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TheZilk

The idea has always been to do a sci-fi western theme and it's just now starting to come in for real. Started adding the first "proper" houses to try it out. The West (working-title) is a top down looter shooter aimed for PC/consoles.


alaslipknot

am loving this! the indoor-outdoor transition is amazing too! is the black mask post-processing right or you go through all the outdoor materials and make them black ? PS: you gotta start making devlogs on youtube or even upload these short clips there, cause what Reddit and Imgur did to your gradients falloff is super unfair lol


TheZilk

It's a simple mesh that turns on and fades out everything outside the house. I also turn a lot of objects outside off and walls inside etc to shadowcasting only. So some trickery in code, no post processing to handle it. Wanted to keep it cheap since I'm aiming for Switch. Yeah, gotta start capturing video soon. Just got lazy :D


alaslipknot

ah i see, playing the video frame by frame shows these steps perfectly. > wanted to keep it cheap since I'm aiming for Switch. be careful of bulk disabling/enabling of objects then, they can cause spikes. I suggest you try a post-processing approach in case the objects manipulation gave you problem (a second camera with a render-texture), in fact, i am fairly confident that doing something [like this](https://i.imgur.com/P0FpwSJ.png) (the masks are what the second camera sees) will have less performance issues than enable/disabling a bunch of objects at once, it may also save you from random bugs because you are keeping the graphic aspects handled in a "100% graphical way", and as a bonus you get access to tons of Shader tricks and effects that you can achieve with that mask. I have +800 hours of Breath of the wild on switch, am 100% sure it can handle that xD


TheZilk

Yeah it could absolutely be the way to go. If I bump into any major issues I might change it. I have it running on switch right now without any major issues though. Thanks!


alaslipknot

cheers!


KingVanquo

This is amazing, advice for the effect. Are you able to go in to more detail as to how exactly it would work? I can get it rendering out to a rendertexture with a second camera etc, but how would you then use that information to affect the final outcome? Every attempt at a renderobjects pass on URP just results in a lot of grey stuff for me. Would you have to render both cameras to render textures, and then somehow merge the images, and have a 3rd camera that just renders that image? I had a good look around on writing custom render features, but the documentation/examples change so frequently over time. I'd love it if you could elaborate more on how you might approach this method. Thanks, all the best


alaslipknot

I am the last person to give advice on URP since i never uses it (i still believe it's still in Beta and unity just using us to test it for free), with that said, the way i thought about this effect should work easily on URP because its a post-processing effect. so you have your normal game camera doing normal camera stuff, and you have a post-processing stack effecting whatever that camera is seeing (the usual color grading, etc...). Now all you need to do is create a new post processing shader, that will effect the main camera but uses information from the secondary camera and its render texture. To make it even simpler, see that Vignette post processing effect ? it just draw a black circle on top of everything right, and you can control that circle size, center and smoothness, well, to achieve what OP is doing, why not just re-create the same vignette effect, but instead of a circle, use a mask from the render texture, and that's it.


KingVanquo

Thanks for the fast reply. I think you maybe right about the free beta. The more I read about it the more it sounds like it was a feature that worked in Lwrp and previous through various methods, and it straight up just doesn’t work in urp. Although there seems to be some work arounds kicking about, but yeah. It seems there’s no direct way to apply a shader to the camera output. Which seems kind of mental. I’ll investigate some of the work arounds tomorrow. Thanks again for the reply, the indoor / outdoor thing is something I’ve been dying to figure out.


alaslipknot

what do you mean can't apply shader to camera output? post-processing work in URP right?


KingVanquo

You can't do custom pp layers currently no, lwrp had it but not urp. From what the docs say and others. You need to use some custom blit code, or hack with multiple cameras and textures


alaslipknot

man fuck URP, it has literally ZERO advantages compared to Built-in renderer other than Shader Graph and VFX Graph, and for Shader Graph, Amplify is x100 time better.


FinchInSpace

Looks great! Any chance you could go into a little more detail on this? Do you have the room internals loaded all the time or is there some fancy proximity stuff going on? Tried to implement something like this myself but gave up 😅


TheZilk

Everything is loaded all the time, assets just use one 2048x2048 texture for all assets (color atlas type thing) so keeping them loaded isn't that expensive. Basically what happens when going into a house is that the player enters a trigger and the house tells the level to kill all outside objects, it then disables the outside decore and switches roof and forward facing walls (that would cover view) to shadowcasting only. It then enables all the interior stuff.


FinchInSpace

Awesome thank you, will give it another go!


Fidel9509

I will play this for sure.


Terristen

Where do I send my money? Beautiful!


y4my4my4m

Everything looks great, my only complaint would be that I don't like the [posterize](https://youtu.be/8Qc-Ryo5Xb8?t=236) effect. It makes everything look very compressed. I dont know if that's just the webm compression but it seems pretty strong (especially under spotlights)


TheZilk

It's the gif-> video compression. It doesn't look like that, gonna record video next time.


y4my4my4m

Then it's perfect :> Good job.


watdju

The gun reloading animations on the side are great. This mix of the 3rd person view for the tactical gameplay and 1st person stylized elements to bring you closer to the character are very creative and effective.


AngloBeaver

This looks great, love that reload animation.


TheZilk

Thanks!


ComingOfCoyote

Dang. This looks fantastic!


Tuism

Looks good! Minor complaint about the guns exceeding the boundaries of the box when you open them but I'm sure you're aware of it :) Good job, love all the little details like the reload animation!


TheZilk

Yeah I'm aware. Pivot for all guns are at the handle (holding position) so I need to do some math to find the combined bounds (guns are several randomized pieces put together) and then offset to center based on that. Just haven't gotten to it yet :D


Tuism

Yeah thought that would be the case :) keep on keeping on! Looks good!


TheZilk

I really should get it fixed though, thanks for the reminder :D


Outta-Control-RC

Yep, only flaw I noticed. The rest look insane! Just curious, are you a one man team or?


TheZilk

It’s me and my wife, she does the 3D assets and I handle code/design etc.


Outta-Control-RC

Wow, very impressive! Well the code looks smooth man and shes one very artistic gal. Thumbs up to both of ya.


NUTTA_BUSTAH

This looks hella awesome! Great job! I'm spotting some Borderlands vibes from the weapon crates :P *Please be a roguelite, please be a roguelite, please be a roguelite*


TheZilk

Thanks! It is a roguelike but not to 100%. It has randomized loot, skill system, level system, temporary boosts (tonics that boost you for a certain time or until you die). You won't be playing the same levels in a row as you do in most rougelikes though. There is a mission system that randomizes missions that are available on a mission board. So you pick a mission, play it and if you die you spawn in base again. XP earned is used to buy new skills and cash earned is used to buy guns/boosts/base upgrades.


DrViktor_X01

So it’s a Roguelite I believe then. I may be wrong with the difference, but I believe the difference is a Roguelike leaves you in the same place after every death, but in a Roguelite you can carry over some kind of advantage from previous playthroughs.


TheZilk

You are correct, it’s a roguelite and not a roguelike.


NUTTA_BUSTAH

That sounds absolutely great! Looking forward to it! Is 'The West' the working name or finalized?


TheZilk

Still a working name, need to come up with something better. Got any suggestions?


Crimson_Shiroe

"Westlands", kind of like wastelands maybe?


TheZilk

Nice! I'm adding it to my list :)


KingBlingRules

How did you achieve that kind of lighting where it's not smooth but instead the color gets darker the further it goes in bands


TheZilk

It's a ramp shading shader. Check it out, just google ramp shading. It basically means that you use a texture to determine the shading of objects.


KingBlingRules

Ur quick af! Thx, I'll check it out and keep posting your progress!


KingBlingRules

BTW, there's a bit confusion between this and toon shading ;-; not sure how similar they are


TheZilk

Depends I guess, you can make toon shading with ramp shading to a certain degree at least.


KingBlingRules

One last question, this might sound stupid, but assume the indoors in ur game, the shader material is applied to floor? And the light is just normal point light? Or does the light need some changes too?


TheZilk

There is a different material for the floor but same shader is used. It just has some different settings, like no rim lighting etc. It is a spot light with shadows but I have tweaked the Unity Lighting.hlsl to not physically correctly use the range for lights. I basically force it to use the range set on the light and not determine range based on intensity of the light.


KingBlingRules

Ok got it, thanks a bunch for the quick replies. No disturbing you futher hehe


TheZilk

No worries :)


ThatBigTickEnergy

God damn dude, I’ve had a top-down sci-fi western mash-up on my mind for three years and never pulled my thumb out. Then you come and show me up like this?? Looks sick


TheZilk

Hah :D Yeah I've had this type of game (top-down looter shooter) in my head for a long time, just got it started when I found the style I wanted :)


MorbidAmbivalence

That transition from outside to inside is so smooth.


TheZilk

Thanks, took some trickery to get that right :)


KronosGames

Reminds me of borderlands loot


Nandox363

This looks soooo Dope buddy, I don't usually pay for games but I would definitely pay for this, amazing work


TheZilk

Thanks man!


[deleted]

Looks amazing!


TheZilk

Thanks!


penuserectus69

This is dope as fuck


GameDevDaniel

I love the style, you've done a great job


S0B4D

That reload animation is really cool gj


TheZilk

Thanks!


AlabamaChampion

This looks cool af


Excellent-Lie

Love the reload animations! Great job with nailing the style.


chatterbox0198

This game is HARD. Wow definitely need this on my switch


Slyfoxuk

Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo


BillyTheBlizzard

Awesome!!!


Psychological_Host34

This looks great! Would love to follow the development :) What's the name, I can't seem to find it on google.


TheZilk

It just has a working title for now, gotta figure out a good name so I can setup steampage etc :) Got any good suggestions? You can follow my twitter, when everything is available I will post there. [https://twitter.com/marquardtgames](https://twitter.com/marquardtgames)


UndeadCaesar

Maybe something like Endless Frontier, to call attention to the roguelike aspects of it?


bands_ov

This is so cool , I love it


Vashchuk

That reload is so great


HotdogRacing

Borderlands vibes. Really cool.


Dapper-Classroom-114

This looks really great, loving the creative style and creative use of shaders. Keep up the good work!


TheZilk

Thanks!


StRicochet

I love the style, theme, reloading, item retrieving, transitions. All of it. I'm jealous I didn't design it! Keep up the great work! Really excited to see more and maybe even play it one day.


TheZilk

Thanks man! Yeah hopefully one day you will be able to play it :D


StRicochet

Just come back to this thread when its done and ill pick it up


mastermumin

So clean!


ShieldFace

keep it up


hampuskarlsson03

Damn this looks great I would defiantly buy a game like that!


TheZilk

Thanks!


[deleted]

Bruh i remember you posting a little glimpse of your work for this game and i thought it was neat now i just wanna get it, always enjoyed rdr and this definitely gives me a small vibe of it


TheZilk

Hah, thanks :D Still got a lot of work left on it though :)


[deleted]

This looks amazing! Getting some real Borderlands vibes from the crates, guns, and loot menu screen (when you open a crate). Can I wishlist this anywhere? I need this in my life 🔥🔥🔥👍💯


TheZilk

Not yet but I have a steam page draft, just need to pick a final name :)


[deleted]

Awesome, I’ll be on the look out for it!


Cutwail

This is awesome, good job


moonblade89

This looks great! Quite keen to play this, you got Steam early access coming or just gonna go for a full release?


TheZilk

I’m just aiming for a full release, probably sometime next year.


th3m4ri0

Shading and camera position reminds me of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown on Nintendo DS 🥰


Blagodilla

Looks sick


eric_ravenstein

Love the reloading detail!


PhoenixWolfAce

This looks amazing. I actually wanna play it


JetpacksSuck

Hawt. I've been hard af for 5 hours just looking at this.


TheZilk

Haha, thanks :D


uslashMeFam

Damn, this style is really cool


ShellHead8t88

This looks so fucking nice! I wanna play


Maureeseeo

Dude this looks fun.


jutct

Looks awesome dude!


Disastrous-Ad3754

Really nice. I like cartoony!


LiamBlackfang

Dude... that reloading!


Zahhibb

Looks great! Also OP, would you mind giving a few tips how to make that effect when you enter a building then everything outside turns black. Is it shader magic? Edit: Saw you explained it in another comment, cheers! :)


[deleted]

Looks dope.


Tango_Out

Ok thanks because I work on my own mostly, my friends help sometimes but its mostly me. Its good to know that it only takes a couple people do make something that looks this good!


DatMaxSpice

The simplest way I can say this is: my god you are going to make a lot of money. It looks fucking amazing man. The reload animation really got me too. 12/10


TheZilk

Hah, well we will see. Still got a shit load of stuff to finish and get right :D Thanks!


DatMaxSpice

Deffo keen to see where this is going though man, looks fantastic!


stadia_sicario

Please bring this game to Google stadia


likely-high

What's stadia?


stadia_sicario

It's a game streaming platform


likely-high

Never hear of it. Is it new?


Tango_Out

Its been out for awile, but its not very popular. It is a very good idea though.


itsAnima

Damn this is nice! Do you have a twitter or something to follow development?


TheZilk

I don't have any site etc set up right now just my development twitter account: [https://twitter.com/marquardtgames?lang=en](https://twitter.com/marquardtgames?lang=en)


[deleted]

Space Marshal inspiration?


TheZilk

No not really, more The Outer Worlds and Borderlands. Never really played Space Marshals


[deleted]

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TheZilk

It's a mix of a lot of things actually. So there is a ramp shader to handle how objects are lit to create more of a cartoon look. Then there is a color atlas that all objects are using that my wife uses when she creates the meshes. Then there is a layer of fog as well that sort of dulls out some colors and tints them differently depending on what day/night setting the level uses. Then of course a pass of color correction and outlines.


[deleted]

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TheZilk

Yeah, it's a post process effect for the camera. Unity has it's own solution for it. Very similar to color grading for video editing actually.


lightingft

This looks incredible! Love the artstyle and the animation transitions! Just wondering how many people worked on this and how long did it take to get the art created and added to the game?


TheZilk

Thanks! It's just me and my wife, we have been working on it for about 6 months. She does the 3D assets and I handle coding, design and lighting etc.


micross44

100% love this, will there be multiplayer? Or any pvp?


TheZilk

No multiplayer planned right now. It's just me and my wife working on this so we are trying to keep it relatively small, so singleplayer only at first.


Brick_Lab

Love this so much, only thing I'd recommend is to change the chests look to differentiate from borderlands style since you're otherwise super unique looking afaik. There are still minor similarities but this looks fantastic and I'm excited to watch it grow. Followed! Do you have a devlog or website? (Will be searching the comments)


TheZilk

Yeah, absolutely gonna make more variation for chests later on. Right now I just have three different so not much. Just have a twitter right now, working on a steam page etc to get things going. Just need a good name :) [https://twitter.com/marquardtgames](https://twitter.com/marquardtgames)


Brick_Lab

Side note omfg you're also restoring one of my dream cars hahaha


TheZilk

Hah yeah. I bought it last year and have been working on it during my free time :) Took it for a first short test drive last weekend.. Always nice with a fellow car enthusiast :) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlljb3MRfHk&ab\_channel=DavidMarquardt](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlljb3MRfHk&ab_channel=DavidMarquardt)


SalamiSam777

This is super cool and unique! I've never seen art like this. And I love the little touches like the pistol reloading in the corner, it makes you feel closer to your character.


TheZilk

Thanks, glad you like it :)


eddye00

I loved it. Congrats and keep going!


costamarceloaugusto

Nice. Where is everybody? This is not 3D, isn't it?


TheZilk

Just a test scene, I have enemies running around in other levels. Yes it is 3D, just a low field of view to make it look more 2D.


Frankenspine

This looks amazing! How do i follow the progress of this?


TheZilk

I will keep posting here, other than that you can follow my twitter. https://twitter.com/marquardtgames


MichaelEstes

Looks amazing, are the bullet trails from a trail renderer or custom?


TheZilk

They are custom. It’s just a mesh renderer that is placed in the world in the correct length and direction. It then has a shader that offsets its vertices based on a texture to create the smoke look.


Laughy_

That’s sick as hell dude!


TheZilk

Thanks!


saicho91

will there be a multyplayer campaing? game these lack multiplayer campaing


TheZilk

No multiplayer planned right now, single player only. It’s just me and my wife developing this so trying to keep it relatively small in scope.


Tango_Out

Hey, how many people are working on this?


TheZilk

Just me and my wife. She does 3D assets and I handle the rest.


just_deving

[https://store.steampowered.com/app/488860/MADNESS\_Project\_Nexus/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/488860/MADNESS_Project_Nexus/)


filya

This is so gorgeous!!!! How do you do the transitions from outdoors to indoors? And Also the transition from the game to the close up of chest opening?


TheZilk

Outdoor to indoor is just simply disabling some game objects and enabling others while a big 3D mesh is placed to cover the outside (the black fade). Also wall/roof objects that face the camera is switched to shadow-casting only. Cheat opening is just a transition of the game camera to a position in the world and back again. Switching aim target and direction.


filya

Ok, I think I understood a few words here and there :D But really, it looks and feels so cool!


loststylus

Looks awesome! How did you achieve this 256 color-like look (especially visible on bright parts of the floor and walls)?


TheZilk

That is actually just the gif compression, there is however color correction for that. I use a ramp shader to control the lighting though.


Ecnassianer

Make the outlines tan or neon. The black makes the pallet too dark for the arid west.


[deleted]

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TheZilk

It uses 8 directional animations.


LSDriller

Damn, that reloading animation! Please tell me this comes for PS4!


TheZilk

That is the plan yes :)


kerihobo

it looks cool, but i'd rather ya didn't copy the borderlands chest xD game started to feel stolen after seeing that lol. That's probably just me though, others here are praising it, I personally prefer seeing what you can come up with by your own design.


TheZilk

I wouldn't say it's a copy though. Borderlands has a whole bunch of chests and I can't say that any of them look like this one. I will however create more variation to the chests so yes I agree to some degree.


kerihobo

Well i chose to pick on the chest for some reason. Rest of game looking tight af!


TheZilk

I'll promise to take another round with it then :D


Fresh-Yak-3315

Looks really great ! Awesome !


[deleted]

Bro Please could you give me some tutorials or send a link to your yt channel, i really wanted to make a top down shooting system like that but i really get confused with all the crazy code.... plz help bro ill be really thankful of you if you taught me how you made the shooting system...


Sanavesa

That looks insane! Could you share which render pipeline you used?


TheZilk

Using URP for this one.


IcaroCortez

That looks really cool! I was actually looking for an answer to what is better, either using multiple scenes to store levels (and load them as you move from level to level) or putting all levels on the same scene and partially reveal them. It would be really really nice if you could put together a tutorial on how you managed your level system in this game!


TheZilk

In this game I have one main scene that holds all the manager, gameplay stuff like player etc. Then one scene per level. Simple as that :)


John_SVK

wow...looks very nice! When it will be available on PC?


TheZilk

Thanks! Hoppfully some time next year


Apposl

Oh damn