small update, things have been pretty quiet the last few weeks as we are doing some re-writing of the network system, keep an eye out on the blog for more on that soon. I took advantage of some of the down time to give the Zero Gear website a face lift: http://MyZeroGear.com
I think it better reflects the game and our style, let me know if you find any issues with it.
I think this is a great game! Im really interested in making something for fun. I have used the specs on the wiki to try and make the Back to the Future DMC.
2998 tri kart / 720 tri wheels
Couple questions;
I noticed there is no start-up animation listed in the animation list on wiki. So when the typical camera crane drop behind my kart at race start, will I see a single animation that transitions me into the ongoing race animation (idle)?
It looks like the texture sizes are 512 - driver / 512 - kart. . Im guessing all items that are interchangeable - wheels / hats / accessories ect have their own maps, what are the map size limits for these?
I think this is a great game! Im really interested in making something for fun. I have used the specs on the wiki to try and make the Back to the Future DMC.
2998 tri kart / 720 tri wheels
Couple questions;
I noticed there is no start-up animation listed in the animation list on wiki. So when the typical camera crane drop behind my kart at race start, will I see a single animation that transitions me into the ongoing race animation (idle)?
It looks like the texture sizes are 512 - driver / 512 - kart. . Im guessing all items that are interchangeable - wheels / hats / accessories ect have their own maps, what are the map size limits for these?
Is the kart restricted to being a single object?
Im really excited about Zero Gear!
-haha, that is awesome We have no idea of a "startup" animation right now, the idle animation is something that is playing at all times.
-512 is a good guideline, more important than the size of the texture is the size of the data, we don't know that the limit will be yet since we haven't tried sending the items across the network yet, but there will be a size limit for all of the assets together. When I come up with that size it will probably be based around 512 sized textures, but I can't say for certain if a 1024 would fit or not. I usually make all my textures at 1024 anyway, then shrink them after.
-The kart is restricted to a single mesh file, and the wheel(s) are a single mesh file.
I would recommend having the kart in the wheels up position to start (if it will fit in the bounding box) and then having the subtle floating motion as the idle loop. The only problem is that the character is positioned at a static point, so he wouldn't animate along with the bobbing. Being able to specify a bone in the kart to parent the character to would fix that, but unfortunately that is something we don't support at the moment. It might be something we could add but I have to confess we are frying much bigger fish at the moment (revamping the networked physics system) so I can't promise we could look at that soon.
I understand you have bigger fish to fry. For me its no problem at all, Ill simply start the car in floaty mode like you say, and make the bobbing more subtle so that the character doesnt dive to far into the karts mesh. Ill put more animation into the wheels maybe to simulate the float.... Im mearly a fan of your awesome game, anything I can do to get my car to race around a bit, Ill do.
Are you planning to have stats for the karts? like driving stats? Turning precision, speed ect?
at one point we wanted to have those be tweakable in the garage, not sure if / when we would get to it. They would never be tied to a specific kart though, just something anyone could tune.
made a new character over the last few days, say hello to Cacti the cactus
I am trying to get to 9 (stock) items in every custom item category (karts, characters, wheels, hats, accessories) and this makes 9 characters. I think I just need to make a few more accessories to fill everything out.
*edit* actually I can't count, this makes 11 characters
kart games have a long and storied history of copying a certain SNES game, I don't think an argument about copying in any direction carries much water.
are you going to release for mac? I think the intel binary switch is quite simple.
would give you a feather in your cap over EA.
btw I think you should make a bit of stink about this, they obviously copied you. It would raise the profile of your game, make a post on digg or something. I mean, if you guys built your game behind closed doors this EA game would look radically different.
btw I think you should make a bit of stink about this, they obviously copied you. It would raise the profile of your game, make a post on digg or something. I mean, if you guys built your game behind closed doors this EA game would look radically different.
My Sims have been around for a long time, I doubt EA copied his game. A racing game with SD (super deformed) characters for a platform that screams "kiddie". My guess is EA wants a taste of that Mario Kart pie for the Wii/DS.
come off it, have you watched the videos? the environments are almost identical, the garage is almost identical. There's some heavy "inspiration" going on.
but what better to generate a buzz in the gaming community?
The garage is almost identical? The only thing that's "identical" is that they both have cars on lifts, tools and a door to get in and out of. OP's garage and art looks way better than what EA is offering anyways.
Having a car on a lift in a game where you can change the look and performance of your car has been in many street racing games.
yeah there are some similarities.. but srsly? the sims thing looks like a nother 13 in a dozen cashin kartgame, just some tracks with silly powerups, whereas ZG has some really original game modes. add on top more customizability and better graphics, and bye EA
I'm kinda with hawken on this. I mean the environment obviously look better in Zero Gear... but that cowboy town and shit... wasn't that the first thing you guys posted a long time ago? Maybe they got hold of it for inspiration... either way, it does look a bit too much like each other, just Zero Gear having much more character (which is a shit ton better).
About mysims racing:
Personally I don't believe they copied us, and even if they did glean any inspiration from our game (which I doubt, since most of our similarities are just general obvious racing game ideas) we certainly don't have the time or energy to spare to make a stink about it. I also wouldn't want our game to get press simply because we were whining about something like that.
As for IGF, yes we entered - no we didn't get nominated for anything. It sucks, and we were a little bummed for about a day - but we really have no time to waste on any distractions besides getting this game to a releasable state. Maybe we will enter it again next year when it is actually in the wild.
Wow EA, that is AWFUL! As soon as I thought they were turning their shit around they go and do this. My lord that is amazingly similar, such a shame. It's ok though, Zero Gears looks way better anyway, haha.
It's a bummer you guys didn't get nominated. i personally looked at every game entered and read their comments. From the entries ZG deffinately looked the best imo and it seemed their comments for it was better than most.
I don't think EA will be much competition on the steam platform anyway, but that last pic of the garages side by side.... Well it's easy to tell. ZG puts the other to shame. Honestly that other just doesn't even look good even if ZG wasn't next to it to make it look bad.
Yeah years ago a mod me and kman were working on for BF1942 was out rite ripped off after we posted info about it. They released a month before we did so we got shat on by fans of the game for ripping EA off... Be careful timing is everything.
Just want to say this thread always has me eager to see more progress on this game, really looking forward to playing it and as for that EA game lol I can't say it compares to what you've posted up on the game so far
They released a month before we did so we got shat on by fans of the game for ripping EA off... Be careful timing is everything.
That's exactly what I was getting at For some reason, it's always assumed that they big companies came up with it first, even when you actually release it first. Not that it matters who did it first, but it can really give your game a bad rep erroneously.
long time no updates, I am in the middle of making a map to test out a new gameplay mode that will basically just trying to be the first to get from start to end, with checkpoints along the way to save the progress you have made should you fall off.
In other happenings, I just moved into some new office space with my brother eeenmachine. I'm looking forward to having a nice quiet place to work on Zero Gear!
Replies
I think it better reflects the game and our style, let me know if you find any issues with it.
2998 tri kart / 720 tri wheels
Couple questions;
I noticed there is no start-up animation listed in the animation list on wiki. So when the typical camera crane drop behind my kart at race start, will I see a single animation that transitions me into the ongoing race animation (idle)?
It looks like the texture sizes are 512 - driver / 512 - kart. . Im guessing all items that are interchangeable - wheels / hats / accessories ect have their own maps, what are the map size limits for these?
Is the kart restricted to being a single object?
Im really excited about Zero Gear!
Very cool vehicle
-haha, that is awesome
-512 is a good guideline, more important than the size of the texture is the size of the data, we don't know that the limit will be yet since we haven't tried sending the items across the network yet, but there will be a size limit for all of the assets together. When I come up with that size it will probably be based around 512 sized textures, but I can't say for certain if a 1024 would fit or not. I usually make all my textures at 1024 anyway, then shrink them after.
-The kart is restricted to a single mesh file, and the wheel(s) are a single mesh file.
I would recommend having the kart in the wheels up position to start (if it will fit in the bounding box) and then having the subtle floating motion as the idle loop. The only problem is that the character is positioned at a static point, so he wouldn't animate along with the bobbing. Being able to specify a bone in the kart to parent the character to would fix that, but unfortunately that is something we don't support at the moment. It might be something we could add but I have to confess we are frying much bigger fish at the moment (revamping the networked physics system) so I can't promise we could look at that soon.
Are you planning to have stats for the karts? like driving stats? Turning precision, speed ect?
Good luck!
I am trying to get to 9 (stock) items in every custom item category (karts, characters, wheels, hats, accessories) and this makes 9 characters. I think I just need to make a few more accessories to fill everything out.
*edit* actually I can't count, this makes 11 characters
Let me know when it's released, I'll pick up a copy.
**Can you slip in a Subaru-ish WRX Station wagon?**
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/44092.html?type=flv
Our main focus is going to be a lot more than racing, so I think we will be ok.
Anyways marsh, keep it up man!!
(not that you should give up... just saying)
would give you a feather in your cap over EA.
btw I think you should make a bit of stink about this, they obviously copied you. It would raise the profile of your game, make a post on digg or something. I mean, if you guys built your game behind closed doors this EA game would look radically different.
Just keep on working and release your game.
but what better to generate a buzz in the gaming community?
Having a car on a lift in a game where you can change the look and performance of your car has been in many street racing games.
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/44092.html
looks almost 1:1, quite scary
Personally I don't believe they copied us, and even if they did glean any inspiration from our game (which I doubt, since most of our similarities are just general obvious racing game ideas) we certainly don't have the time or energy to spare to make a stink about it. I also wouldn't want our game to get press simply because we were whining about something like that.
As for IGF, yes we entered - no we didn't get nominated for anything. It sucks, and we were a little bummed for about a day - but we really have no time to waste on any distractions besides getting this game to a releasable state. Maybe we will enter it again next year when it is actually in the wild.
It's a bummer you guys didn't get nominated. i personally looked at every game entered and read their comments. From the entries ZG deffinately looked the best imo and it seemed their comments for it was better than most.
I don't think EA will be much competition on the steam platform anyway, but that last pic of the garages side by side.... Well it's easy to tell. ZG puts the other to shame. Honestly that other just doesn't even look good even if ZG wasn't next to it to make it look bad.
http://digg.com/pc_games/Trailer_released_for_physics_driven_PC_Kart_game_Zero_Gear
if you want to toss a digg our way.
We are going as fast as we can!
If only I could clone myself and Brian into 4 or 8 extra people that didn't need to eat or sleep.
That's exactly what I was getting at
In other happenings, I just moved into some new office space with my brother eeenmachine. I'm looking forward to having a nice quiet place to work on Zero Gear!