Posted by DrFrag on Wed Jun 15th 2005 at 8:45pm

Let me finish a few more rooms first.

Posted by DrFrag on Wed Jun 15th 2005 at 9:00am

Thanks for the tips Reno, I really appreciate your input.

The floor in the second picture actually IS water. I don't know why it looks so un-watery. I've changed the texture so I'll see how it turns out in the next compile. Apart from that, I think that room is the best so far to play. In the original, you shoot the beam and it is instantly replaced with another beam at 90 degrees - you have to be standing in the exact middle to avoid falling. In my version, as you approach the whole beam grinds up momentum. It's awesome. " SRC="images/smiles/icon_smile.gif">

I'd like to put in some pots and pillars but I'll need to think about how to do it. The game already has large pots in a few locations which are worth money when you collect them. They also serve as greed traps in places so I'd have to implement them differently if I put in a lot more of them. Pillars would also look nice but I'm faced with a similar problem. In the original, there is only one room with pillars and they're there as a curiosity hint. If I put pillars in other rooms I think I'll have to implement them quite differently.
There are also sarcophagi and other miscellaneous things around the place.
Another difficulty with detail is a series of puzzles spread around called Make The Match. Basically there is a picture of something Egyptian (like a bird or an eye) next to a stone slab. You have to find the matching symbol and shoot it to make the slab break. If I add a lot of Egyptian artwork around the place (which would look cool) I run the risk of complicating the puzzles.

For now I'm still building the actual rooms - there's 40 or 50 of them. Once I'm done I'll go through and pump up the detail. And especially work on the lighting. I think some piles of rubble using displacement maps might work well too. I put some windswept sand around the pyramid entrance using displacement maps and it seemed to look alright.

Posted by ReNo on Tue Jun 14th 2005 at 4:12pm

I think you should take liberties where possible to increase the detail. I mean if we look at the second screenshot, you look to have copied the grey floor exactly though to be honest I don't know quite what I'm looking at. Wouldn't it be more interesting to have water, lava, or something along those lines down there? The last screenshot is very empty and bland, and while you obviously don't have much to go on from the reference, you could at least try and spice things up with some pillars, trims and columns, or superfluous detailing like some pots, plants, piles of treasure, etc... Some of these things would be best modelled, but if the whole game takes place in a pyramid, there is going to be plenty of opportunty to reuse many of them and so it would be worthwhile. Finally, get some light fixtures in there - torches, lanterns, glow from water/lava/whatever. Be creative, but try and get away from sourceless lighting as it looks pretty bad.

Nice concept though, will be interesting to see how it turns out " SRC="images/smiles/icon_smile.gif">