WIP Space Game Prototype
polycounter lvl 17
new update:
[ame="
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=av96SujsaG4"]Space Game - update - YouTube[/ame]
older updates:
[ame="
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8TfhW126NE"]Space Game - Skill Panel - YouTube[/ame]
[ame="
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=av96SujsaG4"]Space Game - update - YouTube[/ame]older updates:
[ame="
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8TfhW126NE"]Space Game - Skill Panel - YouTube[/ame]
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I started building this prototype using Unity3d about 5 weeks ago.
The basic idea behind is to create a 30 minute playable prototype, including 5 levels ups, 1 mission and 2 or 3 enemy types...At the core its a Diablo style action rpg (for me very reduced) that's more slow paced and focuses on space exploration.
Doesn't sound a lot, but I am working on it by myself and only a few hours every weekend.
It also functions as a learning tool for me to pick up a bit of coding knowledge along the way. having only started to get into that recently.
Here are 2 screenshot from the first 2 weeks which involved getting in basic movement, basic level up structure and 1 enemy (a cube):
These are from 2 weeks back when I started testing a few things for the background art, also added basic combat and enemy behaviours (evasive manoeuvres, shooting back, etc.):
And a few screenshots from the recent build. I added a collision system, loot drop system and started creating a modular base set for a station based on a huge asteroid:
I will hopefully post more stuff as it evolves further and when I have time to do the art stuff... not much to see when I am working on code
I know some people might have issues with dropbox links, but for now thats the easiest way for me
Replies
they're also using a spec map in the alpha texture and a glow map for the windows..
Also made the ship change shader so its visible the occluded by other objects in the environment.
Plus more work on the space platform. Textured the middle section, added some props and decals to the scene.
These are still using the same 2 textures plus an additional decal texture. I also added a smoke particle effect for the exhausts (cant see them good in the screenshots).
next week i'll work more on the enemies and gui.. getting in some collision avoidance and change the attack patterns. Also will do some concepting on the gui as its very Diablo like as its easier to just set that up and get the code working.
also did a bit effects work so the forcefields have randomly animated scanlines, and a big smoke pillar from the platform center..
Finished the enemy behaviour so it works good enough for now.
Enemies go around objects and avoid each other, when they get close or get shot they evade properly and come back at you after some time
Also started to lay out the Inventory UI in unity to be ready to use, but i did spend only an hour on that so its quite basic for now..
I hope to get more work done the next weekend
You should post a video if you can
Good work so far!
[ame="
Great work!
I think that your star feels may be a bit dark. It will probably feel better if you bump it up a little. (it seems counter intuitive but it will probably go a long way to making it more cohesive.
And if you wanted to go even further, maybe have a look at homeworld 2's sky boxes, those were the most colourful starfiels ive ever seen but they were still badass.
The nebulars i have in now are basically layered up and scaled polygons with an additive shader, they are offset to give a nice paralax effect when moving around and some have a particle system on them to have a bit movement in them.
some work done on the player ship... baked normals to the low poly version.
The high res version is very basic tho, not much detail there as it doesn't really need it. Basic forms to make it more readable from above. (The high res model isnt even subdividd for that reason)
textures are 1024x512 but will be most likely 512x256 ingame..
yes, i thaught about using a seperate turret, but i dont want to be able to move in
one direction and shoot in another, but yeah i ll try to get the turning a bit smoother and to have to line up your shots before being able to shoot.
but the turret thing might still come in as an additional skill, that fires on everything in sight when activated.
Also I am using a rim shader on it in Unity so it pops better and doesn't merge too much with the background.
Also I started to work a bit on the UI... added the health bar for enemies so it pops up every time you shoot an enemy.
And I created a UI piece for loot drops that I'll use to inspect any dropped items (that'll be the next thing I have to do on my huge list of stuff).
added a minimap feature, some weapon effects and a bit of background art...
also worked more on other GUI stuff, but mostlu code..
[ame="
still some things to change here and there on this. But since i have litle time i only spend a few hours on it at a time.
This weekend i got a few hours in to work a bit on the Inventory and randomised loot (still very WIP). Plus i added some effects and fixed small things here and there.
Heres is a short video of the last version.
[ame="
Now focusing a bit more on the art side again. Putting in more things in the Mining complex, also creating lots of smaller blockout models to popilate the background there.
then i started on the 2nd mission zone which will be an abandoned space station floating in empty space. Which will get more destroyed looks and debris etc around it.
Also strted on laying out the missions and storyline what i want to do... nothing fancy as it will be a 30min playable demo only
Otherwise realy nice work !
@Robbyh
i dont think i use that, will look into it tho... lukily i ll be on holiday soon and can put a bit more time into it
it rotates a lot smoother when holding shift to stay in place when shooting, but its a bit too slow to keep up with enemies now.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/spacescape/
Which leads me to my second point: readability. You're lacking in it. Ships are browngray, buildings are browngray and meteorites are browngrey. Get some more distinction between materials and add some colors in thar!
Even just googling for 'meteorite' gives a bunch of different looking chunks of rock:
Check http://www.meteorite-recon.com/en/Meteorite_fusion_crust_3.htm for some interesting texture feelings as well.
at the moment there are 2 layers in terms of contrast, colour use and readability
1, space with its colorful nebulae
2, the asteroids, buildings and spaceship.
Space draws more attention because of the use of color and contrast, and so in comparison the rest looks boring and bland.
I suggest making the background less look like a standard space star field with some bright patches of nebulae pasted in. The high contrast in these areas combined with the darkness of your enemies make readability a nightmare.
Next, the foreground should be allot more interesting to look at visually, also separate the spaceship from the background in terms of color scheme. at the moment all of these unattractive brown tones make the game look boring and unappealing.
add more color to the asteroids, as snader above me mentioned. you can play with layers and different types of rock. Same goes for the buildings and ship. especially the ship. it needs a brighter tone to stand out from the background and it needs something striking to set it apart from the rest.
i agree that i need more variation and a better seperation between the different layers. I ll work on that, thanks for the links i apprechiate it.
also i know theres a lot of brown & gray, i plan on adding more colors to it later on as i go along, i just dont have that much time (mostly 4 hours a week).
The asteroid variations i totally agree, i wanted to have a bigger variety also with ice and metals, the ultimate plan was for the player to be able to scan them for material and gather some materials from them.
The geometry is a bit strange at places (i pput a lot more detail in the player and enemy ship as it actually needs, but it was just fun to make). The pipes are too low i agree, i just used some props made for smaller use to block out those big areas
A lot of good suggestions there, will try to use them as i get to do the stuff. There is just so much things still to do and i focus on whats the most fun for me at any one time
also added some more detail on the mining part...
plus i added the jumpgate which will be the starting and end point of the demo. and started with a 1st pass on the abandoned space station which has a small section repurposed as a pirate hideout. The unused parts need destruction still, and it hasnt got any lightsources added right now. Also the hideout part needs more detail that sets it apart.
worked on a few things over x-mas. Created a model for the turrets and for the armor upgrade. The armor upgrade is now put on when a hull item is equipped. Worked more on the explosion effect adding debris and some trails.
Added an spawn in effect when enemies are spawned in view. This goes hand in hand with another pass on my trigger zones. I started to make those a lot more flexible to quickly set up conditons when creating the mssions.
I know the ship still looks weird when moving and i ll have to look into that, but as ong as i can test it out its fine for now
@Snader
No they are placed in clusters, one object there contains several asteroids. The big ones are single objects. But i might look into that if it still gets batched but i guess it will create a lot more drawcalls when seperated. I still need to do more work on those tho, its still the 5min texture from the 1st wek on there.
Agains my original plans i picked up on the suggestion of having a turret to handle the firing of weapons.
So i added a turret on the ship that looks at the mouse position and lets you fire and move independently.
Combat is a lot more fun now, i ll use the other weapon slots on the ship now to put shield upgrades in
For which i started to add the visual implementation. Its just a quick version for now tho.
mines are static objects until they get activated by the player (maybe even enemy ships in the future for a tactical edge). While they are static they have deployed a heavy shield which makes them invulnerable to player attacks. One hey start moving they drop that shield and charge the player with an ever increasing speed until they eventually explode.
The other new thing that was added is the players path. Due to the separated shoot & movement controls now it helps to improve the orientation in battle.
The idea is to maybe have a skill later on that lets the player plot some waypoints which the ship moves along, so the player can focus on the shooting.
[ame="
Next I ll probably look into the asteroids making them more interesting as there will be a lot more when I start building the asteroid maze section of the map...also making the turrets functional
Whenever the item is picked up 4 drones will circle the ship and repair it slowly.
All of the mining ships will share the same texture... I still need to set it up in the game with effects and stuff...
Added a lean when turning to the player ship, integrated the new ship to work with the AI script, implemented the turret functionality and added a first pass on lootable containers...
here a quick video of the progress... there still are lots of bugs and stuff but there is a lot to implement still
created one of the lootable container objects (a lost escape pod). plus i started working on revamping the asteroid models to get more variety in. They can also now be colored er instance.
Also i ve been working on the asteroid models. Got rthe basic rock ones in and will add metal, icy ones to mic it up...
also planned are dynamic asteroids that fly around in the field that the player can destroy in an Asteroids fashion..
And finally i worked on the player cllision, now the player wont get stuck inside asteroids anymore, but will be pushed away... but needs more work
dont mind the typos in the video
Also I implemented an Asteroids style gameplay to the map. Its basically a few asteroids that sky around in the gameplay area and bounce off (or break after a while) from other static objects. The player can shoot and break them down to gather resources (credits for now).
I know that there is still a lack of separation between background and foreground, I do plan on having that solved by using seperat cameras with different
color grading/saturation for each camera. Its just not in because i am using unity basic that doesnt support post effects.
here some new screens:
(the spec on the big asteroid is a bit high... i toned that down a lot)
Some effects and UI work. Mostly jumpgate effect and cleaning up inventory space. plus a new font.
The piecs are all build on a grid and can be snapped together easily.
Here is a quick screenshot how it looks in maya, and a quick test export in Unity:
the layout is just for construction reasons, its not the final level.
Also created a modular rock piece that can be used in a lot of different ways to add to this set.
Now to finish the tech modules and the other floors.
The enemies are a bit jittery since they werent originaly made for enclosed spaces, i adjusted the aggro ranges and attack patterns for now... but the avoidance here needs some love still.
Here is a quick video of the whole thing in action:
btw, the framerate is a bit off in the video because my old mac mini doesnt like screen captures a lot
Plus I added some new combat text, min-max damage, critical hits, weapon cool down etc...
here is a quick video of the new stuff:
Impressive amount of stuff done for a one man show!
I would suggest you start putting some soundfx in there (if you have´t already), the sooner the better!
I shamelesely ripped Zelda soundfx for my Dungeon Memory Prototype (also one man show made with unity).It helps a lot with tweaking the gameplay.
I get the feeling of the old arcade game, Time Pilot.
Are you going for a more tactical or a more "arcady" game?
Keep up the good work!
yeah sound is something i always want to put i and the push away for other stuff
its more arcade style... but with some tactical elements.
For example the cartography skill (plus other benefits added to the map) will give the player the active ability to set a couple of waypoints to move along and concentrate on firing...which will be helpful against bigger ships with turrets
Also created the shield skill which will activate at skill lvl1 and adds a shield that absorbs damage next to the health UI. the shield recharges at the moment after a cooldown of 10 seconds when not in combat.
also did some work on the camera, pullig it out a bit more and made is more responsive overall. In addition to that the player speed is now a bit faster.
I havent had too much time the last year working on this game, but i managed to find the hour here and there to put into it.
I revamped the design a bit, it went a bit more arcade-ish route combined with Diablos hardcore mode (perma death) and some systemic rogelike elements.
removing the old inventory and going with pickups that will determine the weapon, health, shield and energy levels. those are randomly dropped and distributed.
Implemented a system to spawn small encounters, and a mission marker system. as well as the main loop.
I also added a title screen and an end (to the demo). So it has a start and a finish now.
I 'll be working more on the systems and making the game layers more readable (its better in game, but horrible on screenshots). getting only a couple hours a week to put into it doesn't make it easy
changed skill system from being points the player can distribute to pick ups. Those can also be bought in the new shop that can be found around the map (lots of placeholder/debug art there).
Added some new skills (tractor beam and lay mines).
Lay mines does exactly what it says, it lays mines that will explode when an enemy comes close.
The Tractor Beam lets the player tractor various objects and collect them in certain points to get rewards.
Offensive functionality will come soon. That will be slowing down enemies, dropping heir shields, etc..
Collection points will give rewards for certain recipes.
Also added skill bar hotkeys, and health/energy"potions" that can be collected and used..