Rayman: Revenge of the Dark

[DandyGuy]

i hope ubi-soft will publish this. this is amazing

[Adsolution]

I hope they do!

And I'm going on vacation now for two and a half weeks, so I might not have updates til after then, unless I'm able to pick up my laptop on the sixth day. But even if I get my laptop I might not get any good screens because it's a sort of old laptop that could run this on low graphics at 10-15 FPS. I don't know if it could compute max graphics. Don't worry though, I'll have an internet connection. If I don't soon, I will by Thursday.

[Droolie]

Congrats RayFan, you nailed the nighttime environments.
The daytime environments look a bit less awesome as Bloodgrey said. I think that's because the colours look a bit too saturated and not there's not much colour variation in there. Personally I'd try getting daytime sky graphics like these. Maybe instead of having a skybox image, try messing around with the Time of Day effects to get a more complicated sky and lighting, and try to add the clouds, stars, moons (don't forget to put two of them ), etc. separately. It will give you a much more dynamic and more original-looking (since you determine how much of everything there is) sky. And much better transitions between day and night. CryEngine is certainly capable of all that so I don't see why you'd still use a skybox background.
That's all just nitpicking though, I'm sorry if it sounds like I'm criticising it or anything. I'm not, I just want to help you make it look perfect - and it's not far from that, it looks absolutely gorgeous so far. Keep it up!

[Adsolution]

Thanks Drollie! Nice to see your comment here.

About the sky, thanks for the reference. It'll come in handy especially since it's Ancel-directed. Personally I find night time to be an easier thing for me; I'm better at it. But of course I'm going to be trying hard to achieve an awesome day time look!

And the skyboxes, it's a standard dynamic HDR sky, but I created a giant transparent dome around the level with alpha-mapped cloud textures on top, so it's a mix of both (the clouds are very visible in the night time pic). The reason for me doing this is so I can have them "moving" by having the dome slowly rotate, and because CryEngine clouds are still far from photorealistic. Day time skies being difficult I explained in the post above your.

[Rayman fan2000]

I wonder how long it will be for you to be able to make a demo, and also aren't you going to make some more important stuff before the music like models and such?

[Janic]

RayFan, The game looks absolutely gorgeous but Ihave a question. Will this be an open-world (sandbox) style game, because that's how it looks so far. Also... I didn't see the second sun enywhere? Keep up the good work and most importantly... Take your time.

[Shrooblord]

I wonder how long it will be for you to be able to make a demo, and also aren't you going to make some more important stuff before the music like models and such?

More important? Music is usually one of the biggest factors that helps you enjoy a game - even if you're not aware of it. But if Rayfan is like me, then she just makes music as inspiration strikes her. You can't usually turn on or off your inspiration - if you've got a good idea, you work it out. And maybe the music helps her create the levels themselves, who knows. Maybe I should let her answer herself...

[Keane]

I wonder how long it will be for you to be able to make a demo, and also aren't you going to make some more important stuff before the music like models and such?

More important? Music is usually one of the biggest factors that helps you enjoy a game - even if you're not aware of it. But if Rayfan is like me, then she just makes music as inspiration strikes her. You can't usually turn on or off your inspiration - if you've got a good idea, you work it out. And maybe the music helps her create the levels themselves, who knows. Maybe I should let her answer herself...

[Adsolution]

I wonder how long it will be for you to be able to make a demo, and also aren't you going to make some more important stuff before the music like models and such?

More important? Music is usually one of the biggest factors that helps you enjoy a game - even if you're not aware of it. But if Rayfan is like me, then she just makes music as inspiration strikes her. You can't usually turn on or off your inspiration - if you've got a good idea, you work it out. And maybe the music helps her create the levels themselves, who knows. Maybe I should let her answer herself...

You've got that damn exactly right. Music for me is a form of concept art; without.music I wouldn't be able to create anything.

@Janic:
No, its levels are linear for the most part. However your homeland on the Crystal Isles (starting in the Dream Forest) progressively gets more open as you go. Now I'll expand on the current level selection system:

Most of the central Dream Forest is explorable at the start, and you may find certain interesting places that look interesting but seem to not mean anything. However, each passage or small place resembles a different level in the game, and once you complete a level, you will have that in your memory, so revisiting those places that look similar in the Dream Forest cause a Deja-Vu effect, and you replay the level with all your new power-ups. How what supposedly happens in your mind translates to Rayman's real life I don't know yet, but I'll think on that.

[Keane]

That sounds cool!

[DandyGuy]

so will a lot of R2 characters make an appearance

[Adsolution]

so will a lot of R2 characters make an appearance

Yes. Another thing I've thought of: Clarke will be part of Ly's resistance group.

[Rayman fan2000]

Clark will Ly's resistance group.

Yes please.

[Terminator2900FTW]

I really hope they publish the game, i have been following you on Youtube my addy is Terminator2900FTW, it would be cool if Michel Ancel could see it

[Adsolution]

Hi Terminator, I recognize your name. Welcome to the forums! I see you've posted a lot today.

[Keane]

Hi Terminator, I recognize your name. Welcome to the forums! I see you've posted a lot today.

He got most of the tings from me, actually.

[Adsolution]

No, I meant the guy has 20 posts.

Anyway, I'll introduce the Grand Vulture Rhook. Polokus dreamed up multiple different creatures that enforced the laws of the universe. In the Temporal Palace, you meet Rhook, the watcher of time: he is eternally bound to keep watch over time and make sure time keeps running as it should. When you meet him at the end of the level, he leads you to see where Dark Rayman is located and then flies you back to the present.

This is based off of the short one second clip of the original Rayman 4 trailer where it shows Rayman riding a bird-like creature through what very well could be the said palace.

I've got a voice for Rhook. It's a very deep, slightly nasaly tone (in the C2-E2 range for musical people), with a German/Russian accent, but can sound frightening when serious. After doing some test dialog for about five minutes my throat was so irritated I coughed up blood (due to trying to speak so low). I guess I'll only be doing a one-time take for his voice!

Also my voice coach Chelsea is doing Moskette's voice, since she can do an Irish accent which is what Moskette has.

[beebo44]

After doing some test dialog for about five minutes my throat was so irritated I coughed up blood (due to trying to speak so low).

Ouch! Now that's what I call some darn-hard commitment! I wish I could help with voicing but I'm terrible at acting (or voice acting).

[Rulez]

After doing some test dialog for about five minutes my throat was so irritated I coughed up blood (due to trying to speak so low).

OH God damn

[Shrooblord]

After doing some test dialog for about five minutes my throat was so irritated I coughed up blood (due to trying to speak so low). I guess I'll only be doing a one-time take for his voice!

Wow... my already large appreciation for voice actors has just grown signifficantly... then again, C2-E2 is a pretty damn low range! Good luck with not coughing any more blood up...