Update Time!

Oh boy,

Last update, April? Time sure flies!

The good news is that i'm still working on "Nobu: Fat Revenge" and i have tons of stuff to say about this past 6 months that went through.
Let's go to the interesting updates first, and then i'll talk more about the game itself and what has changed.

Monday, November 5th, was the release date of the first gameplay video. It was super exciting to show the gaming comunity how this game evolved since the entry for DBP 2011.
The video shows lots of new additions, such as :

- Combo system.
- Ledge collision system (groups of points that forms a line)
- Tons of animations for each character
- 3 types of enemies (out of 20)
- New graphics, all hand drawn.
- New HUD.
- Custom transitions between levels
- Stage clear screen
- Slow motion power up (black and white + red, sin city style)
- New weapon and particle systems
- New animation system
- New camera system that supports switch focus, zoom, etc.
- Improved script system.
- Etc etc.

Credits : Music and Sound Effects by :
    - Charlie Twitch
    - Website : http://portfolio.charlietwitch.com/portfolio/

He did a fantastic job with the music for the trailer!


This trailer wasn't released just because...
For the past month, i've been trying to put "Nobu: Fat Revenge" on Desura's alpha funding campaign and one of the requirements was to have a gameplay video/trailer.
5 days after releasing the trailer and filling everything up, i got an email saying that it was accepted to be part of the alpha funding, on Desura!

So yeah, "Nobu: Fat Revenge" it's going to be available to play, at this stage, on Desura!

You can follow the project on :
 

It shouldn't take more than a couple of weeks to get the first build up on Desura, so follow the game on both websites till it's ready.
 

Hard to keep going after this two news but let's go.


Media...

The trailer has been covered by two portuguese websites :
 - Bgamer
 - Eurogamer PT

Overall, it was well received. The concept of being "Independent" in Portugal is not well understood, unfortunatly, but apart from that, i feel that the majority truly wants to play the game, so that's awesome!


The game...

From what you can see on the trailer, i've been busy and working hard to finish this big and first project of mine.
Not only i've been coding, but i've been also drawing everything :
 - Menu textures
 - Level graphics
 - GUI
 - Weapons
 - Effects (blood, explosions..)

And having to do this, takes tons of time, hence the time it's taking me to finish the game.
Coding wise, the game is finished. From time to time, i think of something new i want to add and after a day or two coding it, it's implemented and working fine in-game.
The only thing that it's left to do is :
 - Last stage graphics.
 - Main menu texture.
 - Credits.
 - More effects.
 - Levels.
 - Test everything thoroughly :
  - Single player mode.
  - Coop mode.
  - Unlockable mode.

So yeah, finishing stages and i'm really excited and anxious to reach the end of this journey and start working on a new project.



This blog isn't updated as much as i want to, mostly because i forget, and to be honest, i hate to write :P
So, you can follow the devlog on tigsource, it's where i post more and show new screenshots and gifs now and then.

Tigsource Devlog


Till next time,
Tiago from KopanoGS

Media!

Hey,

I have been incredibly amazed by how well the trailer was received by the media.
It has been front page at bgamer and appeared on eurogamer!

http://www.bgamer.pt/index.php/noticias/article/8825-estudio-portugues-com-jogo-em-desenvolvimento
http://www.eurogamer.pt/articles/2012-04-03-nobu-fat-revenge-um-jogo-indie-portugues
http://indie.pt/nobu-fat-revenge/

With lots of great comments i really wanted to make the game even better. And decided to give it another go at fund raising by creating a project at indiegogo.
You can check it out on the right and if you want to support this project you can donate or simply share the link of the blog or the campaign. That would make my day and be thankfull.


Having that said, i'm going back to work!
Thanks for the support.

Trailer !

Hey world,

I am proud to present to you, the first trailer for the upcoming game, "Nobu: Fat Revenge!".

 

It's been quite a while since my last update. I didn't want to overload the blog with useless and small posts.
Anway...As you can see, i have been working not only on the game but also on the markting part. This is a huge step for me to oficially announce the game.

There isn't a release date yet but i can tell you with 99.99% certainty that the game will be released by this Summer.

Release date : somewhere between now and June.


Apart from this huge update, in my opinion, i have three more to annouce!

This game will feature two new modes :
    - Co-op mode (2 players or up to 4, still deciding).
    - Special unlockable mode with special characters (hope everyone think it's funny)

And for the final update:
    - the game's engine is finished! Woot Woot!


--/--
Don't forget to take a look at the animator's (Sam) DeviantArt  or Newgrounds page:
http://o0oinuyashao0o.deviantart.com/
http://o0oinuyashao0o.newgrounds.com/

And the Music and Sound Effects Composer' (Charlie Twitch) site :
http://portfolio.charlietwitch.com/portfolio/

They did an excelent job!
--/--


Hope everyone enjoys the trailer, till next update. swwwoosh!

Nobu's year!

Hey world!

It's been quite a while since i have posted something relevant on this blog, it's time to update and share what i have been doing.

As you may know, or not, i faced a big problem since the beginning of the project - NO BUDGET! - yeah, it sucks real bad. As the project progressed, my patience was running down 2x faster. Having to find people willing to help me, learning to do animation, drawing certain styles, new programming languages, etc. All this to finish this game.

One year later and i am still in the same position, apart from the patience part. I've learned to face the consequences of not having a flexible budget and to move on with it.
Instead of finding people to do this and that, i've decided to do everything myself, or try at least.

Drawing the assets was problem nº1 - Overpast - With a tablet i am now able to draw everything like i want and fast enough to be on schedule.

Animate my logo was problem nº2 - Overpast - Cinema4D isn't that hard, for the level of difficulty this animation requires.

And the list goes on and on. The only thing i am really not capable of doing is 2D animation. So, after 2 months of sending emails and looking on deviantArt for artists, one has poped up and was willing to help me with this. So, first update :

Debut Trailer (Teaser) to be release next month. Woot Woot!

This first part of the post was me complainning and well, no one want to read that (sorry if you've done it xD).
With this great news (for me it is ok!), i have more to share...

Second update :

The assets for the first stage are complete!

It took me about 1 month but i am really happy with the sheets. All hand-drawn, cartoon style, fun, all i never thought i was able to do to be honest.
I've started the second stage already, stuck, but i'm not going to stop!

Third update. The editor has a couple of new features ( 5 more to be added). One of the features is the ability to delete a selected asset without having to do the entire map from scratch. When i finished the editor, this handy little feature was not implemented. Since i didn't have any assets to work with, or just a couple, the time i spent on the editor was so low that i never did a mistake.........(you can imagine what happened when i tried to make a big map with duzens of assets...not funny!) So:

Editor with new features.

Forth update. This is all about the in-game camera. I have been using a code snippet that i found on some blog (can't remember what was it) and it was very simple, super unflexible, laggy when i tried to do some camera movements, overall a bad code snippet (no offense to who created it).
Why i wanted to change the camera code? Well, i can say almost for sure that everyone has already played Angry Birds, and if so, the initial camera movement where it goes from the stack of things you have to take down, all the way to the slingshot....that's the kind of thing i want the game to have, pre-set camera movements.
With this in mind, i tackled the code, tried to make a new camera and, ta-da, no success. After a long talk with David Amador (awesome person btw), he helped me out and the new camera was created. It was still unflexible but i fixed that by creating a function that handles several variables to make it flexible and to be like the Angry Birds camera. Bla bla bla:

New camera with movement pre-sets.

Uff, this is by far the longest post i've ever created. Last but not least, fifth update. (.....brainfreeze, totally forgot what i had to say....)yes, shaders!
One of the biggest nightmares for programmers (in my opinion). Something that every 3D game needs nowadays and 2D too, with less difficulty though. This update is actually a really fresh one, has a couple of hours. Yesterday i was thinking on more power-ups to add to the game and it came to my mind a really fun one (not going to tell btw). I've decided to write it down and today i today , after a quick revision, i started to program the new power-up. At the end, i reached the decision that a shader was necessary to make it better. Since this post is getting really, really, really long and i can't find an explanation to what i have done without spoilling the power-up, here it goes:

Shaders, check.


And that is it people. Till next time,
Tiago from KopanoGS

New artwork - Mountain Stage

Hey world,

I was able to keep Nobu busy enough time to write this post :P


So, besides dealing with his hunger-strike, i am doing some other interesting stuff.
Since the beginning of this project that i have one huge glitch, having no artist to make 2d assets! With this, i've decided that enough is enough and i that i had to either find an artist or become one. (i think you all know wich one i had to choose:( ).

I'm not bad at drawing, but i hate coloring and i didn't have alot of knowledge about shading so i had to find alot of concentrarion and will to become an artist.
First step was, of course, installing PhotoShop. Never worked with this program so, the second step was to get to know all the little tricks and shortcuts and how each tool works. After that, was all about sketching, scan the sketches and make a digital version of the hand-drawn version.

First week was slow, soooo slow. It took the entire week to make a single asset, and a bad one.
(...)
A month later, after lots of practice, here is a sample of what the 1º Stage will look like (background is just a mockup, not for this stage).

Super simple but i have to say, i like it alot! :D
What do you guys think?
 

That's it for today. I'm going to continue doing more assets for this Stage and for the others also.
Wish me luck!

Cya,
Tiago from KopanoGS

Pre-Order Now!

Hey guys,

I have initiated another way for you all to donate and help the development of "Nobu: Fat Revenge".
It's called "RocketHub". A site that helps a motivated person like me to gather money to launch successfully his project.
You can also consider this a pre-order stage where you pay what you want for the game and receive extras aswell!

You can check this link to learn more and share with all your friends for support. 

http://rockethub.com/projects/4501-nobu-fat-revenge

Thank you all again!

Help Nobu :)

Hello World!

KopanoGS has created a monster! Nobu is stealing my chocolates, he is HUNGRY!

Help KopanoGS in the development of "Nobu: Fat Revenge" by donating candies via Paypal!


I have to run for my life now, cya soon.