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If anyone complains about this not being Sonic or Sega related, it's still gonna be at SAGE. And I'm pretty sure this isn't the first non-Sonic game to end up here.


 
So, this is a thing I've been working on lately, as part of an effort to build up a mutiplayer platform engine in Construct 2, as well as experimenting with new methods of conveying narrative that don't rely on non-interactivity. I intend on releasing a demo for SAGE, with a single-player demo and a multiplayer mode capable of supporting up to four players.
 
As a Construct 2 game, the demo will be playable in all HTML5/WebGL-capable browsers. But, thanks to the power of Node-Webkit, there are also Windows, Mac and Linux executables if you prefer that.
 
Screenshots:
 
Work in progress, obviously, just to note.

 
Overiew
 
Digimon: Heroic Battle Spirit, made in Construct 2, is a fan-made 'expansion' on the three Digimon: Battle Spirit fighting games for the Wonderswan/GBA made by Dimps, one of which, Battle Spirit 1.5, never left Japan. The idea is to include nearly every existing playable character from the first two games at least, hopefully add more fighters from more recent Digimon series (Digimon Savers/Data Squad and Digimon Xros Wars/Fusion) , enable four-player multiplayer, and include a special Metroidvania-like story mode with innovative narrative mechanics that attempt to do away with the need for cutscenes in most cases.
 
The demo is an attempt to demonstrate a basic idea of the direction being taken for both single-player and multiplayer. It's not exactly 'polished', nor 'balanced', but very much playable.
 
Playable Characters
 
In the demo, there are three playable Digimon - Agumon, Gabumon, and Renamon, each with unique movesets.
 

 
Okay, that's not quite true - there's a fourth character, but he's not a Digimon - a special guest fighter for the demo. I'll be unveiling him when SAGE opens.
 
Story Mode Synopsis
 
The first thing you remember is waking up in a cell in a dungeon.
 

 
You manage to escape, but you find yourself in a castle filled with strange machines you've never seen before that are hostile to your presence.
 

 
And to make it worse, there's no way out... Without treading a lot of water. And you sincerely doubt you can swim that far.
 

 
An exploration of the castle finds you battling an old enemy, but even he is subservient to a greater power. Without your partner, you're left alone trying to figure out how to escape the castle, where he and your friends have gone, and who imprisoned you in the first place...

• Open-ended environments inspired by the likes of Metroid and its many imitators.
  
• Multiple characters with different abilities.
  
• Sub-weapons that augment your character's fighting abilites.
  
• A 'narrative button' that provides dialogue options ala Mass Effect, but in real-time, with an adjustable slow-down effect.
  
• A 'look' mechanic reminiscent of old-school adventure games.
  
• An adjustable, zoomable camera system that accommodates any number of screen resolutions.
  
• A 'fog of war' system that hides unexplored areas, and fogs explored but unoccupied areas.
  
• Beware, not all boss enemies will be content to sit around and let you walk up to their doorstep, and some may start hunting you on their own volition...
  
• Possible extra for later on: 4-player co-op.

Multiplayer
 

• Fully-featured classic Battle Spirit gameplay, now with 4 players! (In the future, depending on what happens with Steam Controllers and online multiplayer support in Construct 2, up to 16 players might be supported.)
  
• Dynamic camera system that keeps every combatant on-screen.

 
What about the future?
 
Well, what happens in the future is going to be a bit interesting. Right now, with this demo, I'm pretty much limited entirely to existing game assets (and not just from Digimon games) and open-source assets, which are both neat, but they have their limitations. Long story short, if I want to really complete this game as I envision it, I'll need help. Aside from presenting a demo, I'm using SAGE as a platform to advertise for artists and other people who are interested in making this whole thing work.
 
Primarily, I'm looking for an artist(s), an optional plural, because I intend to redo as many assets from scratch as possible, from level art to character animations. The existing assets are great, but I don't really want to be restricted to what there is right now, if I want to expand the gameplay, for example (the existing sprites were designed for a rather simple fighting game, let's be honest), not to mention I want a consistent art style across the board, which is important. And I'd like to be able to have higher-quality art assets, which would be neat.
 
What I'm mainly looking at for animation work is the program Spriter, by Brashmonkey. It's tech that is similar to what is used in games like Rayman Origins/Legends, and anything Vannilaware's done (Odin Sphere, Muramasa, Dragon's Crown, etc), and when the tool is used properly, the results can look superb. As well, animations can be created and tweaked much more easily than traditional animation, scaled better, enables character customization, heavily reduces RAM usage, includes support for stuff like collision rectangles, and already has native Construct 2 support. I like traditional animation as much as anyone, but I'd like to save my time and my artist's time when it comes to creating assets, animations, and iterating on them. If nothing else, Spriter is great for easily prototyping animations.
 
Still, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. I've got a demo to finish!

For a while now, Index, Atlus' parent company, was being investigated by Japanese authorities for what is basically fraud. At the same time, Index was also going into severe debt. This time, however, it seems to have had some severe consequences for the company. Index is now going bankrupt.


http://www.neogaf.co...01#post66624001

Quote

https://twitter.com/...164804150886400

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I'm not sure what civil rehabilitation proceedings entail, but if the creditors start selling off Index's assets, many people have been speculating that the most likely potential buyer would be Nintendo, who have a close relationship with Atlus and a vested interest in the Shin Megami Tensei franchise, not to mention the SMTxFire Emblem crossover that Nintendo will very much want to see completed at all costs. It's not the first time Nintendo has bought a prominent JRPG developer, as shown with Monolith. Namco Bandai is also a possibility.

I actually kinda do want to see the former happen, partly because I want Persona games on Nintendo consoles, and to watch the inevitable shitstorm that will occur when Sony and Microsoft fans realize they're not getting Atlus titles ever again.

Edit: Also, for the record, Index isn't being liquidized, it's reorganizing. They're trying to get sponsors for a buisness transfer for the games division. They're either expecting to partner up with someone or they're looking to be completely bought up.

Considering this is a Sega-published game that was highly anticipated by more than a few people...

The average review score on Gamerankings is roughly 39% right now.

Yeah. This game is riddled with bugs, the visuals are garbage, the campaign is far below par, the AI is generally bad, and the multiplayer has its own problems despite being the best of the bunch. Wanna see?






An ex-Gearbox dev is claiming that the development is an absolute mess and a two-bit studio did the main game while Gearbox only did the multiplayer. Sega and Gearbox are both denying this, but the ridiculous lapse in quality indicates otherwise.

I feel bad for the people who preordered it.

Overgrowth is the in-development sequel to Lugaru, which some people may know as 3D fighting game featuring rabbits. Overgrowth is looking to go above and beyond its sequel in so many ways, but right now, let's just check out the sort of features the Phoenix Engine (which also uses OpenGL) has that would be very much applicable to Mobius:

General Features/Features with their own vids:
- Intuitive In-game level editing (later improved in Alpha 169)
-- Brush Tool
-- Sky Editor
-- Decal Textures
-- Live texture, shader and script updating
- Detail Textures (demonstrated here,, textures that don't stretch when an object is resized)
- Live scripting
- Bullet physics
- Awesomium integration for UI and other stuff (such as a webkit-based colour picker)
- Procedural Animation


Features shown in Alpha videos:
- Alpha 108:
-- Decal Maps (textures on objects that tile rather than stretch when an object's size is modified
- Alpha 112:
-- Detailed Physics Modelling (physics objects have their own realistic center of mass that they rotate around)
- Alpha 114:
-- Partial Animation Blending
-- Active Ragdolls (ragdoll animations integrated with normal animation, in a sense)
- Alpha 115:
-- Colour tinting (objects can have their colour altered a via colour picker created using webkit via Awesomium)
- Alpha 117
-- Dynamic head/eye look
-- Automatic lip sync
- Alpha 122:
-- AI Waypoints
- Alpha 123:
-- AI awareness (limited peripheral vision, cannot see through walls, hearing)
- Alpha 124:
-- AI Pathfinding (via the open-source recastnavigation library and its companion library, Detour)
-- Jumping prediction
- Alpha 126:
-- Ragdoll transition animations
- Alpha 132:
-- Normal Mask can act as a tint mask (so you can colour parts of an object rather than the whole thing)
- Alphas 132, 133:
-- Smooth ledge-climbing and shimmying (just an example if we ever feel like adding something like that)
-- Dynamic collision ellipsoids
- Alpha 135:
-- Combining shadow volumes of nearby objects to avoid dynamic shadows overlapping
- Alpha 137:
-- Colour-tinted decal textures
- Alphas 138, 139
-- Detail Objects
- Alpha 141:
-- Abstract collision world
- Alpha 143:
-- "Mobility Bones"
- Alpha 147:
-- Automatic character mesh LOD simplification
- Alpha 149:
-- Procedural foot movement
- Alpha 153:
-- Splitscreen support
- Alpha 154:
-- Sounds are dampened by obstacles
- Alpha 155:
-- Weight maps for detail objects
- Alpha 156:
-- Common shaders use shader macros (to make them easier to maintain)
- Alphas 157, 158, 159:
-- Hotspot scripts
-- Parameter system for hotspots and characters
- Alpha 160:
-- Character colour palettes with colour palette editors
- Alpha 162:
-- AI keeps track of all nearby characters, including allies
- Alpha 163:
-- Automatic plant pivot points
-- Automatic plant convex hulls from point cloud
- Alphas 168, 169:
-- Detail object types can be modified in the level xml, and liveupdate works with detail objects
-- Overbright option for detail objects
-- Surface orientation parameter for detail objects
- Alpha 170:
-- Live updating for config settings
- Alpha 173:
-- Climb/drop pathfinding AI
- Alpha 174:
-- Nav mesh objects are no longer hollow, so AI can find jumping surfaces much easier
- Alpha 178:
-- Animated debug text using webkit (makes it much easier to see what's going on at a glance)
- Alphas 190, 191:
-- Attachment system for both weapons and non-weapon gear for both player characters and NPCs
-- Dynamic objects can be colour-tinted using the colour picker
- Alpha 192:
-- Time freezing (alongside slow-mo)
-- Appropriate controls for the parameter editor
-- Parameters for the entire level
- Alpha 193:
-- AI has slower reaction time to changes in target position
- Alpha 194:
-- Scripts can create, delete, rotate, scale, translate, change script paramaters, tints, colour palettes, and so on.

Whew! That's a long list. I'd recommend looking at all the Overgrowth alpha videos, even the ones that have features that aren't really relevant to Mobius, it's an interesting insight into Overgrowth's development process.

Feel free to add more stuff to the list that I may have missed or simply overlooked.

Ah, Torque. One of the earlier 3D game engines to be sold to the public. Nowadays it's pretty much been overtaken by UDK, Unity and UE3 due to them becoming free to use.

However, what I wasn't expecting was for Torque to to all the way and become open-sourced.

http://www.garagegam...logs/view/21876
http://www.garagegam...logs/view/21875

It's an incredibly surprising and unexpected result that could result in good things for the engine in general, now that the community has the opportunity to build upon it themselves.