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Thread: Salty tea and the witches' clothes

  1. #1

    Default Salty tea and the witches' clothes

    I have really no idea how to properly write a blog, I will say that much. But after being here for a while, although I dont have those fancy bdges and batons and whatnot, I felt the need to express something, to convey some useful experiences and let be known that I once had - and hopefully will still turn out to have in the future - a bit of pride in what I did, and recognition for it. This place may be considered a recollection of my early adulthood experiences as modder, reviewer and, occasionally, writer.

    Who am I? I'm Sirlion. Yes, that much is clear. I've been around here long enough to produce some sizeable content for the TW modding community, specifically for musketry obsessed such as myself, but what does that nickname stand for anyway? Well, in the italian community dedicated to Japan and japanese culture, I once was somebody with a quite good reputation that started when Youtube was in its infancy and nobody used Facebook as frequently and proficiently as today. As a teenager, newly freed from the burden of school and ready to find a job, I had literally all the time in the world to put my talents to use. Thanks to a fortunate turn of events, I made my small way to the top in the course of 7 years, which to my current self, hold the best memories of my life, and the worst downfalls as well. I would like to share with you the story of my totally unimportant "rise and fall", so to speak, in the realm of reviews, wether from a gaming perspective, anime or manga, as well as team management of totally unexperienced amateurs with a great passion and strong will to pioneer the newly available road offered by the nevelty that were social media, during a time when this very peculiar situation granted me and my friends a small, yet very rewarding, corner in the spotlight.

    As a person, I'm an exceedingly confident guy at the end of his early adulthood - I'll be 30 in 3 months and that honestly scares me a little bit - with a somewhat too high anxiety in regards to social situations, open spaces and being around too many people in general.
    I treat my home as a safe place, a corner of the Earth perpetually stuck in a victorian library, from it's interior design to it's innermost scent: antiquity, old books and wooden planks are what comes to mind. I value youth, health and femininity.
    I am employed, although I did not have the fortune to do what I truly desire, yet, I understand that the things I'd like to try and do are so many that one single adulthood wouldnt be enough. Nonetheless, destiny came to my rescue: I have countless hours of free time to do basically whatever I wish with my life with the least amount of worry or restrictions, wether it from monetary expenses or travelling issues of any kind. At the moment, I consider myself at the peak of possibilities and, for a young adult my age, I almost seem to have excessive blessings.
    Regrettably, for all the kindness conceded to me by fate up until now, there is one price to pay: I can see with one eye only, and even that is getting poorer in visual quality as the years come by at a considerably faster rate than normal. Eventually, I'll reach a point when modding wont be possible anymore, as well as gaming. Procrastinating that moment is something I try to do every day. I believe in sheer force of will as a mean to heal the body to an extent, and at this point I'm betting on any kind of help. Sometimes, self help is the best help after all. But while I do that, I also work on new projects, because having so much time is no excuse to not put it to good use.

    I think I made this introduction long enough, I hope I can be of assistance to some modders in need of advice and provide some tangible evidence of teamwork done right, and wrong.
    My Mods and Projects

    - Realism Core v5 for La Monteé de L'Empire 4.2 (NTW)
    - Battle Chaos, give life to your fights! (NTW)
    - Battleterrain Mod, larger, better campaign battle maps (NTW)
    - Developer for 1800 (ETW) battle mechanics, unit stats
    - Developer for Victoria Total War (ETW) unit modeller \ texturer
    - Developer of Rise of the Eagles (MTW2 - HOSTED), creator \ db \ models \ textures
    - Risorgimento 1859 The Franco-Austrian War (NTW), creator \ developer

  2. #2

    Default Re: Salty tea and the witches' clothes

    Diary of a maid, the pages are torn and bloody

    August 16th, 1999

    And so I'm here. What can I say? I'm thankful to lady Camille for introducing me to this wonderful family. The little miss is so cute! I love her sooo much!
    I promise that I'll protect and serve little Sarah Bertford with all my strength.
    Lord Roland asked me how I'm doing, well, after so many years in that horrible orphanage I can finally feel at home.
    This is the best I've ever got... I pray every day for my benefactor's safety. May God guide him and his wonderful
    family to happiness.


    August 17th, 1999

    Little Sarah was so cute! She likes to play games with me. Today we played hide and seek for a while. I was so happy! I cant get enough of that smiling face. As a reward for my services, the little miss gave me her Ruby Key. I wonder if it's allright for me to take it though...


    September 2th, 1999

    I feel sick. There's something strange about those bells... I cant exactly explain what it is. Should I investigate? Oh, silly me! It's just the cold autumn air that's getting me all dizzy. I'll be ready again in no time!
    Meanwhile though... I think I'd better stay away from the library. I really dont like those bells.
    ... and so, it began. My initial "serious" adventure in the modding community. In late spring 2006, I started an innocent project for Half Life, or rather, the glorious GoldSrc engine which powered it, called "Project Whisper". Although little to no content was released to the public until now and I didnt proceed too far from the very root that sparked this idea, I've been using it as an example, as a memento, and as a personal warning should I ever come across multiple ideas and concepts, as a reminder that too many ideas combined into one gigantic product are definitely not worth the effort. Today ladies and gents, I'll be guiding you through my first learning experience in the gaming world.


    Making a game: The Modding Community


    Of course, it had to start somewhere, right? Making a videogame. But, I didnt even have the required skills to make a decent 3D model back then, much less the appropriate age, or cash to attend a videogaming course overseas. So, what then? Why, of course, let's start with the basics: modding an existing game. Back then, Half Life and its sequel were really popular, more than ever before. Although the original HL was slightly less intriguing in terms of possibilities, its engine was still solid, with great advantages in regards to scripting and ease of modelling. Therefore, the choice was made: I'd start a project tailored for GoldSrc. The first thing to learn was how to "connect the dots"; I didnt know C++ or any other programming language, therefore that was the first step towards my goal. I started messing around with the HLSDK 2.3, the official SDK given to the modders back then, for well over two years, gradually adjusting my rudimentary skills with the help of the (back then) quite large modding elite, composed of all kinds of people. Each of them had a distinct personality which had to be understood, taking good care not to get involved too much; I found that the most talented among them had quite the unstable background, no matter where I'd search, with personal problems of varied range. Something that my naive young self didnt even take into account at the beginning. While dealing with such personalities, I therefore learned some valuable lessons.

    1 - The modding community was an entity composed by people and, therefore, had to be treated as such. A conglomerate of talents and hopes, ever changing, absolutely not certain. Any modder could have disappeared in a matter of days without further notice, so all personal relationships had to be solidified in time, otherwise there was the very concrete possibility of not finishing a project... ever. This is mostly true even today.

    2 - Money do not solidify a relationship. I learned this the hard way. My naive self thought that dollars would solve problems, while unfortunately they often aggravate them one way or the other. People do not stay for money unless they are truly committed to the project and\or have personal motives inherently related to monetary compensation. Youngsters in particular, have a tendency to fulfill their promises in small bursts, without worrying about the deadlines, wether self imposed or not, regardless of any interest in money. In the long run, this is not acceptable.


    Once I learned how to deal with other people, more or less, I was on my way to get started. I took a bunch of tutorials on C# and C++, my good old SDK, grabbed a cup of coffee and started practicing. In the span of another year (we're talking about mid 2009) I've accomplished something "revolutionary" for the GoldSrc based games: I developed, with external help of my good friend SysOp leader of the ARRANGEMENT mod. an inventory system. At the beginning of the process, as soon as I realized it worked, I was ecstatic. It was indeed an accomplishment, however small. Problem is, the first draft of my project didnt have an inventory system set in place for the player to use, so I had to scrap part of it to accomodate the new change.

    The inventory had a GUI interface, descriptive text when howering with the mouse over the item's picture, and an automatic "use" function when clicking on it while standing near a point of interest.

    Very old preview of the inventory system, late 2011





    After setting up this marvelous new discovery (yes, you can laugh if you want), I was presented yet again with new possibilities. Although I made the mistake to tailor the storyline and basic flow of the game to the mechanics and not viceversa, I was still confident that I could pull this one off.


    Development stage


    Ah, the sweet days of development, when you dont have a true deadline and everything seems possible. And that's when failure is always ready to jump at you and terminate your will to go on with the work. Lessons were learned, again, the hard way. Sirlion, procrastinator extraordinaire, wasnt really a smart guy at the time. Personal life, relationships, commitment to other jobs, all contributed to a slow, steady decline in motivation and free time up until rather recently. Setting deadlines is vital. No matter the project, however small it may be, do not fall for it. You may wake up one day and mutter to yourself, "I dont feel like coding\mapping\modelling today. Maybe I'll do it tomorrow". That is wrong. You'll end up never doing it. If there is one advice that I'll never stop giving is this one. Dont get caught by laziness. You set a deadline, you try your hardest to fulfill it, at all times. Motivation does not come by itself, that much is clear, however, one must abide by his personal integrity and be resolute when need be. This is the one instance where indolence can truly be fatal.

    Ravelling from my own indolence, I spent well over 10 months thinking about what the game should talk about, and which degree of fidelty to my original view the work should attain when done.

    I went for the "easy" route: a classic horror title, inspired by the scrapped Resident Evil 4 E3 2003 Beta footage. The true RE fans will remember the famous Hookman demo footage, where a stalker would follow the player character throughout the level and relentlessly pursue him appearing and disappearing, coming out of walls, with intelligent use of paranormal threats and live environment.


    RE4 Beta 2003 original footage




    The concept itself was truly fascinating. And my inventory system served itself quite well for that type of game, so I was excited to try and recreate a similar atmosphere. I started with the creation of a basic plot revolving around a noble family that owned a small island in the Mediterranean sea, the Bertfords. The initial draft consisted of only one enemy, a stalker much in the guise of the Hookman, that would hunt down the player through a series of corridors and narrow alleys amidst forest sections.


    The earliest forest section I've created, around late 2009




    The "hookman" prototype




    As my skills gradually improved and I started to understand better the GoldSrc engine, I tried adding suitable features. First I added third party code from Spirit of Half Life, another mod which aimed at a complete recreation of the engine's fundamentals from the ground-up, then I used bits and snippets of OpenGL code with hints provided by the very active russian community. It was hard work and I admit to this day I dont really understand everrything that went through that period, but regardless, I did my best. At the end of the day, I was able to create a similar looking health indicator just like that seen in the RE4 2003 beta.

    My Health indicator, orange when low (Caution), red when near death (Danger)




    As the plot started to get progressively more complex, I thought about adding more features, an indicator for bullet count, an additional health bar for bleeding, and bandages. All those things would unnecessarily occupy my time for the next two years, until I finally scrapped everything around August 2011. To their demise, both my inability to find a good use for such functions and my willingness to solidify the plotline are to blame. So the lesson here folks is, do not waste time trying to implement things that wont fit your game plan and\or test them too much. Especially if you're an amateur and you're doing this solo, that's a very bad idea.

    The second draft for the plot involved the same noble family, the Bertfords, but this time the player character would receive a letter from the head of the family inviting him to travel by plane to his island. The player character would be a world-famous doctor with the task of discussing an important disease affecting one of Lord Bertford's daughters. The process of getting on the plane and subsequently landing on the island would be handled through cutscenes, as oppesed to my old idea of making the player do all the work. I wanted to immerse him in a deep cinematic experience. This however resulted in some quite silly animations and rudimentary experimentation that did not represent, in the end, what I had hoped for. Still unsure of the cutscene's fate, I tried several times to change angles and play with fake cinematic bars. The result improved a bit, but it never reached the pinnacle of my capabilities. Betatesters confirmed it was quite annoying and my voice acting abilities were subpar, so I decided to scrap the VA work and prepare for hiring. A long search for a decent VA ensued. I really did want to make a "game" rather than a "mod". However, prices were high and commitment was ... bizarre, to say the least. I decided to make the cutscenes text-based until further notice, while concentrating on the bulk of the plot.

    The player character would encounter 3 stalkers, as opposed to the one shown above, which was scrapped. I saw the Hookman idea as a literal copy-paste rather than an homage, so in the end I decided to sacrifice it to make room for more interesting characters. The ones that survived are:

    The family maid, the first stalker. She would pursue the player around the first two floors of the Bertford's mansion located at the top of the island, after a long walk across a wooden bridge in the middle of the ocean. She would use a meat cleaver, and she would hear rather than see. Her eyes were affected by the disease that was taking a toll among the family members, and Lord Bertford would experiment on her to find a cure for her own daughter resulting in her mental instability.

    Surviving 3D model around 2010, using the standard zombie animations altered in certain frames



    Scrapped "Hookman" model




    The encounter with the Maid was planned out as follows: the player wuould find access to the main library and then a deathmatch would ensue. There, he had to shoot 3 tall bells that would mess with he maid's hearing sense, allowing him to shoot her. The following cutscene was created around the concept of the maid falling through the mansion's roof creating an opening for the player to get back into the mansion through the newly created shortcut. I never finished the sequence due to lack of time and resources.

    Map of the Library, then named church_proto. it was initially desigend as a church, but then I recreated it in the guise of a gigantic library. The maid would destroy the rounded glass window in the center and get inside through a cutscene. The bell's position can be seen in this image, roughly around the central pillars.




    In game library entrance





    After the maid - and immediately before encountering her for the first time - the player would make the acquaintance of the gardener, the second stalker. He was designed as a serial killer at heart whose intentions were clear to Lord Bertford from the start, however, he would provide fresh specimen for his experiments in exchange for the fulfillment of his lustful desire for blood.
    The rough 3D model unfortunately did not survive, however I have video proof that I'll show you shortly. It was a basic retexture of Otis (the security guard) as a placeholder while I was working on the real model. He would use a pair of big scissors much like the Scissorman from Clock Tower and would chase the player throughout the mansion's garden. He had his own shed as well.


    Mansion's First Floor, Main Hall. It was designed so that the player could have visual access to all doors at all times, while still being far enough to prevent him from intervening when not necessary.




    In game




    The last stalker would be Camille, Lord Bertford's surviving daughter. She was designed to have a chase scene at the very end of the game, her body was altered in a way that rendered her immune to bullets, therefore the player had to escape as quickly as possible while the mansion was set on fire by Lord Bertford himself in the vane attempt to contain the disease. Sarah, the one mentioned in the above maid's diary, was cut early in development. I had planned a secondary role for her, she had to be the sane survivor of the family and she would know how to fly an helicopter to get the player out of the mansion, but in the end I found it more engaging for the player to discover her later in the story almost on the verge of death, and use her as an intermediary to tell a piece of the backstory rather than be an active support character. She would end up on a couch in the Dining Room 1F, unable to move. Her fate was unknown.


    Screenshot of the Dining Room 1F, where Sarah is. This is closely resembling the original RE4 Beta footage. I'm proud of how well it turned out considering the engine I was using.




    An additional threat for the player would be the unknown disease of the Bertfords, which would affect him as well, although not as terribly. He would often hallucinate and get ambushed by inanimate objects come to life, such as creepy wooden dolls and flying chairs.


    Dolls in ambush. They had a very creepy sound effect, I was very happy with it.




    In the end I managed to salvage most of what I've done throughout the years, I've gained much experience from this project and, although in its current state is not presentable, nor useful to anyone but me, I do not regret having started it back then. Giving up on it was the right thing to do regardless, as today's standards are too high, and nobody gives two cents about Half Life 1 mods anymore. I was late to the party, I admit it, however, I'm still positive that someday I'll manage to pull something good out of what I've done. This was indeed too ambitious for a single developer. Had I started in 1997, the time would have been just right. But alas, time travelling is not possible at present, therefore I'm happy just to be able to share such an experience with you all.

    Remember to keep your plans consistent and focused at all times, do not strife with your judgement and \ or that of your colleagues too much, rely on what actually works for your intended purposes and dont spend years trying to make useless features in the hopes that one day you'll make the plotline for them, rather than the other way around. Keep your motivation in check, have deadlines set in place for everything, even the simliest of things, and try to follow them as closely as possible. If you have to cut something out of your project, do so with care, trimming is an art as much as it is adding new content. And, most important of all, if you do not find a certain game plan or idea fun, discard it. There is no point in forcing a fruitless concept into your world just because it's cool or it's trending.

    If you want inspiration from my maps I'm happy to provide assistance and \ or give what I have left to you. And now, a (very low) quality video footage of the first part of the mod, from... well, ages ago. Hope you'll at least look at it with a smile.

    Last edited by Sirlion; September 23, 2017 at 04:01 PM.
    My Mods and Projects

    - Realism Core v5 for La Monteé de L'Empire 4.2 (NTW)
    - Battle Chaos, give life to your fights! (NTW)
    - Battleterrain Mod, larger, better campaign battle maps (NTW)
    - Developer for 1800 (ETW) battle mechanics, unit stats
    - Developer for Victoria Total War (ETW) unit modeller \ texturer
    - Developer of Rise of the Eagles (MTW2 - HOSTED), creator \ db \ models \ textures
    - Risorgimento 1859 The Franco-Austrian War (NTW), creator \ developer

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