Game Loop Explained & Adding More Traversal Mechanics // DEVLOG #4

Today, I decide to share the core gameplay loop of the open areas of the game, and what your goals will be in them. As well as add additional traversal mechanics such as a free climbable surface and jump pads.
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Follow the progress on the game more closely on Twitter: / firedragon04
#gamedevelopment #devlog #gamedev #unrealengine #unrealengine5 #ue5 #blender #blender3d
🔖 Chapters:
00:00 - Introduction and recap
01:23 - Explaining the gameplay loop
11:31 - Building the jump pad blueprint
14:35 - Showcasing the jump pads
15:29 - Building the free climbing system
22:13 - Showcasing the free climbing system
23:05 - Full showcase and walkthrough
27:56 - Showing off the jump pad design
29:24 - Outro

[@firedragon04]

Hope you all enjoy Devlog 4! If you want to skip past the Gameplay Loop explanation and just get to the in-engine stuff then skip to: 11:30 ▶ New Devlogs every Friday! Hope you all like the new flower jump pads for our first planet and the vine wall system that lets you climb surfaces all over the place! Next week, we start adding combat.

[@firedragon04]

It's crazy to me that I had recorded and edited up to Devlog 4 before I even started releasing these. Since then I've also got Devlog 5 and 6 ready for the next few weeks too - so the content won't be drying up anytime soon!

[@Sunburst_No]

@@firedragon04 nice! Thata good way to handle the work load.

[@adesimahenry1244]

Your character has four arms right? So when you get around to doing the animations you should take into consideration their anatomy. Like with the climbing they should be using all 4 arms to climb.

[@tlomazina]

@@adesimahenry1244 unless the character will be holding onto tools/weapons during the climb. I guess the ability to hold a shield and wield a sword while climbing adds more possibilities to the game design

[@firedragon04]

@@adesimahenry1244 yep exactly that, I talk about this more in a Devlog in a couple of weeks and how I’ll be taking the four arms into consideration more, and some of the ideas for their use.

[@connorwilson-long1336]

by far one of the coolest devlog series I've watched.

[@utoherozv]

Can I just say, the thumbnails are cracked. It's very hype seeing them with the red N64 strip on the right and knowing it's you. :)

[@dgray2065]

Quickly becoming one of the best devlogs I've ever seen. Thoughtful and indepth design decisions, and great progress so far. Keep it up and I'm looking forward to the next one. I'm certain this project will eventually be a hit on KZbin and steam further on. Good luck!

[@ichooseblue]

I'm just super interested in this project. And your art style and process through it all. You're a cool guy.

[@SupaSlaya]

So the gameplay’s gonna be Legend of Kazooie: the Banjo of time. Cool, really excited to see how collectathon elements work in something like legend of zelda

[@humblebee3112]

An idea for the use of extra shards: there could be smaller structures and dungeons that require these shards to unlock. In them could be various rewards the player recieves for going through the trouble to find extra shards to open these side dungeons and explore them. So far im really enjoying these devlogs, keep up the awesome work!

[@MajatekYT]

Definitely make the extra shards hidden behind fake walls, around difficult-to-make platforming, or even are straight up invisible, etc. That way a first-time player will collect the 15 obvious ones and think that's it before going to unlock the door. It's important to make it look obvious that there's only 15 shards otherwise the player might get confused and lost and even frustrated (possibly have a magical terminal-shaped rock with 15 shard holes - you could make the player keep the extra shards into later levels, and each level has different coloured shards while the final level "true ending" door requires various coloured shards from all prior levels).

[@firedragon04]

These are really great points and suggestions thanks so much! They’ll be UI elements too that tell you how many you’ve collected and this first planet will be fairly tutorialised to make sure that gameplay loop is explained. The additional shards will definitely be for completionists and they’ll be lots of other cool hidden things for people to find too. I tried to distill the gameplay loop down very simply but hopefully it made sense.

[@MajatekYT]

​@@firedragon04 No worries! Don't forget though that minor collectibles (ie: stuff not required for a true ending) can be used as a bread crumb trail to help guide the player!

[@Omnibus4Everyone]

Hey there. Found your channel yesterday! I do have some experience in Unreal and Blender, mostly for animations. But this kind of progress is super inspiring to watch. I hope you get to finish the game. It looks so cool (and really nostalgic) already.

[@andrewcyber4]

First of all... LOVE the project you are making and hope we keep getting awesome devlogs like this for a long time! Your environment art is so cool and when you did the first zone with the coral it made me want to go right back to making 3d art. It was just so beautiful. I have an idea for the flower that opens and closes make it feel like the flower is really alive and reacting like some plants like the Mimosa Pudica to its environment. When the character leaves the area where it would open I think it would be nice to give it a delay before it closes again. Could be a short one but having it instantly change makes it feel less like a plant that is waiting to see if it should change states imo. Again, amaaaazing work I can't wait to see where it goes! :)

[@venizz5112]

YES! Another devlog!!!

[@thegroggydog]

This is a really neat series. Thanks for doing this

[@penku2290]

Thank you for posting these man, I've had a game project that's been on hold for a little while based in a similar art style but since I've found these devlogs my will to work on my own project has returned!

[@firedragon04]

That’s amazing! If you use Twitter, share some of your progress with me too, I’d love to see it.

[@sketcher445]

Dude I fucking love the design of your MC

[@firedragon04]

Thanks so much, we’re lovingly calling them “Blue Fella” at the moment but they’ll have a proper name soon.

[@cheesecake8423]

Really cool game so far, love your art skills! I have some small suggestions: The wallclimbing speed seems kind of slow in comparison to swimming speed and climbing ledges speed, might interrupt the flow and make the player think negativly about climbable walls ,Imo tweaking it at least a tiny bit might make a big difference. Also for the gem scattering across the whole level, great idea to have it that you dont need all of them but still make you explore at least a little bit, if you havent thought of it yet: make it so when you collect all the gems you get some sort of reward, nothing that will make players feel too bad about not exploring if they dont want to, an achievement or a trophy, something like that! really excited to see more devlogs!

[@jzeltman]

Would be really cool to use all 4 arms/hands for climbing - and swimming. Liking the devlogs

[@firedragon04]

That's the plan - all these animations are just temporary currently but in the future when I polish the game, each action will get new animations which are 4 arm specific.

[@hugoentzminger9665]

Nice video, continue your fabulous project

[@chriswalker6178]

Don't worry about shortening these man. I could watch for hours lol

[@firedragon04]

I’ve been sick so next weeks episode won’t be as long but I’m planning Devlog 6 (in 2 weeks) to be a long one with some big new features added!

[@mrburninghands5740]

Hell yeah another upload Keep going on this project, it's super cool. Looking forward to playing in the far, far future. Always remember to take time with your games to perfect them. Though I'm sure you know that

[@Pokedex-Family]

You should speed up the climbing and pushing/pulling boxes. They both looked almost painfully slow to do. Other than that everything here is looking so awesome! Love these videos.

[@Any_key404]

Long devlogs are fine, don’t worry about that too much.

[@penku2290]

I like long devlogs, especially with this quality and this interesting of a project

[@BlackCatsBowTies]

I'm loving these devlogs man! Super fascinating and super inspiring! Can't wait to see where you go with this :-)

[@seanplew6548]

your world looks just like Nessus in Destiny 2!

[@firedragon04]

There we go! One of the first times someone has commented this. It’s very much inspired by the colour palette of Nessus.

[@Xeridae]

I like hearing your thought process. Helps me think about how I approach design in my own game. I'd really like to see your process for making textures for a game like this. Maybe for one of the devlogs you can briefly show how you do that. I know it's basically just drawing in photoshop but still would like to see the workflow and the iterative process, even if its sped up footage. I'm excited to see more!

[@WadeWojcik]

Incredible progress! Keep up the amazing work!!

[@MASTEROOOO]

The Finished product of your code looks awesome! The scenery rocks too! I was totally immersed!

[@thomasnewson1181]

You could have the starting area be a mountain, and when they get to the top the player gets a view of the entire map. Maybe with like a slide down the mountain to get in. Not sure how it will impact performance but would be cool to get a view of everything before you start adventuring i guess

[@thomasnewson1181]

If you have any music you want it could start playing just as the player gets the view of the map.

[@longdongsilver3267]

I'll be following your development, so keep it up.

[@knowariddle9462]

This dude is the goat

[@jh4490]

The idea of the jump pad flowers is really fun, but tbh I don't think they read as _jump pads_ as opposed to just decoration. Maybe have some kind of round object in the center? Or something that makes it look like the plant is catapulting you? I also think that a giant flower doesn't fit with the rest of the world's coral-inspired aesthetic. Idk though, I thought it would help :P

[@Drahnokks]

Personally, I love seeing this kind of planning in Photoshop, more of that won't be a problem!

[@twix7711]

Great devlog! Really liking this series so far and the game already looks fun to play! Small note I'd have for the climbing since I think you mentioned not wanting it to be too fast. I think, since the character has 4 arms, it would actually allow them to possibly climb even faster than characters in other games (but really it just stuck out to me since I always complain about climbing slowly in games.)

[@firedragon04]

Yeah I’ve been thinking about that and thankfully I can alter the speed super easily at any point in development. I’m imagining the final climbing animation to be more spider like and he scurries up walls using all his limbs in tandem.

[@matthewwagner7017]

Looking good! As an optimization, instead of having 4 bezier points you should be able to get the arc you need much more easily and smoothly from just 2. Will be less points to manage, that is unless you want to make bespoke paths that aren't just a point a to point b. But the more points you have, the more adjustments you have to make over time. Congrats on the climbing system!

[@FireallyXTheories]

2 as in launch and landing, or 2 as in the apex and landing?

[@ahmedabuharthieh579]

Looking forward to seeing more of this. Keep it up man 👍

[@KingKrungo]

This stuff rocks! Keep at it!

[@cinebst]

looking great!

[@TheSoulmarine]

Finally a new devlog, nice!

[@firedragon04]

Every Friday 😃

[@pelicano1987]

Really interested in the dev of this game. One little nitpick of me is that, although the flowers show themselves as "interact-able" (because of the animation) they don't convey meaning. A couple of ways to better show how they work would be (in the long run) have a NPC steps on it and be throw aside (in the showing-area cutscene, perhaps?) and/or use some particles to traverse the trajectory, to help the player visualize where he will land. I'm really amazed by your work and never though of using Unity for projects for feeling it too overwhelming for beginners. I might have a second look at that.

[@ibearo8500]

It's looking great! It would be awesome to see the character end those forward launching jump pads jumps with a roll or some sort of skidding animation. I'm wondering if having a sequence of pads (kinda like springs in 3D sonic games) works as the system is built right now. Please spam us as much as you like, and want to, within your capacity. These are always super informative 🙌

[@austinlindquist2943]

use hysteresis with distance to flower for flower animation switching

[@firedragon04]

Thanks, I'll have a look at that as a solution.

[@NecronStars]

cant wait to hear the soundtrack, something with the n64 soundfonts

[@firedragon04]

If you know of or go listen to the soundtrack for Rainworld that’s the sort of vibe I’m going to go for.

[@NecronStars]

@@firedragon04 i know, that soundtrack is really cool, will you compose your self or comission someone?

[@firedragon04]

@@NecronStars I am not a very musically talented person let’s say, so it’s something I’ll look into commissioning in the future when the game is further along

[@paulytheking7365]

This is amazing! If you ever need any music for the game, I could make some.

[@sinksinkswim]

Having floated the idea of jump pads taking you up quite high, how are you planning to handle the player falling from great heights? Will there be a hang glider or something more sci fi? Or do you plan to let the player free fall?

[@firedragon04]

I do and the start of that will slowly be revealed over the next few Devlogs. The idea of popping out a glider when falling is really interesting to me.

[@ziraeldev]

This looks awesome, looking forward to it. Is there gonna be a any combat or just a pure adventure/puzzle game ?

[@firedragon04]

It’s an adventure/exploration game at its core but combat is still an important part of that. I will show my early implementation of combat in next weeks Devlog.

[@AlynneTheFlorifant]

mnaybe in the openingig scene you crash into the dungeon structure, or through it, and then on the crashsite, you immedieatly get three shards that "broke" of the dungeonstructure, and you use those as shjields/sword? that way the player knows they are powerfull and important, and immediatlydraws there attention to it

[@orcd0rk]

Any idea yet on if/what gliding mechanics there will be? I saw the jump pad and immediately wanted to use it with am OoT chicken to glide to far away places. This all looks great so far!

[@firedragon04]

Gliding is something I haven’t thought about yet BUT there is a really cool feature I’ll implement in Devlog 6 in a few weeks which is a lot of fun. I actually wonder if a gliding system similar to the paraglided from BoTW would work well too.

[@chameleonedm]

Great progress man, always like seeing updates to your project. One question I have is surrounding the map size. To me, one large element of 64 platformer gameplay is the actual level size. Due to limitations with how much RAM was available to 64 titles the levels ended up being small yet densly packed. Your design looks a lot larger, have you considered how this may affect the feel of the game? Interested to hear your thoughts on the matter

[@FunnyGuyTimmy]

Are you keeping the whole game within the same total file size limit too?

[@sowluck]

Really enjoying the Devlog's and the game in general :D, but i have one question about the shards. Will they be like moons in Mario Odyssey where it's just 1 type of item that gradually gets higher, or will the shard be separated by world? So each world having it's own type of shards to collect. Anyways keep it up!

[@firedragon04]

Each world will have their own shards - this is more because of a lore reason that I have planned that’s all.

[@FireallyXTheories]

So if I collect all 30 shards on planet 1, does that mean I don't have to get any on planet 2 because I'd already have the 15 required or only a small handful if it needs like 20 shards? Or are the shards planet-locked? (If they're planet locked, I'd advise giving a reward for getting them all even if it's just money) The jump pads and walls will need indicators to distinguish them. As a kid, I never thought even once that the wall in OoT was climbable because it's a flat texture that blends in with the normal wood textures of the deku tree, so how can someone tell something's climbable? That kind of thing. I see that the flower has particles to show which way it goes which is good, but are they meant to take you to a specific place or do you have some control while you're flying? Very excited to see your progress and how you want to approach the combat mechanics!

[@firedragon04]

Thanks! Yeah so each planet has their own shards so the count resets on every planet. I do think some sort of completionist incentive is needed though. I wonder how indicators could work, maybe a prompt of sorts that says climb or something when you get close… I’ll think about that as I do think it’s important for accessibility. And the flowers give you no control until after the jump is complete BUT I can make it so they just throw you up in the air and then you could glide away or do something else from that point too.

[@petersaup]

I heard crash land or something on the planet and I just imagined every planet you visit turners into a crash landing. The locals be like this guy sucks at space travel lol!

[@firedragon04]

Only the first planet, your travel to the other planets is much less chaotic.

[@DAWGWALKING]

🎉🎉🎉🎉

[@idc2120]

I take it you are disabling AA and using the screen percentage console variable to achieve the low resolution look? If it were me I'd diable pretty much every bell n whistle from UE as I could :P Especially motion blur, bloom, AO and exposure controls to get closer to the N64 look. Might even be worth using the Mobile Forward Renderer for an even more lightweight application.

[@firedragon04]

Motion blur and AA are both off, turned them off straight away yeah.

[@kiwifrogg]

To me it feels a bit odd that the jump pad fires you off in the opposite direction, you would think that you'd bounce in the direction you are running, by forcing a launch direction you are taking some of the control away from the player, which might stifle exploration, making the game feel more on rails.

[@firedragon04]

The jump pads are more for directing the player to a specific area than anything else. I can promise you that their use won’t ever stifle exploration as players will have choices of how to explore and what mechanics and tools they wish to use. Devlog 6 (later this week) will begin to show just how much choice the player will have and Devlog 7 (next week) will expand on that more too. Player choice is important to me. I’ll likely make an alternate version of the jump pads which just send the playing soaring up into the sky and it’s then the players choice what to do with that.

[@10upstudios]

i know you made the vine climbing slow because thats how zelda did it (or perhaps thats presumptuous of me :p) but thats ALWAYS bugged me. i hate slow climbing!!

[@firedragon04]

Yeah I can control that speed quite easily in development, it’s likely because of the characters 4 arms that we’ll have them scurry up walls much faster. I was recently replaying Twilight Princess and the climbing speed there is atrocious and I don’t want a similar situation here.

[@nicolasambrosiosportfolio8337]

Love the project and love the style you’re going for but I see that you’re trying to mimic a lot the player controller elements from oot and I’m not sure if you’re considering whether or not it’s actually fun to control. Speaking personally, my least favourite elements from oot and majoras mask were anytime I had to climb up a ladder or vine or push a block around. It really halted any momentum the gameplay had and didn’t require any critical thinking. With block pushing specifically, you can solve the puzzle before you actually complete it and it’s just a matter of waiting to finish pushing them.

[@firedragon04]

That’s a really good point actually. I also just want to say that not everything the character will do is inspired by OOT or MM mechanics, there are lots of different things I will be and want to add over the coming Devlogs but I think it is important to add more mechanics and objects for puzzles in the dungeons that feel fun and rewarding to use to complete the puzzles.

[@nicolasambrosiosportfolio8337]

@@firedragon04 very true, excited to see the next coming dev logs! Keep it up man!!

[@bobalinx8762]

How would a 128-bit styled game be different than this?

[@firedragon04]

More triangles and higher res textures.

[@morgan0]

27:24 the end of the spline moves the character too fast imo. a physics based jump like that would slow down as the direction changes

[@swarthygiant1463]

I’m only half way through the vid so I apologize if you expound on this later but, just my personal take, I don’t think collectathon should be your primary way of opening dungeon doors, and therefore your primary goal in the game. For one, collectathon works extra well as a primary goal in platformers because getting to a star or puzzle piece is fun, you platform your way there. When you get 7 stars and can open a bowser door that’s just a bonus, each star was a level in its own right. It feels like your game will primarily be puzzles and combat like Metroid and Zelda. In both those games there is collectathon elements but they are 90% optional for auxiliary items and abilities. When you have 15 objectives, they have to be 15 mini puzzles or battles. Is that really going to be as good a primary gameplay loop as 15 platforming challenges? The second problem to me is the bigger one, it kills the mystery a bit. In both Metroid and Zelda when you come up to a new area or dungeon, you don’t know how you are going to get inside. In Metroid the gameplay loop is a little more obvious, you come up on a red door or a high ledge and you kind of know you just need the next item to access the area, and the item is probably nearby. Zelda did this way better though, you come up on a village and you know there must be a temple in the vicinity, but your only clue is that the well is haunted. Do you need a new item? Do you need to do some mini puzzles? Some light RPGing with the local NPCs? Maybe some exploring to a mini dungeon with a mini boss? I think it’s great to walk into the “hub” and see the glowing door, at least in the first world. But if you land on each planet and you’re already thinking “I wonder if I’ll need 15 shards or if this time it will be 20” I think that will kill some of the mystery and ambience, as well as risking turning exploration into a chore instead of an enjoyable option. Game looks great either way and this dev log has been super fun to watch, thanks for the great content!

[@swarthygiant1463]

Also just want to toss one more thing on the pile, sorry not trying to be mega critical the game really does look great haha I think it also messes up the pacing. In Mario 64, you platform collectathon, each star being a mini platforming challenge, and then you unlock a bowser room which is concentrated platforming challenging using hard versions of all the things you encountered in the paintings. Honestly the worst part of the bowser room is the actual tail grab boss fight. This leads back into new worlds with new challenges and you do some more collecting and unlock the next bowser which again focuses your new skill level and new challenges into a hard boss level. You could maybe do this with puzzling, but again do you want to do 15 mini puzzles around a theme, and then open up a dungeon that is those puzzle elements but harder? If not then you’ll have an awkward jump imo between running around collecting things, in a game where running isn’t the fun part, and then suddenly stop what you’re doing and puzzle for an hour. Maybe combat could tie it all together, having shielded enemies outside as you explore that you learn to deal with and then have shields in the dungeon and a shielded boss… Just something to think about imo

[@firedragon04]

Thanks for such an in-depth reply. The worry about it becoming a chore is a really great point, it's something I want the other planets to improve upon as the game goes on. The world's you visit are lifeless, broken, husks - this isn't a happy story I'm going to be telling - there aren't any NPCs or friendly characters at all, you are very much alone and exploration is the key gameplay aspect of the game... combat and puzzle solving are second and third to that. Exploring these words, finding the shards and uncovering the secrets are the main aspects I want to focus on - it might not be for everyone, I know that but these worlds are HUGE and varied. One area might involve some climbing and then making use of devlogs I introduce in future devlogs to get across to other areas and find lore, shards or other items. The first planet is quite basic in terms of traversal but the second planet will introduce more mini-dungeons/small arenas in the style of the main alien dungeon and these will be guarded by different enemies. We'll also have access to a ranged weapon by planet 2 which will allow for even more creative puzzle solving and exploration moments. planet 3 will let you think far more vertically and the whole world will actually be kind of like a tall cylinder in design rather than a wide open space - you'll have to use your new laser zip line gadget (like a hook shot) to reach the vertical platforms. It's aspects like this why I'm making the game I am, but I fully understand that the collectathon approach may put people off but I'm hoping that the planet's and the story draw people in enough that they want to explore and get the shards but as you say it might not.

[@firedragon04]

@@swarthygiant1463 And on your second point about the pacing - the open world will sprinkle combat and exploration together but that exploration can actually be done very fast and you can have a lot of fun doing it too (Devlog 6 will explain this feature more next week) but some of the shards will just be out in the world and you'll have to figure out how to get there. It won't just be as easy as climbing up a wall and killing an enemy. They'll be platforming-esc sections where you need to use the full array of movement mechanics together in order to reach something. Some shards may be guarded by a family of creatures, others may be down a deep ravine which you have to carefully navigate, or at the top of a tall coral tree which requires climbing and jumping to get to. These planets are also much much much larger than anything in Mario 64, they're similar to something like Hyrule Field in OoT but with more things to do and search for.

[@swarthygiant1463]

Reading all that definitely makes it sound like traversal will be fun even if it isn’t platforming traditionally speaking, and honestly that’s not something we got too much of on n64 so that to me makes it even cooler than just copying already done formulas. Youve clearly put a lot of thought into everything up until this point so I’m not surprised you already thought about these concerns, I’m excited to see the new dev log and how you explore that

[@firedragon04]

@@swarthygiant1463 thanks! I’ll drop a hint, maybe others will see this too. A major movement mechanic has been visibly hinted at since Devlog 1. That’s all I’ll say for now but in 2 weeks I’ll reveal it fully. While the game will look in someways like an N64 game there’s a lot of mechanics and features we never got in games on that system. I really want people to have all the tools they need to explore, traverse, fight and generally just have fun playing straight from the get go. One of the things I’m trying to figure out is how long do I hold your hand for as a player? How long do I take to teach you all the mechanics? In my head I’m thinking like a minute - a lot of games hold your hand for too long. I want people to experiment and figure things out after I’ve taught them how to move, climb and fight. After that the world will be their oyster. I’m hoping by Devlog 10 or so I’ll have a really solid example of all of what I’m talking about in place to really display what the grand scope is in-engine and I’m already getting there.

[@MrClockworkable]

Hi, responding at the 7:39 mark, if I were playing this game personally, rather not be able to access the main dungeon, through just the hub area of the planet. It feels a little unrewarding in terms of exploration, as I would like to see the world you've created. And I know there is the argument that it's completely my choice and I can choose to go or not. However, personal experiences, when playing a game provide for key items for unlocking the main objective than needed. It can somewhat feel like the developer, doesn't care about the sense of narrative progression. That they are just adding things without actual investment in if the players see's their world or not. Sonic Frontier's did something similar,, and while I loved that game. It did bother me a bit, that you effectively, complete the entire game, without leaving the hub world. And everything rewarded you with level and story unlocks. So you could absolutely just skip large portion of the game. Meaning you didn't need to see everything to complete it. It felt like the game was rushing me a bit. And I feel, by having in your words, fifteen to unlock, but thirty to collect, a player might look at that and just assume, that no reason to even attempt to get the other fifteen, because you gave them what they needed, why explore. While yes, like you said, secret etc. I would still personally prefer, if I just wasn't able to get everything, right out of the gate, that I actively needed to visit more of map and see what the world offered, before I could even get through area.

[@firedragon04]

That’s a good debate about player agency. I think for me, forcing someone to search a large planet high and low for 15 shards and then getting frustrated by not being able to find the last one is more of a painful game mechanic than having 30 which you can choose to collect for additional rewards/unlocks or just get 15 of and explore what you want and then go to the dungeon of the planet. It’s that completionist vs speed runner mentality and I quite like catering to both. I do think more reasons to explore and rewards for going out of your way to get all 30 is required though.

[@MrClockworkable]

@@firedragon04 I'd argue that if you designed the level so the shards flowed naturally into one another. Then players wouldn't have to go searching. But if you do want exploration to be part of the game element, there are other things you could look into. Such as a beacon/map system, where players could find something that pin points the location of shards on the map, or perhaps the shards themselves give off a visible beam of light that can be seen from far away, indicating the direction the player has to go in, to find them. That starts to vanish as they get closer to the 'puzzle' Additionally, I dunno if you intended to or not, but there is also NPC side quests, you said were taking inspiration for Zelda, so perhaps finding and aiding natives of planets, could reward you with shards, power-ups and other useful items. None of these are a 'do this' thought, more so, just saving to think about rather than just wondering around and collecting shards, because while you might have psychical puzzles to deal with, it might just start to feel like busy traversal work in the end. Sort of like a poor mans Banjo and Kazooie.

[@SamsTheBams]

Please cut down on the whole "the video is getting long" and "I talk too much" It's fine, you're doing fine, the videos are super entertaining. You give a good impression of what you're doing without turning into a tutorial. We all know the process is long and complicated. It would be ridiculous to try and make it seem like you did it in half an hour. Take the time you need.

[@Euclidiuss]

Your character should wear a helmet.

[@jakobo88]

Sorry but this is not within the possibilities of a N64... textures and effects (water, glow...) look too good and varied, and the polygon count is closer to dreamcast levels. You need to downgrade a bit.

[@firedragon04]

The character has the same triangle count as Link from OoT (plus the extra arms), the environment has less triangles than Kokiri Forest from OoT. It very much is sticking to those restrictions and expectations from that era of games but allowing new features of the modern game engines such as lighting, shaders and such shine through too. From the very beginning I said that this is a game inspired by that Era of games, not a direct recreation - I'm doing my own thing with that aesthetic but in my own way and letting modern game development techniques influence its development too. When this game is finished it will feel like a modern game and look like one that is inspired by games from the late 90s/early 00s.

[@Oni64]

@@firedragon04 Would something like this be able to run on the Nintendo Switch?

[@firedragon04]

@@Oni64 if I ported it to the switch, yeah. The Unreal engine is fully supported so I very much could do that.