Indie Game (PC) Spellheart

[rpgplayerrobin]

Hellu!

My name is Robin Norrman and I would like to show you a game that I have been working on.

Spellheart is a fun multiplayer action game that you can play with your friends for free! With a customizable server that anyone can host, the possibilities are endless.
There are no classes in this game. As the player learns abilities and chooses items, the player creates his own class.
Since the player decides his/her own class each match, the gameplay is dynamic.
Because of dynamic classes, there is no "best build", as players must counter each other in order to win.

Introduction video:


Update video:


Examples of Custom Servers (old game version):


Getting Started video (old game version):


Or visit the youtube channel for the game:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCY2l3Q ... Kjw/videos

The game is completely free and available at my website.
Website: https://spellheart.com/

What I want with the game right now is just to be noticed. A publisher may want me to finish the game or I could add microtransactions for cool stuff (that will not make you better ingame).

Alot of people has helped me with testing and some have helped me create 2D and 3D art but all of the programming is made by me.

What I am using in the project:
C++
Ogre3D (Rendering)
Bullet (Physics)
enet (Multiplayer)
OpenAL (Sound)
FLTK (GUI for Host Game)
Inno Setup (Installation)
Qt (For GUI of the launcher)

Edit: Changed the youtube channel link to a better one
Edit: Changed all the links to the new webpage and new youtube

[tod]

I want to go against the mainstream games that usually are copies of other games with a small feature change. My game is based upon an idea that I have never seen before. Most RPG games are static, limiting your build options and forcing you to min/max. In this game, there is no best build because there are no classes. You create your own build without limitations or restrictions. With a customizable server that anyone can host, gameplay can be balanced in real time.

Kudos to you, I think all old gamers are bored with the new "simplified" and "always the same" stuff.

The music in the first video doesn't do it for me though, too electronic for your game.

How did you do the effects in the second video?

[rpgplayerrobin]

Thank you for your post!

Sorry for the music, as I am a one man army on this project, I put most of the focus on the programming, which is my area.
Therefore there may be a bit ugly graphics/sound. What I spend most time on is the actual gameplay.

You asked me about the effects in the second video, but I am not sure which effect you mean, but I'll try to explain them all.
First of all there is a normal map/parallax shader on everything. Then there is bullet physics that I use to create ragdolls/constraint, all plants and trees you see are built with simple constraints, and from there it is quite easy to manipulate forces and velocities of those bodies to create wind like elements. All characters (and the raptors) are built with this system as well, to create simple and cheap ragdoll bodies. The fire ball and the electric pulse are just particle systems.

[tod]

I was talking about the physics effects on the plants. Do you create the ragdolls manually, or you automate their creation somehow?

[rpgplayerrobin]

All trees/plants use a skeleton. From that I create the constraint from the joints, so in code it is done automatically.

[SuperNess]

looks beautiful! very nice work!

question: did you use Ogre's terrains, or made a terrain map of your own? or did you modify ogre terrains? is it tile based?
I would like to learn more about your terrain system if you don't mind sharing.

thanks

[rpgplayerrobin]

looks beautiful! very nice work!

Thank you!

question: did you use Ogre's terrains, or made a terrain map of your own? or did you modify ogre terrains? is it tile based?
I would like to learn more about your terrain system if you don't mind sharing.

I use my own code for the terrain, I'll try to cover how I do it, it is quite simple.

First I have the level in a 3D program. In there I create the terrain. In the forest level, it is the grass floor and the mountains on the side.
From that I divide them into smaller pieces which are hidden/shown in code based on some variables to gain better FPS (for example, distance from the camera, though this is not what I do). So no LOD whatsoever on these, that is not necessary in a top-down game.

Those smaller pieces are then created in bullet as physical objects, but the actual characters never collide against the bullet physics unless they are in ragdoll mode, as I do not want to rely on physics to have my character at the ground, as this in almost all games have proven to be bad since you at some point will "lag" through the terrain and die.

To position the character, the floor is also a navigation mesh (but not the mountains, of course), this is where the AI find their path on and where the player gets the safe Y position.

If you have more questions, ask away

EDIT: And no, it is not tiled based, the terrain can be an arbitrary 3D model.

[SuperNess]

cool, thanks for the info and good luck with your game (PS downloaded it and it works very smooth!)

[rpgplayerrobin]

I have updated the game a bit, and here is my newest video, showing some examples of custom servers.

[Klaim]

You got me at "Raptor Tennis".

[Rogerdoom]

What is the name of this type of game viewing?
Qual o nome deste tipo de visão de jogo?

[rpgplayerrobin]

As the game has progressed out of early alpha, the game has changed name from project name "Realm" to the real name "Spellheart".
Many things have been implemented, such as a new smarter launcher and in-game voice chatting.
The previous introduction video was heavily out of date, therefore I made a new one:

[youtube]cZI0rNaaWE8[/youtube]

I have also updated the first post with this information.

[frostbyte]

looks real nice - Gauntlet style...yeah...( now all u have to do is add 100000 zombies waiting behind the wall )

[rpgplayerrobin]

I have updated the game a lot. Here is my newest video, showing what has happened since my last video.

[youtube]5NNna8-jFTU[/youtube]

I have also updated the first post with this information.

[Thyrion]

XD cool stuff!

maybe you should make the challenges a bit easier, its impossible!

[Kohedlo]

wow! great

[areay]

Good job. You have been busy.

[rpgplayerrobin]

Thank you!

maybe you should make the challenges a bit easier, its impossible!

Hehe yeah the challenges might be a bit hard, I agree!
I have added two very easy ones now as a hotfix.

Challenges give you a hint at the start on what you will confront.
For example, on the "Spontaneous Combustion" challenge it tells you that the challenger is using fire abilities, thats when the ability "Fire Protection" comes in handy.
Of course it is quite hard to know all this at the start of the game, there are around 100 abilities so far hehe.

[rpgplayerrobin]

Here are two new update videos of the game!




I also updated the links in my previous posts since the "[youtube]" tag did not work anymore.

[sercero]

Wow man, this is really impressive.

I hope to someday have at least 1/10th of what you are showing here.

[paroj]

yes, looks nice. Do you want a spotlight at https://www.ogre3d.org/category/game-highlight ?

[rpgplayerrobin]

Wow man, this is really impressive.

I hope to someday have at least 1/10th of what you are showing here.

Thank you so much!

yes, looks nice. Do you want a spotlight at https://www.ogre3d.org/category/game-highlight ?

Yes, I would be honored!
Just so you know, I am using Ogre version 1.11.2, so this would not be a showcase for the 2.0+ versions.

[loath]

this looks amazing. nice work.

went back and read some of your earlier comments about the terrain shading: what did you use to improve the look of the terrain grass from earlier builds because it's exceptionally good now.

> All trees/plants use a skeleton. From that I create the constraint from the joints, so in code it is done automatically.
great idea!

[rpgplayerrobin]

Thank you!

what did you use to improve the look of the terrain grass from earlier builds because it's exceptionally good now.

If you mean the terrain texture of grass, it is pretty much only a better texture than previous ones but that it might be using parallax mapping a bit more now.

If you however mean the grass on the terrain, they are now rendered in two passes (on shader quality high), one is a normal alpha rejection pass and the other is an alpha blending pass. And the default grass texture is changed to another that looks better.
Another game (Overgrowth) does the same thing: http://blog.wolfire.com/2009/02/renderi ... oth-edges/

[loath]

this is very helpful, thank you! looking forward to see what you show off next.