I wholeheartedly agree. Not only is it incredibly aesthetically pleasing, but it's also incredibly realistic despite the age of the engine and the textures being lower in resolution. It really goes to show it isn't the engine that makes a game beautiful, it's the people using the engine.
@@ZetaPrime77 Thx, and you've said it well. In this very case we have a lot of design experience, or simply high skill (design, graphic, animation etc. spread across multiple individuals) combined with an old engine. Pretty interesting and rare combination.
What stuck with me was the possibility of different reloading and shooting animations accordingly to their lost limbs. That cemented them in my brain haha
@@crristox :-) I really hope we can pull it off, have it work as planned, would be quite something. Remains to be seen, all the focus is on it going forward.
The fidelity of high-quality voxels is incredible. It wasnt until you were RIGHT next to something that I realized it was even a vowel base environment at all.
It's actually selected by me, for every devlog I select gaming category and then I select Half-Life (not necessary but I do it given it's a HL1 mod). There was one devlog tough where YT ignored that and put Red Faction 1 (one of the devlogs showing Mars tunnels, which did resemble RF1).
Art direction is so on point. The chamber's model, textures and colors are so crispy, I love it. Animation and textures of the robot is so good as well.
Thx! Yeah, it kind of does, especialy since there's no texture scaling, 1 world unit=1 texture pixel, so all brush objects have the same resoluton, giving this voxel look.
It's uncanny to see HEV suit all in black with a mountain mask haha. Interesting but uncanny. Keep up the hard work! I barely spend money on games nowdays but I'm 100% invested in this.
The art direction and setting is just incredible. Feels very much like a MGS game with a more heavy emphasis on Sci-fi, or a FPS SIGNALIS. Any plans for where to release this when the time comes? A Steam page to wishlist and maybe even submit to one of the Next Fests would definitely draw some more eyes onto the project. A bit of a shame that the Patreon is apparently closed, I wouldn't mind contributing towards the submission fee and general development. Developing the entire thing in such an ancient engine is commendable
Thx, glad you think so. We often get the MGS comparison, though as you said, we're going with a more sci-fi setting. It's a small non-commercial project, which could appear on Steam as a free standalone mod (if we do a really good job with it, Valve may approve it). I decided to pause with Patreon and try it again sometime later, with a greater following. We need to work on and show some actual gameplay for that to happen faster, something we'll be focusing on going forward.
@@EXCAVATION_GoldSrc maybe having it be a bit more loose? Like the robot already bounces around slightly as it overshoots its movements. Maybe leaning a bit more into that could have it look more artificial.
@ We'll see, we'll dive into some references, like Boston Dynamics bots and some movie bots as well, try things, see what works, present, see your feedback etc.
Hehe, you know, it just struck me, even if we don’t manage to finish the game, it will still stand as a beautiful proof (another one, as there are other impressive mods) of what’s possible with the engine. Hopefully, it’ll inspire future GoldSrc modders and help extend the engine’s legacy in some way. That’s a really comforting thought.
The can animation doesn't let the eyes rest at the significant points (face, ingredients, top). Try Pauses between angles. Angle 1, Pause, Angle 2, Pause, Angle 3, Pause. Solid update as always. Keep at it.
I hear you, it's too fast and annoying for explained reason. I'll try it again using a different method, also with anti-aliasing, while still preserving some sharpness.
this is the game i am most hyped over(maybe except half life 3), it's really interesting that you use such a old engine. but i guess if it can achieve what you want it to achieve theres no problem with it, good luck
You should look at New Atlas from Boston Dynamics, it's a really interesting robot that looks humanoid but can twist in ways that humans cannot, it's a good example of real life advanced robots
You guys are able to get around the limitations of GoldSrc and still make it a totally professional job in every way and make the engine look like it can do more than it can (maybe it can, but it would need a lot of modifications and a lot more budget). I love the animations you are designing. It doesn't look like they are made in GoldSrc they look so modern! The team is incredibly talented. Congratulations on such great progress! A few last questions from me: I understand that this is just a mod. So, are you planning to contact Valve to allow you to market the game? And do you have a link to receive donations?
Sorry for the late reply, missed the comment, happens when there're a lot of them. Appreciate all the praise. We do intend to reach Valve when or if we finish the game as envisioned, to see with them if it can appear on Steam as a free standalone mod. Selling it isn't possible from what I understand. So, all we'd need from Valve is that permission and I'm sure they would give us the blessing, so people can play the game without having to install HL. If the game ever sees this relese and reviews are mostly positive, I'd be very interested to do it again, going with a retro-futuristic urban setting GoldSrc game next, the likes of Dishonored, Bioshock and such. As for donations, I'm a bit hesitant to share my PayPal e-mail publicly, but I'll consider it. Allowing people one time donations is a good idea. As for Patreon, it's paused and will resume sometime later with greater following.
Oh shit, the protagonist looks like that black suit at 6:24 looks awesome! I so hope we can take a look if you ever make a third person model! I love it! The animations on the robot are equally great. You guys are going to use RL robots moving as reference as well?
Yeah, the protagonist is an MTU (Martian Tactical Unit) operative, kind of like a SWAT team for Mars. We do need to design the entire suit, as you'd be starting the game with a few of your MTU buddies. The suit design is still in its infancy. We're taking our time with it, as we do with nearly everything. We'll definitely be looking at movements of real robots, as well as fictional ones from other games and movies, for inspiration.
@@EXCAVATION_GoldSrc i definitively encourage Artstation for ideas for the suit, sad i can't upload images on youtube to help with references, but i say so far, it is pretty good. You should look at the Helldivers 2 suit for how to design something form fitting/comfortable as there is a short called "Helldiver Armor Design is Very Human," It could help with direction.
@@enocescalona Sure, Artstation is and will be further explored. I already gathered a lot of images, real and fictional designs, from around the web. I'll take a better look at Helldivers 2 suit, so far I've only dived deeper into its environments.
@@EXCAVATION_GoldSrc aha, the youtuber's name is robinswords, i say watch his Helldiver armor video/s alongside any person who talks and displays armor mobility in general. I say thank you for doing the effort into looking for sources to inspire your designs.
i love the art direction, it reminds me alot of metal gear solid 1 with texture work from Metal Gear 2 from the 90s. its low poly but it has alot of UV attention to detail and instead of lazying it out like 99% of devs, it seems you are using the low poly as a way to get even MORE detail in while mantaining a consistent visual language. the color palletes are super nice looking and the bot model i frankly had to blink a bit to notice it wasn't one of these PBR high poly models you'd see in a modern engine showcase or something. very impressive stuff visually. now GoldSrc implies its a Half life 1 mod correct? so its a shooter right? if i may give some feedback on the billionares FACE art. i think it looks very blurry and its weirdly unfitting to the games CLEAN aesthetics. maybe going higher resolution while keeping the blur to a minimun? i don't know frankly, but it strikes me as weird.
Thx. Yeah, it reminds of MGS. Yes, it's a HL mod basically, fully custom, or would be. Shorter FPS, but with high production quality. The Victor's face you saw is done for small holograms that bots would project from their sholders (you can see the small blue light/shoulder projector on the bot model), of him doing some monologues, trying to convince the protagonist to back down. We would do a higher res version of him, it would be needeed for that big screen seen in the storyboards.
Multiple reasons, one being pure curiousity, a wish to see how far this 26-year-old engine will let us go in many different aspects. We wan't to push GoldSrc hard, see what's possible if you combine a lof of skill in different areas, time and effort with such an old engine (+todays powerful PCs). Doing this in Source or some other newer engine was thus never considered. This way it's authentic, it's fun, it's thrilling and very appealing to people.
@ Hehe. It will be a miracle if we pull this GoldSrc one off. By the way, in the case we do release this monstrosity of ambition, I'd be interested in doing it again, but with a retro-futuristic city GoldSrc setting, similar to Dishonored, Bioshock and such games (or The Last Goodbye HL1 mod).
@ We'll see, it may be possible to do it with this one, despite this complex licencing situation (have it have some symbolic price). We would see when/if we finish the game.
Very low interest, so it has been paused, and there are some external factors too. It will be opened again sometime later, with a bit greater following. It's somewhat understandable, as we have no actual gamelay footage to show yet, something we'll focus on going forward.
I think you could improve the textures/pixel art your making by using something like a CRT monitor as a visual reference to see how the pixels blend together, as older pixel art was made for CRT monitors in mind
Could be helpful, yeah. I work in a well lit room, so it's even worse. I often catch bad pixels later during texture indexing or in-game. For instance, dark or faint colored pixels sometimes appear where they shouldn’t, usually originating from other textures, as I tend to grab and modify old details or even entire regions to create new ones. These stray colorful pixels often sneak into new textures, blending into grey details and ruining them. They’re easy to miss in Photoshop, unless you really zoom in and the room is dark. Anyway, all textures are wip and each or most would be checked for these and other issues later on.
Thx. This is 1:1 ratio. 1 world unit (~2cm) =1 texture pixel. No texture scaling anywhere, which preserves consistency. Going higher would look better of course and perhaps more true to games of that time, but it would come at a cost, the sets would have to be smaller. Going 2x higher was considered at the very beginning of the project, but after careful consideration and some tests, I decided it's better to go with this. However, for the characters and such, we went with around 4x higher resolution, as they would look really bad with the same one.
Perhaps it would, but one of the main reasons why this little project is quite appealing to people is precisely because it's authentic, developed on an old engine. It's far more interesting, both for us and the viewers around, seeing such an old game engine deliver unusually high-quality visuals (not to brag, there are other amazing looking GoldSrc mods). It's a non-commercial project, started purely out of love for the engine and curiosity about how far it can be pushed without any modifications (or at least major ones). Other reasons include solid prior knowledge of the engine and the very much active modding community, providing skilled devs to projects free of charge. So, it's not just about the style. Doing this on a modern engine would likely mean losing some of that appeal. There's definitely fun working under these limitations and creating little visual miracles along the way. Very rewarding too.
the art design is perfect.
Glad you like it!
I wholeheartedly agree. Not only is it incredibly aesthetically pleasing, but it's also incredibly realistic despite the age of the engine and the textures being lower in resolution. It really goes to show it isn't the engine that makes a game beautiful, it's the people using the engine.
@@ZetaPrime77 Thx, and you've said it well. In this very case we have a lot of design experience, or simply high skill (design, graphic, animation etc. spread across multiple individuals) combined with an old engine. Pretty interesting and rare combination.
You guys are really nailing the art direction, the animations as well as the modeling/texturing for the robot in particular are really impressive.
Thank you, I'm very glad that all the effort that we've put so far into this bot, is being recognized.
Can’t believe that your robot left such an impression on me that 4 months later I recognised it instantly
🙂That's cool to hear.
What stuck with me was the possibility of different reloading and shooting animations accordingly to their lost limbs. That cemented them in my brain haha
@@crristox :-) I really hope we can pull it off, have it work as planned, would be quite something. Remains to be seen, all the focus is on it going forward.
The fidelity of high-quality voxels is incredible. It wasnt until you were RIGHT next to something that I realized it was even a vowel base environment at all.
Thx. Hehe, yeah, it's all polygons, no voxels.
I couldn't believe this is goldsource! Amazing!!! The animations and modeling are super cool, but the texturing? Its on the whole 'nother level!
Thx, it is lovely yeah. We're puttng the effort all around.
Art so good that UA-cam thinks this is Half-life from 1998.
It's actually selected by me, for every devlog I select gaming category and then I select Half-Life (not necessary but I do it given it's a HL1 mod). There was one devlog tough where YT ignored that and put Red Faction 1 (one of the devlogs showing Mars tunnels, which did resemble RF1).
proof 80% of game visuals are art direction
So?
@@evil_chuckso why do AAA companies pump out high fidelity turds
Very important, of course.
@@evil_chuck he meant that for the game to look good, it doesnt necessarily has to have 100k poly models or 4k textures
I actually really like the can animation, its definitely the thing in the environment my eyes were drawn to the most.
It's fine, I maybe exaggerted a bit with disliking it. Still, I'll try it again using a different method, which I believe would give a better result.
You make the source engine looks like 15 years in the future
That's a nice compliment!
This is GoldSrc
Art direction is so on point. The chamber's model, textures and colors are so crispy, I love it. Animation and textures of the robot is so good as well.
Thanks for all the compliments, it's really cool to see it all being well received.
continues to look awesome, keep up the great work!
Thx!
Dear god, your work is beautiful.
Thanks, I'm glad the effort I and others are putting here is paying off.
stunning art direction, reminds me of mgs1 a lot
Cool, it does indeed.
With this much detail everything looks more like a voxel model than a brushwork. Best of luck with the project!
Thx! Yeah, it kind of does, especialy since there's no texture scaling, 1 world unit=1 texture pixel, so all brush objects have the same resoluton, giving this voxel look.
So glad UA-cam recommended this channel months ago, eagerly waiting for this
Glad too. Hope we make it, we'll see.
i rly cant wait for the release, im dying to play this
That's lovely to hear, one day I hope, one day...
Best I have ever seen goldsource look.
That's a great compliment, thx!
This looks genuinely amazing, wow!
Thx, glad you're impressed by it!
Impressive artistic design. Very appealing for its settng
Thx, glad you dig it.
It's uncanny to see HEV suit all in black with a mountain mask haha. Interesting but uncanny. Keep up the hard work! I barely spend money on games nowdays but I'm 100% invested in this.
:-) Just for the purpose of the storyboards, and it felt weird to have Gordon's face so the mask was put on. Thx for the support, appreciate it!
Looks really interesting- will be following your progress
Cool, thx.
The art direction and setting is just incredible. Feels very much like a MGS game with a more heavy emphasis on Sci-fi, or a FPS SIGNALIS. Any plans for where to release this when the time comes? A Steam page to wishlist and maybe even submit to one of the Next Fests would definitely draw some more eyes onto the project. A bit of a shame that the Patreon is apparently closed, I wouldn't mind contributing towards the submission fee and general development. Developing the entire thing in such an ancient engine is commendable
Thx, glad you think so. We often get the MGS comparison, though as you said, we're going with a more sci-fi setting. It's a small non-commercial project, which could appear on Steam as a free standalone mod (if we do a really good job with it, Valve may approve it). I decided to pause with Patreon and try it again sometime later, with a greater following. We need to work on and show some actual gameplay for that to happen faster, something we'll be focusing on going forward.
The bot reload animation looks a tad bit too human, doesnt look too robotic and automated
It does yeah, we would try more discrete movements for it.
@@EXCAVATION_GoldSrc even making it just a bit stiff would help immensely
@@Beanibirb Yeah, agree.
@@EXCAVATION_GoldSrc
maybe having it be a bit more loose? Like the robot already bounces around slightly as it overshoots its movements.
Maybe leaning a bit more into that could have it look more artificial.
@ We'll see, we'll dive into some references, like Boston Dynamics bots and some movie bots as well, try things, see what works, present, see your feedback etc.
All this??
On the GOLD SOURCE engine?!?!
No damned way..
Hehe, you know, it just struck me, even if we don’t manage to finish the game, it will still stand as a beautiful proof (another one, as there are other impressive mods) of what’s possible with the engine. Hopefully, it’ll inspire future GoldSrc modders and help extend the engine’s legacy in some way. That’s a really comforting thought.
Keep up the good work, can't wait to get my hands on this
We will, thx!
The can animation doesn't let the eyes rest at the significant points (face, ingredients, top).
Try Pauses between angles.
Angle 1, Pause, Angle 2, Pause, Angle 3, Pause.
Solid update as always. Keep at it.
I hear you, it's too fast and annoying for explained reason. I'll try it again using a different method, also with anti-aliasing, while still preserving some sharpness.
Very impressive, as always!
Thx simbl!
you guys nailed the art direction
Thx, very glad you dig it!
this is the game i am most hyped over(maybe except half life 3), it's really interesting that you use such a old engine. but i guess if it can achieve what you want it to achieve theres no problem with it, good luck
Hehe, that's cool to hear, thx! Exactly, it looks like we'll be able to do what we envisioned.
You should look at New Atlas from Boston Dynamics, it's a really interesting robot that looks humanoid but can twist in ways that humans cannot, it's a good example of real life advanced robots
Yup, I've seen it. Great source of reference for our bot, especially for animation work that just began.
Beautiful
Thx!
very cool
Thx!
Cant wait to play to pla this banger
Cool.
Despite being incredibly low poly and low quality textures, I feel every detail
As the one doing the models and textures, I'm very glad to hear that.
This looks so cool
Glad you like it!
What in the Metal gear shadow moses, Timespliiters ice station is tyhis>?!?! SUBBED
Hehe, nice one, put a smile on my face. Thx.
You guys are able to get around the limitations of GoldSrc and still make it a totally professional job in every way and make the engine look like it can do more than it can (maybe it can, but it would need a lot of modifications and a lot more budget). I love the animations you are designing. It doesn't look like they are made in GoldSrc they look so modern! The team is incredibly talented. Congratulations on such great progress! A few last questions from me: I understand that this is just a mod. So, are you planning to contact Valve to allow you to market the game? And do you have a link to receive donations?
Sorry for the late reply, missed the comment, happens when there're a lot of them. Appreciate all the praise. We do intend to reach Valve when or if we finish the game as envisioned, to see with them if it can appear on Steam as a free standalone mod. Selling it isn't possible from what I understand. So, all we'd need from Valve is that permission and I'm sure they would give us the blessing, so people can play the game without having to install HL. If the game ever sees this relese and reviews are mostly positive, I'd be very interested to do it again, going with a retro-futuristic urban setting GoldSrc game next, the likes of Dishonored, Bioshock and such. As for donations, I'm a bit hesitant to share my PayPal e-mail publicly, but I'll consider it. Allowing people one time donations is a good idea. As for Patreon, it's paused and will resume sometime later with greater following.
I can't believe this is GoldSrc
Hehe, glad you are impressed!
Oh shit, the protagonist looks like that black suit at 6:24 looks awesome! I so hope we can take a look if you ever make a third person model! I love it! The animations on the robot are equally great. You guys are going to use RL robots moving as reference as well?
Yeah, the protagonist is an MTU (Martian Tactical Unit) operative, kind of like a SWAT team for Mars. We do need to design the entire suit, as you'd be starting the game with a few of your MTU buddies. The suit design is still in its infancy. We're taking our time with it, as we do with nearly everything. We'll definitely be looking at movements of real robots, as well as fictional ones from other games and movies, for inspiration.
@@EXCAVATION_GoldSrc i definitively encourage Artstation for ideas for the suit, sad i can't upload images on youtube to help with references, but i say so far, it is pretty good. You should look at the Helldivers 2 suit for how to design something form fitting/comfortable as there is a short called "Helldiver Armor Design is Very Human," It could help with direction.
@@enocescalona Sure, Artstation is and will be further explored. I already gathered a lot of images, real and fictional designs, from around the web. I'll take a better look at Helldivers 2 suit, so far I've only dived deeper into its environments.
@@EXCAVATION_GoldSrc aha, the youtuber's name is robinswords, i say watch his Helldiver armor video/s alongside any person who talks and displays armor mobility in general. I say thank you for doing the effort into looking for sources to inspire your designs.
@@enocescalona Thx, will check it!
holy fuck this is incredible.
Thx!
Huge!!!
Thx again!
i love the art direction, it reminds me alot of metal gear solid 1 with texture work from Metal Gear 2 from the 90s. its low poly but it has alot of UV attention to detail and instead of lazying it out like 99% of devs, it seems you are using the low poly as a way to get even MORE detail in while mantaining a consistent visual language. the color palletes are super nice looking and the bot model i frankly had to blink a bit to notice it wasn't one of these PBR high poly models you'd see in a modern engine showcase or something. very impressive stuff visually. now GoldSrc implies its a Half life 1 mod correct? so its a shooter right?
if i may give some feedback on the billionares FACE art. i think it looks very blurry and its weirdly unfitting to the games CLEAN aesthetics. maybe going higher resolution while keeping the blur to a minimun? i don't know frankly, but it strikes me as weird.
Thx. Yeah, it reminds of MGS. Yes, it's a HL mod basically, fully custom, or would be. Shorter FPS, but with high production quality. The Victor's face you saw is done for small holograms that bots would project from their sholders (you can see the small blue light/shoulder projector on the bot model), of him doing some monologues, trying to convince the protagonist to back down. We would do a higher res version of him, it would be needeed for that big screen seen in the storyboards.
This looks incredible. I dont quite recall (if you already told this, of course) but is there a plan to release this on steam?
Yes, if we ever pull it off and turns to be a soild game, we'd see with Valve if it could be released on Steam as a free standalone mod.
The animations and art is great, but i fear the performance. Whan are min specs?
500 mhz processor
96mb ram
16mb video card
@JerryKid72 will you bet it will run on those specs?
We'll push the engine to its limits basically and we have todays powerful PCs to allow that. Still, it should be running just fine on any decent PC.
@@the-guy-beyond-the-socket
Unless they use a modified goldsrc fork like xash3d or something.
This level of fidelity in GoldSrc is obscene, lemme know when valve offers you a job.
Hehe, all Valve needs to do, if we release it and turns to be a solid experience, is let us have it as a standalone mod on Steam.
really cool reminds me of MSG
Thx, it does yeah.
Why aren't you guys doing this Source? Source seems the perfect choice for this type of artstyle.
Multiple reasons, one being pure curiousity, a wish to see how far this 26-year-old engine will let us go in many different aspects. We wan't to push GoldSrc hard, see what's possible if you combine a lof of skill in different areas, time and effort with such an old engine (+todays powerful PCs). Doing this in Source or some other newer engine was thus never considered. This way it's authentic, it's fun, it's thrilling and very appealing to people.
@EXCAVATION_GoldSrc I'd definitely love a Source Remake of this from you guys though. 😂
@ Hehe. It will be a miracle if we pull this GoldSrc one off. By the way, in the case we do release this monstrosity of ambition, I'd be interested in doing it again, but with a retro-futuristic city GoldSrc setting, similar to Dishonored, Bioshock and such games (or The Last Goodbye HL1 mod).
@@EXCAVATION_GoldSrc You should then definitely consider making that a standalone game and monetize it then. 👍
@ We'll see, it may be possible to do it with this one, despite this complex licencing situation (have it have some symbolic price). We would see when/if we finish the game.
What happen to Patreon, why was it closed?
Very low interest, so it has been paused, and there are some external factors too. It will be opened again sometime later, with a bit greater following. It's somewhat understandable, as we have no actual gamelay footage to show yet, something we'll focus on going forward.
@EXCAVATION_GoldSrc I am really excited to see this project come to life. I wish you and your team the best of luck. Samo jako Nenade!
@ :-) Hvala!
I think you could improve the textures/pixel art your making by using something like a CRT monitor as a visual reference to see how the pixels blend together, as older pixel art was made for CRT monitors in mind
Could be helpful, yeah. I work in a well lit room, so it's even worse. I often catch bad pixels later during texture indexing or in-game. For instance, dark or faint colored pixels sometimes appear where they shouldn’t, usually originating from other textures, as I tend to grab and modify old details or even entire regions to create new ones. These stray colorful pixels often sneak into new textures, blending into grey details and ruining them. They’re easy to miss in Photoshop, unless you really zoom in and the room is dark. Anyway, all textures are wip and each or most would be checked for these and other issues later on.
Looks great, but textures are TOO pixelated, even for 90s artstyle, needs a little bit more detail
Thx. This is 1:1 ratio. 1 world unit (~2cm) =1 texture pixel. No texture scaling anywhere, which preserves consistency. Going higher would look better of course and perhaps more true to games of that time, but it would come at a cost, the sets would have to be smaller. Going 2x higher was considered at the very beginning of the project, but after careful consideration and some tests, I decided it's better to go with this. However, for the characters and such, we went with around 4x higher resolution, as they would look really bad with the same one.
What GoldSrc SDK is this game based on?
We're on halflife-updated SDK, which is basically vanilla HL1.
Just curious about this, don't you think it would be easier trying to replicate this "style" on a modern engine tons more tools and flexibility?
Perhaps it would, but one of the main reasons why this little project is quite appealing to people is precisely because it's authentic, developed on an old engine. It's far more interesting, both for us and the viewers around, seeing such an old game engine deliver unusually high-quality visuals (not to brag, there are other amazing looking GoldSrc mods). It's a non-commercial project, started purely out of love for the engine and curiosity about how far it can be pushed without any modifications (or at least major ones). Other reasons include solid prior knowledge of the engine and the very much active modding community, providing skilled devs to projects free of charge. So, it's not just about the style. Doing this on a modern engine would likely mean losing some of that appeal.
There's definitely fun working under these limitations and creating little visual miracles along the way. Very rewarding too.
@EXCAVATION_GoldSrc you are totally right!
This is fucking goldsrc?? Jesus christ
:-) Fuck yeah!