Doom3world

So... anybody been waiting for this or... no?

It's been a while since the last update!
I was saving all this goodness up till I had new things to show... and boy do I have new things to show!
Two new enemies and lots of finalized areas coming up in a huge screenshot update that was made to the images section.



I have been working on updating and adding the final detail layers to the maps that were released. All other maps are now somewhat in a playable state. I've added some pretty cool stuff to the game which has helped development. One of the things I've done is to add randomization scripts to all breakable objects. This gives me a lot of speed with mapping as I can just slap two entities all over the place and the game decides what to place there on it's own accord. Goodies are spawned depending on the players inventory, meaning that spikes for the stingstaff won't be given until the the player actually has the Stingstaff.

Ok. First up we have this bad guy.


He shoots what you could best describe as land-mines. They tick to make their presence known. But that's not comforting or helpful. It just tells you that you need to get out fast.
The Ventril enemy (can be considered the main cannon fodder in the game) has also been redone from scratch. The initial idea was always to use organic enemies, the skeletons were just placeholders, and with these new enemies the games' true colour are beginning to show, finally.

Most areas of the second map, especially the trainrails part has been extensively detailed and finished up, and I finally got around to placing some decent decals and the vines you would expect in a deep underground tunnel. You will find screenshots of these, and other areas in the media section, so check it out now!



Then last, but certainly not least: The second release of Grimm which will be released on the 11th of August!

More interesting stuff for you guys 'modders' to know, all of this was done with scripting only:
- I've implemented a generic system where the last player location was saved prior to a huge fall so he gets returned to his prior position (ala 'platform gameplay'). So the player doesn't die any more, resetting the map etc..
- I've implemented a crude but robust and functional 'item inventory system' where the player can have one or more items in his/her possession and use them at will.
- I've further balanced gameplay and weapon balance, making the game more enjoyable and a little less frustrating.
- I've completely replaced the old monsters for the Ventril and the Purgatory Knight
- I've added lots of tweaks in the difficulty settings.
--- Items are now spawned according to gameplay difficulty
--- Creatures now scale in damage and health according to difficulty
--- All traps that are viable now react to difficulty settings
- All settings in the game and stats, such which inventory the user has is saved in the persistant args.

Was thinking about this just today!

Great to see the new media. It all looks very very good. Really like this: http://www.moddb.com/mods/grimm-quest-f ... 8#imagebox

Keep up the good work!

Cheers

BTW:- where is that crossbow - only joking btw! - we have our own Doomguy hands now too so will need a completely new one.

Hey ! Those are sexy screenshots for sure
Mod added to my track list under Moddb right now !

Thanks guys, it's great to see you like it.
Oh and 0.0% Doom 3 assets in those shots, except for the character rigs and animations, still working on that (!)

It got picked up by some gaming sites.



yeah..

http://www.dsogaming.com/news/doom-3-to ... source=rss

Nice update, excited about the 8/11 release. Week after QuakeCon, eh?

This bothers me though:


I've never liked those and never have seen them implemented where it didn't either feel like rewarding lazy play or an excuse for bad design/cheap deaths.

Very neat you did that though, did you do it via triggers the player crosses or is it 100% automatic based on fall distance?

Lookin' damn fine! All the gameplay changes sound interesting, so consider me excited to check it out!

It's a feature, so you can turn it off if you want.
I did it via triggers. That's because the script can't really tell if the player should actually be transported back to their previous location, they might end up in an endless falling loop.
So there's one big trigger at the bottom of the pit, called 'func_save_player'.
At the edges of the pit you place a trigger called 'func_save_player_pos'.
It's actually pretty simple, the code itself isn't more than a few lines.
Of course, some fx were added and players lose health because of the fall.
After the third fall, a fall will be final unless the players fetch health somewhere.

BloodRayne this sounds great!

I'm quite interested in the inventory system, did you ad new keys? how dod you do it? how do you use the selected item on the world?

3 strikes and your out sounds more than reasonable. A very nice sounding solution to a common problem!

Loosing life sounds a lot better.

That's a short question that has a very long answer. So I'm going to keep it short.

- In the item's script I added an onSignal Event that picks up all 'touches' events. When the player touches the item, it's stored in the inventory and the global persistant arg 'Healthitems' is upped by 1, unless the max amount is already in the inventory. (stored in global persistant args.. 'setPersistantArg("healthitems") = string value)
- In ai_player.script I have a loop that's checking certain CVars (e.g. use_health), bind any key to 'use_health 1'.
- ai_player.script picks this up and immediately sets it back to 0 (sys.setcvar "use_health 0")
- Now I can decrease a global variable and use the object (e.g. execute any script commands).

There are some extra things that I do here, I've already made it so I can push variables from script to the GUI ($info_player_start1.setGuiParm) so that the GUI can show which items you have. I've opted for a quick-use item system. So there's no real inventory that users can scroll through, per se. There are just a few quick-items that users can pick up, carry and use when they want to.

Looks Great! rayne, good stuff!

Hey thanks, blade!

I'm working on a new gameplay video, should be up this weekend... if I get enough time.

I've posted a new media update over at moddb announcing HUB 2 and a new enemy, the DarkWarrior.



Hub 2!
Grimm: Quest for the Gatherer's Key is an exploration of the idea of going 'deeper and deeper' into the realm of Purgatory. Purgatory is not really Hell, Heaven or the Purgatory you might know in the biblical sense. Also, Grimm might be far less literal than it might seem at a glimpse. It is not a logical world, rather a conglomeration of distinctive realities crossing each other. The very fabric of space between Heaven, Hell and Earth which has been distorted both in space and in time. More on that later both on the site here and in the game itself.

I have started work on Hub 2 several months ago. Before starting work on Grimm I knew that as a one man team I had to implement lots of stuff to make development easier on myself. I keep pushing the idea of 'running production', how do I make stunning maps without a lot of effort? The answer is standardisation, of course. And some tricks in fooling the player and engine. The idea was to creature textures that were all aligned, already had floor and ceiling trim added for the wall, were already aligned with added details like wood finishings. Besides the easy to use textures, which also provide the right size for walls and ceilings.

This didn't really come to fruition in the first hub (which was partly included in the first release) until the third map where I got the techniques down a bit better. You can see this for instance in the first two maps where almost each door is of a different size, each room was built from scratch and you see differences in styling between the rooms themselves. I've gone over them a couple of times to get a more standardised look and make a more cohesive whole. I've used all of these ideas about standardisation and have advanced them in the second hub, which is my first real 'standardised' hub. This gives a much more cohesive look to the rooms and the entire map, adding to the immersion.

Styling
Each hub in Grimm has it's own distinct style and colouring.
Where the first hub was distinctively yellow and red presenting the heat of Purgatory, the second hub is cold, presenting the icy depths of this strange world between Heaven, Hell and Earth.

Hub 2 is all about the cold and going deeper into Purgatory. The deeper that Grimm goes, the more stuck he will get and the more slow his progress will become. This is an idea that will work for the first two maps of the hub, where the last map should feel like an explosion of freedom (and release) for the player. Especially the second map should feel very claustrophobic, when Grimm gets stuck beneath parts of an underground cathedral and will have to fumble his way through dark and low catacombs to freedom, constantly working on the players feeling of getting more and more stuck the farther they go. I hope that the third map will then come as a great release, when they find freedom and enter the action and more combat based third map.

Interested in more screens?
Check out the images section!

More updates and media to come soon!

The way you've described the new content makes me all warm and fuzzy inside! It's really cool to read about how your story influences the design and vice versa. That and figuring out ways to better streamline the design process is something I've been trying to do myself and am very keen to see how you've gone about it

Also, the new shots look great

Thanks BKT. I'll be including the first map of the second hub in the next release!

I really like those shots, filled with custom assets.
you, sir, are an artist!

I agree with everyone here , I love the blue hues, fantastic work!

Thanks guys! I'm hoping to get back to it as soon as I've been relieved from a nasty toothache that's been bugging me since last week.
Every asset, except for monster animations, is custom.