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TIGSource ForumsCommunityDevLogssALVo [multiplayer fps + DEMO!]
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ChamberDigital
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« on: September 22, 2011, 11:51:24 PM »

EDIT:

Here is the latest stuff:
Our website
Our IndieGoGo page

See the new video at IndieGoGo ... there's been lot's of changes!

Hi Guys!

sALVo is not our first project but it'll be the first one we actually finish!  Cheesy (unless I get hit by a car - our first attempt was Tropical Dungeons) We're come out of hiding to get your thoughts on our game that's finally coming close to completion.

It's a fun cross-platform multiplayer game that doesn't take itself too seriously!  Well, hello there!
It has the insane explosions, bizarre whimsical content,  and infinite-ammo dual rocket launchers that hark back to the 90s when games were just about having fun - but it's been given a modern face-lift, lots of player customizability, and the battlefield is always changing as all the players can build (and blow-up) walls anywhere in the level.

The idea is that the players are controlling rocket propelled robots that are made to fight each other as a recreational sport in the future – robot combat like in the TV show Robotica.

Before a match (or series of matches), players can customise their robots by giving them different paint jobs and dressing them in any of a number of completely rediculous costumes! (Would you prefer to dress your humanoid death-machine in a santa costume, or perhaps as Count Dracula?  Gentleman)

 

Once the game begins, it's total carnage with rockets and grenades exploding everywhere while you build walls all over the level to try and give yourself an advantage (you're opponents are doing the same, though...! )  Evil

The video quality isn't all that great, but here is a bit of video of the game in motion …



It's lots of fun to blow an opponent into tiny pieces – along with the wall he was hiding behind!

Remember that this is just an alpha and things are going to even better and even more explodey! We'll have a demo and pre-alpha very very soon I think! When we do, it would be cool if you guys could play it and tell us what you think.
The game is already in a very playable state, but we need to kill a couple of little bugs and get a few more features and levels done … starting to get very nervous, though

About us:
We are just two guys from New Zealand who decided to run away from our horrible jobs and try our dream at becoming indie games devs! I knew it wasn't going to be easy but it's been a very rough ride … Tongue

About Tropical Dungeons:
We really like Tropical Dungeons but we realised that we had too much on our plate, and not enough money or experience to realistically finish such an insanely ambitious game! We'll come back to it when we are bit more experienced and do an even better job of it!

Anyway, this is the first time we have shown the game to anyone outside our families – so please let us hear your impressions!
« Last Edit: November 09, 2011, 02:29:34 PM by ChamberDigital » Logged
Mikademus
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« Reply #1 on: September 23, 2011, 01:19:01 AM »

Quick impressions from the video:

Pacing and responsiveness seems good. Variety of weapons, however, seems low, and frantic FPS death matches requires weapon choices. Time-to-crate is insanely low (0, actually), which can be taken as a sign of poor level design Wink

Since the dual rocket launchers are sort of at the centre of the game there needs to be more with them: recoil action (unrealistic yeah yeah), particle effects, smoke trails, secondary firing modes etc. Right now they seem to be "just plain old boring rocket launchers" when they should be "Whoa! ROCKETS!"

Also, for demo purposes, the magenta colours used are off-putting and misplaced.
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ChamberDigital
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« Reply #2 on: September 23, 2011, 01:53:15 AM »

Quick impressions from the video:

Pacing and responsiveness seems good. Variety of weapons, however, seems low, and frantic FPS death matches requires weapon choices. Time-to-crate is insanely low (0, actually), which can be taken as a sign of poor level design Wink

Since the dual rocket launchers are sort of at the centre of the game there needs to be more with them: recoil action (unrealistic yeah yeah), particle effects, smoke trails, secondary firing modes etc. Right now they seem to be "just plain old boring rocket launchers" when they should be "Whoa! ROCKETS!"

Also, for demo purposes, the magenta colours used are off-putting and misplaced.

Ouch, but thanks for the constructive criticism!  Smiley

The dark temptation of crates claims another victim!!  Cheesy
Good point, though. This is the only level with crates (well, they're cardboard boxes - pretty much crates though  Tongue). Every level has a different theme - hopefully as the game evolves we can introduce more weird and wacky environs to break things up.  Durr...?

Definitely agree on the smoke-trails, they are planned - as well as dynamic light emitted from the burning rockets. But damn, making games takes a lot of time, doesn't it!!?  Shocked
There is actually an alternative fire mode - not really showed in the video there but it's energy grenades. (you can see some blue particle-effect explosions at one point in the demo from the other player's grenades)

But improved kick-back from the rockets and more fire modes can go on the to-do list. I wouldn't mind doing some sort of Gatling gun with a similar feel to the one in super crate box - that would be neat.
About the unrealistic thing - that's fine!  Grin I think ridiculous over-the-top stuff would suit it better anyway.

About the colours - they are matched to your player's custom skin colour. We just happened to have those colours selected. Do you think the walls should be set colours or have a different look to them? Any suggestions welcome!!! (that's what we're here for)

The whole idea with this is that we release it early (soon!) and people can vote for and discuss what features should be added next and what needs to be changed or improved so it can evolve.

You'll also notice that we haven't finished the effect for when you take damage yet - it used to go a little blurry and go red for a moment, but I'm not sure if that makes any sense if you're a robot. Do you think it should have some kind of static effect or something, providing it doesn't get in the way too much? I might give that a try and see how it feels like.

Anyway, progress continues ... again, thanks for the c+c!  Coffee
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ChamberDigital
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« Reply #3 on: September 23, 2011, 02:12:55 AM »

Here's an idea for the weapons:
At the moment, the primary fire button fires fragmentation rockets, and the secondary fire button lobs energy grenades. How about we make it so that the primary fire button fires your weapons in whatever 'mode' they happen to be in, and the secondary fire button cycles though 3 fire 'modes' which you fit your character with at the start of a match?

That way you could customize your weapons to fit your play style.

For example one player might have his 3 weapons chosen as 'minigun, laser, grenade launcher' and another player might have 'rocket launcher, minigun, flamethrower'.  Evil Evil Evil

Or something like that! Could be very cool if the guns are balanced well and completely over the top! The first alpha might not have a big arsenal to choose from but more could be added with updates.
 
Mmmm... I like the idea of the guns transforming instead of being separate weapons. It's not like the robots have arms to carry the guns with anyway!!  Roll Eyes
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« Reply #4 on: September 23, 2011, 07:22:19 AM »

Gatling guns sounds great, but make certain that it has something unique to it rather than just being a faster rocket launcher with less damage per shot.

A grenade alternative fire modes that lobs them in an arch over obstacles sounds perfect, and could I suggest having some different grenade types like energy bombs, cluster grenades and cluster mines?

Quick idea for an unique flamethrower would be that its alternative mode ejects flammable liquid that can be ignited with the primary mode or rockets/grenades for sudden inferno!

Yet another idea for the rocket launcher would be that you could detach them and lob ahead or over obstacles and they would mimic your rotation though not movements so you could remote operate them.
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ChamberDigital
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« Reply #5 on: September 23, 2011, 01:48:14 PM »

 Shocked Certainly no shortage of ideas on suggestions, there!!

Quote
Gatling guns sounds great, but make certain that it has something unique to it rather than just being a faster rocket launcher with less damage per shot.

Of course!  Cheesy I have a good idea on how to make this very intense but it's hard to explain ... insane rate of fire (I mean really really really fast), and very very deadly, but an absolute bugger to control. I don't like chainguns in games that have to 'speed up' before they can fire though.

Quote
A grenade alternative fire modes that lobs them in an arch over obstacles sounds perfect, and could I suggest having some different grenade types like energy bombs, cluster grenades and cluster mines?

Yeah, that basically describes the alternate fire mode we have, you can fire energy grenades over walls, and their explosions are a lot more lethal than the rocket explosion. (and prettier!)
Cluster bombs are cool, I used to play a quake mod that turned the grenade launcher into a cluster bomb launcher ... hey, that reminds me, there was a cool grenade pack that added lots of new grenades - one of the was a grenade that, instead of exploding, jumped up to about head head off the floor, hovered there spinning, and fired nails in all directions for about 5 or so seconds at high speed. Something inspired by that might be cool ...

Quote
Quick idea for an unique flamethrower would be that its alternative mode ejects flammable liquid that can be ignited with the primary mode or rockets/grenades for sudden inferno!

This sounds like a nightmare to implement, but would be more fun than a regular flame-thrower. The flamer-thrower in the previous post was just an example, there are very few games that implement flame-throwers well and they usually aren't fun - but a rocket that splashes flammable goo everywhere could be cool!

Quote
Yet another idea for the rocket launcher would be that you could detach them and lob ahead or over obstacles and they would mimic your rotation though not movements so you could remote operate them.

Do you mean with a little 'gun's-eye-view' camera or something in the corner of the screen? This would definitely need to be done just right or it might disturb the pace of the game, maybe. Done well it would be cool, though!

Anyway, I'm going to go think about this for a while and see if I can come up with some cool weapons. I have a scary feeling I'm going to come back with a giant list of weapons that'll take a year to implement!  Cheesy I'll just add a few of the best in the alpha and add more weapons and levels in updates. Hand Any Key Cool
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ChamberDigital
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« Reply #6 on: September 24, 2011, 01:29:59 AM »

Hi again,

It was supposed to be a fay off today but I couldn't stop thinking about the smoke trails/particle effects comment so I added and improved those. Tired

Here's a test video of it:




It's actually a lot better now because it's easier to see exactly where the grenades and rockets are going. The grenade effects are impossibly shiny - they remind me of the Disney Land fireworks in those old Disney videos!  Hand Thumbs Up Left Wizard Hand Thumbs Up Right
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« Reply #7 on: September 24, 2011, 01:42:21 AM »

I have become your designated feedback guy apparently Shocked

First, yeah, the smoke trails that helps a lot, and to see that shots bounce against walls boosts the apparent fun factor quite a bit!

The grenades doesn't seem to originate from the rocket launchers, they just emerge from mid-air in front of the player. Aren't they the alternative firing mode? There should also be some kind of ejection smoke puff from the launchers to signal they've been fired.

With the new and improved effects the old launch flames from the launchers when firing rockets are conspicuously sub-standard. Since the player will see them all the time this is a problem.

I do think this is looking better and more entertaining all the time! BlinkHand Thumbs Up Right
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ChamberDigital
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« Reply #8 on: September 24, 2011, 01:59:45 AM »

Quote
I have become your designated feedback guy apparently

I know! I couldn't help but laugh when I saw that it was you that had replied again!  Cheesy
Really, though, thanks for the feedback. Excellent stuff!!!

Quote
The grenades doesn't seem to originate from the rocket launchers, they just emerge from mid-air in front of the player. Aren't they the alternative firing mode? There should also be some kind of ejection smoke puff from the launchers to signal they've been fired.

I was thinking the same thing as I was recording the video. This needed to be tweaked anyway because the rockets aren't quite originating from the correct spot on the other player also, so this will get fixed.

Quote
With the new and improved effects the old launch flames from the launchers when firing rockets are conspicuously sub-standard. Since the player will see them all the time this is a problem.

Again, I agree. I think I'll for some sort of over the top pretty eye-candy flames rather than anything realistic. Also, still haven't done anything about the kick-back yet, but that'll come too.

Quote
I do think this is looking better and more entertaining all the time!

Thanks!! We'll keep chipping away at it until it's as good as it can be in the remaining time we have. We'll keep working on it after as well as long as people are interested  Hand Thumbs Up Left
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ChamberDigital
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« Reply #9 on: September 25, 2011, 12:20:48 AM »

I spend most of today just fixing bugs, but I also improved the particle engine. Up until now the particle system didn't z-sort - things looked O.K. 99% of the time because I was using the depth mask but now with the rocket trails, etc. z-buffer artefacts became quite obvious so I had to make it z-sort before rendering.

There was a very slight hit to the frame rate on my very low spec PC when there are thousands of particles rendering at once, but I haven't done even the slightest bit of optimization yet so I don't think it's a problem. If it runs on this $300nzd computer than it'll run on anything!  Tongue

I'll probably work on something more exciting tomorrow like another weapon or something...
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ChamberDigital
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« Reply #10 on: September 26, 2011, 01:53:53 AM »

Worked on the new weapon today. After some thought, we've decided to change around the weapon system quite a bit. Firstly, the two identical weapons are being replaced with one transforming weapon on one side, and secondly, the wall drawing gun-thing will replace the other - because having THREE big guns on screen takes up all your peripheral vision with is kinda important for a fast action game  Facepalm

The new weapon is a rapid fire heavy Gatling laser (thing). I've made the weapon model for it and made the actual laser effect which looks neat, but I haven't done the laser burst effect at the end of the barrel(s), the effect of the laser hitting stuff, or the gun transforming just yet, so I won't post anything until that's done ...

After this is done, the code internally will be much more suited to adding more weapons later - which we plan to do after we have the demo out.

I was thinking of giving each weapon a very unique visual effect to give them all a different feel and so that you know with what weapon you just got killed with!  Evil
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« Reply #11 on: September 26, 2011, 05:11:44 AM »

Too less explosions...
    ... too less explosions.

You know what would help it? Explosions  Cheesy
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ChamberDigital
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« Reply #12 on: September 26, 2011, 01:43:46 PM »

Too less explosions...
    ... too less explosions.

You know what would help it? Explosions  Cheesy

In light of your comment, and the preliminary results from our nation-wide 'wot do you think of explosions' survey, we have decided to increase the number and size of explosions by a minimum of 350%. Our final goal is to have at least 17 explosions on screen at any given time as we don't want to give anyone the impression that we aren't fond of explosions.

 Tongue
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ChamberDigital
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« Reply #13 on: November 04, 2011, 12:28:52 AM »

Hello again!

Check out our new sites:
http://www.indiegogo.com/sALVo-1?a=302027&i=addr
http://www.chamberdigital.net/

It's been ages since we posted - we've been busy working on the game!

Most of the issues mentioned by Mikademus have been addressed. This is a constantly evolving project so there are always going to be all sorts of improvements and fixes as we go.

The HUD was getting cluttered with too many things that were blocking the peripheral vision so it got a total overhaul:



Also, the walls were too weak, so now the secondary fire of the wall gun is the only thing that can destroy them; it needs to charge for a moment. This gives the walls much more meaning!
Now you can switch between 3 weapons, and a new weapon has been added - the Gatling laser!

The grenade launcher has been made more powerful but it fires slower. There are a few more levels, and there are cool trail effects for all the weapons.

There have been heaps of changes, too many for me to remember or try to list here.

Most importantly, we have a demo!! Try it out if you like - we have lots of fun with 2 player LAN games. There are some bugs to iron out with more players but it should still be very playable.

We've just moved to another part of the country, but once we're established and I get a job, they'll hopefully be lots of updates coming out.

Back later :D
« Last Edit: November 09, 2011, 02:30:12 PM by ChamberDigital » Logged
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« Reply #14 on: November 04, 2011, 03:04:10 AM »


Awwww, I had wondered what had happened to Tropical Dungeons. Sad

I played around with this demo, solo. The wall-destroying shot seemed insanely slow, both because of it's long charge time and the actual projectile. Explosions felt good. Perhaps it was just the map, but jumping didn't seem at all worthwhile. Kind of easy to lose a sense of scale with that map, I think. Making the walls seemed kind of raw, but when you stepped back to look at them they looked good. I dunno.

Keep up the good work!  Beer!


We've just moved to another part of the country, but once we're established and I get a job, they'll hopefully be lots of updates coming out.

No No NO This is the opposite of how it works!
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ChamberDigital
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« Reply #15 on: November 04, 2011, 11:59:26 AM »

Awwww, I had wondered what had happened to Tropical Dungeons. Sad
We'll come back to it when we actually have the resources and skills to be able to do it justice. :D It was a bit too ambitious for a first game Tongue

The wall-destroying shot seemed insanely slow, both because of it's long charge time and the actual projectile.
I had someone else say the projectile was slow, too. I look into changing around the wall-gun projectile. Also the explosion sound for it is possibly loud to the point of annoying? What do you think?

There has to be some charge - before it was possible to destroy the walls with any explosion but there were so easily destroyed they were meaningless. But maybe the 1.4 second charge is too long. I'll try tweaking the charge time and see how it feels.

Explosions felt good.
I've always loved camera-shakey explosions in games!

Perhaps it was just the map, but jumping didn't seem at all worthwhile.
Some limitations of the *current* physics engine limit what we can do with the maps. The first thing I'm doing when I'm settled down is giving it a re-write so we can do whatever the hell we want with the levels.
The jumping is there so you can peek over walls at the moment. Tongue
Also, the jumps are a bit floaty - I'm going to add more weight to them. I was thinking of experimenting with boosted jumps or something ... what do you think?
Ah, and that level is way to symmetrical so stuff like that will also get tweaked. I suppose with the physics re-write we'll probably end up making all new levels entirely ... not sure.

Kind of easy to lose a sense of scale with that map, I think. Making the walls seemed kind of raw, but when you stepped back to look at them they looked good. I dunno.
It's more of a prototype or proof of concept than a real alpha. I could do a million things to improve the graphics, but that'll come after the gameplay is totally sorted out.

Keep up the good work!  Beer!
Thanks!  Gentleman

We've just moved to another part of the country, but once we're established and I get a job, they'll hopefully be lots of updates coming out.

No No NO This is the opposite of how it works!
Haha, I am looking to work only 2 or 3 days a week - just enough to survive. On one hand, I don't want to slow down progress, but on the other, I have only (counts money on table) NZD$12.90c to my name and rent is due...  Beg I suppose I could always sell myself on the street! <- (positive attitude)

Anyway, thanks for all the criticism! Gives us much more to worry think about  Tongue
No, it's actually very helpful. And thanks for taking a look and spending the time to tell us about it!!!  Grin

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