Adding the Main Character to my Game | Devlog

Support the Project: / legend64project
This Devlog will cover the process of creating, animating and implementing my game’s main character and bringing them into the game. I will also demonstrate a climbing system I have been working on.
#devlog #gamedev #indiegame

[@TageDerNostalgie]

I love this project and adore your pacing. No stress, no pressure, just love for crafting and slowly seeing something grow.

[@Legend64Project]

That means the world to me, thank you

[@averagepeople9802]

I gotta say its been inspiring to see such a creative person such as yourself recreate the simple beauty of the N64 era games. I been spending the better part of a week learning as much as I can about blender and trying to make just one character in the style which you so skillfully create. I'm looking forward to see what you will do next.

[@Legend64Project]

What a lovely comment to read. Thank you very much and good luck in your endeavors!

[@MrCompassionate01]

@@Legend64Project Hello! Sorry to bug you but I'm trying to recreate your Texture Atlas approach to texturing but you create these really neat little box segments to draw within as seen at 0:56 and I don't know how to set that up, did you eyeball it or are they perfect subdivisions of the overall texture size? If they are mathematically perfect subdivisions, how did you do that? I'm more of a modeller and less of a texture'er so I'm kinda lost. Also been binge watching your videos man, they have massively improved my texturing and optimisation methods and inspired me to try my hand at gamedev. I too grew up with Ocarena of Time on the N64 so I understand the passion.

[@mybrainhurts3727]

@@Legend64Project Please make a tutorial for how you model characters! Pretty Please! They're so gorgeous!😭

[@ObsydianX]

On thing that would improve the game visibly for me would be to have Ember’s location not so strongly bound to the players location. When the player runs, have Ember lag behind them for a moment and then catch back up. Also, LERPing towards their target would feel better too.

[@PowerHungryFool]

You continue to pack more SOUL in with every update. I really can't stress enough how much I'm loving your character designs- and the new protag is no exception. Keep it up!

[@linkplayz0]

Ngl if i just randomly saw a pic of this online i would probably think “oh thats a cool n64 game”, and thats something that not many games make me think that arent actual n64 games. Great job!

[@drdca8263]

I hope the reuploading doesn’t cause less people to have the video recommended to them. It is much easier to hear what you are saying now though (though, it wasn’t too too hard earlier) Nice video!

[@morganlak4337]

Loving the way the level has evolved! Looks great I will say the charge system might have issues when play testing, people tend not to think of holding inputs for a certain duration as a thing that they should do without really clear indication that they need to hold the input. I think accidentally climbing some ledges is better than never getting to climb because they didn't think to hold it. I also think the extra time required by the charge input will really add up over the course of the playthrough and make the controls feel unresponsive. Obviously just do what feels best to you, but I hope you keep this stuff in mind! Oh small idea I had too, for the facial animation if you add two sin waves together that have different periods you could get a more random/natural feeling cycle to the blinking

[@DeepFriedOreoOffline]

I was so surprised to see that you made your own run animation, it looks so similar to the default mannequin run. Climbing system and everything is coming together nicely too! Always great to see your progress :)

[@dummyyogurt5375]

Just wanted to let you know that legend 64 seems like its gonna be amazing and seeing your entire process has inspired me a lot ! Its clear youre very passionate about this game, and its awesome to see. Youre super cool !!

[@Legend64Project]

Thanks a lot for the kind words. You're inspiring me to work harder today :D

[@rishikeshm6017]

You could use blender’s NLA to bake animations,could be useful to export animations. You could also use root motion, its when animation drives character movement rather than them being separate, and add shadows to just under the character’s feet to make the character feel more grounded and make the movement feel more weighted. You could parent the bone to the limb itself, just make sure to change the origin of the limb to the point of articulation, this can eliminate the weight painting but do this only when you want a single bone to influence a single part of the body. (I commented this on the first upload but did not know if you had seen it so I’m recommenting it here)

[@zach.0]

Looks so good. Love the design and style. Though as a fan of the original Tomb Raider games, I'm a fan of having full control over climbing and grabbing and I feel like the waiting would annoy me. I'd rather press a button to jump or climb up. I also like the editing of these videos.

[@grinbrothers]

Gosh, this looks incredible. What a wonderful showcase of your lead characters and I was surprisingly able to follow along for the most part despite my lack of technical knowledge. As such, you did a tremendous job explaining things here with good presentation. 4:52 in particular was great with how amusing the visual showcase of how absurd climbing could be without conditions. Darn though; the shape key stuff to avoid clipping looks like a ton of work. Best of luck with this project!

[@thealpacaofsupport258]

Just saw the reupload So i came again to say that I love how this proyect is progressing, love the detail of the trail Ember leaves, and I would love to know more about the protagonist, love their design ^^

[@Legend64Project]

Thank you so much!

[@DigitalGreenTea]

Just a small tip on print strings that I noticed in this video. If you do a print string every tick and hook up delta time as your duration the string will basically stay in place, as its life span is that of a frame. :)

[@Legend64Project]

Nice! Will try that out :)

[@NeuronPlaytech]

just a thought: maybe you could make it so that the soul can change color based on your health instead of having a typical health bar. also one way of easily getting animations meshes collision and more from blender to unreal is with the "blender to unreal pipeline plugin" it allows you to put what you want into a collection then press one button and it will instantly go to any open unreal project. it takes a little setting up but i use it every day and its so useful. dont know it it will help your problem but its worth a shot.

[@clemons7596]

it really looks like back then, good work!

[@Brando550]

2:40 you just made me do a double take cause i thought a video of mine had accidentally begun playing. I just started being obsessed over the Bomberman 64 soundtrack and that song is my favorite on it.

[@Legend64Project]

Haha trippy

[@SebbyGraves]

Soooooooooooo cool man. Great work. Really love the vibe of "Ember".

[@amadii8768]

I find this really nice, despite the lack of classic Zelda-likes for other consoles or PC, not a lot of devs seem to attempt 3d classic zelda, this seems like a solid concept, and the emulation of the n64 look is amazing

[@Legend64Project]

Thanks a lot. It took me a long time to get the look feeling right, and I know there will be more work required further down the road, but it’s always nice to hear that :)

[@xraymone]

this already looks so polished it's amazing

[@StupidCupid627]

the playable character lowkey looks like Haku from Spirited Away lol not that it's a bad thing, just can't look at them the same way anymore XD

[@asztrik]

This devlog was really packed! Really enjoy seeing the logic around the climbing.

[@hotmango5647]

One of the best devlogs I've ever seen. Subbed.

[@CupCakeUnleashed]

If you wish to export an animation, just click the rig, A over the keys and then export as fbx, anim only. Then it will export as a skeleton fbx only with that animation.

[@Vondora]

Ok, I'll watch your video again. Loving this game!

[@jung-zen]

Will the audio quality/characteristics of the N64 be considered too? 16-bit audio with the classic Koji Kondo soundfonts could be an essential ingredient in capturing the vibe. The overall sound design too, was very distinct throughout Ocarina of Time and Majoras Mask. For instance they used reverb zones alot to convey the scale of a room - such as the Temple of Time. It felt very dynamic and part of the storytelling. 2:43 reminded me of this.

[@domolutz]

It's rly cool to see your progress. Your aestethics are right up my alley. I'm a 3D-Animator with Blender and I wondered why you not just add more bones to the dress instead of creating tons of shapekeys? Shapekeys are ok for fixing a problem that keeps happening but once you got more happening they're a hastle. Just add a belt like joint structure around the dress and adjust it in every animation as you want. If you want to keep working with shapekeys the easiest way to get them into a gameengine is to have a bone in your rig drive the Blendshapes. Add a bone to your rig, give it a custom attribute and use that as a driver for your shapes. This way the rig and the shapekeys have a connection and get exported with the right animation. Atleast in Unity this works rly well.

[@DetayYT]

wonderful x)

[@Shake0615]

I’ve been wanting to make my own indie game for a long time, but my biggest stumbling blocks are the UVs and texturing. Seeing your design process has been an absolute lifesaver! Not only is it aesthetically appealing, but it’s efficient, easy, and quick. Thanks for sharing and I’m looking forward to the end product!

[@Legend64Project]

That’s really nice to hear! Glad you found the videos useful!

[@teresaivall1431]

Never clicked a video so fast. Love how packed this update is! Well worth the wait!!

[@microtonalmatt1437]

This is looking so awesome! I love seeing all the attention to detail

[@TheInfamousLegend27]

this is honestly really cewl! i have an idea for the climbing mechanic, though idk if it's strictly that much of an improvement: instead of having the line/raycast/whatever you used be on all the time, have it disabled/stop checking until you've held (charged) movement for a certain period of time and force it to return its collision status then. not sure it'll make much performance difference but it's just a thought that popped into my head watching haha

[@hahalolemily]

Wow looks so so good! I can't wait to play this game it's looking more epic every update.

[@danielasanchez6566]

Im so excited about this project. Im hoping to see more of this game! ill be sure to save a bit to buy this game the day its finished

[@dopplegangerdavid]

I think one way to animate skirts, cloth without shape keys would be to give them their own bones. You can simply animate the cloth bones as if they were another limb.

[@turbo6223]

It's crazy how similar you make this look to the N64, will the framerate be capped in this game?

[@Legend64Project]

I'm thinking about it, or perhaps trying to give the appearance of a lower framerate. Might experiment with using stop frames in the animations?

[@primalotter4790]

Personally, I don't mind a "remastered" look for the project with higher frame rates and higher res rendering

[@game-enjoyer13]

@@Legend64Project You should set a constant crtv screen filter lmao.

[@deadaccount3994]

@@Legend64Project I'm late but I'll chip in to say that I couldn't face OOT until I played it with 60fps, I think having some uncapped option would be nice.

[@bageltwo]

@@Legend64Project put an option in the settings

[@mateuscaetano380]

I LOVE the work you're doing, you perfectly replicated the N64 look, it's amazing! About the shapekeys tho, why use shapekeys at all? Just create bones for the parts you need to correct, like the skirt, weight paint the area and move it without any restrictions. It's easier, cheaper and probably more authentic to the games of that time. Still a great job, can't wait to see more!

[@roughtrooper885]

i just found this looking for N64 games, now im excited. i hope you keep up on the good work and everything goes good for you.

[@MadamLava094]

I loooove seeing the process like this. Also as someone trying their hand at lowpoly blender modeling myself who struggles with textures, its an interesting approach!

[@GlamourSwinexXx]

This is so mindboggingly inspiring. Someday I would LOVE to make an N64-style game, but seeing the amount of work and learning ahead of me is daunting. Thanks for sharing all these updates!!!

[@Alex_Watrous]

Here's a free idea! You should give Ember special attainable abilities like fire attacks and illuminating the dark like a lantern item would. :)

[@itsrealhours4528]

Looks great! Looking forward to more updates

[@Rarebros]

This is an extremely cool project! I wish more people of our generation would develop more n64 style games. Some of the rom hacks out there are incredible but seeing someone make something totally from scratch is incredible. Thanks for sharing this with us! Keep up the great work!

[@AllExistence]

Clothes usually use their own bones. Shapekeys are just a hack. They are for facial animations and mesh corrections.

[@fittyyen]

hmmm it may not be 100% true to N64 tech limitations... but P2 design has a rig tutorial for skirts and dresses that may free you from having to shape key every animation for the character's robes. His dynamic cloth rigging offers more than you'll need for this but I think it'll offer some useful insights

[@austinmorrison6953]

There’s this unique charm about this N64 polygon graphics. You’ve done really well at recreating them

[@miguellilly8859]

this looks great so far!

[@game-enjoyer13]

I subscribed. I mean this is so crazy. Never thought I’d see someone making a full-fledged N64 retro game the in 2020s. Same vibes as the Bloodborne PS1 Demake project. We need more N64 and PS1 retro games

[@Captainkye]

Watching your videos has inspired me to attempt to create an N64 style game except it will be in Unity instead of unreal due to my limited and old Hardware, I am thinking about making Dev Logs myself. See how things go

[@PZAXR]

You might want to look into Absolute shapekeys, it's basically unchecking the relative box, and the shape keys stack like a more from time implemented than individual adjustment. I just learned about them recently, but could save a lot of time.

[@mamaharumi]

Man, I can't wait for this. Have been hoping for an n64 styled indie for years now.

[@politicalchannel66]

always cool too see updates

[@ventose9961]

Your work is so cool, keep up

[@alexwhitington7702]

This looks fantastic!

[@christophersanchez8027]

You are amazing, I love all your job dud

[@izfrik]

this is beautiful

[@pixelatednoose3999]

Amazing, you're talented. I am inspired by you

[@joescomics7652]

Amazing, I've been wanting to make a N64 style game for a while now I have a few ideas. Can't wait for this game!

[@internetcancer1672]

ember is a nice name for the soul! I'm not sure if this is my style of game but your awesome aesthetic makes me interested anyway :)

[@Raymond13557]

i like how simple it looks but how refine it plays, if it comes out imma buy it.

[@Rabblit]

This is so cool :D

[@TheLozfan123]

Regarding the frame rate, games these days have options to cap the frame rate. Wouldn’t be hard to have options to cap at 20, 30, and 60 FPS etc so the player can choose.

[@StrongHoov]

This game project will be amazing! I can tell. It has the perfect blend of between Zelda and Junji Ito (but in Yokai style)

[@Zeithri]

I didn't watch it on the first run through but good to see that whatever issue it had was fixed!

[@VNTY.mp3]

This is so cool i want to make my own game one day now as well !!!

[@sleepykittyMMD]

Haku from spirited away meets Legend of Zelda, the perfect combo

[@cinebst]

awesome stuff!

[@francescobassetto7768]

can't wait to play your game man

[@takoon513]

I actually can't wait to play this someday.

[@deaglan7895]

For the shape keys you could try using drivers driven by the bone custom properties. That way you only have to keyframe one bone at the start of each animation. To make it you just select the bone you want to control the drivers (I generally either use a root bone, or just make a bone for it) go into the bone properties panel (make sure it is the bone properties panel, not the rig properties panel), go to the bottom and where it says custom properties, click new and you have the custom property. Then you right click and copy the data path of the bone (or copy as new driver) go to the shape key right click add driver (or paste driver if you copied as a new driver). Now you should be able to control all the drivers from this bone, and you can just press I then select location, rotation, scale and custom properties (there isn't a keying set for just custom properties which is why I would recommend making a dedicated bone for it instead of the root bone if you want any root motion). This is also how I control things like IK switches and stuff. Pierrick Picaut has a great tutorial on custom properties for things like this here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/lWKcaJ2He81laKc

[@CptEddyPrice]

ahh nostalgia... kinda wished she had longer her like Nyo tengu up to her hips or close... she would then be officially wearing HIME CUT.

[@link1stheman]

Have you considered using unreals cloth sim for your characters? I know its not authentic to the N64 hardward, but it would prevent your cloth from clipping without the need for bespoke shape keys. It could save a lot of time if you plan to have more characters with cloth in the future. Regardless this stuff looks fantastic and is really inspiring.

[@morganlak4337]

Probably wouldn't work very well with such a low poly count tbh, it could still clip and will be difficult to control the look and feel of

[@jake.the.riffer]

Looks awesome!

[@happyc6770]

excellent video =)

[@yogurtroyale831]

I think honestly the charge system would be better off as just a button. It seems really unweildy and frustrating even if the time was set shorter. Also for the facial animation- I recommend having the eyes close instantly and open in 2 frames. It is much more natural that way.

[@Sandman13sq]

I love the name and idea for Ember. It fits perfectly. I think using shape keys is too much to keep track of, especially keys that depend on bones that move in many directions. I don’t know how n64 games handle vertex animations (if at all) but I would just use more bones for things like cloth or hair instead.

[@makoto-samaru8004]

Nice video!

[@kamikazilucas]

cant wait for legend 64 3d xd, but seriously this looks very cool

[@ArtfulRascal8]

im really interested in seeing your shading process on trees and what have you. like in real time. would be invaluable.

[@gunschlinger]

Theres actually a really cool plugin for blender called Blender to Ue4 by xavier150. Has automatic error detection and even has options to export animations seperatly

[@mrb5940]

Good video!

[@wagsss]

i have no idea if this is even relevant anymore, but in regards to the shape keys its possible you can avoid using shape keys at all if you created bones for the clothing (especially the bottom of the shirt) and just animated those bones! you can even add bone constraints to the clothing bones that can do a lot of the work for you, such as having some bones following the rotation of one of the thigh bones when it moves so it appears that the leg is pushing the fabric, and then you can do whatever tweaks you need to on top of it. im not sure if the difficulty of weight painting these new bones that comes with the low poly count will make it perfect, but maybe its something you can try if this is even still a problem for you!

[@HY0]

They look really cool!! What is their gender? Regardless, they remind me of Haku from Spirited Away! Loving the designs of the characters so far and these devlogs are very fun to watch

[@Legend64Project]

Thank you! I'm keeping the gender a secret :)

[@HY0]

@@Legend64Project Love that! Looking forward to future updates. Keep up the great work!

[@connorfarnham7059]

non-binary main character pog???

[@drdca8263]

@@connorfarnham7059 they said secret, not neutral

[@merccc1]

looks like a guy, particularly reminds me of Haku from spirited away. Love it.

[@positiverocket]

For your animations you could try using the blender add-on "send2unreal".

[@snaxandsoda]

Is the player-character's run animation a placeholder or your final? Because it does look a little stiff. But regardless, this project is really, really cool.

[@FazerGS]

I agree. 3D Zelda games always make sure Link's animations have a very clear silhouette no matter what angle the camera is at, to the point where just running around is entertaining. I think with some more refined animation, this project is gonna be fantastic!

[@bodge_]

Cool I like this. I’m not sure about how the character air strafes it looks weird to me but nice game

[@qbeck11]

Fantastic dev logs. Loving what you've been sharing with us. Just a question, are you planning on adding a small round shadow under the player character?

[@Legend64Project]

Yes! So I’ve wanted to do that for a while. The way I was looking at involves using a black decal, however it is really faint and barely shows up because it has to be an emissive material. Trying to figure out how to get this to work properly :/

[@qbeck11]

If the development kit has a "map to ground" feature, that would be my guess but I haven't done much with game dev since I used to tinker with Source engine. Very impressed by what you've created though. Keep up the great work!

[@quickpointz7746]

Amazing dev log! only thing i dont like as much is the jogging animation, other than that its great!

[@TheLucifer92]

It's Haku!

[@MrCompassionate01]

Was not expecting a Hunter X Hunter reference. Also these videos are rad!

[@scottz5394]

So said and done already but that clothes cliping problem sounds similar to what Pixar had with Coco. They would give the some of the more frilly clothes their own armature to be weighted to to help avoid Clipping I think 🤔

[@starry-p]

I want to play your game so bad >0< !!!!

[@Mcl_Blue]

That's weird, I never had any trouble getting shape keys exported, and I definitely never had to do all this stuff.

[@buildworm67]

Spirited Away!

[@solidasstone]

AWESOME! I know I am a year late, but I love this art so much! I wanted to ask, where did you learn how to model the character? Is there any spesific tutorial you would recommend? Also, is there a way to cotanct you?

[@tumama957]

Did ya use an anatomy reference? If u used one i need name pls lol

[@Robert92172]

I liked it, what program do you use for your work? new subscriber

[@Legend64Project]

I use Blender for the modeling, Photoshop for the textures and Unreal Engine for everything else :)

[@Robert92172]

@@Legend64Project thank you very much

[@zafrulaldrinmuzafa13]

You know what you could make the main character are born from the bamboo shoots like the Japanese folk lore where princess Kaguya-hime are born in 😁. I don't know what im saying just a suggestion 🤔

[@JuhoSprite]

It would be funny if youd call ember a different name thats just short for a word describing her role. Like how Navi comes from Navigation.

[@jakeharrington2563]

How much will the game be? Also being able to make your own game like this is awsome.

[@Legend64Project]

Haven't decided that yet! Thanks very much :)