The Fall of the Dungeon Guardians
  • Home
    • Home
    • Post List
  • Buy the Game
  • About
    • About
    • Reviews
    • Gallery
    • Video
    • FAQ / Troubleshooting
    • Recommended Computer Specifications
    • Download Press Kit (PR / Screenshots / Logos)
  • Contact
  • Forum
  • Mana Games

43rd Weekly Update : Harder than you think !

Posted on September 27, 2015 by manutoo
Final version of the Character Sheet & Inventory

Final version of the Character Sheet & Inventory

Ouch ouch ! Creating video games is harder than you think. Creating a good video trailer is harder than I think..! :mrgreen:

So this week, I spent most of my time on the video trailer, which made me realize that I’m no Stanley Kubrick.1

At 1st, I thought about doing a trailer listing & demonstrating all the main features of the game. A lot of Indie games do trailers like that. It’s relatively easy to design, it requires almost only normal game footage, and it’s efficient at presenting the game.

But then I thought it wasn’t the right way for Dungeon Guardians. DG is an adventure, an experience, more than a list of features. So I decided I should do a trailer telling a story, to connect more emotionally with the viewer and let him want to know more about the game afterwards. Ok, it sounded like a great idea, but how was I supposed to do that, especially with very limited assets outside of game footage ?! So with more hard thinking, I designed a decent storyboard, starting with the intro sequence from the game and going into some distinguishable elements of the game (exploration, fights, puzzles).

I found a freelance motion designer to edit all that, but unfortunately, it seems he’s no Stanley Kubrick either. He gave me about 0 idea nor feedback for make the storytelling of the trailer compelling, so I had to do all the thinking by myself. :-?

Fortunately, he has a good artistic sense and he’s able to do nice effects & edit, so the final result should be good.

But with the 1st cut, I discovered a huge issue : basic track shots & rotating shots done manually with the mouse look awfully not smooth & unnatural in a trailer ! So I started by adding mouse smoothing. The result was already significantly better, but any movement done with the free camera mode of the map editor was still awkwardly linear & abrupt. I then added a system of recording & replaying waypoints and added a special curved interpolation between them. Tada, finally, professional camera movements ! :mrgreen:

So now, I’m waiting for the final cut from the motion designer and hoping the result will be good. Once done, I’ll be able to publish the game on Steam Greenlight, as I wrote the long & detailed description of the game this week.

Except the trailer, I wasn’t able to work on the Race bonus because my mind was not set to it (it happens!). So instead, I started to implement the payment & delivery process. It’s based on a Key system like for my tennis games, but with a simplified installation process.

Ok, so here’s the plan for this new week : get the game on Greenlight, do some PR to let the world knows about Dungeon Guardians, polish a few things in the game,2 add the Race bonus (this is one has been running away for weeks, now!). If I manage to do all that, then 1 week later, I should be able release the game !3  :-)

Cya next week.


  1. or maybe I’m the Stanley Kubrick of before he learned anything about movie ; who knows, maybe he’s started by doing crappy videos ! :-P  ↩

  2. mostly: give the possibility to write notes on the map ↩

  3. with the Rogue class missing ; it’ll be added a couple of weeks later ↩

FacebookTwitterGoogle+RedditEmailShare
Posted in Development Diary, Marketing, Weekly Update |
« 42nd Weekly Update : GUI Done !
Official Trailer ! »

Leave a comment Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
You can also log in with your Forum account.

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

Protected by WP Anti Spam

Facebook Comments

comments

Like us on Facebook

Recent Posts

  • Post-Mortem January 13, 2018
  • Afterlife : Updates & Marketing July 10, 2017
  • Gameplay Post Mortem : Meet the Idiots September 3, 2016
  • Technical Post Mortem : Building a game with Unity3D Engine February 21, 2016
  • Final Weekly Update : Treasure Hunt January 13, 2016
September 2015
M T W T F S S
« Aug   Oct »
 123456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
282930  

Recent Comments

  • BabyManuu on Gameplay Post Mortem : Meet the Idiots
  • manutoo on Gameplay Post Mortem : Meet the Idiots
  • BabyManuu on Gameplay Post Mortem : Meet the Idiots
  • manutoo on Gameplay Post Mortem : Meet the Idiots
  • BabyManuu on Gameplay Post Mortem : Meet the Idiots

Categories

  • Development Diary (64)
  • Game Design (11)
  • Marketing (14)
  • Milestone (15)
  • Weekly Update (55)

Archives