UE5 DWP2 test 

Hi Neoma, Yes i think im goign to be making it, there is a serious lack of merfolk games out there so this could be a nice space to get into, its pretty relaxing too working on adding stuff in the ocean environment. New video is up with a gameplay demo :)

Hi This will be PC and on Steam or epic games store, not add supported and priced at $5 or less (its multiplayer too so if i can raise a bit of cash from it i can setup dedicated servers, players can host their own game anyway initially). PC will need to support DirectX 12, im trying to push the graphics as far as i can to make in game play like the cinematics of other games so high end GPU ideally but all the usual options will be there to dial it down. I wont have anything released before the end of the year, im working on foliage interaction as you walk through and also water surface interaction next, Fish are in now, corals etc. i also have a plan for the underwater kingdom thats going to look awesome. Thinking maybe two versions where one is more suitable for a younger age where its mainly an exploration and relaxing game then a version targetted at an older audience as I have a whole storyline for quests, PVP, monster shooter and everything too but that would take me years so ill see if there is much interest in the game first and if there is ill keep building it out. ill try to get a progress update video out this weekend :)

@@rus2836 oh ok! thank u for the info!

Hiya, Thanks for your interest in this game, this was a very old buoyancy functionality test video, ive uploaded more of a gameplay video now with lots of new thigns ive been workign on, also if you have any ideas of things you think would be a must have in the game id love to hear them too.

@@rus2836 I think that what I'd want to see in a merfolk focused game is a refinement of 3D gameplay. I often hear people talk about underwater levels in games being their least favorite. Usually this comes down to mobility, other times it's just made clunkier than other stuff. In general, I think just a focus on trying to make navigating around the world be intrinsically fun - if you look at Super Mario 64, all the abilities the player has in jumping and running are just fun to mess around with. Underwater, you could have all sorts of little roll movements, you could jump out of water and do tricks, precise movements of the controls could allow for you to do quick turns - work hard at the basics of making the game feel good to control. Some recommendations on resources on this sort of thing - Marc Brown from Game Maker's Toolkit has made some great videos discussing how he made his game "feel good." Another example that has come to mind is the youtuber Nerrel. He did a fan project around Majora's Mask, and had a lot of insightful comments on why the original version of Zora Link is fun to swim around as, and the 3DS remake version is not. As for other features, I'm sure other people will go all underwater cities, NPCs, all that kind of stuff - I think that if you have multiplayer in the game, then some degree of character customization would be welcomed by many. For me, I'd like to play as a merman. Even just allowing the player to select their tail color would be nice. Something that is probably out of the scope of your little project, and probably not your vision for the game is that my ideal merfolk game would more stylized. I've always thought that mermaids and mermen look nicer in a less realistic style. This however is up to your discretion - and of course if you are interested in that idea, it would require extensive work in 3D modeling and all the work that goes into making your own rigged characters. But wherever you decide to go with this project, I will be interested in seeing how it develops. : )

@@CurrentTheMerboy Hi thanks for all this detailed info, yes the current island in this game takes up way too much space and resource, it will go for sure I think we need like you say predominantly ocean environment but with several island areas to visit. Wow mario 64 that’s going back some.. honestly my favourite games for controls were back when you had 3 buttons on the megadrive and didn’t need to be an octopus to work the controller, I can never remember what button does what on games these days. But this is important and thanks for the reminder, I have so many buttons doing all different things right now and most of it is needless really and just complicates gameplay. Crouch can be automatic if you cant fit into a space but at half height you can then why not make it auto, why do you need a button for run and energy etc minimap zoom in and out yea no need, all different buttons for different weapons and modes it’s just taking away really for this type of game from the experience ill trim all that out 😊 The animations ill work at and do what I can, I’m not an animator but at the end of the day there are thousands of anims for the human, the tail can only go in so many directions and I can split the upper and lower body so should be able to make it work. It does currently have full 8 directional movement and looks much better already if using a controller as then the directional movement blends properly but on keyboard the value is just 1 or 0 so you don’t see the blends. I’ll get that merman in there and tail colour change for sure. The stylized version is really dependent on what is available as models, I’m really dependent on what modellers make available, as an indie dev I can’t afford to get custom work done and know id get nowhere fast trying to do that myself The underwater city I’ve seen a model that will look amazing cant wait to get that.

@@rus2836 Yeah, I think finding ways to more efficiently control a character are good. It's important to strike a balance though. Have people test the game and hone in on making it feel as good as possible to control. I will caution against making too much stuff automatic. In a lot of challenges in games, it can feel boring if there is something like a "platforming" challenge, but the player character automatically jumps when you reach an edge, meaning that you don't have to strategically time the distance and power of your jumps. When a player does have to consider this, if done right, even when the player fails, it feels more satisfying, as they know they had full control, and falling into a pit was their own mistake. Another example I can think of, as you mentioned crouching, is that in 3D Legend of Zelda games, you have areas where you have to crouch, and you press a button to enter these tunnels. This is an extra manual step, but it means the player gets to decide that they only want to go in when they want to - if they were moving past the crawl space and they went in automatically, it may rob some feeling of control. That being said, in this specific case you might have such tight spaces be a sort of hybrid depending on the situation. The player enters the space automatically, but only when they are actually in a horizontal position and pointing into the tight space. If they are swimming more slowly in a vertical orientation, it won't automatically direct them in. Then perhaps you might have the player on rails in the crawlspace, so all they can do is swim forwards or backwards until they leave the tight space. This can simplify the movement in such spaces, so the player isn't getting annoyed at trying to steer through the area and repeatedly bumping up against a cave wall. An important consideration though in tight spaces in 3D games though is the camera. Making these tight spaces tight to the point of the camera being locked behind the mermaid's fins could look odd. Wider tight spaces where you have full control over the camera may perhaps be better in allowing room for the camera to breathe. It could also allow for more complex tight passages than just a straight line, and could be a sort of challenge to the player to navigate. Caveat to all of this, these are suggestions based on what you feel is best for your vision for the game, and what feels the most fun in testing.

@@CurrentTheMerboy Woop first Merman is now added and running great.. ill demo him in the next video :) hes not 100% as the anims werent made for him but its a pretty close match as i had to Frankenstitch him together and full body IK the original anims to him as no modellers seem to have Mermen for sale so had to improvise lol but hes pretty good and can only improve from here. Now I know how to Frankenstein models theres gonna be no stopping me making allsorts of merfolk too :)

Hi, it's a test game ive been making, I actually added the mermaid for fun to show my daughter but it really turned out so well that I am tempted to make a mermaid game now. I now have it working in multiplayer too (though i need to add a character customiser so you can change hair, skin, tail colour etc as its just this one character at the moment) and build out the underwater environment with all corals and underwater features, ive started that though and its lookign nice. I have been waiting on some updates to get other features available for UE5 but everything i need is there now so i can add all the fish too, it's looking way better than this video now. ill post another video soon once I add a few more things back in that ive been waiting on. its slow going as only me workign on it but ill get there :)

@@rus2836 Wow, it looks really good and realistic. You did a really great job on this and i can't wait for your next video! You just earned a new sub :)