A NEW HOPE: Will2k's Dying Light Single-player campaign [WIP]

Greetings

I've been away for quite some time (October 2017) and my last post then was about me tinkering with Dying Light Developer Tools. This "tinkering" went from 0 to 100 real quick as I'm now developing a full fledged single player campaign titled " A New Hope".

I spent around 5 days watching short tutorials videos (around 20, 3-5 min each) from Developer Techland to cover the tools/sdk basics and get me up and running. I then delved into making small test maps for a trial and error approach since I was a fresh newbie with the tools.

The tools are a blast to use and I can't commend Techland enough for the work they did with the game and the tools.

Since this is a relatively big campaign, I had to plan and write down the story, map objectives, events, and NPCs on paper as well as lay down the layout and how and where I want the encounters and sequence/fights to happen. The most difficult, yet the most fun and rewarding part was the scripting/programming and quest creation process.

The map as it is now is about 25-30% complete but perfectly playable and bug-free with 1 full sequential quest in place (I could upload it to the workshop now but I'm not gonna do it

The final map will hopefully be 3-4 times larger than the current area (which is rather large) and will feature approximately 20-25 minutes of gameplay (numbers not final) in addition to 1 hour+ of world exploration, scavenging, and random events/encounters (the current finished part of the map has around 7-8 minutes of quest gameplay and 30+ minutes of exploration depending on playing style and skills).

The map features unlockable safehouses with player stash and sleeping/time-forwarding ability as well as day/night cycle adaptation. It also features traders/shops, random events, fights with special infected and humans, ziplines, environmental traps, and plenty of scavenging, looting, and exploration.

Story-wise, it will see the main protagonist, Kyle Crane, leaving the City for the countryside to search for a specific elusive medicinal herb and bring it back to Dr. Camden who believes it could be the cure to the Harran Virus.

I don't have a set date yet for the release but I'm working tirelessly on the campaign while in parallel, still learning new things in the tools (still have a lot to cover and learn but the focus now is on cutscenes, animation, interactive dialog among others)

The tools are awesome to work with; I've put in a little north of 150 hrs so far and only started to scratch below the surface. On a side note, Source engine is slowly becoming a distant memory.

Now onto the screenshots

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Quote from FMPONE

2 minutes ago, FMPONE said: Never played this game, so can't comment too much, but the screenshots look nice and seem to convey a nice open-ended adventure Promoted for others to see.

Thank you Shawn

You should totally play it; can't recommend the game enough It's a labor of love from the developers who are still actively supporting the game 3 years after its initial release

(fun fact: Dying Light was released exactly 3 years ago on January 26, 2015)

Quote from gav

9 hours ago, gav said: Looks like fun Will . great job

Thanks gav

Quote from Radu

32 minutes ago, Radu said: Btw, how did you find the entire experience of moving from source?

It's like ditching your 1970 model car and getting a 2018 model

I've been planning to move to UE4 or Unity 5 for the past 2 years but I needed an established game to make the move; then Dying Light came along with its Chrome Engine and I was hooked.

Source is simple and easy to use but outdated, archaic, and very limiting; I've been saying this for quite some time now

Dying Light Developer Tools take a bit of time to get into but once you're familiar with them, you can unleash your creativity without worrying about technology limiting you.

As I said in the previous post, the toughest part was scripting and quest creation but once you get the hang of it, the possibilities are endless and you become like a kid in a candy store.

As an example of the power of scripting in Dying Light, I will use the 3rd screenshot where the objective I set is to restore power to the warehouse so you can access it and check for survivors.

This is the script I wrote specific for this part of the quest.

Quote

Quote ,BLOCK _ -obj=&ANewHopePart2b_Restore& ,AND _ path ,enable <<Enable the electrical switch box>> PhysicalSwitchDI hangar_electricswitch enabled ,use << Use the switch to restore power>> PhysicalSwitchDI hangar_electricswitch on ,wait << wait 3 seconds>> 3 ,enable << enable guardian goon >> AISpawnBoxNumber mygoon -state=enabled ,enable-multi <<enable goon possey and electricity damage>> ,o AISpawnBoxNumber hangar_viral1 ,o AISpawnBoxNumber hangar_viral2 ,o AISpawnBoxNumber hangar_viral3 ,o AISpawnBoxNumber hangar_biter1 ,o AISpawnBoxNumber hangar_biter2 ,o AISpawnBoxNumber hangar_biter3 ,o ElectricityEmitterDI hangar_electricaldamage ,o FXEmitter hangar_electricemitter

You can basically do whatever you wish with the scripting; your creativity is the limit.

The tools are also real time and you are basically in-engine (if you worked with Crysis Dev Tools, this is basically the same). The editor is dynamic and real-time and everything you do gets updated on the spot.

I might write an article on this experience when everything is done and the campaign is released.

Quote from FrieChamp

7 hours ago, FrieChamp said: That's awesome! I didnt know you could map for Dying Light.

Thanks FrieChamp

If you have the game on steam, then the dev tools are in your steam library-->tools; you just install them and you're set.

Quote from blackdog

14 hours ago, blackdog said: Awesome, think I had seen something about tools but didn’t think anybody was doing it.

ill spread the word with friends I know we’re liking the game! (I was interested but never bought it yet)

Thank you Blackdog

Quote from blackdog

21 hours ago, blackdog said: You feeling done with Source stuff (until Source 2)?

I wouldn't hold my breath for Source 2 that much; unless it comes out with a solid game on release, I don't see it getting high adoption rate against already established, and easy-to-use next gen engines.

If it gets released alongside, say L4D3, or a new IP or God forbid, HL3, then I can see people switching to Source 2 (or if it has a brand new feature that's not existing in other engine); otherwise, it will be just another engine trying to compete for market share, albeit a tad late to the party.

Quote from blackdog

4 hours ago, blackdog said: Yeah I’m with you on the Source 2 @will2k, who knows when it and if will come out at all – knowing Valve they could very well change mind. But if it comes out even with no direct modding support, there’s to wonder if they would streamine/make it easier (for adopters) to publish on Steam, that would be an incentive.

Was more wondering if you had enough with current version or still gonna make maps

Well, as I said in my original post above, Source is slowly becoming a distant memory.

I have 2 CSGO WIPs that I haven't worked on for almost 9 months now; they'll continue to be on the back-burner in the foreseeable future as my focus is on Dying Light right now. I also had plans for a 2nd map for PVKII, but that also goes to the backseat now.

I'll probably go back to these projects somewhere in the future although nothing is certain

Quote from nikkoship

15 hours ago, nikkoship said: This looks awesome!

It's a pretty powerful editor, I was very surprised. I messed around with it like a month back or so but didn't want to commit to anything cause I felt I kinda missed the boat with this game.

Is it possible to create custom assets/textures for your maps in this?

Thank you nikko

Yes, absolutely. You can create your custom assets then import them into the editor

Here's a short video (4 min) from Developer Techland showing the basics of importing custom assets

Quote from blackdog

11 hours ago, blackdog said: but unless you are very hungry to try different techs or in love with a game, you don't get involved...

It's a bit of both actually