Universal Nimian Legends : BrightRidge HD (by Robert Kabwe)

Discussion in 'iPhone and iPad Games' started by redribbon, Jul 22, 2014.

  1. Protopop

    Protopop Well-Known Member
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    Thanks Gemineye for buying and trying BrightRidge - every dollar goes back into game design and helps give me the time and space to focus on making my fantasy experiences better. Tolkein (and Weta's) Ents were a great inspiration to have the slow movement suggest weight, and Shadow of the Colossus is my favorite game and you'll see it's influences everywhere in my work:) Im glad you mentioned them because they are both great inspirations to me.
     
  2. Protopop

    Protopop Well-Known Member
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    Thank you Nekku:) I've been building this world for a while though various games and websites and I'd love to ultimately integrate them all into a single big RPG. Maybe there will be a western themed area (i can already think of a place on the world map at http://nimianlegends.com) - yes and it's was really nice of redribbon to upload the gameplay video
     
  3. Nullzone

    Nullzone 👮 Spam Police 🚓

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    #23 Nullzone, Jul 22, 2014
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    Out of curiosity: How did you build this giant open world? I cannot imagine that it is all handcrafted. That would be an insane amount of work, with all the ferns and grass and whatnot.
    Did you use a scenery generator like Vue or Terragen? I remember some really crazy stuff from a friend, and that was over 10 years back already: Like - I think - a Vue plugin that allowed to set all kinds of parameters like air/soil humidity or what specific nutrients were available in the ground, to create realistic flora growth.
     
  4. NOEN

    NOEN Well-Known Member

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    Props to redribbon on finding this one. It looks really cool. I like that it's mostly about exploring, rather than fighting. I've been looking for something like this where I can just walk around and explore and find new things. Downloading now.
     
  5. Nekku

    Nekku Well-Known Member

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    Hehe, I didn't meant western in the way you have interpreted it. I wasn't talking about Cowboys and stuff :D
    I've meant open world RPG's like The Elder Scrolls or iOS games like Aralon or Ravensword which are called western RPG's. ;)

    Btw, I've checked out the site you have linked me to and this is one huge world! This would be awesome to see this world in a full fledged out iOS RPG somewhere in the future :)
     
  6. Protopop

    Protopop Well-Known Member
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    At first i was building everything from scratch : http://protopop.com/blog/2012/06/27/designing-ancient-megaliths/

    Your friend sounds creative - I love Vue and Terragen:)

    I had a 20 square kilometer world in progress, then I realized this was impossible to do. That's when I discovered Unity's app store. The plants, animals, creatures and tech items helped me to put all of this together. I couldn't have created this without it.

    For the landscape I create heightmaps using VUE and WorldMachine. In unity the most important thing i bought was Terrain Composer http://www.terraincomposer.com/ - it allows me to procedurally place vegetation based on my rules. This makes it really simple to make changes,and because my heightmap and vegetation are procedural i can recreate the world as needed. In fact proceduralism is becoming a priority in my updates and refactoring my code - i think life is pretty much procedural (DNA) and to create these worlds a large does of proceduralism really helps.

    Everything needs to be unified otherwise you're just throwing a bunch of disparate items together. I worked on an art direction document that helped me keep a unified vision about the look, feeling and meaning of the world

    [​IMG]

    And finally there's the world of Nimian Legends itself - one of the hardest parts about world design is its difficult to build a place thathas a sense like it could have existed or does exist somewhere. I've built up a lot of backstory that helps me with the details and flavor in the game, the backstory, the descriptions of far off lands when you climb a lookout, the names of the places in the world. That all comes from teh Nimian Legends Universe
    http://nimianlegends.com

    [​IMG]

    Hope that's not too much of an info dump, i ust like talking about it:) Thanks for asking.
     
  7. Protopop

    Protopop Well-Known Member
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    Cool Nekku:) I thought maybe you were a Red Dead Redemption fan;) Thanks for the info about Western RPGs. Judging form what you say i think im a big western rpg (wrpg?) fan - i LOVED Skyrim, and Aralon and Ravensword are really impressive. JRPGs have some really great creativity (like Xenoquest i think is what it was called) but im definitely not a random encounter lover (i like to see a fight in the distance and decide if im gonna take it or not:)

    Thanks about the website too - it's all one world in my head and i am slowly integrating the two (apps and website) together. I'm a solo dev so it takes some time, but for whatever reasons I am very passionate and committed to bringing it to life and I'm happy to get your encouragement
     
  8. Hypocrypha

    Hypocrypha Well-Known Member

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    #28 Hypocrypha, Jul 22, 2014
    Last edited: Jul 22, 2014
    I don't do achievements, I don't do clans or MMO, I explore, and this is EXACTLY the sort of game I've been looking for! $.99? Wow! The guy is a little awkward lookin, and right off the bat it was odd the prospector lady was in a swamp, but I ignored the road and headed to the mountains, and OMFG!!! You did this yourself?!! And the pipes, totally took me back to ZORK days! Nilridge sign was nice to find, is there one for the pipes? Any background on them? Thanks for a great game! One request is I'm hoping for (may be, idk if there is, only played 10 mins) hope for caves! Or sub terrain lakes to explore, with cool crystals. Ok I'm gettin crazy lack of sleep and all, but can't wait to continue, maybe I'll follow the advice to go down the road lol.

    EDIT: ok I just read your explaination in the post before mine I missed and I'm pretty darn excited.
     
  9. bigjack66

    bigjack66 Well-Known Member

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    Just bought it and unfortunately doesn't work on either 5th gen ipod or iPad mini! Damn! Looked nice too.
     
  10. Nekku

    Nekku Well-Known Member

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    #30 Nekku, Jul 22, 2014
    Last edited: Jul 22, 2014
    Yes, you're a big western RPG fan. :D
    Skyrim was one of my favorites, too, but still waiting for this epic experience on iOS. ^_^
    Aralon and Ravensword are both great games but the worlds were kinda small and empty in comparison to the big ones from TES. Well, that's why I was hoping for a big detailed one. :)

    I think you meant Xenogears? The one with the mechs, right? One of the greatest and most emotional JRPG's of all time, imo.
    I can assure, you have a great taste when it comes to RPG's, heh. :D

    Keep up the great work, mate!

    edit: oops, I just googled for XenoQuest and seems like it is an android only game? Okay, you don't meant Xenogears but this one then. Well, I'm not the Android guy so I've never played it. :)
     
  11. Protopop

    Protopop Well-Known Member
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    Thanks Hypocrypha - that's really great to hear:) That's great advice about the oddity of the prospector. It's a good reminder and a push to try and keep some logic in the world creation. Maybe she could be near a mine or have a different history that fits in more with that swampy ridge area.

    Spoiler
    There's no caves in this:(,
    but the original and the desert version (it was originally a larger iPhone game i divided into 4 parts, this is the first one) have a great underground to explore, (and the third part will take you deep into the sea)

    Ive put your advice into my ToDo list - i am looking at working with the main character so that i can use different animations for running and walking, and i want to add jumping. At this pace i am just steadily listening to feedback and working on updates to make the experience as enjoyable, and as engaging as possible

    ZORK. Awesome:) I got hooked on adventure with Ultima 2 (back then the store actually copied the floppy disk and photocopied the instructions then sold them!)

    The pipes were created by The Behemoos - a mostly towering species that is almost extinct now (there are fewer than 40 planet wide). They're the result of a botched terraforming that occurred a few dozen generations ago (and is still going on). I'll be putting more of this story into the games and at http://nimianlegends.com

    Thanks for the support. Im a brand designer by trade but encouragement and hard work (and some sales!) i hope to do world and game design full time. Wouldn't that be great? :)
     
  12. Protopop

    Protopop Well-Known Member
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    Hey bigjack - im really sorry to hear that, i know it's frustrating. Yeah, it only works on iPhone 5 or up, and with the next update iPad 4, iPad Mini Retina and iPad air. Ive been up pretty late trying to optimize it for A5 Devices like iPad mini and at the moment all i can say is it LOOKS like it MIGHT be possible - but i have to be able to do it without ruining the current version and keeping iPhone 6 and faster devices in mind. I spend a lot of time making a single file that will work across platforms and I do promise that if I can make it work i will submit that to the app store asap.
     
  13. Protopop

    Protopop Well-Known Member
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    You're right, xenogears is the ancestor to Xenoblade which is the game I was thinking of on Wii http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenoblade_Chronicles_X - huge open spaces - i loved it.

    You will see Skyrim on iPhone soon - i can feel it, I was playing GTA San Andreas on my iPhone with a bluetooth controller hooked up to my tv with a lightning to HDMI adapter to cut lag and it was just like playing on the PS2, but it all fits in my pocket.

    The iPhone 5S is so much faster than the 5 which is so much faster than the 4S so in 2 years the phones have gained in power from like a nintendo famicon to a ps2. PS3 graphics are possible i think now, and with a larger staff a full world could be created on a iPhone 5S. I hear iPhone 6 (not to mention androids) is a huge performance leap over the 5S so really in 2 or three years max we'll have the power of a PS4/Xbox one in our pockets, backwards compatible too:)
     
  14. Vovin

    Vovin 👮 Spam Police 🚓

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    #34 Vovin, Jul 22, 2014
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    Haha, that thing is fun, really. I am running around and feeling like a child exploring this (mostly) peaceful world. Great, great job.

    I'd bet (and I hope), (I really, really do) that - as soon as Josh from Crescent Moon Games sees this - he will contact you via PM. You are a very talented environment designer.
    Unlike a lot of open-world RPGs that I saw, this world doesn't feel designed, it feels natural. Yeah, that's the word. Natural. It is a strange world, but somehow also known to me. You can sink in, run around and just enjoy the landscapes. If I imagine now which impact this would have with a story and a nice enemy and quest cast, this would be the next generation of Ravensword-like games. And Josh shouldn't miss this opportunity. Skyrim for iPhone just came a step closer. 'nuff said.
     
  15. sushibox

    sushibox Well-Known Member

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    Dang. Guess I really need to update my iPad 2 to something newer!
     
  16. Nullzone

    Nullzone 👮 Spam Police 🚓

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    #36 Nullzone, Jul 22, 2014
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    @Protopop: Yes, he was quite the creative guy. Thanks for sharing all the background info. Incredible what you are doing as a single person!
    You could need a whole team, you have some serious blockbuster material there. You'd make a fantastic art director/creative head, not kidding here.
    If you want to go down the route of getting bigger: like Vovin said, Crescent Moon Games is worth talking to.
    Josh - or anyone else from CM - if you read this: beats Ravenmark hands down, with eyes closed ;)
     
  17. one.sixty.four

    one.sixty.four Well-Known Member

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    The graphics look a little sub-par in the screens. Is it better in gameplay?
     
  18. Nullzone

    Nullzone 👮 Spam Police 🚓

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    #38 Nullzone, Jul 22, 2014
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    I'd say graphics are as good as you can get currently on an iThingie.
    Not the greatest detail level ever. But the insane amount of lovingly created details makes more than up for it.
    And cannot forget the crazy view distance, in some spots you can see what seems to be the other end of the country (or such). That must take up a lot of processing power.
    With a shorter viewing distance, the detail level might be higher. But then Brightridge would lose something I already see as pushing boundaries and setting a new standard.

    From what I read about it, with iOS 8 and Metal, Pop should be able to crank it up another notch or two (UP TO ELEVEN! At long last, a fitting place to invoke this trope ;) ) .

    Anyone remember the Citadel techdemo from a few years back? This here is her older and meaner sister, all grown up by now ;)
     
  19. Protopop

    Protopop Well-Known Member
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    I think it depends. Someone said the game looks worse than in the screenshots, other people think its beautiful. Personally i think it looks better in motion - if only because (i hope) the water, birds , sounds etc help create a virtual wilderness feeling. If you'd like a closer look you can see it in motion in this gameplay video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eH8f8JIrxJY
     
  20. Nullzone

    Nullzone 👮 Spam Police 🚓

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    Protopop:
    For a swamp/moor, you want to take a look at this:
    http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torfstich
    Unfortunately there is no Englisch version of the page, but if an autotranslate isn't good enough, I can translate it (native German) .
    For some images to get an impression, google for "Torfstecher" (what the person doing the profession is called) or "Torfstechen Moor" as well.
     

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