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Tentacle Uprising will be a spaceship combat game with a little bit of tower defense gameplay thrown in.  I'm a little late in throwing my hat in the ring but I think I should be able to put something enjoyable together in a couple of weeks since I have my almost complete little engine to work with.

Story thus far:
It's been 10 years since the Claw succeeded in the conquest of the Tentacle homeworld.  When a Claw virus infected the strong atmospheric defenses around the planet upon which the Tentacle were all too reliant on, the rest of the invasion was a breeze.  Since then you have been working on a Temporal Repair device in your quest to take back the Tentacle homeworld.  With the device secured in your ship, you are now ready to extract your vengeance by repairing the atmospheric defenses.  (In case it isn't obvious, were talking about crabs and squids here)

Gameplay:
Basic gameplay will be space combat sim-ish.  Throughout the level (located somewhere in the sky about this planet) there will be the remains of towers (with different functions) that you can collect with a tractor beam.  Once you pull in the debris, the temporal repair device will prepare it (this will take 20-30 secs) and you can place it on floating landmasses across the level.  All the while squads of enemy ships will be ambushing you with some story dialog thrown in some encounters.  Getting more towers operational will allow you to take those ships down easier.  At the end of the level there will be a capital ship that you have to take down by destroying it's turrets, shield generators, and the engines or bridge that will be exposed once the shields are down.

Art:
Somewhat cartoony, with the ships' looks inspired by their respective creatures.  The cockpit will have radar UI and UI for the current tower being repaired.  Tentacles will be present.  Levels will not be spacey, rather they will take place closer to the planet so don't expect stars and galaxies and what you'd seee in a mid-90s X-Wing/Wing Commander game.

Latest Version:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/meijm4enyq2/TentacleUprisingSetup_TIGS_v1.3.exe (http://www.mediafire.com/file/meijm4enyq2/TentacleUprisingSetup_TIGS_v1.3.exe)

Controls:
WASD/Left analog:  Throttle and strafe
Mouse/Right analog: Turning
Left click/Right trigger: Shoot
Space/Left Trigger: Tractor beam
Q key/A button: Fire missiles
Y key/Y button: Invert Y
P key/Start: Pause

You can build towers by capturing the debris with the tractor beam, waiting for it to repair, and using the tractor beam on the landmasses to place the towers.

Gameplay video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsSrx5thVj0 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsSrx5thVj0)

Latest screenshots:

(http://www.roachpuppy.com/files/tentacleuprising11.jpg)

(http://www.roachpuppy.com/files/tentacleuprising9.jpg)

Question: will the plot also involve a disembodied purple tentacle and radioactive sludge?

Haha, the first thing that popped into my mind when I thought of what a tentacle tower might look like was this:

(http://linuxformat.co.uk/blog/wp-content/dayofthetentacle.gif)

Also, the color of the pilot's tentacles defaulted to purple and I didn't realize why until later.

It may be hard differentiating you from !CE-9. :D
Cool game idea.

Quick update:

Still working with my usual prototype spheres for graphics so no screenshots just yet.  What's done:
* Player flying controls (throttle, yaw/pitch/roll)
* Main gun
* Heat seeking missles
* Fighters (common base code, no AI yet)
* Tower logic and one "laser tower" type
* Menus (main, options, pause)

Got some work done on enemy AI today along with some preliminary graphics.  The screenshot below shows a partial cockpit and some fighters, both untextured.  The color and shading comes from my cartoon shader.  No skybox yet either, that's just the clear color.

(http://www.roachpuppy.com/files/tentacleuprising.jpg)

That is amazing.

So is this basically a first person tower defense?

I haven't really decided how much emphasis to put on the towers and how to balance that with the flight combat.  I could go a few routes with it, and if I had more time I could make several levels with these elements.
1.  Few to moderate amount of strong enemies, weak towers:  Would require more space fighting and towers would just help.
2.  Large amount of strong enemies, stronger towers: Still would require more space combat than tower defense, but towers could play a bigger role.
3.  Large amount of weak enemies, strong towers:  I could see this being more of a pure tower defense with the only point of the flying being to grab tower remains and repair/plant them.

I've been focusing on option 2, but let me know what you guys think.  This part of the game is easy to tweak.

I'm thinking you should go with number 2. It seems the most interesting option.

Now with more tentacle...

I worked on the game a little today.  Still just fighters in the screenshot since most of the other art consists of spheres  ;D

(http://www.roachpuppy.com/files/tentacleuprising2.jpg)

I really like the look of that! The cel-shading is spot on, and the tentacle controlling the joystick is a really nice touch. Throw in Tower Defense gameplay, and I'm looking forward to this!

More screenshots!  Worked on art mostly today, with some bits of logic.  I also added detail levels for the cartoon effect (in order of increasing quality): shading with no edge detection, shading with edge detection, and (new!) shading in one pass and edge detection as a postprocess.  I'm really happy with how the postprocess edge detection ended up looking.

What you see below are floating landmasses that you can attach towers to. The dark green junk floating above is a destroyed version of a tower that you pick up with a tractor beam and repair before you can use them.  In game it rotates and bobs up and down so it's easier to notice.  The dark spheres are bullets and missles that have no art yet.

(http://www.roachpuppy.com/files/tentacleuprising3.jpg)

(http://www.roachpuppy.com/files/tentacleuprising4.jpg)

This is gorgeous. Can't wait to see it in motion.

Your art style puts my art style to shame, looking awesome!

Nothing flashy to report tonight.  Spent the night fixing various bugs and glitchiness that I was putting off til now.  I also realized that the traditional yaw/pitch/roll controls are a pain in the ass (read: not fun) when you're trying to grab and place towers so I eliminated roll and replaced it with a "strafe throttle".  So now you have two throttles along both your forward and right vectors (WASD or left analog) along with turning with the mouse (or right analog).  The game is a lot more fun now with that change.  I hope to have something to download soon.  Right now it's just a test level with no real goals or story.  That and the title and option screens.  If you guys wanna mess around with that I can throw the installer together tomorrow.

These things are the bane of my existence. I have never created them, unless the framework I was using gave me some very easy way to do so.

I'm using a UI system I wrote recently for my engine, so I'm glad I bit that bullet before the competition.  :apoplectic:

Decided to work on music and add sound effects today rather than waiting til the last minute.  There's sound for almost everything now and I threw a little drum loop together in Reason that plays quietly in the background.  If I have time I'll write something more melodic.

Heading to Guitar Center after work to pick this (http://www.guitarcenter.com/Korg-nanoKEY-MIDI-Keyboard-Controller---Black-580359-i1435762.gc) up.  Sliding between my 88-key digital piano (using it as a MIDI controller) and my computer for simple composition got annoying real quick.

Wow, I've never heard of one of those before, and it looks pretty awesome. 12" is absolutely tiny, I'm sure it won't get in the way of anything. Plus, the price is very modest. Downside is, there are no knobs.

Worked on the HUD/radar yesterday and just casually working on polish and a bit of art today.  This weekend will be less hectic with the deadline extended.  With the extra week I can probably add the story elements I wanted originally and different fighters/capital ships.  The level could also use a bit more background decor and I guess I have time to do that too.  I'll post some new screenshots later tonight.

New screenshot with the final cockpit in place.

(http://www.roachpuppy.com/files/tentacleuprising5.jpg)

Behold, a S.Q.U.I.D. missile.  In honor of the original deadline, I will try to have a demo available later tonight.  Stay tuned.

(http://www.roachpuppy.com/files/tentacleuprising6.jpg)

As promised, here's the demo!

EDIT: See thread-head for latest demo.

Let me know if there are any issues installing or running it.  The installer includes small redists for XNA, DirectX, VS, and .NET.  That should be all of the dependencies.

Controls:
WASD/Left analog:  Throttle and strafe
Mouse/Right analog: Turning
Left click/Right trigger: Shoot
Space/Left Trigger: Tractor beam
Q key/A button: Fire missiles
P key/Start: Pause

Right now the game will just keep spawning fighters.  You can build towers by capturing the debris with the tractor beam, waiting for it to repair, and using the tractor beam on the landmasses to place the towers.

Some stuff that you wont see until later this week:

• Explosion and smoke effects
• More background elements
• Capital ships/other enemies
• Dialog
• More varied AI
• Sequential/eventful level

The game installs fine and the menu works, but when I press start, it crashes, regardless of settings.

I should mention that the game requires a card that supports shader model 2.0.  It's on my to do list to add some checks before launching but I forgot to do it before distributing it just now.  If you do have a supported card:

1. Run dxdiag.exe from the commandline/Run window.
2. Click "Save all information"
3. PM me the contents of dxdiag.txt and any other tidbits that might help.

Ah, I think it's probably just my graphics card then.

I think I may have fixed your issue.  I was looking at the output of my content build and there was a texture that had non-power-of-2 dimensions which is usually a problem on older cards.  Try the updated file in the previous post and let me know!

Works now! Can't really try it at the moment because it's the middle of the night and I don't want to wake people up, though.

Also, I noticed the shortcut the installer creates doesnt set the "Start in" to the game's install directory.  I'll fix it when I get home, I guess just run the exe directly (or change the shortcut) if this is a problem until then.

Edit: Fixed, see thread-head.

very cool idea and great artwork!

oh noes, XNA.=( Crossover doesn't do that and I'm lazy.

the screenshots are amazing tho, so I'm definitely checking this out next time I'm booting into windows. :coffee::handmetalR:

Now with smoke and explosions!  *cue Michael Bay music*

I'm going to update the demo tomorrow with these changes and some other small ones before working on some big ticket items.  I think I'll keep those semi-secret until the deadline.

(http://www.roachpuppy.com/files/tentacleuprising7.jpg)

(http://www.roachpuppy.com/files/tentacleuprising8.jpg)

Uploaded new demo, see threadhead. 

This one mainly addresses a couple of graphical glitches, adds explosions/smoke effects and a prettier title screen.  Also populated the test level a bit more.  I'm thinking this will be the last preview before the deadline.  From now until then I will add a more sequential level, narrative, new enemies and AI tweaks.

Claw Frigate capital ship from a couple of angles.  This game is making me hungry.

(http://www.roachpuppy.com/files/tentacleuprising9.jpg)

(http://www.roachpuppy.com/files/tentacleuprising10.jpg)

Looking great! I'm gonna check it out tonight when I get home.

flying lobster :o

this_games_coolness *= 10;

Spent some time today working on AI and making the frigate explosion epic.  Made some tougher versions of the current enemies.  Fixed some perf issues too.  I spent last night and tonight going out so I didn't get as much as I wanted done.  Crunch time tomorrow!

Thanks for the kind words.

Done! Check the threadhead for the final competition edition.  You can play the game from beginning to end, complete with a final boss and "ending".  I'm proud to say I got almost everything I wanted in the original design gameplay-wise.  The game might be a little on the short/easy side for the voting period, I want people to be able to see the whole thing without dedicating hours of their time.  What a relief, the grind is over...  :crazy:

Here's a shot of the title screen, video coming soon!

(http://www.roachpuppy.com/files/tentacleuprising11.jpg)

Gameplay video, as promised...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsSrx5thVj0 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsSrx5thVj0)

For some reason, it plays even though it continually says my graphics card isn't good enough. :shrug2:

Bizarrely slow setup program. In fact, infinitely slow since it's been "finishing installation" for 10 minutes now and I'm aborting it. The game couldn't be run, but at least the uninstaller worked. Pity, looks to be a sweet game.

The setup always freezes up when it gets to 100% for me, but I just end the process in Task Manager and then go to the directory where I installed it and it works fine then.

Hmm, it's installing the redists for XNA, DX, .NET, VC during that "finishing installation" step so it'll take some time naturally.  However, I've never seen it take that long.  ??? Does Task Manager show any disk activity during that time?  Did you try to install it again?  I can provide a redist-free setup file (with the redist setup files installed in the game directory) when I get home.  If anyone else is having any issues please let me know.

I think that'd be preferable also due to the that at least I don't appreciate applications installing unrelated stuff on my system.

Well I wouldn't call it unrelated, the game kinda needs the redists or it won't run if theyre not already installed. 

In any case, here (http://www.mediafire.com/file/iykykmnyzjl/TentacleUprisingSetup_TIGS_v1.1_NOREDIST.exe) is a version of the setup file that doesnt automatically install the dependencies.  Only use this setup file if the one in the threadhead hangs for you. It will place them in the Redist folder in the installation location so that you can manually install them.  Most likely the only ones you dont have already if you haven't run an XNA game are the XNA and .NET 3.5 redists.

So one thing I wanted to add before the deadline was an option to invert Y but it totally slipped my mind.  My brother played it and he wasn't used to the tradition flight sim up-down controls and it totally messed him up.  Is that something people are interested in seeing?  It wouldn't be too much trouble to add.

Also, feedback?  Any cool ideas for expanding this in case I decide to do so after the competition?

deffo add invert Y. Please.  ;D
Also, i can't play your game... I get an error


I'm running XP on a Bootcamped latestish-version MacBook Pro. I really wanted to, it's one of the ones i've been looking forward to sitting down with.

Eek.  Did you use the version of the setup in the first post with all the proper redists? Are you using the bootcamp video driver or one from nVidia?  Also:

Had a similar problem - it took ages to install, but once I clicked the mouse a little (technical!  :durr:) it decided that my computer had to be shut down. It then proceeded to... well, I'm not sure. It didn't shut down, though. Closed some stuff in the task bar, wrangled a couple of opening programs and then stopped. I'm running a 3 year old XP machine. Weird huh?

Haven't tred the game yet because I have Real Things to do too. Will do tomorrow.

<Compo-OT_ethics_discussion>
Yeah, they're not unrelated in the sense that they're needed, but external installers are unrelated in that they're outside the application itself and not simply installed into the game folder and if additional installations are made into the system folder they may clutter up the system even after the game is removed. I don't know if your app is like this, but adding stuff to the system without asking for consent is way not cool. That's why adding any amound of stuff to the game folder is OK but to the system folders is not. </>

One little thing ... I can't find a way to quit the game during gameplay except by alt-tabbing and killing the application manually.

You can press P to pause and then choose quit or you can alt+F4.



I definitely agree with you on that, especially when it comes to stuff like Punkbuster or SecuROM.  However I want to clarify that everything installed is totally reusable outside of my game and may not even get installed if it's already there.  It installs redists for .NET 3.5, DirectX, XNA, and VC.  I have it silently install for user convenience since I assumed people didnt wanna babysit the installation by clicking Yes every minute.  Plus it's easy for people to miss a directory that says INSTALL ME! and then the game just doesnt work, I know I've made that mistake myself.  The flip side is you're sitting there thinking "WTF is this taking so long".  If this is something more people feel strongly about I can change it, honestly I don't have a strong preference either way.

aeiowu, I'm guessing your issue was resolved based on our PMs? 

I guess I'll prescribe the redist free setup (http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=5249.msg180062#msg180062) for any strange crashes or hangs during installation.

i actually haven't had a chance to get back to it yet. I'm running bootcamp so booting in windows is a bit of a special occasion. Thanks for reminding me though, I'll try and check it out this weekend.

I finally got around up making the invert Y change plus some other stuff.  Sorry I took so long, first I was in Vegas then I got struck with some nasty bronchitis and could hardly breathe much less code.  Still not gone actually.  I updated the link in the first post with the version 1.1 file. 

Changes:

• You can invert Y with the Y key/Y button on the pad
• Added my new logo in the Roach Puppy splash screen
• Reduced the health of the lobster frigates once their guns are down
• Fixed minor UI alignment bug
• Reduced the length of a sound with several seconds of silence