I still have to come up with a good title.. » prototype

Going towards the release of a new prototype..

admin — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 17:28:37 +0000

Well yes, it’s proceeding!

And now I’ll have to begin to push times.. I want to have it ready for the 20th of June.. a couple of weeks left..

Today i cleaned up the messy code of “The Overfisher”, starting a new and more efficent version that drives the new functions of the gameplay.

In particular i focused on giving the boat inertia in its movements, trying to balance realism with some exagerated caracteristics.

One of them is the implementation of buoyancy. This allows for the boat to behave as if it was floating, giving a much more powerful effect to the general navigation and (yes!) the collisions.

Here some screenshots of the upcoming next prototype.. enjoy!

External resources:

Buoyancy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buoyancy

Buoyancy in Unity3D: http://forum.unity3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=33588 (i used that “Buoyancy.unitypackage.zip” script)

The Overfisher – 2v0

admin — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 18:07:17 +0000

Click to play the game!

Second version of the game concept “The Overfisher”.

..Still in a prototype stage, this version of the game differs from the previous one on the following characteristics:

AI vessels now sail following smooth courses, resulting in less robocrappy trajectories.

The player can collect Boosters pickup, or jump on ramps to gain a bonus speed, for a certain amount of time.

Sound baby! Not the final ones, but still you can begin to have an idea of what kind of experience the final game will offer, both in “pace” and in “seriousness”.
Highscores. Yes, because Fred beat me and now war has been declared. Fishing war, in particular.

The graphics and sounds are still a dummy version, and in particular the theme, backbone of the idea of “the overfisher concept”, has not been implemented yet. The next version of the game will be released in three weeks time, and it will be the final one.

But for now, let the battle begin!

I would be very interested to hear your impressions so far, and every comment the will help me calibrating the game will be very appreciated!

You can keep track of the highest scores in the leaderboard on the right..!

Click to play the game!

The Overfisher

admin — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 22:46:19 +0000

..and finally, here the first game completely homemade, with pure genuine brainz effort and no step-by-step guidance..!

The purpose of this minigame is simply to get to know Unity’s scripting, in a crash course style.

..In this particular game you will take the role of a very determined competitive fisherman, willing to gather as much fish as possible, in order to beat his market adversaries.

Unfortunately, the fishermen sooner or later will have to accept the reality that their business needs are not always as sustainable as they might think..

..In this particular game you will take the role of a very determined competitive fisherman, willing to gather as much fish as possible, in order to beat his market adversaries.

Unfortunately, the fishermen sooner or later will have to accept the reality that their business needs are not always as sustainable as they might think..

Click to test your skills as ferocious fisherman!

..my highest score, 135! ..anybody willing to challenge me?!

..Che-Check.. Checksound!

admin — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 18:35:51 +0000

..Taaantaatarataantaantaaaaa… (ad libidum, it should be a literal representation of the Imperial March, Star Wars style baby!)

Ouu yeah, it’s finally ready to go!

This is my first attempt of an application built using a Game Engine (Unity).

“My” first attempt.. there’s not so much of “me” in it, being it just a 280+ pages tutorial, but ye, it’s a long way to the top if you wanna rock ‘n roll!

The game is a simple AdVeNtOrOuS experience, in which the player is left alone onto a deserted island, waaaay to big for him to explore.

Thank god he was lucky enough to land right next a cabin and a fireplace.. and a coconut throwing platform..

Well, I could trip for hours with this three elements, but it’s actually not that much of a big deal to solve the riddles.. have fun with it

..Try the game! (Use SHIFT to throw the FLAMIN’ COCONUTS, when standing on the platform.. )

Next step? ..now it gets interesting.

Thanks to Marcdub, I finally got the blueprints of the HMS Orkney, sister ship to the Westra, aka Steve Irwin! ..I also found the drawings of the Ady Gil, so now I have enough material to start planning some 3D work.

I don’t feel confident yet to start developing my own applications using game engines, so I’ll also study two other tutorials:

These should give me enough resources and competence to finally apply all this knowledge to the final goal:

Developing an AdverGame for Sea Shepherd.

Hold on, good times are coming!

GUI uncovered

admin — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 19:10:52 +0000

I’m currently working on the visual aspects of the game: For now I did the menu, navigation etc.

Tomorrow I’ll be refining the ingame graphics, and hopefully improving that horrible attempt of drawing a credible representation of the Nishin Maru

You can try the prototype following this link.

As usual, any comment will be a helpful source of reflection

High seas reportage

admin — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 16:53:55 +0000

I’m currently working on the functionality that will allow you to take pictures to the whaling vessels.

This will be one of the first challenges, teaching the player how to navigate the zodiac.

The camera in fact has a very short “range”, and this means that the player will be forced to drive very near to the vessels, dodging icebergs and avoiding to crash against the enemy ship. This requires good control over the throttle, making the player understand the enhanced control over the vehicle if managing the speed appropriately.

The player will have only a limited number of possible shots, in order to make the function more challenging.

When activating the camera a target will appear, indicating the point that the camera is directed to. Getting targeted by a watercannon will influence this function, making it more difficult to aim the right spots.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXozooDznhw

A new prototype will be posted on Wednesday..!

Night Attack!

admin — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 14:35:21 +0000

What a better way to test a new control mode than during a stealth antiwhaling operation on pitch black Antarctic waters..?

This version has some new stuff:

If you crash against a vessel, the zodiac stops (it would happen something more catastrophic, but i’ll code that part later)

If you get hit by a water cannon, the zodiac will try to change direction getting pushed away from the vessel

Night scenario

It looks like the work it’s proceeding slowly, but I’ve been rewriting a huge amount of code since the original protoype: This will allow me much more flexibility when implementing the rest of the game.. So yea, come back in a week if I’m too slow

How does this night scenario works? Do you feel the tension in it? Or is it just undrivable?

The sounds are not the right ones, they are just placed there to remember me to look for the m before the 6th of january

You can try the prototype at this link (click the second “play” button..)

Any comment? Ideas? Destructive criticism?

New control mode

admin — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 22:10:47 +0000

Lots of user testers begged for a different control mode.. Well, here you go.. ye pirates!

The new version allows you to drive the zodiac entirely via keyboard, while still permitting you to use the mouse if you want more control over the vehicle.

..and don’t forget the stilish effect of driving with one hand like a real cowboy!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLt-yQNYJ00

Preview

admin — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 15:52:33 +0000

A quick glance to what’s going on backstage..

www.youtube.com/watch?v=thjxHKFe8A0

Foggy day in Antarctic waters..

admin — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 13:51:19 +0000

Here the result of some random prototype in “naval guerrilla” style.

I’m preparing bunches of code that may come useful for the actual game, according to what the concept dictates when developed.

Here the functions that i tried to focus on:

Movement of the zodiac as natural as possible. It was damn hard to give it enough inertia to make it look natural.
Did i succeed? Does is still look like Robocop trying to hunt a whale?
Splashy thingy behind and under the boat, and bumping movement of it while “driving”. Does it look like the trail of a boat?
Does it help giving the sense of increasing and decreasing of speed of the vehicle?
Fog. It could be interesting to use fog to make a level suddenly become harder. Does it make the experience a bit more exciting? or is it just a big gray square with a blurred hole in the middle? Did you understand that it represented the limited visual?
Crashing against icebergs: You did got that those were icebergs, right? Does it feel heavy the impact? Or does it feel like throwing a bouncy ball against a wall?

The graphics are crappy, try not to get distracted by them. The sounds are just to experiment if it is possible to feel the acceleration of an engine (Renault van, hell yea!) by simply fading two clips. The real one should be much more brutal and at muuuch higher RPM.

Controls:

A : turn left

D : turn right

Mouse, dragging the leva up and down : Throttle

How does it feel the throttle leva? Does it help you having more control over the boat by giving small bursts of power, or do you keep it stuck at full speed all the time?

What about the complex speed of the boat? Too slow? Too fast?

The more you play, the more difficult it gets. There is no ending, it just keeps creating icebergs until your computer explodes for low performance

(no preloader, patience young jedies)

Enjoy! ..and it would be really appreciated if you could spend the time to write some feedback ..be gentle though, this is the result of like 8 hours of work since yesterday night