FadeWalker
Peter joined
FadeWalker Games is currently developing their first game. From the depths of a smoke filled basement they toil. Shrouded in darkness they worship the pixel gods. Bent on controlling the mysterious powers of the indie beast !
My Blogs
The web version of PicBlox is now live on Wooglie.com. It is the first game I have completed with the Unity engine and I am very excited to announce that it is now available online. PicBlox is a 3D picross game. Challenge your logic to determine which blocks must be removed to reveal the hidden object inside!
This version includes ten challenging levels, with ten hidden objects to discover. The winter blue colors and gentle snow set a relaxing atmosphere to improve your concentration and enjoyment. For players who are just stopping by on their lunch break, it has a convenient level load feature. Which returns you to the beginning of the last puzzle you reached.
Here's hoping game fans and developers alike have a great holiday. Filled with friends, family and the comforting sounds of new electronics. Congratulations to Minecraft, Limbo, Mount and Blade and all the others who made 2010 a great year for Indie Games!
Time to take a few days off to celebrate, see you all in the new year.
Things are progressing well in Indie Dev land. Labyrinth of Despair is beginning to take shape. The parts and pieces are coming together into unity. The player is moving, the walls are standing, the traps are buzzing and the spider web is sticky.
Here is a very first look into the Labyrinth of Despair.
WASD = Movement
Space = Jump
Shift = Crawl
click here to check out the Web Demo !
This week I wanted to step back from talking about development on Labyrinth of Despair, and gush a little over the software that is making it happen. I went to college many years ago, to learn a program called Alias Power Animator. Half way through the school year, the college upgraded to a strange program called Maya. Maya 1.0 was buggy and very incomplete, but I took it home to bed one night and by the morning it was my mistress. I have been a loyal Maya user ever since. For any professional work I have done. But as a freelancer, I don't own a license of Maya. I usually contract with companies who do. So when I began down the road of indie game developer, I needed a solution. And it had to be cheap.
Thats when Blender walked into my life. We had crossed paths before but it wasn't love at first sight. I admired her strengths, her UV's were very appealing. Something Maya falters at still. But the workflow was cumbersome and time consuming when compared to the speed at which I could create content with Maya. Earlier this year I took a spin of the 2.5 Alpha version. I was impressed, it felt more like home. The UI was so much improved. But it was Alpha software and it showed. Incomplete and buggy.
I decided to wait. And I'm glad I came back for a look. The recent release, 2.55 Beta looked production ready. With over 300 bug fixes and 99% functionality I decided to test it in my workflow. First thing first, it asked me if I wanted a Maya like workflow. I said yes please ! I started with modelling, and was impressed. Creating the UV maps for my models was just as I remember in Blender, a dream. Then I began weighing and animation tests. Heres where I expected to hit a wall, a show stopper. But, to my surprise, it excelled. Animating in the time line felt like an old shoe. The dope sheet is easy to use and very powerful. The weight painting was actually easier and the resulting deformations were very nice. The armatures are easy to create, mirror and skin. I am blown away.
The final test. Exporting an .fbx file into Unity and seeing if it all goes BOOM! Select the mesh, select the armature, file / export / fbx, export to asset folder of current project, launch Unity, fingers crossed .. ... ... Asset imported automatically! I drop it into my scene, set up the animation loops and there it is, perfect!
I may be gushing a bit over an old sock. But I don't see a lot of blender love in these parts. In fact I couldn't even find a blender group on this site. Maybe I simply missed it, But it should be front and center. Blender is up to the task of game development, it seems, and deserves some hype.
The bulk of the work this week on LoD has been the weighting of character meshes. While dreading the act of staring at vertices for hours on end, good weighting is just as important as beautiful textures. If it moves wrong, the illusion is dead and we, as designers, fail.
A properly weighted model is a joy to animate. And we are super excited for the point when we have some animation tests to show off. The project really begins to come to life at that point. And hopefully that excitement rubs of on the fans of the project, of course!
Until then, Cheers!
FadeWalker Games is proud to announce that development has begun on their first game, Labyrinth of Despair. Currently under development for the PC and Mac. LoD is a third person action puzzle platform game. In LoD you, the player, are challenged to navigate the perilous labyrinth seeking your way to freedom. The endless system of tunnels is wrought with traps and puzzles to bar you escape. To test your steel and resolve you are also stalked by a great beast of legend, the indomitable Minotaur of Dekar.
Game Features
- 3rd person action puzzle platform adventure.
- randomly linked maze section provide a challenge to solve and increase replay value.
- No health bar – Get hurt in a trap and risk death, crawling is no way to outrun a minotaur!
- Modern graphic engine with beautifully rendered realtime environments.
- Trump system – Cynical talking statues provide clues and misdirection along your journey. You will need keen logic, a thick skin and a bit of luck to decipher their clues.
- Leader Boards Online – How long can you survive in The Labyrinth of Despair! Post your best times for the world to see.
More to come !
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