Deadhunters

Community Showcase Game Development
1

Hi!

Welcome to the DEADHUNTERS thread. [HR][/HR]Banner_with_title.jpg

DEADHUNTERS is a cooperative rogueplaying game.
Choose your hero, embark on missions and make decisions together.
Loot, level up and die again and again in an ever changing world of darkness.
Conquer the damned and earn your rightful place in the Guild of Deadhunters!

The two of us started developing the game a little more than a year ago.
For more pictures and more details check out our Steam page.

Tell us what you think! We will try our best to maintain this forum with regular updates.

Good developing to all of you!

2

Hello

In this update we would like to talk about the weapons in DEADHUNTERS.

DEADHUNTERS is a rogueplaying game, meaning that it has rogue-like and role playing elements.One such rogue like element is your random starter weapon.We figured that making your weapon loadout random every time you play the game adds variety and challenge to it. Additionally, you can unlock higher tier versions of your weapons, as a form of overall progression. From an art standpoint we wanted to make the progression from simple to awesome very noticeable. You start out with bent-rusty and dirty weapons and in the end you can get bigger, sharper and a lot fancier ones.Unlocking a higher tier weapon should be satisfying and the visuals aim to help with just that.
You can see how two set of weapons, the Dual Blades and The Great Axes, change below:

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Additionally, if you are interested you can check out the whole texturing process for the Dual Blades.

- YouTube was done in Substance Painter.

4

Hello

Today I would like to tell you about the procedural generation in DEADHUNTERS. As a 2 man team we realized quite early that creating levels one by one would prove to be an unimaginably time consuming task, so we had to look for a solution. We didn’t want to completely give up the creative aspect of creating each level to an algorithm so we thought of a system that combines both hand-crafted details and large amounts of machine generated data.

In this post I would like to show how we tailor our assets for procedural generation. We create groups of similar models that can be swapped with each-other. Such as tombs, coffins, graves etc… You can see some examples of them below. The key is to design these objects in a way that they have very similar dimensions but also look different enough to justify calling them a variation.

On this level, the algorithmic aspect comes into the picture when it picks which member of the group should appear on the map. The creative part comes from designing and also placing these groups. You may think that this is nice but it isn’t really procedural generation and you would be right. The real deal starts when these groups are combined together. For example, I can place down a tomb group and onto the group I can put some decorations, well these could be chosen from another group; it can be skulls, bones, mushrooms, cups, vases or candles. I hope you can imagine how combining various groups of model variations can lead to an insane amount of outcomes.

We will create another post going into much more detail, showing how these groups can be swapped successfully and how an actual map can be built from them. However, that is a long way from happening as we still need to work on the generator itself and the assets as well. In the meantime, it’s up to your imagination to see the possibilities of such a system :slight_smile:

Finally, if you would like to see how I created the Great Axes for the game be sure to check out this video.
If you are interested you can follow the game on STEAM and add it to your wishlist.

5

We have been steadily working on the game in the past weeks. Today I would like to share our progress.
I made five spears for the players, it is always challenging to come up with evolving designs for the weapons, but I’m quite happy with the results this time around.

Tier 3

Tier 4

Tier 5

And finally from Tier 1 through Tier 5.
I also assembled a small showcase of the various Tomb models in the game. We have 18 pieces that can be easily interchanged.

In our original vision we wanted the game to take part in a humongous graveyard, over time we expanded on this idea and added more elements that could fit in well with this theme e.g. gallows, bridges, a canal or a sacrificial pit. I think creating our “graveyard” truly is an ongoing process and there will be even more similar content added as we move on.

On the other hand, the programming has progressed as well. My good friend has thought of a very handy way to handle data in the game. He uses data tables, the idea is to basically create forms that can be modified quite easily to change various attributes in the game.

1290×811 181 KB

For example on this screenshot you can see how we can configure the difficulty of each enemy type in the game. We can define how many of them should spawn, how much health they should have, how fast they should move, which also automatically changes their animation playback speed as well and the list goes on.

What really makes this useful is that from now on whenever we create a new enemy we can just easily add it to the list, define these values and it’s ready to go.
Plus, in the very distant future, this system could also make it easier for modders to change difficulty settings, because they could just import their own versions of these data table files.

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Naturally data tables can be used to store any type of data, not just the ones related to difficulty. We handle animations and the weapons that every character can equip in a similar fashion. With regards to weapons you can define each of their respective VFX, sound, damage amount etc.

All in all, this was quite a serious undertaking, and it required some workarounds on the way but we are happy with the results. Below you can find the texturing process for the spears, thanks for reading, if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to ask.

6

Hello everyone!

This time around I would like to show you what we did in the last month or so.
We finalized two of our basic enemies in the game, the zombies and skeletons. I made 3 different variants for the zombies, their build, height and color are the 3 key factors that try to make them look interesting. Also the amount of clothes can be changed according to how we see fit, maybe in the future this could be driven by a random variable upon spawning.

We also progressed with the available weapons in the game. Currently we have very melee weapon that we envisioned for a start and also our first set of ranged weapons. Below you can see the rapiers, for me these were the most challenging models to make, especially the Tier 4 and Tier 5 versions guard area.

Tier 3

Tier 4

Tier 5

And here are the Bracelets, the first ranged weapons in the game. The character wears one around each wrist area and according to our plans will be able to hurl magical projectiles while punching the air in front of them.

Tier 3

Tier 4

Tier 5

This is all for this time, hope to see you again next time and as an extra if you are interested you could check out my speed texturing of the rapiers for the game.

7

Hello everyone!

In this progress report I would like to show you what we have been up to the past weeks.

Firstly, we created a new enemy for the game, they are called zombie abominations and are roughly twice as large as the regular zombies in the game. The goal was to make them as noticeable as possible, that’s why they have green veins throughout their bodies and these parts also have some emissive textures making them glow.

https://i.imgur.com/pBdQgKW.gif

Secondly, we made some new ranged weapons, this time around the core idea was to create scepters from Tier 1 to Tier 5. The green crystal part gets bigger and then at later tiers even multiplies to showcase the progression.

https://i.imgur.com/mqISQce.gif

I think that weapons, which can transmit magic in some ways are supposed to be more sophisticated than their regular melee counterparts. Therefore I used a lot more ornaments this time around to create this fancier feeling.

https://i.imgur.com/hz6DQvW.gif

Finally, here is the speed texturing process for the bracelets that we showed last time, as always everything was done in substance painter. Hope you like it!

https://i.imgur.com/tcj1u6P.png

Tell us what you think, happy new year and developing to all of you!

8

Have to admit it looks really awesome so far. Going to keep an eye on this game!

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Thanks, glad you like it! :slight_smile:

10

Hello everyone!

In this progress report I would like to show you what we have been up to lately!
We made two additional types of skeletons, the Skeleton Mages and the Skeleton Guards. The mages’ purpose is to pose a ranged threat to the player while the guards are supposed to be much more challenging in close quarters than their weaker kin.

They are armored and can take quite a few more hits!

Last time we didn’t get to show the Tier 5 Scepter so here it is!

Here you can see every tier of this weapon type!

Another ranged weapon that we created is the Staff, which is a sturdier but slower version of the Scepters.

This is Tier 3

and this is Tier 4!

As always if you are interested in the texturing process for the weapons you can check it out below!

https://i.imgur.com/njlKUn4.png

Have a great weekend and great developing to all of you!

11

Hello everyone!

I’d like to show you what we’ve been up to the past month or so.


Firstly, we have added some new enemies to the game, the skeleton commanders and the cultists.
The commanders are the most elite skeletal units, they wield a two handed sword
and are much more durable than any other of their kin.
Apart from this, they can also enhance surrounding units with an AOE spell, making them attack faster.


The cultists are the most basic living and breathing human enemies in the game.
They are the ordinary servants of the Cult of the Dead, which is a hostile faction in the game.
Instead of fighting against the Dead plague like the Guild of Deadhunters they chose to embrace this curse
and try to find ways of using it to their own benefits.
These simple cultists can’t do much on their own,
but like the skeleton mages they can be dangerous in higher numbers from an adequate range.

I think it’s important to give a variety of foes to the players, while maintaining the setting’s believability
so we have more human enemies planned that can be connected to the undead in one way or another.


Secondly, some additional ranged weapons have been completed.
Last time, we showed the Tier 3 and 4 variants of the Staffs and this time you can take a look at the highest tier version.


Here is how the 5 Tiers connect to each-other, I hope the sense of progression is visible enough. What do you think?


Apart from the staffs I have also worked on a new type of ranged weapon, the lanterns.
The idea is that from a central crystal core magical energy is emitted in waves.
I designed the lanterns as a sort of container for these crystals.
I can easily imagine how the players would aim these weapons at the enemies in front of them.


The Tier 4 version is a lot fancier than the previous one, I personally really like the chains that hang around the sides.

Lastly, there is a Speedtexturing video of the Staffs, everything was done in Substance Painter.
If you are interested in my workflow be sure to check it out.

Thanks for reading, and tell us what you think.
Plus, be sure to wishlist the game on Steam!

Cheers!

12

Hi everyone!

Another month went by and I am here with another progress report on DEADHUNTERS.
Last time I showed you the Tier 3 and 4 versions of the Lanterns.
Now, here is the Tier 5 version, which as with a every other weapon we have in the game is the best one that you can get.


There are three smaller crystals and a much bigger one that serves as a core to this weapon.
You can see how the crystals and the lanterns themselves get more refined as you progress through the tiers in the gif below:


With this there are currently 4 different ranged magic weapons ready for the game, at least from a modelling and texturing perspective.
The VFX and actual gameplay implementation still have a long way to go. Anyways you can see all 20 weapons here:


On another note the work on enemy characters has progressed as well.
I finished the Cultists, meaning that there are two more units, the fighters and assassins.
The later are the polar opposites of the ordinary cultists who conjure magic bolts and can only attack from afar.
The fighters can only attack from melee range and are a lot sturdier and much more violent!


The cultist assassins are one of the most versatile enemies in the game, they move fast and can attack from melee as well as throwing range.
They wield a dagger and can throw it at you and they also have a move to attack in an area in front of them.


Well that’s about it for this time, as always there is a texturing video that you can check out if you are into that type of thing :wink:

See you next month!

13

Hello everyone,

Today the time has finally come to unveil one of the player characters in DEADHUNTERS.
Tok Beolo may look like a man of great strength and little brains and he may seem like the typical barbarian character you can find in many RPGs.
However, he used to work as an assassin and has several layers of guile hidden under his muscles.

Our goal is to have the players realize this as well the more they play the game.
By listening to his banter with the other characters and by paying attention to his occasional remarks the players could gradually unveil his background
and why he was chosen to be a member of the Guild of Deadhunters.

I believe that only interesting characters can make a great story come to life, clichés can help to ease in the players to the experience
but only by later changing up what’s common and predictable can truly memorable experiences be created.
Also, if every character has a fleshed out background and strong personality writing interesting dialogue for them is a lot easier.

Apart from the player character I’d also like to show you the Acolytes who are the highest ranked members of the Cult of the Dead, at least for now.
They can summon zombie abominations and can attack the players with multiple spells.
The more they are left to their own devices the more dangerous they become.

I also made a roundup of all the weapons that I’ve made for the game so far.
There are four melee and four ranged categories that each come with five tiers of equipment in them.
All in all, that makes forty different weapons that the players can gather.

Lastly as a change of pace I’d like to show you some sword slash VFX that was done by the other half of our little team.
These aren’t final effects but I hope it’s interesting to see the whole journey and not just the outcome!
I really hope that by next time I’ll be able to show you the final slashes for the game.

That’s it for now, have a wonderful day and see you next time!
p.s. You can wishlist the game on Steam!

14

I am impressed, amazing job guys !

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Thank you!

16

Hello everyone,

I would like to start off today’s post with the second playable character in DEADHUNTERS. He is called Nex Fentrius and unlike our first character he has a much more refined personality. As the heir of a noble family that’s past its glory and as a leader of an infamous criminal organization he has experienced all walks of life. It seems wherever he goes destruction follows, so his choice the join the Guild of Deadhunters may as well turn out to be a fatal one. So understandably he has a melancholic and sarcastic air to him.

Apart from the new character I would also like to introduce a new type of enemy. Necromancers are the first summoner type enemy in the game. They can raise skeletons and attack the player with magic bolts. As I mentioned before the main antagonistic faction in the game is the Cult of the Dead, however there are other forces at work as well. These witches have existed long before the Dead Plague struck and have dabbled into the affairs of life and death for centuries.

We made great progress with the visual effects for the game as well. Last time I showed two possible sword slash iterations, we have made a third version as well but we feel that it can still be improved so we are working on another one.

The skeleton mages got themselves a fresh magic attack effect. We paid attention to include a wind up part in the whole effect, so players can react in time to the magic bolts flying their way.

Lastly we have also spent some time coming up with possible player magic attacks. The one you see below would let the player attack in a long line, although with a short delay between the spikes. We are not yet sure if this will make it to the final product as a player spell. However, I can also imagine it being used for as a boss attack pattern.

That’s it for now, if you are interested in the creation process of the skeleton mage’s attack you can check out this link. Plus, there is also a video about the sword slash and the character texturing.

Have a great day and see you next month!

17

I like it so far! Keep up the good work!

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Thank you!

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Hello everyone,

Lately we have been working on some effects for the game, so I’d like to start off with those. We made a see-through effect so that the players can always see their characters. Usually you’d just add an outline or a coloring to the character model when there is a wall or something big covering it up. However we wanted to make something a little different because it’s essential that you always see your immediate surroundings correctly. The reason is that you have to aim where you swing your weapon and if you were to swing it in the wrong direction because you couldn’t see what was going on, the whole gameplay experience would suffer. Below you can see how we change the first iteration of this effect based on feedback we gathered.

Apart from the above mentioned effect we also explored further methods for creating a weapon slash effect. This a relatively different approach compared to last time’s iteration and if you are interested in the creation process we managed to record it.

Lastly, we made an effect for a magic trinket that the player can wield. More precisely this effect is what you would see if you attack while using the Lantern ranged weapons in the game. However, we realized that the effect doesn’t work well while moving and the conical shape is problematic as well since it becomes too apparent.So for now we will leave this one as it is and maybe come back to it another time.

We haven’t only made effects in the past month of course. This is the third playable character in the game. A cursed female assassin who hails from the Cult of the Dead (the antagonistic faction in the game) and goes by the name Eris Sybilion. The reason why she joined the Guild of Deadhunters and abandoned her previous “home” will be left to the player to discover. I made a recording of texturing her, so you can check it out if you are interested.

Finally, I would like to present the most powerful unit we have made for the game, yet. The Vampires are the old rulers of the dead and have been around for more time than basically anyone else. They are very capable but their numbers are quite limited. We plan on using them as the most challenging units the player has to face, apart from bosses of course.

That’s it for this time, see you next month!

20

Hello everyone!

It’s been a while but we went under the radar for good reason. We spent the last months finishing up our playable build for DEADHUNTERS and at last we succeeded. Take a look at the trailer that we made from the latest build of the game:

We needed to get a lot of stuff working for this demo, last time I showed you the melee weapon trails but since then we also included a ranged fireball projectile. The way we imagine combat in the game is for players to always have a melee and ranged weapon at hand plus a dodge for maneuvering among enemies.


Additionally, we plan to add magical artifacts that would let your characters use unique skills such as the spike like projectiles that we’ve shown some time ago. Every magic skill uses mana so you need to balance dodging and casting spells if you don’t want to end up in the middle of a group of monsters.


Currently we have a demo that takes around 30 minutes to complete, you start off on a mission to steal a magic artifact and so you need to make your way into a tightly guarded fortress. After acquiring your objective you also need to make a run for it, since the Cult of the Dead won’t look nicely on you taking their treasure!


Alas, this is a grand milestone for us since we started working on the game about two years ago. Since then a lot has happened and changed, DEADHUNTERS originally was planned to be a modern top-down shooter where you played various criminals that got stuck in limbo after dying. We felt that this direction didn’t match well with fantasy skeletons and zombies attacking you and we opted for a change of setting and made the whole game pure dark fantasy in its theme.


Looking back, this was a crucial decision and I sincerely believe we only benefited from it. As for the future, we have already planned out our next steps for the coming months. We plan to really integrate procedural generation into the game and while doing that we will also work on some additional weapons and boss enemies!

Well that’s it for now, see you next month and please tell us what you think about our trailer.
Also we overhauled our steam page completely so you could also drop by and take a look there!