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[astrofra]

According to Wikipedia, The Flying Dutchman is a ghost ship that can never go home, doomed to sail the oceans forever.



My (late ) contest entry will depict that ship's cockpit, and more precisely, the Bridge Deck. The view will be entirely in realtime 3D, including the cockpit, that will remain almost fixed to the camera (in order to remain in the initial rules of the contest).

The ship will be modeled in a more or less accurate way, technically speaking, to focus on the immersion & visual appeal. "Zelda Wind Waker" will probably be my main inspiration source.

The final delivery should be "game", with interactivity, and stuff to do.


Hey everyone !!

Here's the final version (Release Candidate 2).
The game plays from start to end, with a few bugs, probably

TO PLAY THE GAME, read below

• Download & unzip
• install OpenAL
• install VC Redist 2008
• Click on Start.bat

I included all you need in the archive.

Right click here to download the game.


Choose your language with the left & right keys, select with [CTRL] or [SPACE].
Press spacebar on the title screen to launch the game.
In game controls : <- and -> to control the aim, CTRL to shoot boulders.
Destroy the ships on your route, bit hitting them with the boulders.
If you don't destroy any of them, they will hold you back and you will never reach the island.
Use the compass to find the direction of the Island.

That's all !


RC2 Changes : Implementation of Japanese, English and French version.


I need to thank :
Emmanuel Julien / www.Nengine.fr / for providing the engine and tech. support.
Benoît Charcosset / maf464.free.fr / who composed the tunes I used.
Masami Tanzi / www.tanzi.jp / for the Japanese Translation.






... and more of the same :

http://astrofra.com/posts/tig_contest/flying_dutchman/fd_10b.jpg
http://astrofra.com/posts/tig_contest/flying_dutchman/fd_10c.jpg
http://astrofra.com/posts/tig_contest/flying_dutchman/fd_10d.jpg
http://astrofra.com/posts/tig_contest/flying_dutchman/fd_08.jpg

[astrofra]

First screenshot from 3DSMax. I tried to find a convincing render for the raging sea. It's made of concentric layers with waves textured on it. Should do the trick, once animated



Next step I'll have to model the ship, for this is the contest main topic, after all

[Inanimate]

Woah, this sounds really interesting, and has a great visual style! A story of a ship doomed to sail forever... you could potentially get a very powerful and amazing game out of this! Good luck to you, sir!

Will we be using compasses and star charts and the like, too?

[astrofra]

Will we be using compasses and star charts and the like, too?

Hmmm, for the compass, I will most probably use it as a scanner, heading at the lost souls of ships that the player destroyed.

For the star chart, errr, no plan yet 

oh, it's funny, your avatar does look like a helm :p

[Inanimate]

Ah, okay.

Will it have a story? Or will it be pure gameplay?

[astrofra]

Here's a first rough idea of the Main Bridge :



There's no compass so far, I still don't know if I'll add it in 3D, or directly in the UI.

Enjoy.

[Inanimate]

That looks fantastic! Will the deck be cartoony / the same style as the waves too?

[astrofra]

Thx dude. Yes, I'll try to give a toonish look to the whole boat, so that it does match the sea. However, before doing anything more on textures, I need to work on the whole game logic, I think.

Here are some more screenshots in the meantime.

[Inanimate]

Ooh, it's looking great! Will the sails move about and flex and such?

[Mikademus]

Couldn't this game be called "Son of the Flying Dutchman" or something, because the ship is on the infant side?

[astrofra]

Mikademus :
Ermm, I'm not really satisfied with the "Flying Dutchman" name actually, it is more of a placeholder, but the basic idea of a ghost ship will remain. "The Son of ..." is a pleasant idea, I might look for something in this style.

Inanimate :
I'd like to have the sails animated. If I have enough time, it should be deformed with a simple skinning, and ideally, some physic-driven bones.

[Synnah]

Glad to see you're in this competition! It was a shame that Erlkönig never made it into the Commonplace Book compo; it was looking cool. I really like your style in general, and this is no different.

[astrofra]

It was a shame that Erlkönig never made it into the Commonplace Book compo;

Yep, shame on me. 
I have no specific excuse, just that I'm probably more interested in testing new concept, than creating pure level designs ...

I should try to make something out of the Erlkonig, one day.

[bluej774]

I meant to tell you I love your water effects.  I was reluctant to mention it because they remind me very strongly of Windwaker.  That's a good thing, though.  I loved Windwaker.

[astrofra]

Hey dudes, sorry for remaining silent for days.
Here's a first video capture of the current progress of my cockpit compo.

Basically, I tossed the 3d assets in the engine, setup some small animation routines, a few physic objects, and voila.

Right click here to download the video. (Mpeg file)

The music on this video was composed by the great composer MAF. I didn't asked him for that, let's pray he won't be pissed of.

His website, for more of the same : http://maf464.free.fr/

Enjoy !