DEVLOG - Supersolar: a top-down action game
interpolator
I'm working on a little project in my free time, a top-down shooter, where the player controls a spaceship and fights against swarms of AI drones. My inspiration are games like Homeworld or Battlezone.
I'm trying to have a gameplay demo ready in a few months with the help of my programmer, with final art, then see where that leads. One of my goals is to make the ship, enemies and enviro as cool as I can, maybe go a little over the top. The units will be rather small on screen, so I'm keeping fat bevels and large details.
Here are some images from the prototype inside UE4, with blockout parts, and a wip for the drone's highres. Comments are welcome!
There's a lot to do, including final model of the textured ship and drone, a load of animations, some basic enviroment pieces, weapons and effects.
Ship blockout:
Drone highres:
I'm trying to have a gameplay demo ready in a few months with the help of my programmer, with final art, then see where that leads. One of my goals is to make the ship, enemies and enviro as cool as I can, maybe go a little over the top. The units will be rather small on screen, so I'm keeping fat bevels and large details.
Here are some images from the prototype inside UE4, with blockout parts, and a wip for the drone's highres. Comments are welcome!
There's a lot to do, including final model of the textured ship and drone, a load of animations, some basic enviroment pieces, weapons and effects.
Ship blockout:
Drone highres:
Replies
An update on the drone, with low poly and wip bake (still some fixing to do). This little guy is the only enemy in the demo, he'll have a couple of extra animations like being alerted to the player's presence, communicating with nearby drones, wiggling antennas, etc. Also on destroyed state, it will split in all the different parts, now with a burned up texture set.
Thanks r4ptur3!
Here is another update, working on the high res of the player ship, the wing assembly. THe wing will rotate for strafing animation, for looking around, the flaps will extend when braking, and the whole thing will fold while doing some special moves.
Cockpit opening nr #1:
Even though the cockpit opening won't be in the demo, I'm trying to plan ahead all the things I would like to have. I also want to have damage-able parts, so when hit, the main panels will fly off and reveal some cool innards.
And my reference board for modeling the ship. I gathered a lot of references for the different parts like exhausts, wings, panel lines, etc and I'm doing a lot of trial and error trying to come up with some cool shapes that fit together. I'm mostly happy with what I have so far on the ship.
Thanks for replying Shrike. Actually I did prototype in the past two years, fully fleshing out the idea (in the process I had to completely redesign the ship too). And last year, I added blockouts (which I'm using as a base for the baked models above) in the latest build, complete with mockup weapons, destructions, movement, UI, etc.
I think I have a clear idea of what I want now and I'm mostly happy with it, but I can't really show anything I have. So the next step, which I'm working on now, is replacing the blockouts with finished art (version 1), polishing up what I have in my prototype, and making a trailer, promotional art, etc. I'm also making an environment, but it's not something large, more like a diorama, just for showcasing.
Due to having a full-time job, I can't spend a lot of time on the project, so I'm trying to think a little bit ahead - cockpit opening won't be in the demo in the near future, but I don't want to rework my ship model later either, so the parts I'm doing now I want to be relatively future-proof. I also think I can integrate these details in the trailer even if they won't be in the demo.
Also I have to admit that I'm focusing on the art - I think the premise of the game is simple and proven, my goal is to make what I put in the game look cool: the ships, combat and enviros.
@Brian "Panda" Choi To be honest, my rig is really simple
@Art_em I might need some help with the environment, will let you know haha
@Optimus The main ship is still in high res phase, but the drone is somewhere around 4000 tris.
@AmigoSt PM'ed
Here's another update. It took a lot of time to finish, but I'm happy with the final result. The ship has 5 hardpoints that the player will add different weapons. Since the ship's rotation is slow, the turrets need to instantly rotate to the mouse pointer to not affect aiming. They need to hold the weapons, and also have to rotate and not hit any other part of the ship. So the grab arms have 360 degrees of rotation freedom. Also the main turret discs can deploy and retract so the player can see what weapons he's changing.
Behance: http://behance.net/art_em
Artstation: http://artstation.com/art_em
Cheers.
First model: Voyager 1 probe that will be on screen for a couple of seconds:
@lotet You're totally right man! The Voyager model is the first one I'm doing using real world reference. I followed the actual proportions, and even though I applied fat bevels and simplified shapes like I did with the ships, it isn't enough. It would have worked fine, since you'll see it just briefly in the trailer, and it needs to be recognizable as Voyager 1, but it works better if I apply the same chunky fat style everywhere.
So I redid the Voyager, and defined the style - very readable shapes, fat edges, exaggerated, but not cartoony or chibi-like proportions. It will read much better now in-game, and I can add more details, even though they aren't present on the real thing.
Also have a logo now!
For the Voyager 1/2, you should add the small and big antenna. With that the player can be able to know what is this particular satellit
Keep it up !
@lotet Thanks!
Here's some new stuff.
Working on the trailer:
Drone model is integrated:
Turret deploy! Player can change active turrets by clicking on them:
And trying to wrap up the ship. I made some small changes, orange parts are still in blockout:
MInigun explodes the drone, and laser beam slices through them. What's left to do though - add more variations to the sliced models and some cool FX.
I have an advanced blockout integrated, particle effects, sounds and a basic hud. There's still some polish left to do, but here are some screens
Here are some new updates - after a break due to my job, I'm now back to work!
Drone texturing WIP. It's tricky to keep things interesting but simple enough to ensure details are visible with the top-down camera, but I'm getting close. I'll be making a couple of color variants too. The green module will be an energy pickup that drops from drones after they're destroyed.
And integrated in engine:
What's new today - progress on the first level. This bridge / platform will serve as a tutorial before ending in open space.
And some drones closeup!
my only crit is gameplay related and very minor, but I think you could increase the hit box of the drones a bit :P
I love where this is going though, Its amazing how much content you've managed to create, all the small things like sounds effects and tutorial text and such...
looking forward to your next update