Mini-games, tail physics, and ending my indie game! | Farewell North Devlog
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- Опубліковано 27 чер 2024
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❤️ / kylebanks
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Between Gamescom, Indie Arena Booth, and implementing the ending of my indie game, it's been a great couple months. I'm in full production on the remaining content for Farewell North and it's been a ton of fun seeing the ideas come to life. But it's also raising some challenges with how I handle progression, so I'm keep to hear your suggestions for how I should solve this.
I also added a fetch mini-game, tail physics, and more optional content to the game that I'm pretty excited about!
Credits:
Farewell North Original Score by John Konsolakis: www.johnkonsolakis.eu
Game Overview:
Restore color to the desolate islands of Farewell North, an open world journey where you play as a collie traveling with his owner. Explore land and sea, uncover hidden paths, evade monsters, and free wildlife to bring color back to the world while revealing an emotional story about saying farewell.
Twitter: / kylewbanks
Website and Email Newsletter: farewell-north.com
0:00 Intro
0:15 Gamescom
0:32 Ending the Game
1:02 Continuous Camera
1:53 Progression Dilemma
4:04 Fetch Mini-game!
6:41 Tail Physics
7:23 Skerry Tease
8:20 Outro
#devlog #gamedev #gaming #videogames #indiedev #indiegame #unity #unity3d #madewithunity - Ігри
You should add animation whete when the dog getw out of water it shakes the water off. I think it would be a little more fun to see
I like that idea as well, it's on my list 😊
I want that to
I like the idea of locking the islands. As someone who is so terrible at video games it saves a lot of frustration if you are introduced to the tasks first.
Yea I think that's the way to go as well :)
I agree
I would hate it as a player. You either create an awesome linear game, or an open world game. Completely linear game in what looks like an open world is very frustrating, as it breaks player expectations.
@@someonewithsomename there is some compromise to be found by leaving the map fully open, but only highlight what is "unlocked" / makes logical sense. That way, the first play trough is linear, but any later play-trough can skip. But... that can lead to accidental sequence breaks in a first play trough. And then why go trough the extra effort of "replay value", when it might be better to polish the first playtrough that for most people will be their only playtrough?
If you do close an island, you could change the map marker diagetically - have the dog growl and bark and the island and have her move to avoid it. And/or similar to the stick, you could have a ghost "smell" that leads back to the main island with the mechanic
If the stick is difficult to find, I think a KIND OF scent trail idea would work. You hit a "ping" key, a "sniff" key if you will, and it either causes the item to flash, or shows a quickly dwindling trail toward the object, if not all the way to the object. It might give you that feeling of being a dog with a strong sense of smell.
Then again, dogs oftentimes DO lose sticks or balls because they're largely using their sight, so it's actually kind of immersive to not easily find it, lol!
As I was editing this video I realized the trail I currently have isn't too far off from a "scent" system, so I may end up doing something like what you suggested in the end. Maybe the trail doesn't show up right away, but you do a little sniff to make it show :)
@@kylebanks definitely don’t make it on by default.
As a player that values exploration I love seeing a landmark or puzzle in game.
Play around it, figure I can’t understand it quite yet.
And then the lovely “click” moment when you learn the new skill and remember the old puzzle/area
@@kylebanks Also it would be cool, if you sniff not the whole trail, but only get like a small nudge in the general direction.
You could simply tie the trail to the existing bark. No extra keys, and just a quick peek at where the stick went in case you didn't see it thrown.
You could also minimise the need for that by adding a "wait until dog is looking at the stick" before triggering the throw, like a real human-dog pair would do.
I think a sniff action that points you in the diraction of the stick for a couple of seconds with an animation included might be the solution, it's optoinal and if done correctly shouldn't be to intrusive
i know a lot of modern open-world games use a tactic of soft-locking areas that you shouldn't be at yet, sort of dissuading you from entering using higher difficulty but not outright stopping you. You might be able to use a similar idea at least for the skerries, even if its just a quick voice line like "maybe we can look for some clues on the main island first" so the player knows they aren't meant to be there yet but has the option to try if they want to
depending on the actual story structure of the main islands, you could also sort of split the difference between fully linear and fully open. if youre able to group them in a way that makes sense, you could have them in smaller "open" units, but have the units progress linearly. for example, you do the first 3 islands in any order, but you have to finish all of those before you unlock the next 2, and then you can do those 2 in any order. i think that would give it the feel of being open without completely overwhelming the player or making the narrative too convoluted
The game looks stunning. Everything about it looks stunning. The tail animations are very subtle but incredibly effective.
Maybe with the map markers have a discovery radius. Only the marker beams within that radius show, the closest are bright and they fade the further they are from the player. Then as the player moves, the markers fade in and out. Then the map is only really needed when you need to find your way back to a distant island to complete a puzzle. When an island is complete the marker beam can be turned off in world, and island with active puzzles or unread story elements the beam is a different colour from unvisited islands.
There have been games I've played in the past where some puzzles don't work until you have been through the puzzle that 'explains' the mechanic. This means areas of the games can be revisited with new knowledge, giving the game more playtime. This also removes the linear progression feeling that you get with some games. Maybe use a proximity highlight of a different colour to identify inactive puzzles. This way the player knows there is something that will make sense later in the game, but not get frustrated.
The Fetch™ game looks great. If players are struggling to find the stick when you get to play testing how about adding a sniff ability for Ches? Press a button and the dog puts it's nose to the ground and does a smell searching animation, then a graphical marker appears on the edge of the screen to indicate the direction to the object and the further the object, the more transparent the edge marker gets. I see it as animated wispy lines that match the girl's clothing colours, as if the dog is picking up her scent. I think this marker could be very subtle and would appear suddenly as the dog sniffs, then fades out over a second or so. The wisps from distant objects are more transparent and maybe more diffuse, so the direction is less precise.
I'm very excited to play the game when it's finished.
Thanks so much Maxx, your comments are always really encouraging and full of great ideas
There’s an idea, you could leave a clue that leads to the previous island, that way that gives you a way to start the puzzle. Additionally I would disactivate the waypoint to any puzzle that the player is not yet ready for but not the puzzle itself so the player can still complete it if he figure it out, that leave the sense of player agency and discovery intact, and adds fo the gameplay
I think adding fog to cover the optional islands would be a good way to help players stay on track, then have the fog disappear once you complete the main island(preferably make the fog disappear behind the camera, so you don’t notice it).
Like in Subnautica, you don’t even notice the islands until you get the radio message and coordinates for them because they’re hidden.
I think it would need more than just fog to make sure players can’t find them on their own (maybe the fog gets so dense and physically turns you around, so you appear to have gotten lost?), but even just fog would be great.
I think to add to what people have already said, maybe don't (obviously) highlight any of the main islands (or lock them off), but try and use tricks like lighting or camera positions to highlight-without-explicitly-highlighting the islands you've intended the player to go to first. That way it feels like they're exploring the world on their own, but actually they're being guided down the intended path. I think there are videos on how Naughty Dog does this sort of thing with visual clues in games like The Last of Us.
I also like the idea of completing an island giving some kind of extra reward like the unlocking of skerries. It would make it more satisfying beyond getting to continue on with the rest of the game. It gives a finality to the end of an island (which obviously might not be what you want - you might want them to immediately want to go on to the next island) and allows a bit of a breather for the player to explore the skerries or think about which island to go to next. And maybe this works with the pacing you have in mind for the game, and maybe it doesn't.
As always, thank you for all the continued support on Farewell North
i had this idea
to make sure that the player visits the islands in order you can make the locked ones extreamly dark and when you go near one a prompt telling you that it is too dark to go should appear
To solve the two issues of having too much choice with the markers and with the missions maybe being done out of order: You can have bunches of missions grouped together and when those missions are done a new bunch of missions are shown to the player
I like the idea of locking the scaries instead of the islands. That makes it feel like you ran into something and its starts to appear around you. Kinda like discovering them. I think that ties well with the story of the game
I can't wait to play this game in full
Thanks for checking it out, so glad you enjoyed!
Kyle- to battle option paralysis-you could change one (or a few) of the pillars a slightly different color to suggest to them which to target if the player wants to follow the traditional path.
Also the tail wag is a huge difference! It really sells Chelsey as a real dog, furthering immersion.
Love the fetch too! Awesome work making the stick traceable.
no cuts is such a cool idea! definitely something you feel even if you don't explicitly notice it
Just wanted you to know, I instantly noticed the animations of the dog looking better and didn't know why. The tail definitely upped the feel! Great work!
I realy like your decision to make a stick mini game the way you did. The silhouette of a stick and a spotlight of colour seems like a way to go.
You asked about progression from island to island and i think that the good way for this particular game would be narrative driven and more strict on when player could go right now.
I think idea of closing some islands early would work. I sense that your game is not metroidvania and more of a "witness" type game. Where more strict is kinda good. But you are still allowed to go to different paths.
And about tail animation. I love it!!! It looks a lot better and more alive. I definately saw a difference but I am kinda a nerd for animation and Sound Design.
I think it might be cool if from the beginning there is a storm blocking your ability to get to the skerries, but there is a lighthouse on the main island and when you complete the island the lighthouse shines a light through the storm, making a path through which you can travel
Imagine a Zelda game that has an open world. Let's say though, you want a more traditional dungeon approach and a more linear progression of items. How do you make it so the player has access to items from some dungeons in others to build more complex puzzles? How do you prevent overwhelming the player with options?
It's simple. You make multiple "final" dungeons, i.e. you let the player complete a subset of the dungeons first, and once they have all the 3 or four items you want them to have, you open up another subset of dungeons. Imagine if OoT let you complete the sacred stone child-Link dungeons in any order before going to the temple of time, instead of a set one.
It would be like: 1 -> { 2, 3, 4 } -> 5 -> { 6, 7, 8 } -> 9. Where 2, 3, 4 don't require any specific item for puzzles other than 1, but 5, 6, 7, and 8 could require the items from 1, 2, 3, and 4. It allows a linear ability progression and a place to insert story points.
Now, your game doesn't have the same kind of mechanics as a Zelda game, but I think the problem is still similar, so what I'd suggest is only opening a handful of islands, not even necessarily just related islands like you mention as an option in the video, but just any subset to shrink the number of choices at any given time. Once those are all complete, have some "node" island to tie everything together, and then present the next set of islands which can be done in any order.
For a narrative, relaxed game like this, I see no reason to make it non-linear, personally.
If there's optional content, give the player the choice in how to complete that, but the main stuff, in my opinion, should be as linear and forced as necessary to tell the tale you want to tell.
Personally, having played several games recently, I can tell you that the only games I've finished in the last year and a half have been linear games: Metro 2033 (for the first time ever a few days ago) and Sifu (one of the best fighting-focused game I've ever played, and am still playing).
Even games like the Batman: Arkham series, while giving you freedom to move around the map, are actually pretty linear and outside of the optional trophies, really don't have much to do outside of going directly to the main story locations, which is, in my opinion, one thing that makes them feel focused and entertaining despite technically being an open-world map. I guess you could say it's semi-open?
So again, I don't think "player choice" is really that meaningful in a game like this when we're solving puzzles, watching a story unfold and soaking in the atmosphere. Throwing in a few, like I said, optional things here and there can reward _minor exploration,_ but anything more than that and you have to ask yourself why you're doing it and what it's really bringing to the table.
Suggestion for the stick - agreed with you and others about theming to "smell" - you could fade the path to show that the smell faces, while keeping a waving lingering human smell / stick path nearer the goal.
Looking forward to your updates! 💚
You for sure need a bark button
3:37 - I feel like you could change the colour of the indicators so that certain colours indicate that going there first is ideal, while still keeping the world open so that experienced players can go where they want.
This is the first game I will definitely buy on Steam when it comes out just because I have followed you from the first time I found your post on reddit couple years ago and feel in love with the colored/uncolored world :D
I would say that locking the islands would make it easier to play as i get lost rather easily in games. To solve the issue of another commenter pointed out of making the player think they can go there before they do I’d recommend hiding them beside some sort of fog that clears after you finish an island.
You're building a crafted narrative and already have an idea of the flow of progression, so I would definitely remove any markers and access to islands until their time in the game. Once the game is complete, a more casual exploration NG+ could allow all islands access and some of the dog customizations that were bought up in an earlier video. I wouldn't worry about making all the content work in any order since it can deter from the polished experience you want to provide. Narrowing it to what you envisioned for a first run will solve a lot of problems at once.
For finding the stick, maybe the human can point to its landing or current location every few seconds if you walk up to them, and maybe they walk closer to it if you take a long time to get it. The walking could cause nav exploits in the game so I simply pointing may be fine. I think that gives a bit more human to dog interaction as well which is nice.
Leave it as is! I love being spotting things before I'm meant to. The problem is when you don't know that you are still missing something. Perhaps each puzzle section can have a clue as to where they learn the skill. Then it is up to the player as to weather they go there first or not.
OMG I love that shot at 2:10
The colors and light emissions are beautiful and have a very unique atmosphere.
I also like the fact that you don't have any cuts - that's a very interesting design decision. I guess you use Cinemachine for all the camera work?
Keep it up Kyle, can't wait to play the game myself :)
Awesome video! The progress of the game is looking really good. I played the demo when it came out and it was really fine and really enjoyed it. I like your way of moving the camera around during cut scenes instead of cutting the camera. It looks good for your game. Also the shader that increases the size of the model is a clever idea. That will indeed help in finding certain small objects. Keep it up! :)
3:14 Yeah I like more structure in games where I can have enough freedom but not to the point where it's all my choice, I'd like it to be an unlock system personally. But either way I will be happy to play this game one day! ❤️😁👍
Thank you 😊
Sounds like things are really falling in place and you've just got that final grind to the top. Good luck!
Fantastic progress ! Can't wait for next year
I like the island unlock idea. It's pretty stressful trying to remember random things I come across that I can't do yet (it only works in Lego games, because of the level-select way of playing).
One issue is that unlocking puzzle islands around an island where the puzzle was introduced might be a little too easy and boring. I guess if the puzzles stack or if they're different enough, that could make it more interesting, but I'm not sure.
The game looks fantastic
thanks so much!
Istg if you pause the video and look at any frame of the game it looks like a beautiful painting. I think this game will be like that indie fox game but better and so much more beautiful
Thank you, that's really nice of you to say
i like the idea of locking them, we are already fimiliar with this concpet and it works all the time i don't see a problem with it
Loving the new additions man. Can't wait to explore those Skerry islands!
Yo the game looks soo good
Keep up the incredible work
I remember playing through The Witness, and actually getting oddly excited when I saw a puzzle I didn't understand yet, because I had something to come back and look forward to
Imo, as long as you make it clear that what you're looking at *will* be learned in the future, I think you can give a nice feeling of excitement and interest
that sounds like a good idea. tricky to implement, but very rewarding, when it clicks.
I like that idea as well, and that was the thinking behind the original plan to allow players to complete content in any order they like. The only issue really is when you play The Witness, you're going in with expectations of a difficult puzzle game. Farewell North by contrast is really a more casual game, targeting a bit of a different audience. I know a lot of players will end up getting more confused and frustrated, whereas with The Witness you knew what to expect and went in prepared for that (or didn't play if that type of gameplay isn't for you)
I think it would be funny if randomly the dog would stop in its tracks and get distracted by something like a squirrel and maybe turn it into a mini game where you chase said animal?
I just realized that I'm interested in this game for the same reason I'm interested in Stray lol. I like a good game where the players character is am animal. It's looking nice, btw!
your game deserves success
Beautiful as always
Thank you :)
Finally! New video!
Regarding the markers issue:
Have you thought about manual marker settings and if there is a map overview planned you can show/reveal only the discovered/unlocked islands and if a player wants to go somewhere specific he/she can set a marker on his/her own (just like in elden ring for example)
Personally I like the Skyrim approach. Very few markers initially, but hardly anything is really "locked" on the map. As you reach areas that give you the knowledge/tools/level etc. to succeed in other areas, markers get added to the map. Not that you should necessarily add quest lines to the story if that doesn't fit, but rather having markers appear for all of the things that would "make sense" and having the others just standing as puzzling mysteries could work well.
such a beautiful game!!
The Locking island could be quite easily handled with difficulty, so if they are set to easy it guides them thought the story in the "correct" order, medium it unlock every island once you have done there main unlocking, and hard everything is unlocked,
I think making wood brown in the colored world would benefit both the stick mini game and the appearance of the colored world as a whole.
Happy birthday dude!
Thanks!
The tail looks great
Didn't see for 4 months cause UA-cam didn't notify somehow maybe cause I subscribed alot of ytbers
Ah I really dislike that UA-cam does that, I lose track of some channels I follow for the same reason
Imagine throwing a stick and seeing it grow in size and crash into an airplane making it fall from the sky
I love how this is all coming togheter! The new tail animation is way better :)
thanks :)
its not a game its a masterpiece art ..
Yay new video
it's been too long :)
so beautiful
This is just a random idea but I think an underwater island would be cool
Rather then Island unlocking why not have something else you can find. Like dog biscuits. When you collect enough it opens a random location that not to close to the player but far enough away so they have travel a bit.
You could start with 5 locations avaliable at the start. The biscuits could be spread out more then the player needs.
They would add an addional thing to do in the game and a reason to go back to locations.
The question is How did you design it?
Maybe going forward make some non linear content but lock everything else to a progression.
I think the way you design the content should determine how its shown. Thats like if skyrim gave you a set order for each quest or if last of us let you play any chapter out of order
I think locking the islands isn't a bad idea, but I don't think you should lock off the skerries, just don't have a marker for onees that have puzzles that haven't been introduced.
This lets players who want to try and figure out those puzzles ahead of time do so, and those who don't will probably not even go there without the marker anyway.
That's not a bad idea actually. Keep it accessible, but don't highlight it... Hmm, you've got me thinking now
As someone without a lot of good ideas but have been following for a bit, I gotta ask.... is the music playing from the game soundtrack? Cause it's FANTASTIC.
The tutorial island should have basic tutorials of all puzzles to exit it, the story elements should be unlocked in sequence not dependant on marker or area, any specific area story elements should be used to ad to the story and not be required for it, by using bottlenecks you can assign story that must be seen
Hello, I really love your game idea and I am fascinated on how you can create a game like this. I just wanted to ask a question about how do you save the game data, like when you exit the game and then you rejoin back and you click continue on the menu, you immediately go back where you were at the story. Are you using a database or something else?
You should add different types of monsters
For the new mechanics, I would suggest to track if the player completed tutorial for this mechanic yet. And if not, launch it, whenever the player encounters this mechanics.
And I would imagine, you as a developer have in mind a main path for the player to take, and you influence player choice with level design and other tools. So most of the players would still encounter the tutorial where you want them to. So the tutorials far from main path can be a bit rougher, as less players would see it there for the first time.
That would work well for a game where the tutorials are text based, or an image overlay, or something to that effect. For farewell north they're all built into the level design, rather than being explicitly told to the player, so it would be impossible to design every encounter with that kind of teaching in mind unfortunately
when the "tutorial" is escalating complexity/difficultly from trivial to complex by building on knowledge gained in previous puzzles, there is a certain order. Sure, skipping some steps still works and some puzzle might confuse some players "anyway", but I feel like this game has a certain progression and organic learning in mind.
Can you make a tutorial on the shaders? It would really help me
I think "finishing" would be a better word than "ending" lol
Haha I thought I'd get angry comments about click bait if I said "finishing"
@@kylebanks Oh, can't please everyone I guess.
How long the game is going to be?
Probably 4-5 hours, but I find with the demo that it usually ends up being a bit longer than I expect. I always said the demo was 30 mins, but some players got more than an hour of play time out of it
Hey I have a question about how you work. Do you sit down and work like an 8 hour day?
I have a day job so I usually work on Farewell North early, on lunch, and on weekends. Usually it's about finding a few hours here and there, and making sure I keep them as productive as possible
6 figures game spotted
😁
That's just how I feel, no other words
Why not leave the islands open but show the markers only in the intended order? It would make it so players that want to explore out of order can but the intended order would still be clear to players who want to follow it.
I quite like that idea actually!
It would be unfortunate to have parts of the game locked or unavailable till some checkpoint. I get the importance of some locations having tutorials on how to approach some puzzles. So with that in mind why not let the tutorial be dynamic instead of static, allowing any places you first come across a puzzle that requires a new mechanic to solve. This would avoid the need to lock places based on any prerequisite understanding of puzzle solving within game mechanics and allow for a more open world environment.
Between this, map design, and puzzle design should be more than enough to make up for it. Now this would require reworking the tutorials but wouldn't herd the player through a set path. This game seems like it is designed to be explored to the furthest corners and hiding or locking things may discourage exploration.
Another option for introducing mechanics may be to have a sort of dog park (with an obstacle course) or a natural rocky equivalent near the beginning to teach mechanics to the player.
Hell I would settle with memory flashbacks at a dog park or K9 unit training ground to handle teaching game mechanics as they came up, I'm sure flags could handle this with ease.
I like the idea of a dynamic puzzle tutorial. I don't know how it would be implemented but it does sound a great way to keep the game play fluid and not break the immersion by hitting a locked area.
This game looks like a ps5 level game
The terrain vegitation looks cheap and the environment looks too dark, fix that please 😁😁😁
Your English ascent is little hard for me to understand
sorry!
😣 Pᵣₒmₒˢᵐ
Botw was ruined because of that nonsense "go anywhere anytime" approach. If players are confused and not bought in to the story they won't get to your narrative conclusion anyway
I agree with your premise but BotW is one of the best selling, highest rated games of all time