Hey, I totally still visit this site. Quite a bit has changed since the last...two years I did a status check. Namely that I've now got a late night job that pays very well, my journalistic adventures have taken me to now working for Sonic Retro, and of course, that Persona 4 fan game I was working on.

It's...going, to say the least. But after looking over what my future may bring me to, I decided that the game would likely benefit better using 3D space and would help me learn about how games are made in 3D. So for the past year or so, I decided to cease working on the game in Multimedia Fusion 2 and learn about how to use Unity 3D and finally take a more serious look at programming. While Javascript probably isn't the most efficient form of coding anyone can look into, it certainly helps from a beginner standpoint. After several attempts at experimenting with how the object hierarchy works within Unity, I eventually decided to take my idea for that Persona 4 game I was working on that would grant me the ability for a deeper experience. No longer would players be confined to single screen rooms, no more object limits or having to awkwardly thumb through script code. You can see what all I had in mind for the game in a previous blog post in terms of design, but here I'm going to show what I've been able to do by making the jump to a more advanced game design suite. To give an illusion, I went from this to this:

Of course, I'm no 3D modeler or an artist, and I don't have anyone to work with, so randomly stolen placeholder models will have to suffice for now. The role of the protagonist and his partner will be played by Rayman and Rayman. You may recall that I was working on the idea of adding a second player to the mix, which is why there's a second Rayman in the first place.

Besides that however, now that I have 3D working space, I can take advantage of a more cinematic presentation. So not only does the camera follow the two players, it will center it's position between the two to ensure both players can see whats going on screen at the same time.

The camera can't go past this structure as both players run through this walkway, which can showcase potentially visually impressive environments. It'd be great to have it look something similar to what was seen in Persona 4 the Animation here.

In order to prevent players from wandering off too far, there are several hidden objects that prevent players from progressing until both have arrived at certain triggers to allow both to advance to the next area.

Of course, one of the big things about the project that I had to bring over from my old MMF2 project is the Action Ring. Luckily, it wasn't as much of a challenge to bring over as I had thought.

After experimenting with how grouping pieces of a model together, it allowed me to create the action ring in 3D space without sacrificing the detail I wanted, which involved having a "background" piece to the ring to ensure objects and people stand out. In addition, it always faces the main camera to ensure that you don't see how it actually looks.

The user interface is being created by placing objects in 3D space and having a separate camera view the material. Many games in the late 90's and most of 2000-2006 or so had HUD and UI displays by utilizing 3D space. While Unity has a GUI interface, I haven't really figured out how to get it to scale when playing the game at different resolutions. It's a cheat, but it works for the most part, until you see the material clip through other 3D geometry.

Sadly, there is still no game to speak of, and tackling an adventure game is not an easy task for an individual. I may end up dropping the Persona 4 aspect of the game and gather up a team to make a new game. The idea of having an adventure game with an easy interface that can be played with another person in the room sounds very exciting, of course, the project as it stands is only going along slowly, having to recreate assets in an entirely different game engine is no easy task, especially since I've had very little experience creating a game from a coding structure I'm barely familiar with, let alone designing an adventure game.

Perhaps I'm biting off more than I can chew, since I would probably benefit making smaller games before tackling something as ambitious as this project. But my interest doesn't lie in smaller, casual hits, and at the same time, I enjoy what I do, even if it doesn't really go anywhere, it's good practice, and good fun.

Boy, I really wish they would fix how to amend images. It's better than Word Press I suppose...

bartman! it's nice to see you pop up. fascinating read, by the way. are you gonna plan to update us if you make any more progress?

Heh, I've been working on a P4 game as well, but lacking the time and 3D skills, I'm taking the interactive fiction route. It's still a lot of work, but I imagine not nearly so much. As for how much is completed, I've got the Velvet Room coded and you can put in a name when Igor asks. I'm trying to make it so that he gives a random fortune each time, too, so thinking those up (limited myself to 144 combinations) is taking awhile. Also the bones of the Midnight Channel. You can walk around Mystery Shopping Street, the entrance, and the apartments where Yamano's Room is, but there's not much interactivity yet.

But I think the simplicity of the medium makes it easier to add new elements. For example, it's not two player, but eventually Chie and Yosuke are going to follow you around, go different places if you tell them too (and if you're friends enough that they agree), and carry a conversation. That's the potential, anyway. Coding it isn't so difficult as finding a moment to type out the material.

I'll definitely keep up with updates as often as possible, considering I'm still kind of learning the ins and outs of Unity. Slow as they may be.