Making monsters look more organic by killing polygons and updating procedural animations. Critter Crosser indie Devlog #5 Smart 3d guy that helped me: / @thesnidr
That pixel art tho... "Not a lot to say about it"? Well let ME say something about it, which is, holy actual shit those portraits are GORGEOUS. They're realistic, expressive, so detailed, they're insane. I like your wobbly tubes funny man, but the pixel art, for how long it was on screen, blew me away.
procedural animation like this really reminds me of rain world, literally every living thing in that game is procedurally animated and it looks really cool
I heard procedurally animating the Rain World creatures were already pretty hard (and will always have some quirky "bugs") but this seems much MUCH harder to do because of the 3d/isometric view. This project would be even more insane if they applied the "organic" AI of Rain World.
This is literally the kind of game I've been wanting since I was a wee lad. I've been smashing different looking Sims together since Sims 2 to see what comes out because I found genetics fascinating even then, and this looks like it could scratch every single one of my mad scientist cross breeding itches! You're doing amazing work, and I can't wait to get my hands on this!
have you ever played dino island? it's a park sim game from 2002 and the park gameplay is really very simple but the dinosaur hybridisation mechanic is insane, especially for its era. it procedurally generates hybrid dinosaur models, and you can mess with their dominant and recessive genes with further crosses to bring out different features
I'll be able to use this video as a prime example of what "invisible work" can look like in game development! You've actually entirely rehauled the way you use 3D, and the gains for that are incredible, but if you were to show someone the before vs after, he wouldn't realize he's looking at months of work. Incredible job again, you always blow me away, and IMO that wobble unlocks the option for Slime-based critters, something I would personally love, can't wait to see what you do next!
I really liked the Jelly-effect too, and had an idea; What if when you a breed monster with another monster and you have the little screen with the 2 monsters morphing into 1, the 2 orignial monsters have the jelly-effect while the transition happens. I think that'd be fun! EDIT: also, I'd really love if the half-doggie that was there since the first video would remain in the game in some way. I always found it really cute and am a little saddened that it isn't there anymore in the newer vids.
This guy's work ethic is awesome. Not to mention the creativity and problem-solving skills. Keep up the great work! Can't wait to see what comes of this game.
It is incredile how much know-how and hard work goes into small details that most people do not even notice. But they _would_ notice if they were missing. Great job!
i just found your chanel,and holy shit i think have found my dream game concept idk if ur still working on it but if you arent this has the most **vibe** out of any game ever and just... its good stuff!
Another video that totally underplays how much work went into such an awesome result! Please feel free to show a little more of the nitty gritty so we can more fully appreciate what goes into this kind of thing. (Also Critter Crosser is a great name!)
Been super excited about all the work you've been doing mate, this project really does look like its shaping up to be something special. Hope development keeps going well and we see some more updates from you. As a side note did the switch from polygons to SDF give you any new ideas for creatures?
This game looks like a fantastic mixture of cute, deep, freeform, and wacky. While the youtube algorithm clearly decided to bless you one day, your concept and presentation is what got you to the following you have today. We look forward to seeing where you take this! As long as we can keep the secret cheese gender haha.
BEYOND marvelous. This is like looking into childhood gaming with a 4D lens. Your succinct documentation doesn't do justice to all of the work you're putting in, but I just want to say that this dev process is fascinating. I wish you nothing but progress and prosperity on your project.
The transparency is so cool!! I love the art style so much and the animation looks great. I’m surprised there is battling involved! Kinda reminds me of the Ooblets devs trying to implement battling and realizing they hated it, and going with dance battles instead, lol. Don’t be afraid to try something else if you find battling doesn’t inspire u!! There are tons of games that have breeding and raising the animals as the main mechanic, like wobbledogs. okay thanks ily
This is so well done... I can imagine how hard it must have been implementing SDFs to work with the pixelisation and the rest of the render pipeline...
Dude these are sick, they feel like the next step in evolution for the "monster collecting" games, like Dragon Quest monsters and pokemon, digimon etc. I really like these devlogs, please don't stop making your game and posting devlogs, it's really impressive and inspires me with my own projects.
Wow very cool! I recognize that side mission you went on when all you wanted was to fix one "simple" little thing and ended up implementing an entirely new core system into your game. I've been there so many times but WELL DONE TO YOU for sticking with it for over a month! That's impressive :)
This project/game is so cool, so unique, clearly chalk full of soul and hard work. As a gamer and a programmer I can’t help but keep my eye on your work! Keep it up!
sometimes I go back and watch your old videos just because the humor, excitement, explanations, and of course animations are so good. glad to see you post again, keep up the great work!
Every now and then I rewatch all of your videos in order. I enjoy hearing and watching you explain things as well as seeing how much your game progresses! ❤
I think its crazy how much stuff he is working on behind the scenes like the world, the toung on the frog, a cosmetic system (i think we saw some switching of hats) and a bunch of other stuff and the everything looks crazy cool. I love this game and can't wait to see it progress further, best of luck!!!!
Yayyyy so glad you're still working on this! Watched it as soon as I saw the notification. It's very inspiring to watch dev logs of unique games like this.
it is really genuinely entertaining to drop something technically very impressive and act like it's no big deal, then casually remark on the months it took you to create it's a refreshing new innovative way to incite nose exhalation
My only issue last time was the way the mammal joints looked, and it was fixed! This looks so good and I can’t wait to play it someday :) Also, the jelly effect would look great on a ghostlike or gaseous creature. Maybe with some transparency too. Transparency would be cool for an octopus or other color changing creature, maybe as a state they switch into randomly?
Just a minor point but the low-hanging fruit here is probably something like a jellyfish creature that floats in the air, given the jelly effect and transparency already implemented.
Really creative. I love the organic and varied animations with little time features such as randomly sticking tongue out every once in a while. Imagine dynamic animations with little random twitches and stuff like that for each model. Probably would take a long time but might be worth it for differentiation
I remember when i first saw a video long time ago, such a cool concept, idk why i didn't subscribed at the time and ended up forgeting, luckly it ended up showing randomly to me again, now subscribed. I think it's impossible to continue being niche and small, this game is too cool it's going to blow up in matter of notoriety a lot more i'm sure.
Using SDF's given the low performance costs for this style is genius. There's a lot of cool stuff to do with ray marching. I hope you add cloudy monsters or monsters made of fire.
The length of these videos are criminal. I love watching the development so anything under 10-20 minutes is, at minimum, a felony. Jokes aside this is looking great as always. I can't wait for the next video.
Makes a video once a year Shows off cool stuff about a game we all want Explains how it works to an understandable level Makes it sound fun and amazing Refuses to elaborate further
It's great that you added some more invertebrates, but you need to add cephalopods, which are objectively the best animal, because I -subjectively- like octopi. Seriously, though. Cephalopods are cool, and adding some tentacles to the crossable critters seems like it could lead to some fun monstrosities. If it's something you can do with existing systems, it seems like something that could add a lot. EDIT: I was rewatching the other videos on this channel, and noticed a comment I made eight months ago which said much the same thing. I guess I have a one-track mind, lol. Anyways, some cephalopods (especially octopi) can look normal moving across land. If it works technically, it should be fine!
This is honestly one of the coolest game projects on TH-cam man (of the top the head I can't really think of anything cooler tbh). I absolutely love it. Popular game projects on this platform are often just extremely boring on a technical level, but this is so fucking interesting man. I'll instantly buy this when it comes out. The shader looks fantastic!
This shit's just inspiring. Love your presentation style and the innate respect you seem to have for what a good mix of art and math can do. Hope to see more!
This is legit the coolest thing I have seen all week. For reference I also saw a Tedtalk on string theory at the gym, but this blows fundamental physics out the water.
Can't wait to see you continue to grow! I've loved the concept of this game and have been following since your last upload, congratulations and keep up the amazing work.
Love the update! I like critter crosser as a name but lowkey thought “Crossbeasts” had a bit more swag. Your progress videos give me life, can’t wait to see what more you have in store!
The dog is always going to look like a salamander, because it’s shaped like a salamander (big head, no neck, tube-like body, low hips). I understand part of the art style contains big head and no neck, so there’s not much that can be done about that. But in general, a dog’s side profile shows a large chest, that thins out to high hips, giving a straight back. Your model could probably be saved just by lengthening the hind legs. Really appreciate the high quality video, the animations looks amazing, and you’re doing an incredible job. Can’t wait to hear more about your project!
This is absolutely awesome, man. You build and rebuild everything and even when it gets difficult, you don't give up. It's super inspiring! I'm so excited to see the next evolution of this game :D
XD Solving IK problems by "simply" changing your entire mesh setup to use SDFs is one of the most creative workarounds I've seen. Very well done - cool progress and cool results!
i utterly adore the style you've got in the game and wish i could make an isometric pseudo-pixel game like that.. it just looks so good. also the concept of the game is really cool :0
Really excited for this game, glad to see that you are taking your time to get all the little details right, that’s really what separates a good game from an amazing one!
I knew if I kept being subscribed I'd get notified! JK - TH-cam is dogshit. I had to look up what you've been up to and be mere coincidence you uploaded. Salt aside: great progress! Thank you for your dedication, dude! The game you're making is my most anticipated of 2023, including PoE 2 and Diablo IV.
Dog animation looks great. I don't even remember what the genre of this game is going to be, but I'm so invested in it's development
I think its primary genre is "Excuse to use the weird gimmicky mechanic it's built around" (affectionate).
It's like Pokemon but you control a monster and not a human character who owns monsters. And I guess you can breed with ones you defeated.
@@Etienne_H 😳😳😳😳😳
I guess the same as whatever Wobbledogs did but with more options
I hope the genre is "Spore but more focused on the simulation aspect and less simplified interactions"
That pixel art tho... "Not a lot to say about it"? Well let ME say something about it, which is, holy actual shit those portraits are GORGEOUS. They're realistic, expressive, so detailed, they're insane. I like your wobbly tubes funny man, but the pixel art, for how long it was on screen, blew me away.
His coding is just as impressive and he's being just as humble about it
i mean technically there is not a lot to say about it, since the art speaks for itself. (if that makes any sense)
Bright future for some other player save file portraits?? 🤨😳
My mouth DROPPED when I saw it omg there’s so many of them and they’re all so good? Portraits are so hard and they look so amazing imcvdnnem
@@magoobertron i assume you also had a seizure :(((
procedural animation like this really reminds me of rain world, literally every living thing in that game is procedurally animated and it looks really cool
I kinda want to see the rainworld lizards made in this game
i got that game i play it with friends
Yeah, I think RW is going to create a wave of games with procedurally-animated creatures, considering how it is starting to gain popularity now
I heard procedurally animating the Rain World creatures were already pretty hard (and will always have some quirky "bugs") but this seems much MUCH harder to do because of the 3d/isometric view. This project would be even more insane if they applied the "organic" AI of Rain World.
@@Grimmys I see you like ot
This is literally the kind of game I've been wanting since I was a wee lad. I've been smashing different looking Sims together since Sims 2 to see what comes out because I found genetics fascinating even then, and this looks like it could scratch every single one of my mad scientist cross breeding itches! You're doing amazing work, and I can't wait to get my hands on this!
Play Creatures by Steve Grand
have you ever played dino island? it's a park sim game from 2002 and the park gameplay is really very simple but the dinosaur hybridisation mechanic is insane, especially for its era. it procedurally generates hybrid dinosaur models, and you can mess with their dominant and recessive genes with further crosses to bring out different features
Love to follow the development of this! It's looking absolutely legendary. The SDFs were indeed an excellent addition. Thanks for the shoutout!
:)
HE'S BACK!!!!1!1!1!1!!1!1!!!!
@@croc_moat2327 yasss
Very glad to see you back. It's fun to watch how you implement your ideas, and I think you explain them very well.
Keep rewatching these. Can't wait for the next one.
it's been 9 months already T_T
I'll be able to use this video as a prime example of what "invisible work" can look like in game development!
You've actually entirely rehauled the way you use 3D, and the gains for that are incredible, but if you were to show someone the before vs after, he wouldn't realize he's looking at months of work.
Incredible job again, you always blow me away, and IMO that wobble unlocks the option for Slime-based critters, something I would personally love, can't wait to see what you do next!
I really liked the Jelly-effect too, and had an idea;
What if when you a breed monster with another monster and you have the little screen with the 2 monsters morphing into 1, the 2 orignial monsters have the jelly-effect while the transition happens. I think that'd be fun!
EDIT: also, I'd really love if the half-doggie that was there since the first video would remain in the game in some way. I always found it really cute and am a little saddened that it isn't there anymore in the newer vids.
the half dog that is supposed be like his player avatar?
isn't that it at 4:19 ?
@@notatrueroute exactly! Didn't even notice. I'm so happy it's still there.
That's cool, the meshes would merge together like liquid.
Hard agree
@@matthewbadger8685 although that might be slightly disturbing
This guy's work ethic is awesome. Not to mention the creativity and problem-solving skills. Keep up the great work! Can't wait to see what comes of this game.
One of the channels that truly makes the half a year to one year wait seem spectacular and worth it with every single video.
Rewatching this again, hope your game is going well, excited for more updates!
OH MY GOD im having a heart attack you are alive!!!
😢
ye fr
It is incredile how much know-how and hard work goes into small details that most people do not even notice. But they _would_ notice if they were missing. Great job!
i hope you come back bro these vids are amazing and this project is incredible.
There's a new video from 2 weeks ago
i just found your chanel,and holy shit
i think have found my dream game concept
idk if ur still working on it but if you arent
this has the most **vibe** out of any game ever
and just... its good stuff!
his videos have large gaps, im pretty sure he's still working on it
I'm no stranger to game development so I can see the amount of work and research you had to do to come up with such a clean result. It is admirable.
Another video that totally underplays how much work went into such an awesome result! Please feel free to show a little more of the nitty gritty so we can more fully appreciate what goes into this kind of thing.
(Also Critter Crosser is a great name!)
HOW does he talk about 3k subs, and 9 days later have 108k?????
Keep this going - its so freaking great! Im really excited to Play this some day ❤🎉
@@t.o.mirite youtube algorithms are amazing sometimes
god i love the limited 3d graphics you used for this game. It’s so charming
I love programming, oh you need to fix your dog walking animation? Nice, just work on it for a whole month, rewrite 3000 others things, and done.
Been super excited about all the work you've been doing mate, this project really does look like its shaping up to be something special. Hope development keeps going well and we see some more updates from you. As a side note did the switch from polygons to SDF give you any new ideas for creatures?
Jellyfish!
Awesome
Octopuss
What about a vermitious cnid?
Beholder type enemy? Or Mantis? Octopus or jelly fish could be cool too.
This game looks like a fantastic mixture of cute, deep, freeform, and wacky. While the youtube algorithm clearly decided to bless you one day, your concept and presentation is what got you to the following you have today. We look forward to seeing where you take this! As long as we can keep the secret cheese gender haha.
BEYOND marvelous. This is like looking into childhood gaming with a 4D lens. Your succinct documentation doesn't do justice to all of the work you're putting in, but I just want to say that this dev process is fascinating. I wish you nothing but progress and prosperity on your project.
Hope this gets finished one day
! I'm so glad to finally see an update ♥
The transparency is so cool!! I love the art style so much and the animation looks great.
I’m surprised there is battling involved! Kinda reminds me of the Ooblets devs trying to implement battling and realizing they hated it, and going with dance battles instead, lol. Don’t be afraid to try something else if you find battling doesn’t inspire u!! There are tons of games that have breeding and raising the animals as the main mechanic, like wobbledogs. okay thanks ily
This is so well done... I can imagine how hard it must have been implementing SDFs to work with the pixelisation and the rest of the render pipeline...
Dude these are sick, they feel like the next step in evolution for the "monster collecting" games, like Dragon Quest monsters and pokemon, digimon etc.
I really like these devlogs, please don't stop making your game and posting devlogs, it's really impressive and inspires me with my own projects.
Impressive increase in subs, but definitely not unexpected or undeserved!
Can't wait to see more development progress
This looks so sick! It’s crazy how awesome the game is turning out!
Bruh that Sim City 2000 song hit me hard and took me to a place I had long forgotten about.
Wow very cool!
I recognize that side mission you went on when all you wanted was to fix one "simple" little thing and ended up implementing an entirely new core system into your game.
I've been there so many times but WELL DONE TO YOU for sticking with it for over a month!
That's impressive :)
This project/game is so cool, so unique, clearly chalk full of soul and hard work. As a gamer and a programmer I can’t help but keep my eye on your work! Keep it up!
sometimes I go back and watch your old videos just because the humor, excitement, explanations, and of course animations are so good. glad to see you post again, keep up the great work!
Dude. Just to make sure: you are still doping this, right? You are onto some gold here.
1:41 The SDF fam is growing 🙌
I really love your devlogs! This is such a fascinating game concept, its really interesting to see the process for a really creative game like this
Every now and then I rewatch all of your videos in order. I enjoy hearing and watching you explain things as well as seeing how much your game progresses! ❤
Beautiful graphics and awesome animations. Consider using motion capture to save you time on the tricky parts.
"I also did some pixel art"
[most beautiful thing ive ever seen]
"not much to say about that"
????
I think its crazy how much stuff he is working on behind the scenes like the world, the toung on the frog, a cosmetic system (i think we saw some switching of hats) and a bunch of other stuff and the everything looks crazy cool. I love this game and can't wait to see it progress further, best of luck!!!!
Hope to see more Devlogs.
Tbh the tail wag at 3:26 was super cute
"then i wanted to make his shoulders bounce.." *dog fking throws it back*
Sooo happy you’re back dude
Yayyyy so glad you're still working on this! Watched it as soon as I saw the notification. It's very inspiring to watch dev logs of unique games like this.
Holy shit.. I was here for your first 1000 subs.
I'm so happy to see this starting to blow up.
Well deserved! I look forward to this so much.
it is really genuinely entertaining to drop something technically very impressive and act like it's no big deal, then casually remark on the months it took you to create
it's a refreshing new innovative way to incite nose exhalation
He returned
My only issue last time was the way the mammal joints looked, and it was fixed! This looks so good and I can’t wait to play it someday :)
Also, the jelly effect would look great on a ghostlike or gaseous creature. Maybe with some transparency too. Transparency would be cool for an octopus or other color changing creature, maybe as a state they switch into randomly?
Just a minor point but the low-hanging fruit here is probably something like a jellyfish creature that floats in the air, given the jelly effect and transparency already implemented.
Really creative. I love the organic and varied animations with little time features such as randomly sticking tongue out every once in a while. Imagine dynamic animations with little random twitches and stuff like that for each model. Probably would take a long time but might be worth it for differentiation
I remember when i first saw a video long time ago, such a cool concept, idk why i didn't subscribed at the time and ended up forgeting, luckly it ended up showing randomly to me again, now subscribed. I think it's impossible to continue being niche and small, this game is too cool it's going to blow up in matter of notoriety a lot more i'm sure.
No way they are still alive
Using SDF's given the low performance costs for this style is genius. There's a lot of cool stuff to do with ray marching. I hope you add cloudy monsters or monsters made of fire.
I forgot about this, I love it tho, can't wait
The length of these videos are criminal. I love watching the development so anything under 10-20 minutes is, at minimum, a felony. Jokes aside this is looking great as always. I can't wait for the next video.
I'm so excited to play whatever game this ends up at the end of all your amazing work.
Ooooh yeah! You exist! Almost forgot…
youtube recommendations really popped off this time
Makes a video once a year
Shows off cool stuff about a game we all want
Explains how it works to an understandable level
Makes it sound fun and amazing
Refuses to elaborate further
When the slug went behind the building I almost died. This animation is very unique and ypu did an amazing job
It's great that you added some more invertebrates, but you need to add cephalopods, which are objectively the best animal, because I -subjectively- like octopi.
Seriously, though. Cephalopods are cool, and adding some tentacles to the crossable critters seems like it could lead to some fun monstrosities. If it's something you can do with existing systems, it seems like something that could add a lot.
EDIT: I was rewatching the other videos on this channel, and noticed a comment I made eight months ago which said much the same thing. I guess I have a one-track mind, lol.
Anyways, some cephalopods (especially octopi) can look normal moving across land. If it works technically, it should be fine!
This is honestly one of the coolest game projects on TH-cam man (of the top the head I can't really think of anything cooler tbh). I absolutely love it. Popular game projects on this platform are often just extremely boring on a technical level, but this is so fucking interesting man. I'll instantly buy this when it comes out. The shader looks fantastic!
I will pay whatever you charge for this. This looks amazing, far more polished than many tripple A titles that come out
Not only are you an amazing dev but your humor is peak. Can't wait for your finished game , best of luck!
This shit's just inspiring. Love your presentation style and the innate respect you seem to have for what a good mix of art and math can do. Hope to see more!
Always nice when you don't remember subscribing to a channel, click on their new video, and go "OH RIGHT THIS GUY!!"
This is legit the coolest thing I have seen all week.
For reference I also saw a Tedtalk on string theory at the gym, but this blows fundamental physics out the water.
can't wait for the full release! looks amazing
Can't wait to see you continue to grow! I've loved the concept of this game and have been following since your last upload, congratulations and keep up the amazing work.
Lets go this project has evolved so much since I first saw it,cant wait for the finished product
Can't wait to breed the longest snake I can.
I can't begin to explain how hyped I am for these update videos.
Love the update! I like critter crosser as a name but lowkey thought “Crossbeasts” had a bit more swag. Your progress videos give me life, can’t wait to see what more you have in store!
The dog is always going to look like a salamander, because it’s shaped like a salamander (big head, no neck, tube-like body, low hips). I understand part of the art style contains big head and no neck, so there’s not much that can be done about that. But in general, a dog’s side profile shows a large chest, that thins out to high hips, giving a straight back. Your model could probably be saved just by lengthening the hind legs.
Really appreciate the high quality video, the animations looks amazing, and you’re doing an incredible job. Can’t wait to hear more about your project!
I'm really glad I found this channel. This is definitely some of the best game dev content on TH-cam.
This is absolutely awesome, man. You build and rebuild everything and even when it gets difficult, you don't give up. It's super inspiring! I'm so excited to see the next evolution of this game :D
I am very excited for your next video on the combat, this update was awesome! Also, a chubby dog that jiggles would be hilarious
So glad that I stumbled upon this video! Wishlisted immediately. Can't wait til I start splicing and fighting with these bad boys!
Love the transparent effect, should be a rare effect or something
Just 6 more months till the next update!!
How can so much talent fit into one person? Really awesome stuff! 🎉
XD Solving IK problems by "simply" changing your entire mesh setup to use SDFs is one of the most creative workarounds I've seen.
Very well done - cool progress and cool results!
i love the silly sound effects you use so much, keep it up man!!!
absolutely beautiful. I still cant get over how good the water looks :D
Checking in after 5 months, lol need a beta tester I adore the concept of this game
plz keep going. Looks like a really fun cross between Pokemon and Chao garden
This was really entertaining and I enjoyed seeing how you troubleshooted and implemented solutions. Instant subscribe!
so excited to see you releasing new content! i love seeing these updates :)
This project looks so cool, love the updates :)
everytime a video about this game and its progress drops i always get so excited!
i utterly adore the style you've got in the game and wish i could make an isometric pseudo-pixel game like that.. it just looks so good. also the concept of the game is really cool :0
one day this game will release and then i will finally know peace. is there a platypus yet
Really excited for this game, glad to see that you are taking your time to get all the little details right, that’s really what separates a good game from an amazing one!
"YOUR CODE DOESN'T WORK WHEN I CHANGE IT BRO"
Somehow I feel like that's something coders hear way too often lol
I knew if I kept being subscribed I'd get notified!
JK - TH-cam is dogshit. I had to look up what you've been up to and be mere coincidence you uploaded.
Salt aside: great progress! Thank you for your dedication, dude! The game you're making is my most anticipated of 2023, including PoE 2 and Diablo IV.
you should make a steam wishlist
Wooooo!
i love everything about the production of this video
Wow the sound effect budget is way higher in this one! I'm glad to see the success put to good use.