Hey guys! For those of you still with us, this post will be a large, in-depth update on whats gone on since the last post (which was waaaaaaay to long ago). I will also talk about what is coming up soon!

NEW RIG – ANIMATION

We have a nice new rig with fancy IK. This makes it a lot easier to animate. There is one small issue when giving a character a new rig: we also had to re-do all of the animations. Luckily with our post about helping to animate, we were able to get a few good animations working on the new rig, but there are a lot of animations left to do. IF YOU ARE AN ANIMATOR WHO IS WILLING TO HELP WITH EVEN ONE ANIMATION, EMAIL ME jon@sintelgame.org

MECHANICS

Now, this was a crazy idea. I re-did all the programming attached to Sintel. Looking back however I think it was necessary. The old code was clunky slow and lacked a few features that I think the game needed. It didn’t even use Blender’s state system. If you know what that is, then you should know that it would be weird not to use it.

New code is nice, fancy (I will be using those terms a lot in this post) and has some new features such as floor tracking that make the game play MUCH smoother. Using Blender states, I was able to construct the same code system without tons of logic bricks. It looks a lot less confusing now. I’ve also been working on the targeting system (part of it is pictured above) which was terrible before but actually works pretty well now.

NEW MENU – GAME STRUCTURE

Another crazy idea. I re-did the entire main menu and the entire game structure. This wasn’t as much work as it seems. The old menu was (very) poorly programmed (by me). BUT FEAR NOT. I’m actually quite proud of this menu. It’s very efficient with code and assets. It also handles keyboard inputs (and theoretically joystick inputs) a lot better than before. The options screen is slimmed down to be less confusing. All those options you see in the menu currently work. You can even change the game’s resolution in real time!

Overall, the menu is easier to navigate and has some transitions and animations that make it look rather nice. I also added the ability to gather a list of .blend files that are located in the levels folder. This way any levels you guys make will show up in the menu where you can play them. I really want user created levels to be a part of the game so adding this feature was crucial. ALSO! You can watch the film Sintel directly from the extras menu.

SNAILS!

I finally got those little critters in the game. They are hostile little buggers that will randomly move around and avoid obstacles. Upon sight of human, they swarm to attack. They don’t move too fast so it is easy to outrun them – but it can get nasty if they surround you!

WHAT IS NEXT?!
My plan is to release an Alpha version of the game for everyone to download for free and start playing around so we can get some feedback on some of the features of the game. Right now, I am predicting that this will be ready in a month. Keep in mind this is subject to change, but also realize I am trying my best to get this out to the public. I want you guys to play this game as soon as possible, but I don’t want to release a game that I’m not proud of.

Happy Holidays! It’s been a nice relaxing week but now it is time for an update. I recently returned home from school for a few weeks. At college I had little time to work on my personal projects (sintel the game) so I admit, not a whole lot got done in the past few months. I worked on enemy AI a little bit, started re-designing the dialog system, and a bunch of other small things. Since I’ve gotten back, I started re-programming the player mechanics. I know this sounds silly seeing as we already have a working, controllable player, but there was room for improvement in the design and in the code. We also gave Sintel a nice new IK rig which needed to be implemented. As of right now, I’ve improved the movement system, making it easier to walk up and down hills, giving it a more realistic and less glitchy feel. It already feels a lot smoother than before. The code is optimized this time around too. Now i’m working on making the player camera better. I’ve also updated the Gallery!

David has been working on a smaller, but more aggressive troll character. Perhaps David will post about what he has been working on in a future post. I know he has plans to make another modeling time lapse video so be on the lookout for that.

I’d like to personally thank everyone who helped us out with animation. We got many people who were more than happy to send us a few animations. They all look wonderful and I’m excited to make use of them.

We still want to release a demo as soon as we can. We are slowly making our way towards a release. I think I speak for all of us when I say we don’t want to release a demo unless it is fun. The pre-demo was short and bland because we rushed it out without spending enough time on making it fun. The demo will include some different gameplay elements, a good taste of combat, and a boss battle that is actually challenging.

I can’t say when the demo will be ready, but the moment we pinpoint a date, I will let you guys know.

Finally, I would like to make a shout out to Team Aurora. Over the past few months a couple friends and I got together and talked about our futures. We all felt that the professional game industry right now does not reward or encourage innovation and good unique design in games. We want to work in a field where we can make games that we find fun and innovative, rather than games that will make the most money. So we formed Team Aurora. We recently announced the first game currently in production – Grey. If you want to find out more, read about it here.

Since I am committed to finishing Sintel The Game, I will not be directly involved with the development of Grey. I am still a member of Team Aurora, but my time is going to be focused on Sintel The Game.

David has recently given Sintel an updated rig (with cool IK controls!). This is good news, but it also means a lot of our animations are going to have to be re-done. Instead of spending my month re-doing them to a half decent level, I thought it would be a good idea to let the community contribute to the project by helping out with the animation.

That is where you guys come in! Bellow is a link to the Sintel rig blend file. It also comes with instructions and a rig layer guide. What we are asking is that you either improve the current animations that are in the file, or make your own! Its up to you.

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Suggested Animations

High-priority animations:

Run cycle

Running with staff

Walk cycle

Walking with staff

Various attack animations

Idle cycle

Idle with staff

Leaping (jumping while running)

Death (nothing too violent)

Low-priority animations:

Picking up an object

Sitting (on a chair)

Day dreaming (idle)

Jumping

Conversation

Waving to someone

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Requirements

Use the latest stable version of Blender 2.58

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Notes

If you don’t see an animation you want to do, be creative! Anything helps.

When you are done, upload the BLEND file to blendswap.com with the tag “sintelgame” (no quotes)

Also: send us an email with a URL LINK to the hosted blend file to jon@sintelgame.org

You can use other hosting as long as the URL is sent to us.

Anyone who contributes will get their name in the final game’s credits, even if we end up using the animation or not.

Thanks in advance! Any questions can be directed to jon@sintelgame.org

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Download

3 files: ~17 MB Download

Any questions or problems can be directed to jon@sintelgame.org

Over the past few weeks I’ve been going through the levels that are going to be included in the demo and bringing them to a more pleasing level of quality. First on the list was the Docks level. I started by adding more details to the level such as planks of wood, pathways and construction materials. I played with the lighting some more and decided in order to get the look I wanted, I would need a new skybox. Here is a picture of the old docks level, and then a picture of the new level. (Click to enlarge the images)

Next on my list was the Troll Cave level. This hasn’t had much attention since it was first made, so a lot of work was needed. It took some time, but I eventually got it to look pretty decent if I do say so myself. I added some light crystals (like from the cave in the movie) to add more detail and depth to the environment. I ended up re-texturing almost everything in the scene which made the level blend together a little bit better. I also added some mist, which helps make the level seem larger. Here are the screenshots, old and new.

Finally, we have the tutorial level. In the pre-demos the tutorial level is a plain all white scene. This was done because we simply had not completed the real tutorial level. The actual tutorial takes place in a garden in the town of Garway. Now that I had the time, I went ahead and started creating the garden. As of right now the main portion of the scene is complete, but there are still some final touches I want to add.

So its been a while since we updated this blog…yeah I know it seems like we say that every time.. Sorry about that..
Anyway during this period of absent updates we have been busily working away on a multitude of game related projects, from optimization to new content creation.

The docks level has had its poly count considerably reduced, without impacting the visuals I may add. Its also been adorned with voice over’s from the talented folk over at the digital bard  (no need to read those pesky subtitles .. Unless you want to of course). We’re also taking steps to up the fun factor of the level, so look forward to some interesting game play improvements in the not too distant future.

The cave troll has been receiving some much needed T.L.C. Unfortunately he seems to have intimacy issues, and since we can not afford therapy  you’d better prepare to engage with a much more formidable opponent. On top of his new found aggression, he’s been joined by an equally deadly companion. If you think this all sounds a bit unfair on Sintel, fear not as her combat system is currently being updated.

The bandit model is now game ready, you can check out a time-lapse of his transformation from high to low res below:

 

Geoffrey has been undergoing a complete revamp and many new characters are in various stages of development.
Below is a time-lapse of one of the new characters head being created:

 

Continuing our efforts to make Sintel the game look as good possible we are also experimenting with new material set ups, depth of field and even screen space ambient occlusions.
One of the new material effects can be seen below, its still a work in progress but we think it shows promise:

 

OK so I may have been stretching it a bit when I put real time SSS in the title. As  I’m sure you’ve realized it’s  a fake SSS effect, no subsurface scattering calculations going on. However it is real time and does not have any discernable effect on frame rate. (The slow frame rate in the video is due to the video capture)

Finally I know a lot of you  want to know when we will be releasing the demo. I’m afraid we still can not give you a firm date, as there are still many things we wish to add and improve.