ImaginaryVillain

ImaginaryVillain

Veteran
High Cultist of the Sporkle
Joined
Last seen
Viewing forum list
Messages
913
Reaction score
5,568
Points
93
Medals
0

Profile posts Latest activity Postings About

  • ImaginaryVillain
    It's funny, the only reason I haven't actually released a prototype or demo is not that I don't have one. Hahahahahaha I do, I've had a prototype for months. I'm really just concerned with someone taking it, and putting it up on Steam or something first, then saying it's theirs. I should probably look into setting all that up or something... Then again, I have no ETA on the full game so not sure it's worth it yet.
    View previous comments…
    The Stranger
    The Stranger
    I would. Forget jumping through all those hoops just to sell a hobby game for a couple of quid on my own, rather let a publisher enjoy a slice of the pie and let them take care of all that nonsense. Selling things shouldn't be such a chore. It should be as simple as offering something for sale, then exchanging money.
    ImaginaryVillain
    ImaginaryVillain
    If only, unfortunately the government exists to make life hard for business owners. I've already got one business, I'm not looking forward to dealing with taxes for a second one. Of course convincing a publisher to take me on is no easy task either. So the business route might be the only available step. Time will tell, I'm not in a major hurry.
    The Stranger
    The Stranger
    There's a few indie publishers who seem easier to deal with. They'l also take care of all the related Steam crap. A good publisher should take care of a bunch of stuff for you.
    ImaginaryVillain
    Hmm.... So I can use my quick ports of QPlugins, but QMovement breaks MZ's save system. Or I can use the Luna port of the QPlugins whose QMap breaks MZ's save system. I can't decide I want to fix one of those, or just make a new save system. The new one would look so much better.. I'm kind of tempted. :LZSexcite:
    ImaginaryVillain
    and_remember_tomorrow_exploding_puzzle_logo.jpg

    Made some new friends, and blew up a puzzle... Happens. :LZSwink:
    • Like
    • Wow
    Reactions: Hyouryuu-Na and Dalph
    View previous comments…
    Dalph
    Dalph
    The characters and their design look cool, good job.
    BK-tdm
    BK-tdm
    I see some willy wonka-ish, i agree in alice in sparkland :kaohi:
    ImaginaryVillain
    ImaginaryVillain
    I've been so tempted to rename the character Alice and just advertise it as a Steampunk Alice in Wonderland... It would immediately give me access to two different fan bases due to instant recognition. If I just started the project right now... It would so be that. Honestly it might still.
    ImaginaryVillain
    Daz3D has the weirdest number scheme for model generations...
    Genesis 4 is the 4th generation and oldest currently available, Genesis 1 is the 5th generation, Genesis 2 is the 6th, 3 is the 7th.... And then it goes Genesis 8. So 4, 1, 2, 3, 8. So when looking through there store you have to remember that sometimes they'll say 6 but they mean 3, and vice versa. :kaoswt:
    • Like
    Reactions: orochi2k
    ImaginaryVillain
    ImaginaryVillain
    Oh I almost forgot.... Then they just released Genesis 8.1... because reasons. It's like their model generations were named by Square Enix or something. :LZSwink:
    yoluko
    It's because prior to introducing genesis they just had model numbers next to their character names. i.e. Victoria 4 is the model before genesis, so Victoria 5 = genesis, and so on. That's why they jumped to 8, so that the two number systems were the same
    ImaginaryVillain
    ImaginaryVillain
    Huh, learn something new everyday. Thanks! :LZSexcite:
    ImaginaryVillain
    Well.... If you're wondering what my game was missing... It was animated hair. See? :LZSexcite:
    • Like
    Reactions: orochi2k, Makeratore, Featherbrain and 1 other person
    View previous comments…
    ImaginaryVillain
    ImaginaryVillain
    Haha, that's fair. With Half Minute Hero as a gameplay inspiration, I realized the game would be way too fast for a lot of people. The funny part is I actually slowed it down. It used to be the portal would float towards the Nihil and if it ate it you died. So instead of the map being gone in about 1 minute 40 seconds, you had around 50 seconds to bring a hourglass back. :LZSwink:
    ImaginaryVillain
    ImaginaryVillain
    As for the depth illusion, it's not as hard as you think. I just checked the $gamePlayer.y against the center of map's Y, then if it was less I subtracted an increment times the difference. If it was higher, I added instead. Then I took the result and applied it to the picture's height and width. As my character is just the result of "flipbooking" images, I just tell the next image to have that new height and width.
    ImaginaryVillain
    ImaginaryVillain
    As for the tutorials.... Er... whenever I find the time I guess? Listen.. Hair physics and learning Daz. :LZSwink: Also thanks! :LZSexcite:
    ImaginaryVillain
    Oh no! I found the hair controls for Daz... Does my character need long hair blowing in the wind? Well no.... Am I now going to spend hours making the perfect run animation with where it does? You better believe it! :LZSexcite:
    • Haha
    • Like
    Reactions: Nenen, Shaz, orochi2k and 4 others
    View previous comments…
    ImaginaryVillain
    ImaginaryVillain
    Haha nah, it's honestly just a large project and I run my own normal business (50-60 hours a week) as well. Combine that with my initial starting knowledge of programming being "Hey what's a variable?", no experience in any other facet of game design, and me being a solo dev... Yeah I don't think anybody was expecting a short timetable for completion. I know I wasn't. :LZSwink:
    Shaz
    Shaz
    lol - you're not helping matters any, either! :p
    ImaginaryVillain
    ImaginaryVillain
    Well I mean... You're not wrong. :kaoswt: But listen.... think of the hair options Shaz! The hair! :LZSexcite:
    • Haha
    Reactions: Shaz
    ImaginaryVillain
    and_remember_tomorrow_collapsing_map.jpg

    So I had the lighting plugin off for testing, and I forgot how cool the disintegrating map is... I mean it's usually just shrouded in darkness. I also learned that the Lighting plugin is the heaviest effect... Follow by QMovement. But do you know what's weirdly not heavy? My character being literally 60 images every second. Not going to lie, I would have lost that bet. :kaoback:
    ImaginaryVillain
    There's apparently a joy I never knew existed..... Creating 8 directions of animation (224 frames), only to discover one pose was 10 degrees off so the whole thing wobbles. Oh well, only half a hour of rendering to fix it. :kaoswt:
    ImaginaryVillain

    So er... yeah... about Daz3D. :LZScool:
    • Like
    Reactions: EpicFILE, Dalph and The Stranger
    View previous comments…
    ImaginaryVillain
    ImaginaryVillain
    I linked you the 4 minute video that explains how to animate stuff. It's literally open the timeline, click keyframe, pose the character. Go to a later frame, click keyframe then pose the character differently. It will then automatically create the frames between. As a bonus Daz comes with a lot of free premade poses, so you can just click those. :LZSwink:
    ImaginaryVillain
    ImaginaryVillain
    @BK-tdm Actually, this is one of the first instances where it's an eventing problem. See it's spawning them in, and they essentially running multiple proximity checks with priority given to the portal, then the paths, then denial mode. However it only runs that check every other frame to reduce strain, which means they kind of jerk a bit.
    ImaginaryVillain
    ImaginaryVillain
    I'll have to devise a solution, often I just use a ticker instead of the not very good wait command. But here that would give the same result. It's possible I could have them check multiple times every handful of frames and stack movements. So this way they're still moving while the wait happens... Hmm... I'll come up with something.
    ImaginaryVillain
    I decided to teach myself Daz3D tonight. :LZScool:
    and_remember_tomorrow_new_character.jpg

    ...This may eventually lead to me creating models for my game, we shall see... I still need to figure out how to export the animation frames. Soon though, soon I won't need a silly inbetweener.. It will be just legit animations. :LZSexcite:
    • Like
    Reactions: Quexp, Hyouryuu-Na, The Stranger and 2 others
    View previous comments…
    ImaginaryVillain
    ImaginaryVillain
    You should see the thousands of dollars worth of stuff I have on the Epic Store, both in free games and Unreal Engine assets. Man I wish I'd realized about the free Unreal stuff sooner. I was on the silly platform six months before I noticed... So much free swag lost! :kaocry:
    The Stranger
    The Stranger
    EPIC just giving games away without tying it to a sub like Playstation does with PS+ - if you drop your PS+ sub, you lose all your free games. Not that simply having free games forever is a bad thing. I know I have a bunch of games on GoG simply because they were free. I have no intention of ever playing them. lol.
    ImaginaryVillain
    ImaginaryVillain
    At this point.... I only open Steam for RM. But Epic doesn't even have my financial info, I've never paid them anything. I have absolutely no idea what their end game is. But I'm down with free, plus they give out some really great games! :kaoback: ...Though I've only played like 2 of the literally 100+ game's they've given me... I take them all though.:LZSwink:
    ImaginaryVillain
    and_remember_tomorrow_omnia_tea_fields.jpg

    I've only made half the assets for the next randomly generated area and it already looks crazy! :LZSexcite:

    This area I'm going to experiment more with the blocks themselves having behaviors and particles. I don't see any reason the randomly generated areas can't have moving parts on stuff as well. :LZSwink:
    ImaginaryVillain
    I'm considering doing a video series on how I make maps, including collision, lighting and particles. Would anybody be interested? It won't be for the faint of heart as it's going to require the use of... QPlus, QMovement, QMap, QM-Collision Map, QMap Editor, Particle Emitter, Particle Emitter's Online Editor, Community Lighting and an Event Spawner of your choice.
    ImaginaryVillain

    No edits, just gameplay from one area to the next. Plus all my new shiny interface stuff... And I even remember to bolt down the portal so it won't escape this time. :kaopride:
    ImaginaryVillain
    and_remember_tomorrow_more_redesigns_4.jpg

    edit: The complete redesign of my player HUD, Time rewind message, mini map and puzzle map.... I'll toss up an animated version later. :LZSexcite:
    • Like
    Reactions: dreamfall887, Quexp, EpicFILE and 1 other person
    BK-tdm
    BK-tdm
    You only mentioned one particle effect, thats way less than expected go and add more particles :p
    ImaginaryVillain
    ImaginaryVillain
    Oh don't worry, there's always time to toss in more particles. :LZSwink:

    Also I ended up liking the Time Rewind red so much, that I colored them all that way. Much more striking and easier to see over the levels, plus it's a bit more sinister. :LZSexcite:
    • Haha
    Reactions: BK-tdm
    ImaginaryVillain
    ImaginaryVillain
    In hindsight... I could have probably made them all smaller initially. Turns out each one is a 42x42 map.... And far too intricate to even show the kind of detail I put in. Not going to lie... I'm sooooo going to sneak them into maps later. With that much work put in, it would almost be silly not to. :kaoswt:
    • Like
    Reactions: Quexp
    ImaginaryVillain

    I should probably step away from the sparkles... but they're soooooooo shiny! :kaoswt:

    Anyway stuff of note:
    New interface.
    The puzzle pieces now a build a puzzle in the upper right corner.
    The Nihil is represented by the line with skulls. That represents where the map no longer exists at the moment.
    • Like
    Reactions: Juanita Star
    View previous comments…
    BK-tdm
    BK-tdm
    What do you mean with "non-particle enemies"? Everything must have particles and sparkles, everything.
    ImaginaryVillain
    ImaginaryVillain
    That's true, I could add particles to each enemy even though they're animated. :LZSexcite: I also need to make my own particle system so the particles can appear in the picture layers, then I can make a tiny version of the particle appear on the mini map as well. :LZScool:
    BK-tdm
    BK-tdm
    And then you add particles to the particles for the ultimate sparkly experience.
    ImaginaryVillain
    darkest_timeline.jpg
    • Haha
    • Like
    • Love
    Reactions: BK-tdm, TrentL111, Juanita Star and 6 others
    View previous comments…
    Hyouryuu-Na
    Hyouryuu-Na
    Probably the best to stay optimistic about the situation. So let's hope it actually is a rebranding even though deleting everything without leaving a hint seems too drastic. I hope everything's fine on their end.
    ImaginaryVillain
    ImaginaryVillain
    Oh I know the truth, Mog's.....
    //Knocking at the door
    ...Oh hey one sec, my pizza's here. :LZSexcite:
    //Goes off to get the door, shouting is heard, along with sounds of a scuffle, then a loud thump and silence.
    //An obviously different voices responds.
    Yes, I hope Mog is fine too.
    Juanita Star
    Juanita Star
    Same, really xD hope everything turns allright.
    ImaginaryVillain

    Swag collecting in the new randomly generated area. Now the mini map also shows the randomly generated features... And even illustrates the whole "bubble" system" that I made to manage memory... Though that part's inadvertent. We'll just call that "the fog of war"... Yes, that's what we'll do. Nobody will be the wiser! :kaopride:
    ImaginaryVillain
    and_remember_tomorrow_beside_myself.jpg

    The worst part about making custom stuff is, I can't really ask any of you why a second copy of the character randomly appears only when going SW, S, or SE and changing directions. Been bugging me for the last two days. On the plus side, look at the new random map pieces I made while thinking about it.:LZSexcite:
    • Like
    Reactions: dreamfall887, Featherbrain and ScorchedGround
    View previous comments…
    ImaginaryVillain
    ImaginaryVillain
    @The Stranger Honestly... One of my favorite things about game design is the endless programming puzzles it creates. That's why I've gone so far off the deep end tinkering with stuff. :LZSexcite: Admittedly learning to code via breaking things in RM pretty much taught me to code like a 3rd rate hacker. So I'm much happier to just go around RM's awful programming than use it. :LZSwink:
    ImaginaryVillain
    ImaginaryVillain
    Alright... turns out that all I needed to do was tell my Image plugin itself to have a function that dynamically adjusts Z coordinates based on the target's Y coordinate and whatever number I wanted to adjust by... Instead of having my secondary plugin do it. Problem solved! :LZSexcite: Somewhere I in all that I messed up the jump animation though. :kaoswt: Oh well... after 5am here, don't care till later.
    Featherbrain
    Featherbrain
    I know what you mean. Having enough plugins will get you to the same point, too, but once you write your own stuff, you're truly on your own. But it's satisfying when you figure it out.
    ImaginaryVillain
    Here I am writing a jumping collision checker for QMovement's colliders, only to discover QM-Collision Map uses colors, not colliders to determine passability. :kaoback:

    Specifically it converts all colors to black, then runs checks to see if it finds a black pixel to stop player movement. Quxios is a mad genius. :LZSexcite:
    • Like
    Reactions: Bendyizzt
    Jragyn
    Jragyn
    That would explain much of the way he coded things (the mad genius part).
    ImaginaryVillain
    ImaginaryVillain
    The more I look into his code, the more I realize he really was on a whole other level.
    • Like
    Reactions: Jragyn
  • Loading…
  • Loading…
  • Loading…

Latest Threads

Latest Posts

Latest Profile Posts

Willibab
Willibab
cst.PNG
What would you assume this thing was/is?
•••
HexMozart88
HexMozart88
1623528827049.png
Ah yes. Just the reference I was looking for to use for my portrait. Thanks Google.
•••
AceOfAces_Mod
AceOfAces_Mod
•••
BCj
BCj
Made a logo for Mana Star :D
330bb1fde7bb06b13e23fefd83501163.png
•••
Puffer
Puffer
it's e3 season again..!
•••

Newest members

Forum statistics

Threads
112,175
Messages
1,066,354
Members
145,766
Latest member
Xescar
Top