Something important I forgot to say.

This map, which will be the first mission (episode) of my game:

It's a remake of a Custom Map for Counter Strike Global Offensive, the map name is de_heat.

Whenever I create my maps, I like to take many games as reference, and I prefer to use Source Engine Games Maps, because it's easy to import on 3dsmax, and use the original map as a reference to model my map over the original map.

I have choosen this map, because it's similar to the real city of "Old Jerusalem", which is where the first mission of my game takes place.

However, I contacted the original author of this map from since I began creating this map in UDK Engine, last year. And he was very kind to me and gave me authorization to remake his map for my game:

However, as I told before, these screenshots of this map, and the gameplay trailers, are a bit outdated, because I am already working on chaing this map a bit, especially changing some assets (props) which are from Valve (the devs of Counter Strike) and not from the map author.

I am replacing these assets with some assets created by me and others purchased on 3D Marketplaces arround the internet. This is very common especially for indie and solo developers, purchase assets, download royalty-free assets to use whenever developing a game.

Imagine if all indies would make games creating all the assets from scratch. You would not see so many indie games arround there.

The same is truth for my new updated protagonist model. This new updated model is a mix of character parts from many models, which I purchased recently to update my 3d models library, which was a bit outdated (the marjority of my old models were from the time of Counter Strike Source).

However, you may think: "Man, getting ready models to create a game is very easy, because you have done almost nothing". I must inform you that the truth is far away for this thought. In game development there is no a "copy and paste", or "plug and play" solution, just one click and your game is done! No, even using pre-made 3d Models, you will never get the model which you want to fit on your project unless you do the dirty work of modifying this asset to fit on your game. Yeah, there is a LOT of work to be done.

I have done a lot of manual changes on this model, in example, the head cover was untill the neck, however I wanted this headcover to raise down untill the chest, so I manually modelled that extra part to make it reach the chest. Also the original texture was a plain black, so I manually created in Photoshop this Shemagh Texture in red color, the traditional Palestine Head Cover. Also to add some more depth, I did bake some small shadows on the texture to make it look more realistic and give a kind of fake volume to this head cover.

Another change I have done, because I am using the default UDK Skeleton (Unreal Tournament 3 Rig), and the default Animation System in UDK Engine (UE3) is pre programmed to work with the UT3 Skeleton outside the box, I did manually rig the character mesh to the UT3 Skeleton, as you can see in the video. And the character arms I used for this model, were a bit larger than the UT3 Skeleton, so I had to manually reduce the arms lenght, thus repositioning the hands aswell, to fit perfectly to UT3 Skeleton (so I don't have to re-program the Animation System).

Cheers and untill next update!

For those who accused my game of terrorist propaganda: I sent the game synopsis alongside gameplay to Brazillian Government Justice Department for Approval and Age Rating. My game was approved, and got Age Rating +18!   

IndieDB - Indie Game of the Year. Please vote on Fursan al-Aqsa: http://tiny.cc/8hkmgz

There just 2 days left for the competition, so if you did not vote yet, please vote now: https://www.indiedb.com/games/fursan-al-aqsa-knights-of-al-aqsa-mosque

Fursan al-Aqsa Dev Blog #5 - Updated Animations for Ahmad al-Ghazzawi

www.moddb.com/games/fursan-al-aqsa-knights-of-al-aqsa-mosque/videos/13-f...

In game development is a common practice to use placeholder assets, which can be 3D Models, Textures and even Animations. Whenever I first began developing this game 2 years ago, I use the default UDK AnimationSet, which includes all the Character Animations used in Unreal Tournament 3. However, to give my game some originality, I decided to replace some of these stock UT3 (Unreal Tournament 3) animations by other animations from my Assets Library (which includes MOCAP animations from MegaMoCap, TrueBones, TurboSquid, NaturalMotion, and others).

I did not make too much polishments on these first animations I used, as I was just bored to look all time to the Default UDK Animations, so I just wanted something provisory, to polish later.

UDK/UE3 Engine has a perfectly working Animation System, pre-configured to work outside the box for a Shooter Game. One of these functions is what we call Aiming Profiles, which means, for any type of weapon the player carries, there are a different set of animations: in example, run forward rifle, run left pistol, rifle idle animation, bazooka run forward, and so on. For the sake of simplicity, I just replaced many of these stock UDK animationsby these new mocap files (retargetting these animations to the default UDK Skeleton in Motion Builder).

It would be very cool if using custom animations for UDK was just a matter of copy and paste. Even though the retargetting animations process is flawlessy inside Motion Builder, however, because of differences in skeleton size (UDK Skeleton x Custom MOCAP Skeletons), I had to manually edit each mocap animation to fit into UDK Skeleton. The fixes is just reposition of the character skeleton to fit and work flawlessly. In Motion Builder I just added a new animaton layer and added some key frame animations to fix the MOCAP, one by one.

Added to this, I did some Custom MOCAP using my Kinect Camera, as you san see in the video above. I must admit that is far better using professional captured MOCAP files than doing it yourself. I used Custom Kinect MOCAP files whenever I could not find, inside my assets library, the animation wanted, so it is time for "Do it Yourself". Again, after some (MANY) tweaks on these custom kinect mocap files, I got something good looking wich you can check aswell on the above video. And these will be the final animations for the game's protagonist.

I hope you are enjoying de follow the development of Fursan al-Aqsa.

P.S: If you did not vote yet for Fursan al-Aqsa, please vote now, it is disputing the Top 10 Indie Games of 2019, it is now the #1 of Upcoming Third Person Shooter:

http://tiny.cc/18blhz

Cheers and until Next Update!

New Updated Model for Zionist Soldier - Work in Progress

Today I began to sketchup some ideas of Maps for Fursan al-Aqsa Training Missions. Besides the Campaign Mode, I will add a Training Mode for my game with a LOT of Cool Missions, inspired by Metal Gear Solid 2 VR Missions (Kill All, Stealth, Weapon Shooting and Variety).

I decided to change my custom camera to make it look more similar to MetalGearSolid4. I am happy with the final result, so now my game has more of that MGS feeling! Next step will be add the iconic solid snake's crawling animation!

Be like a Chameleon. Suprise your enemies by invading their base disguised as one of them, and kill them all without mercy! Just testing a new feature on #FursanAlaqsaGame for the stealth missions mode!

Fursan al-Aqsa Dev Blog #6 - Updated Models for IDF Soldiers

This article shows a small gameplay test of the new Updated Models for Israeli Soldiers running on Playstation 3, and a small "Behind the Scenes" of the creation of the new IDF Models:

https://www.indiedb.com/games/fursan-al-aqsa-knights-of-al-aqsa-mosque/n...

Fursan al-Aqsa Split Screen Multiplayer on Playstation 3

https://www.indiedb.com/games/fursan-al-aqsa-knights-of-al-aqsa-mosque/v...

Do you Remember? Who misses that Golden Era? Multiplayer Madness is Back on Fursan al-Aqsa! 

The mayhem is coming soon to PC, PS3, Xbox360...

Multiplayer SplitScreen and all its glory running on Xbox 360 RGH:

https://indiedb.com/games/fursan-al-aqsa-knights-of-al-aqsa-mosque/video...

Fursan al-Aqsa Dev Blog #7 - Making Off SplitScreen Multiplayer

In this article I discuss the technical details of how I implemented the Multiplayer with SplitScreen for my game.

https://www.indiedb.com/games/fursan-al-aqsa-knights-of-al-aqsa-mosque/n...

It's worth a reading :D

Hello my friend.

First of all, thanks for your supportive comments.

Thanks also for these constructive critics.

About the game history and plot, I did post the link to the protagonist's history trailer on my first post, but here comes again:

https://www.moddb.com/games/fursan-al-aqsa-knights-of-al-aqsa-mosque/vid...

About the gameplay, I did opt by kinda retro gameplay features, simple, yet fun.

What makes fun the gameplay I think are the character animations, especially hit reactions and death animations.

There is also the knife kills, on which only one hit you can kill any enemy (though is not that easy perform a knife kill).

I avoided the cover system, like gears of war, because this way would break the pace of my game, as I want something like non stop action, I don't want the shooting and adrenaline be broken by cover, stop enemy shoot, then shoot.

Yes, you can cover, manually, by crouching behind some obstacle, or hiding behind walls, but there is no an automatic cover system (gears of war).

I plan to make 2 modes for single player, campaign mode (on which you play through the game history), and special ops (like metal gear solid VR Missions).

Special Ops mode will be too much fun, because it will be focused on gameplay rather than narrative, because each mission (map) will have a different gameplay. In example, kill all enemies with head shots, kill all enemies with knife kills, infiltrate an enemy base without being spotted by guards, destroy security cameras, resist an horde of enemies, take down flying drones while they throw bombs at you, fight enemies with only half of your health, complete a mission in a specific time, and so on.

Added to this will be the Split Screen Multiplayer with many modes, like: 

1- Resistance: Up to 2 players play in cooperative mode as Paletininan Fighters against many hordes of Israeli Soldiers.

2- One time to kill: 2 Players, One player plays as Palestine Fighter, and other as Israeli Soldier. Only the two on a map, many guns, ammo, healthpack. Whoever dies first loses the match.

3- Holy War: Up to 2 Players, vehicles, One player plays as Palestine Fighter, alongside other friendly bots (Palestine) against player 2 which plays as an Israeli Soldier and his friendly bots (israeli soldier). Wins the team which reaches 10 kills first.

4- Hunt or be Hunted: Up to 2 Players, Player one plays as a Palestine Fighter with only a RPG7, and player 2 plays as a big badass vehicle, like Apache, Merkava Tank, Giant B51 Bomber. Player 1 needs to take down player 2.

5- Martyrdom Operations: 2 Players, Player 1 spawns inside a suicide car and needs to head to player 2 base to explode it. Player 2 needs to protect his base by destroying player1 before it reaches his target (base).

Thanks my friend, I will be more concise next time when pitching about my game, especially for indie game reviewers, I may even use this description you wrote for me right now.

Many thanks!

WOW man, I loved your game, I have seen in youtube the gameplay. WOW, your game looks very professional, like AAA titles. I liked the gameplay also.

You did use Trinigy Vision Engine right? It looks very similar to UDK Engine (the shaders, lighting and shadows).

I am sorry your game did not suceed, it's a shame, as your game is very good, from what I have seen.

I am aware we must not just copy a famous game, and my game is fast paced, so in reality it has a lot of gameplay code from Unreal Tournament 3 (which is a fast paced shooter), alongside some elements that just reassemble COD and Metal Gear, but I am sure my game will have its own taste and personality

Cheers and thanks again for these counsellings.

Oh, I misunderstood, I thought you have worked on that game. Ok, no problems, that's fine!

Again, thanks for the compliments.

About multiplayer, I did not plan to have multiplayer, initially, however, after thinking a lot with myself, I realized that I need to add something on my game, that will let people enjoy it for more time.

Me, whenever playing games, I play the game just one time, after I go and beat all the missions, I dont play the game again (single player).

However, as for multiplayer, player can play on the same maps for hours, days, weeks, and months!

So that's a fatal point on my game, the selling point, split screen multiplayer with many game modes, which will allow people to enjoy my game more. In other words, multiplayer will increase the replay value of my game.

Stay connected, soon I will showcase here some new updates.

Fursan al-Aqsa - Enemies AI Update

https://www.indiedb.com/games/fursan-al-aqsa-knights-of-al-aqsa-mosque/v...

This video shows the updated enemies AI in action, alongside the preview of a very fun new game mode: "Blow Them Up"

Let's frag!

In the next post I will reveal the tech detail of this new AI system I created using Kismet, the Visual Programming Language of Unreal Engine 3.

Cheers!

Fursan al-Aqsa Dev Blog #8 - Enhanced Artificial Intelligence for Enemies

In this article I discuss the technical details of how I created various AI algorithms for my game entirely in Kismet, the Visual Programming Language of Unreal Engine 3.

https://www.indiedb.com/games/fursan-al-aqsa-knights-of-al-aqsa-mosque/n...

#FursanAlaqsaGame meets @MortalKombat!

Can you guess what I am planning next to my game?

Cheers!

#Blood #KnifeKills #FinishHim #FlawlessVictory #Fatality 

Hello @Gunz

For the complete history of the game protagonist, please take a look at the history trailer:

https://www.indiedb.com/games/fursan-al-aqsa-knights-of-al-aqsa-mosque/v...

I know I am not the best history teller, but I think that the game's history is enough to just make the player understand why the protagonist is killing Israeli Soldiers.

I want to focus on the gameplay rather than narrative. Creating compelling narrative for games can be a VERY HARD task.

About the multiplayer, yes, I know the importance it has and because this I am creating some fun game modes for people enjoy in local multiplayer with split screen, just like the golden era of N64 and Playstation 1.

About the animations, I used purchased mocap files (True Bones, MegaMocap, TurboSquid,...) but I did manually edit one by one (Autodesk MotionBuilder) to fit on my characters rig (skeleton), which is the Unreal Tournament 3 Skeleton.

Just some few animations which I could not find the way I wanted, I did manually capture with a xbox360 kinect camera. But this is a hell hard to edit because the capture comes with thousands of bugs. Because this I did mocap only for some few animations, the marjority are purchased motion capture files.

Thanks for the interest on my game.

Cheers!

Hello guys! Just want to show off here something cool I created. A cool HeadShots Counter for the Special Ops Mode.

The basic tech behind it is very simple.

On the UnrealScript Class that control the enemy behaviour, I created a boolean variable called HeadShot. Then on the TakeDamage Event of the enemy UnrealScript Class I created a small function to detect which bone of the skeleton was hit by the weapon projectile (in case Head and Neck Bones).

So whenever the weapon projectile hits the Head or Neck Bones, the boolean variable HeadShot is set to true (it begins the code as false).

And then on Kismet there is a node which can read object properties (variables). So I simply added this node to read the variable HeadShot value, and if its true, I made increment in 1 another variable (kismet variable) which is the HeadShot Counter. So that means, each time the player shoots the head of the enemy. the HeadShot Counter will increment in one, so the player performs 3 headhsots on the enemy, the HeadShotCounter will be 3.

Next step is add another counter to count total number of enemies on map. It begins by counting all enemies an add them to an array, and then add an event (Enemy Death), and each time this even occurs, one enemy will be removed fromt the array (ObjectList). So whenever this array becomes empty, that means we killed all enemyes. And after killing all the enemies, then we go there and check for the value of HeadShotsCounter variable. If I want the player to perform at least 10 HeadShots, I need to check if this variable is >= (bigger or equal) than 10. If yes, then the mission is accomplished. If it is < (less) than 10, then mission failed.

It's that simple!

Cheers!

Hello my friend.

Here you can purchase some cool MOCAP animations:

https://truebones.com/store

https://www.turbosquid.com/Search/Motion-Capture

http://www.charactermotion.com/products/powermoves/megamocap/

This is my old but survivor PC (I already burn 2 video cards, now I am on the third):

https://www.asus.com/ROG-Republic-Of-Gamers/ROG-G51Jx/

In this small video I show some cool and custom pickup items I created for the #Multiplayer mode, in the best style of #RetroFPS and Classic #FPSGames like @Quake and @DOOM. Also you can see the finished HUD for Multiplayer.

https://www.indiedb.com/games/fursan-al-aqsa-knights-of-al-aqsa-mosque/v...

Thanks my friend for the compliments.

So long as the pc can run the software needed to develop the game, it doesn't matter if the PC is the most advanced and powerfull machine. So long as you have the skills you can create a great game with even a shitty pc.

Cheers!

Fursan al-Aqsa Episode 0 Weapons

Video: http://tiny.cc/mrnbkz

Fursan al-Aqsa Dev Blog #9 - Making-Off Weapons and Projectile Physics

In this article I discuss the technical details of how I created the weapons of my game, and how I did the physics simulations for the projectiles using Unreal Script.

https://www.indiedb.com/games/fursan-al-aqsa-knights-of-al-aqsa-mosque/f...

Hello man. Congratulations, I think UE4 is easier to learn now than UE3, because the UE3 tutorials almost dont exist anymore.

Yeah, I live in Brazil, all my life lived here with my family. I work as web designer, I earn my living from this work, so I can't work yet full time in game development.

However, if Allah (God) permits me to earn a good profit from my game, I will yes work fulltime on game development, and always focus on develop small games, with a lot of fun gameplay and release the game into episodes, so this way I will be able to earn some profit and people will be able to enjoy the games faster, not wait like 1 or 2 years to play another game of mine.

Cheers and best regards!

Good luck with your project man! Even though I don't like the idea of creating porn games, first because of my religion, Islam, is strictily forbidden promote porn in any way, and second, I myself can't imagine how a porn game could be fun in any way (I still prefer having marital relations with my wife than doing virtually :D)

Cheers my friend, and good luck!

Hello guys.

I know there are almost two weeks without any updates, but be sure I am working, and VERY HARD to finish and release the first episode untill the end of this month.

However, because I have published about my game on almost 100 sites, which I need to keep updated, I only publish whenever I have some significant updates.

But here on twitter (https://twitter.com/UdkUltimate) and also on IndieDB (https://www.indiedb.com/games/fursan-al-aqsa-knights-of-al-aqsa-mosque) I always post at least a new screenshot of some feature I am developing/improving.

From since my last update about the Weapons, I have done basically two things.

I created a new custom AI Class especially for knife kills game mode. Now you can approach the enemy from behind without being spotted, however, if you touch the enemy, or stay a long time behind him, he will realize it and shoot at you. This was done mixing Kismet (the Blueprints of UE3) with UnrealScript. I even created a custom field of view to the enemy using a trigger volume. 

[IMG]https://media.indiedb.com/images/games/1/73/72158/Stealth_4.png[/IMG]

[IMG]https://media.indiedb.com/images/games/1/73/72158/Stealth_3.png[/IMG]

[IMG]https://media.indiedb.com/images/games/1/73/72158/Stealth_2.png[/IMG]

[IMG]https://media.indiedb.com/images/games/1/73/72158/Stealth_1.png[/IMG]

Also, I am remaking the Knife Kills System, with updated character animations and a brand new camera animation, on the best Mortal Kombat X style. It even has the X-Ray effect!

[IMG]https://media.indiedb.com/images/games/1/73/72158/Knife_Kills_Update.1.p...

I was thinking on releasing those test maps (with blue/white checkboard) from since last week, for people test the game, however, I think that these don't reflect the final game quality and may even harm this project.

As I said before, I will ask a very small value (something like U$ 2.00) for each episode, because I am in strong need to earn some profit (my financial conditions are very bad at the moment). So it's for that reason that I prefeer release each episode on it's complete state, with fully textured maps, animations, mission objectives, and so on, for making this game worth the price. I know that even for a small price like this, people want a complete product, a fully working game, not just a "developer" bugged version of the game.

I hope you all understand the reason why I delayed a while the release of this game.

Thanks guys for all this support and interest on my game.

Cheers and until next update!

#FursanAlaqsaGame - Updated Knife Kills System - WIP (Work in Progress)

Now it's more Bloody, Gory, Cruel.

It's more @MortalKombat #Fatality #NoMercy #FinishHim

https://www.indiedb.com/games/fursan-al-aqsa-knights-of-al-aqsa-mosque/v...

Hello guys,

Some new updates here, I hope you all enjoy.

Fursan al-Aqsa Episode 1 Coming in May 10th 2020!

Fursan al-Aqsa - Blades of Revenge Trailer

You, Brave Hero!

Get your knife and seek your revenge... The blood of the oppressed is calling you...

Join the Resistance!

Watch the trailer:

https://www.indiedb.com/games/fursan-al-aqsa-knights-of-al-aqsa-mosque/v...

Finaly accomplished another task of the roadmap towards the release of #FursanAlaqsaGame. I did remake the game's menu, and I am very proud of the results. This was done in Scaleform (Adobe Flash CS4) and 3dsmax, the code behind it is ActionScript (Flash) and Unreal Script (UE3). I hope you like it.

https://www.indiedb.com/games/fursan-al-aqsa-knights-of-al-aqsa-mosque/v...

Before going to the last step of my dev workflow (finishing the campaign maps), I just wanted to assure that everything which I have done until now, especially the latest game updates, work flawlessly on consoles (Xbox360 and PS3). Here you can see the Weapons Showcase Testmap running flawlessly and smoothly on my RGH Xbox360.

* Sorry for the video quality, as I am using an Easy Crap lol!

https://www.indiedb.com/games/fursan-al-aqsa-knights-of-al-aqsa-mosque/v...

Here is the game running on PS3 HEN (3.0.1):

https://www.indiedb.com/games/fursan-al-aqsa-knights-of-al-aqsa-mosque/v...

Hello there! New update here.

https://www.indiedb.com/games/fursan-al-aqsa-knights-of-al-aqsa-mosque/v...

On this video I show off the finished UI (User Interface) of Fursan al-Aqsa, including a basic options menu, pause menu, and a very beautifull "Game Over" screen.

The UI Design was created in 3dsmax + Photoshop + Scaleform (Flash CS4).

The programming was done in Action Script 2.0 + Unreal Script.

I always try to make things as simple as possible. I always like to begin over a working framework instead of doing from scratch.

In the case of my game's UI, I opted to use the default UDK Engine Scaleform (Flash) UI, which came and works outside the box, however, I did customize it a lot, to give my own artistic touch.

The Scaleform framework is a very advanced UI solution by Autodesk, and it was used on many blockbuster games like Grand Theft Auto V and Borderlands 3

GTA V Options menu (done with Scaleform)

Bordelands 3 Complete HUD (done with Scaleform)

About the Options Menu, because my game runs smoothly even on the most modest of PC's (ignore the video lag, it's because bandicam capture software uses a lot of my PC's CPU and Memory), I decided to don't add options to reduce the game's graphical quality (model detail and texture size). I made it on the highest quality my PC can handle (also PS3/XBOX360). So the game run using the full quality of the assets (models and textures).

About Video Resolution, as I wanted a standard framework between PC and Consoles, I decided to add only 2 Resolutions Options, which are 720p (1280x720) and 1080p (1920x1080), as both resolutions are supported on PS3 and Xbox360. Anyway, is very easy to manually change the resolution to any value by just editing the ini files (I will include a README), however, the minimum resolution for the game is 720p and all my UI Assets are in 1080p, so that means, if you run the game in 4K, in example, the UI may look blury, and on a resolution lower than 720p, the UI will be stretched. Sorry for this, but UDK/UE3 don't support responsive UI Layout. I think UE4 supports because you can create UI in HTML5.

About Audio Options, I was not able to add a volume slider control (it was going to be VERY HARD and troublesome), however, I have done something more simple, which works and has a purpose. Many people who don't understand Arabic, want to have an option to turn off the game's nasheeds (arabic musics), letting only the sound effects (many claimed that this way the game would look more realistic). So I added this option, a simple button to turn off and on the game's music, letting only the SFX playing. I have done a lot of testing, and even with music on, you will be able to hear all Sound Effects arround you, as I setup the music volume on a very low level, enough for those who want enjoy listening the music, without making it overcome the Sound Effects volume.

About Control Configuration, as my game's campaign mode will have many scripted sequences with specific keys assigned, I decided to don't allow changing the control's scheme (anyway, you can also manually change it only on PC by editting the ini files).

Whenever you pause the game, you will see the control's scheme. Also, something very cool, is that my game is 100% compatible with Xbox360 Controller (I think even XboxOne because it uses the XInput protocol). Just plug and play. Also, you can use ANY Gamepad (I am using Nykko Airflo) through a Xbox360 Controller Emulator (I will include it with my game). And the pause menu detects what input you are using to show you the controller configuration scheme. If you are playing on PC with a Keyboard and Mouse, you will see PC Keyboard Controller Scheme. If you are playing on PC with a Xbox360 Controller, it will show you the Xbox360 Controller Scheme. And if you are playing on Consoles (PS3 or Xbox360), it will show the console's controller scheme (Playstation 3 Controller and Xbox360 Controller).

I hope you all enjoy it (as I am very happy with the results).

Cheers and until next update!

Now I am working on a new map for my game, based on Camp Filon, an Israeli Military Base located on the Golan Heights on the Syrian Border. This is not a replication of the real place, because I am using many Marketplaces Assets (models and textures purchased from sites like Turbosquid, Unity Assets Store, Unreal Engine Marketplace, and so on) to build this map. However, I am trying my best to make these maps have at least a similarity with the real locations.

This mission will be on the best Metal Gear style, you need to invade the enemy base at night, eliminate them without being spotted. I am also doing uniform (cloth) variations for the game's protagonist, Ahmad al-Ghazzawi, just to fit the mission. For this mission, the player will be wearing a black uniform to be like a shadow on the darkness, to be a trully nightmare for his enemies. It's just a comestic thing, but I think it adds that extra degree of polishment to my game (soon I will showcase).

Hello mate.

I understand you, however, with Unreal Engine 4 there is the Blueprint System, which is kinda visual programming tool that allow an entire game be developed without touching one line of code. But you need sometime to learn it until being able to use all its power.