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Sascha Willems
18-08-2013, 12:51 PM
For the 3rd PGD Challenge I decided to try something I never done before : an abstract "game" with a serious theme. Actually I was hoping for a theme that would allow me create something more serious (and dark) and after reading the contest's rules, creativity immediately struck me and I decided to create a game about life (and death) and all it's negative aspecsts. Although this won't be your typical kind of game as it'll be more of an abstract experience. If I get it finished the way I imangined it, it should be a pretty interesting experience to play.

The working title is "Trugbild" (translating to "Delusion") and it'll have you "command" (or better guide) a human being through life by answering different questions. Each question will be represented as a corridor that your character then will walk through, leading to another questions on his journey through life time.

Each answer will influence different aspects of your character, mostly physical and psychic health, and bad decisions can even lead to death. You'll only have a limited amount of time to answer a question, and failure to do so will impact your character's self esteem.

Currently I plan on having you guide the character through the different stages of life (being born, exploring the world as a baby, being a child, a teenager, growing up, getting old and dying), though I'm not sure if I'll get all these covered within the one month time frame.

As far as the technical stuff goes there's already a working prototype that'll set the stage for the game's dark (and disturbing) visuals. It's running on OpenGL, will use frame buffer objects for off-screen-rendering and shaders for certain visual effects. The first screenshot already shows the film-grain / noise filter that looks much better in motion.

Depending on your character's situation, the screen may tilt stronger, heartbeat is reflected by a constantly increasing / decreasing FOV and I plan on adding different effects that reflect insanity or low physical health.

Download :
www.saschawillems.de/download/trugbild_pgdedition_setup.exe (~5 MBytes, Windows only)

Video :


http://youtu.be/yOYPWjU6n6s

Screenshots (in reverse chronological order) :

2013-09-07 :

New visual type (ladders), and debugging shots :
http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/t_2013-09-07-01.jpg (http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/2013-09-07-01.jpg) http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/t_2013-09-07-02.jpg (http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/2013-09-07-02.jpg) http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/t_2013-09-07-03.jpg (http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/2013-09-07-03.jpg) http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/t_2013-09-07-04.jpg (http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/2013-09-07-04.jpg)

2013-09-02 :

Now with main menu, even more shaders (blur!) and different visual styles as well as a death scene :

http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/t_2013-09-02-01.jpg (http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/2013-09-02-01.jpg) http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/t_2013-09-02-02.jpg (http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/2013-09-02-02.jpg) http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/t_2013-09-02-03.jpg (http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/2013-09-02-03.jpg) http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/t_2013-09-02-04.jpg (http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/2013-09-02-04.jpg) http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/t_2013-09-02-05.jpg (http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/2013-09-02-05.jpg) http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/t_2013-09-02-06.jpg (http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/2013-09-02-06.jpg) http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/t_2013-09-02-07.jpg (http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/2013-09-02-07.jpg)

2013-08-24 :

First screenshots from the "reality" scene that the game starts from and which is shown during the different stages of it.

http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/t_2013-08-24-01.jpg (http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/2013-08-24-01.jpg) http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/t_2013-08-24-02.jpg (http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/2013-08-24-02.jpg)

2013-08-19 :

First ingame screenshots.

http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/t_2013-08-19-01.jpg (http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/2013-08-19-01.jpg) http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/t_2013-08-19-02.jpg (http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/2013-08-19-02.jpg) http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/t_2013-08-19-03.jpg (http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/2013-08-19-03.jpg) http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/t_2013-08-19-04.jpg (http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/2013-08-19-04.jpg) http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/t_2013-08-19-05.jpg (http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/2013-08-19-05.jpg) http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/t_2013-08-19-06.jpg (http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/2013-08-19-06.jpg)

2013-08-17 :

And here's a first screenshot from the current prototype (including debug display for FBO and color picking). I've made this prototype this morning, and it already looks almost like I imagined the game's look in the first place, so I'm pretty happy with progress on this one, though it won't be heavy on the technical side and the content will be more work than the coding (at least that's what I predict).

http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/first_prototype_01.jpg

This is btw. the mockup I made in Potoshop and after which I'm modelling the visuals after :

http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/mockup_01.jpg

pstudio
18-08-2013, 01:28 PM
Oooh :o
This game seems to be right up my ally. I really dig these more abstract and experimental kind of games with a more serious tone.
I can already now picture the game in my head. Judging by the screenshot and your description this could be a game setting an amazing and intense atmosphere.

I wish you good luck and really hope you'll make a great game/prototype so that I can play it :)

phibermon
18-08-2013, 03:38 PM
The concept sounds verymuch like one of my favorite childhood games 'Alter Ego' but a lot darker, if you've not played it it's available for various systems, notable version on the C64, deffo worth a go :)

Sascha Willems
18-08-2013, 04:29 PM
I know about alter ego (http://www.mobygames.com/game/alter-ego) (you can actually play that one online (http://www.playalterego.com/alterego)), and even played it myself back on the C64.

But my game will be very different. It's not about making decisions change how you life your life (like in alter ego) but rather decisions on how you actually see life itself, inflicting your mental and physical health. And now imagine the screenshots above with some dark ambient music and you'll get an idea of what I'm aiming at ;)

Sascha Willems
19-08-2013, 07:47 PM
Things are moving quick, the prototype is already "playable". The technical base is done with heavy use of shaders (for halos, highlights, noise, and more planned) and frame buffer objects for offscreen rendering (currently four) and the design document is growing nicely.

The visual stlye is now almost 100% what I imagined in the first place, and seeing it in motion (which the screenshots won't judge, I'll try to get a video up soon) is even better as it looks totally as dark and visually nightmarish as I wanted it to be.

Over the next few days I'll implement an editor for the questions along with different visual types. Currently there are only corridors, but I want to use diffferent "objects" as a metaphorical tool to emphase on the type of player choice. I'm planning on adding holes (for very negative decissions), upward stairs (for positive stuff), windows (for things realted to other people or stuff out of the player's control) and plain light cones in the distance (maybe for decisions that are connected to being lost and or lonely).

Since fragment shaders and stuff make it kinda easy to get a nightmarish, dark and hazy look I also plan to make extensive use of them for different visual effects that pertain to the player's current mental and physical health.

And last but not least some screenshots (click on the tumb nails, best watched on a well-calibrated display on a dark background) :
http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/t_2013-08-19-01.jpg (http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/2013-08-19-01.jpg) http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/t_2013-08-19-02.jpg (http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/2013-08-19-02.jpg) http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/t_2013-08-19-03.jpg (http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/2013-08-19-03.jpg) http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/t_2013-08-19-04.jpg (http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/2013-08-19-04.jpg) http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/t_2013-08-19-05.jpg (http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/2013-08-19-05.jpg) http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/t_2013-08-19-06.jpg (http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/2013-08-19-06.jpg)

WILL
23-08-2013, 05:05 PM
Oow, screenies already! I like your style Mr. Sascha! :)

Lookin' good so far. Kinda scary looking, but pretty cool. Throw in some moody music and I might just pee my pants. :P

Sascha Willems
24-08-2013, 03:12 PM
Well, it looks even more disturbing in motion, believe me ;) And nah, it won't be the type of game where you wet your pants. I thought about adding jump scares and stuff, but I want to create a rather depressing atmosphere, and scary demons / effects out of nowhere wouldn't fit the game's time I guess, so it'll be more of a calm "game".

And the other day I had an awesome idea about the setting of the game that perfectly fits into my initial idea. I dunno how it's for you folks out there, but I usually get the best ideas when not being near a PC. So this one came to my mind while doing some complelty boring routine stuff at home. I guess my brain is bored in such situations and decides to spit out great ideas :)

The game will now play in the mind of someone who's about to die and starts off during his last moments on a sickbed, with doctors and family around him / her. So upon starting the game you can see people around you talk while you're just lying there and your eyes getting more and more weary. At some point you lose consciousness and the real "game" starts, where you (that's still the same as in my initial post) guide that person through his / her thoughts. At certain points your character will suddenly wake up for a short amount of time and see more conversations between the people around him.

I made a quick drawing of how this scenery would look at work, and over the last two days I implemented it as a dynamic 2D scene into the game. It contains animated discussions, several effects and some old-school parallax effects when "looking" around. Once again this looks much better in motion, and maybe I'll get a video of the current version done tomorrow (no promise. not much time for video shenanigans).

But here are two screenshots from the game itself (click the thumbnails) :

http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/t_2013-08-24-01.jpg (http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/2013-08-24-01.jpg) http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/t_2013-08-24-02.jpg (http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/2013-08-24-02.jpg)

So it's progressing along very nice, and seeing it on motion in a complete dark room with some moody dark music is kinda scary.

laggyluk
24-08-2013, 04:47 PM
promising game idea :)

Sascha Willems
28-08-2013, 01:56 PM
Small status update (from @work) : Half-Time is approaching, and I've been pushing really hard. Currently I spent 8 hours in front of my PC @work and up to 7 additional hours in front of my PC @home to get this done in one month's timeframe. Dunno about you guys, but that's really exhausting, and my coffee consumption is going through the roof ;)

But what drives my is the result and the desire to reach the goals I set myself. I usually try to set myself a certain target for my coding sessions after work (or on the weekends), like getting a certain scene or feature done and usually stay pretty focused until I get it done.

With that way of working I'm almost done with the game's features. Yesterday I (almost fully) implemented the main menu, the days before I finished the "death scene", the scene that'll fade in shortly before you die and added a lot of stuff to the gameplay. So if your time on answering a question is running out, you get lots of additional effects, answers will become blurred, film grain will get stronger, screen becomes darker and at some point the game will have you fade back to your sickbed where you're in the process of dying as a white light statrs to take up the whole screen.

I hope to have all gameplay features and the game's logic completed by this weekend (and I'm hellbent on hitting that target ;) ), so that I can start doing all the sound stuff next week and then start to implement the game's final content.

Sascha Willems
02-09-2013, 05:46 PM
I'm pushing pretty hard to get this done in time. Lots of stuff to do at work, and with a business trip starting tomorrow, this week won't see much progress :(

But I got a lot of stuff done nonetheless. You can actually "play" it now from beginning to the end, with several chapters, different questions and visual types and so on. The game now has a main menu, an about screen and an ending screen that's displayed when you die. How do you die? By simply not answering a question. For that I added even more shaders, and the longer you stare at a decision, the blurrier it gets and at some point reality starts to fade in with many people standing around your death bed. If you won't answer in time then, your journey will end. I also added music (found a nice and very fitting track over at opengameart.org) and (though not necessary, but helpfull) logging.

The game now also has three different visual styles for the decisions, it's either long corridors, holes or "flying" doors (I guess you can see the tribute to a certain mystery series from a mile away ;) ). I have mockups and plans for more visual styles, though I don't think they'll make it into the initial release.

The game now also records your answers and tracks your bias towards life that'll then be displayed in the ending screen.

So yes, I'm pretty much on track, though this week will set me back a bit and the final version may be a bit rough around the edges.

Oh, and no post without new screenshots ;) :

http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/t_2013-09-02-01.jpg (http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/2013-09-02-01.jpg) http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/t_2013-09-02-02.jpg (http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/2013-09-02-02.jpg) http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/t_2013-09-02-03.jpg (http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/2013-09-02-03.jpg) http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/t_2013-09-02-04.jpg (http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/2013-09-02-04.jpg) http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/t_2013-09-02-05.jpg (http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/2013-09-02-05.jpg) http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/t_2013-09-02-06.jpg (http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/2013-09-02-06.jpg) http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/t_2013-09-02-07.jpg (http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/2013-09-02-07.jpg)

SilverWarior
03-09-2013, 02:29 AM
WOW!
Great work Sascha

Sascha Willems
07-09-2013, 02:37 PM
Hey there guys, could you please test the first alpha of the game for me?

You can grab it here : http://www.saschawillems.de/downloads/trugbild_alphatest.zip (~5 MBytes)

The gameplay is in there, and the game itself is fully functional. The content (chapters, answers) are mostly placeholders though, so next on my list is to create content and dialogue for the final releease. The ending screen is also not completly done, something I'm currently working on.

I just wanted to have others test the game before releasing it, so I can see if it works on different hardware configurations.

Note that the game needs at least OpenGL 2.0 compatible hardware (for the shaders), and you should play it on a widescreen display (it may look distorted on other aspect ratios). Currently it's windows only.

As for the progress, I haven't gotten much done this week. I integrated my virtual file system, did some bugfixing, changed the game's data XML structure (making it easier for me to create content), but due to a business trip to the other side of germany and lot's of other work assignments, my time to work on Trugbild was pretty limited.

But I hope to get the missing things done today and tomorrow, so I can concentrate on creating content throughout the next week, before the final date approaches ;)

SilverWarior
07-09-2013, 06:04 PM
I gave it a try.
It works fine on Windows 7 64 bit with AMD Mobility Radeon HD 3650 with Level 3 Shader support.
Few noticable glitches:
- sometimes when clicking on side choices you can see sharp edges of "white fading color". I gues this is due to the maximum size of the shader is too smal.
- you should sah that "he is in final monets" and not "in final moment".
- on last naration just before the end screen you can still see renmants of text from previous naration screen which was shown before the choice screen.

While I haven't tested all the posibilities (went trhough 3 times) I always come to good ending. So it might be a bug or I just chose such paths.

Other than that I must say that it is quite uniqe idea. I haven't played anything like this so far.

pstudio
07-09-2013, 07:00 PM
Works fine on my laptop though I noticed some tearing once in a while. Is VSync an option?
Windows 8 Pro 64bit, nVidia Geforce GTX 660M.

I'm liking though I also get the good ending all the time. I guess you haven't added other endings so far?

Sascha Willems
07-09-2013, 08:07 PM
Thanks for your feedback. I'm happy that the game is working in your system. Together with my development PC and my Lenovo Yoga this makes four different configurations that run it fun :)

As for the ending :
To get the "bad" ending you have to die, which means not selecting an answer in time. If you wait long enough, the player starts to die, and if you wait too long the game ends premature. That's when you get the "bad" ending.

But yes, the ending screen and the mechanic on what ending is selected is not finishsed yet. The game already records the bias of the answers you select (positive or negative), and I plan on changing the ending depending on your bias, and on wether you answer all questions.

I'm glad you like the "game", and thanks again for testing!

Sascha Willems
08-09-2013, 06:14 PM
Coding is done!

I'm pretty much spot-on with my initially planned timeframe, and the next week will be used to create content. The current chapter's and decisions are mostly development placeholders, so during the coming week I'm going to write dialogue and decisions, so a playthrough will become more interesting than in the testing release.

And though I haven't had much tome to code during the last week, I sat down the whole weekend to push the game.

The ending screen now displays different (two different visuals), depending on the positive or negative bias you gathered while selecting answers. Though it's not what I had in mind initially, so I may expand on the idea of different endings (like you're used from games like Silent Hill) after the contest is done.

And I also used this afternoon to slip in a new visual styles : ladders. So in addition to doors, corridors and holes, decisions can now also be represented with ladders :

(click to enlarge)
http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/t_2013-09-07-01.jpg (http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/2013-09-07-01.jpg) http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/t_2013-09-07-02.jpg (http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/2013-09-07-02.jpg)

I wrote roughly 4,500 LOC for this game (excluding all of the stuff from my basecode that I reused for this game), the development directory is at ~ 250 MBytes and the final release should come in at 30 MBytes.

And as a bonus, here are two debugging screenshots :
http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/t_2013-09-07-03.jpg (http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/2013-09-07-03.jpg) http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/t_2013-09-07-04.jpg (http://www.saschawillems.de/images/trugbild/2013-09-07-04.jpg)

They showcase how the game composes it's visuals, using up to 6 different frame buffer objects. From left to right : Visual scene (color), color picking, effects overlay, text overlay, reality scene, death scene

So now on to writing some additional content ;)

AirPas
09-09-2013, 08:23 PM
doesn't work here
win7 32bit , mobility radeon x1300 (which is opengl2 compatible)
1203

Sascha Willems
10-09-2013, 05:10 AM
Too bad. Could you post the logfile from %appdata%\trugbild? An AV at address zero usually means that the render context could not be created, so maybe it's a driver problem.

AirPas
10-09-2013, 09:26 AM
here is


10/09/2013 10:23:26 : Starting virtual file system
10/09/2013 10:23:26 : Initializing Renderer
10/09/2013 10:23:29 : Rendercontext created
10/09/2013 10:23:30 : Creating frame buffer objects
10/09/2013 10:23:30 : Could not setup renderer!Zugriffsverletzung bei Adresse 00000000. Lesen von Adresse 00000000 : Zugriffsverletzung bei Adresse 00000000. Lesen von Adresse 00000000
10/09/2013 10:23:33 : Renderer created
10/09/2013 10:23:33 : Could not create all game objects!Zugriffsverletzung bei Adresse 00000000. Lesen von Adresse 00000000 : Zugriffsverletzung bei Adresse 00000000. Lesen von Adresse 00000000
10/09/2013 10:23:34 : All game objects released

laggyluk
10-09-2013, 09:50 AM
on two monitors window is at desktop center. which gives it somewhat schizophrenic twist ;)

Sascha Willems
11-09-2013, 05:05 PM
here is

Looks like the game could not create the frame buffer object. Does your graphics card (and the drivers) support frame buffer objects? If you get the time, could you please use my glCapsViewer (http://www.saschawillems.de/?page_id=771) and upload a report for your graphics card? That would help me locate the problem.


on two monitors window is at desktop center. which gives it somewhat schizophrenic twist ;)

Yeah, I've been playing around with the FOV, and extremly wide FOVs with lots of sway create a somehwat insane look. And just for fun I added wild shaking to the screen depending on player stresslevel for internal testing, and that made the game look even more insane. But I won't add that for the final release ;)

And I'd love to see the game on a surround setup with 3 monitors. That would be sick...

AirPas
11-09-2013, 07:11 PM
thanks , i've uplode the report

http://delphigl.de/glcapsviewer/generatereport.php?reportID=372

Sascha Willems
11-09-2013, 08:38 PM
Thanks for the report. It seems that your card supports framebuffers (through EXT though, and not ARB) and that it supports the texture size I'm using. So I don't really know why it crashes, but since the X1300 is based on a very old design, and several features to make it support OpenGL 2.0 are software based, I don't think I'll support it. Even if I get the FBOs to work, I noticed that it only supports version 1.10 of the shading language, but some of my shaders need at least 1.20.

But maybe I'll see what I can do about this after the contest is over, there's still lots of content to be done for the game, so time is ticking ;)

SilverWarior
12-09-2013, 06:22 AM
So I don't really know why it crashes, but since the X1300 is based on a very old design, and several features to make it support OpenGL 2.0 are software based

As far as I know ATI Radeon X1300 is first ATI graphic card which has full hardware support for OpenGL 2.0.



I noticed that it only supports version 1.10 of the shading language, but some of my shaders need at least 1.20.

Version 1.20 shading language is specific to OpenGL 2.1 so you should state that minimum OpenGL version for your game is OpenGL 2.1.


@AirPas
Are you using AMD/ATI based drivers or ones that are shipped with Windows XP. Based on my expirience the ones that are shipped with windows XP does not provide full capability of ATI based graphic cards.
So I strongly recomend downloading and instaling newest drivers from AMD website. You could even use their driver autodetection software that you can get here: http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/Pages/auto_detect.aspx

Sascha Willems
14-09-2013, 12:03 PM
It's done!

I just uploaded the installer to the FTP, and you can also directly grab it from www.saschawillems.de/download/trugbild_pgdedition_setup.exe (~5 MBytes, Windows only)

Haven't had much time to work on it lately (lots to do at work), but I added several new chapters, lots of new decisions, did some bugfixing and added some small tweaks.

Here's a short video of the game in action.Please note that it's only 30fps, and compression doesn't do it a favor


http://youtu.be/yOYPWjU6n6s

Ñuño Martínez
14-09-2013, 05:19 PM
What a game. :o It feels... strange... rare... This isn't bad. :)

WILL
15-09-2013, 09:03 PM
Hey very nice. I checked out the YouTube video.

Can you upload a copy of that video to the FTP as well? (plus any screenshots you think show off the gameplay well enough) I want to use it to help cut a small video showing off all the entries from the PGD Challenge. And perhaps do one for all of them as a general showcase video for all the PGD Challenge the events. (Like what I did for the PGD Annual announcement trailers.)

Nice work completing your entry! Looks like it will be quite an interesting player experience. Rather unique too. :)

Sascha Willems
17-09-2013, 04:18 PM
Sure, I've just uploaded the video (.wmv, 720p) as well as the screenshots (all that I've posted on my page and in this thread) to the FTP. So fell free to use them for promoting PGD :)

WILL
26-09-2013, 05:02 AM
Sure, I've just uploaded the video (.wmv, 720p) as well as the screenshots...

Sweet! Thanks! :)