96 replies to this topic

[Noctourne Wonderland]

When even the placeholder graphics are mindblowing, I can't wait to see the final project.

[Monophobe]

On the open source front probably not. To be honest I'm half wondering when Sega might catch wind of this and stop me. I'm considering once all the mechanics are ironed out, removing all reference to NiGHTS (yeah I know that would suck) and creating my own visuals to avoid issues. Also can't imagine Epic being best pleased if it got released in these clothes so to speak.

I'm definately sticking with the theme until the gameplay is fully working, after that, well, we'll see. Not going to worry about it for now since nothing has left my PC and isn't going to anytime soon.

[iLLViLLAiN]

It's silly how some companies dislike fanmade games so much. I see them as the equivalent of cover versions for songs. Sure they're sometimes made to sound similar but the musicians add their own little style to what's already been made.

[Razer112]

Woah... I leave the forum for a bit and THIS happens?
This looks amazing! If I didn't know better I'd say that SEGA themselves that was making it.

I wish I could help, but the only experience I've had with Making 3D games was Coding and Mapping for some unfinished Doom mods, and Mapping for Half-Life 2.

[Nemoide]

It's silly how some companies dislike fanmade games so much. I see them as the equivalent of cover versions for songs. Sure they're sometimes made to sound similar but the musicians add their own little style to what's already been made.

The problem isn't the company "disliking" fanmade games. It's their legal obligation to send cease & desist letters once the existence of such a thing is brought to their attention. The law basically says that if you allow one unlicensed game, you lose the trademark.

That said, I feel like Sega's legal department probably isn't roving the internet in search of fan-made games. Just so long as it doesn't end up on big-time news sites before it's done (not very likely), there should be no problem.

[viperxmns]

I would think that as long as you're not making any money off it, a fangame is simply an advanced form of fanart and has no illegal implications.

[iLLViLLAiN]

The problem isn't the company "disliking" fanmade games. It's their legal obligation to send cease & desist letters once the existence of such a thing is brought to their attention. The law basically says that if you allow one unlicensed game, you lose the trademark.

That said, I feel like Sega's legal department probably isn't roving the internet in search of fan-made games. Just so long as it doesn't end up on big-time news sites before it's done (not very likely), there should be no problem.

Then I guess this'll just have to remain in this little corner of the internet for now.

I would think that as long as you're not making any money off it, a fangame is simply an advanced form of fanart and has no illegal implications.

That's a fine way of putting it but all this legal stuff is confusing.

[charlie]

Wow! I can't believe I didn't look at this topic earlier. This is some really great stuff in such a short amount of time of restarting it.

The visuals are really stunning. I should learn how to use UDK sometime, but I'm sure your career is definitely helpful for this stuff. I should get around to taking some programming classes...

I'm sure you can figure out the scoring but if you need a hand on the details I can help with that. I have a pretty good grasp of the scoring mechanics in NiD.

Keep up the great work!!

[Noctourne Wonderland]

Technically even fanart is a copyright violation, but no one really cares. Sega isn't known for shutting down fangames, but don't market it as a NiGHTS sequel for money.

[Monophobe]

Hey all,

 

First of all, apologies for the extreme absence and for any hearts broken by what I say next......

 

This project, i..e Second Slumber, is dead..... as far as it being a NigHTS fangame!

 

The reason I'm returning is to inform you that whilst my idea from.... HOLY CRAP! 7 years ago!..... to do a fan remake is off the table, I do have genuine plans afoot for something that might be of interest.

 

The brief version of events is that the first time I posted here I was trying to get into the games industry. I could make art (a bit) but never found a coder so the project died...... when I came back, I had a couple of year industry experience and yes I'd got NiGHTS flying around, but it was a bodged perspective setup that would have made flying around a connected loop/track impossible.

 

This leads me to present day. I have 6 and a half years in the games industry, making the art is not an issue (just time consuming), BUT the game changer is Unreal Engine 4 which features a visual scripting language called Blueprints. This system has meant that I can now create the gameplay myself and after learning some of the ropes, last week I started from scratch on a game with NiGHTS inspired gameplay, but which will be completely my own artwork and have my own take on certain gameplay elements, with no concerns about copyright infringement.

 

I won't be making any artwork at all until the gameplay is working 100% in my test level.

 

In this short week I have achieved the following:

 

- Side on movement all controlled with the left analogue stick

- Analogue movement (i.e. speed variation dependent on how far you push the stick)

- Self-righting (so it faces up when there is no input)

- Smooth rotation when you quickly flick from flying one direction to the opposite direction

- Spline locked movement through the world which most importantly.....

- .....ACTUALLY LOOPS!

- It runs on Android and feels really nice on a touch screen (though I might just aim for high end PC - that decision will come much later)

 

So, whilst this is no longer a NiGHTS game, it will still feature the strong score attack mechanics that you are all familiar with, and if you are interested in following my progress then please keep an eye on my thread on the Unreal Engine forums here - https://forums.unrea...t-flight-quot-)

 

I might come back and update here when there is a lot more progress, but for now I shall leave you with this:

 

[iLLViLLAiN]

Interesting developments, Mr. Monophobe. I've bookmarked that thread on the Unreal forums. I don't have any advice or tips but I'd love to see where this is going.

[Dex la Cabra]

I missed this the first time round, and regret having done so! It's a shame you can't use any NiGHTS related things appearance-wise, though it's understandable! That said, what you've got there looks excellent so far, even if you were to keep the graphics as they are I'd still play it, the lighting looks really nice! Will be keeping an eye on this

[Monophobe]

Figured I'd show the latest version of my personal game project as I am now pretty much rebuilding it from scratch to make my own life easier in future, make optimisations, and fingers crossed, in the process fix up the horrible movement issues.

 

Where I got to:
- 3 laps where you have 2minutes to get as high a score as you can by flying through rings and collecting orbs
- Rings/orbs respawn as you fly over the start point, but if you have collected 20 orbs and fly inside the start building, you move onto the next lap
- Rack up your score by boosting your multiplier (cancels if you don't grab a pickup in time)
- Boost meter is filled when you grab pickups and emptied when you boost (trail turns blue when this is happening)
- Game over if you don't move onto the next lap before time runs out
- Final results are given if you complete all 3 laps, with the total number of orbs collected during the 3 laps providing a bonus to your overall score.

 

 

Started a new thread in the UE forums so ignore my previous post, developements will now be show here:

https://forums.unrea...ore-attack-game

[Monophobe]

Movement system has been rebuilt:

 

 

More details can be found here - https://forums.unrea...ore-attack-game

[Musashi_HUmar]

This looks pretty snazzy. Keep on with it!

[Monophobe]

Thanks. I've been working on it everyday when I'm not in work and about to start for the day now. Will have a new video soon I'm sure so please don't get the impression I've let it stagnate yet again. Movement is feeling really solid now and I've made some much needed improvements. since my last post.

[Monophobe]

So, the rebuild is done, plus working captures, and I can start to think about further features. Much more info and a longer video in my UE4 thread ( https://forums.unrea...ore-attack-game )

 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rqVu-wa2mdA