140 replies to this topic

[psy_commando]

I know Asper made a thread about it a while ago, but I have no power over that thread, so I decided to make one. I hope that's ok.

I just wanted to put up a thread about the project my team and I are working on. Its a starfox themed mod for the source engine, revolving around the story of the old comics from the 1993 Nintendo Power magazines. We'll however incorporate planets from starfox 64 and starfox 2 along with Starwolf, Bill and Katt.
http://www.moddb.com/mods/project-sfr

The Story
The story comes in 2 parts. The first is from Starfox's perspective with a few tweak to the story to fix some of its "shortcuts"(think of the "Fara looks like Fox's mother" plot device that appeared only in the very last portion of the story). The second is from the perspective of a group of cornerian special forces soldiers.
The point here is to have more "room" to feature on-foot combat with the cornerian soldier than with Starfox. Both will feature either some flying or on-foot action however.

The Game
We'll feature on-rail and all-range combat, along with boss battle. We'll also have on-foot 3rd person combat and infiltration, in a similar style as games like Mass Effect and Metal Gear Solid. It will feel like a cinematic experience, in the same spirit as ME or MGS.
We've got most of our basic mechanics working, albeit fairly buggy. Thanks to the source engine's already present implementation of third person player character. We even got flying working. Multiplayer is a little glitchy right now however, but it will be addressed.
One of the thing we plan to do with this mod is to make it modable, and let people less accustomed with source to make machinima or their own game using the mod's assets, and the hammer world editor.

The point of this thread is to get feedback and to slip tidbits of informations under the table. And to attract more volunteers ( additional programmers, and artists mostly). Its also because we don't have a real website

Some WIP Media

This video shows the new player abilities we're adding, they don't have any anims yet. The Character model isn't there yet either. The map is a debug map so don't mind it.

Main Menu Theme


Briefing Theme


Some Concept Art
http://dl.dropbox.co...ix_TouchUps.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.co...t%20Concept.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.co...n%20Soldier.png
http://dl.dropbox.co...s%20Concept.png
http://dl.dropbox.co...aces%20Test.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.co...%20Lombardi.png
http://dl.dropbox.co...al%20Pepper.png


I'm sure most of you are already aware but, we're not affiliated in any ways with Nintendo, nor did we receive their permission. And we're doing this not for profit but for learning the ropes of game development.

[DZComposer]

If you get multiplayer working, I will seriously consider throwing up a server for it.

EDIT: You concept art has Pepper with a lollipop. For all that is good and holy do that in the game.

[Drasiana]

Looking great! You guys are doing a good job of keeping this thing going and making it functional, so, props.

My only complaint is please do not make Falco's suit purple, it clashes terribly with his feathers. Orange all the way. D:

[scourgeclaw]

Drasiana, on 04 November 2011 - 09:14 PM, said:

Looking great! You guys are doing a good job of keeping this thing going and making it functional, so, props.

My only complaint is please do not make Falco's suit purple, it clashes terribly with his feathers. Orange all the way. D:

Gonna have to agree here as far as the purple suit, the orange just fit so much better :l

Other than that, loving it all the way keep it up!

[LoneWolf]

This looks awesome. If you can actually complete it, it would be awesome, I can tell. Your character sketches are brilliant too, particularly liking the designs for Coyote Latrans and Fara Pheonix. Just brillsome in every way.

[psy_commando]

DZComposer, on 04 November 2011 - 09:10 PM, said:

If you get multiplayer working, I will seriously consider throwing up a server for it.

EDIT: You concept art has Pepper with a lollipop. For all that is good and holy do that in the game.

That'd be great. It would beat my athlon xp in my basement

And yeah, the lollipop is too awesome to let go, I had to ask Chaotic_Tide to keep it

Drasiana, on 04 November 2011 - 09:14 PM, said:

Looking great! You guys are doing a good job of keeping this thing going and making it functional, so, props.

My only complaint is please do not make Falco's suit purple, it clashes terribly with his feathers. Orange all the way. D:

Thanks.

And thanks for the feedback, you're right it clashes. We'll probably go orange.
But what about Fox then ? He was wearing green in-game, orange in the comics, and gold/yellow as a puppet.

scourgeclaw, on 04 November 2011 - 09:36 PM, said:

Gonna have to agree here as far as the purple suit, the orange just fit so much better :l

Other than that, loving it all the way keep it up!

Thanks. We'll do our best to get this finished

LoneWolf, on 04 November 2011 - 10:07 PM, said:

This looks awesome. If you can actually complete it, it would be awesome, I can tell. Your character sketches are brilliant too, particularly liking the designs for Coyote Latrans and Fara Pheonix. Just brillsome in every way.

I like them too, they're both from Chaotic-Tide he was our first concept artist, he had to leave in July because he was going on a 2 year trip. Even if he had to leave, I thought it was totally worth having him do some sketches for us We're trying to stay true to the style he used for those characters.

[Asper Sarnoff]

Really nice to see how far you've gotten since I made that thread ages ago. You're keeping the momentum up, and doing good progress.
Don't slow down, mash the pedal to the metal! Good luck.

[Drasiana]

psy_commando, on 04 November 2011 - 10:24 PM, said:

And thanks for the feedback, you're right it clashes. We'll probably go orange.
But what about Fox then ? He was wearing green in-game, orange in the comics, and gold/yellow as a puppet.

Fox has a different, and more natural fur-colour, so what colours he can get away with wearing are somewhat different. Falco looks better with oranges and reds because his feathers are blue. It's the idea of complimentary colors, I guess.

I might actually give Fara green pants there too, like in the comics. Blue and that shade of purple right up against each other just look sorta "meh", like they sort of mute each other. The dress design is cute though :>

[TCPeppyTc]

I concur with Drasnia and Scourgeclaw on Falcos orange suit.

One question. Is team Starwolf going to be evil like N64 version, or antiheroish like Assault version?

[psy_commando]

Asper Sarnoff, on 04 November 2011 - 10:40 PM, said:

Really nice to see how far you've gotten since I made that thread ages ago. You're keeping the momentum up, and doing good progress.
Don't slow down, mash the pedal to the metal! Good luck.

Thanks, good advice

Drasiana, on 05 November 2011 - 12:01 AM, said:

Fox has a different, and more natural fur-colour, so what colours he can get away with wearing are somewhat different. Falco looks better with oranges and reds because his feathers are blue. It's the idea of complimentary colors, I guess.

I might actually give Fara green pants there too, like in the comics. Blue and that shade of purple right up against each other just look sorta "meh", like they sort of mute each other. The dress design is cute though :>

Yeah, that was CT's idea, the dress I mean. Its much better than the leotard
You mean something like this : http://dl.dropbox.co...OrigDrawing.png
Well without the purple shoes.

TCPeppyTc, on 05 November 2011 - 12:29 AM, said:

I concur with Drasnia and Scourgeclaw on Falcos orange suit.

One question. Is team Starwolf going to be evil like N64 version, or antiheroish like Assault version?

Well, I'd say neither.
Since they only appears in sf2, in the original canon, they probably wouldn't be working directly for Andross yet. So, I made them more opportunistic, like they do odd jobs for pirates profiting of the war, in order to gather enough cash to start their own thing. And that's how they'll become Starwolf later in sf2, at least in the story. They'll face with Starfox on a few occasions, somewhat increasing their rivalry. But that's still up to Fira, since she is writing the script, and fixing what I had already written

[Drasiana]

psy_commando, on 05 November 2011 - 03:26 AM, said:

Yeah, that was CT's idea, the dress I mean. Its much better than the leotard
You mean something like this : http://dl.dropbox.co...OrigDrawing.png
Well without the purple shoes.

Yeaaah there we go. Who's your concept artist, anyway? They're doing a pretty good job!

[Asper Sarnoff]

Drasiana, on 05 November 2011 - 03:57 AM, said:

Yeaaah there we go. Who's your concept artist, anyway? They're doing a pretty good job!

This fellow.http://chaotic-tide.deviantart.com/
Great guy, but as earlier said, not very active anymore.

[TCPeppyTc]

So will this story by half Fox Mcclouds perspective and half the Cornerian armys? The Starwolf team might very well be opprotunistic now, but what about their personalities? For isntance is Pigma and Andrew with them yet? Or just Wolf, Leon, and ( maybe) Panther?

Leon to me, seemed more badass in N64 version. He was much better as a cold and genteel assasin, then his mroe "crazy" version in Assault. I liked Wolf in both versions of SF. He worked well as both the steretypicl, "captian hook"- esque villain he was in 64 as well as the tough guy in assault. Have you thought about their persoalities yet? Have voice actors lined up... In case you need any more I am always available......

[psy_commando]

TCPeppyTc, on 05 November 2011 - 07:53 PM, said:

So will this story by half Fox Mcclouds perspective and half the Cornerian armys? The Starwolf team might very well be opprotunistic now, but what about their personalities? For isntance is Pigma and Andrew with them yet? Or just Wolf, Leon, and ( maybe) Panther?

Leon to me, seemed more badass in N64 version. He was much better as a cold and genteel assasin, then his mroe "crazy" version in Assault. I liked Wolf in both versions of SF. He worked well as both the steretypicl, "captian hook"- esque villain he was in 64 as well as the tough guy in assault. Have you thought about their persoalities yet? Have voice actors lined up... In case you need any more I am always available......

I won't say too much on this. I leave it to our writer to handle their personalities. This far we have only Wolf and Leon, but Pigma and / or Andrew isn't impossible. And thanks for the offer, but we'll wait for the script first, then we'll hire voice actors. We'll make an announcement when we're ready for that

Drasiana, on 05 November 2011 - 03:57 AM, said:

Yeaaah there we go. Who's your concept artist, anyway? They're doing a pretty good job!

Well nowadays we have 4 guys working on concept art, but they've been all pretty busy with other things lately. Most of them aren't from the SF community however, except Schattendorn :
- Alex Waldo : http://www.moddb.com/members/alexwaldo
- Matt Purchase (he did the lizard soldier)
- Railgun131 : http://railgun131.deviantart.com/
- Schattendorn : http://schattendorn.deviantart.com/

[DZComposer]

As far as weapons go, are you aiming for what was in SFAs or are you doing your own weapons?

Also, the vid looks weird without character animations. lol hoversuits.

I would offer to do some music for you, but I'm not sure I have the time due to other commitments. Plus, given you have a team together, you probably already have someone, eh?

[psy_commando]

DZComposer, on 06 November 2011 - 04:48 PM, said:

As far as weapons go, are you aiming for what was in SFAs or are you doing your own weapons?

Also, the vid looks weird without character animations. lol hoversuits.

I would offer to do some music for you, but I'm not sure I have the time due to other commitments. Plus, given you have a team together, you probably already have someone, eh?

We're doing our own weapons, since those in SFA were pretty generic and IMO, lame. But they mostly work the same way, some can be charged and have multiple firemodes. We'll try to make them feel like tools appropriate for certain situations. Like in mass effect you have guns better against shield, some better against armors and etc... It may not be as complex however. We're still trying to find ways to make the gunplay interesting.

I agree, its pretty weird, but I couldn't find climbing anims in the DoD anims. Anyways, those are all placeholder, the DoD soldier model, the guns, the hud. I'd rather spend time coding feature than polishing something I'll get rid of anyways Besides this is just a dev video, when we make a trailer it will be much more polished than this.

It's alright, even though I'd have been honored to have you do music for us I was planning to gather a bunch of composers to do a collab for the mod soundtrack, but not until our first release. In the meantime, and for the more ambient and subtle music, we have a composer who joined us, and you may hear his contribution pretty soon

[TCPeppyTc]

Is Andross main bad guy?

[psy_commando]

TCPeppyTc, on 06 November 2011 - 08:41 PM, said:

Is Andross main bad guy?

Of course, since we're based on the nintendo power comics.

By the way thanks for the sticky

[Ajc3000fox]

so beautiful.......

[DZComposer]

Hmm, if it's a collab, I may be able to throw one or two songs your way. No promises though.

[psy_commando]

DZComposer, on 07 November 2011 - 02:30 AM, said:

Hmm, if it's a collab, I may be able to throw one or two songs your way. No promises though.

That would be awesome! And sure, I'm ok with that, I understand you can't promise anything with your other commitments

[psy_commando]

Hey, here's a nice pistol made by Railgun131:





I also have a question for you guys: What would the Landmaster would look like in the pre-64 canon ?

We're trying to get a good design for it, but its hard to get something Starfoxy. Like here's the last design we made for it :
http://dl.dropbox.co...aster.......jpg

We decided to turn it into another tank than the Landmaster since its way different.

[EchoFox]

Your LandMaster looks fucken-A. I'd be happy to see it in-game.

psy_commando, on 10 November 2011 - 03:59 PM, said:

Hey, here's a nice pistol made by Railgun131:

Great detail on the magazine, are the rounds transported to the rear of the weapon prior to firing?

You should perhaps consider removing the bar under the trigger, as it may potentially block the operators support hand from achieving a 100% grip, sometimes called a fist grip. Bear in mind that cup-and-saucer grips offer no value in comparison, and neither does this. Just remember that any handgun design should enable the operator to achieve complete weapon control through a proper grip.


(Oh, obviously it's the future/sci fi/in spaaaace, so you can rationalise anything you want with technology etc, but still, might be cool to bring some real world thinking into it)

ALSO, nice cheeky little H&K logo you've got there!

(albeit backwards)

[Asper Sarnoff]

psy_commando, on 10 November 2011 - 03:59 PM, said:

I also have a question for you guys: What would the Landmaster would look like in the pre-64 canon ?

We're trying to get a good design for it, but its hard to get something Starfoxy. Like here's the last design we made for it :
http://dl.dropbox.co...aster.......jpg

We decided to turn it into another tank than the Landmaster since its way different.

Oh! oh! *waves hand in the air* I've spent a year driving what is essentially a tank, besides allready being deeply fascinated by them and other armored fighting vehicles, and would gladly offer my expertise on the field.

What you have there is in general a good design for a sci-fi tank. Like the Landmaster, the way the threads are laid out gives it a severe disadvantage when it comes to mobility. With pretty much every single tank in the real world, the leading wheel is raised off the ground, thus allowing them to scale obstacles, up to as much as 1,15 metres for the one I drove.
Coupled with its very low ground clearance, I'd be lead to assume this is meant purely as a vehicle for fighting in urban enviroments, or on gently slooping plains. Very few militaries can afford themself that kind of specialisation when it comes to expensive equipment such as a main battle tank.
The Landmaster could get around that, due to its ability to hover. If this tank doesn't have the capability for hovering, it's a very vulnerable design. Someone could trap it in confined streeps with a few well placed obstacles, or in just a matter of hours, dig trench systems that could funnel an advance by these tanks exactly where they want them. A tank without its mobility is a dead tank.

Apart from that, the design is very good. I'd advice adding towing eyes in all four corners on the inside of the belts, as well as some lights, and tools hanging from the hull to add a bit more realism.
The gun I assume isn't a conventional one, as there's no room for a loader or recoil dampening behind it in that turret. Top tip to set it apart from the vast mayority of sci-fi tanks: Don't give it a laser cannon. A railgun would be an excellent alternative. Way more futuristic than a conventinal gun, but not as far out as lasers.

[psy_commando]

EchoFox, on 10 November 2011 - 04:18 PM, said:

Your LandMaster looks fucken-A. I'd be happy to see it in-game.

Great detail on the magazine, are the rounds transported to the rear of the weapon prior to firing?

You should perhaps consider removing the bar under the trigger, as it may potentially block the operators support hand from achieving a 100% grip, sometimes called a fist grip. Bear in mind that cup-and-saucer grips offer no value in comparison, and neither does this. Just remember that any handgun design should enable the operator to achieve complete weapon control through a proper grip.

(Oh, obviously it's the future/sci fi/in spaaaace, so you can rationalise anything you want with technology etc, but still, might be cool to bring some real world thinking into it)

ALSO, nice cheeky little H&K logo you've got there!

(albeit backwards)

Thanks, Railgun131 seemed to have really liked your critic
If you want we have more guns that you could critic :

Sniper rifle:
http://dl.dropbox.co...BSR10_Final.jpg

SMG:
http://dl.dropbox.co...MG10_Finish.jpg

Assault rifle (2nd is shorter variant) :
http://dl.dropbox.co...ndard_Final.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.co...mando_Final.jpg

Feel free to critic those as well

Asper Sarnoff, on 10 November 2011 - 05:32 PM, said:

Oh! oh! *waves hand in the air* I've spent a year driving what is essentially a tank, besides allready being deeply fascinated by them and other armored fighting vehicles, and would gladly offer my expertise on the field.

What you have there is in general a good design for a sci-fi tank. Like the Landmaster, the way the threads are laid out gives it a severe disadvantage when it comes to mobility. With pretty much every single tank in the real world, the leading wheel is raised off the ground, thus allowing them to scale obstacles, up to as much as 1,15 metres for the one I drove.
Coupled with its very low ground clearance, I'd be lead to assume this is meant purely as a vehicle for fighting in urban enviroments, or on gently slooping plains. Very few militaries can afford themself that kind of specialisation when it comes to expensive equipment such as a main battle tank.
The Landmaster could get around that, due to its ability to hover. If this tank doesn't have the capability for hovering, it's a very vulnerable design. Someone could trap it in confined streeps with a few well placed obstacles, or in just a matter of hours, dig trench systems that could funnel an advance by these tanks exactly where they want them. A tank without its mobility is a dead tank.

Apart from that, the design is very good. I'd advice adding towing eyes in all four corners on the inside of the belts, as well as some lights, and tools hanging from the hull to add a bit more realism.
The gun I assume isn't a conventional one, as there's no room for a loader or recoil dampening behind it in that turret. Top tip to set it apart from the vast mayority of sci-fi tanks: Don't give it a laser cannon. A railgun would be an excellent alternative. Way more futuristic than a conventinal gun, but not as far out as lasers.

Well I meant mostly on a stylistic point of view, but you raised points we lost sight of during design You're right, this tank isn't very off-road capable, and we'll try to address that.

And you forgot to mention that the turret can't reach low flying aircrafts, which the original landmaster could. That's one of the reason we made it into another tank.

About the gun, its meant to be a plasma blaster, like most Starfox weapons. But the mod features standard ballistic and railguns weapons too so we could maybe do a variant in mp someday