Pathway

WIP games, tools & toy projects
#1

Pathway is a tactical, turn-based RPG set in a 1930’s pulp adventure scenario. We are in production since last year, and plan to release the game on Windows, MacOS and Linux sometime in 2017 2018.

http://pathway-game.com/assets/pathway003.png

You can read more information about the game at http://pathway-game.com/.

Pathway is written in Java 8, powered by libGDX, using the LWJGL3 backend. It is pretty heavy on GLSL shader and custom OpenGL 3 render code, so for the most parts of scene rendering we bypass the 2D/3D functions provided by libGDX, and call GL functions directly through LWJGL. The renderer assembles a pretty wild mix of techniques (multiple render passes, deferred shading with multi-render-targets, shadow mapping, post-processing FX).

Our goal was to combine the look of classic 2D pixel art with dynamic lights and shadows. It took us quite some time and iterations to get there, but now we are pretty pleased with the result. We plan to write about our rendering architecture in more detail at a later date.

We use the excellent VisUI library for editor/tools UI, and gdx-ai for pathfinding.

I’m also an early adopter of noctarius’ very own borabora library.

#2

That looks awesome! Keep it up :slight_smile:

#3

:o looking great! can’t wait to play it.

#4

Wow - I really really like the art style and the effects!
Keep 'em updates flowing

#5

This looks cool, well done.

When you say “turn-based”, is that as in X-Com or more like in Final Fantasy (i.e. is the movement turn-based or just the battles)?

#6

There won’t be any asian RPG style scene transition to start a battle. We plan to have unrestricted (but still tile-based) movement out of combat, with the choice for the player to move units separately, or all of them together. Then switch to turn-based movement/actions during battles.

This plan may still change for some reason, but it worked pretty well in our previous game, Halfway.

#7

Already a fan of your work. It looks like the work you are putting into custom and tweaked shaders has really paid off. That light/shadow looks amazing! A regular player will realise the effort that goes into making a game look like that, but some part of their brain will register that something special is going on.

#8

A preview of our dynamic lighting system in action. All the same scene, just with different sets of light sources / settings.

http://thegreystudios.com/shared/DayNightCrossfade_logo.gif

#9

Awesome pixel-fu you got there. :wink:

#10

This looks incredible, and is right up my alley thematically, too. Looking forward to seeing the end product!