The story and world sounds great, really excited to see how this progresses. The visual panning shots of the environments look amazing. I wonder if you'll have to take some liberties with the camouflage uniforms - they're doing their job of blending the soldiers into the background, but that might make it hard from a gameplay standpoint to easily see where your units are and command them.
Excellent feedback, thank you much! I agree, something like circles under their feet or an outline/silhouette might highlight units much better, optionally color-coded for friendly/neutral/enemy. Can't take credit for the quality environmental or character art, I'm using low-poly assets provided by Synty (syntystore.com/). I did do the character arrangements for the vignettes, but the actual art assets I did not create, just for full disclosure. They really do look great though, especially when you put enough props in the scene to make things feel lived-in. Hopefully the next update I'll have real game play to show instead of some staged still scenes. That's the goal, at least.
This is a really intriguing story and background, and many of us are drawn to such well-built worlds in games. If I may, I humbly suggest you put some time and thought into the experience of being a small unit leader. Keep in mind that a West Point grad is a lieutenant, and lieutenants lead platoons. Squad leaders are normally sergeants. While it may seem to be a large leap in responsibility to lead a unit of a few dozen folks, lieutenants are supported by and learn from their platoon sergeants. This relationship is also the source of a ton of learning and development (e.g., issuing "mission-type" orders) that no game I've seen has ever explored. Still, this is a great start to what I'm hoping will be a groundbreaking game!
Excellent point, and thank you for the thoughtful feedback. And of course you are absolutely right, a 2nd lieutenant leading a squad is definitely not standard! My alternative idea was starting your character out as a staff sergeant, which would be way more accurate, and your comment certainly influences me in that direction. Perhaps the eventual jump from NCO to CO would come by way of a battlefield commission (as opposed to academy/ROTC/OCS), maybe as the result of completing a particularly important mission in the story. I feel very strongly about engaging with any veterans who are interested in influencing the story or game play so that it feels truer to life and like an honest representation of the theme you mentioned - unit leadership, especially small unit leadership. I did not serve in the military in my younger years; instead I joined the fire service as a firefighter/EMT and continue as a volunteer. As a result I do at least have an understanding of things like unity of command and span of control and leading within a paramilitary organization, but nothing like leading in a true military context. I'm studying up on doctrine and reading as many first-hand accounts of combat as I have the time to, but unfortunately that's pretty limited. Ultimately, I just thing the respectful thing to do is try to be accurate to the experience, so again, very much appreciate your comment!
Happy new year :D It's exciting to hear a story forming! Especially now with everything that's recently happened in Syria. I love you showing off so many assets in this video, will you share some behind the scenes of the artwork you're creating? I noticed in the previous dev logs that you haven't talked about art and I'd love to hear more about that :) Edit: I see in another comment that you've used assets from a third party. Are you planning on recreating the art once you get to a later stage of development?
Thanks for watching! To answer your question, I really wish I had the time and the talent to do more of my own art assets, but it's just too much for me, unfortunately. I know a lot of solo devs make it a point to do their own art, and I am so impressed by that, but it's unrealistic for me at the moment I'm afraid because of time. I will probably alter the assets I have a little, though, especially if there's an opportunity to make it a little more true to life. For example, The Blackhawk helicopter asset Synty provides in the Military pack is great, but it lacks side gunner ports, and the APC's rear doors don't open. I figure I can use that as an excuse to learn more about Blender and 3d rendering. I also want to play around with the textures to make my color schemes and such for characters/items. If I end up doing enough of those kinds of tweaks I'll consider putting it together in a future video.
The story and world sounds great, really excited to see how this progresses. The visual panning shots of the environments look amazing. I wonder if you'll have to take some liberties with the camouflage uniforms - they're doing their job of blending the soldiers into the background, but that might make it hard from a gameplay standpoint to easily see where your units are and command them.
Excellent feedback, thank you much! I agree, something like circles under their feet or an outline/silhouette might highlight units much better, optionally color-coded for friendly/neutral/enemy.
Can't take credit for the quality environmental or character art, I'm using low-poly assets provided by Synty (syntystore.com/). I did do the character arrangements for the vignettes, but the actual art assets I did not create, just for full disclosure.
They really do look great though, especially when you put enough props in the scene to make things feel lived-in.
Hopefully the next update I'll have real game play to show instead of some staged still scenes. That's the goal, at least.
You're BACK!
Trying to be! I really appreciate that care. Hope to have another update in March.
Nice work! The worldbuilding is really interesting. Looking forward to the next devlogs.
Thank you much for watching and for the positive feedback!
This is a really intriguing story and background, and many of us are drawn to such well-built worlds in games. If I may, I humbly suggest you put some time and thought into the experience of being a small unit leader. Keep in mind that a West Point grad is a lieutenant, and lieutenants lead platoons. Squad leaders are normally sergeants. While it may seem to be a large leap in responsibility to lead a unit of a few dozen folks, lieutenants are supported by and learn from their platoon sergeants. This relationship is also the source of a ton of learning and development (e.g., issuing "mission-type" orders) that no game I've seen has ever explored. Still, this is a great start to what I'm hoping will be a groundbreaking game!
Excellent point, and thank you for the thoughtful feedback. And of course you are absolutely right, a 2nd lieutenant leading a squad is definitely not standard! My alternative idea was starting your character out as a staff sergeant, which would be way more accurate, and your comment certainly influences me in that direction. Perhaps the eventual jump from NCO to CO would come by way of a battlefield commission (as opposed to academy/ROTC/OCS), maybe as the result of completing a particularly important mission in the story.
I feel very strongly about engaging with any veterans who are interested in influencing the story or game play so that it feels truer to life and like an honest representation of the theme you mentioned - unit leadership, especially small unit leadership. I did not serve in the military in my younger years; instead I joined the fire service as a firefighter/EMT and continue as a volunteer. As a result I do at least have an understanding of things like unity of command and span of control and leading within a paramilitary organization, but nothing like leading in a true military context. I'm studying up on doctrine and reading as many first-hand accounts of combat as I have the time to, but unfortunately that's pretty limited. Ultimately, I just thing the respectful thing to do is try to be accurate to the experience, so again, very much appreciate your comment!
Happy new year :D
It's exciting to hear a story forming! Especially now with everything that's recently happened in Syria.
I love you showing off so many assets in this video, will you share some behind the scenes of the artwork you're creating? I noticed in the previous dev logs that you haven't talked about art and I'd love to hear more about that :)
Edit: I see in another comment that you've used assets from a third party. Are you planning on recreating the art once you get to a later stage of development?
Thanks for watching! To answer your question, I really wish I had the time and the talent to do more of my own art assets, but it's just too much for me, unfortunately. I know a lot of solo devs make it a point to do their own art, and I am so impressed by that, but it's unrealistic for me at the moment I'm afraid because of time. I will probably alter the assets I have a little, though, especially if there's an opportunity to make it a little more true to life. For example, The Blackhawk helicopter asset Synty provides in the Military pack is great, but it lacks side gunner ports, and the APC's rear doors don't open. I figure I can use that as an excuse to learn more about Blender and 3d rendering. I also want to play around with the textures to make my color schemes and such for characters/items. If I end up doing enough of those kinds of tweaks I'll consider putting it together in a future video.