next »

[agersant]

Looks fantastic. My only concern would be the rumbling UI in the bottom right corner, it does not make much sense to me in a third person view.

Do you happen to have a Twitter or Google+ acccount I could follow not to miss key updates ? =)

[stevesan]

Some quick ideas:

- The low-altitude can provide many interesting risk/reward scenarios. Such as, shortcuts that require you to get really down into the trees - dodging trees or large rock outcrops to get a faster lap time would be quite rewarding! And this:

 

- I like the rocket boosters. Perhaps have fuel floating around that you can pick up for them..maybe hidden in the trees?

- For maps, try taking inspiration from famous natural wonders such as the Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Arches, etc. I would KILL to race around in the Grand Canyon, and I think you could do a great job with the graphics!

- Or, make up some super crazy exotic locations! Let me fly around in a "volcano garden" with eruptions everywhere or something. And geysirs too. Man I'm getting pretty pumped thinking about this

[Desert Dog]

Looks really good, I'll try to keep track of your progress.

I'd be interested in a twitter account to follow, too.

[DareM]

Thank you guys for responses and ideas.

About following development progress. Currently I didn't setup twitter account yet but you can visit www.altitude0.com and follow devblog via RSS feed.
It is still fresh but I am trying to add new articles as new features are added.

@agersant: Rumbling UI, I get your confusion. I actually got this idea in some car racing game a while ago (unfortunately cannot remember what game it was). The idea is that a camera is trying to follow the plane and while doing it, it reacts violently to all the action around it. This is also the reason for debris/crap on the screen during collisions.
I could add some config parameter to disable this effect if it bothers players.

@stevesan: Great ideas.
- Flying low : We added average altitude meter during race (can be seen in last video) because we would like to reward players at the end of the race for low flying. Question is still what kind of reward. I am also thinking of having certain section of the track where flying low for a couple of seconds would give you extra reward during race (time, points).
- Rocket boost: We already added some collectable items that partially refill your boost.
- Maps: More different environments are sure to come, but first we will try to release playable demo. Actually adding content in this game should be easy, current scene uses digital elevation data from the internet. We'd like users eventually to be able to setup their own gates and 'pro' users even import their own terrain (could be manually photoshopped). And trees are procedurally (auto) planted.
- Flying head down: Youtube video you linked to is very scary since it's real life.
Game already has some gates that reward driving through head (currently you get 10 sec time deduction).

Here is a screenshot of that moment, although in this case plane was too low to be rewarded for head down flying.

[kz012]

This is really looking nice! I particularly like the custom airplane skins.

[Pandara_RA!]

Reminds me of the Trackmania games a lot, what made them awesome is user map generating, custom terrain with custom music/physics etc, and I'm really glad many of those features you allow to edit in your game

[_discovery]

Looks like the racing modes in Just Cause 2, where you fly the planes places in a hurry. Sounds like I would enjoy it. I also like the challenge of getting upside down, when passing the markers. Could be a real challenge but the master-able kind.

[mihai]

Looks promising. Even if it is arcade, it needs a bit more realistic flight physics as other said, and I would go a bit for more speed feeling.

[DareM]

Many thanks to everybody who took time to comment.

@Pandara_RA!: We will keep in mind that there should be enough ways for players to add their own content.

@mihai Sense of speed is something we are working really hard on these days. We learned by trial and error that in a plane racing game it is quite hard to show speed because plane is usually quite alone in the sky. So the lower you fly the faster it feels.
Until now we had motion blur and wing vapor trails.
These days I added wind speed trails and darkening of screen edges when speed is very big - kind of brings focus to the middle of the screen.

I hope these effects will be enough to bring feeling of speed.
The only other idea I can think of is to start cheating with plane maximum speed (currently speed is still realistic), or even speed up game timer (but I don't like that one - feels like real cheating).

And I will re-check flight physics, there should be more feeling of weight as you guys mentioned.

[zovirl]

Buried deep in the Alps of Europe and surrounded by cows, goats and sheep, my partner and I had only two options: become shepherds or do something totally unimaginable here - make a computer game.

The terrain really reminds me of the Alps!

Second, for controls, are people used to two hands on keyboards or gamepad these days? Since it’s a plane game, it requires both hands pressing multiple keys at the same time.
Do many PC users own gamapad and is it popular?

I think on the PC, flight sim enthusiasts are likely to have joysticks with several buttons. Some will have HOTAS joysticks with plenty of buttons, thumbsticks, throttle, rudder, etc. (I did, until I gave it to my brother). I didn't have a gamepad until I started hanging out with folks from tigsource...now I have an xbox 360 controller.

[mihai]

Since it is an arcade game, I guess it is hard to draw the line between what you want to feel realistic and what not. I know it is hard to simulate speed in a plane as you have no static, close object to refer to (like the road when you play car racing games). Hopefully your blur and blacks and other stuff like that will help a lot.

[DareM]

The terrain really reminds me of the Alps!

I would like to say this is a valley not far from my place, but this could get me in trouble with the locals who would start complaining about look and features missing or added during game development. So officially it's completely made up.  

I think on the PC, flight sim enthusiasts are likely to have joysticks with several buttons. Some will have HOTAS joysticks with plenty of buttons, thumbsticks, throttle, rudder, etc. (I did, until I gave it to my brother). I didn't have a gamepad until I started hanging out with folks from tigsource...now I have an xbox 360 controller.

Certainly flight sim joystick won't help with this game, I believe game requires too much speedy movement and not that much precision. It seems that Xbox 360 controller is quite popular on PC these days so we will gladly use/support it.

P.S.: Whoever still desires to follow Altitude0 game development, we setup Twitter & FB accounts, so you are welcome to visit.

[DareM]

Since my last post we added multi plane support. This will be the base for multiplayer mode, ghost replays and other stuff.
We learned that plane racing is quite different from car racing since world map & airplane speeds are huge.
For that purpose we added radar to the interface. The opponents tend to come and go in the blink of an eye and radar is there to let the player know where other planes are.



Altitude0 should eventually become an online plane racing game with multiplayer support.
Before that we are working on the first public demo. The idea for the demo is to support online high score tables and players sharing their ghost replay races so they can see how other people fly.
Multiplayer feature will be missing from the demo so that we can release something soon instead of never ending development.

We are planning to add replays, racing against pre-recorded ghost planes, airplane mods (the easiest one would be skin changing), allow players to customize racing gates.
I am wondering if you guys have some ideas on what features people would like and expect from an online racing game. Am I forgetting some obvious stuff?

[oyog]

What the heck?  I thought I was watching this thread.

We are planning to add replays, racing against pre-recorded ghost planes, airplane mods (the easiest one would be skin changing), allow players to customize racing gates.
I am wondering if you guys have some ideas on what features people would like and expect from an online racing game. Am I forgetting some obvious stuff?

I dunno if you've already addressed either of these things, but I'd be interested in split screen multiplayer if you plan on supporting gamepads.

[DareM]

I dunno if you've already addressed either of these things, but I'd be interested in split screen multiplayer if you plan on supporting gamepads.

Split screen is a good idea for home-style multiplayer mode. I wonder if somehow we could also use it in online mode - like 2 players on a single computer, while other players are somewhere else in the world.

[DareM]

Hi guys,

Some screenies…







We are planning to allow up to 8 planes for the demo.  Certainly more planes make the whole racing more dynamic. We are adding some sound effects these days, otherwise just a few more things to add and fix for the demo. I will try to make another video soon to show how a whole bunch of planes race together. 

Cheers,

[agersant]

It still looks great =)
I was hoping for some plane customization features (pick colors and logo maybe). I think it would work well with the online aspect of the game.

[DareM]

It still looks great =)
I was hoping for some plane customization features (pick colors and logo maybe). I think it would work well with the online aspect of the game.

I like your idea, we are trying to make it easy to modify plane skins.
Hopefully it will be fun to participate in teams and have matching plane look.

At the start we will let players modify skins with some paint program. Later on I would like to build some simple editor to make it easy to apply at least some small changes (like logos, color).

[Netsu]

The game is progressing great. I don't remember if this was already asked but what technology are you using (engine?) and what OSes do you plan to target?
Also how long has it been in development?

[DareM]

The game is progressing great. I don't remember if this was already asked but what technology are you using (engine?) and what OSes do you plan to target?
Also how long has it been in development?

Thanks,
Currently we are targeting Windows with a decent graphics card. Later we'll see.

Engine is "home grown", it grew out of different projects during years : 3ds max plugin + one failed project + another frozen one
If nothing else I guess code was modular enough to be updated with time.
We decided to do airplane racing last summer.