DevLog_001

The first DevLog entry, time to explain and present what I have in mind:

My idea is to make an action-adventure game that unfolds around the core mechanics of the Playstation 1 Silent Hill and Resident Evil games. So fixed camera angles, limited ammunition and health items, puzzle-solving, emphasis on atmosphere and ambience, psychological horror and everything else I love about these games (and is worth keeping) will be implemented.

I also opt for low-poly models and low-resolution textures (128px 4bit) to create a graphic style that is reminiscent of the PS1 era but I will obviously take as well advantage of modern technology so it won't be rendered in low res, will have better lighting, a higher scene poly count, a more pleasant (or optimized) gameplay system, and so on. I like to think of it as a Playstation 1 on steroids.

I won't tell much about the story at this point or why I chose "Mantis" to be the project title, because for now I only have the main concept in my head that will be the core of the plot and I don't want to give it away just now. I'll give updates at a given time. For now there are only ideas in my head that need to be sorted and worked out. Don't expect anything too crazy though.

Now to the current status:

I started working with Unity and Blender just about 3 weeks ago and for the most part I learned how to work with these programs by watching tutorials and practice what I've learned so far as well as learning how to program in C#. At first I thought it will take quite a while to achieve what I have in mind, like modelling and texturing assets, animate, building prototypes, etc., but was surprised to see that both programs are quite user friendly and intuitive so even just after a week I was able to create a scene in Blender that met my expectations. I know... it's low-poly and low-res texture stuff...  simple things... but I'm still proud of myself. And I know that there's still a long way to go and that certain things will be more complicated but this got me hyped up anyway but I won't underestimate the effort I'll have to put in.

I then continued to create my first game assets and put together the following simple scene in Blender.

This is supposed to be a lobby of a police department (possible 2nd level of the game) and it's sole purpose was to establish the art style and to see how the game might look like. Walls are obviously missing and the lighting is just a generic point light.

I also tried to model and animate my first character but in the end and with the texture of dear Harry Mason it looks more like a possible monster than a main character so I'll definitely need to improve on that.

In Unity I started to create the first couple of prototypes that include the basic movement, camera controllers and the flashlight.

In the video you can (hopefully) see that I've implemented Tank Controls as well as 3D Controls that are mapped on the D-Pad (Tank) and on the Left-Stick (3D) so the player can choose whatever he prefers to use or can switch between them in an instant so you can have the best of both worlds. The flashlight can be toggled with the B or Circle Button and the camera controller works as desired (even though the trigger zones are not placed optimally but that's fine for the prototype).

By the way, I will most of the time refer to a controller as an input device because it's my preferred input device for this type of game but I will also make sure that everything works good on keyboard and mouse as well.

So what's next ?

Since I plan on writing a DevLog every week I will set myself a couple of weekly goals to achieve in my given time. This week I want to work on my character modelling and animation skills, so I want to create a couple of monsters with walking animations as well as giving my dummy a running and walking backwards animation.

In Unity I will go on with a couple of new prototypes that will feature the running as well as the transitions between rooms, interaction with objects, etc. It's really hard for me to measure what I can possibly achieve in a week but I think that sound about right.

The most important part is to start develop the story and plot because it's essential to create the actual game and to work on environments, design, puzzle / game architecture, etc. Even though I will need quite some time to learn and improve on techniques in Blender and Unity before I actually assemble and develop the game I feel for now that the story might become a bottleneck sooner or later so it's best advised to start working on it early and give it the time it needs to become a solid, well-conceived story and nothing rushed.

That's that with the first DevLog entry, next one will follow next Sunday.

Now if you've made it through here, thank you for reading and for your interest and if you have any advice, opinion, question, critique or anything else to say please let me know in the comments!

See you next time!