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[PsySal]

I'm maybe going to do this, I had an idea this AM. Will be a boat racer on short courses with a few catches.

- Will be on "lanes" i.e., you can switch lanes but not exactly steer.
- You'll have a machinegun that you can switch to to shoot the other guy.
- You can switch directions somewhat quickly.
- Maybe button mashy to go faster? It could add a definite element of like pursuit bike racing...
- The goal is not actually to get to the finish line fastest, but to shoot the other pilot.

I maybe will go set this up right now. I'll do it in 3D/C++, tempted to try unity but... not that tempted!

[Inanimate]

- Maybe button mashy to go faster? It could add a definite element of like pursuit bike racing...

Perhaps you could press a button in time with the waves? That is, accelerate until you hit the crest; if you are going too fast at a crest, you fall back! There could be cool wave patterns, too.

I like the idea of lanes, and the machine-gun adds a lot to the idea. Good luck!

[PsySal]

@inanimate: I like it, some kind of rhythm aspect... We'll see! First we need... well... everything =)

DAY 2



Some progress. It's true, this would not have taken me two evenings if I used unity.

SECONDARY GOAL TIME

I have for awhile been making my base code more and more generic and reusable. Setting up this project was actually not too bad, but still lots of work.

I love to develop in lua and just have my game engine in C++, this gives me the flexibility to code custom funny stuff in GL efficiently but control everything in lua.

My secondary goal, then, is that all game-specific stuff shall be in lua; that is, I should be able to copy this project over directly and all the C++-ey stuff can be re-used.

[PsySal]

DAY 3


Playing around with bezier curves. This is something like the rendering of a track.

[PsySal]

DAY 4
Definitely some good progress today. Things are all connected together the way that I expect them to be, and I've got a little car moving on it's own around a track.

Here's a bird's-eye view and also a view from behind the car (sort of). There is still no rotation per se, so that will probably be next, and then control.

[PsySal]

DAY 5
Got the camera working, some other sort-of tweaks and whatnot. Starting to develop into a game. I've decided the cars are going to be something like bobsleds in terms of their makeup, and have a visual style in mind. I'm going to try and implement the main part of the game including camera, shooting, and a few tracks with just these dot-and-block graphics, though.

[PsySal]

DAY 7
Day 6 got more stuff working with control. Worked a few more hrs tonight. The main control scheme is in but the way the physics works will need to be tweaked. Premise is that you have a foam bat and ride in your bobsled. I've added pylons and there is collision with them, which is great, though nothing happens yet when you hit them. Next I will play around with the physics and control scheme until you can satisfactorily smack pylons as you zip by, and/or bounce off them. The decisions in the game are going to be based on whether or not you ram into the guy or hit with your bat. There will be a street-fighter style damage bar. The per-lane control feels just great!

[PsySal]

DAY 9
Here is what's awesome: netcode works. There's two boats, they are sync'd properly, and latency is dealt with (uncerimoniously, but fairly, I hope.) What's next is to implement health bars, whacking, win/loss. I was able to rip netcode from Venture the Void which felt really good-- and the code works no problem!

[Captain_404]

I really like the simplicity of the graphics so far, I know they're likely bound to change though...

[PsySal]

@Captain_404: Thank you! They are going to change, the visual direction is already quite thought-out I Just wanted to get the gameplay mocked up ASAP. The final visual style will be fairly simple, as well, just way more colorful.

[PsySal]

DAY XXXX
Update time! Things are going very well with this but we'll see if we have anything in time for contest deadline. I'm not going to kill myself to get it finished in time.

All core gameplay including physics, attacking, netcode, etc. are in but will need tweaking in terms of difficulty. The game is fairly simple: you race around a track and wallop each other with cricket bats. The "corvettes" are now bobsleds.

The menu system is in the process of going in. Menus and "glue" are always annoyingly large amounts of work so I like to get them done as soon as the core gameplay is complete. So far, so good, a little web app will coordinate user accounts and matchmaking, and so I can extend it as time goes on if there is demands for it (e.g., leagues, etc.)

Each track is going to have quite a different atmosphere, although the gameplay remains identical on each. There will be 3.

The first is as initially planned; it will be a (almost totally opaque) "rainbow road" on a cyan sky background. Clouds will float by. Inspired by velodrome, it's a symmetrical ovaloid track.

Second is going to be a waterslide. The background (and by here I mean skybox) will be waterfalls, and there will be a rain effect, as well. The waterslide has two sections, a climb and then a "slide" or ladder back down. The ladder throws you from side to side, which affects the gameplay. Hard to explain but basically it is difficult to align yourself properly for a hit when going quickly through corners because the physics always wants to throw you to the outside (not a problem if you just take it slow, however.) So the presence of this twisty part should have a (yet unforseen) effect on strategy.


Tracks I and II

Last is going to be a volcano. I will copy the ash effect from Wind Waker since it's so beautiful. I will try to make a model of some kind for the lava cone which we will name Fuji-san.


Track III

Other plans are to foley all the sfx instead of sfxr, but we will see. It should be a bit easier to record sfx now that I have a netbook.

Again I'm going to try and make each level quite atmospheric, with lots of layered background effects and/or particle effects. I'm quite happy with this design and hopefully the netplay doesn't end up being too laggy. The lag is "normalized" which means your command-keys always make the round trip before being recognized. I don't know if that is such a hot idea but it can be changed.

I'm using something called the yii framework for the back-end. You'll have to sign in with twitter or something on the bobsledders website before you can play, and then it requires you to enter a 5-digit validation code from the game (just once) to connect. Or I might just go with a password (less confusing).

Well folks, that's all for tonite!

[PsySal]

DAY YYZZ

Things are coming nicely. I don't know (or care that much) if I will meet the tigcompo deadline, but actually almost all the game mechanics are in place, networked. So I'm really just working on the graphical style for now!

This is the look that has been intended from the start:

[PsySal]

DAY RBOW
It is coming nicely. I got the bobsledders animated and so forth, their little feet go PATTER-PATTER-PATTER!



EDIT: Ah so, I see the deadline has or is about to pass! That is quite ok, to be honest I didn't have particularly high aspirations for meeting the deadline. Actually I was pretty fuzzy on when the deadline was anyhow, however I thought it was pretty soon so it wasn't a surprise.

HOWEVER when this game really is done please play it! I promise it is pretty rad...