Tortured Hearts - Development Update

Seems I forgot about something.

"How many times will I have to grind through trash mobs of each of the 1016 creatures?"

Don't worry about that. :)
The ratio of mobs vs NPCs is about 30:70
I don't like plowing through trash, so I design my games with that in mind.

"Will there be any dialogue trees or interesting moral / plot critical choices to make?"

Certainly.
This is the main method that drives the story of TH.
 
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Some update:
All objects are done.
Combat is practically done, but there are bugs to eliminate. (AI and Animation)
A few GUI elements are still missing.
Save/Load needs a GUI

Currently I'm testing gameplay.
Since the game is big, this may take awhile.
Hopefully, a crowdfunding campaign can be scheduled later this year.
 
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Cool. I nearly started Tortured Hearts, the NWN module, recently. Ended up picking Swordflight instead, but TH is on my very short list of modules to play next. I was particularly interested in the huge scope and 100+ hours of content.
 
Cool. I nearly started Tortured Hearts, the NWN module, recently. Ended up picking Swordflight instead, but TH is on my very short list of modules to play next. I was particularly interested in the huge scope and 100+ hours of content.

If you have any questions along the way, feel free to mail me. :)
Geez, even the 2nd one is already 10 years old :)
 
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Thank you guys for your continued interest. I don't really have a life while doing this, but you know, this is a Quest for me. :)
 
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A fresh screenshot while playing the game in the editor.

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Hi guys

Some news: I've pre-tested all non-plot creatures in combat which eliminated lots of issues (there are still a few). This isn't trivial having more than 1000 creature instances and slightly more than 800 individual creature appearances. Actually this was a huge PiA.

This is a screenshot from a standalone build. I had to purchase a completely new and powerful hardware to be able to make builds at all. Another major PiA is making builds because many things that work perfectly in the Unity editor, don't work in the build AT ALL.

As for the pic…

The camera is always orbiting slowly around the currently acting combatant but you can manipulate this camera behavior with the mouse.

This is a critical hit, which works a bit differently in Tortured Hearts. On top of damaging more on the target, it also applies collateral damage to bystanders. (Only crits do that, there is no normal AoE.)

Everything works the same way, so if you Heal/Restore/Buff your party member and you roll a crit, other members of your faction nearby will get a normal effect too. Another example: if the enemy debuffs you and rolls a crit, a normal debuff will be applied to party members in a given radius. Critical buffs/debuffs last longer.

This is a HtH character (martial style) but you can make interesting cross-trained characters by adding a few levels of other archetypes like arcane caster and/or healer. These are the currently supported combat styles. Martial supports a single weapon combined with a shield. Depending on a successful crowdfunding campaign, we will add the Rogue, Bard and Psionic styles too and more martial styles like pole weapons, 2 handed weapons, dual wield, throwing and bows.

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Here's another pic.

Next to the Open Casque Tavern, in Caer Maed where a big battle took place in the second part of the NWN mod. This is where the story continues six months later. Newcomers, gold diggers, adventurers are coming from every corner of Eupherea to find their fortune around the ransacked castle of the nefarious Vynblud Clan.
You are one of them.
There's a little problem though: you lost your wealth and equipment at one of the gambling tables of the Open Casque the other day. You start your new life right next to a pile of dung. People don't even want to talk to you until you wash yourself.

18673106_1315209535241243_209270344192672925_o.jpg
 
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Crawling in the dungeons of the Vynblud Clan.

Unfortunately there were some Unity-related issues that had to be addressed. For instance, the "Resources"-based loading system that has been in the game for years without problems, proved to be absolutely useless in the actual build, because of its 32 bit limitation. (some textures became garbled) The automatically created resources pack became too big and Unity couldn't handle it. (it worked fine in the editor) This part had to be rewritten completely to use asset bundles. Guess what… it has the same limitation. A desperate idea saved the day, but still...

However, Tortured Hearts is starting to be more playable now. Don't forget, there's only one person working on this full time. Me.

Thanks for your continued interest and patience. :)

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Thank you for the info, SubBassmann - the game looks better and better!
 
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Hi, peeps

This is the office of Sylfeung Adventuring Inc in Caer Maed, in one of the run-down buildings of the Vynblud castle. It's up to you if you join their ranks or purge them out of existence for ruining your beloved Trade.

I'd say, I'm fairly close to Alpha. Need a few GUI elements and some combat issues fixed before that. Now the biggest issue is NPC voices. I don't think we can arrange that without a successful campaign.

19095618_1339979159430947_1175875992409337737_o.png
 
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Good progress! Looking forward to backing your campaign.
 
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Good progress! Looking forward to backing your campaign.

I myself can hardly believe that I have gone so far. I can't tell you how demanding this is, hehe. It's not just modding an existing and polished game like NWN, you have to address every single problem alone. Luckily, I have Unity, but it has its own limitations as well which can be very frustrating at times.

By the way, guys. Which crowdfunding site do you think is the best these days?
 
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Yeah you've come a long way since your last campaign!

Kickstarter still works for me, but there have been quite a few Fig campaigns recently. Not sure which is the best really. I'll back it whatever site you use.
 
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I'd forgotten about Indiegogo. I might back a project on that if it uses the Kickstarter target model, but I wouldn't back a "flexible funding" campaign or whatever they call it.
 
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fig allows investment as well as backing (investment means profit sharing). As to being better - I'm not sure about popularity. The other factor is % cut. You should contact them and see how that compares to kickstarter (no clue myself). Some big projects have been backed there (poe ii, wasteland 2, phoenix point) so it is not totally obscure.

Is Fig any better than KS?
 
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