Development Recap #1
[h3]Hey Netherholics![/h3]
It’s been 2 years since our Kickstarter campaign ended, and a lot of stuff has happened: +25 development updates, extended articles… Our backers and newsletter subscribers have already read them, but… What about you?
That’s why we’ve decided to make a two-part recap update summarizing all we’ve been working on from 2018 (and before) to now.
Once up to date, we’ll continue posting brief development updates with the current progress.
[h3]WARNING:[/h3]NetherWorld is still under development, and this is a recap. Most footage and information shown here may be outdated or may change in the future to guarantee the best quality and fun.
[h3]WARNING 2:[/h3]GIF compression quality is worse than in-game real footage (sorry!).
[h3]WARNING 3:[/h3] There are not more warnings, ENJOY!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Okay, introduction done. Let’s start from the beginning then!
[h2]INTERFACE: The Menu[/h2]
Here’s the Menu we designed for our first backer demo, and we actually like it for the final game. What do you think? Imagine yourself watching this while listening to NetherWorld’s main theme… Wait, you actually can listen to it in our website!
[h2]SCENARIOS (I): Deumanville[/h2]
You’ll be able to explore more than 15 scenarios in NetherWorld, including exteriors and interiors. Let’s see the first one you're gonna play in:
Deumanville is the hometown of Medoo, our unlucky black jellyfish-like main character. The green flying snot is Bozky, his best friend and pet.
This town has changed a lot since we started its development. You’ll play it at night, but also in a beautiful sunset.
Okay, so this crazy adventure starts in Deumanville… but WHO starts it?
[h3]
Cubick is running away from the Mafia. Why? Don’t know yet. But what we know is that he’ll be involved in all the boss town fights... And will involve you in them, of course.
“To the nearest drug dealer, and beyond!”
Here are some characters you’ll meet in Deumanville too. Most of them will have an important role in the story:
Yummi, the party-loving newcomer.
Aitana, the shy newcomer.
Roger, the town bully.
[h2]Let's kick some asses: BOSSES (I)[/h2]
We love big fights, and that’s why all the enemies in NetherWorld will be deadly bosses like the pal over here:
Hot armors aside, we’re glad to show you the first 2 bosses you’ll have to fight in Deumanville. And you know what? You’ll have to face them unarmed! MUAHAHA!
[h3]
Did he drink Monster Energy or what?
[h3]
There’s nothing more deadly than a party with a cokehead mage. Wait... Is that a unicorn?
[h2]MINIGAMES (I)[/h2]
You’ll get money or materials taking part in drinking competitions, having sex (you better don't ask with who), shooting stuff or even controlling a tick called Joe through filthy underground rogue-like dungeons.
Tick Joe in action! [WIP]
[h2]MECHANICS IMPROVEMENTS (I): Weapons[/h2]
Sword, shield, torch, shotgun, submachine gun, flamethrower… Not Pokémon games, but some of the weapons you’ll use to survive fight bosses. Check out all the upgrades we’ve made to the weapon system below!
Old one.
If you’ve ever worked with Unity, you’ll know how useful the LineRenderer tool is for adding a laser sight like this in your weapons. The problem lies in having a cool HD red laser… in a pixel art game. We fixed it using Bresenham’s line algorithm:
New one.
We developed and polished a faster algorithm which allows Medoo to hold and move all kind of weapons with his pixel arms in real time.
If you wanna know how we did it, feel free to check out our IndieDB article.
At the beginning, programming a realistic recoil for a jellyfish shooting a Thompson sounded fantastic. However, we didn’t take into account that two human hands were not the same as several slippery tentacles... So recoil was horrible.
To avoid frustration and despair among players while trying to shoot a target, we reduced recoil parameters. Here’s the comparison:
We’re gonna kick lots of boss butts in NetherWorld, so the combat UI has to be up to scratch.
According to the mess you got into, you’ll be able to switch between ranged and melee weapons. This double weapon category system made difficult to decide how the weapon selector should be. We finally opted for a quarter circle in the top left corner of the screen.
Besides showing the weapon list, its rotation would allow to change weapons and the weapon category as well.
[h2]GRAPHICS IMPROVEMENTS (I)[/h2]
[h3]
Developing NetherWorld for Steam and Nintendo Switch at the same time has taught us how to work in a more efficient way, mostly in terms of performance optimization. We’ve been able to reach stable 60 fps even in our 300-IA-bird benchmarks!
Hitchcock-inspired benchmark approved!
In this other image below, you'll see more than 20,000 triangles! By increasing the number of tris in each scene element, we can fit to its shape better and reduce overdraw risk.
This is particularly important in the game, because we love playing with illumination (and this consumes resources).
Although being a 2D pixel art game, we like to use different types of light and particle effects to make scenarios feel more real. To do so, we combine 2D and real-time 3D illumination.
In the second part of the update we’ll talk a bit more about how we use particles in the game.
We considered a standard rotation would clash with the pixel art “essence” of the game, so we developed a truly pixel art rotation system.
That wasn’t an easy decision: NetherWorld rotation system has experienced several (and important) changes during its development. In the beginning, the calculations to build a new rotated image for big objects like the gauntlet you’ll see below raised the 30,000. After an optimization, we reduced it to 10,000.
We also developed a system to storage the rotated images, so if we already had “Object X” rotated in a certain angle, next time we needed it we'd use the stored image instead of doing the rotation calculations again.
Calculating rocktations.
We want you to enjoy Medoo’s suffering no matter the situation, so we added some outlining when his body is hidden. Don’t miss a thing!
There’s quite a lot of blood in NetherWorld, so we wanted it to feel right. That’s why we created a 2D pixel bloodstain system that generates random bloodstains every time you hurt someone. It can be used by us (Hungry Pixel team) to decorate scenarios too, and works for dirt and other stain materials.
Testing random bloodstain generator.
No difference at all!
Is she… hitting you with a fetus? Of course she is.
If you wanna know how we developed the Blood Stain System, we explain it here!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[h3]Aaaaand that’s it for now![/h3]
Next week we’ll finish this recap with PART 2: Desert scenario, worms, particles and more!
We hope you enjoyed this update as much as we did developing all this stuff. It'll be a pleasure to hear your impressions and answer any question you have about the game!
[h2]Wait a second...[/h2]
You haven't added NetherWorld to your wishlist, or joined our Community Hub?
WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?
https://store.steampowered.com/app/672420
Thanks so much and see you next week!
Hungry Pixel team
(Oh, you can stalk us below too, including Facebook!)
It’s been 2 years since our Kickstarter campaign ended, and a lot of stuff has happened: +25 development updates, extended articles… Our backers and newsletter subscribers have already read them, but… What about you?
That’s why we’ve decided to make a two-part recap update summarizing all we’ve been working on from 2018 (and before) to now.
Once up to date, we’ll continue posting brief development updates with the current progress.
[h3]WARNING:[/h3]NetherWorld is still under development, and this is a recap. Most footage and information shown here may be outdated or may change in the future to guarantee the best quality and fun.
[h3]WARNING 2:[/h3]GIF compression quality is worse than in-game real footage (sorry!).
[h3]WARNING 3:[/h3] There are not more warnings, ENJOY!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Okay, introduction done. Let’s start from the beginning then!
[h2]INTERFACE: The Menu[/h2]
Here’s the Menu we designed for our first backer demo, and we actually like it for the final game. What do you think? Imagine yourself watching this while listening to NetherWorld’s main theme… Wait, you actually can listen to it in our website!
[h2]SCENARIOS (I): Deumanville[/h2]
You’ll be able to explore more than 15 scenarios in NetherWorld, including exteriors and interiors. Let’s see the first one you're gonna play in:
Deumanville is the hometown of Medoo, our unlucky black jellyfish-like main character. The green flying snot is Bozky, his best friend and pet.
This town has changed a lot since we started its development. You’ll play it at night, but also in a beautiful sunset.
Okay, so this crazy adventure starts in Deumanville… but WHO starts it?
[h3]
- Cubick, the cokehead mage
Cubick is running away from the Mafia. Why? Don’t know yet. But what we know is that he’ll be involved in all the boss town fights... And will involve you in them, of course.
“To the nearest drug dealer, and beyond!”Here are some characters you’ll meet in Deumanville too. Most of them will have an important role in the story:
Yummi, the party-loving newcomer.
Aitana, the shy newcomer.
Roger, the town bully.
[h2]Let's kick some asses: BOSSES (I)[/h2]
We love big fights, and that’s why all the enemies in NetherWorld will be deadly bosses like the pal over here:
Hot armors aside, we’re glad to show you the first 2 bosses you’ll have to fight in Deumanville. And you know what? You’ll have to face them unarmed! MUAHAHA!
[h3]
- Xenus, the Mafia Doctor
Did he drink Monster Energy or what?[h3]
- Cubick Party
There’s nothing more deadly than a party with a cokehead mage. Wait... Is that a unicorn?
[h2]MINIGAMES (I)[/h2]
You’ll get money or materials taking part in drinking competitions, having sex (you better don't ask with who), shooting stuff or even controlling a tick called Joe through filthy underground rogue-like dungeons.
Tick Joe in action! [WIP][h2]MECHANICS IMPROVEMENTS (I): Weapons[/h2]
Sword, shield, torch, shotgun, submachine gun, flamethrower… Not Pokémon games, but some of the weapons you’ll use to survive fight bosses. Check out all the upgrades we’ve made to the weapon system below!
- [h3]Pixel Laser Sight[/h3]
Old one.If you’ve ever worked with Unity, you’ll know how useful the LineRenderer tool is for adding a laser sight like this in your weapons. The problem lies in having a cool HD red laser… in a pixel art game. We fixed it using Bresenham’s line algorithm:
New one.- [h3]Procedural pixel arms[/h3]
We developed and polished a faster algorithm which allows Medoo to hold and move all kind of weapons with his pixel arms in real time.
If you wanna know how we did it, feel free to check out our IndieDB article.
- [h3]“I swear I was aiming the boss!”[/h3]
At the beginning, programming a realistic recoil for a jellyfish shooting a Thompson sounded fantastic. However, we didn’t take into account that two human hands were not the same as several slippery tentacles... So recoil was horrible.
To avoid frustration and despair among players while trying to shoot a target, we reduced recoil parameters. Here’s the comparison:
- [h3]Weapon Selector[/h3]
We’re gonna kick lots of boss butts in NetherWorld, so the combat UI has to be up to scratch.
According to the mess you got into, you’ll be able to switch between ranged and melee weapons. This double weapon category system made difficult to decide how the weapon selector should be. We finally opted for a quarter circle in the top left corner of the screen.
Besides showing the weapon list, its rotation would allow to change weapons and the weapon category as well.
[h2]GRAPHICS IMPROVEMENTS (I)[/h2]
[h3]
- Optimization challenge
Developing NetherWorld for Steam and Nintendo Switch at the same time has taught us how to work in a more efficient way, mostly in terms of performance optimization. We’ve been able to reach stable 60 fps even in our 300-IA-bird benchmarks!
Hitchcock-inspired benchmark approved! In this other image below, you'll see more than 20,000 triangles! By increasing the number of tris in each scene element, we can fit to its shape better and reduce overdraw risk.
This is particularly important in the game, because we love playing with illumination (and this consumes resources).
- [h3]Lightning[/h3]
Although being a 2D pixel art game, we like to use different types of light and particle effects to make scenarios feel more real. To do so, we combine 2D and real-time 3D illumination.
In the second part of the update we’ll talk a bit more about how we use particles in the game.
- [h3]Rotation system [/h3]
We considered a standard rotation would clash with the pixel art “essence” of the game, so we developed a truly pixel art rotation system.
That wasn’t an easy decision: NetherWorld rotation system has experienced several (and important) changes during its development. In the beginning, the calculations to build a new rotated image for big objects like the gauntlet you’ll see below raised the 30,000. After an optimization, we reduced it to 10,000.
We also developed a system to storage the rotated images, so if we already had “Object X” rotated in a certain angle, next time we needed it we'd use the stored image instead of doing the rotation calculations again.
Calculating rocktations. - [h3]Weather system[/h3]
- [h3]Outlining[/h3]
We want you to enjoy Medoo’s suffering no matter the situation, so we added some outlining when his body is hidden. Don’t miss a thing!
- [h3]Blood Stain System[/h3]
There’s quite a lot of blood in NetherWorld, so we wanted it to feel right. That’s why we created a 2D pixel bloodstain system that generates random bloodstains every time you hurt someone. It can be used by us (Hungry Pixel team) to decorate scenarios too, and works for dirt and other stain materials.
Testing random bloodstain generator.
No difference at all!
Is she… hitting you with a fetus? Of course she is.If you wanna know how we developed the Blood Stain System, we explain it here!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[h3]Aaaaand that’s it for now![/h3]
Next week we’ll finish this recap with PART 2: Desert scenario, worms, particles and more!
We hope you enjoyed this update as much as we did developing all this stuff. It'll be a pleasure to hear your impressions and answer any question you have about the game!
[h2]Wait a second...[/h2]
You haven't added NetherWorld to your wishlist, or joined our Community Hub?
WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?
https://store.steampowered.com/app/672420
Thanks so much and see you next week!
Hungry Pixel team
(Oh, you can stalk us below too, including Facebook!)