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[Outcast Orange]

Here's a full write-up, complete with old screenshots.
Thank you for participating in my life's work.

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An entire universe:


An entire local map:


Flooded abandoned structure:


Mountainside retreat:


Hide when the shadow comes:


Cloud Scream
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Created by Outcast Orange

The scope of this game is very large.
I expect it to grow and cultivate until I somehow lose interest (unlikely).
As of right now, it is getting fairly complex,
 so it's time to right a proper compendium.
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Controls:

Arrow Keys - Camera
TAB - Windowed Mode
WASDER - Movement
ENTER - Select
FG - Draw Distance
UO - Camera Distance

C - View Change (local mode only)
SPACE - Dig (local mode only)

I'm probably forgetting something.

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The first thing to happen, upon loading the game,
 is a universe will be created, and populated with features.

The space is filled with floating planets called Plates.
Plates are made from a special material,
 which is resistant to gravity when conjoined with a core.
Right now, removing the cores doesn't really harm them,
 but eventually, they will depend on the core to stay afloat.
The tops of these plates automatically have a few layers of rock caked on.
You can find the core at the very center of this rock.

The large plate at the bottom of the universe is called the Subplate.
It has a tall barrier edge to hold in the Subplate Ocean.

Landpilars, huge towers of plate material, form out of the Subplate.
They have a core in them, so are capable of aiding the plates they connect with.

Subvines are a strange giant plant that grows out of the Subplate Ocean.
They have a seed down there somewhere, but I doubt anyone will ever get at one.

This is where things get interesting.
Remember, all of this happens the instant you start the game.
The sky is filled with layers and layers of land,
 which come crashing down and land all over the Plates.
Some will fall past and land in the ocean,
 and some will fall off the edge of the universe and be removed.

Something special also falls from the sky, mixed in with the land. These are Waterseeds.
Once the land has stopped falling, any Waterseeds remaining on the surface will grow.
They develope a stalk, and grow upward until there is enough open space,
 at which point they bloom. You can see these as little blue 'T' shaped formations.
In the eventual game, they will be made of marble, and the primary source of water.

Now that the universe is finished forming, you have a yellow selector tool.

Move the camera and cursor around, and search for a location to start your game.
I reccommend picking a piece of land on top of a plate.
Press ENTER, and creation begins anew.
You should see a bunch of crazy nonsense happening,
and eventually a map covered in trees and grass.
This is your new home.

Move around, and find a place you'd like to settle down.
Make sure the cursor is above ground, then press ENTER to start your adventure.
You are now in control of Orange, a possessor of many capabilitiles.

You can jump by pressing E.

You can dig by pressing SPACEBAR, followed by a direction.
Don't forget that up and down (E+R) are valid directions for digging.
Once you have dug a tile, it will be carried along behind you.
Press SPACEBAR, followed by a direction to place it somewhere else.

You have an ability called "stomp".
You can press R while in the air to break the ground beneath you.
The higher you do this from, the larger the shockwave.
Rock will come unstuck and fall apart. This is good for caving in something.
If you stomp from high enough, you can even destroy some of the ground tiles.

That is all for now, enjoy running around, digging, and building.

One last thing.
The sky isn't safe.
It is advised that you maintain a cave at least five tiles from the surface.
The deeper the better.

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The latest version:
Cloud Scream 0.38 (Erosion)
http://www.mediafire.com/?jhw3wmgh0ty

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[Sam]

Hi!  This is insane and confusing, and great.

You should totally post a little introduction in this thread.  Doesn't need to be anything fancy, but it's tradition, and gets rid of that Manbaby thing under your username.

I really love the sense of scale you get from picking one voxel from a vast landscape, and finding that it contains a whole landscape of its own.  Wonderful!

I think a lot of the speed/timing is off for me, possibly because I have quite a speedy processor?  I experienced the dark shadow passing over, but it was more a flash of darkness than a creeping eclipse.  Things just happening very fast made it a little overwhelming/confusing when I first became the Orange; that's rather part of the fun though I guess!

I can understand why the game switches to "turn based" movement during a jump, but it is kind of jarring.  I can well understand that it would be a huge task to get movement working smoothly in full realtime, but I think that it would be a very strong addition.  Allowing the player to move freely outside of the grid would be really amazing - I can't help but imagine a little Mario64 clambering around the hills.

I'm not sure if water blocking your movement during rain storms is a problem or actually a nice addition to the atmosphere.  It certainly makes you pay attention to the weather.

I found that water tended to flood areas a bit too easily.  I very much liked that after a rain storm little dimples in the landscape became ponds, and valleys became lakes.  But it seemed that after a few storms everywhere was gradually being covered in permanent water.  Maybe I was just somewhere particularly prone to floods.

I like that digging involves having to carry out the dirt you just dug up.  Games so rarely obey the conservation of mass.

It would be nice if the alternate camera modes you get from pressing C would show a cross-section of the rock, rather than allowing you to see through into the hollow landscape.

I'd say don't worry too much about making it into 'A Game' with missions and highscores, and all that junk.  Just keep adding things you find interesting and let people explore the worlds it creates.  I've really enjoyed my brief wander around so far, keep it up!

[Outcast Orange]

Thank you for your comment there, Salt.

Here's the latest screenshots, explained in captions.

Transparent Water

This is the first working case of transparency in my game,
 since I'm a glut noob.
The water is layered, so the deeper it becomes, the less clear.

Waterplate

This is the latest version of the Waterplate,
 a super huge structure that can grow mainly in the higher elevations of my universe.
There is a brief guide on how to find them in the first post.
Also, there are two mystery structures randomly placed throughout the landscape.
One is fairly common, but still interesting.
The second is way rare, but I still see some on occasion.

New Debug

I just finished this addition in the last hour.
With an added set of debug controls,
 I can spawn a variety of materials with ease.
Please note that the physics are suspended during this screenshot.

[Bood_war]

I like the look of this.

I have to say, from first impressions, that the color contrasts in the screens really bug me (dark green+medium green+light green). It would help to have the colors be in bigger patches, or have them be more subtle.

Testing now, though, will be back.

[Outcast Orange]

I'm always willing to change the colors.
I've changed them a hundred times,
 and I'm never absolutely happy with them.

I'm thinking about swapping the tree colors with the grass colors,
 for darker grass with lighter trees,
 as might look more natural and provide better contrast.

And a new screenshot, because I can:


Please note that it might look like a water swell,
 but it is actually somewhat static, and supposed to be flat.
Waves are going to be a separate entity later on,
 and then it might possibly roll.

Also, maps with that much water have terrible frame rate.

[Bood_war]

Am sad. I get "The paging file is too small for this operation to complete."

[Outcast Orange]

Not sure what that means,
 but I found this:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315270

Might help.

Also, I'm not sure how to move these threads,
 but I suppose I will try.

EDIT:

Hmm... seems I can't.

I'm probably going to start posting in the dev section then,
 instead of here.

Feedback?

[Outcast Orange]

Crazy demonstrative image of erosion and dried up waterfall:


I've added in basic erosion and a soil/mud/sand relationship.
Water removes dead plant matter too.

Mud can actually dry up back into firm ground,
 so now there is a sort of balance,
 instead of the ground all breaking up the more you are around.

Also, if you were an omega nerd:
 You could manipulate this process in order to put a roof where there previously wasn't one.

The debug tools are CAPITAL LETTERS.
Try and find them if you want to screw around with the physics.
Also, it seems to crash a lot less.
Let me know if this is indeed the case.

Sorry, no natural rivers yet, at least not on startup.
I'm working on it though.
Also, the next release should let you drown,
 and deal with all of the upsetting displacement issues.

Here's the link:
http://www.mediafire.com/?jhw3wmgh0ty

I'd like to know how bad the lag is on other computers.
My computer is nowhere near being a gaming rig, and it handles it pretty well.
Let me know how fast it's running, and what sort of map you are in.

BTW, ocean maps work now, but they are super slow.

[Outcast Orange]

Oh sorry, this has been moved:
http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=10650.0