---

[Pronounced: fab el nucks]

Dream was been in production long before the compo under the title of Verse. The new version (Dream) is being made to fit the deadline of the compo, but it is the same engine, models, and textures.

What is Dream?
Dream is the prelude to Verse. Verse is an heavily story oriented 3D puzzle game. The puzzle concept comes originally from the TI calculator game Block Dude, though the gameplay and mechanics work quite differently in 3D, and more so this is far more than just a 3D version of Block Dude.
The idea is to carry blocks around and use them to build pathways to the portal and the end of each puzzle/level/Verse/Led. A simple concept, involving fiendish puzzles, as they have been described.

How Many Levels?
Think between 15 and 30 for the compo, with a good learning curve.
Expect all the gameplay modes from Block Verse, plus a number of others.

What is the Story (for Verse)?
If you've played Block Verse, you have some idea what the first part of the story arc is. The story arc is separated into three sections, and the compo version will cover at least the 2nd section.
The main character's name is Kel, a young man who one day when he was a very small child disappeared. When he was found the next day, his dark brown hair had become stark white. Since that day, he has been gifted with inhuman strength and endurance.

The Truth:
What you have to realize about Fabel Nux: Verse, is that this is much more than just a puzzle game. Its an adventure, though multiple verses, and sets events into motion that have wide scale effects across several universes, not to be mistaken with Verses. It is not the beginning, but it is far far from the end. You are but a hero among heroes, a pawn among pawns. Your actions secure the future, but will lead to nothing. Your very existence is an oxymoron. What is so important about these doors? are they anything new? If so, how did all the 18,000 verse's of Fabel Nux come to be full of people? -And if they're not a new phenomena, why are all the doors you find recently created, and why do all these recent ones emit grids and blocks that deteriorate the stability of the Verse they're in?

[More story to be revealed]

Dream Story
Dream is a dream of Kels. He does not realize it, but it is in truth much more than a dream. It forshadows events to come in Verse, as well as games to come later. I don't believe the compo version will be the final version, but it all comes down to how fast I can code.

What Does Dream Look Like?
These are screens from the game engine running in DBC.











old 1
old 2

(NOTE) These screens are outdated. All the screens I show will be somewhat outdated, as I want to stay ahead of myself.

Unfortunately, I have no vids to show right now.

DEMO VERSION 0.19
Download HERE, or at my site.

Controls
up........move/jump up
down......move/jump down
left......move/jump left
right.....move/jump right
space.....pick up/put down block
r.........restart level
shift.....View debug stats, ex. frame rate and position
escape....open pause menu, and hit again to return to the title screen

---

I have Wednesdays off, and replied today (Thursday) at least 8 hours before this post was made.

---

Sorry. I'll try to remember that the next time I e-mail you. This is ok though, right? wait, you responded? I never got it...

---

[ignore this post]

---

Yes I replied, mail was sent, no bounce-backs or anything. And my response was basically 'go ahead and enter it'.

---

I found it twenty minutes after I posted (for some reason it was in quarantine with 3500 other e-mails, but I marked you as approved so it wont happen again), but I didn't want to triple post, as I currently can't edit for some reason.

Thanks for the approval! Really appreciate it.

---

I love the style, I looked through your website photo album and I can't wait to play it!

---

Yay! I've been looking forward to this for a while! Can't wait to see more!

---

Thanks!

Well, not as many posts as I hoped, but I suppose that wont happen until the Demo. You'll see some graphic improvements in this screen, but again, it's outdated.


Leak of the Day:
Verse features a complex sound system, compared to Block Verse which had almost no sound save footsteps and music. For one, there are now splash, hiss, collision, footstep, and wind in ears sounds. Another is that sounds from Block Man fade the farther they are away, although they use an equation of mine rather than 3d sound because I wanted more control over how the sound worked. Really just some simple trigonometry. But can't say what the best additions to the sound department is, and will leave you all hanging on that one. I will say it wont be in the demo, though you'll see what I'm talking about in a later vid, and I must say I personally think it's really cool.

---

Sounds great! Guess I'll 'hang' until the vid then!

---

Looks great! I liked Blockman Remix in the puzzle compo, and this looks like a large improvement. The rain and snow look particularly nice.

Bring on the video

---

Heh, no vids til after the demo, because I don't want to show anything yet not it the demo.

That said, the demo could be finished anytime in the next ten days. Expect it here on the 19th of this month.

Leak of the Day:
For those of you who have read the previous Verse thread, you may already know this, but for those who haven't, you should find this quite interesting.

Looking at where the camera is in my screens, you've probably noticed by now that it's different in every single one. Now, would you believe me if I told you I wasn't controlling the camera? AS you should all know, 3d cameras are practically impossible to do right. It's rare you find a 3rd person game where the camera is always, or even half the time, in a good position. But that's exactly what I've done with Verse. Based on the block configurations, the level type, the size of the grid, and so on, the engine sets up a number of cameras during the level load to give the best and most artsy views it can. It is limited by the number of camera types I can think up, but there are about 25 different camera types currently stored.
The system is still very buggy atm, and I can tell you it isn't easy making the computer give the best and most artsy view at the same time through it's own judgment. But I've got it down it the demo levels, and let me tell you it makes any way of controlling the camera yourself feel out dated and frustrating (at least after how long I've used it). It may also take some getting used to though, like perhaps 30 seconds to a minute.

---

I don´t know why I haven´t seen this thread?
Absolutely amazing, Bizarguy!
Making clever cameras is the most annoying thing to do(I envy the fps makers). I spent months on making a intelligent cam for sh, then I found out that the game worked better without it. I deleted 200 lines of camera code and replaced it with 4.

Anyway, I like those screenies! Super great work!
Now give us some vids!

---

Looks awesome matey, I see you're making these verse games better and better, best of luck in completion.

---

I like the cartoony shaders, the camera things are cool. this time will we be able to jump?

---

Thanks!

Yeah, they're so much more difficult than you'd expect. The only reason I was able to figure out how to do it was because it sets up all the cams per level once, and all the variables it takes into account are very orderly.

Just wait until you see it running in dbpro.

Heh, these shots were taken from the engine in Dark Basic Classic, so those are not shader effects. But what do you mean by will you be able to jump? Block Man does and always has jumped automatically if he was able to. Having a jump key would be kind of pointless here, and there's no reason to just without something for him to jump up onto. all the puzzles are impossible if you don't jump and have been in all incarnations of this game...

Leak of the Day:
Block Man's name is Kel, as Block Man is simply what he is called is the stories told of him. He also has bleach white unruly hair, although when he was young his hair was dark brown... you'll see what I mean about the hair in the demo.

---

8 days until the demo.

Leak of the Day:
Read carefully, 'cause this is something I've been keeping under wraps since when the last Verse thread was active. So this is the first time I've shown anyone I believe.



Yup, that's a text bubble.

It's a pretty complex talk system, considering that you don't control what is said. You'll see this used a fair amount in the demo.

Edit: Also, though again the screen is outdated, this pic shows the un-boned model of the what is currently the final & correctly textured Kel (Block Man) model.

---

Cool! I'd never thought of doing a 3D speech bubble! Can't wait for the demo!

---

7 days until the demo.

Leak of the Day:
I've demonstrated this before, and it's not entirely that interesting yet, but here is a demonstration of the weather system, which can be applied to any level regardless of the content and the code will make it work. Just an example of edibility of the Verse engine.



Those are four of the possible weather conditions. Notice how it dramatically effects the mood of the level.
Literally, all I have to do when I set up the weather in a level is say weather=#, and the code figures it out from there. This while in the demo, will be much more useful when I start designing the actual scenes, as they will be effected the most.

Edit: look carefully at the door in each of those pics and you may notice something rather interesting...

Edit2: 19th post. A very important number.

---

Definitions of edibility on the Web:

the property of being fit to eat


And what with the doors?

---

oh! oh! i know! it's red and has a black thing around it in every single one!!

---

Can't wait, if you pull this kind of potential in DBC, I can only imagine what it will look like in DBP

---

There will be a demo released on December 19th
Edit2: 19th post. A very important number.

Looking forward to it, still keepin the magic 19?

---

This looks pretty cool.

Not a massive fan of puzzle games myself...

I love puzzles in games, like Zelda. I don't know if this is more like that or not...

Anyway the graphics have a nice feel.

Can you give the 'talk system' a string, or does it use an image?

---

6 days until the demo.

Whoops, Google spell checker changed that- I meant to say editability, which isn't a word, I guess...

?? Sorry... I have no clue what you mean... Are you asking what am I saying you might notice? If you can't figure it out, then don't worry, it's no huge deal. And you'll see it in the demo anyways.

True, but I more specifically meant something you could see by comparing the pics. It's not really that interesting I guess, but I thought it was pretty cool.

@Seppuku Arts, Thanks!

@Urlforce Studios, Yup! 19 is very important.

@Chris K, well, this is the kind of puzzle that requires exploration, but unlike Zelda, it's based on figuring out how to do everything with only one game mechanic, rather than a ton of them. Peter H's Dungeon game is a bit closer to the types of puzzle you seem to be talking about. However, Verse is really puzzles in a story, and some of the puzzles are more adrenaline pumping things (if you try Block Verse you can see some early versions of these types of levels).

But really, you'll have to wait for the demo to see if this type of puzzle game interests you. It's certainly very different from your typical puzzle game... Heck it even has a Mascot-like hero.

And currently the talk system uses images for the text and a better res image for the bubble, as the words vary in size depending on how many there are, and so many more things. Like, the text actually has to be a texture as it's displayed in 3d (though the size of it is dependant on the camera distance). There are ways I can do it I'm sure, and I will end up doing it in the future I'm sure. But for this compo? That depends on how much time the more important features take. The text bubbles should almost certainly work with strings in the final version of the game though.

Leak of the Day:
19.

If your a big Stephen King fan, you may have a deeper understanding of the story now, though I assure you, the story did NOT come from Stephen King. It's my own creation, there are just a bunch of similarities.

Still don't see it? How about this; His Dark Materials. Not as much in common, but still you may be a bit more informed now...

Edit: Oh, and can anyone guess what the version number of the demo will be?

---

527.19?
Haha!! It would be a miricle if it was!

Lookin good Bizar Guy!

---

5 days until the demo.

Heh. Yeah, that's a bit higher than my number.

Leak of the Day:
I just realized I haven't shown any of the hurt effect!



So, as you can see, health effects the clearness of the screen, as well as your characters posture. If you run out of health, the level restarts. You lose health by running into energy beams and such. I wonder what else health might effect though? Hmm...

---

Looking extremely cool

---

4 days until the demo.

Leak of the Day:
Verse uses a bunch of effects to simulate shaders. Some have been implemented, many have not been. This screen shows a few new fake shaders at work, though this screen is as a bit older than the last one, which itself was taken a day before I posted it.




Update:
This is the first actual update. I'm currently polishing the up a lot of the features that will appear in the demo. I've been tweaking bits and pieces of code, and testing it on multiple computers to see the performance. So far, I'm really pleased; if this demo doesn't run decently on your computer, then you probably haven't upgraded since 2001. Remember, this is DBC at the moment.

---

personally I dont like the style, but thats just me. Besides that, it looks very nice.

---

Looks great! Hope you do well in the contest

---

It looks great Bizarguy, but I think you need to update the level graphics to match your new models. Also the water texture looks more like a net of some sort.
And what happened with Hinkipuk island?
Good luck in the contest!

---

Kind of random, but did you notice the Stephen King reference in Half-life (1) ?

(view the attached image and notice the number at the top right near the scientist)

---

3 days until the demo.

@Steve J, That's fine. After all, no one can please everyone.

@Airslide, Thanks! Hope you do well too!

@zzz, yeah, Verse will have MUCH better background graphics. They'll also adjust entirely to the weather conditions, though none of that will show up in the demo... These are old backgrounds I made way back before I even started the original verse thread I think. The water looks far better in motion, but I'll look at if I can make it look a bit more- err, watery. And Hinkipuk Island? It's on hold... I'm not sure I'll be making that exact game, but that story is already working into a much larger arc, and is far to cool anywas to abandon. However, the first game in that world may be an rts.

@David R, nice. I never realized that before.

Leak of the Day:
Even at this stage, don't think of any of the models of textures are final. I'm already thinking I need to redo the Kel (Blockman) model.

Update:
An artsy shot for you all...

---

2 days until the demo.

No more screens til then, but one more leak tomorrow.

---

Kinda cool!

Whats in the demo?

---

D.E.M.H.P hey? Hmm... Or were the cases important? D.e.m.H.p? 'Tis a puzzler! An anagram perhaps? Nah!

---

1 day until the demo.

@Dared1111, Err, Thanks!
...Wait a day...

@TEH_CODERER, um, Don't Elephants Make Pretty Hearts? Good catch though. Try looking more at the phrase itself, and perhaps the number of letters in the name...

The Last of the Leaks:
That's right, after the demo, I wont 'leak' information separately.

MoVeMeNt & The TRUTRH
The biggest and best, movement. In Block Verse, you were confined to one speed. Now however, the movement speed looks something along the lines of this; Move object x,(1-pickupgrav-healthspd-pain+panicspd)*tframe
Actually, it's a good deal more complex than that, and I guarantee it will be twice as complex as it is now in the final game. Still, you might say "so what?". Well, if you're thinking this is just a plain old 3d puzzler, all this does in inhibit you from completing puzzles faster. That's in fact why I left the movement of Block Verse the same even at the very end.

And what everyone will in the end want, The Truth.
What you have to realize about Fabel Nux: Verse though, is that this is much more than just a puzzle game. Its an adventure, though multiple verses, and sets events into motion that have wide scale effects across several universes, not to be mistaken with Verses. It is not the beginning, but it is far far from the end. You are but a hero among heroes, a pawn among pawns. Your actions secure the future, but will lead to nothing. Your very existence is an oxymoron. What is so important about these doors? are they anything new? If so, how did all the 18,000 verse's of Fabel Nux come to be full of people? -And if they're not a new phenomena, why are all the doors you find recently created, and why do all these recent ones emit grids and blocks that deteriorate the stability of the Verse they're in?


...You now know an inch of the tapestry- a thread of a braid in the weave of the greatest story that never was, one billion years in the making.

Ponder that, and play Demo Version 0.19 tomorrow.

---

dang its the 19th where i live! I was really expecting that demo! Oh well, there's always tomorrow.

---

It's already the 20th where I live