Frank's Day Out - 3D Adventure Game Thread

Frank's Day Out will play a little bit like The Secret of Monkey Island crossed with Zelda. In the game you take on the the role of Frank, a guy that owns his own island, but decides to go on an adventure to find a shirt...

With 3D cel-shaded characters and objects designed by illustrator Billy Mather, it will offer players a chance to explore a world full of unique creatures and environments whilst using crazy transports such as the GO-Kopter™.

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Hi all! I have just started work on a 3D adventure game. Currently I am using the following tools: Unity, Blender and GIMP. The main character is called Frank. You can see a video below of where we're at in the game showing animations and collision detection:

Update: Made some progress with the camera and controls. It renders objects between the camera and player transparent. The reason for this was so that we can use the same camera in multiple environments without having to worry about object collision and zooming closer to the character (based on feedback other players stated they preferred that objects be rendered transparent rather than zooming the camera closer to player):

The actual gameplay idea has formed itself over the last couple of weeks; exploration! That will be the single concept to this game, to explore. Different environments, across seas, the skies, jungles, underground, overground taking with you always your trusty pop up tent. There won't be any combat in the game, instead it will have character interactions that test the player in different ways. Perhaps morally, with puzzles or with a classic conversation face off!

You can play a short demo of camera and controls here: 8bitape.net

Any feedback or ideas welcomed as always!

Update 2: There is now a day / night cycle in game with a pretty sunset and sunrise:

This highlights that I need to create some models for the sun and moon, which I am really looking forward to!

Also, a quick glimpse at what the starting area of the game will look like:

Any feedback as always appreciated!

Update 3: Some new screenshots of the island, title screen and new renderer:

Edited by: 8-BitApe

I liked the camera rendering object between itself and the character as transparent. Right call there. The close in camera usually makes for odd camera movements and bugs when playing.

I liked the cell shaded feeling of the graphics and I hope the final game would have that feel. I understand this is just a demo of course for the controls and placeholder art.

One thing to note is that the camera control feels slow. I'd like to change the camera view much faster than what it is now in the demo. Also, the tide system you have (or at least I believe you implemented it) is way too strong. When I was trying to cross to the opposite island the blue surface (water) suddenly rose to touch the trees in the island I started on.

I also liked that you don't have to hold shift to move around (specially when the character moves that slow).

The map you've drawn looks interesting. But I can't comment until I play it.

Sounds like something interesting, except I'd love to know more about Frank's day... why is he there (at least a sneak peak to the story) and what am I supposed to do.

Hi! Cheers for feedback.

Regarding your comments:

• Glad you like the camera. I'm thinking of doing something similar for buildings. Render walls closest to player transparent / invisible so it looks like a cutaway. A little like buildings in Zelda and Final Fantasy VII.
• The final game we have cell shaded graphics as per the placeholder objects. I also like the look if it
• Camera damping is going to be configurable. Quite a few people have said it feels like 'moving through jellly'. I will make it a lot snappier by default and allow the user to change the smoothness in the options.
• I haven't really done much with the water... The tide is way out of scale. Water collision is a little way down the line at the moment.

Regarding Frank, we are working on a prologue text adventure to setup the story. At the moment it kinda goes like:

Narrator wrote: Pirates have invaded Frank's island and have stolen all of his most valuable modern art and designer clothes! Quickly, help Frank catch up with them using the GO-kopter™. But, oh no! Frank has lost the keys! They must be somewhere on the island. Quickly find them so that he can pursue the pirates!

I think the main story arc will have Frank running round the world to try and locate his lost art and clothes...

I have also been working on the GO-kopter™ which you will be able to use to travel the world (by land, air and sea):

Hopefully should have the model finished soon, then will get it in the game. Should make travelling faster!

Update: The GO-Kopter™ has been completed! I'm really looking forward to getting the mechanics working for this in game. I'm not sure that I've really played any other games which allow you to drive / fly / sail in the same vehicle. I have a lot to think about with regards to the control scheme. Completing this vehicle is also going to force me to look at the water collision in game....

Any suggestions for games to look at with multi-terrain vehicles?

Looking forward to creating some animated GIFs when all is complete!

Edited by: 8-BitApe

I tried out your demo. Before I get to the knit-picky stuff I have to say I love the 3D graphics. The shadows, colors and overall feel of the island is there. The controls are good and I got used to using the mouse to control the camera and keyboard to control Frank's direction.

The first thing I wanted to do was jump in the Go-Kopter. I was hitting all the buttons on the keyboard and clicking on it to try to get in. Then I figured you hadn't programmed it to work yet.

The second thing I wanted to do was jump in the water when I saw the tide going up and down. I ended up in a deep pit that was hard to get out of so I just restarted the game.

I know Frank is kind of an overweight guy and is supposed to move slow but the island is so big and it takes him forever to reach the other side. I think if he moved a little faster it would be a good thing.

The other thing that makes it seem slow is the texture of the ground is really hard to see. It feels as if he is not moving sometimes. The only reason I know he is moving is because the mountains are getting bigger in the distance.

So basically my recommendations are a.) move faster b.) textures with more contrast on the ground.

Hey, thanks for the feedback! really appreciated the comments.

Yeah, only just got the basics of getting in and out of the vehicle started (no animations yet!):

Once that is all working you will be able to move a lot faster! Regarding ground textures, I totally agree! Something a little like the hand drawn stuff in this: Don't Starve. I've added to my GitHub tasks. Thanks for the suggestion.

You may have noticed that we've changed the colour palette a bit... Here's a mock-up of what we think it might look like with clouds and trees and stuff:

We are going for a very limited palette of colours. It gives it a unique look. The red will be used as a spot colour to bring life to other objects in game.

Just wanted to say I love the way the game is rendered. Very cool. Lots of potential.

Thanks! Quickly progressing with the vehicle and camera controls. Have been working a lot on the code recently, hopefully will take a break from that soon and start creating more in-game objects. Here's an early demo of the GO-Kopter™ taking flight: