like regeneration on regular short weekends.


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Computer Game Development - The Indie Alley / Re: Devlog: Cogito Colony, a Sci-Fi metroidvania with some unique mechanics
« on: February 15, 2019, 11:17:28 PM »
It has been almost a year! What happened? In short: fulltime work (my fate from now on). After completing uni, I have so much less time than before. However, I still haven't given up hobbyist gamedev - one thing that did eventually strike me was that I will have to rewrite the entire engine from the ground up, as I would not be able to maintain it longterm. The reason is that the first engine, as much as I liked it, was developed alongside the design refinement process of the game, and as such had tons of technical debt. That of course means progress will be slow as I have to code from scratch again, and can only do so one day per week at maximum...

However, the plan for the game will stay the same, except that a new engine will also allow me to revise some decisions I was not happy with, such as the skeletal animation system which was great for exchanging player models and fluent combat, but otherwise not flexible enough and highly performance intensive.

As such I'm learning aseprite now to switch to hand-drawn animations. Here's a preview:

https://twitter.com/Thalanor/status/1096545986221101057


Meanwhile, progress on the soundtrack actually continues to be fast. Almost 1.5h of gamemusic done! You can always check the current status here:

https://soundcloud.com/thalanor/sets/cogito-colony-soundtrack


Hope to be able to post some smaller updates in intervals again in the future, freeing up some geek time once in a while as I try to survive in the adult world! :D

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Computer Game Development - The Indie Alley / Re: Devlog: Cogito Colony, a Sci-Fi metroidvania with some unique mechanics
« on: April 01, 2018, 12:43:54 PM »
Some animation work again this time!

https://gfycat.com/RightVelvetyGarpike

https://gfycat.com/PrestigiousWillingKatydid

https://gfycat.com/TautHandyDrongo

https://gfycat.com/AffectionateIgnorantGerbil

As you can see I want to make player animations available to all humanoid NPCs too - that allows for quite some neat possibilities in the future!

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Computer Game Development - The Indie Alley / Re: Devlog: Cogito Colony, a Sci-Fi metroidvania with some unique mechanics
« on: March 02, 2018, 08:06:16 PM »
Current work on the game is quite soundtrack-heavy, and as a matter of fact currently busy with a boss theme for a faster paced fight (these of course also exist):
https://soundcloud.com/thalanor/ergo-sum-10

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Computer Game Development - The Indie Alley / Re: Devlog: Cogito Colony, a Sci-Fi metroidvania with some unique mechanics
« on: February 14, 2018, 07:54:36 AM »
It will fit the specific boss :) While there are planned to be several very fast-paced "twitch" bossfights with corresponding music (fast piano ballads, etc) the final one is supposed to have a different pace with a bit of an apocalyptic eerie feel to it - it'll take a long time until I actually get to show the fight though :D

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Computer Game Development - The Indie Alley / Re: Devlog: Cogito Colony, a Sci-Fi metroidvania with some unique mechanics
« on: February 11, 2018, 03:50:16 PM »
Music time again! Trying out new samples (trumpet, trombone, tuba, strings) and updated an existing boss track with it: https://soundcloud.com/thalanor/methusalem-25

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Computer Game Development - The Indie Alley / Re: Devlog: Cogito Colony, a Sci-Fi metroidvania with some unique mechanics
« on: February 04, 2018, 12:57:14 PM »
It doesn't just appear to be that way, it is that way due to uh technical limitations :p Basically everything belonging to the "tile" layer (= everything interactable) is drawn after entities (in a single draw call). My engine has a manual draw order and as such doesn't use depth testing (to avoid transparency headaches and the like). If there start to be sufficient reasons to also have a back layer belonging to the tiles (and not the background) I'll probably get around to that at some point :)

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Computer Game Development - The Indie Alley / Re: Devlog: Cogito Colony, a Sci-Fi metroidvania with some unique mechanics
« on: February 03, 2018, 09:07:06 AM »
I bring to you... water!

https://gfycat.com/TimelyValuableGrayling

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Computer Game Development - The Indie Alley / Re: Tales From Windy Meadow - fantasy pixel art Visual Novel
« on: January 09, 2018, 09:46:55 PM »
Your pixel art is absolutely beautiful. Sometimes going for a higher abstraction level in art gets the point across more precisely rather than less, especially since the resolution is high enough to allow for the kind of detail you have.

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Computer Game Development - The Indie Alley / Re: Devlog: Cogito Colony, a Sci-Fi metroidvania with some unique mechanics
« on: January 05, 2018, 11:38:13 AM »
DAW: FL Studio 12

Instruments:
- Hauptwerk (Organ)
- Soundiron Symphony Light (Choir)
- Not in this track but where it applies: PianoOne (free), FL Sakura, Soundiron Brass Solo

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Computer Game Development - The Indie Alley / Re: Devlog: Cogito Colony, a Sci-Fi metroidvania with some unique mechanics
« on: January 05, 2018, 11:12:19 AM »
Music time again. This time, a boss theme - the first 80 or so seconds are intro, after that is the looping action part :)

https://soundcloud.com/thalanor/methusalem-20/

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The Welcome Hall - Start Here! / Realized I didn't actually say hi properly yet
« on: January 05, 2018, 10:45:45 AM »
.. So I'm doing it now! Well, 2018 Thalanor has just completed his MSc in computer science and will start a job coming monday, so a lot of things are going to change for me and keep changing. What will stay the same though, even if I won't have as much time for them as before, are my geek flavored interests. I've been fooling around in simplistic indie game dev for almost a decade (just trying out things) and only last year began my so far most promising project that I haven't abandoned so far either ;)

I've found this site via twitter and Jubal's interactions with the #screenshotsaturday community and decided to post dev updates here occasionally. The more I look at this site though the more it reminds me of my favorite part of nerd life, which was last decade when classic forums were more popular and the people in them more tightly knit, too. A lot of this has been sacrificed to the fast-paced ephemerality we see today; I miss things like the battle for middle earth fan forums I was part of back then and the like. It looks like your project here has a lot of similarities with the online communities I've known to love as a child, which all had a bit of a magical aura I haven't found anymore since then. Maybe I was just growing old, but your site looks promising in that regard to bring back a part of it, so I'm looking forward to visiting regularily :)

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Computer Game Development - The Indie Alley / Re: Devlog: Cogito Colony, a Sci-Fi metroidvania with some unique mechanics
« on: January 04, 2018, 09:48:44 AM »
Looking back on the holiday season up until now, I can say that tons of progress have been made!

Melee combat overhaul!
Melee animation slow-mode
Aurora borealis background shader - procedural and non-looping!

Next week I will start my new job, so dev speed is a bit slower compared to holidays and university before, but I will keep at it :)

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Computer Game Development - The Indie Alley / Re: Devlog: Cogito Colony, a Sci-Fi metroidvania with some unique mechanics
« on: December 16, 2017, 10:31:38 AM »
Thanks! The above piece is just the "title theme" and may appear in varying versions in other parts of the game, but there will be a lot of other tracks for gameplay. As far as that is concerned:

- Bosses will all get their own unique battle theme, of course.
- Special, scripted sequences (if there are any) likewise.
- Normal gameplay areas will mostly have their unique ambience and background themes going on. Because of the frequency that basic enemies are being encountered (and defeated!), dynamic transitions *might* end up being too jarring, especially when SFX blasts at full force during intense combat.

More goodies!
Stresstesting - https://gfycat.com/MarvelousQuarterlyArachnid
Even faster room transitions - https://gfycat.com/ImperfectTallCopperhead


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