Green Planet [wip Unity Iphone Game]
polycounter
This is a Unity Iphone project Im working on with Commander Keen. He is doing all the codeing and me the artwork.
Its about our whole Planet, destroying and creating, but still very simple.
The Player has to create Trees by simply touching a green place which then grows a tree. In the process of the game more and more Factories get build at random places. These Factories produce exhaust that destroy all trees in range and also turn the green grass to earth. The Player can keep the Factorys from doing that by simply crushing them with his finger. Places that have been turned to earth will grow grass again after some time. The Factorys are also responsible for the global warming so that too much factorys compard to the amount of trees will melt the poles and also make the water raise so that land gets flooded. The Player has to fight this global warming by destroying the factorys and planting trees. Additonally there will be random waste barrels that swim in the water, the player has to flick them out of orbit.
The game gets harder over time by more and more Factorys and Barrels appearing, the player gets points for creating the trees, destroying factorys and flicking barrels away. When the poles are fully melted the game is over.
Here is a webplayer demo of the latest version:
http://www.vitamin3d.com/Dateien/greenplanet.html
Gameplay wise there is only the planting of the trees currenlty working, its also everything staying green atm.
The Factory will have a build animation and where a tree will be planted will be shown with a fx, also the trees will quickly grow then.
Left mouse: rotate
Middle mouse: tilt
Right mouse: zoom
Hold left mouse on green place: planting tree
Its about our whole Planet, destroying and creating, but still very simple.
The Player has to create Trees by simply touching a green place which then grows a tree. In the process of the game more and more Factories get build at random places. These Factories produce exhaust that destroy all trees in range and also turn the green grass to earth. The Player can keep the Factorys from doing that by simply crushing them with his finger. Places that have been turned to earth will grow grass again after some time. The Factorys are also responsible for the global warming so that too much factorys compard to the amount of trees will melt the poles and also make the water raise so that land gets flooded. The Player has to fight this global warming by destroying the factorys and planting trees. Additonally there will be random waste barrels that swim in the water, the player has to flick them out of orbit.
The game gets harder over time by more and more Factorys and Barrels appearing, the player gets points for creating the trees, destroying factorys and flicking barrels away. When the poles are fully melted the game is over.
Here is a webplayer demo of the latest version:
http://www.vitamin3d.com/Dateien/greenplanet.html
Gameplay wise there is only the planting of the trees currenlty working, its also everything staying green atm.
The Factory will have a build animation and where a tree will be planted will be shown with a fx, also the trees will quickly grow then.
Left mouse: rotate
Middle mouse: tilt
Right mouse: zoom
Hold left mouse on green place: planting tree
Replies
Also, how is that Unity engine?
Though the gameplay is perhaps a bit lacking at this point :P
But I really like the style, very nice..
Very nice art anyhow.
- Just from a game play perspective - one way you could up the challenge is by adding different types of trees, along with some sort of building time for them. So lets say you can build a "small tree" in one second, but that small tree only stops pollution by 2 points per second. Whereas a "big tree" takes three seconds to build, but it bring down pollution by 5 points per second, and so forth.
- Factories, likewise, could take a certain amount of time to destroy - either by continuously tapping them or just a destroy animation that's activated when the player touches them.
- If you wanted to get really fantastical you could have an ice ray that can be built and used to restore the polar ice caps - but the player risks losing the game by building the ice ray because it takes factories to build it, thus increasing the pollution temporarily. i.e - there has to be 20 factories on the map for the ice ray to become available, and it takes 5 or 10 seconds to build the ray. Which can only be used once, of course, before it shorts out.
- You could also have power ups like a group of green supporters (tree huggers) that the player can leave on a continent or country and last for a certain amount of time (like 10-20 seconds). What they'll do is if any factories are built in that area they'll rush over and destroy it real quick (maybe with a bomb or just whacking it with protest signs - safely, of course, don't want those factory workers getting hurt :-D). Also, what they look like could vary by the country they're in. So if they're put down in France, then they all have berets on. If they're put down in Brasil, they could all have soccer jerseys on - something like that. So, in essence, you can worry about another part of the planet while your group of activists guard an area - useful when the game gets tougher and faster.
- Also, what about a percentage meter that shows how far gone the polar ice caps are? Something to help drive the player to work against.
Just a few ideas, keep it up!
P.S - Oh, and make an unlockable meteor that can be used to blow up the entire planet - nothing to do whatsoever with saving the planet, but it might be fun on a bad day.... ;-)
Other than that, it was fun to play around with. Can't wait until you are finished.
One thing I might mention though, is that it could be nice to have a bit more depth to the message by not just having the player destroy factories and plant trees. That seems a bit black and white to me? "Industrialization BAD! Tree GOOD!" kinda thing. Be nice to maybe try to work in some way to have it be a balancing act... have the goal be more about allowing civilization to progress while keeping our planet intact.
So, rather than just planting trees and destroying factories, the player would have to try to maintain enough industrialization/factories to allow for progress, while keeping enough room for greenery and trees. (Or something else, the main point is that right now the gameplay and message of the game both seem a bit too basic to be engaging to me, and the message is a bit too draconian).
Anyways, just a thought. It's certainly looking great though, so keep it up!
We gonna see what else we add after we have the planed gameplay running. It is unity!
they won´t stay that long this massive!
already flooded! :P
I think it will not work like that!
neat ideas but overall we want to keep it really simple, we will see after we have the currently planned gameplay running if it makes sense do expand it or if needs to be tweaked. We also have a powerup in mind that we will maybe add.
There will be something in the UI that shows the global warming status and the icepoles size.
We planned to try something different for the atmosphere glow but its really not easy because there isnt much possible on the iphone.
@ Tulkamir
It really should be that stylized and simplified overall, in the end its just a simple game. I think it needs that absoute evil and that are the bad factorys that are also in reality responsible a lot for the global warming. There are no poor humans working in our factorys though, just little robots that should then get blown out when destroyed.
We dont want to get the message out that industrisialization is the evil just that it should be more ecofriendly, in our game its just very over the top and simplified.
@ willy-wilson
Yea, have been tested on ipod touch and its even running fine with lots of factorys and trees.
The earth with water sphere has ca 3500 tris, the trees have between ca 30-50tris and the factorys ca 50-60.