Tower of Nibiru - Turn-based Dungeon Crawler

[MalcolmR]

I'm an amateur 3d artist and game developer working on a solo project (Tower of Nibiru) that will hopefully be my first commercial release. It's still in early development, but it's starting to look and feel like a real game, so I figured I'd start posting my plans and progress here.

Features:

-First person grid-based exploration.
-First person turn-based combat (in separate combat scenes).
-At least 25 levels divided into five environments/tilesets. Level size is 32x32 tiles using the "thick walls" system.
-12 classes with unique skill trees.
-Create a party of five characters without personalities or backstories.
-100+ fully animated enemies, some of which are based on the 5.1 SRD monsters.
-Day/Night cycle in outdoor areas.
-Highly optimized level loading (~150ms) through transform caching and gpu instancing.
-Made in Unity with the built-in render pipeline.
-No voice acting.

 

[Grauken]

I really like your visual style for the landscape

 

[Krice]

I wonder are those monochromatic colors (using pretty much the same hue for each thing) used by design? They make it look a lot like watercolors.

 

[MalcolmR]

I really like your visual style for the landscape

Thanks! It might not be noticeable in the screenshots, but the background is really a series of concentric cylinders with cutout textures applied. This gives a sense of depth to the level when you're moving around and also gives the fog something to interact with. There's also a subtle UV animation in the trees to give them a swaying effect.

I wonder are those monochromatic colors (using pretty much the same hue for each thing) used by design? They make it look a lot like watercolors.

I wasn't going for watercolor specifically, but I wanted the whole scene to have a painted look. I used paintings, anime backgrounds, and other stylized games as reference. As an amateur, I'm not completely confident in my use of colors, so any feedback is appreciated!

 

[CryptRat]

I'm intrigued to see how it looks in motion. It looks cool, in theory I really prefer colorful and bright visuals but in practice they're often associated with WoW style when not even Facebook/mobile game style. However here what I'm seeing is rather Dragon Quest except I can even play with my own party, so count me in. Overall I think the modern UI you're using does not clash with the environment, but to be more precise I think the screenshot with the dialog choices looks perfect as is, while the character boxes and the "Heal" box don't feel as good to me but I'm so terribly bad when it comes to visuals, formatting, UI ... that I am totally unable to make any useful suggestion.

 

[MalcolmR]

I'm intrigued to see how it looks in motion. It looks cool, in theory I really prefer colorful and bright visuals but in practice they're often associated with WoW style when not even Facebook/mobile game style. However here what I'm seeing is rather Dragon Quest except I can even play with my own party, so count me in. Overall I think the modern UI you're using does not clash with the environment, but to be more precise I think the screenshot with the dialog choices looks perfect as is, while the character boxes and the "Heal" box don't feel as good to me but I'm so terribly bad when it comes to visuals, formatting, UI ... that I am totally unable to make any useful suggestion.

That's really helpful! I'll completely revamp the graphics for the character boxes. They do seem rather dull. I'll also make a flashier and less button-looking skill announcement box. Actually, most of the work I've put into the battle UI has been the UI animations, not the graphics themselves, and the animations will work with any new graphics that I swap in.

As for the style, I'm doing my best to avoid the WoW look. When I examined all the variations of "stylized" graphics out there, I quickly realized that WoW-style graphics (exaggerated proportions and hand-painted lighting/shading) would give my game an overly casual feel, like a mobile game. At the same time, I'm trying to avoid realistic graphics, so it's a bit of a balancing act.

Anyway, I'll post a video or animated gif in the next few days to show the game in motion.

 

[Wayward Son]

I like the look of the landscapes and dungeons! Imo the critters could use a bit more polish but that could just be screencaps not capturing the look, but they feel like a different art style when I see them.

 

[MalcolmR]

I like the look of the landscapes and dungeons! Imo the critters could use a bit more polish but that could just be screencaps not capturing the look, but they feel like a different art style when I see them.

Thanks for the feedback! They definitely look better animated, but maybe not a lot better. I've made a short clip of one round of combat, but I'm still trying to figure out the best way to upload it.

I'm going to redo the mushrooms to give them a more complex shape and also retexture the gazelle and maybe add some extra fur parts to the mesh. I'm not very experienced with character art, so I have a lot of experimentation and learning to do in that area.

Your point about them being a different art style is valid. The environments use PBR shading, but the characters/monsters use cel shading with a slight outline. I assumed this would work because several other games have pulled it off over the years. If it's a problem by the time I release the alpha demo, I'll consider taking another approach to texturing and shading.

 

[MalcolmR]

Here's a clip of one round of combat. I'm trying to make combat feel fast and snappy. I've always felt that the bottleneck in turn-based RPGs and strategy games should be thinking time, not effects and animation time, so I'm trying to avoid long animations and unnecessary delays, except for powerful and less frequent special abilities/spells. That being said, I found that making the sequence speed too fast makes the whole thing an unreadable mess, so I guess I have to find the right balance.

 

[Tyranicon]

Looks pretty good so far.

 

[RPK]

speed seems fine to me. I wouldn't go faster, but it doesn't need to be slower.

 

[MalcolmR]

Looks pretty good so far.

speed seems fine to me. I wouldn't go faster, but it doesn't need to be slower.

I appreciate the feedback! I'll leave the speed as is for now. The speed is controlled by a few constant float values that determine how long to wait after each part of a turn, so changing the speed is just a matter of changing a few numbers in code. Each particle effect also has a float value that determines when to release control back to the main battle loop.

Strangely, the battle loop seems faster with music and sound effects.

 

[WhiteShark]

I appreciate the feedback! I'll leave the speed as is for now. The speed is controlled by a few constant float values that determine how long to wait after each part of a turn, so changing the speed is just a matter of changing a few numbers in code. Each particle effect also has a float value that determines when to release control back to the main battle loop.

I would make battle speed a setting the player can adjust and add a button the player can press to speed it up further still. The current speed is visually pleasing but I can tell already that once I got used to it I would be looking for a way to fast forward. It's simply inevitable in this sort of game. A combat log that records each combatant's actions and the numerical results thereof would also be cool.

 

[Immortal]

I will echo what others said, the environmental art looks super comfy and kino. Great style and Color palette.
Love the castle walls, background horizon, sky and clouds.

That said..
The creatures are super meh and I'm kinda sick of FPS games like this.

 

[MalcolmR]

I would make battle speed a setting the player can adjust and add a button the player can press to speed it up further still. The current speed is visually pleasing but I can tell already that once I got used to it I would be looking for a way to fast forward. It's simply inevitable in this sort of game. A combat log that records each combatant's actions and the numerical results thereof would also be cool.

Okay, I'll implement some kind of speed up system like you suggested. It probably won't be ready by the release of the first demo, but I'll experiment with it in the meantime. Visually, I definitely don't want it to look like time is being sped up, but instead, I'd like the actions to just occur sooner than they otherwise would. I'm thinking the simplest way to implement this would be to multiply all the delay values by 0.5 and maybe double the attack animation speed (but no other animations) while the player holds down any button during the execution of the loop.

I will echo what others said, the environmental art looks super comfy and kino. Great style and Color palette.
Love the castle walls, background horizon, sky and clouds.

That said..
The creatures are super meh and I'm kinda sick of FPS games like this.

It's good to know that I'm on the right track with the environment art. I'll do one more round of polish on the creatures before the demo to get them to look less bland. Maybe I'll have to go with a different style and shading model.

 

[Lady Error]

The landscape indeed looks very nice. I would prefer a “darker“ style for the enemies though, fitting to an exploration of an abandoned or mysterious place.

Wraiths, later skeletons and other scary monsters. The colors do not have to be completely dull (depending on the monster), but their current colors are a bit too candy-like.

 

[luj1]

environments are fine, enemies are not

also, why not make a cooler UI

 

[Immortal]

It's good to know that I'm on the right track with the environment art. I'll do one more round of polish on the creatures before the demo to get them to look less bland. Maybe I'll have to go with a different style and shading model.

That giant Crystal Goat thing that looks like it belongs in a Chinese bootleg of My Little Pony... I'd rather walk through your beautiful scenery alone with nothing to fight.

 

[WhiteShark]

I'm not sure what everyone's problem with the enemies is. The style reminds me of Etrian Odyssey. I like it.

 

[MalcolmR]

The landscape indeed looks very nice. I would prefer a “darker“ style for the enemies though, fitting to an exploration of an abandoned or mysterious place.

Wraiths, later skeletons and other scary monsters. The colors do not have to be completely dull (depending on the monster), but their current colors are a bit too candy-like.

The monsters planned for the first two levels so far are:

-Snake
-Carnivorous Mushroom
-Giant Toad
-Nighthorn (the "my little pony goat" thing)
-Fey Moth
-Shambling Mound (mini-boss)

It seems I was leaning more into the "nature" aspect of the environment in my choice of enemies than the abandoned/mysterious aspect of ruins. I'll try whipping together a skeleton and seeing how it looks in the environment and I'll post a screenshot when it's done for feedback.

...also, why not make a cooler UI

At the moment, since the UI is incomplete, I'm far more concerned with making a basic, functional UI that does everything I need. The UI will likely go through several more iterations before it's done.

...The style reminds me of Etrian Odyssey. I like it.

The game is pretty heavily influenced by the Etrian Odyssey series, especially the core gameplay. Overall, I'd like it to feel like a more mature version of EO with stronger western influences.

 

[Grauken]

I just wanna caution you to listen too much to feedback, especially when it comes to aesthetics. Better you go with what feels right for you and what fits your overall idea of the game you want to make

 

[Dorateen]

The most important question: Will there be Dwarves?

I see you did not mention selectable player races. That's OK, you can make Dwarf one of the 12 classes.

 

[Eisen]

The pony looks a bit off, but the mushroom looks great

 

[MalcolmR]

I just wanna caution you to listen too much to feedback, especially when it comes to aesthetics. Better you go with what feels right for you and what fits your overall idea of the game you want to make

I'll keep that in mind. I'm perhaps overeager to get feedback because I've been developing this game in a vacuum for such a long time.

The most important question: Will there be Dwarves?

There won't be selectable races, but some of the selectable portraits for specific classes might be elves, dwarves, etc. It really depends on the system I choose for the portraits (hand painted 2d or lightly animated 3d models shown on a render texture). Right now, and for the foreseeable future, all the portraits are silhouettes. I might make some elf and dwarf silhouettes just to mix it up a bit.

The pony looks a bit off, but the mushroom looks great

Glad to get a positive reaction to the mushroom! I'm planning to make several mushroom variations with different themes and elemental affinities. I guess they'll be the equivalent of the slimes from Dragon Quest. There will also be slimes in this game in the second area, but they'll be based on the non-sentient SRD oozes.

 

[The_Sloth_Sleeps]

I like the environment art style, as others have said I would most definately change the monsters to be more in keeping with the environment style.