Spending a Month Rebuilding my RPG's World

[@jesscodes]

I love following your progress in these devlogs, the game is coming along great!!! And I'm really happy my water shader could help :D

[@dandymcgee]

it's really great!

[@DevDuck]

Thanks for all the work you've shared on your channel and GitHub - I've learned a ton!

[@kingbling7571]

omg, the moment i saw the water, it reminded me of ur video :3

[@cocoakodawari4192]

THAT WATER ABSOLUTELY MADE ME SO HAPPY IT'S WONDERFUL 😭😭😭❤❤❤🙏🙏🙏

[@mylegocollection-x4z]

its perfect

[@uheartbeast]

I love seeing your progress in this devlog. The diving mechanic already feels way more immersive.

[@minimog8465]

yeah, he's somehow the only indie creator who makes devlogs and seen stay committed to their game

[@Vondora]

NO U

[@sechmascm]

​@@minimog8465 Well, besides the ones that already have launched their game

[@bitbraindev]

Your water must be one of the best pixelart water I have seen in a while. I saw Jess' video a while back but was unaware the code can be adapted so easily. I definitely will get inspired by this for visualising lava and water in my game. Phenomenal progress, Ben!

[@DevDuck]

I'm quite certain you're the one who tagged me in a post about it on Twitter 😄

[@jessejburton]

That would look super sweet for lava in your game @bitbraindev!

[@bitbraindev]

@@DevDuck oops! Actually forgot about that. 😅

[@LuisCassih]

really? it's ok, looks pretty boring... idk, comments like yours sounds like bots ngl

[@vuurmos6257]

@@LuisCassih Hope you feel better bro, seems like you're a bit grumpy

[@GameEndeavor]

I love the effect when you step into the water. Really gives it a sense of depth. And the underwater art is looking beautiful. Great work on all this.

[@gildedguy]

3:51 A real "BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE" moment seeing the player gradually sink into the water, very nice!

[@snowman3456]

It's the goat

[@Tobias_44]

This update is HUGE! Amazing work. Your continuous motivation is impressive and inspiring.

[@venizz5112]

I've been following your videos for a long time, and I feel like this was the most impactful one yet to the game! Super awesome stuff and glad to see the progress keep going. Best of luck!

[@dothex]

I'm loving your journey so far... it helps to inspire me to continue my game :D A+ work broski

[@JosiahJames-h1c]

Indeed

[@WyrmyrGames]

Awesome to see the underwater element being expanded. I’m super excited to see the plants and animals incorporated into it. Looking amazing!

[@lilpanda9177]

I have been following your channel for quite some time now and I really enjoy catching up on the progress your game makes. Also I find your lifestyle really inspiring and you are kind of a role model for me :) Keep it going!

[@joseph9126]

thank you so much for not just using the tool to make randomly generated islands for each player. I was scared for a minute

[@RealZipZapShorts]

When you dive, I think it would look cool if you had that red bobber still visible after the cut scene!! This is such a cool series btw. Keep it up!

[@jrcarmello]

Wow! What a progress you've made!!! Not only architecturally, but the artwork keeps improving also! The diving mechanic feels a lot more immersive right now, especially cause you can see what's underneath before diving. Every devlog is a new inspiration! Keep up the good work!

[@bradpattinian4875]

I got an Apple Vision Pro too and loving it, in fact, I'm currently watching this video with it. I would love to see content on developing for it. Great work on all the updates to Dauphin.

[@boomgoesthedynamite69]

you gonna give him thousands of dollars for it

[@nicochecko]

Great work! You should look into "muck dives" when you go to build out areas that only have sand. Lots of unique nudibranchs, octopi, etc, can only be found in the muck :)

[@MrHazbowl]

The progress you've made in this devlog really is a WOW moment for me. When you talked about the player's shadow darkening as they get closer to the sea floor it might be cool if it also gets slightly larger too. Your videos are such a joy to watch, keep up the good work!

[@ultimatedsoup5965]

Ive watched every devlog and always been a little bit sceptical towards the game, but now, now I have faith. Absolute love it!

[@LuisCassih]

nah, he's one of those content creator doing it just for making money with devlogs, there are a few of them, after some time when the views aren't there, they change project and continues milking youtube

[@2dorkstv]

The polish on this is amazing! Nice work! I've loved watching this come together and just by adding some shiny stuff you've made it feel like a real world. Wonderful.

[@Fyshtako]

Phew, my heart sank a bit when you said procedural generation. Purely procedural maps/worlds in 2d games are a dime a dozen these days but using the procedural systems to make the islands and then cherry pick them and then manually add the rest and such is perfectly fine. Great work!

[@pretendwizard]

Seeing the corruption in the water before diving will be very cool and help with visually seeing the progress of cleaning up the island. One of the coolest updates for sure

[@FourtressStudios]

It’s come such a long way it’s crazy!!! In the beginning I was just watching but I might play it when it comes out

[@noise_dev]

wow, those changes are amazing. the game looks 100x more polished! good one!

[@vandanielsii1572]

These videos are awesome! I appreciate the explanations for why you make the decisions that you do. I've always wondered why designers make certain decisions, so it really helps to think about things from other perspectives. Showing the Apple Vision Pro was really cool also. You're doing great work!

[@mhogar]

Really enjoyed the progress in this video! Before I always thought the game felt, dare I say directionless, but now it really seems like the game is starting to understand what it wants to be. Great work!

[@Orangyy_]

The corals look absolutely amazing. These little details can really make or break a game!

[@HumbleMinted]

I swear to god this man single handedly made me want to pursue my passion of making video games. I tried and I am taking classes on godot! It’s excellent and your videos push me to keep going! Thank you! Keep it up!

[@JakeOpp_]

Really cool use for procedural generation. Big fan of the "dev-time generation" rather than gameplay time generation. I've done a lot of that at work, using mostly Houdini and Unity/Unreal. One of the problems I ran into was when you expand past that initial tile of generation (assuming you are doing tile based generation, rather than the whole world, which it sounds like) you end up with pretty square looking environs on a macro scale. One thing that I implemented as an additional step to the generation was a radial gradient in 0-1, fading from the center of the tile outwards (controlled by a contrast variable) that meant I could ensure that all of the tiles remained more 'island' looking. It also created some additional neat underwater "islands" that you could probably look at using for reefs.

[@moobywotsit]

Ok this game is getting intresting now! very cool love your devlogs makes me want to get back to work on my game!

[@Daywalkr]

These changes are a MASSIVE improvement. Great work, and this is a good example of one of the times where graphical fidelity really DOES impact gameplay, haha.

[@TheSpeedyBoi]

Always so interesting to see how you've implemented this stuff, incredible work!

[@UnderArea51]

IDEA: It would be neat to see our hero's shirt wet to the point of the water level he was standing in, and his shirt would dry, see the color blue of his shirt transition from dark wet to dry normal blue, a few moments etc after the he exits the water. Tint drops of pixel water animation, falling from his wet shirt as he walks on the sand - dripping wet to dry transition would add that extra touch LOL!!! I can see this little bit in my mind playing out LOL! I do have an idea of how much trouble this little touch would be - adding this in. Beautiful game!!! Jesscode's wave sparkle - work also is AMAZING!

[@devforhire]

This looks fantastic! Always great to see a new Dauphin devlog :)

[@rishtopia]

IDEA: Make the dive computer more realistic, as in add a no stop time, safety stops, decompression stops, make it not let the player dive for some time after a dive due to decompression, also make the player wear a BCD

[@gabrielturner1287]

I knew I recognized that water! I'm a bit further into the video now - those dive sites look great!

[@ExploreImagineDefineCreate]

Ngl, improving and adding visuals vastly increases the appeal I feel towards this game. I always tought myself as a gameplay over visuals guy, but when it comes to natrual environments I notice I tend to care a lot more because I love the beauty of nature.

[@Noctureal]

I have been following your game development from the start. I have to admit that new water and underwater stuff looks amazing. It's definitely huge leap forward in visual style of the game.

[@lyghtkruz]

Great progress so far! I really like the approach you took for the procedurally generated diving scene. I've done the world/island generation using a noise map before, but hadn't thought about using it as a tool to help create static maps. Keep up the great work!

[@TheGreatProphecy]

Im so happy you haven't given up brother. It gives me hope for myself

[@A_Random_W33b]

I've been following your journey for nearly 2 years, I can't wait to see this game release one day

[@sparrow3kk]

It looks amazing! Wonderfull work!

[@TheIndieAccord]

My brother, your pixel art skills are really improving! All the new environment sprites look 🔥🔥🔥

[@Just_Chuk]

I love the new water and its effects, it really makes the game look nicer as its gonna be a major component of the game. I'm also interested and looking forward to see how you do aquatic life as you described. The game is definitely coming together nicely.

[@efai]

this graphic update is very nice, I especially like water and corals, they looks really nice.. and I also like the ability to dive anywhere and see the exact environment where the player dived, very cool : )

[@K0WAL]

I've been waiting! Great progress mate

[@ThePoinball]

You made Major progress ! Keep it up man!

[@Jova]

That new water is beautiful.

[@leonardoxavier1481]

Dont forget to create a rock enviroment. I live in a island and when I was young I loved catching crabs when the tide was low.

[@chadzulu4328]

It's all great, my favorite is the water and the diver's shadow. HUGE improvement!

[@finalforeach]

Since you have the new water tile shader (looking great!), you should definitely add a similar shader to the side-view underwater.

[@ramonavisconti674]

The minute I saw the water I knew that it was based on Jess's code! It's so beautiful and it totally fits your game!

[@RedTalon902]

Dude, awesome progress! 🎉

[@gamedev4988]

this is insane that making your game beautiful can have tremendous effects like that

[@seamuskills]

This game looks really nice, can't wait till it's finished!

[@jessejburton]

This is looking so great! And welcome to the world of VR haha. I've been using my Quest 3 since Christmas. I don't dev in it all the time but it is fun writing code in a spaceship once in awhile :) I love the seeing the coral and sea grass within the ocean! It's looking super cool. I think adding the same subtle sea grass wave animation that you have when diving to the below water sprites would look great.

[@netowgtz]

despite all the ton of work that needs to be done, you are doing amazing!

[@williamautzen8261]

You could greatly improve the underwater scenes with a gradient colour from the surface to the bottom (It gets darker at the bottom) You could also add some paralax effect based on the depth of the underwater chunk and maybe depth of field to water so it gets blurry in the distance. Maybe you could reuse the shader underwater like when in topdown view so that specs of light pass through just so that the ocean isn't one colour the whole way through. That may just be wishful thinking but the implementation of the ideas could be pretty cool. It is insanely awesome to see what you've accomplished over this last month. Can't wait to see more.

[@deadhunter_dev8622]

Awesome month of Grinding :D Makes me wanna do something with my project .. but I'm being Lazy recovering from a broken Tib/Fib (Leg) lol. But great showcase of how an idea can be switched around mid-project to improve a system/graphics.. I am Jelly A.F of your V.R programming setup btw (BSTARD!!!) Lmao -> Big Love dude, love how your channel is blowing up right now :D :D :D

[@javawocky]

Man, that is a big jump forward. Great work.

[@GamesBySaul]

Finally got a chance to watch the devlog, and wow was it with the wait! Dauphin is looking beautiful! :D Also I'd be very interested in seeing more Apple Vision Pro 2 footage, and content, I'm not hugely interested in it myself, but seeing its use cases are interesting nonetheless

[@Challacade]

The water looks awesome!!!

[@m128jg]

I can think of a few retro games with underwater segments that might be useful as references: "Tiny Toons Wacky Sports Challenge", "World of Illusion", and "In the Hunt".

[@FiddlerSi09]

This is a pretty cool Idea! I have some feedback that might make this even better. 1. I notice that the drive of the game is to destroy the nasty corruption and make the island look better, but if you , there is no point in destroying it. , so that will drive the player to destroy the corruption. Maybe you could make certain clusters of coral and sea grass lead to different areas to dive in, rather than each tile leading to a different area to "uncorrupt" I understand if you don't want to do this if this is not the point of diving, but just something to consider. 2. . I'm sure you are aware of this, but if you keep putting it off, you might end up with a less cohesive and integrated game. 3. Make a reason for every thing in the game to exist. I kind of mentioned this in 1. If a feature of your game like diving does not have a reason to be in the game, don't use it. I don't currently see a reason to dive, but I'm sure you already have this planned. I think your general game idea has good bones and really relies on a humans inclination to clean up nasty things. Good job! know that these are just my opinions and may not be on your priority list. Again, they are only things I've noticed that you might want to consider.

[@moonlander9012]

Looks good, nice work!

[@Chevifier]

Thats probably one of the best pixel art water effects ive ever seen.🤩

[@elijah-jones-inbox]

Wow, the underwater area looks really nice.

[@coreymiller6581]

Looks beautiful!

[@TSHolden]

A low-hanging fruit idea: consider using the x position of your SeaGrassOrganism to offset the animation timer. This would have the result of making the animation play in waves though the scene, and should give your a nice modulating effect for all-but-free.

[@dandymcgee]

looks really great man! :)

[@DarthvaldoDev]

Yeah, this is pure motivation, gotta get back working on my game

[@RialuCaos]

The new water and heightmap really adds a new depth to your game. (pun intended)

[@hansgranly9253]

something you could add is small and large fish swimming around in small groups

[@Axenide]

IT'S LOOKING AMAZING. I love the coral and the new water. I think the next step would be adding sun-rays when diving, it would look really good. :)

[@levifzephyr]

The water effect is clearly a slap in the face. Sooooo nice ! 🤣👍

[@DarkKodKod]

Really cool your integrated tool to generate islands. Because you wanted an automated tool to create them during development time, maybe what you could do is to also generate a bunch of PNG files with the island mapped on them so instead of you trying random seeds until you find something you like, maybe you can generate over night from 0 to 10.000 and then look at the generated images to find which one is the coolest for your design plans.

[@YohanJabin]

I didn't know it was possible for pixelated water to be that good in video game! That's an amazing improvement for Dauphin

[@X13-AA]

The water is amazing, the bottom should be darker as it gets deeper. Right now it is not obvious that we are going deeper, even with the shadow falling deeper which is a nice touch ;)

[@sechmascm]

I think you should apply the water shader in some capacity to the diving scene. Or another that takes into account light traversing water (deep = dark), god beams, the wavey light refractions, bubbles, particles, maybe how the terrain height changes into the background, etc

[@gareth2021]

looks insanely good :D

[@Astrolyze]

Never seen a pixel art shader this complicated - the result is totally worth it. 😄

[@FakeGingersAdventures]

Taking a step back and improving the things already there is really important sometimes. It was definitely worth it!

[@DrJurdenPeterbergsteinlerwitz]

It is cool to see that you're still sticking to this game! My main problem is I lose interest and start a new project. I got like 50+ projects that never gets done.

[@riisezz0]

Recently stumbled upon sprite stacking technique and I think it would be super useful for smoothing out those boat angles. I'm using it for a game I'm making and it save me a TON of headache not needing to worry about my perspective and not needing to spend hours drawing several sprites for all the directions I want.

[@AccumbensNS]

Beautiful work Ben. It reminds me (in a good way) of the underwater sections of Pokemon Emerald (the GBA one). As a suggestion, take it if you think it's convenient, I'd say to move the coral and algae parts a bit away from the coast. On most beaches they are usually after a long stretch of sandy or rocky beach. Also, as another suggestion, I wouldn't rule out leaving dark areas where you can't see the bottom. It would give space to randomised areas with more challenges and greater depth (like the blue holes around the world for example) and even some touches of mystery (I swim in open water and not seeing the bottom generates an interesting sensation). Keep the good work

[@zejugames5045]

Looks great!! Would you consider having multiple layers? Like coral shelfs that aren't just on the ocean floor. Would also tee up scuba diving at lower depths as a mechanic for later in the game.

[@mz_eth]

I love the perspective change when diving, it gives me Zelda 2 vibes :)

[@Gleamiarts]

the water looks amazing!

[@dreemfriends]

hell yeah, love the walking into water

[@SunnyTheOpossum]

I’m not sure if this would even be possible to do, but (assuming you plan on including a day/night cycle) it would be really cool if you also had a system that controlled the tide! It would make it so that you can find new creatures depending on the time, and maybe you could even have tidepools!

[@anthonybrigante9087]

Definitely interested in hearing more about your thoughts on the Vision Pro!

[@supercyclone8342]

Amazing update!

[@Biffmin]

Wow, that underwater stuff looks amazing. As an extremely untalented marine biology nerd/wannabe game dev, I'm super jealous!

[@ManuOromithDevs]

This looks sooo much better 🤩

[@InfiniteDistraction]

Your water is looking really nice for sure, especially when you have the plants seen under it :) I'm also in the process of tilemapping my first pixel art game, so it's nice to follow along. I do think that, with your water style updated this way, removing the hard outlines from other sprites (like the player and trees) will make a big difference when you get to them.

[@МаксимАгрызко]

Thanks for @tool tag and link to the water shader 😃

[@proatgaimz]

Incredible looking water

[@Skeffles]

Brilliant progress! I really like how you'll be able to see what kind of underwater scene you're diving into. Will there be a point you can't see anything/much because it's so deep?

[@neozoid7009]

So good vlog❤

[@MrJohnnyImba]

The water looks amazing. According to the depth I’m missing some visual change in the corals. like when it’s getting deeper there should be like an edge or shade underwater to make the depth change more visible.

[@qwfp]

Damn does this look good! Also, I somehow knew the water was from jess::codes lol it's just so pretty