Trailer
Gameplay Programming
Fluidity and dynamic interactions have always been core focuses for Naginami and the Crimson Thread. Each thread interaction is uses dynamic vector calculations, precisely adapting based on the player's position relative to both creatures and the surrounding environment.
Development Process
Naginami started as a different game about dimension switching. Naginami would traverse worlds, each with two dimensions.
While interesting in concept the execution had much to be desired. However one aspect stuck out, one that I programmed in as an extra feature. The Thread.
The decision was made to pivot to a game about traversing with the thread. This not only put focus on the best aspect of the game, but also reduced the scope for a solo project.
My main focus was to make movement fluid and satisfying. I wanted the player to be able to use the thread easily while still being able to chain together unique combos to give a sense of real achievement.
To give variety, every creature has 3 unique thread interactions, A grapple, a pull, and a special. Chaining these together provides flexibility and creativity in how the player flies through the air.
Another focus was the jump, having gone through about 30 different iterations and animations, because I knew if the jump didn’t feel right, people wouldn’t play.
This presented a new challenge. The thread allowed you to move quickly through the air, and cover vast distances in a short time. This required large levels, and with the art style, this made it difficult to build these levels.
To help with the process we used a spline based terrain generator, to quickly create dynamic terrain. To fill in this terrain I created many tools one of which is the auto Foliage generator mentioned above. This allowed me to automatically populate these terrains with foliage.
A goal for the project was to have no loading screen once the game starts. The player can climb from the bottom of the Mountain to the top in one go with no loading screens and smooth transitions.
As you can see on the right, the Demo’s full map and Level 2’s submap. The Demo’s full map spans about 2 miles from bottom to top.
Currently the Naginami and the Crimson Thread Demo released on Oct 1st on Steam. Primarily a solo developed project with help from the three very talented individuals.
Sarah Tippets for character designs and environment set pieces.
Sara Runyan as Sound Engineer,
Connor Lee for the music.
You can play the demo now on Steam!
Tools
Auto Foliage Tool
The auto foliage tool populates spline-controlled terrain with instanced foliage objects that helps define level boundaries. It provides great flexibility and control. Instead of hand placing foliage on every terrain object, it gathers all terrain in the level and auto-populates it, while still letting you tweak specific instances, saving hours of manual work.
Cutscene Manager
The custom cutscene generator allowed for easy generation of cutscenes in an easy to see timeline allowing the user to create, restructure, edit, and test cutscenes in a quick manner.
Dynamic Level Streaming
Created a dynamic level streamer to ensure seamless level transitions, with the ability to jump between levels, and have the whole game within a single instance without loading screens.
PNG to terrain Generator
The PNG to Terrain Generator is a tool created for an unannounced project. It will take in a simple image and generate grid terrain based on the image. providing great flexibility in generation processes using Fractional Brownian Motion as a base with various other rules. This allows the developer and players to easily create base maps for use in the game.
Rigging and Animation
I handle all animation and rigging personally for Naginami and the Crimson Thread. The game utilizes Spine by Esoteric Software for managing all rigging and animation processes.
Art
My primary focus for the art of Naginami and the Crimson Thread is environment art, specializing in distant backgrounds, terrain design, and select foliage elements.
Blended together in a beautiful water color aesthetic.
I've developed an environment and lighting system that dynamically adapts to meet the evolving needs of the game.
Some major set pieces such as checkpoints, gates, and crystals are made by me.
Naginami and the Crimson Thread requires detailed and varied foliage, so I've developed a custom foliage tool that automatically populates terrain surfaces—all at the click of a button.
To help blend the background elements together, I developed a watercolor shader that creates a flowing watery texture that blends all background elements together to help make the foreground pop. This allows us to create detailed visually interesting backgrounds that do not overwhelm the important details.