Bowling Babes - Improved Visuals
Community Forums/Showcase/Bowling Babes - Improved Visuals
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| Been plugging away at the game, mostly working on dull stuff like fixing bugs and making control changes, but I've also redone a lot of the graphics. All the character models will be replaced. So far, four of the six are complex. I've made some minor changes to the environments, but I've also completely redone the lighting of all the levels, including optimized lightmapping. Higher Quaity, less wasteful textures, etc. Just got character shadows working properly now. Thanks to SSwift for helping me out with a couple of issues there. I've a few ideas to make shadows even faster, but I'll leave that for now. Soft shadows work too, but I like the crisp shadows in this game. Six full length music tracks are being completed for the game, two of which are already complete. Either this is going to be cd only or there will be a deluxe version, because six music tracks in .ogg format is going to be too big for download-only. I've also been working on a beta multiplayer. Hard to test because my own PC crashes when trying to test multiplayer, but my girlfriend's PC runs them perfectly. Not sure if that's the fault of my code or something screwy with Windows. Mutliplayer was never an intended feature, and most bowling games don't seem to have it, but I expect to add it as a free patch after the initial release. Better to release the multiplayer as a bonus freebie than to detract from the main game with buggy multiplayer which wasn't really part of the design anyway. Still, it does seem quite reliable on my gf's PC, so it should be fun. I've also ID'd the slowdowns on sub 1Ghz PC's. It's simply that Blitz is having trouble with a 6,000 poly model with skeletal animation. I've a few ideas to "mask" the problem, but fortunately the new character models are lower detail anyway. Between 3,000 and 4,500 polys mostly, so that should help a bit. Enough waffle ( too much, you say? ) Quick Render showing all 6 characters. ( No cheating, these aren't smoothed or with higher res textures, these are the games models. The artist is just that good. )  Couple of new screenshots to show the improved environments, new characters and dynamic shadows.   |
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| thin the red girl works best. the other girl looks real 'slutty', which might be ok, dependig on what you are trying to ahieve, but I think the other one is more attractive visually I think a good poly count for the characters would be 3,000 max |
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| Go for slutty. This games keeps getting better and better. |
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| Slutty? It's only a french maid's style outfit. I'm pitching at the same kind of audience as Dead or Alive Beach Volleyball. Don't think I've got anything worse than that. Well ATB had four characters on screen with 1,500 polys each, and that ran on very low spec PC's. It seems silly to cut out detail when there's only going to be one character on screen at a time. Also, since it's likely to end up being CD only, the minimum requirements need not be so low. I think I can optimize in other areas without compromising on the models. Guess I'll see how things are when the game is complete and I've optimized all the things I can do without losing any detail. EDIT: Thanks, Cyberheater. |
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| great models, you make them yourself or have you an artist as they're a great improvemnet over your tennis games models? |
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| Glad you like them. No, they're not they're not mine. I hired an artist to rework the models a little, and he decided he would prefer to make them from scratch. Looks like he was right because - as you point out - they're much better than the models I had in Tennis Babes, and the original models I had in this game. |
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| all I meant was that the red character looks more appropriate for the game IMHO.I didn't mean it as an insult |
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| Whoa, character models look very pro ;) |
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| Shhh, you're gonna give him a big head and encourage him to charge me more money ;) You're right though, I'm very impressed with his work. It took me ages to find an artist to work with, but when I finally did, I really lucked out. Ruz: Wasn't taken as an insult. Just surprised you thought it looked slutty. I thought it looked quite cute. Not as cute as one of the babes I haven't shown, but along those lines. |
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| is it manga style ? SD 'super deformed' |
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| It's not super-deformed. It's.. erm.. I guess Sailor Moon style proportions. Tall, willowy, elflike women. |
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| Looking good, much better than before. All I can say is try to get the lighting of the characters to contrast less with their environment. And you need a 'fault line' at the start of the lane (which your foot shouldn't touch or go over or something, I dunno the rules). A nice addition would be a crowd that stand around you as you bowl and cheer or boo :) and some more extra scenery bits, like a fast food counter, plants and stuff would really give it life |
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| Lighting in the first pic should be perfect, I've copied the environment exactly, even allowing for a little GI lighting. The second shot is artificially light at the moment, because that scene has very little light. It's like when they use huge spotlights on actors in night scenes in films. It might not look natural, but you wouldn't see anything if it was. I've tried playing with grey and blue-grey lights to match the environment a little more, but it doesn't look good. I will play with the lights more, but I don't think it's unreasonable to have the characters lit up in an after dark sport. There is a fault line. Not particularly distinct, but since you're not directly controlling the player, you don't have to manually avoid it. More life, eh? I've been trying for a very quiet atmosphere for all the alleys. Sort of like a private alley, deserted car park, abandoned building site, things like that. It's a casual game. People don't generally bowl to a crowd of hooting onlookers. I'm not trying to create a tournament bowling game, very much a relaxed game. And Blitz isn't going to let me add any more animated characters anyway. Plants are a good idea though. If I could model plants, they'd look good in the first alley. Have to see what I can find on the cheap, since my budget is running low. |
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| some advice: Make challenge modes and bonus rounds: -clear 3 pins in order -avoid the bomb pin -rack up bonus points to make ball-bombs which blow pins across -etc, you get the idea? -trails, that anime feel for fast bowls -stats screens for the girls. each has a hobby you don't want a bowling sim. You want a game that uses bowling in a funked-up anime universe :) |
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| You're right, I don't want a bowling sim. Doesn't match the visual style to make it a serious game. What I wanted was a fairly relaxed practice and versus game, with maybe a sort of party mode for multiplayer. I've been thinking about challenge modes. Have to say my ideas weren't as good as some of the suggestions you made, so thanks for those. I was also toying with the idea of "crazy" alleys which are all kinds of weird and wonderful shape. Jumps and curves, etc. Sounds kinda fun, but in practice it makes it very difficult to control unless the alleys are relatively normal, which saps the fun a bit. See what I can do with those. Maybe some kind of "golf" mode for them where you get a "par" number of shots to hit all ten pins. Particle trails are on the to-do list. Particle Candy should make a good job of that. Stat screens are done. Each girl has a bio. |
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| Cool! I like the look of the babes! :) |
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| It looks good... but I'd never buy it unless it looked like it was more than a bowling game. Go with Robs suggestions, make it totally wacko manga stuff and it might look a bit more interesting... The idea of power balls that glow, fly do dumb stuff like in any manga film could be cool... Stupid extreme close ups on the ball with that stripy moving background after you've launched it. Oh, and add some mind meltingly teneous mystical reason why you're bowling to save some cute floating blob from the evil Tjaaghr who has put a bunch of bowling alleys in the way to hinder your quest... or something equally improbable and you'll sell it to all manga fans. I'm not a fan of the Manga style, I find it all very tiresome, however, if you make your game look action packed manga fest you might be onto a winner. The problem I have with many of these sims is that no matter how good they look you can't escape from the fact it's bowling... or golf... or fishing... or whatever. |
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| adding loads of different style games is the way ie different layout of pins eg in a row, and you got to kncok them down in numbered order, or only knock a certain number down etc makes it all more fun, bowling party games :) |
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| Thanks guys. Rob: I'm not sure I want to go down the manga-styled visuals road too far. Certainly it would be appealing to a certain market, but it's putting myself in a bit of a niche market to go that far. I was really aiming for something along the lines of Dead or Alive Beach Volleyball, not really heavily stylized. Plus I'm not a manga fan, so I would probably end up making a bad job of it, alienating the only market it would appeal to. I do think some particle effects are necessary to give it a less realistic feel and I'll be working on those soon. I do agree with you about the problems of these type of sports games. I can't go as overboard on the physics as I would like, because Tokamak is biased heavily towards realism over fun physics. I've already had to make a lot of additions myself to make the physics more fun and a little less realistic. Still the physics have to be consistent and the collisions need to be realistic and accurate. One of the alleys does have a couple of jumps and one is slightly pipe shaped, allowing the ball to roll up the sides somewhat. Whether my already-modified Tokamak physics will stretch to flying balls and explosions, I really don't know. They're a good jumping off point though, and I have some ideas I can add for challenge/arcade modes. They will be player-controlled only though, as they wouldn't really suit the AI I'm working on. I'm adding some learning AI so that the CPU players actually learn to play better by watching you ( or other CPU players ) play and learning the techniques. They don't just copy the shots outright, but they will attempt to emulate your technique and the results will vary according to their skill level. As a lil test, I played a game against the CPU last night on easy mode. I score 197 and the CPU on the easiest difficulty scored 93. Even allowing for the fact that I've played the game quite a lot, I probably need to make the AI slightly harder and the player controls slightly more difficult. Still, it's coming along nicely and learning AI will make it more fun, I think. That way it will be playing slightly differently on every computer. Sinu: Yup. Exactly what I was thinking. Been running through some ideas while I took a walk down by the river this afternoon. I'm keen to start working on them now. |
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| Just don't make it like urotsukidoji: legend of the overfiend. |
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| Ever played Monkey Ball? It has some cool 'lanes'. |
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| Rob: Never heard of it, but I can probably guess the content. I'm pretty safe on that count ;) WolRon: No, never have. I don't think the ultra-realistic physics model will go very well with crazy lanes ( which I assume is the kinda think you're referring to. ) I haven't given up though, still considering it. I would just prefer to not do something than to do it badly. All: Added a quick render of all six characters to the top post. Certainly makes me pleased I decided to outsource the character art. They're far better than my models, and lower poly too. |
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| Legend of the overfiend is a classic! Picture the scene... boy cuts off his own knob and replaces it with a demon cock... oh yeah... anime is all quality stuff! |
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| I think the characters look great. They don't look a bit slutty but they look fine because they're Japanese style. > Just don't make it like urotsukidoji: > legend of the overfiend. No MAKE it like urotsukidoji. :) > anime is all quality stuff! Heh. Don't forgot the meat cleaver ;) You should watch the uncensored Japanese version Rob, the original non 'outside' world translations are heavily edited. |
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| Enay, I was put thought the hell of the uneditted subtitled version with a greasy long haired 'friend' saying "Rob Rob, watch this bit, it's really good"... By the end of it I was about ready to chop my own knob off if it meant I could get away. |
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| Make a great bowling game though. Call it Demon Balls or something. |
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| I'm sure there's a 'specialist site' about little manga girls rolling demon balls. |
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| www.animebowlingbabes.com ? |
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