#farjay

So invisible walls, just what do they have to do with a bear game?

Well when making an exploration game, be you a bear or not, you need to make sure people don't go where they aren't supposed to and fall off the map into an endless pit. How do you accomplish this task? Why it's probably invisible walls/colliders!

Look at this scene:

There's something off about it right? That's right, horrible invisible walls are there and you wouldn't even notice. Here is the same scene with the colliders visible:

These are everywhere but hopefully I placed them correctly so it won't interrupt your bear experience while keeping you from going somewhere you aren't supposed to.

Here's what all the colliders in the lake region look like from above:

The hardest region to setup these colliders in was most def the Mountain region since while the easiest was the caves, hardly had to put any walls there since it mainly consisted of tubes.

Contrary to popular belief you can't just add a game model to a game and expect it to work. No, sort of like a pet cat or dog you have to tell it what to do or else it will pee on your carpet.

Anyway let's say you are making a game and you want a box in it to turn red when you push a button like the spacebar. Using the C# programming language here's how you accomplish that:

You'd just attach this script to a model to make it work.

It's an extremely simple script but it should give you a general idea of how scripts and models work with one another. For a more complicated example this is the script that makes the chicken work:

Had to write a script for all the different bear related things in this game but some could be shared, the collectable foods all shared the same script with just different values. Though I was able to get help with some of them and worked off templates for the more complicated things. The largest script was the “Save Game” script, it was over 4000 lines long:

Fun times writing and debugging that.

If you want to learn how to write scripts go here. It looks complicated but it's actually quite simple once you figure out how it works.

So one of the Kickstarter rewards in this bear game was to deface an innocent tree with a message of terror. Let's check some them yo.

Apparently not everyone wanted a message of terror, instead, a heart message like so:

What I did first was draw/type the general layout, add some notches to make it look carved then add some effects:

After making a texture out of it I just put it on a tree in the preferred region, this one is at the lake:

Going to print an in-game screenshot, doll it up, frame it in a fancy frame and send it to them which should be neat? Another person wanted a similar themed message:

And then there’s this unruly submission:

But it would appear an upstanding individual came along and rightfully scratched out the foul word:

Much better.

The mountain region, Calypso Mountains, named after the character in the third Pirates of the Caribbean movie (don't ask why) is probably the strangest region. It has, by-far went through the most amount of changes during development.

Originally starting out as a snowy region, it was changed to dry area covered in mist with strange constructs.

You can also try climbing the mountain in the center. What lies at the top? I'm not going to tell you and ruin the surprise come on.

The creatures here are fully adapted to the region with some being changed by environmental effects. Others have no reason for being at this altitude.

There is definitely more than meets the eye to this region.

...That wasn't a Transformers reference.

…

Hi, uhh. ...OH. Update time. Still working on an assortment of things, I shift focus from one thing to another every so often. For example at one point I'll be working on the terrain, then I'll move onto web stuff, next I'll go onto texturing/modeling. It's an okay system that keeps me from getting bored/going mad but it means everything is in unfinished pieces.

Need to move onto implementing backer submissions which is why I need to finish a Kickstarter update post to go along with it. But you can't just have a boring text-only update, you need to spruce it up with fancy artwork, take this header sneak peak for example:

General Updates:

I have things I want to show off but I'm just waiting on stuff. See, I want to save most of the screenshots for the website/Steam, I want to save some of the new features and videos for when the game is on Steam Greenlight for promotions, saving behind the scene's stuff and other oddities for the Bear Book, and so forth.

Speaking about the Bear Book, still trying to figure out what content to post on these updates/social media and what to save for the Bear Book.

Totally forgot that I made a sweet preview thing for my last update and never posted it anywhere so I'm posting it here:

I made a facebook page for this game studio right here. All the other hip game studios have one so I wanted to fit in.

https://www.facebook.com/FarjayStudios

Not sure what I'll post there tho.

Game Updates:

Been tinkering with water a lot. Both underwater and overwater.

Got those Lost references done. Check the sonar fence:

Kickstarter Island is coming along nicely. It's been remade into a cozy island that's set in perpetual autumn. There will be more info in the kickstarter update but here's a peak at the entrance sign that will greet you in the Kickstarter Art Musuem:

GENERAL QUESTIONS:

DRM: I'm not going to put any DRM on the game wtf you guys. (I don't think Steam counts as DRM.)

Steam: Even though it would make things a whole lot easier it's not a sure thing that the game will be on steam. Saving promotional stuff for when I put it on Greenlight in hopes it would build up hype and get people to vote for it. (also Gaben pls)

Price: The game is probably going to be $15.

The Game's Theme: I'm not taking this 100% realistically. I'm aiming for a tounge-in-cheek bear adventure game.

Release: I'm definitely trying to get the game out before the holidays.

Polar Bears!: I'm going to save polar bears for a later game update, they won't in be on release. I think that's for the best, it will let me dedicate time for a worthwhile polar bear addition.

Second Chance to get Kickstarter rewards: I'll eventually set up a paypal thing so people can get some of the backer rewards for a limited time.

Wrapping Up:

Anywho, working on a Kickstarter Update and sending backer surveys. I WILL ACCOMPLISH IT SOON AND IF I DON'T I WILL EAT AN ENTIRE LEMON RIND AND ALL.

Also I want to ship out physical rewards asap to get that out of the way.

Uh, hi, hello, how are you? John here with another enthralling progress report, I don't know why the f I'm calling it “A New Beginning” but anyways, I ditched the whole fancy-progress-report-compressed-in-a-image because that wasn't a good idea at all, for many numerous reasons.

First of all I redid the studio site (I'm gonna update it after I post this), the logo and made a sweet banner up there. I tried to make the banner look similar to Zeal from Chrono Trigger because that was by far the best location in any game of all time ever. Seriously, check this:

I think the site looks okay, it's p bright and cheerful, it has a sidebar and a few pages with info game studios tend to have, it's got sweet social media buttons up there, posts are displayed simple enough with a share button for facebook/twitter/google. Someone told me to add a “Pin to Pinterest” button but I don't know wtf pinterest is.

General Updates:

I really need to friggen make a Kickstarter update for some news and such since I don't know how many of the backers are actually reading these updates plus it's been a while. Also need to send out backer surveys before the end of this month because I said I would in the last update(!)

Got entirely fed up with web stuff so I went through a web design crash course. I read this entire site here and learned Adobe Muse. Tried getting help with it but that hasn't worked out at all so I was like, “Bah, I'll just do it myself, you have stood in my way for long enough web stuff!”

I was planning on doing a lot of different kinds of advertisements and updates but realized I can't do that so much during development. It's difficult to make updates and stuff when no one can play the game. Going to save all the stuff I have planned for after the game is done/close to being done.

Game Updates:

Check out the sweet new in-game Bear Arms #SweetBearArmsYo

The new Bear Arms are actually scientifically accurate in scale, shape and color. Because I only want the best bear arms in my bear game. Got all the animations for them done too, made a variety of anims for every occasion. #Hype4AnimatedBearArms

Oh Em Gee you guys, there's DIVING. #OhEmGee

You can bear dive for how ever long you can hold your breath as determined by the DIVE bear stat. This makes adding secret areas all the more fun and made the Coast Region open to grander possibilities so I'm hella excite. (Yes I realize bears don't usually dive but it's fun so shush.)

I was trying to make it so when you look down when standing you can see your bear feet but can't get it to look/work right. #SadNews

Progress:

Going to tell you some of what I actually have done thus far.

Got the bear control all done, you can crawl, run and walk around on 2 legs, all of which give allow for different abilities. Also there's swimming, climbing, swiping and more.

Made a sweet new teaser trailer, I'll premiere it when I put the game on Steam Greenlight and send out beta testing for beta testers. I was thinking about making a teaser of the teaser trailer but that might be too meta.

The game's new promotional stuff like the title page and logo are done along with all the art for the physical rewards, stickers, bear card, etc. They're all crazy high resolution too. Sneak peak of the new title:

The Hub Region, the Mountain Region, the Lake Region and the Caves are all done. (Doesn't necessarily mean they're playable, they're still dependent on a bunch of other things that aren't finished.)

Found a delicate balance between good graphics and good performance. That was crazy complicated. Friggen culling, colliders, all that jazz, y u gotta be so complicated.

Finished the “Backer List” for the game's website which I'm relativity proud of. Going to post a teaser of it on muh twitter.

Conclusion:

At the moment I'm focused on making a playable version for Beta Testers, writing a Kickstarter update, sending out backer surveys to get backer info and putting the game on Steam Greenlight. Need to put it on there asap but I also have to finish the beta test so other people can play it and judge it first.

Another thing I've been concerned about with this whole thing is what if I end up making a sub par bear game? CAN YOU IMAGINE THE HUMILIATION AND SHAME IF I DID?! People will be like:

“Hey there's the person who made that sub-par bear game. How embarrassing.”

SEE, I'M TAKING EVERY STEP TO AVOID THAT RIGHT THERE

Merry belated progress report day!