Hey guys, I want to post an update on my development as well as some new images that I've put together this morning. We're going to be shopping these to a lot of game blogs this week to try and drum up more interest and support for our Kickstarter project. Feel free to share these as well with any leads you might have if you would like to. We really do need all of the help we can get. We've got 12 days left and we're about 26% funded. Thank you in advance!
Development/GameplayEnemy WavesWaves now consecutively launching. Once the player eliminates all of the robots in the last wave, the next wave spawns. Originally this was set up in my testing to be timed in that once a group of enemies had launched, the next wave would launch. I started to worry about how much stuff could potentially be on the screen with that approach. Ultimately, I plan on having multiple "flights" of robots inside of each wave, almost like a mini Shmup stage. The mechanic would be a bit similar to Super Stardust, where you've got enemies coming down and eventually, you come to the end of a wave.
BuildingsI've got buildings spawning around the planet (albeit with a fixed radius of a planet). I can enter a value and spawn that many buildings around the planet. Each building in Robots Love Ice Cream houses a citizen at the start of a level. A citizen is the game's health and the target of the robots wrath. They'll try to capture citizens. When there are no more citizens left on a level, the game is over.
CitizensUnimplemented. Considering whether or not a citizen could conceivably be walking along the planet towards a building. If a Robot were to get shot down with a citizen aboard (not sure how I'd show that possession) could the citizen fall and then look for a building to occupy. I've got mental visions of the soldiers running to and from a building in Choplifter in my head,
EnemiesEnemies are now able to report their destruction to the EnemyWave, which can then ascertain whether or not the wave is completely gone.
WeaponsNot a lot of new development here, but I noticed in my latest build I've got some logic that causes slower firing at targets closer to the Hero, so I need to fix that.
HeroGot the truck animated and coded in logic for controlling those animations based on a speed value. The faster the truck is moving forwards and backwards, the faster the animation for the chasis rocking and the suspension bouncing will play. I think it looks pretty good for so little effort. Unity made it simple with an easy to
follow article for controlling, layering, and blending animations.
CreativeKoi FishGot our Koi Fish model modeled, textured, rigging, and animated. I think it looks pretty sweet, but we might need to re-approach later and ask whether or not it really evokes a robot much in the texturing. I think the form suggests it, but we'll see if that's enough.
Hero/Ice Cream TruckGot the Truck modeled and implemented in the game. The texture is probably not final and we need to make the ice cream lump on top of the truck a bit bigger so it fills it out. It's a good start though. Also managed to rig and animate the truck for suspension and chasis rocking. Bones are also in place for the turret base (for rotating the turret to aim at where the user is touching) and the tip (for launching a projectile from that point).
BuildingsGot some 3d models in there with quick unwrapping and an ambient occlusion bake just to see what the forced perspective stuff would look like and start thinking about the readability and scale of the forms.
I guess that's about all I have. I'll leave you guys with a shot from the current build of I guess what is essentially a pre-alpha. Love to hear your feedback!
Developer
