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[CheapDevotion]

Most of my projects are freelance work (or boring), so a devlog is out of the question. This is my first attempt at making a game I would actually want to play, and hopefully others will to.

I have been trolling the forums for sometime now, and you guys seem like a great bunch to get feedback from. In this first devlog, I am going to talk a little bit about the game without giving away all the good stuff. I am going to try to post every other day or so with a bit of progress. This project is an ambitious one, but I have been freelancing for the last few years to gain the experience I need to complete it.

The game is unnamed at the moment but the basic premise is simple. You are placed in a procedurally generated solar system and can take on one of a few different roles in your quest to become rich and famous. This game is going to be a 3d top down shooter with a mix of game elements that I personally love. Before the project is done, I hope to add resource collection, crafting, combat, exploration, player driven economy, and a few other surprises along the way.

I have a few ideas that are going to be "starting points", and I plan to throw these together over the next week or so.

• Proceduarl Terrain and Terrain Texturing
• Basic Player Movement
• Decent Camera Controls
• Simple Weapon/Shooting System
• Maybe a Simple Enemy or Two

Anyway, I guess my reason behind this devlog is to generate interest, and in turn, motivation. Hope to have some screen shots soon.

[CheapDevotion]

DAY 1 - Sept. 1, 2011

I have actually played around with procedural terrain on a few other projects, so this part just took a couple of hours to throw together. While the terrain is pretty bare, I think I managed to get just the right amount of rolling hills. Any more mountainous, and it would be hard to play from a top down perspective.

I use a perlin noise implementation by Daniel Greenheck to generate the terrain, and then go over it with a few iterations of smoothing and normalizing.

After that, I sample the height of each point and use that data to assign textures. I have a few arrays (dirt, grass, mountain, cliff) with some textures that I choose at random. This gives some terrains a natural look, and others a more alien look. The first three textures (dirt, grass, and mountain) are simply based upon height, the cliff texture is used where hills shoot up from the ground pretty rapidly.

Anyway, I took a few screenshots of the first four terrains that were generated. Take a look and let me know what you think.

[CheapDevotion]

DAY 5 - Sept. 5, 2011

So clearly the one post a day thing didn't work out too well, but I have been working on the project. Right now, I am playing with camera angles and movement. I think the movement works well, but I am not completely convinced about the camera. In order to get a little feedback, I tossed together a quick web player. The player model is from one of the Unity demos. I don't plan to use this model for the final game, but will probably go with a similar style. Also, the terrain textures aren't great, but it is all I had to work with, and gives a good idea of how the random environments will work.

Movement: WASD
Adjust Camera: Right-Click (Must Right-Click->Go Fullscreen to use this)
Fire Weapon: Left Click

Click the screenshot below to launch the web player.

[Ashkin]

This is nice so far. I really don't like the camera though, it feels so limiting not being able to rotate upwards. That problem will probably be fixed when the ground is more interesting though, but you might want to lower the camera angle a little bit anyway, just to give a better view.

[JackMenhorn]

Your project looks very ambitious with the amount of stuff you are going to do all by yourself. 

My 2 cents is to limit the scope a little bit more to give yourself and the project a better chance to see completion.

People have made entire games out of just resource collection, crafting or a player driven economy.  Taking out one or all of these will save you many months of work.  But can always be added after release if the project is worth continuing.

[CheapDevotion]

@KomradeJack - I have given that advice quite a few times myself, so I do understand where you are coming from.

I have worked on a few large scale projects (not just games), and I know how big this one seems. I know what hats I am able to wear, and know which ones I need help on. I fully plan to outsource things like art and music, and stick to my strong points. Also, procedural generation is going to be my best friend in this case, as it will make the game seem large than it really is. Finally, this is the first project I have worked on that I have full creative control. I don't put massive amounts of my time into it, but it acts as my creative outlet a few hours each week.

Will this project see completion? I sure would like to think so, but I am not about to turn this into a game I have no desire to play, simply because I want a release. For the first time in my professional career, this game is not about the money, and I could care less if I don't make a dime. I want to write a game I (and others, of course) would simply like to play.

[CheapDevotion]

DAY 15 - Sept. 15, 2011

I have been pretty busy lately, so I haven't been able to put too much time into the project. One of the areas that was really bugging me was that the terrain was so... smooth. The idea is to have different, and realistic, alien worlds, and any planet that has been around for more than a few thousand years is going to have some wear and tear. So I rewrote most of the terrain generation and added a few passes of erosion. I think the result speaks for itself. Also, I have started adding detail to the terrain, so it doesn't look so bare. The first thing I wanted to add was a few "alien" trees. I think they turned out pretty well.

The last bit of tweaks were to the camera. I wanted the camera a little closer to the action and wanted to choose a tilt angle and lock it down. I think I found a good angle, but future play testing may prove me wrong. Also, in the graphics department, I added anti-aliasing (NFAA) and shadows. I am thinking about adding bloom as well, but will wait until I get some more of the core elements in.





Here is a better shot of the terrain. To help with scale, the player is that object covered up by the two speaker icons.


I think the next thing I add is more terrain detail (rocks, maybe water, and objects tossed about the terrain). I would love to get some feedback on the camera zoom and angle, and as always, any other feedback is welcome.