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

There’s action going on in the Mediterranean Sea.

Various conservation organizations are fighting to protect bluefin tuna from overfishing.

As every cause worth fighting for, confrontations will inevitably happen.

Here the chronicles of the current Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd’s tuna protection operations, and my personal opinion regarding their methods.

Read the rest of this entry »

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Well, now we begin to roll.

You can finally try the first version of the latest prototype of the Sea Shepherd advergame.

As my original concept dictated, the game will be a side scroller, with focus on the navigation aspects across iceberg mazes, and highlights in fast paced zodiac pursuits.

At this initial stage, you can try the feel of navigating the Steve Irwin vessel across what should resemble a very ruff iceberg field..

I tried to balance realism in the dynamics with certain more unrealistic elements, such as exagerated buoyancy, excessive speed and manouevre capabilities etc.

The game should have a high level of realism, yeah, but I also want it to be fun and entertaining for a casual gamer.

My favourite quote.. ‘Inaccurate, but it will blow your fucking mind..!’

So, in the hope of blowing some fucking mind up, here the link to the prototype.

The more feedback you give me, the more chances to see the issues solved in the next version..!

Controls:

• Up/Down – Forward, Reverse
• Left/Right – Steering wheel

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Also today I’ve adding some new goodies to the game..!

A radar function has been implemented, that will allow the player to interpret relevant info, such as obstacles or waypoints.

I’ve built this radar modifying an existing Javascript script that can be found here: http://www.unifycommunity.com/wiki/index.php?title=Radar

Soon i’ll have to begin testing the prototypes. I’m very itnerested to find out, for example, if the test players will be able to interpret the radar correctly, given the fact that the sidescrolling gameplay contradicts the usual vertical interpretation of a radar screen. It is going to be interesting to find out if people gets disoriented if the radar is rotated to follow the direction of the scrolling of the game.

I also changed the POV to make the game more similar to my original concept (Whale Defense Response).

Soon I will upload a decent prototype, so you will have the possibility to try it by yourselves.

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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)

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Established in 1977, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS) is an international non-profit, marine wildlife conservation organization. Our mission is to end the destruction of habitat and slaughter of wildlife in the world’s oceans in order to conserve and protect ecosystems and species.

Sea Shepherd uses innovative direct-action tactics to investigate, document, and take action when necessary to expose and confront illegal activities on the high seas. By safeguarding the biodiversity of our delicately-balanced ocean ecosystems, Sea Shepherd works to ensure their survival for future generations.

from http://www.seashepherd.org/who-we-are/

An analysis of the organization and of the message to brand will follow briefly.

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