A Game Development Weblog! Talking Technical About Game Development
New Dialog System in Tribulation Knights
A new dialog system that allows a player to communicate with in game characters has been added to the video game Tribulation knights. The video posted below is a test of the Work In Progress as the system is being tweaked. The ability to communicate with the large number of in game characters allows the player to hear and read the perspective of many different characters. This provides a much richer storyline for the player. The game is played in chapters like a book, and the more game characters you talk to, the more pages of the story you are reading and playing.
The video game is being developed using the T3D game engine technology from Garage Games.
Video of WIP of Tribulation Knights game
This past week I posted a recent video capture of work in progress on Tribulation Knights.
It is a video capture of the testing in a room under development.
The NPC’s are inactive and are being used to fill space.
The point was to make sure the player has plenty of space to maneuver in the level with other game characters.
This is only one room of dozens of rooms on this particular large level.
It is an underground government facility in Alaska that monitors all communications and broadcasts.
It does give you a glimpse of what the rendering quality of the game.
I am quite pleased with the Torque 3D game engine and the rendering quality.
Artificial Intelligence in Tribulation Knights
The Artificial Intelligence found in the new version of the Tribulation Knights video game is based on GuideBot technology. Below is some information about how this works and a diagram showing the process.
We are using Guide Bot which is a cutting-edge all-in-one middleware AI solution for games and virtual reality.
First of all Guide Bot provides implementation of standard steering behaviors like chasing, steering, dynamic obstacle avoiding.
The flexible and expandable architecture of Guide Bot is based on intellectual autonomous agent’s theory. Actor is AI controlled entity. Actor can be in one of predefined visual states (like walking barehanded, running with sword, sitting, lying etc). Actor consists of effectors – arms, legs, mouth etc. Simple actions can be assigned for each effector: walk for legs, punch or use weapon for arms, talk for a mouth.
High-level actions are used to activate more complex behavioral patterns like: fighting enemy with different types of weapon (melee or distant), chase/flee enemy, patrol territory, wandering around.
Perception (or sensor) system allows AI entity to emulate eyesight and hearing in the virtual environment.
Each state manages its own set of animations.
Main Character work for Tribulation Knights
Here is a screen capture of the stories main character in the game in the Cyber Monitoring Center.
Also a snapshot of the enemy Enforcers with their glowing eye shield.
The main characters face is based on a real person to avoid the standard dull looking game characters.
The character’s name is Steele, and he holds the rank of Chief Warrant Officer.
of course this character is still being tweaked, along with the weapon systems.
His army uniform will change here soon to work with the new ones I created.
The rifle is a non-lethal energy weapon, and sends a pulse of energy that disrupts a persons nervous system, rendering them unconscious.
Using it on the heavy armored troops requires multiple shots to take them down.
This will be demonstrated soon in a detailed weapons post.
Click on the image below to see it full size.
Game HUD for Tribulation Knights
Here is a visual explanation of the game GUI, and HUD for the video game Tribulation Knights.
It is being modified to create the best gameplay experience.
Since the dialog window pops up at the bottom when the player selects an NPC to communicate with, it is best to keep the heads-up displays at the top of the screen.
The Health meter will show the current level, and can be replenished with food, drinks, and med kits. All these things have to be found in lockers, cabinets, and inside storage rooms.
The Impact Token counter will show you the current number tokens accumulated. An Impact Token is what is given to you by a person that you have made a positive impact on. This can occur in dialog with NPC’s (Non-Player Characters). If you are rude, and cause a negative impact then you will lose an impact token.
The compass will help you navigate maps, and keep your heading when following directions.
The money counter is necessary to buy food, and can be used to help others.
The Battery indicator shows the amount of power available for certain types of devices, and instruments in the game. This can be recharged by picking up new batteries or finding recharge stations.
The Tool Selected indicator. Since there are enemies to be dealt with, there are weapons of different types. Most non-lethal, and all require ammo of some type and form.
Click on the image to see it full size.
Explanation of game gui
Game Character Dialog Designing in Tribulation Knights
I am using a program called Chat Mapper to design and develop the player conversations with the NPC’s (Non Player Characters) in Tribulation Knights. Below is a snapshot of a conversation being designed.
Click on the image to see it full size.
There are a lot of NPC conversations in Tribulation Knights video game, and they are necessary to tell the whole story.
The more people the player talks to, the more information is gathered. This valuable intel is needed to unlock additional conversational and playable branches in the game. You might talk to a janitor and he give you the key to an old unused room with items you can add to your inventory.
How you ask questions is important, since you can be rude which has a negative response. If you make someone upset they will remember when you come back, also their responses will be different if you have been rude. The character dialog is much more than just clicking through to get a key card, or an access code to a safe. There is an impact score that keeps count how many positive and negative impacts you have on people. Conversation with NPC’s is suppose be like in real life. If you are not nice, then people will not like you, and less likely to help you.
3D Game Characters
Quick update!
Here is a screen capture of some of the newer 3D game characters added to the game.
They are critical personalities in the first episode.
Click on the image to see it full size.
Looking at New T3D Game Engine
I purchased a license to the new Torque version of Garage Games T3D engine. The speed, features, and tools make it the perfect choice for future game chapters of Tribulation Knights. It is too late to migrate the current chapter of the game over without delaying it. So I will move forward with publishing the first chapter using TGEA 1.7.1.
I have to say that the new engine when finally released will make my job easier when designing levels and environments. The new model format collada is a welcome addition for Torque developers. I have looked at multiple large levels built in 3DSmax and imported into T3D in several large pieces using the collada format. The results are fantastic.
I have to tear myself away from it so I can finish the current Tribulation Knights.
TK Models in T3D Engine
The image above demonstrates the high quality of the rendering capabilities of the new engine. I recreated the terrain from chapter one, in the T3D engine in only minutes.
A level building comparison:
The roads I built in chapter one using the TGEA 1.1.7 engine took me a long time because of the pain to line up the road pieces. Even then I had to tweak the terrain so that the road would look correct when laying on the surface. Time it took, at least 4 Hours.
In T3D I have the capability to lay down roads, or paths using a spline technique. After adding them I can go back and tweak the path, and alignment. Time it took, only 30 minutes.
An indie developer has to watch the bottom line on every purchase, and I admit I did debated over this decision. The discount I received for being an early adopter, and a existing TGEA licensee helped me with the cost. The actual results I receieved when using each beta interation has proved to me that it was worth the investment of my money and time. I am so excited about using it on Tribulation Knights, but at the time of writing this it is only up to Beta version 4. Only once it has reached a full release version will I consider jumping to it. The reason why is that I have to convert my code to each version of the code, and that takes time. Each change and modification would need to be moved from a previous version to a new version of the code. That takes a lot of time, troubleshooting, and bug fixes. I want to avoid that and wait for the full release. Once that happens, expect to see more screenshots and videos of TK conversion tests.
Go over to the Garage Games website and check out the engine for yourself.