The Riftbreaker News

Around this time we were supposed to be taking part in the Digital Dragons Indie Showcase, unfortunately, 2020 had other plans for all of us. Luckily, the lovely folks at Digital Dragons teamed up with the lovely folks at Valve to create an amazing online event for all of us!

Digital Dragons Indie Celebration is a competition for indies from all over the world, who lost the opportunity to reach people at gaming events due to the pandemic. It is a chance for you to take a look at a curated list of very promising, upcoming indie games, play demos, watch streams and discover some hidden gems. The event starts today and lasts until Friday. You can find it here: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/digitaldragons

Over 150 games entered the competition, and the jury selected their top 50. The great news is - The Riftbreaker is included! We will compete with some heavy-hitters for prestigious awards. You can help us with winning one of them by voting on us in the Community Vote Award - the survey can be found here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/8BJ67VM

Your help is greatly appreciated! Take some time and browse through the event on Steam. There are some great games there that we’re eager to play ourselves.



Useful links:
www.facebook.com/exorstudios
www.twitter.com/exorstudios
www.mixer.com/exor_studios
www.twitch.tv/exorstudios
www.youtube.com/exorstudios

https://www.mixer.com/exor_studios

Hello!

This article will speak a little more about the time-consuming nature of creating models for the game. We touched on it in the previous article. You can now catch up on it in a video form:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

In our devlogs we usually talk about the development of The Riftbreaker specifically. The contents of the articles are accurate, but relevant mostly only to this one production. Today’s topic is a little different. We’re going to talk about a very important aspect of creating 3D video game assets in general: polygon counts.

Most of you know that computer graphics use polygons as ‘building blocks’ - two-dimensional, primitive shapes, that connect with each other to form three-dimensional objects on the computer screen. Even though our machines get more powerful every year, we still have to limit the number of polygons on the screen at one time, and this is what today’s article is about. We’re still going to base it on our process, but many things here are common for artists in the game development industry.

Did someone ask for artillery monsters? Software: Zbrush.

Every prop, building or creature that we make starts as a concept sketch. Based on that sketch, a 3D artist prepares a blockout - a simple version of the model that is supposed to show the general shape of the model they’re working on in three dimensions. Once that is approved, they start the sculpting process. Using specialized modelling software, artists turn the simple blocks into very detailed models, even down to things that are barely visible. This process adds a lot of complexity and the polygon count skyrockets into millions. A so-called hi-poly model is born.

A rock like this might look simple enough, but there is a lot of things that we can optimize here!

These kinds of models are, unfortunately, not very useful in our world. We have thousands of objects on the screen at a time. If every one of them had such a high polygon count, no GPU in the world could render it in real-time. We have to adapt each model by lowering the polygon count, through the process called retopology. The artist reduces the complexity of the model, substituting detailed portions of it with simpler shapes. It doesn’t mean that all the painstakingly-crafted detail is lost, though.

This is what a normal map looks like. (It was made for the rock from the previous example. See if you can decipher what goes where :D ) It isn't pretty and only barely human-readable, but it does a great job saving our GPUs the hassle of rendering a LOT of unnecessary polygons.

When you think about it, all the creases, wrinkles, scales, screws that you see on 3D objects are a result of a difference in height in relation to the base plane. It is possible to recreate that without increasing the polygon count using normal mapping. Normal mapping is a technique that allows us to imitate the lighting of little bumps and dents, but on a flat surface. A normal map is a regular RGB texture, but the game engine does not take the RGB values to represent color - in reality, those values store the coordinates of the original polygons. The lighting reacts with the normal map the same way it would with physical models.

Stages of preparing a building model to be put into the game.

We try to lower the polygon count as much as we can, reducing the initial millions to mere thousands. This allows us to render all the game objects in real-time. So, there you go - all (almost…) these steps need to be done before we can put a new model into the game. We hope the article was interesting to you, and if you would like to learn about any other aspects of game developments, feel free to ask us on our Discord!



Useful links:
www.facebook.com/exorstudios
www.twitter.com/exorstudios
www.mixer.com/exor_studios
www.twitch.tv/exorstudios
www.youtube.com/exorstudios

https://www.twitch.tv/exorstudios

[vlog entry for this piece coming later this week, stay tuned!]

Hi!

Ever since we announced The Riftbreaker we have been regularly showing off the development progress. The game has received multiple UI overhauls, new visuals, new weapons, and new weather effects. However, one thing has changed very little over the course of the past year. We still have only 3 types of enemies! Granted, we changed their skins and added Alpha and Ultra variations, and created an Arachnoid boss to top it off, but still, 3 is nowhere near where we want to be. It changes today.

Concept sketches are the first part of work on a new prop, building or creature.

There are various reasons why you had to wait so long for new creatures. First, we decided to give the backend system that handles unit behavior a complete overhaul to make it faster and easier to use. Second, modeling, texturing, and animating a creature is an extremely time-consuming process that often requires a couple of designers working together. Lastly, 3 types of alien creatures were enough for the ‘proof of concept’ version of the game. Now, as we get closer to Campaign Mode, it’s time we introduce some new units. Meet the Gnerot.

One of the Gnerot variations in all its glory.

The Gnerot is a very strange creature, difficult to classify using biological terms known to humans. It is very large, with the biggest specimens outgrowing even the largest Hammeroceroses. When it comes to appearance, the Gnerot is more or less humanoid - arms, legs and the head are clearly visible. The material covering the creature strongly resembles rocks, gravel and dirt. It is yet unknown whether it is a product of the creature’s skin or if the Gnerots stick the loose material it finds to its own body.

T-posing Mr. Riggs allows you to see the scale of this monstrosity.

Their appearance would suggest a slow and sluggish nature but they are far from harmless. These giants can move quite quickly and utilize all their limbs in combat, so you never know how they are going to attack. They defend their territory until the last drop of whatever-flows-in-their-veins. Gnerots are primarily active during the day, but it is not uncommon to see them roaming the surface of Galatea 37 at night as well. When they need rest, Gnerots burrow most of their bodies into the ground, leaving just the bulky back part on the surface. It strongly resembles a rock, so be careful not to startle one…

There were also more ideas for the general shape of the creature, but we chose a mixture of the second and third ones.

Gnerots are usually found around resource deposits and minerals, due to their uncommon diet. Instead of relying on nutrients in water, plants and meat, they consume macroelements in their most primitive form - by chomping on ores directly. We don’t know what goes on in their gastrointestinal tracts, or if they even have such... What you should take away from all this is: if you want to use a resource field that Gnerot fancies, you will have to do a lot of work to drive it away.

WIP eating animation.

Interesting little fellows, aren’t they? We’re still in the process of giving them their finishing touches, but you can expect to see them in full glory on the stream soon. Join our Discord at www.discord.gg/exorstudios not to miss a thing! We have recently started posting daily changelogs from development, so you can see how the work on the game progresses with your own eyes. We stream every Tuesday on Mixer - https://www.mixer.com/exor_studios and every Thursday on Twitch - https://www.twitch.tv/exorstudios

See you next time!

Useful links:
www.facebook.com/exorstudios
www.twitter.com/exorstudios
www.mixer.com/exor_studios
www.twitch.tv/exorstudios
www.youtube.com/exorstudios