[WIP] Setting Sun: Asian Dungeon Crawler

[lejean]

Short intro:
Hi everyone,

I’ve been working on and off on this project for a while now, but the last half year I went full out on creating some kind of playable demo, which is nearing fruition.

At first the plan was to create a kind of Japanese Diablo, but I’ve since stepped off from that idea because I figured the scope of creating an entire loot system with rpg stats, drops, legendary items, an inventory for loot and equipment, etc was a bit too much for 1 guy.

Gearing is still a big part of the game ofc, but will work differently through unlocking patterns, crafting and equipping them through a NPC.

Here’s a couple of links for more info: IndieDB, Twitter, youtube, sketchfab
Just tell me what you think, if you like the setting/atmosphere, if you have certain ideas or questions, etc.

So without further ado.

Setting Sun
What it is:
Setting sun is an asian themed, roguelike dungeon crawler ARPG.

What’s it about:
It’s set in a universe during the edo period where Oni roam the world freely. The land, ruled by the shogun with an iron fist, is in turmoil and demons start growing violent.
A couple of mysterious wanderers answer the call to help mankind and try to find the source of the corruption together.

Gameplay:
The game is split up in 2 main areas, the town and the castle.

The Town
The town is like a sanctuary for the player where he can roam around before and after castle runs, talk to NPCs, buy upgrades, craft gear, etc…

Sadly when first starting to play, the town will be ransacked and look pretty deserted, because of the Shogun’s reign over the land.

It’s the player’s job to help out, bring back life to the village and solve the Shogun problem once and for all. To do this, the player will have to traverse the castle.

The Castle
The castle is where the action happens.
The castle consists of several levels and maps that are procedurally generated.

The player starts in the Bamboo forest and will have to fight his way through all levels to the top of the Daimyo’s castle.

Obviously the player will have to try and get through all the levels and bosses, and finally reach and defeat the final boss without dying, because dying will send you back to Town and the castle will reset!

This won’t be an easy feat to accomplish on first try.

Luckily the castle is filled with all kinds of random encounters that can help the player out.

You could for example encounter NPC’s that you can recruit to your town who will open a establishment; you could find patterns to craft new gear, spend your currency to invest in your town and update the place to unlock new stuff or even find new classes to play with.

For example finding the Sensei will open up the Dojo in town where the player can unlock class talents! (More info on that later)

Classes:
Currently the Ronin is the first playable class.
Each class has their own set of abilities, ultimates, talents and gear sets.
I’m gonna make a separate post on the ronin’s abilities.

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New classes can be discovered and unlocked on each playthrough.

I’ve made some initial 3D designs for 2 more classes you can see here.
- The Sorcerer (sketchfab)

- The Ninja (sketchfab)

I also made a couple of enemies/bosses
- The Kappa
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- Raijin, god of thunder (sketchfab)

Multiplayer:
Currently the game can be played in local couch coop. (and online coop in the future).
Playing in coop allows for some new features like reviving when a player is down and health sharing when one of the players is low on health.

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That’s most of the stuff I got right now.
So please tell me what you think.
Check out my indieDB, twitter, youtube, sketchfab for more info, I’ll keep this forum thread updated as well.

Thanks for reading, sayonara!

[Schneider21]

Japanese Diablo?

Yes, please.

[theANMATOR2b]

Interesting project.
I like what you have so far but the Kappa seems to be of a lesser quality than everything else.
No disrespect intended, but it’s pretty “beginner” looking. The normal mapping detail doesn’t look natural - most glaring is the skin detail on the biceps that doesn’t flow with the definition of the muscle under the skin. Detail on the face could be improved a lot, and - looking at the sketchfab mesh shows a lot of wasted polygons. Also the texture on the chest belly looks to be just a solid color with bump mapping.
It might be just a stylistic dislike but comparing the model to the other content in the thread - it looks out of place when comparing the quality.

[lejean]

@theANMATOR2b

Interesting project.
I like what you have so far but the Kappa seems to be of a lesser quality than everything else.
No disrespect intended, but it’s pretty “beginner” looking. The normal mapping detail doesn’t look natural - most glaring is the skin detail on the biceps that doesn’t flow with the definition of the muscle under the skin. Detail on the face could be improved a lot, and - looking at the sketchfab mesh shows a lot of wasted polygons. Also the texture on the chest belly looks to be just a solid color with bump mapping.
It might be just a stylistic dislike but comparing the model to the other content in the thread - it looks out of place when comparing the quality.

Thanks and you’re certainly right, it could use more polish
This was actually the first time I completely sculpted a creature, and I’m indeed a beginner in sculpting. Most of the work I’ve done is all hard surface. Also my knowledge of anatomy is pretty small. ^^

On the flip side tho, in a game like this you won’t see a character like that close up, so any micro details will simply be lost because of the camera distance. So at this point I’m just gonna focus on making everything look good enough in the game itself.

I didn’t actually add it yet to the scene, so I’ll add a picture to see how it looks in a sec.

[lejean]

Here’s a screenshot, kappa sitting at the waterfall

[lejean]

Hey guys, little update. I just uploaded the first design for the ninja class.
Let me know what you think.

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[tubbz0r]

looks really cool! will be following your progress

[zenGarden]

Cool game ou have there.
Do yo have a demo planned ?

[lejean]

Ye, I got some stuff on my to do list I want to finish first and then I’m gonna post another update and probably gonna try to greenlight it with a playable demo

[Ironmax]

looks nice so far how are you doing the armature ?

[lejean]

@Ironmax

looks nice so far how are you doing the armature ?

thx, using mecanim with root motion for the rigs

[Draykes]

Looks indeed interesting, keep up the good work. I’ll definitely looking forward to your progress.

[lejean]

Hey guys, I got a question for you.

I’ve been thinking about a way to find some funding/earn some cash while still working on this project and I might have an idea.

I’ve been thinking of making a RPG framework of the game so anyone can just hop in, add their 3D models, design their classes, etc with all the code setup.

I realize of course there are already frameworks that do this, but I was thinking of adding a complete package with database functionality for logging in/saving your characters to an actual database, offline/online functionality with unet, an easy to understand ability system to create your own abilities, the inventory system, etc…

Another upside about doing this is I could also use this as a debugging mechanism for the game if people report bugs they encounter. So I can just update the framework and fix the bugs in the game.

Do you think that’s interesting?

[Nateply]

Yes!

[lejean]

Ohaioo, little update here.
I added the ninja to the character creator and made a couple of updates to the UI and the scene.
Screenshot here to show it off.
I’ll update the video on youtube tomorrow or so showing off the animations

Grtz

[lejean]

Hey guys, update time. I made another news post on IndieDb, link here for more info. I’ll give you a condensed version here.

New features

Ninja class
This update contains the ninja class which I posted above already, but I also made a gearing up video and a gear chart picture which you can see here .

- YouTube

Class abilities
I also made the first set of class abilities for each class to give them some personality.

Necromancer abilities:

• Venom Ball
  Well you already saw this one, but it’s a necromancer exclusive skill now.
  The Venom Ball does damage on hit with a damage over time effect.
  I also added a light source to make it a bit more interesting looking.

- YouTube

• Raise Undead
  You’re not a real necromancer if you can’t raise the undead, obviously.
  So I added exactly that.
  You can only raise skeletons from dead enemies and currently they only last 20 seconds before they despawn.

- YouTube

Ronin abilities:

• Blade Gale
  The first ability for the Ronin is the Blade Gale.
  I wanted a Samurai X style ability, so the ranged weapon swing attack seemed pretty fitting.
  It’s a double swing attack with a piercing effect.

- YouTube

Ninja abilities:

• Shuriken Throw
  And finally we have the ninja’s first ranged attack.
  Obviously it’s the Shuriken Throw and it’s a triple combo attack.

- YouTube

Offline Mode
I added an offline mode to the game for anyone who just wants to play single player regardless if they have a working internet connection or not.

Offline mode and online mode are two separate modes, they each have their own set of characters.

In a perfect world I would want the characters of the online mode be available offline too, but sadly because of cheating that’s not something I can do.

I am thinking of doing some kind of character copy from online to offline, but the changes to your character in offline mode will not sync to the online version.

Character Creator V2:
The character creator scene has been updated.
I added the Ninja, updated the tooltip and added some more scenery.
I already posted a picture but here’s a video clip of the animations etc in action.

Youtube link (only 5 media links possible)

These are the main highlights, there’s some more minor features in the news post on indieDB if you are interested.

Let me know what you think and thanks for reading.

Sayonara!

[theANMATOR2b]

The venom ball visuals seem a little underwhelming imo.
Maybe add a cast effect at the caster/attacker, and maybe an impact effect when it hits the target.

[lejean]

@theANMATOR2b

The venom ball visuals seem a little underwhelming imo.
Maybe add a cast effect at the caster/attacker, and maybe an impact effect when it hits the target.

You’re right, I probably should make the target have a green slime effect when it hits, but abilities right now are just for testing the damage part.

The visuals effects still need to be improved alot but that’s something for later, first everything needs to work

[lejean]

Hey guys, another small update. I uploaded the first ever boss model on sketchfab.
Raijin, god of thunder!
Let me know what you think.
Grtz

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[lejean]

Coding procedural tile based dungeons atm.
Example 1: Random single rooms