[CruX]

...Ho boy, is it time for another one of these already?



BLiGHT is a project I started working on roughly a year ago after inspiration in a number of Zdoom mods culminated in me wanting to create a similar experience with eDuke. I rocked along with that goal for about the first six months, but as I worked on it and brainstormed more, I felt like leaving it just at "Duke mod that borrows from Zdoom mods" would've been selling the concept short, so I changed tracks and restructured certain aspects of the mod, gearing it towards being standalone. That goal's finally been accomplished, it's gone through a bit of third-party testing with the reception being largely positive, so I figure it's ready for a formal announcement/development thread. What I posted in the WIP thread a few days ago was actually using an older version of the mod's weapons, which I'm (kinda) trying to salvage in something else. BLiGHT, however, remains the focus.

Anywho, here's a little gameplay video with me prattling on about it like a moron, feel free to mute it if you can't take my dumb voice - -



The story (TL;DR in-game shots from the protagonist's POV);

Spoiler

The story (synopsized);

Spoiler

Typical apocalyptic scenario. An event referred to as "the Broadcast" has recently occurred, causing tens of thousands of people to either die of (seemingly) natural causes, go violently insane, or mutate. Civilization is effectively upturned as a result. Wading around in this new epoch of chaos and confusion is your character, a somewhat unlikely heroine who has been recruited by a group of survivors to help secure a safe-haven. Though some of the level design is intended to involve urban ruins, the focus (for some period, at least) is going to be on the Pendleton Complex, a high tech research facility abandoned shortly after the events of "the Broadcast".

The enemies

Spoiler

The Corrupted

The Corrupted are human beings who weren't lucky enough to die from the effects of the Broadcast, and instead fell victim to its enigmatic message. Brainwashed, they now stalk the ruins of civilization, killing what few lucid people are still alive.

Pustule

Pustules are human beings who weren't lucky enough to die from the effects of the Broadcast or become Corrupted, and instead fell victim to bizarre mutations. Little is known about them beyond this.

Dizzy Metal

Dizzy Metals were security droids built by staff at the Pendleton Complex. Though they were originally built for surveillance, a rather questionable last-minute design change wound up incorporating high-powered lasers. Having fallen into disrepair following the Broadcast, they drift aimlessly in and around the Complex grounds, firing at the one and only thing their programming can still recognize; people.

Carnivore

Like the Pustules, Carnivores are human beings who underwent a grotesque mutation after succumbing to the Broadcast. Unlike the Pustules, Carnivores are swift, very quick on their feet, often travel in packs, and are highly aggressive. Though they'll occasionally sling fireballs, their mutation has enabled them to perform inhuman leaps, and they'll often do this to close the distance between themselves and their prey; running from a Carnivore tends to be a fruitless endeavor. The Carnivore is the only creature produced by the effects of the Broadcast that has been known to eat its victim after subduing it, earning them their namesake.

Cherub

Unfortunately when it came to mutations, the Broadcast was not particularly discerning. Of all of the victims it has claimed, Cherubs are perhaps the most tragic since at one misbegotten time they were kinda innocent and mostly harmless children. Now, however, they're little more than winged hellspawn, so the most humanitarian course of action is to put them out of their misery. For obvious reasons, Cherubs can't take or deal much fire-power, but if encountered in packs, they can pose a significant threat.

At this point, the vast majority of the codework is done. At least, there's nothing experimental for me to do. Level design is the biggest challenge (ain't it always?) and given my track record, I figure this will probably get a bit of a lukewarm reception in light of that, so I'll close with this guarantee;

since BLiGHT's pretty much in decent enough shape for a release right now (at least as a proof-of-concept or whatever), if I'm not ready for a formal release in three months, I'll post what I've gotten done, come hell or high water. I'm probably going to start working on the actual maps first thing tonight. In the (unlikely) event that anyone wants to help out on that front, drop me a PM and we'll talk. In any other event, let me know what you think!

-UPDATE-
First of all, I'd like to apologize to Eddy. I know he just released Slender's Woods (which was incredible, btw), and I don't want to look like 'that guy' by giving BLiGHT a release right after it, so let me just say that this is really shit timing on both of our parts, though it wasn't deliberate in either case. I'm nearing the end of the three month deadline that I promised in the OP (check the above paragraph if you didn't catch it) and unfortunately there's just no way I can get something legitimate out the door in the time I've got left without doing a sucky rush-job. That being considered, I'm releasing BLiGHT along with the test board I built for the initial beta testing process, i.e what you'll see here is more or less what the guys that beta tested it saw, though some extra enemies have been thrown in so it plays like a relatively normal (if not small-ish) map. There's no reason to worry about the future of this project. I'm still working on it every bit as enthusiastically as I ever was, I just want to keep my word and at least put something out there so the wider community can experience BLiGHT for themselves.

http://www.mediafire...1icuifnn15741hb

Here's the dowload link ^. Since it's standalone, running it is as easy as unzipping and running the "ExtClut" bat file (I forgot to rename it. Oops). Have fun and shit.

Special thanks to TX, James and Helixhorned for taking the time to give it the initial testing

[Jblade]

I've had the privilege of helping to test this and it's really amazing stuff, looking forward to the final release (and to everybody else it'll be worth the wait)

[Simon_Croes]

Another amazing TC in development! Can't wait for the release!

[Fox]

I really liked that. I am glad there are still people doing mods with the style of 90s' games.

But I would recommend you to give up on that sort of HUD. It may look like fun at first, but it is not pratical and eventually would just serve to confuse the player. When it comes to HUDs, simplicity is the best.

[Jblade]

The HUD's fine, trust me - maybe have an optional minimal HUD is fine but getting rid of it completely is a bad choice since the mod itself is really old-school. A modern HUD like that wouldn't fit at all.

[Cage]

While video isn't that thrilling (well it's more of a narrative about the features), this mod seems very interesting with a nicely established atmosphere and style. Feature wise nothing groundbreaking but I'm sure it'll feature pretty solid gameplay as Crackdown did.

The protagonist's story is pretty cool and well written, you could break up the text a bit, to help readability, especially since it's worth reading.

Keep up the good work! Hopefully we'll see some city levels as well? And the mutant could be still visible (maybe as a floor aligned sprite) after he melts down, now he seems to disappear.

[Loke]

It took me a while but now I hear it; you sound very similar to John Carmack only a bit deeper.

Fun to see a different take on the player protagonist which is a far cry from the usual standard ultra-muscular bald space marine. Game is looking mighty fine indeed.

[Yatta]

I like the weapons, the sounds, and the idea of the gooey sewer enemy is very original.

I'll try to do a news item soon!

[Fox]

James, on 26 July 2012 - 11:12 AM, said:

The HUD's fine, trust me - maybe have an optional minimal HUD is fine but getting rid of it completely is a bad choice since the mod itself is really old-school. A modern HUD like that wouldn't fit at all.

The image is just for illustration, I didn't meant the HUD should be identical to it.

[RichardStorm]

Wow this is going to be a very good TC... i like zdoom mod style, it seems to be ZenDynamics

// Super Metroid door sound, nice

[Lunick]

This looks really really cool, I can't wait for it to be released

[CruX]

Cage, on 26 July 2012 - 11:15 AM, said:

The protagonist's story is pretty cool and well written, you could break up the text a bit, to help readability, especially since it's worth reading.

Keep up the good work! Hopefully we'll see some city levels as well? And the mutant could be still visible (maybe as a floor aligned sprite) after he melts down, now he seems to disappear.

The story's all displayed in-game using gametextz commands, etc. I know it probably sounds like a bit of a cop-out response, but it's a lot easier on the eyes in-game (I noticed a bit too late that a few words are cut off in the screens). I could try extra spacing between words, but I'm worried that would look even weirder and jack up the number of pages involved. Glad you liked it in any case, though. Going from CrackDown (which had almost no backstory) to that felt really awkward and I was pretty worried about how it would be received. There'll definitely be city levels. Probably what I'm going to start building tonight

Yatta, on 26 July 2012 - 11:44 AM, said:

I like the weapons, the sounds, and the idea of the gooey sewer enemy is very original.

I'll try to do a news item soon!

Awesome!

Fox, on 26 July 2012 - 12:08 PM, said:

The image is just for illustration, I didn't meant the HUD should be identical to it.

It's cool, I got it I'll probably work on a minimalist HUD while I'm mapping; it's one of those things that's easy, but not particularly fun, to do so I've been holding off on it. Like James said though, the original HUD stays.

RichardStorm, on 26 July 2012 - 01:04 PM, said:

Wow this is going to be a very good TC... i like zdoom mod style, it seems to be ZenDynamics

// Super Metroid door sound, nice

Super Metroid indeed Now if someone can pinpoint the teleporting sound, I'll be really impressed. Zen Dynamics was awesome, btw.

[sedition]

That looks really amazing.
Nice story, good enemies, great leveldesign and I love this crosshair!

Can´t wait to play this.

[Jimmy]

You're some kind of wizard. This is cool shit.

The teleporting sound is from Earthbound, right?

[Tea Monster]

Its looking good. Good choice of sounds as well.

[CruX]

Captain Awesome, on 28 July 2012 - 01:21 PM, said:

The teleporting sound is from Earthbound, right?

'Fraid not, try again It's from a popular(ish) form of media, but not a video game.

In other news, while I started working on the very first few sectors for a map, I decided to start looking into skyboxes.

Spoiler

Trying to retain that oldschoolish look, though. This is a heavily edited little gem I found on the r667 forums. I know the mountains probably shouldn't be that high up, but since they're the most detailed part of the box, I want them to be visible. Thoughts?

[LeoD]

EmericaSkater, on 29 July 2012 - 05:00 AM, said:

'Fraid not, try again It's from a popular(ish) form of media, but not a video game.

Very old machine.

EmericaSkater, on 29 July 2012 - 05:00 AM, said:

I know the mountains probably shouldn't be that high up, but since they're the most detailed part of the box, I want them to be visible. Thoughts?

Cut off the dark lower third if possible.

[Jblade]

Are they animated? The fact that they're a cube is noticable - if it's not animated I'd recommend making the sector either a circle or more sides so that the angles are a bit more hidden.

[Mr.Deviance]

I saw this video and I like it.
It feels like an old classic that I've missed out on.
It's an old classic built today!

[Jan Satcitananda]

Looking forward to this! Really resembles Doom with those centered weapons and NPCs and level style.
You said nothing experimental - well, at least this project won't take you ages to complete it. I hope it will be intriguing and original enough to play. I usually don't care much about the story, still I like the 'not-a-hero' approach =)

[CruX]

James, on 29 July 2012 - 10:49 AM, said:

Are they animated? The fact that they're a cube is noticable - if it's not animated I'd recommend making the sector either a circle or more sides so that the angles are a bit more hidden.

The skybox is done through DEF language (i.e, it doesn't involve that showview trick). Would it be possible to alter it in such a way? Truth be told, I kinda think all skyboxes have those obvious contours, but it's still a lot better than that weird glitch you get with regular sky textures.

LeoD, on 29 July 2012 - 05:18 AM, said:

Cut off the dark lower third if possible.

That's part of the problem; if I lower it too much, all you can see is the sky. I can try lowering it back down a bit, though.

Mr.Deviance, on 29 July 2012 - 03:13 PM, said:

I saw this video and I like it.
It feels like an old classic that I've missed out on.
It's an old classic built today!

Praise from Mr. Deviance. Rare occurence indeed Thanks!

CraigFatman, on 29 July 2012 - 06:42 PM, said:

Looking forward to this! Really resembles Doom with those centered weapons and NPCs and level style.
You said nothing experimental - well, at least this project won't take you ages to complete it. I hope it will be intriguing and original enough to play. I usually don't care much about the story, still I like the 'not-a-hero' approach =)

Yeah, this really started out as Doom-ish type of mod, and it still retains a great deal of that style, but I think I've done enough with it to still make it (mostly) its own thing. If you want to get an idea of what I was working with when I first started it, check out this page in the WIP thread.

[Micky C]

I only just got around to watching the video, and one thing that hit me right away was the level design, from what I can tell the layout, architecture and texturing and trim work are top notch, as was the case in Crackdown. After I stopped gawking at that, I was then able to focus on the new features. I think my favourite effect is the funnel cannon and how enemies freeze (as well as being able to kick them into so many pieces). It also seems to have a lot more enemy variety compared to Crackdown, or what I can remember of it, which is always a good thing. Those flying drones look fun to fight, and kind of remind me of the flying things in the Marathon games. Can't wait to play it

[Martin]

Looks awesome. I like your sprites. Is everything made by you? That's a lot of work! I've always wondered if bump or parallax-mapping could be used on sprites to make them pop more.

[CruX]

Martin, on 30 July 2012 - 05:04 AM, said:

Looks awesome. I like your sprites. Is everything made by you? That's a lot of work!

Nothing was scratch-sprited if that's what you mean, but almost everything you see in the video and the shots involved some kind of editing on my part, to differing magnitudes. The Pustule I edited from a Doom Imp, the Corrupted were ripped from some wad where the Doom Marine was sprited with a bunch of different weapons, the weapons are all Eriance's though I did quite a bit of recoloring to them, the protagonist's mugshot was based on a resource posted on the Zdoom forums, etc. Even simpler stuff like the textures had to be run through editart just to make sure they'd look good in DN3D's palette. In terms of time spent developing this, the artwork involved probably takes up the biggest chunk.

[Gambini]

I absolutely love this. I hope you release it soon.

[Bruno Mattei]

My panties are wet from watching that gameplay demo! Only thing I can think of is will there be any boss enemies? Hopefully some of the great mappers will jump on board. Looks like the best Duke mod project since WGRealms!

[shmargin]

This looks really awesome. Havent played any Duke mods since way back when the engine was only barely outdated, but this looks great.

Kinda reminds me of some of the indie developers out there that are making modern point and click adventures with classic era graphics. Which I support 100% Hope to see this project come to fruition, looks like it would be really fun and I love the graphics style.

[CruX]

Bruno Mattei, on 30 July 2012 - 11:05 PM, said:

Only thing I can think of is will there be any boss enemies? Hopefully some of the great mappers will jump on board. Looks like the best Duke mod project since WGRealms!

You're too kind I'm not sure about bosses; I'm in the process of editing one more enemy, and that might be it. That stuff takes a lot of time I could be using to map.

shmargin, on 30 July 2012 - 11:10 PM, said:

This looks really awesome. Havent played any Duke mods since way back when the engine was only barely outdated, but this looks great.

Thanks, though I showed my appreciation for the praise by accidentally downvoting you. Sorry

[necroslut]

Looks really cool!

[Ghyril]

I think I heard of this project before and I have to nice work so far.

As a suggestion maybe can add a double barrel shotgun by anychance?

EmericaSkater, on 29 July 2012 - 05:00 AM, said:

Spoiler

That looks like oversized room than a sky, can you fix that?