Making monsters look more organic by killing polygons and updating procedural animations. Critter Crosser indie Devlog #5 Smart 3d guy that helped me: / @thesnidr
That pixel art tho... "Not a lot to say about it"? Well let ME say something about it, which is, holy actual shit those portraits are GORGEOUS. They're realistic, expressive, so detailed, they're insane. I like your wobbly tubes funny man, but the pixel art, for how long it was on screen, blew me away.
procedural animation like this really reminds me of rain world, literally every living thing in that game is procedurally animated and it looks really cool
I heard procedurally animating the Rain World creatures were already pretty hard (and will always have some quirky "bugs") but this seems much MUCH harder to do because of the 3d/isometric view. This project would be even more insane if they applied the "organic" AI of Rain World.
This is literally the kind of game I've been wanting since I was a wee lad. I've been smashing different looking Sims together since Sims 2 to see what comes out because I found genetics fascinating even then, and this looks like it could scratch every single one of my mad scientist cross breeding itches! You're doing amazing work, and I can't wait to get my hands on this!
have you ever played dino island? it's a park sim game from 2002 and the park gameplay is really very simple but the dinosaur hybridisation mechanic is insane, especially for its era. it procedurally generates hybrid dinosaur models, and you can mess with their dominant and recessive genes with further crosses to bring out different features
I'll be able to use this video as a prime example of what "invisible work" can look like in game development! You've actually entirely rehauled the way you use 3D, and the gains for that are incredible, but if you were to show someone the before vs after, he wouldn't realize he's looking at months of work. Incredible job again, you always blow me away, and IMO that wobble unlocks the option for Slime-based critters, something I would personally love, can't wait to see what you do next!
This guy's work ethic is awesome. Not to mention the creativity and problem-solving skills. Keep up the great work! Can't wait to see what comes of this game.
I really liked the Jelly-effect too, and had an idea; What if when you a breed monster with another monster and you have the little screen with the 2 monsters morphing into 1, the 2 orignial monsters have the jelly-effect while the transition happens. I think that'd be fun! EDIT: also, I'd really love if the half-doggie that was there since the first video would remain in the game in some way. I always found it really cute and am a little saddened that it isn't there anymore in the newer vids.
It is incredile how much know-how and hard work goes into small details that most people do not even notice. But they _would_ notice if they were missing. Great job!
BEYOND marvelous. This is like looking into childhood gaming with a 4D lens. Your succinct documentation doesn't do justice to all of the work you're putting in, but I just want to say that this dev process is fascinating. I wish you nothing but progress and prosperity on your project.
Another video that totally underplays how much work went into such an awesome result! Please feel free to show a little more of the nitty gritty so we can more fully appreciate what goes into this kind of thing. (Also Critter Crosser is a great name!)
i just found your chanel,and holy shit i think have found my dream game concept idk if ur still working on it but if you arent this has the most **vibe** out of any game ever and just... its good stuff!
Been super excited about all the work you've been doing mate, this project really does look like its shaping up to be something special. Hope development keeps going well and we see some more updates from you. As a side note did the switch from polygons to SDF give you any new ideas for creatures?
This game looks like a fantastic mixture of cute, deep, freeform, and wacky. While the youtube algorithm clearly decided to bless you one day, your concept and presentation is what got you to the following you have today. We look forward to seeing where you take this! As long as we can keep the secret cheese gender haha.
Dude these are sick, they feel like the next step in evolution for the "monster collecting" games, like Dragon Quest monsters and pokemon, digimon etc. I really like these devlogs, please don't stop making your game and posting devlogs, it's really impressive and inspires me with my own projects.
Wow very cool! I recognize that side mission you went on when all you wanted was to fix one "simple" little thing and ended up implementing an entirely new core system into your game. I've been there so many times but WELL DONE TO YOU for sticking with it for over a month! That's impressive :)
This project/game is so cool, so unique, clearly chalk full of soul and hard work. As a gamer and a programmer I can’t help but keep my eye on your work! Keep it up!
The transparency is so cool!! I love the art style so much and the animation looks great. I’m surprised there is battling involved! Kinda reminds me of the Ooblets devs trying to implement battling and realizing they hated it, and going with dance battles instead, lol. Don’t be afraid to try something else if you find battling doesn’t inspire u!! There are tons of games that have breeding and raising the animals as the main mechanic, like wobbledogs. okay thanks ily
Every now and then I rewatch all of your videos in order. I enjoy hearing and watching you explain things as well as seeing how much your game progresses! ❤
sometimes I go back and watch your old videos just because the humor, excitement, explanations, and of course animations are so good. glad to see you post again, keep up the great work!
This is so well done... I can imagine how hard it must have been implementing SDFs to work with the pixelisation and the rest of the render pipeline...
This is absolutely awesome, man. You build and rebuild everything and even when it gets difficult, you don't give up. It's super inspiring! I'm so excited to see the next evolution of this game :D
Can't wait to see you continue to grow! I've loved the concept of this game and have been following since your last upload, congratulations and keep up the amazing work.
Super happy to see you caught attention, the work you are doing is shaping up for something extremely exciting. I was here before 1k and I'll be here when the game launches!
I think its crazy how much stuff he is working on behind the scenes like the world, the toung on the frog, a cosmetic system (i think we saw some switching of hats) and a bunch of other stuff and the everything looks crazy cool. I love this game and can't wait to see it progress further, best of luck!!!!
Yayyyy so glad you're still working on this! Watched it as soon as I saw the notification. It's very inspiring to watch dev logs of unique games like this.
This shit's just inspiring. Love your presentation style and the innate respect you seem to have for what a good mix of art and math can do. Hope to see more!
Really excited for this game, glad to see that you are taking your time to get all the little details right, that’s really what separates a good game from an amazing one!
My only issue last time was the way the mammal joints looked, and it was fixed! This looks so good and I can’t wait to play it someday :) Also, the jelly effect would look great on a ghostlike or gaseous creature. Maybe with some transparency too. Transparency would be cool for an octopus or other color changing creature, maybe as a state they switch into randomly?
Just a minor point but the low-hanging fruit here is probably something like a jellyfish creature that floats in the air, given the jelly effect and transparency already implemented.
Using SDF's given the low performance costs for this style is genius. There's a lot of cool stuff to do with ray marching. I hope you add cloudy monsters or monsters made of fire.
yess! this is looking so awesome, very excited to see more videos about it, I've been thinking about this game a lot since I've seen your previous videos
Love the update! I like critter crosser as a name but lowkey thought “Crossbeasts” had a bit more swag. Your progress videos give me life, can’t wait to see what more you have in store!
Really great to see your hard work. Love your videos. A really great inspiration. I didn't know it could take this long to work on a project, at some point I thought that you just dropped it.
It's great that you added some more invertebrates, but you need to add cephalopods, which are objectively the best animal, because I -subjectively- like octopi. Seriously, though. Cephalopods are cool, and adding some tentacles to the crossable critters seems like it could lead to some fun monstrosities. If it's something you can do with existing systems, it seems like something that could add a lot. EDIT: I was rewatching the other videos on this channel, and noticed a comment I made eight months ago which said much the same thing. I guess I have a one-track mind, lol. Anyways, some cephalopods (especially octopi) can look normal moving across land. If it works technically, it should be fine!
Congratulations for hitting 100k subs! Been following this since your first post on twitter, truly amazing work, i can tell you're pretty much loving this project. Keep it up man!
Amazing work as always. I am really looking forward to playing this game. Seeing you drop a new video is so genuinely exciting. I’m so happy critter crosser exists
I don't know if this helps but bendy bones in blender with a -1 ease fix the twisting issue completely. It's the equivalent of having a chain of bones that are locked in every rotation except the local Y axis, and they each copy the rotation of the proceeding bone with a low percentage influence. I just uploaded a tutorial about this and the part that I'm referring to is right at the end of the video
