Author: Luca Quartero

Posted on

Loot and craft

Hey cowboys,

today we will speak about the looting and crafting system you are going to enjoy in Chico; I guess you all know what I’m talking about.

The peak our hero is living on is a little deserted spot: there is neither way to get out of the rain nor take some rest nor warm by the fire; nothing at all. But fortunately there are some resources our poor guy can store in order to craft things. 

Basic resources randomly grow around everytime a new game is started, so if you don’t like the way the peak is arranged you can simply restart the game until you are satisfied. 

So let’s start speaking about looting.

To loot resources you must hold left click on a specific object in the game world, for example a tree if you want some wood, until it releases the goods you are in need of; besides by equipping the right tool in your hand you will loot much faster ( for example looting a tree using the axe is three time faster ). 

Keep playing with the tree to make it easy ( other resources work the same way ); once a tree has exhausted all the wood it crashes down to come back to life some time after completely renewed ( it should take 5 minutes, but it may change from one resource to another ). 

Everytime a tree releases some wood you must pick it up from the ground and it automatically will be put in your inventory ( if your inventory is full you can build the storage to obtain more free space ).

It’s now time to change the subject: about crafting.

Once you have enough resources you can either open your inventory or, with the hammer in your hand, left click on the workbench in the world ( if you already built it ): the difference is that the workbench gives you the ability to craft bigger stuff, but you need to put it close to the point you want to build on ( anyway the inventory UI is still the same ).

Once the inventory has opened just choose the desired recipe from the right panel and fill the fields with the needed resources, then push the craft button.

You can craft a lot of things this way, such as tools,

compounds and mixtures

and finally buildings for Chico’s freetime

Just another little thing before we break: some could guess the game mechanic is too simple and I must agree in some way; we want really to keep it simple because our target is not to give you a complex survival game, but rather a screensaver that shows you out all the things that can be crafted playing Chico. Our plan is to throw constantly in a lot of new assets that you will be able to craft in order to give Chico more freedom while spending his free time and for you to have more fun watching your screensaver.

That’s all folks!!!

As ever if you have any suggestion please message us.

Stay tuned,

1M2B.

Posted on

The day-night cycle system

Hey cowboys,

today we are going to talk about one of the most exciting features sported by Chico: the day-night cycle system.

Since Chico is basically a screen saver and it may go on forever ( sometimes coffee break can last hours ) it would be boring if our poor hero had always to be hanging around in the daylight.

The day-night cycle we implemented in Unity has a lot of features in order to give the world a beautiful appearance by rendering some specific colors for the sky, the sun, the light, the ground and some more ( I don’t remember all of them ) at different times of the day; here a screenshot from the Unity inspector:

The first thing we had to set up is the Unity procedural skybox needed to show the sky itself; the Unity skybox also includes the sun ( unfortunately not the moon ) and a powerful shader to achieve some interesting effects, such as for example atmosphere thickness, equator convergence, sun color and size. As you can see in the inspector the day has been splitted in four parts, each one holding colors and other specific settings which are then interpolated one another to reach the desired result.

On startup the day-night cycle system will set the game day time in order to match the timezone you are living in ( so if you run the game at midnight and you can’t see Chico walking alone on the peak think he might be sleeping ) and you will see the sky changing slowly like it happens in real life; in fact an entire cycle will last 24 hours by default, unless you speed it up like we did ripping the following video ( you will be allowed to speed up or slow down the time in the option menu ).

….but first a set of screenshots……

During the night our hero can even look at the stars if he has an insomniac; in fact we have realized a spherical shaped particle system ( don’t worry, it is a very very light particle system ) in order to recreate the whole starry sky. 

Another great feature concerns the buildings which you can build all around: many, if not all, of them are provided with a candle near the entrance; each one is then managed by the day-night cycle system which will light all the candles up when the night comes, giving the game some amazing lighting effects ( our Chico also have a torch while hanging around at midnight ).

That’all for today folks.

As ever, if you have any suggestions feel free to message us.

Posted on

The workbench

Ciao cowboys,

lost on the peak of a mountain with no way to go our poor Chico needs to find an amusing way to pass the time… and what’s better than doing some crafting?

Chico knows a lot of recipes to craft an incredible variety of tools, such as axes, knifes and even more exciting things like for example a bow with arrows. It’s enough easy for him to craft small tools by hands but what if he would like to build a storage or a hut? He needs something to help him craft large buildings, he needs a workbench.

Fortunately it doesn’t require a workbench to make a workbench ( that would be terrible ) so our Chico can craft it just using the resources he can find searching around ( if I’m not wrong you just need wood, rope and stone ).

To start crafting things you just have to open your inventory and look for the desired recipe from the list: in this case look for the workbench recipe and check the resources you need. During the building process you also have to choose where the workbench must be placed on the peak you stay in. Once the workbench is completed you just need an hammer ( no workbench is required to craft the hammer, so you can do it whenever you want ).

Once the hammer has been made and equipped you can left click on the workbench and start crafting something more complicated and bigger: in fact, when the workbench crafting system opens, you will see a lot of new recipes ( basically the crafting system works the same way ).

The hammer is also useful to break down buildings previously created, just right click on the building you want to destroy with the hammer in your hands. 

Last but not least, if our Chico has an insomniac, he can keep working at nightfall since the workbench is even provided with a shimmering light… ok it’s a candle, just a candle.

That’s all folks!!!

If you have any suggestion feel free to message us.

Stay tuned,

1M2B.

Posted on

moustache and beard

Ciao,

today we are going to speak about moustache and beard… yes it’s true, you heard right.

As the days go by our Chico will grow a pair of cowboy moustache and a thick beard proving you were playing for some time now. Time is beaten by the ticktack of our day-night cycle simulation system already set up and running in Unity  ( we planned to show it later in a more specific article ).

Obviously we don’t want Chico to be forced to have moustache and beard all the time… in fact during the game you will be able to craft a “toeletta”, so giving our poor hero the opportunity to shave while the screensaver is running ( so after you tasted your coffee you might see him ten years younger ).

You will also be able to choose weather Chico should shave or not by checking an option in the game menu…..maybe you want him to be the wildest one.

Here a short video:

The whole video has been rigged in Blender, whereas the same growing effect has been made in Unity by using LeanTween, a great and well known tool to play with interpolation.

That’s all for today folk.

Have fun and stay tuned.

Posted on

The Campfire

Ciao,
the night could be very cold in the far west, so we have chosen to give Chico the opportunity to craft a campfire to keep warm and do a lot of other exciting things.
How it works: while playing the game, if you get enough resources, you can craft the campfire and put it wherever you want on the ground; then, when you get your
coffee break at work, a long coffee break, the screensaver will start and Chico be allowed to sit down by the fire and cook a marshmallow
( I don’t really know if they had marshmallow in the old far west ) or play a banjo… or do whatever he wants.
The campfire and all of the other models have been made using Blender and texturized in Substance Painter by our great 3D artist; also Chico has been modeled and overall
animated all in Blender. All the assets are then loaded in Unity and thanks to our developer ( the best in the world ) all the things you see come to life.
That’s all folk… stay tuned.
Thanks from 1M2B.
Posted on

The storage

Ciao,
here we are with a little update.
The storage:
In this way our character can keep the materials in this structure to use them as needed.

Rendezvous at the next update, many new structures and many new animations for when the game will switch to the mode screensaver

Posted on

Chico opens his eyes to the world

Our hero ( who’s named Chico ) finds himself alone on the peak of a mountain in the middle of nowhere ( somewhere in the far west ); he can only get resources to create tools or buildings which might be useless during gameplay, but for sure will make his own life better, giving him a lot of different things to do in his free time ( when you are not forcing that poor guy to do something boring indeed ). For example if you get to build an hammock you might see Chico while taking some rest in your coffee time as soon as the screen saver starts ( or maybe not ).

The gameplay is very simple and intuitive because, as we’ve already said, the game purpose is to give you the ability to customize your own screensaver and thus see how Chico enjoys himself doing exciting sports like throwing stones against condors and more.

Features

  • Day-night cycle
  • Looting and crafting systems
  • Screen Saver integrated
  • Customizable time speed ( time is set to your timezone )
  • Inventory manager

Resources

  • Wood
  • Stone
  • Water
  • Sandstone
  • String

Useful tools and structures

  • Axe
  • Pick
  • Knife
  • Rope
  • Hammer
  • Workbench
  • Storage

Free time ( screensaver )

  • Campfire
  • Hut
  • Hammock
  • WC
  • Shave toilet…..
  • …..and much more

Our plan is to support the game with constant updates and thus releasing new tools and buildings to get Chico’s free time more comfortable.

That’s our idea, let us know what you think about it.

Stay tuned:

IndieDB: https://t.co/3JKLyP5bTw?amp=1

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Ciao,

by 1Monkey2Brains.