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Create games together
Hello Guys!
Finally we have managed to integrate the game with SpatialOS, now it is time to sync the workers to create more entities!
Hello again guys, here is the next level of the cave which is growing a lot!!
Hope you enjoy it as much as we do!
Hello guys, here is a little bit more of our cave progress.
Hope you guys like it.
Devlog #2
This Week within the development group has been busy. We have worked hard on the map and still have many improvements coming. Here is a quote from a dev.
"We are currently working on the Showcase level, in this level we will display all of our games most important features. In this screenshot, you can see a Mysterious Island which is linked to parts of our story. The next step is to create the bigger island, this will allow us to really focus on fleshing out the Showcase level and implement all the features we wish to show." Image 1
We have also been hard at work with our website which now is in beta.
Our 3d modeler and artist have been hard at work completing some weapons for the player to wield.
Development is coming by smoothly and we are still recruiting some great talent to help with this game.
Hello guys, it was about time to start building some map. We are starting with some small island which will be used for some shrine that has a lot of meaning in the lore.
Hope you guys like it!
Hello guys, here we are proud to show you our brand new procedurally generated camp! With huts, random actors and watchtowers!
Hello Guys.
You might have noticed already, but we have a new logo! But keep in mind that this is not the final version. We are working to make it look better!
Any feedback will be appreciated!
Hello again guys! This is our brand new procedurally generated orc camp wall!
Now that we have tools, the logic step is to use them!
That is why, now, we can actually chop trees down for resources for the crafting!
We are making a really good progress in the orc camp. Now we have are in the progress of creating a watch tower for our fellow foes :). Here you can see the progress.
Welcome to Ludust. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!
Welcome to the development blog of the Redemption Studio Team.
Here we shall be posting updates about current development, some off the wall thoughts and discussing ideas with you guys.
A simple prototype for CLEFUZ
Hey we finally started development....
The game is at development stage and it is doing good but it's been a little hard.To this point I've been relying on polygons for simple collision masks.But it'll need good art and music.If anyone is willing to help..guarantee, it'll be a great game...
HatmicStudio admin
Hi, everyone,
the planned update launch in February didnt happen because we had to change the multiplayer system to one supporting high load. We switched from GameSparks to native UE4 networking. But the delay in development is not big, just few weeks or months from now. So, April-May is our goal to launch multiplayer on Unreal Engine 4.
My idea is to make maps for 32 players. In next update we will have 2 maps:
and The Airport:
Also we plan to launch next update with 9 types of guns and 2 types of grenades.
The 9 types of guns are:
1-Laser Pistol
3-Machine gun
5-Plasma gun
6-Electro gun shooting with freezing projectiles
7-Blaster shooting with balls of plasma
8-Rocket launcher shooting with rockets
9-Smart gun shooting with small self-guided missiles
And the grenades are explosive grenades
and freezing grenades
What do you think about the game or about launching with 9 guns or with less guns but faster?
Also we have explosive cars and explosive barrels.
Hello guys, we are preparing for multiplayer launch with UE4.
I post few screenshots from work in progress. The game must be extremely good and there is lots of work on materials but it is interesting, I learned how to use Bevel_Overlay node in UE4 to change texture color fast. Here is a screenshot from the lesson on youtube:
This is a screenshot of how I implement Blend_Overlay node making the roof material.
and lights, here are screenshots how I make dark Cyberpunk atmosphere, from this
into this sky and light.
Its taking lots of time to bake lights and compile materials.
We made grenades, destroyable cars.
As I said in previous posts in next update we have 2 multiplayer levels. In first levelyou must switch quantum computers to create forks in cryptocurrency. And In second level you have to bring the case with 1 million dollars to the helicopter and fly away.
Here are screenshots of University in first level and the helicopter in Airport level:
And some blueprints: ( I call them spagetti :)
Comments are welcome!
Hello guys. I have some great news! An awesome electronic music band Orax gave us permission to use their music in Escape Machines.
Listen their music and buy an album at https://newretrowave.bandcamp.com/album/deeper
The develoment of Escape Machines the videogame is going slow but we target highest quality and I will better wait with posting screenshots with game graphics, until next month.
Also I updated an older post http://ludust.com/escapemachines/inspiration-metroid/ and we plan to launch update with multiplayer and 2 levels with Unreal Engine 4 in next months.
Please write in comments if I should post raw images of levels faster or wait until they look great?
Here is a screenshot of working on helicopter model for multiplayer level 2
Screenshot of works on hero animations
I am planning to add this texture to blue material but probably it will be too small, but will look good in close view. Please leave comments about design overall and about this texture.
We are working also on design document. I was advised to not show design document to everyone, but I will post a small portion with guns. Most probably only this 4 guns and knife and grenades will be available in next update (hopefully in April 2018). Also in next updates you will be able to buy and control robots.
And this is a screenshot of how I set the sky and light. Feedback is welcome!
Hi guys, the multiplayer programming is taking us more time than we expected.
We make multiplayer with GameSparks and it's plugin for Unreal Engine is outdated and doesnt work. We are looking for workarounds to solve this issue.
Working with GameSparks and fixing bugs.
Hi guys, we finished setting first stage for multiplayer. Lots of time took fixing buildings and roads and still must work on lights and materials. We started making and testing multiplayer.
One of our programmers left so multiplayer launch is delayed with few months.
A screenshot from stage 1 in Unreal Engine 4 ( pre-alpha, WIP ).
We are looking for programmers and designers in Unreal Engine 4.
Hi everyone!
I am posting few screenshots of what we made in June. We are finalizing first stage and start making multiplayer. We was planning to launch multiplayer in August but our programmer left so multiplayer will come few months later.
I am working on more projects, a Rock music album, a New Age music and video clip https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYRxZNGz0vw
Also I write film scenarios and a novel and few paintings. I know you want to see something finished and the next release is a small videogame. The name of this videogame is The Tale of The Black Prince. You can follow this game, it launches soon on Steam and meanwhile Follow on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/blackprincevideogame/
I am glad to see your feedback and comments.
Hello everyone, the work is going on. We have a detailed design document and we are solving many issues, testing many materials, making textures, all this to ensure you get the best experience with Escape Machines multiplayer.
This screenshot is very raw, I didnt want to post it but I couldnt finish some details in May so the video launch is postponed to June 2017.
We plan to launch multiplayer in August.
Please wait for the video coming in few weeks. I am not posting many screenshots now because we are working on ground materials now and trees too.
Hello everyone,
our old indie engineer from Sweden dropped and now I work with new engineer from Slovenia.
Here are few screenshot of robots from game, a laser robot and a mortar.
In game you can play as main hero and also buy robots and control them. As you know in desert there is an entire robots factory so there will be plenty of robots for everyone.
The last year I was working on concepts and story, Escape Machines have awesome design and story about how Artificial Intellect escaped out of control and how people stopped it. I am making artificial intellects so I know what I am talking about and I hope my knowledge will help humanity to stay safe.
I know for sure that wars with AI will happen in near future and I hope we can control it.
My initial plan was to make a beta and find investments but it didnt work, so now I rely only on my own resources. Soon I will have money and will hire programmers and meanwhile we work in an indie team.
The roadmap is to hire more engineers by summer and launch multiplayer by fall and then launch entire game by winter.
Now we are making scripts with C++, I started with blueprints but for a big game blueprints is not an option because it takes too much space. The Flash version of Escape Machines has thousands of lines of code but I programmed 3D environment in Flash, and with Unreal Engine there will be less code but still too much code too use blueprints. I made a screenshot of the character controller blueprint I made, with new version of Unreal Engine I can convert it to C++.
Please feel free to comment, write feedback and also I might publish the story of the game before entire game because the main purpose of this project is to teach humanity how to deal with artificial intellect and war robots.
Hi everyone. In this post I will share some images I found on Facebook and which I consider good inspiring art.
Please post art you consider inspiring in comments!
Thanks to magnum ( and his comment ) I am updating this post with more images and links. I think the links should secure the copyrights of authors. If you see here your art and want me to write your name or brand above leave a comment.
After I made the exterior scene, few characters, some character motions and blueprints in Unreal Engine 4 I started working at interiors design with our new team member Joris Browers. In this post I will show few screenshots of very early works for interiors for Escape Machines with Unreal Engine 4.
The health and armor system is now fully functional with a regeneration as per 1 second. This isnt official just a stance that im making. I almost guarantee it will be changed as time progresses and the taking damage function is made. Which i have started but again will change.
Ace - Project Manager
I started working on a slot-based inventory system kind of like those in WOW. Where its moveable to any coordinates on your viewport. I haven't fully dedicated to it yet as i am also working on the pickup item function in the game as well. Just an update as to what were or I am working on.
Ace - Project Manager
Hello! Just to clear things up,
I am receiving messages of why i am not including composers and voice actors yet. The reason why is were still really early in development and have no need for the use of music, sound effects or any of that as of yet.
Ace - Project Manager
After hours and hours of research and posting and reading and writing material for the purpose of drawing in the Dev. help that is needed I have found myself exposed. It was nice to tern back to the code though and almost finish the menu system in the couple hours that I was able to devote to It. I also excepted two new members to the team, I look forward to sharing more about this in the time to come.
I ordered off Ebay a copy of empire earth1, so that I have a on hand example of the item that I am asking everyone to reproduce with me. I will provide lots of examples and clips with the aid of this copy. I also got the Full manual for the game and its expansion.
MY TODOs for 4/4/18
*Set up a Discord server!
Hello, I am David Heary. I have been working with Unity as a hoby for 5 years now. We are all coming together to make our dreams a reality. Right now I am still setting up the website, and also have posted this project on every media outlet and colab website that I can get my hands on. This project will not fail for a lack of effort and I expect that same mentality out of all my team members.
I work 66 hours a week in the local factory, so I do not always get to make changes fast, I will be asking for lots of help.
we are now looking for a new pixel artist for the game due to no response from current one.
we now have a new sprite for the character, here it is.
since we now have all required people for the game we will unfortunately no longer be accepting member request's. will unfortunately
Welcome to the developmental blog for Innocence!
I had the most eventful weekend in a long time!
Unfortunately, majority of the things happening over the weekend were not development-related.
Fortunately, I still had a lot things done over the week itself. So there is a new build featuring new wall types, and a "level selection" menu (still rough around the edges though...). And a sound. Singular... yet. Others will have to wait.
Unfortunately I am unable to upload the build just yet - I currently don't have access to the machine it is on, but I really hope to change this paragraph with an actual download link sometime today. So stay tuned!
This also means there are going to be no pictures in this post. Though I hope this will only inspire you to download the build to see for yourself!
But what I am going to tell you in this post is a share a piece of thought that works behind the scenes in this game.
The "Maze" you are exploring in this game consists of "tiles". A pretty common concept for a procedural generated games, but usually is is used in some "rogue-like"s. And this either means the graphics fidelity being pretty low (often even no graphics at all with everything being represented by characters. Not always colored), not that I have anything against such an artistic stile, but it didn't fit the game I am writing.
And even having graphics, the actual rogue-likes usually try to enhance the visibility of grid, as this allows for more precise tactical decisions. and again - this is not something that would fit my game.
In Maze Crawler immersion into the dungeon is pretty important, so I really didn't want the tile edges to stand out and that bring some rather non-trivial challenges to programming, as you might imagine.
The earliest prototype (being produced within 48 hour of GameJam) paid little attention to this issue. All the tiles were represented by the same prefab, consisting of a 5x5 "floor" and 4 "walls" that could be switched on or off based in existence of a neighboring tile. And to hide the textures on the walls not matching together, all the corners had pillars placed in them (Which was soon reduced to only corners with walls having pillars, as having them in every corner of such mall tiles, resulted in rather disorienting effect of not being able to grasp the shape of the room quickly... A good effect to use once or twice, but not in every room definitely!). And the hastily-composed normal textures on floor didn't tile all that well (I haven't discovered Blenders sculpt mode tiling option at that time yet...) so the edges on the floor tile were all too visible.
Using a texture that tiles properly did fix some of those issues, but (as it often happens) fixing one problem only serves to amplify the existence of others.
While properly tiled texture could fix the floor, and eliminate the need to put semi-columns on flat walls and with some clever texture tuning even eliminate it on the corners, with tiles being only 5 by 5, this brought a lot of repetition patterns into view. Sure, there are ways to negate those issues, like scaling texture, and distorting UVs a bit, but those work mostly for floors and didn't work as well for walls (especially distortion bit, when combined with need to carefully craft the texture with corners in mind). So I decided to pursue a different approach!
So to properly tile the texture must have similar pattern on opposing edges. But that doesn't put any constraints on what is in the middle of the texture. So what if we have several texture versions, all with similar borders, but different contents. So of those different textures any two could be placed together, and "tile" correctly with no visible seam between them. Now if we randomize which texture is used, there will be way less repeatable patterns. And having a relatively small tile size actually becomes an advantage here, as more often transits from one texture to another means that there is more chance that an accidental pattern would be broken!
With this in mind it is now a good idea to think how to implement this randomization. The first instinct might be to have one texture be one material, so when piles are dropped, different materials can be assigned to different renderers. But this obviously butchers the DrawCount. Especially with intent of many different textures being in same view, this mans that we will be showing a lot of Draw Calls down our GPU.
So to save on those a standard way would be to use a texture atlas, rather than a set of independent textures. Meaning all different textures are collected into one. Like you can combine 4 or 9 or 16 square textures together (2x2, 3x3 or 4x4) and still get a square. And as a free bonus - if you create those textures in one image, it is easier to make them tile together, since you are effectively trying out a lot of combinations as you make them.
But having a texture atlas is not that helpful, if all your meshes' UVs target the same spots on the Atlas. So if you have a 3x3 tile atlas, you obviously need 9 versions of the Mesh with UVs being translated to one of 9 subtextures.
The process for one mesh is not that hard actually. Just add a vector to all UVs. But having to repeat it 9 times is... tedious. And having to repeat it 9 times is tedious squared. And even a thought about trying 4x4 for some elements makes you want to admit that 2x2 is good enough.
But once I thought about it for some time, I realized, that all this time I was dredging through manually updating the UVs, I could actually shove all this task on the CPU. After all it IS just a simple translation (and scaling, if the original Mesh used 0-1 UV ranges rather than one of subtextures to begin with, which actually helps to swap a texture atlas for a different one, with different tiling, with same meshes.
I hope this train of thought was interesting, and maybe even helpful to someone.
Please let me know if you have any questions of comments!
It have been some time, but the new version is finally assembled. (Not published yet though. I am now contemplating if the game being published through itch.io so there would be one link with the latest version available, rather than having to track which one is the latest one.)
This update was pretty heavy on the visual updates. So just to give you a sample of the results I have uploaded several screenshots to show the current state of the game:
And since this is shown, I guess it would be a good time to give a couple of screenshots to show the change. Here is what the previous build looked like:
The Maze is now a lot darker. The visibility range (especially outside the mail room) is pretty heavily constrained, and the torch becomes a necessity rather than just a cosmetic item.
The textures on the Floor and walls is also updated, though admitting this is still work in progress. This version is using a normal map and heightmap baked in Blender, and a super-cheap-cheat method of using heightmap as an albedo map to amplify seams between stones. Didn't work as good as I hoped (probably because the heighmap range was messed up during baking and the height differences were not that big), but it does help a bit. :)
And some sharp-eyed viewers can notice a hint of Glow effect on the screenshot. Yes. I have finally figured how to use postprocessing. :)
And just for good measure, this is an example of the game how it looked in it's earliest prototype:
As you can see the previous floor texture was there almost from the get go. Though it was made in such a hurry, that it doesn't tile properly, giving away the fact that the maze is built from small tiles.
Speaking of which! This was another thing that was updated in this version is the fact that now dungeon can contain more than 1 tile type:
Currently there are only two tile types, which use the same texture, but with different tints (another cheap-cheat trick used as a placeholder to make do for limited assets :) ), but there are quite some nifty capabilities in this system, which I will hopefully will be able to show you in the next updates, once the different meshes are produced.
And along with better textures, meshes, there are lots more cool thing I am really thrilled to start working on now!
The game is going to have sounds soon too, thanks to wonderful work of Paul Gorman.
Anyway, thank you for your attention and I hope to see you in the future updates!
And let's not get obstructed on the way to our destination!
Today is the day I'm starting work on a game engine that will hopefully be the building blocks of beautiful landscapes, dungeons, and many other fantastical things meant to amaze the people who play it. i hope that i can do my vision justice.
Project edge is going to be a fantasy game heavily inspired by the book series "The Edge Chronicles" this game is meant to be open world and amazingly giant, i am striving for something beautiful and huge something that transports you into its world with VR support and beautiful graphics (this game will not be a VR game but it will support the vive if possible). I will be starting work on the game engine next week and hope to have people interested to help by then.
After a sudden break on the development of Soulanity, we are now renewing our team and using what we already have to get people's attention and restart the development with the right foot. There is nothing to talk about at the moment because, you know, getting a team together is not the most exciting phase of a game development. I'll post something once we have a MVP to show.
Here we are going to talk about this awesome horror game that we are loving to make. I am Berzerkker, the game designer, and I'll be keeping this blog up to date.
Hello! I' happy to see people are already checking out this here blog.
So a quick little update is that we are still looking for team members! So apply while you can! Not only that, we are working on an official name and project profile picture, so get ready for that! That's all I have, really......
If you see this post, comment to let me know how much people are seeing this!
I have decided that until I start my own website back up again, I will make small notes of the progress to my development of the game here instead.
PS: I am still in need of artists, composers, other programmers to help me lighten the load, level designers so that we can at least lessen the chance of things looking repetitive or similar, and more.
Hi everyone, I am working on physics engine for Star Fields Ultra and if you want to test it and leave feedback please download the latest Windows PC build at DOWNLOAD_LINK and leave your feedback at FEEDBACK_LINK . Please keep in mind this game is in pre alpha state, its a very early build and soon I will add much more graphics and features, shooting guns and rockets, collecting bonuses and upgrades.
Thank you!
Hi everyone, I need testers for Star Fields Ultra - a new cyberpunk videogame I do. This game is about racing starships, cars and shoot them up. Also you can upgrade your starship or car. Game includes lots of drifting, nitro, awesome graphics and physics. Here are few screenshots from pre alpha.
Write a message and Like here https://www.facebook.com/starfieldsultra
Looking for artists and coders to assist in this upcoming project which we feel has massive potential.
All you need to bring to the table is your amazing experience, skills & time.
The rest is sorted and you can reap the benefits on completion.
NPC groups will start out with certain (randomly generated) moral rules, which you can shift in a direction of your choosing by talking to people.
Value of life:
A. Every life is equally valuable.
B. The value of one's life is based on their faction.
- For example, a master is worth more than a slave.
- Or one of us is worth more than one of them.
C. The value of one's life is based on their actions.
- For example, heroes are worth more than cowards.
- Or those who heal are worth more than those who torture.
Attitude towards weakness:
A. Weakness is not tolerated.
B. The weak must be protected.
Team vs individualism:
A. Loyalty to the group comes first.
B. Self-preservation comes first.
Loyalty to the leader:
A. The leader is worth more than the fighters due to their knowledge and abilities.
B. The leader is just one of the guys.
Freedom vs health:
A. It's better to be wounded and free.
B. It's better to be a slave than dead.
In most cases, the majority of the group will follow a shared moral code. Peer pressure will ensure that very few will step out of line.
Wild cards - In any combat, there can be 0-5 wild cards that act opposite to the moral code in one way or another. They can be pacifists or cowards or ruthless killers.
Wild faction - When the fighting force is non-homogeneous, it's possible that the moral codes of factions clash and cause a conflict between members on the same side. That's why if a group is going to war with another one, the leader should hold speeches and rallies to unify the group so that the chance of a faction conflict breaking out in the middle of combat is decreased.
Combat and buildings
Ideally, it should be possible to move in and out of buildings automatically during a combat situation. Characters would hide in familiar buildings and gain an advantage to attacks on intruders. It should be possible to set buildings on fire, but fire shouldn't spread insanely fast and shouldn't be a guaranteed win against hiding people.
If the main group refrains from extreme violence, certain wild cards can engage in cruelties inside buildings when nobody is watching. Victims may be found after the fight is over and no one might know who was the culprit.
If the main group is very ruthless, wild cards may engage in protecting certain enemies, for example claiming that a building is empty when in fact someone is hiding there.
Maintaining and altering moral codes
Extreme moral codes are more likely to cause a backslash reaction. Maintaining an atmosphere of self-sacrifice or a preference to ruthless torture requires hosting events that reinforce the moral code. If your people are not exposed to frequent violence, they can't become desensitized to it. That's why if you want to maintain a culture of violence, you need to have things like public executions, floggings or bloody duels. Likewise if you want to maintain a society where the group matters more than the individual, you need to host events that boost a sense of unity and for example have everybody dress the same way or carry insignia that marks them as a member of the group.
If you are trying to change the status quo, you need to start small by talking to individuals, collect a sub-group of like-minded individuals and gradually increase your sphere of influence. If the moral code you are imposing is completely opposite to the reigning one, it will eventually cause a conflict and the group may split as a result. It's better to start with a more subtle change and advance towards more radical views once you have a lot of followers. You can single out a sub-group based on a trait, such as gender or hair color, and convince the others that they are better than them while the others aren't really even human. This makes the main group more prone to accept oppression on the targeted subfaction. If there is a reigning class, you can gather a subgroup of lower class people and rally them against the masters.
Even though I have previously said that all combat should be resolved instantly, actually it would make more sense to have a delay that depends on the size of the groups involved. An event like a single stabbing can happen instantly, but when there's a whole battle taking place, it should last up to half a day game time. Status updates would be generated every 15 minutes and if the leader of one faction is online, they could call a retreat or surrender if necessary.
As you might know, the current local map is visualized based on four 100x100 pngs where the red, green and blue channel stand for different things. However, this means that everything is grid-based and doesn't look natural. This is why I'm working on a new map generator.
In the new map generator, each map has a base texture that is the most common ground covering thing. Currently there are only two, sand and grass, but it is likely that in the future that there will be 7 ground types: bedrock, loam, silt loam, clay loam, sandy loam, sandy clay and silt. Currently terrain types vary pixel by pixel and there is a high chance that the next pixel will inherit the type of the one above it or to the left of it, forming clusters.
In the new map generation code, I have a function called "snake". It causes slithering lines of pngs that overlap with each other. Large changes in direction are less likely than small ones, which prevents it from constantly flicking back and forth. My test maps are currently 1000x700 pixels, but the ones that will be used in the game will be bigger in the database. You will only be able to see a small area at a time, though. On the test map, it generates 1 to 10 snakes of sand or grass depending on which one of them is used as base material. Currently grass is the base and sand is on top, but it's easy to swap these around.
Then it generates trees and bushes starting from the back and advancing in rows that are 20 pixels high. The tree density is selected at random. In the database, new trees can be added on any row because when the data is called, it will be arranged by y and x so that it always starts from the back.
I also have sprites drawn for rocks and boulders, but I haven't added them to the simulation yet.
In the database, data will have element type, x, y and layer. The layers are ground, ground cover and objects that stick out.
It will be possible to click on trees and bushes to select them for cutting. I have also tested this. In the test, the outline of a tree is in the upper corner because aligning trigger areas with the actual trees would require knowing their coordinates and in the test, the outline is mapped out before the map itself is generated. In the future, each tree will be clickable.
Hover over the upper left corner to see the highlight shape in effect
This is utilizing a JQuery library called ImageMapster by James Treworgy.
It is a bit unclear how farming will work in the new system, but my idea is that you will be able to convert shapes your character is on top of into fields and they will look different. Then you can automate planting, weeding and harvesting. One problem is there can be overlapping tiles, so it should only take the combined covered area into account as farmland instead of overlap being counted twice. Another option would be to stamp farmland on top of the base ground and set a maximum overlap distance that is allowed. If each map only has one base soil type, it could be assumed that all fields also shared that when turned. An exception is clay, because it's unrealistic that there would be whole maps that are entirely filled with clay. Clay should come in small clusters and once you dig it up, the underlying soil or bedrock is revealed and the clay is gone.
Certain resources will be bound to individual trees and bushes, so if you cut down a fruit tree, you get the ripened fruit as well as the wood, but after this you can no longer harvest from this tree. Trees will produce more fruit in a system that is bound to the seasons, so organic resources will be renewable. You will be able to select a harvesting radius and automate your gathering. NPC groups will consume food such as fruit and berries every day and also automatically gather it. If an NPC group runs out of food, it will migrate away, so it's probably going to be up to you to ensure that they won't exhaust the local resource deposits. You can teach NPCs to farm and farming will be more effective than foraging.
I haven't yet decided how big the local maps will be. The new system will allow them to be of different sizes, but since the snake function can go to areas that were already previously explored, it shouldn't be used after exploration has started. Trees and rocks can be generated on the fly, so it would be possible to generate local maps that are 10'000 by 10'000 pixels and only generate trees on the area that has been viewed. This would save space in the database. I'm just a bit concerned that even a single map could contain up to 300k objects, and how much space would this take to store. Currently saving the data for one location takes ~117kb. I suspect that if we generate the whole map every time someone explores a location, it will take even more than this. If I get 1000 players and each of them explores 100 local maps, this will be 100k local maps. Are this many necessary? Certainly not. But people will explore just because it's possible. So it should make them forget about places no one has visited in ages. Speaking from experience, even 10k different local maps is a waste because nobody will be able to appreciate them. So local maps should be temporary unless settled, and if you forget about it, it won't be the same when someone explores it the second time. Since the contents are affected by the world map, you would be unlikely to tell the difference. The tree density will be the same, the grassy areas will be in different spots but the ratios will remain the same. It's fairly irrelevant where a single tree is located in a forest.
In another game I came to realize that one thing that stagnates games is isolation from other players. Some games solve this by allowing players to chat with each other regardless of distance, or to send private messages. However in a game where people are separated by vast distances, it wouldn't make sense that news could travel faster than a person. Another problem is that if buildings count as separate locations, either you will have to shout to reach those outside or you will be restricted to communicating with people in the same building. It doesn't work like that in real life because people don't spend the whole day cooped up inside, let alone multiple days. In historical societies, people would work together in the fields, occasionally go to the market to socialize and trade, and have communal mealtimes and celebrations.
This leads into the requirement that it should be assumed that characters move during their daily routines and for example eat and sleep in different places than where they work. This movement needs to be automated and people will need to be able to communicate with other people who have matching routines, even if they weren't technically in the exact same location at the same time.
People would have routines that cover a day at a time, 6 day periods (which correspond to a real life 24 hours) and longer periods of time such as a month or a year.
During a single day, a normal character will wash themselves, eat on at least two separate occasions, work on things such as foraging, hunting, fishing, farming or crafting, rest and sleep. It is also assumed that they go to the bathroom and larger societies will need to organize sanitation somehow. Characters might also have to travel long distances to gather things such as firewood. It should be encouraged to match your routines with those of other people or at least take NPCs along.
Characters will have some sort of a mood trait and doing things like talking to people, massaging others or receiving massages, getting their hair cut, brushed or braided; bathing; rubbing mud on their skin or hair, applying makeup or face paint, dancing, singing, playing musical instruments, praying, practicing things such as calisthenics, yoga, pilates or taiji and what ever people can come up with will improve their mood, whereas doing the same thing for hours in a row or being socially isolated will lower the mood. If a character's mood goes so low that their mind breaks, they will either go catatonic or become a mindless automaton, in other words, an NPC. It will be possible to break a person's mind by locking them in jail and depriving them of human interaction and comfort, but acquiring help from NPCs should be so easy that intentionally forcing a PC to convert to an NPC should be unnecessary.
In the beginning of the actual game, instead of having a ready-made world map with resources, the starting populations could select from a pool of resources that will be seeded in their starting area. The pools would be resources that come from the same origin in the real world.
People who donate could get better starting resources and placement. Maybe there could even be an auction for the best combinations.
Overall, it would be good if a starting population had access to one grain, one oil plant, a few vegetables, firewood, fresh water and be within a reasonable distance of metal making ores.
Some fruits (particularly the citrus) will be ancestral and will have to be cross bred to produce the varieties known today. Also some fruits will have different varieties in different regions, which can be interbred to generate offspring with favorable stats. This is particularly with strawberries and apples. One region might have bigger strawberries with little flavor, while others might have tiny strawberries with a high sugar content.
Rain forest 1
edible insects
cola nuts
medicinal plants
Rain forest 2
edible insects
wild pineapple
acai berry
arrowroot (starch)
chili pepper
Warm region 1
guembé - can be used as food, rope making fiber and medicine (coagulant on wounds, helps with tooth and gum issues)
baobab tree
raisin bush - the berries and leaves are both useful, and the branches can be used to make bows and arrows
black-eyed peas
rice (African variety)
Warm region 2
jute - fiber for cloth making
wild rice - evolves into basmati
wild millet
black pepper
kidney beans
Warm region 3
wild barley
wild wheat
wild carrots
wild parsley
wild onions
wild radishes
wild mustard
Temperate 1
wild rice
mandarin orange
leek ancestor
cucumber ancestor
kiwi fruit
field mustard
ancestral mint
possibly also wild millet
Temperate 2
sweet potato
sweet pepper
teosinte (corn ancestor)
lima beans
wild squash
ancestral tomato
wild strawberry
wild potato
Temperate 3
wild oats
caraway seed
ancestral beets
ancestral cabbage
wild pear
wild raspberry
wild strawberry
Temperate 4
ancestral beans
wild cotton
wild pumpkin
black cherry
ancestral strawberry
wild squash
ginseng (American variety)
wild rice
Temperate 5
olive trees
aloe vera
wild asparagus
wild spinach
some sort of beans
wild mustard
Cold region 1
rowan (berries, and wood to make bows)
wild pear
wild licorice
(this needs more work)
Cold region 2
rapeseed (oil plant)
wild strawberry
Cold region 3
wild rye
possibly cloudberry
Desert 1
wild grapes
wild gourd
Desert 2
wild grapes
Islanders are special groups that will need to start out elsewhere in the game, build boats and start exploring the seas. Donating can buy guidance to land.
Islanders 1 (tropical)
Islanders 2 (tropical)
ancestral eggplant
Islanders 3 (warm)
tepary beans
wild squash
Islanders 4 (warm)
wild yams
baobab (Australian variety)
macadamia nut
finger lime
weird animals
Islanders 5 (temperate)
ancestral plum
red cherry
mandarin orange
bunching onion
Islanders 6 (warm)
weird animals
(This needs more work)
Islanders 7 (warm)
passion fruit
(This needs more work)
Ryan suggested a honor system where people lose honor if they commit undesirable acts of violence. I think this idea has its merits, as long as it's possible to fool the system by making yourself look more honorable than you actually are.
Things that would lower your honor:
Edit: Since writing this, I have decided to break offense into accuracy and danger. Accuracy defines how likely you are to hit, while danger defines how much damage you do if you do hit.
Teams can decide their hitting order. Every other round, the order is reversed.
People can choose from different attack strategies: Attack the strongest, attack the weakest, attack the best defender, attack the worst defender, attack the fastest, attack the slowest, attack at random or attack the person who attacked me last. If two people are equally qualified as targets, the target is picked at random out of the qualified options. They can also set a person as a primary target. You can have a different strategy for if you are sufficiently wounded.
Defense strategies: If you are attacked, you automatically use your blocks to defend yourself. If you are not targeted, you can use your blocks to defend another person, or choose to use their block in temporarily boosting their defense for the next round. In this case defense is increased by half of offense.
People can sacrifice an attack to boost their defense, upon which half of their attack is added into their defense. They can use this on a hit against themselves or someone else. This only works if your team attacks first and defends second. If your team defends first and you choose to convert your attack, it will count on the next round.
People can also boost their attack by giving up their defense. If they boost their attack and their team is going second, their defense will be lower on the next round.
People can wear equipment that makes their stats seem higher or lower than what they actually are. This can fool people's strategies.
Array of attacks
Team 1
Matt SP100 OF200 DEF80
Jim SP200 OF120 DEF120
Bob SP150 OF140 DEF105
Team 2
Greg SP105 OF80 DEF100
Tim SP80 OF130 DEF110
July SP110 OF150 DEF90
Round 1:
Matt goes first. He targets who ever looks strongest, which is July. July blocks with 90. Since Matt has higher offense, he gets a pending hit through.
Jim attacks who ever looks fastest. This is also July. Since July is bad in defending, Jim's hits also go through. Jim is faster than July, so Jim gets two hits through. July now has 3 pending hits on her.
Bob attacks at random. He hits Tim. Gets a pending hit through.
Situation after first offense: 3 hits on July, 1 on Tim, 0 on Greg. Since Greg wasn't attacked, he can use his blocks to protect either July or Tim. He chooses to protect July because she is threatened worse. He chooses to block Jim since he seems like he's easiest to block. He manages to block one of Jim's attacks but is too slow for the second one.
Team 2 offense:
Greg attacks at random and targets Matt. The chances are about 50-50. Let's say he gets through.
Tim attacks who ever looks like the easiest target. This is Matt. Tim gets a hit through. Now there's 2 pending hits on Matt.
July attacks who ever is slowest. This is also Matt. July gets a hit through. Now there are 3 pending attacks on Matt. Matt has used all his defenses.
Jim and Bob are not targeted and are free to defend Matt. Jim feels threatened and decides to move his block into raising his defense for the next round instead of defending Matt. Bob uses his block to protect Matt. He blocks against Tim because Tim looks more dangerous. He fails to block.
July takes 2 damage, Tim takes 1 damage, Matt takes 3 damage. Now July's stats are SP100, OF130, DEF80, Tim's SP75, OF120, DEF105, Matt SP85, OF185, DEF65.
Round 2:
Now team 2 goes first. July decides to convert her attack into a defense since she is wounded. This allows her to use her offense to boost defense.
Tim hasn't changed his strategy and is still targeting Matt. Since Matt is wounded, his defense is even lower. Tim gets one pending hit on Matt.
Greg still attacks Matt. Greg isn't much of a fighter but since Matt is wounded, Greg gets a pending hit through.
Since Jim and Bob aren't threatened, they have unused blocks. Jim gets 2 blocks, he uses one against Greg and manages to block. Now he has one block left over, which he uses against Tim. He fails to block.
Now it's Bob's turn to block. He uses his block against Tim. He fails to block. So Matt is getting wounded for sure.
Team 1 offense:
Bob decides to convert his attack into a defense against the attack on Matt because Matt is wounded. However moved defenses only take turn on the next round.
Jim still attacks who ever looks fastest. Since July is slowed down by her wounds, Greg is now fastest. Greg manages to block one of Jim's attacks. However, Jim is so fast that he gets two attacks. So now there is one pending hit on Greg.
Matt changes his strategy since he is wounded. He decides to attack who ever looks like the easiest target. This is July. Because July has extra defense on this round, she manages to block.
So now there is only a pending hit on Greg. Since they are both slow, July and Greg have already used their blocks and don't get extra moves.
Tim uses his defense against Jim to protect Greg. He has about 50-50 chance to block. Since Tim is slightly wounded, he fails to protect Greg.
Matt and July continue to bleed and weaken.
Matt is now SP80, OF180, DEF60(+50 from Bob on next round).
July is SP95, OF125, DEF75.
Tim and Greg bleed slightly and are still pretty strong.
Greg SP100 OF75 DEF95
Tim SP75 OF125 DEF105
Round 3:
Now team 1 goes first again. Matt is still targeting who ever looks like the easiest target. This is still July. They are both wounded, but since Matt is stronger, he gets a pending hit on July.
Jim attacks who looks the fastest. Because July is so wounded, she takes a penalty to speed and thus the fastest is Greg. Greg is weakened slightly by his existing wound, so Jim gets a pending hit on Greg.
Bob still decides to protect Matt for the next round.
Tim hasn't been attacked, so he can use his block against either Matt or Jim. He decides to protect July since she is more at risk. However, he fails to protect July since Matt is still strong in spite of his wounds.
Now team 2 attacks.
Greg still attacks at random and targets Bob. Since Greg is such a crap fighter and slightly wounded to boot, he fails to get a hit in.
Tim is still attacking Matt. He gets lucky and gets a pending hit through despite Bob boosting Matt.
July again converts her attack into a defense on herself.
Since Jim hasn't been targeted, he has unused blocks. He gets two blocks since he's so fast. He primarily blocks against Matt. He fails the first block but succeeds on the second.
Matt continues to bleed and falls unconscious. July continues to bleed but still conscious. Tim is feeling weaker. Greg gets hurt again and is now weak.
(Matt SP75, OF175, DEF55) His stats wouldn't count if someone attacked him.
July is SP90, OF120, DEF70
Tim SP70 OF120 DEF100
Greg SP95 OF70 DEF90
Round 4:
Team 2 goes first.
July again defends herself, no surprise there. Her defense is temporarily 140.
Tim leaves Matt alone since Matt is unconscious and targets the next weakest target, which is Bob. Tim gets a pending hit on Bob.
Greg still attacks at random and hits Jim. Greg decides to drop his defenses in order to boost his attack. Now Greg's attack is temporarily 115. Jim gets two blocks since he's so fast. He fails his first block but succeeds on the second.
Since both Jim and Bob have used their blocks, they can't defend anybody.
Now it's team 1's turn to attack.
Bob gives up on protecting Matt since Matt is unconscious and might die anyway. He goes back to his strategy of attacking at random. He happens to hit Greg, who only has 45 defense this round since he used his defenses to boost his attack. Bob gets a pending hit through.
Jim gets two attacks. He attacks who ever looks the fastest. This is again Greg. Again Greg has 45 defense and fails to block both times.
Matt is unconscious and doesn't get a hit.
Tim and July haven't been attacked this round, so they have extra blocks. Because July has boosted her defense, she uses her 140 to defend Greg and manages to block one of the attacks on him.
Tim only has 100 defense and doesn't manage to block any additional hits. So Greg takes two damage. Also Greg continues to bleed from his earlier wound.
(Matt SP70, OF170, DEF50)
July is SP85, OF115, DEF65
Tim SP65 OF115 DEF95
Greg SP80 OF45 DEF75
Round 5:
Team 1 goes first.
Matt is unconscious and doesn't get a move.
Jim attacks who looks the fastest, which is July. He gets two pending hits on July.
Bob attacks at random and hits Tim. Because Tim is slowed down by his wound, Bob gets two hits on Tim.
Greg hasn't been targeted so he has one block left. By this point he figures that they're going to lose anyway and chooses to surrender.
Team 2:
Greg has surrendered and refrains from hostilities.
Tim still attacks Bob. He gets a pending hit in.
July decides to get reckless and uses her defense to boost her offense. She attacks Bob with 145 offense and gets a hit through.
Since Jim hasn't been targeted, he has two blocks. He uses them to protect Bob. He manages to block Tim but not July.
(Matt SP65, OF165, DEF45)
July is SP80, OF110, DEF60
Tim SP60 OF110 DEF90
(Greg SP70 OF40 DEF70)
Bob SP145 OF135 DEF100
Round 6:
Team 2 goes first.
July again targets Bob. Gets a pending hit.
Tim also attacks Bob. He misses.
Greg has surrendered and is sitting this one out.
Jim hasn't been targeted and uses his blocks to protect Bob. He manages to block the hit on first attempt but his unused defense doesn't carry over.
Team 1:
Bob attacks July and gets two hits because his speed is so high compared to hers.
Jim also attacks July. He gets two hits and gets through on both.
Tim hasn't been targeted, so he gets one block to protect July. He decides to try blocking Jim since he seems easier to block. However her fails.
(Matt SP60, OF160, DEF40)
July is SP35, OF85, DEF35
Tim SP55 OF105 DEF85
(Greg SP65 OF35 DEF65)
Bob SP140 OF130 DEF95
Matt and July are now both in critical condition and Greg isn't feeling too shabby either. Tim decides to surrender. The fight ends with Team 1 winning.
Eventually people will be allowed to start new cultures in the game. Each culture has to be unique, and the founders need to figure out the answers to these questions.
Technology level
What is the technology level? Generally everybody starts from stone age, so if you want to start from a higher tech level, you will need starting equipment and knowledge of resource deposits nearby. Only if existing characters decide to establish a new community, they might have equipment they have developed or traded for in-game. If somebody wants to start a new society with starter equipment, it might be required that they make a donation.
Societal structure
Is the community homogeneous or does it consist of different factions? Are there layers/castes? How does the society treat the poor, the old and the disabled? Is there slavery? Is everybody considered equal or are some people worth more than others? Are there some people who disagree with the prevalent notion? How does the society react to dissidents?
Does the society recognize individual possessions or is everything shared? Do certain individuals get a right to a share of the earnings of someone else? Are there taxes? Is there money or do people barter?
Is leadership defined by bloodlines, strength or popular vote? Are there factions who want to change this? If there is voting, who is allowed to vote?
Law and order
How does the society treat criminals? Which things are considered illegal? Does the society have laws that seem silly from a modern perspective? Are there things that are technically illegal but most people do it anyway? Are there criminal organizations? Does the government fund things like piracy?
Dressing conventions
Is there a reigning fashion or do people express individuality? Do different social classes dress in a specific way? Does clothing reflect status? Are there certain materials, styles or colors that are forbidden from certain social classes or genders?
Naming conventions
Do people have last names and middle names or just first names? Do they have patronymics or names that are based on occupations? Are first names based on traits of the owner or features that the parents wish the child to have when they grow older? Are children named by the day of the week, month, season or weather at the moment of birth, or perhaps how many siblings of the same gender exist in advance? Is it considered good or bad to have namesakes? Are young people allowed to pick out a new name when they reach maturity?
A while back I wrote this list, just for fun. The idea was that if you are playing a child character, the game would post a random task that would change once a month, and you could check it as completed if you had roleplayed it.
One of the ideas for the game is that things on the ground and in containers can become infected with micro-organisms and these micro-organisms can spread to other things in the same container. Here is how it's going to work:
Once a day, the game will select a limited amount of organic resources to get infected. It is assumed that there are spores in the air, so it doesn't require a source in the same location or container. The game will also check which things are in the same containers with previously infected materials, and the higher the level of infection, the more likely it will spread. Infections start out small and are invisible in the beginning, but may become visible once the level gets high enough. Some bacteria, yeast and mold may be picky and only infect specific subtypes such as fruit, vegetables, grain products, meat or dairy.
Bacteria will cause things to decompose and eventually get purged from the game. Before that it will turn into nasty slimy goop and may attract insects, which in turn can potentially carry disease. Some molds and bacteria may cause vomiting, diarrhea or other health issues. However, there is also useful bacteria that can be used to make yogurt and buttermilk, and useful molds which can be used to make blue and white cheese.
Delicious results
The current idea is that only ancestral wild forms of plants will exist in the beginning, and people will have to hybridize them to create optimal crops.
Corn originally came from a wild plant called teosinte
Rough draft of an interface design
Did you know that watermelons used to look like this in the past?
The music development is going well and I'm fleshing out the story, soon, a playable version may be available on Gamejolt. Currently a gameplay test is on there but it isn't very fun.
The work on game continues. I will avoid spoiling and not talk about what will be in the middle and end of the game, just show few raw screenshots. And one of our programmers left so the launch of new version is delayed with few months.
Hi guys!
I try to post every month because many guys asked me to post often. Here are some new 3D models.
I am working on more projects, a Rock music album, a New Age music and video clip https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYRxZNGz0vw
Also I write film scenarios and a novel and few paintings. I know you want to see something finished and the next release is a small videogame. The name of this videogame is The Tale of The Black Prince. You can follow this game, it launches soon on Steam and meanwhile Follow on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/blackprincevideogame/
I am glad to see your feedback and comments.
I keep working with my indie team on 3D characters.
This is a cave wolf. This characters stay mostly in shadow or in cave and at night they go out.
Screenshots from 3Ds modelling work
I am posting this references mostly for my team members but you can enjoy Spirited Away movie video and images as well
This post is a continuation of previous post where I started a discussion about music being written for New Kind of Adventure. More composers sent me tracks but I want to hear opinions of many people and start a discussion about music creation.
I am asking the composers to upload a soundtrack on http://soundcloud.com which will show the mood of this game area, a cave with crystals:
Also I encourage everyone to comment the music.
Also I am publishing a track I wrote for this videogame to encourage other composers to show their works in progress.
And remember the last post with music references will be updated with new tracks:
In this post I will write about music creation process for New Kind of Adventure. I will post references, music tracks, maybe even interview with music composers.
This post will be updated, for now I will post a reference for Ambient genre music which I like very much.
This is a track I made for this game
I want to mention Tony Manfredonia, professional composer with academical studies, who already made 3 tracks, they are in progress but his latest track is better than first tries and I hope soon he will make an awesome track I will be proud to put it in game and to post here.
This post will be updated with new songs.
I just added the Dragon character and my friend Daniel asked for a character a little strawberry with legs and hands so I painted him as a concept. I am looking forward to hear your opinion on this characters and also you can ask for more characters you want to see in New Kind of Adventure .
I am glad to announce that we have 1 new member. The marketing position has been filled.
Welcome to the Blood and Steel Blog!
We will post something when we have something to show.
The project is going well, lots of polish in the gameplay, storyline, and bug fixing department, and I'm gradually reaching the end of the Bounty of Polishes Update, which is great, because I can finally begin work on Chapter 2, which is where some of the meat of SR:MT's story really begins. A lot has been done, ranging from monster battler updates:
-To the implementation of entire story arcs with certain characters. For those of you wanting more frequent updates, my apologies for not keeping you all in the loop, with all of the various websites that I promote this website on, it can be difficult to keep track of all of them. If you want to follow this project and be sure that you will be informed, I recommend following me on the Facebook, Twitter, or GameJolt Accounts.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ShatteredRealmsMortalTale/
Twitter (My Twitter): https://twitter.com/_DracoWyrm
GameJolt: http://gamejolt.com/games/shattered-realms-mortal-tale/188745
YouTube (Videos showing game footage, announcements, or OST updates): https://www.youtube.com/user/AoDLegacy?&ab_channel=AoDLegacy
The demo for the game is live! You can download it at the following locations!
Any bugs, issues, feedback, and commentary on the game is appreciated and will go a long way to making the game's final version infinitely better!
After defeating Caldera, the Ice Devil hellbent on freezing the region over, the Sacred Valley opens up for extended exploration.
Currently Implemented:
So first off I want to say hello, and I hope you are all doing well.
Shattered Realms: Mortal Tale is a project I started back in June 2015, and has been my primary project for at least a good year. I'm currently working on building a public demo, and I try to be very open with my project and the progress it's having. The best way you can keep up with me is on my trello page for Shattered Realms: Mortal Tale.
My philosophy at this point is to create a game that I will love and enjoy making, not to make money. Of course, I am planning on selling this thing eventually, but Shattered Realms is a story years and years in the making, even back in 2011 I was working on this idea. There's a lot to this story and a lot to tell, and frankly I can't do it myself. I could, but it would just be a game with the same standard graphics of any rpg maker game, with some random unique graphics that don't tie into anything well.
So let me actually talk in depth about the game. It's a turnbased combat system, with a special death timer, which is triggered upon leaving designated 'sanctuary zones', and the only way to keep the timer going strong is to kill enemies. The game is being designed to allow a loose, unhindering approach to the story. In other words, you're not going to grind for five hours to beat a boss. You go about the world at your own pace and enjoy said pace, while learning a lot about it.
Regarding the story... ...it's huge. I have been planning the Shattered Realms world for a long time now, and it's got massive secrets behind it (I don't expect anyone to catch on to the major secret of the series by in large anytime soon), and has a very direct relationship with the choices of the Player themselves. If you don't help certain people, you may live to regret it later. If you kill certain characters, others will want your head. Saving villagers matters more than your gold and exp. It can change the very course of fate itself. Things add up in this world, and the Player is the straw that breaks the camel's back. Needless to say, crazy things get to happen here. Depending on your actions, multiple endings and routes become available or disappear.
That's what I have to say for the game itself really. There's stuff like professions in the works, side missions, hidden areas... but other than that, I think I've covered what I'm intending to accomplish. If you have any questions I will answer as best as possible.
I have been able to create a starting Save and Load system that will keep track of what the player has in their Inventory and what the have Equipped. Soon will add Max Life, Mind, and Stamina.
This marks SON.NET's first foray into group development - now with two new members in the crew. We will be posting updates of some of the content created in the upcoming weeks. The gears are turning!
Today marked the first real day of work on Phoenix Rising. The team is beginning to grow and I am receiving emails and messages with offers of help. So far today I have received messages from an Artist and a Sound Designer. I also reached out to people myself. I learned something new today; Tessellation and LOD, it might sound like noob stuff, but hey. I'm new to this :)
Today I spent 3 hours creating a replica of Earth, with clouds, day/night cycle with lights. It was a nightmare. But it got done and I am happy it is done. I also added our RL solar system to the "level" today, including textures,mesh's,blueprints, etc. Tomorrow a solar orbit system will be implemented. I hope to see planets orbiting around the sun along with the moon(s). I am trying to reach out for modelers. Static "spacestations and/or battlestations" will have to come in soon after to become implemented with the orbital system. I hope to also get some asteroid fields put in place tomorrow; and hopefully have them working by night time.
I have no idea how to program a HUD or start menu. It would be nice to see something implemented by the end of the week.
Thanks for reading this DevBlog!
Welcome to Project A. We are currently working on a futuristic First-Person Shooter set in 2062.
If you are interested in working with us, we'd be happy to take your job application into account. However, as the game is still in the design stage, we will not be able to employ all the staff that we need.
Hey everyone, as the title says, we're getting there. We're all starting to settle down and get settled in. I did put a little ad on Reddit to try to draw more people in, especially those who we don't have already, or need more of. Felix did get the Slack account up and running and we'll probably start using that more than we use Ludust. I'll keep you all posted.
How's everyone doing? Well, we're established. Anyone that's interested, go ahead and apply! We're looking for anyone to help!
Jon Krouse
Hey guys, It's has been a while since the last blog post but things are going nice, we have some expansions to the team and I have been working on the programming.
the design document
Jack has put a lot of work in the design document for the past 2weeks and has finished it, everything is written down on paper and we know what the game is going to be like
the game itself
While Jack was working on the design document I decided to finish the skill system, the first enemy and the stat system(health, energy and shields)
You guys remember the time where I was searching for a artist, now there is not one, not two but three artist working on the art(1concept artist and 2artists) and the game is starting to get a nice shape
Sorry about the delay! We've been so busy with the game that we forgot to update our development journal.
At this point, we've completed the design document, and the skills we want to implement have been programmed. Our composer and sound designer have also been hard at work in creating the music and sound effects for the game. They plan on using a modular type of composition for the soundtrack. This means that they will layer the music in accordance to the events within the game. For example, if the player encounters an enemy, there will be a theme that is layered on top of the initial theme (as opposed to simply changing the track). We feel this will be less abrupt and will allow us to communicate the atmosphere of the world more effectively.
That's all for now! We'll talk a little bit about our progression system in our next update.
Yes, we know... it's not pretty, but it doesn't need to be. What's important is that the current mechanics that are designed are operational.
(This is why we need an artist, by the way).
Hey guys,
After a couple of days working on the design script, it's starting to come together really nicely. I've also made some really nice progress on the skill system. I had to stare at it for a couple of hours to find out that colliders are acting strange again (this was for the AOE damage), but it's working now. We also have some new members to welcome to the team. There'll be more news on that soon.
While I'm searching for an artist, I'm stuck with placeholders. That's how it starts... It isn't bad, but something with a bit more vertices and color would be nicer to look at. With the character movement in place, I'm starting to work on the first weapon: the assault rifle, which is a rapid-firing weapon with low damage and a medium chance of hitting.
Hey guys!
After a week off from thinking about the game, I finally started working on it. The player movement is in place (mk1), and I'm now working on the basic attack for the first class
Hey guys, it's been awhile since the last post. After recovering a bit and considering the opinions of some of the people who commented, I decided to finish what I started. Of course, the release date will have to be moved in accordance with this, this time the release of Death Rule: lost code Overdrive Edition is expected to be in Fall of this year. I personally like to thank my team as well as the people who commented for giving me some insight and allowing me to clear my head. I hope the few of you who still look at this project from time to time will keep an eye out still.
Hello everyone, it's been a while since the last text post. Now, I'm sure some of you noticed that we have missed our predicted release window for Death Rule: lost code Overdrive Edition. Well, I'm not going to mince words: the reason for the missed release is because of me. Everything that both Iarumas and Katon had to do is done, all that's missing now is the new episode. The preview for Killing System is done, and the GUI remake is done. Really, the only thing holding the release back is the new episode. And because of my slow pace, it may take a while longer to finish
Now, there are two ways we can go about this next part, because this is something that I want you, the reader, to pick.
For those that are curious, before my team started working on Overdrive Edition, we released an original version of Death Rule: lost code. You can download the original work here: http://hijiri.itch.io/death-rule-lost-code
This standalone editor allows us to setup skill and spell animations frame by frame and control all the visual and audio effects that happen to the target of the spell. Such as having the target shake when taking damage, or get smashed and flash.
The animation editor will support particle effects, playing any number of sound effects, and either manually controlling the placement of each animation frame, or using the tweening options to save time.
In the screen shot above of the program you see the lake serpent monster, which is a stand in for the target for the spell I am testing. And I am telling it to show the spell animation effect image 1 on frame 3, and scale it to be twice the size. Also I have set it to change the serpent to be offset hue 60% to the right (think of a sliding hue bar). And I have also set the map behind the serpent to be tinted a light blue color.
The different options you have to control a spell animation can be added without writing a line of code. I have created a mouse-based command selector and the property editor for each command outlines the options without having to reference any documentation.
In this screen shot you can see the various commands that will be available to use to control different spell animations.
Actually previewing the animation is still to come, and when that is complete we will have some GIF previews I am sure (and some youtube videos)! Check back soon!
Social media:
And of course more updates here on Ludust!
To start off the development on the battle system I am releasing this teaser! Which show cases the in-game battle transition effect, which was achieved by taking a screenshot of the map (in-game) and adding a convolution filter and a blur filter on the x-axis. I think it turned out pretty good! What do you think?
Be sure to follow me on social media to stay up to date with my daily progress of this 2D retro JRPG, turn-based side-view battle system development!!
Social media:
And of course more updates here on Ludust!
A land covered in eternal night, where no one dares to go, except for the beasts that roam the woods looking for their next meal. This is Ceonead. What mysteries does this place hold?
Deep within the Ceonead Woods is a mysterious ruins. What civilization built this magical place? And why does it emit a light from deep within its halls?
Sign up to be notified when RpgLegend, a retro 2D multiplayer RPG enters Beta! www.rpglegend.com
Learn more at:
Over the last several days I have been hard at work creating and wrapping up the Skill Menu. And today I am proud to announce that it is complete.
Currently coding the first chapter of Tarot. So far I like the Wintermute Engine, and find it powerful and flexible enough to do what I need it to do. I'm getting a lot of the foundational elements working (Inventory, cellphone, character movements, ect...) complete.
I'm frustrated by the art I have to work with. But at least we can move forward.
I'll be trying out this Ludust blog to keep people up-to-date on Tarot's development.
Hey all, just a quick update!
We're currently going through a Studio name-change on all of our social platform pages(with news ones to announce), our website, along with other places on the web, so anything you see by Cat in a Hat Studios or CreaByte Studios, pay attention because it's the same team :) A news post will soon be up explaining the name change along with some more dev news!
Hello guys,
Probably you all know that for now we are small but we are huge Fighters and we never give up. Driven by succes, joy and motivation we keep on working slowly but with steady steps time by time, we already have a build of the map where you can walk around and c what the idea is and what the theme is more or less.
I like to make a build so you guys actually really know what you are working on.
Maybe you already know and maybe not but till now we are a 2 man army :P working hard to get this game actually finished and be proud of what the team could do and have fun with it and at the end ofcourse make some money with it. We really need help here guys :)
Members till now:
I wanted to make a game that gave you that old nostalgic feeling you would get as a kid while playing games like runescape classic and old 2d mmorpgs. I Also cannot stand playing eclipse games that use rpg maker graphics. So making something that stands out from the group is something I have been wanting to do for a while now. I am not a professional graphics artist, this is something I just do for fun, but I do love how this tileset has come out. Thus Soulscape is born.
Script writer is back from vacation, assets are being purchased and our 3D artist is working on the small items from the concept art. Sounds and music should be well under way now or soon and I will be starting a demo level.
We will be discussing kick-start rewards over the next few days
Finally I have access to my own blog, updates to the journal will be as often as I can spare.
My entry is Endless War game.
Now I might get back to this game jam entry, maybe I'll finish it.
Bad news - I still got no job. Damn it.
Bad news - there's almost no time left, and it's only one scene (out of five) done.
Bad news - there's still only some placeholding music I've made in 15 minutes.
Good news - I still have a time, and a brand new pack of coffee and cigarettes. This night gonna be soooo loooong...
We got a scenario, finally got an artist - but game is still deeply in WIP! Fork!
Awesome! @Sajarin joined project as a editor + writer + narrative genius.
That's a 100% win in this Game Jam! >:D
Yeah. I've choosed topic, mechanics, started making soundtrack, and stuff.
Here's some nice screenshot of intro reel. Like it?
Starting some "hacking" now. Not much to show, but here's what I've got so far:
Aren't mysteries just the best? I can't hide my fascination with the genre - from the classic storylines of Holmes and Poirot to ones that grew up with me like Detective Conan and Kindaichi Case Files. I can even recall writing a mystery centering a kid detective troupe in elementary school - but that's a decade ago, and after spending several years learning art and design... and playing a lot of video games - I think I can see the outline of something... very exciting.
Blacklight Office will try to introduce a new, intuitive and fun logic system, combined with a beautiful setting and unforgettable characters. It's an ambitious target, but that's where all good things start, right?
I am currently a decent way through creating the first level in Timebot. This is as in the platforms, the enemies, and the programming for them. A lot of the rough starting programming such as movement is done so it shouldn't be horrible to create levels. Our composer is on the job as well, creating the soundboard. The only thing we need is a pixel artist and once we find one we will have all the skills we need to really get this project to come out great! Please don't hesitate to apply for Timebot if you want to help out!
Iridescence is a story driven, point and click, sandbox. This is a tale of two estranged university students (Jonathan & Sydney) who wake up and realize that they can visually see what other people's auras (intention v emotion). As they progress through their day, they realize that there is more to this ability than meets the eye. Sinister (?) things are working in the background.
Finished work:
-Title Screen
-Jonathan/Sydney's Walking Animation
-Basic game scripting
-Theme Song
-Basic Plot
To be done:
-University Backgrounds
-A lot More
We have taken the steps towards migrating all of the work we've finished to Unity. As it turns out, Duality is not optimal for our project due to a lack of documentation and feature support.
Click for Details
Our team for the gamejam is now complete:
Peter Devita: Music Lead and Code Assistant
Mikhaela: Script Writer
Tomek Zając: Code Lead
Gabriel Loza: Art Lead
Work hard everyone!
I started Shaw's Nightmare 2, shortly after releasing v1.2 in January. Initially I had only a few levels. I looked for help to help finish the game. Emeric Alizond came in but he delayed and eventually left. I am currently looking for new levels. I have completed 19 levels and I need somebody to help fill in rest which is 13. For more information contact me.
Features (compared to Shaw's Nightmare):
Black Sands is a new visual novel series about the world as it was around 3500 BCE. Earth has been in surveillance by an alien species for many millenniums when an alien engineer is sent to Earth to help the primitive species advance. This becomes problematic though because they can only go the speed of light, making the trip take thousands of years.
By the time this alien arrived, humanity had already self improved but the alien and his entire species lack free will in the human sense. They all cannot deny their purpose in life and thus, he continued on with his mission regardless if it was needed or not.
This Alien's name was Nun and he experimented for years trying to create representatives of the race to go out into the world and teach culture to the humans. Unfortunately, those experiments proved to be failures as the three dominant races that survived his experiments turned on humanity and send the world into chaos.
The Anunnaki enslaved most of the human presence in their regions. The Titans grew mad with power, destroying all humans in Greece and creating their own alien races to replace the populace. The Deva took over the east and waged war against themselves to the dismay of the humans that followed them.
This utter failure caused Nun to pity himself. Then he received a message from an old friend of the Titan bloodline that renewed his hopes.
The new mission was not to teach humans of civilization. It was to create empires that could fight back against the ancients. Of this, he made new beings. They had power like the aliens of old but lacked their alien appearance or long lives. They were true humans and were raised as such. Of this, Rah was the first.
He and his kin would soon become the saviors of this forsaken world and Nun can have his redemption.
GENRE and NOTABLES
Hey all, we're CiaH(Cat in a Hat) Studios!
We've got some exciting updates coming up as we get closer to July and August, including Dev Streams, Alpha footage trailer, and our pre-campaign with Square Enix!
Follow us on Twitter or Facebook for quick updates, and check our website regularly as we'll be updating it with news posts:
We'll also try to update our Ludust blog as we can, to make sure those who don't know about us stay in the loop.
We're happy to have found Ludust as we've actually been making a few contacts and even finding new members to speed up development!
You can also check info on our project on our Ludust project page!
And don't be shy to say hi :)
Welcome to the D.F.L. blog if you want to work with us on the project go to : Click Me
Scoring system is one of the most fundamental aspect of any SHMUP games. The main objective is always surviving and progressing to fight the boss like in the most games. But achieving the highest score possible feels like a intriguing challenge.
Making a balanced and fun scoring system is a bit complex sometimes. Most SHMUPs have their own scoring system. DoDonPachi, Touhou, Geometry Wars and Ikaruga have a different scoring system.
There are many unique scoring addition that you can observe. Grazing is one example. Grazing is when you almost get hit by an enemy bullet, much like a near-miss. One of my favorite SHMUP, Touhou has this as one of the major scoring factor. This encourages the players to play aggresively. And this really fits well with it's bullet pattern style that fills the whole screen with bullets. As a player I felt this is a great scoring system addition.
I've considered to add grazing before. But I realize it does not fits well with my gameplay style. First, Solar Ascension is not one-dimensional shooting SHMUP. Grazing needs you to focus complete on your movement. It will be too hard for players to graze while maintaining their firing angle. Second, Solar Ascension is not bullet-curtain styled SHMUP. Bullet curtain is when the enemy bullets fills the whole f*cking screen with a very slow movement. It's much more easier to graze in this situation. But in Solar Ascension, your screen wouldn't be covered in bullets. But the enemy bullets has a faster speed overall. I designed them this way because in Solar Ascension the players can actually move freely in the map, not only move freely in the screen. If I were applying the bullet-curtain style, players would just camp in the borders circling around the map.
So what I decided to implement is a quite simple scoring system. I borrowed some of DoDonPachi scoring system. In the game, killing enemies fills the Combo bar based by how strong the enemy you just destroyed is. The larger your combo is, the more score you get when killing another enemy.
So in Solar Ascension, enemies has their fixed 'value'. This value is used in 2 mechanism, the first one is when spawning groups of enemies. The system calculates the enemy values to prevent 5 strong enemies spawning in a same group. The second use of these 'values' is for the scoring system. Every time you killed an enemy, the value of that enemy is added to the variable in the memory. If the variable value has reached a fixed amount, you gain a chain-multiplier. Further enemies that got killed were multiplied by this chain-multiplier. When the player got hit, they lost 33% of their current multiplier, with a minimal of 3-chain-multiplier lost. When the player got destroyed, the multiplier is set to 0. This is designed to make it rewarding for players to evade the bullets and not getting hit.
Another thing I've implemented is a simple multiplier on what wave you're on. So if you're on wave 16 you'll get 16X multiplier. This multiplier will be added with the previous multiplier, chain-multiplier. This is designed to make survival at later levels more rewarding.
Hey guys!
After months of development, I decided to start writing the development blog for my first game, Solar Ascension. I know that this is way too late, but it's better than never don't you think? And at this first blog post, I want to tell you a story on how this game project created.
Solar Ascension is my first big project. Currently I'm in my High School graduation holiday, which is around 3 months. That is quite a lot of time. So rather than spending time climbing to Challenger in League of Legends (Karthus freelo lolololol), I want to spend time learning programming for my future career.
But! Programming itself is boring. Really. Boring. Who cares about this machine that with 'Algorithm' that could handle enormous datas? Not me. So I get to mix programming with gaming, which comes into Game Development! With Solar Ascension as my first project. I have this special philosophy of mine, that I need to do my best in my first time in anything that I got passion into. So I don't want to start with another flappy bird clone to adds up to the Worldwide Bank of Flappy Birds Clones (Seriously there are TOO MANY). I want to make something that I really like, even though that I know it won't be easy. But of course I don't think about creating something enormously big like GTA V, Assassin Creed or MMOs (Which many 'passionate' newborn gamedevs really excited with!). I want to start with something big with a solo developer scope. So then another top-down shooter was born! Why top-down shooter? First, I like games like it. Second, it's easy to make.
At first, the game environment is not space. Even the name isn't Solar Ascension. It was DroidWare. Because it was planned to be a war between tank droid (The player) with walker droids (The enemies). Yeah, top-down tanks shooter. I've learned (Read : Copy/Pasted) some basic C# scripting in Unity to make a rectangle moveable with WASD. And OMG! It works! I have to say that the first few weeks are the hardest. I don't know anything. I was faced with everything. Making a game is not as easy as I think. Every little thing matters. I almost cried back then. I was thinking to sell lemons instead for my future. But hey, **** the lemons! I've wasted some precious gaming hours downloading Unity. I ain't gonna make that potential League Points sacrifice a waste. So I kept going slowly... slowly...
Until I found another wall. Art. Okay, now I got a white rectangle tank with a white cannon on top of it that shoots marshmellows to the cursor.
Would people like to get this game? Oh hell yes! They would like to get this game into the recycle bin. With a letter to the developer (me) "gr8 game m8 i r8 8/8 no h8". I'm poor. Not really poor, I live in my parents home and have money to eat but relatively poor. I got no money to hire people to do some art. So I had to made it myself. Sorry I've removed my game build at this stage so there is no screenshots. But to describe, the art I made is worse than a simple white rectangle. So I go look for free for comercial use art at the Open Game Art. I had no luck finding some good top-down tank sprites. But got some few good sprites for space-themed art. So I decided to shift into a top-down space shooter.
That is it, the game graphics at January 2015. It's something at least. Until I found the Asset Jesus, Kenney!
Whoever are you, Kenney, I love you! This guy provides great sprite graphics with CC0 license! Look at the game sprites now, beautiful isn't it? It's all thanks to you, Kenney! I also changed the project name to Solar Ascension. Because DroidWare is more suitable for softwares I think lol.
So after I have the art wall broken, I can get progressed quickly into the game development. Since then, many things has changed and I've learn lot of things. Almost all the game scripts are made by myself. And now, the game is almost finsihed soon(tm). I have a high hope for the game!
That is all for the story of the early ages of Solar Ascension development. Having a good time reading? Thanks then. If not...
Hi guys,
We already got 3 programmers and couple of voice,music artist and 2 3D modellers!
We will start really soon, we will start with a easy game to get to know eachather, Ball madnes will be the name. Its a simple game with a ball tha rolled away int eh night when sleeping.. He has to find his way home so he can be with his family again but he has a long and dangerous way to go, will you help him to find his family?...
If we make this game and everything goes good.. we can keep on working togheter, after this we will know who wants to stay and who will not.
After this project we will start on the Flight Guard game! So give the best you can, be friendly and we will be the best there is!
Becouse we have allot of composers and related to it we will have to c how many of you guys we need.
Hi guys you all know that till now we have 7 members, most of them are AL sound or music engineers...
Im happy that you guys like the idea for this game, but......
We can't start the development of the game without a programmer! Thats why i still didn't gave you guys something to work on.....
"Joey, Tia, Peter, and Rico." -The four main playable characters
We have discussed on the common route for the VN, and some of the branches of the story. We have also discussed some of the possible endings, but I'm not going to spoil them here, lol. xD
I'm in the process of writing common route. It's more than halfway done, so probably I can finish it soon. I'm sorry to my group because of the delays in writing due to me being busy with real life. x.x I'll try to finish writing it as soon as I can. :'D I'm writing all of it in Ren'Py to make it easier for programmer to code it in.
After common route is done, co-writer and I will split in writing the story. Both of us will write two character routes respectively. We will divide the work among us.
We still haven't found GUI artist, which is a top priority right now. If there is GUI and it's finished, our programmer can work on coding it directly into the game. I can try my hands on GUI, but I generally have little experience on it. I tried making custom GUI in my last game, but our programmer has to change it himself because I...have no talent in making GUI whatsoever, lol. xD So if we can recruit GUI artist who can make custom GUI, that would be great! The theme of the game is mostly romance, so GUI should fit with the theme. For now, I'm just using default GUI.
Hopefully, this week is more productive for me than last week. I know I can be a slow writer, but I'm doing my best to finish it. So wish me luck in writing, and wish our group luck in everything, it would be much appreciated! :D
This is going to be a visual novel with GxB pairing, and I'm contemplating on adding GxG pairing too, just one path though. So far, the progress for the story is about 10%, since I've written only 10k+ words. My aim is to write around 50k+, and no less than that. My first VN was around 30k+ words, written in a span of almost two months. So it's not a stretch to finish all the script in three months, I think.
I'm recruiting artists (GUI, CG artists, and possibly BG artists too) for now, and idea bouncers. Since our team consists of three writers already, idea bouncers may or may not be necessary. However, we'll still need editor/proofreader at a later stage, who are proficient and critical in grammar and overall fluency of the story and the script.
Issues aside, I'm glad I have a team to work with. :D I hope we can all make this work. *fingers crossed* I'm one of those people who will not stop what I start until it's finished. So I'm hoping this project will see daylight in the future. :D
Just finnished the official Interibang site and connected to our Facebook page! Getting pretty excited...
Hi, I'm Kieran. I'm the programmer for Their Own Way. I'm currently working on the engine so that all of our team can just type in character thoughts and stuff to build the game, and boy is it a tough job.
I'm learning the SDL library for the purposes of this: I'm used to OpenGL or using something like Unity. It's a fairly easy to grasp library once you know OpenGL, but it's still a pain to get things to render. I'm still at the stage of learning advanced things in it, planning on starting actual engine-y stuff tomorrow.
First on my to-do list is to program the base for the game, and build the engine on top of that. It seems a strange way to do it, but this is built specifically for Their Own Way, and only needs features for that, so it'll be a drag+drop interface on top of the game, that I'll just lock when it's released. It'll all stay one program. Does that count as an engine? I'm not entirely sure.
I'm obviously going to need to render sprites, maps, etc, but then I'm planning on creating the basic AI for the people in the game, just working with movement to make it look like something humans would do, then build on that from there. After that, I'll add in objects and stuff, and set up a path-finding-esque system for the NPCs, then build the thoughts on top of that. The first set of thoughts to be implemented are going to be set by the team, but afterward I'm thinking we could go down two lanes, or possibly both of them. Randomness, or writing every single possible action. To keep gameplay going, we'll need a lot of actions, but randomness is a bit shaky. I'm thinking along the lines of having it 35:65 defined-randomness choosing the thoughts for the people... With a list of about 2000 or so for different verbs and nouns etc.
In terms of the other features, I've been talking to John and we're thinking about some other stuff, but it's still ideas floating in the air. We're thinking of having some sort of interactivity to drive the gameplay, instead of watching, that would be entirely optional - the game would function without it. We're thinking about this on two levels: interacting with the environment (with huge limitations in place), or interacting with the characters mentally, possibly affecting their actions and what happens to them in the long term. This would lead to an entirely new type of gameplay where you could change things that happen in the characters' life.
It's something to think about. What are your ideas?
My name is John and I'm working with a really cool team to make a fancy pixelstyled game called Their Own Way.
It's about how everyone goes their own way and always has an objective. Even the smallest things like picking up your phone. Everybody does his own thing.
In this game you can see the objectives of these people. Watch over a busy street, a swimmingpool, an office? You see what they are thinking.
(NOTE: This is a work in progress and these are still ideas. There will be hundreds of thoughts and objectives and new user requested ones will be added every update. If you have anything you want to know or you want to join the team you can find us on Ludust!)
Welcome to the development blog of Rumors Of War, the visual novel hobbyist project I'm working on.
A visual novel is maybe not the most indicated genre for a game programmer. It has little game mechanics and the accent is more on the writing and the art thanthe gameplay. But still, always liked telling stories, and it is an opportunity to focus on the content rather than the mechanics!
This is also an opportunity to share my experience with a community. I hope it will turn out in something interesting.
Thanks for reading!
As a bonus, here is a sketch for a pseudo concept art. It is absolutely not representative of the final quality of the game ;)
Rumors of War are set in the universe of Dark Horse, Dead City. It is a universe I have been working on since a long time. And, with each project I added a little piece of History, refining the one already existing, gave more depth to some events.
It goes like this :
"Suddenly, a huge fleet of gigantic spaceships fell on earth recovering the cities. Aboard where creatures wielding magical powers. Among them an Order of sorcerers and witches. Devoted to the True Humanity, they were disappointed with what became humanity. The started a crusade to erase this mockery of Human.
Humanity fought back, but was quickly overpowered by the magical powers of their opponent. Beaten, destroyed, humanity was forced to took refuge in the underground. Since then, they are waiting for a chance to conquer the sky again."
The event of Rumors of War happens a few years after the start of the war. The story follows Sept a soldier lost in the underground of Paris. He is then captured by two young witches, who promise to free him if he manage to lead them out to the surface. It is maybe a chance to live, to kill, or maybe, to learn.
I would like to say more, but I will keep some surprise, and it's also not written yet. :D


text:
Twitter is finally addressing one of its biggest pain points — with new tools to curb hateful and abusive attacks on the service — although it remains to be seen if the efforts will help the social-media player jump-start growth in its user base.
Over the past few years, the "amount of abuse, bullying, and harassment we've seen across the Internet has risen sharply over the past few years," Twitter said in a blog post Tuesday. "Because Twitter happens in public and in real-time, we've had some challenges keeping up with and curbing abusive conduct."
Now Twitter says it has moved to stop trolls in three ways: It's letting users "mute" notifications based on keywords, phrases, and even entire conversations; it is making it easier to report abusive users; and the company says it has retrained its support team to identify hateful conduct on Twitter.
However, Twitter said, it doesn't expect the steps will "suddenly remove abusive conduct" from the service. "No single action by us would do that. Instead we commit to rapidly improving Twitter based on everything we observe and learn," the company said.
The steps come after Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey this summer acknowledged that the company's efforts in cracking down on hateful and abusive attacks on the social service haven't gone far enough. "No one deserves to be the target of abuse on Twitter," he said on the company's quarterly call in July. "We haven't been good enough at ensuring that's the case, and we need to do better."
For Twitter, one of the highest-profile examples of abusive behavior occurred earlier this year, when actress Leslie Jones (of "Saturday Night Live" and "Ghostbusters") targeted with numerous racist comments on Twitter — prompting her to leave the service. Twitter subsequently banned conservative columnist Milo Yiannopoulos and other accounts over the attacks, after which Jones resumed tweeting.
"We honor our role in protecting your right to speak freely, and our collective responsibility to human dignity," Twitter said in its blog post Tuesday.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
The CVN Bursary Committee launched several initiatives over the summer and fall. We revised the bursary information supplied to the schools and on the club's website in order to provide more detail about the club and its activities. We also created the CVN-specific application form to learn more about the applicant's environmental background, experience, and interests to better gauge his or her suitability for our award. This form will complement the generic bursary application form and supporting documents provided by the schools that students submit to us. Both our bursary information and a link to a downloadable, fillable form are now posted on our website under the heading Bursary/Financial Aid.
The CVN Bursary Committee chose Kylie Adebar as this year's bursary winner for her volunteer commitments and high academic standing at Mark R. Isfeld Secondary School. She is now enrolled in the General Sciences program at the UBC Okanagan campus in Kelowna and hopes to pursue an environmental chemistry degree with a focus on pollution issues and new technologies to combat climate change.
We are currently in the process of locating our past CVN bursary recipients to invite them to give a brief presentation to our club regarding their environmental interests and career progress and plans. This would allow them to meet our members and express their appreciation in person, and allow us to learn about them and their projects.
Many thanks to those who contributed to our initiatives, especially Jim Boulter, Isabella Erni, Krista Kaptein and the current CVN Board!