Author Topic: Fantasy Crescendo ~ Rumble Dream Ensemble (Touhou Smash Bros.) (Read 74157 times)

Zhelot · « **Reply #180 on:** July 28, 2015, 12:08:16 AM »

+1 for Dream Crescendo ~ Border of Battle

I like the musical reference ^^

james7132 · « **Reply #181 on:** July 28, 2015, 04:27:20 PM »

We got a rather large update here!

First and foremost, we did a bit of compromise and landed on a final name of Fantasy Crescendo ~ Rumble Dream Ensemble (Sounds like a rhythm game, lol, but cool nonetheless). Took freaking forever to decide on a name, so we're sticking with it.

Second! We now have a character animator on the team, so custom animations for Marisa are coming. a small preview.

Third! Marisa's model is almost complete! Her eyes and hair have been updated. All that remains is just a bit of detailing.

Fourth! Almost all bugs mentioned in the demo have been fixed (except for that about canceling momentum on slopes, I can't seem to find the source of that bug).

Fifth! Networking! Yes, networking is underway, and we're likely to be using the Minecraft networking model: local games are played as a client-server combo, while full-on networked games will have either someone hosting a server, or one of the participants hosting the other participants.

Sixth! We've decided to do month demo releases, just to keep you guys up to date. The next expected demo release date is August 30th.

Seventh! Now that we have made a push for further animations, we're also looking for some people to help give some personality to the girls, so if you have a female (or female sounding) voice. Please consider helping by voice acting some bits. We also put an audition on the Voice Acting Alliance if anyone wants to take a look at that.

That's it, one hell of an update.

Fulisha of Light · « **Reply #182 on:** July 28, 2015, 09:10:57 PM »

Quote from: james7132 on July 28, 2015, 04:27:20 PM

Second! We now have a character animator on the team, so custom animations for Marisa are coming. a small preview.

Damn, that dress animation is really smooth

Savory · « **Reply #183 on:** July 28, 2015, 09:22:39 PM »

Quote from: james7132 on July 28, 2015, 04:27:20 PM

(Sounds like a rhythm game, lol)

You can say that again...

Quote from: james7132 on July 28, 2015, 04:27:20 PM

...so we're sticking with it.

For the time being. It's still tentative.

james7132 · « **Reply #184 on:** August 11, 2015, 12:42:07 AM »

Long time no update. We've gotten a decent amount done thus far.

Marisa is visually complete. She just needs to be animated now.

Speaking of animation, we've got an updated animation preview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRqset5IWjE.

With Marisa done, Reimu is also progressing nicely. Here's her side by side with Marisa.

and we've added a number of image effects to sharpen the look of the game in general. In constrast to the dryer still renders, Marisa looks rather vibrant in-game.

With why we've been silent for so long, it's because of the roadblocks we are starting to hit, and the lack of good "seeable" updates.

With animation, Jacob, our animator, ran into a big roadblock with the skirts/dresses that many Touhous like Marisa have. We initially were just going to do a vertex animation00, but we soon found out that it isn't supported by Unity (or many game engines for that matter). We then tested two different ideas of either boning her skirt (animation talk for adding effectors that deforms meshes like your bones and muscles deform your skin) and manually animating it, or using a simulation. This testing took a long time, and we soon found that cloth simulation was both very heavy for lower end computers and often produced a lot of clipping.

On the programming side of things, there's not much that can be seen per se. A lot of it has been working on underlying engine and editor work. I guess, one big thing is that we've worked out a dynamic damage and knockback formula. The other would be a nearly fully functioning hitbox/general character editor. I had designed a hitbox system that is too complicated and too tedious for normal use in unity. To make things easier for us to make in the coming future, I decided to dedicate some time to creating a editor for hitboxes, or characters in general, so people could create new characters without touching the code. I'll post a video on how to use this later.

Sagus · « **Reply #185 on:** August 11, 2015, 11:45:40 PM »

Looking good, pretty smooth animation and a nice range of alternate palletes for Marisa.

Reimu is looking good as well. Kinda disappointed she has the same face as Marisa but it's understandable that you wouldn't focus on changing it.

I'm wondering, will you guys animate facial expressions? I ask because I know it's a pretty damn challenging thing to do, and you guys seem to have your hands full already.

james7132 · « **Reply #186 on:** August 12, 2015, 04:19:07 AM »

Quote from: Sagus on August 11, 2015, 11:45:40 PM

Looking good, pretty smooth animation and a nice range of alternate palletes for Marisa.

Reimu is looking good as well. Kinda disappointed she has the same face as Marisa but it's understandable that you wouldn't focus on changing it.

I'm wondering, will you guys animate facial expressions? I ask because I know it's a pretty damn challenging thing to do, and you guys seem to have your hands full already.

You are right that faces aren't exactly the point of focus right now, though they are planned. It's not that they're extremely hard, just a bit time consuming for a smaller detail. It's just that there are far more important animations and systems to develop before hitting the details like that, like actual attack animations.

theoryofnekomata · « **Reply #187 on:** August 12, 2015, 08:08:43 AM »

Hello guys. I'm new to the forums. I'm seeing this thread on Facebook for some time, and I was wondering if you need more people working on this? I make music, so if you would like to include me in the team, it would be much appreciated.

BTW, here's my sample music: https://soundcloud.com/temoto-kun. I'm not limited to any specific genre on requests.

sagaciousCejai · « **Reply #188 on:** August 12, 2015, 06:05:25 PM »

Hey guys, this is looking really good so far!
One question I got for you guys: Do you think there will be any community influence on the character movesets (especially the special moves)?

james7132 · « **Reply #189 on:** August 12, 2015, 09:20:08 PM »

Quote from: sagaciousCejai on August 12, 2015, 06:05:25 PM

Hey guys, this is looking really good so far!
One question I got for you guys: Do you think there will be any community influence on the character movesets (especially the special moves)?

While I would like to say yes, we are already having trouble deciding on the movesets ourselves. We may have some submission process set up soon though. Hopefully when we get the Hourai Teahouse website up.

james7132 · « **Reply #190 on:** August 22, 2015, 09:06:48 PM »

I hate GUI design/programming. That is all.

Moogs Parfait · « **Reply #191 on:** August 22, 2015, 09:14:51 PM »

Yeah, it's awful 100% of the time.

ShadowNCS · « **Reply #192 on:** August 22, 2015, 09:25:17 PM »

Quote from: james7132 on August 22, 2015, 09:06:48 PM

I hate GUI design/programming. That is all.

I can relate. Nothing ever wants to look good on the first try, and things keep getting unaligned and stuff. ^^;
But once everything is done, you've got something nice to look at, so it's worth the trouble.

Helepolis · « **Reply #193 on:** August 23, 2015, 07:33:48 AM »

Confirming GUI / look / design is always major pain in the rear. For my game it took me also several iterations to get the "feeling" right. Don't break your mind too much about it.

Even major games change their GUI at a certain point in time. For example MMORPG.

Savory · « **Reply #194 on:** September 23, 2015, 11:43:22 PM »

Good news, everyone! We officially have a spot in AWA's Touhou Project panel this Friday! There will be a short 10-minute presentation on the game detailing its progress and future plans.

Reu · « **Reply #195 on:** October 11, 2015, 02:58:10 AM »

Quote from: Savory on September 23, 2015, 11:43:22 PM

Good news, everyone! We officially have a spot in AWA's Touhou Project panel this Friday! There will be a short 10-minute presentation on the game detailing its progress and future plans.

Is there any way to see this presentation?

Sombres · « **Reply #196 on:** October 11, 2015, 09:04:15 PM »

Quote from: Reu on October 11, 2015, 02:58:10 AM

Is there any way to see this presentation?

I wonder if they have anything recorded. In any case, they have a tweet showing a couple pictures, which I just remembered that it exists - https://twitter.com/HouraiTeahouse

Also, Sakuya and Youmu are confirmed, that's neat.

PS: Their twitter seems to be their primary update vehicle now due to it being easier to update to them. Those who follow this project should keep an eye on it.

james7132 · « **Reply #197 on:** October 12, 2015, 07:35:21 PM »

Man, you guys are literally everywhere.

Yeah, we've been stagnating a bit due to lots of IRL commitments and internal team shenanigans. I keep saying we should keep this thread updated, but it's becoming harder and harder as a lot of things we are working on right now is not visible to the eye.

I guess we have a few organizational updates: we have a public roadmap/to-do list if anyone is interested in what we all are currently doing right now. Hosted on our Trello. (We're so far behind schedule... TT_TT)

The hitbox system was a LOT harder than I previously estimated, and is what is requiring most of my attention, that and bugs are starting to crawl out of the woodwork. That aside, things are progressing, slowly, but progressing nonetheless.

I don't know about the rest of the team, but I definitely am easier to reach via email, reddit, or Twitter (arguably) than here.

james7132 · « **Reply #198 on:** October 17, 2015, 07:03:32 PM »

In lieu of not updating this thread enough. Here are some screenshots of our current progress.

Forest of Magic:

Very Rough Start to Hakurei Shrine:

Hitboxes:

It's taking a long time to get implement the hitboxes correctly. Especially when, we don't want it to end up looking like how FromSoySauce did it.

ShadowNCS · « **Reply #199 on:** October 17, 2015, 07:40:28 PM »

Quote from: james7132 on October 17, 2015, 07:03:32 PM

In lieu of not updating this thread enough. Here are some screenshots of our current progress.

Even if you don't update often, as long as you create a high quality product (and a game that you have fun creating, too), we're going to be fine with waiting a while in between updates. ^^
That said, the Forest of Magic looks pretty sweet! Keep up the good work!

Quote from: james7132 on October 17, 2015, 07:03:32 PM

It's taking a long time to get implement the hitboxes correctly. Especially when, we don't want it to end up looking like how FromSoySauce did it.

How bad could their code possibly be?
*checks it*
... 4500+ lines of code... in one class. How were they able to productively work in this mess of a code? O_o
Heck, they've got 170 lines of nothing but variable declaration. This should usually be a sign that tells you to split up your one class into multiple smaller ones... well, so does the 4500 line of code, to be fair.

Yeah, I think I'm talking for everyone if I say that we appreciate a slower development if it means more manageable classes/ code in the end. ^^;

james7132 · « **Reply #200 on:** October 18, 2015, 03:29:27 AM »

Quote from: ShadowNCS on October 17, 2015, 07:40:28 PM

Even if you don't update often, as long as you create a high quality product (and a game that you have fun creating, too), we're going to be fine with waiting a while in between updates. ^^

It's an inevitability that this happened. We did were doing fine until the complexity exploded and we suddenly realized some of the stuff we were imagining were well out of reach for a reasonable time scale., as per usual with most game development. Since there were no free tools to help develop the systems we needed, a lot of focus has been on working on a flexible system and a fast editor to help reduce development time, which is why there has been very little visible updates or public releases of builds.

Usually under the general strategy of development, we should, by now have a MVP, minimum viable product, of at least a playable match of some kind, which, somehow, we've completely ignored. However, we also don't want to rush development and create a crappy solution to a difficult problem, and stick with it until it becomes unmaintainable.

To that end, I somewhat blame myself, as the one who contributed 99%+ of the current codebase for creating a undocumented/uncommented mess. The code is well written, but it's not easy for others to jump straight into it and help out with. As a result, it's mostly just me working on the code right now, and while we do have others who said they would help with the game programming, not many have contributed much.

Quote from: ShadowNCS on October 17, 2015, 07:40:28 PM

... 4500+ lines of code... in one class. How were they able to productively work in this mess of a code? O_o

They didn't. Without proper tests (something we're also working on: automated testing), there were dozens of unsolvable bugs in the demo.

Quote from: ShadowNCS on October 17, 2015, 07:40:28 PM

Yeah, I think I'm talking for everyone if I say that we appreciate a slower development if it means more manageable classes/ code in the end. ^^;

As I said before, it's somewhat expected that development is slow: we're trying to make a cross between Touhou and a AAA game with a bunch of amateurs that met on the internet. This was also one of the biggest reasons why the game is open source: to keep us honest about our practices and intentions, which, to be straight with you, hasn't been completely achieved on our end, as much of our development has not been publicly shared. I was sort of hoping for this to become more of a community based endeavor too, but that hasn't come to fruition yet, and comes with a number of challenges, largely with management of the whole thing, that we haven't created solutions for.

ShadowNCS · « **Reply #201 on:** October 18, 2015, 05:32:06 PM »

Quote from: james7132 on October 18, 2015, 03:29:27 AM

automated testing

*akward laughing* Yeah. I know the pain of having to create automated tests. ^^;
I wonder how automated tests in Unity work. ( Then again, I barely know how to code in Unity to begin with. xD; ) *goes off to look for Unity testing frameworks*

Quote from: james7132 on October 18, 2015, 03:29:27 AM

As I said before, it's somewhat expected that development is slow: we're trying to make a cross between Touhou and a AAA game with a bunch of amateurs that met on the internet. This was also one of the biggest reasons why the game is open source: to keep us honest about our practices and intentions, which, to be straight with you, hasn't been completely achieved on our end, as much of our development has not been publicly shared. I was sort of hoping for this to become more of a community based endeavor too, but that hasn't come to fruition yet, and comes with a number of challenges, largely with management of the whole thing, that we haven't created solutions for.

A not so smooth start is to be expected with any project, but I'm sure things will work out more smoothly once you're further into development. ^^
Also, I'm sure more people willing to help will come once you have an MVP or a demo of some sorts.

Fulisha of Light · « **Reply #202 on:** October 19, 2015, 04:51:45 AM »

Quote from: james7132 on October 17, 2015, 07:03:32 PM

It's taking a long time to get implement the hitboxes correctly. Especially when, we don't want it to end up looking like how FromSoySauce did it.

Whoa, is all that coding even necessary? How do you even maintain all of that without missing a particular line?

james7132 · « **Reply #203 on:** October 31, 2015, 07:31:54 PM »

Happy Halloween, y'all!

Spotty Len · « **Reply #204 on:** October 31, 2015, 07:41:00 PM »

Welp.

EDIT :

I'm guessing this is what is supposed to appear.

james7132 · « **Reply #205 on:** October 31, 2015, 08:37:25 PM »

I keep forgetting that you need to login the view that... (=.=")

Yeah that's the pic.

Plastic Vortex · « **Reply #206 on:** November 02, 2015, 02:46:41 AM »

It's just a suggestion but could you not make it so that the light blue mushrooms have a rather big contrast with the background. It's kinda bright. You don't have to take this into consideration but if you do, thanks.

james7132 · « **Reply #207 on:** November 03, 2015, 12:40:10 AM »

The lighting and some of t he colors are temporary setups. Gabo, the stage artist said he wanted the Forest of Magic to look similar to what is seen in this image., so the colors and the lighting is probably going to be changed.

james7132 · « **Reply #208 on:** November 05, 2015, 08:30:35 PM »

We have been doing a few internal educational tutorial streams between members of the team. Here's a vod of me covering the basics of Unity, and a bit of the animation system we have: http://www.twitch.tv/james7132/v/23571465.

Jacob (our animator) is currently streaming basics of animating in 3DS Max here: http://www.twitch.tv/the_nineballer

THchen · « **Reply #209 on:** November 21, 2015, 04:51:38 PM »

What is the reason you have chosen spheres as a collision detection? The cpu has more difficulty calculating spheres than a cube. I am interested in your reason.