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[Will Vale]

Hi all,

Get latest demo here: http://www.secondintention.com/files/effort_3.zip

Assuming this makes the deadline, this is my compo entry. It isn't remotely complete but it sort of shows the direction I want to go in.

Keys:

LMB or ENTER: select
RMB: cancel
ESC: quit
ALT-ENTER: toggle fullscreen
ARROWS: move map cursor/drive rover
SPACE: fire rover jets

If you don't have VC2008 already, install the VC 2008 redist

If you don't have June 2008 DirectX or later already, install the  DirectX websetup

If you like to be amused, read on to see how foolishly ambitious I was a few short weeks ago. Still, I'm happy with what I've done so far (considering I didn't even have any rendering code when I started) and hopefully I can figure out a way to make it into a proper game in due course.

----

Somewhat of a delurk and a first post, hope you don't mind me joining in. I thought I'd have a go at this one after being tempted to enter the VGNG compo but never having got started (although Dirty Sniper Fight needs to be made someday...)

Hopefully my work commitments (I have a contract deadline round about the end of August) aren't going to get in the way too much. We'll see.



I'm sure you can guess the game in question I'm intending to target early PC Mode-X, with elements of Star Control II, Hard Nova, and possibly Albion. I'm pretty sure at least one of these was a direct influence on the demake target. Gameplay should include space exploration and ground combat with some basic RPG elements and hopefully the option of an endgame when you get to a high enough level.

Apologies for the artwork, the background is cobbled together from pixel art I recovered from some 15 year old floppies. The elements were created in DPIIE and AA Pro for that authentic feel, but the text and assembly is Photoshop. I'm not crazy enough to try and develop without modern tools, so the Mode-X stuff will be a fake.

Also, should I be posting a 'o hai, i'z new' message elsewhere?

Cheers,

Will

[William Broom]

Sorry to be dumb but what game is it?

And yeah, there is an introduction thread, but I never posted there and I do just fine  :D

[policedanceclub]

Mass effect, the popular lesbian alien sex simulator.

[William Broom]

*smacks forehead*
Of course.
Well then, you better include plenty of pixellated lesbian alien sex.

[Türbo Bröther]

Mass effect, the popular lesbian alien sex simulator.

Who here wants to start a band named Alien Sex S(t)imulation?

[policedanceclub]

Who doesn't?

[Will Vale]

Perhaps a picture of your potential conquest, with two buttons:

"DO" "DON'T DO"

Followed by fade to black and scratchy voiceover if you select the first one?

One of the implications of demaking Mass Effect is the converation stuff, which scares me owing to asset requirements. I suspect that element is going to be downplayed a bit, which is a pity since it was also a big part of SC2.

[captainbinky]

Awesome idea! Loved Mass Effect!

One of the implications of demaking Mass Effect is the converation stuff, which scares me owing to asset requirements.

Surely the whole conversational side of Mass Effect can be simplified into these options:

BLUE OPTION: Group Hug
GREY OPTION: Random Phrase
 RED OPTION: Punch in the Face

[Will Vale]

It was more the pictures that were worrying me. I agree about the conversation structure, although I think it works reasonably well in the real thing, rather like Fahrenheit. Mind you, I tried playing Mass Effect again recently on the Renegade path, but every time I chose a renegade-ey option I felt like such a prick:

Soldier: "They brutally killed my entire unit, hugs tiem naow?"
Me: "Soldiers die"

Civilian: "They're dead, they're all dead. Gibber."
Me: "You'd better have given me all your stuff, or I'll kill you."

At least when I picked the Paragon options I felt like a proper space hero.

[Will Vale]

Managed to put in some evenings this weekend, but not much to show so far. Unfortunately I recently decided to tear down my library code to fix some organisational issues I'd let slide in favour of expediency - this meant I had to do quite a bit of up-front work to reintegrate missing features like rendering code.

Luckily this has gone well (and the organisation is much more pleasing) so I now have an app, a DX9 window which says "Space Effort" and a little state machine/screens mechanism plus rendering code.

I thought I'd start with the map screens, since I really like HUDs and maps and things. I did a little research in SCII and I must admit I'd forgotten how much cool stuff they did - the cratered procedural planets are neat, as is the 3D spinning planet etc. Even Hard Nova has a 3D-like view of the planet with the real map textured onto it.

Anyway, work is progressing. I also have a nice 'old CRT' text mode terminal I created for something else which I need to port over to the new codebase. I thought this might make a fun bootup sequence (with DOS jokes, etc.)



Ignore the vector stuff, it isn't related. The whole thing probably looks better in motion, but you get the idea.

Cheers,

Will

[dmoonfire]

While I consider Hard Nova to be a close second to Sentiel Worlds 1, I am anxiously looking forward to this one. Looks yummy.

[Will Vale]

I've been waiting for a big remote sync to happen today, so I downloaded Pro Motion and fiddled with it to pass the time.



The background is from a long time ago, inspired by Savage Empire, but the rover is new. I'd forgotten how much fun pixel art is, although I must admit this isn't great - I think there's probably too much shading for a sprite that small, and the shading isn't contrastey enough to capture the slab sided look I was going for. Still, OK for a 15 year hiatus.

Not looking forward to drawing the rotations though - maybe I should pillow-shade it so I don't have to do them all by hand?

Will

[Ciardhubh]

I'd forgotten how much fun pixel art is, although I must admit this isn't great - I think there's probably too much shading for a sprite that small, and the shading isn't contrastey enough to capture the slab sided look I was going for.

I think the shading looks nice. I instantly had to think of Z for some reason .

[Carnivac]

Looks good.  I like the vehicle muchly.

Not looking forward to drawing the rotations though - maybe I should pillow-shade it so I don't have to do them all by hand?

Nah don't pillow shade it, will likely look crappy.  I don't think anyone will mind too much if the light source looks like it comes from different angles too much.  I think it's forgivable because of 2D.  You don't often get beat 'em ups that have redrawn frames facing the opposiite direction to 'fix' the lighting for example.

[Will Vale]

I instantly had to think of Z for some reason .

Too kind! The Bitmaps are definitely in my pantheon of pixel heroes - they get so much out of really quite small palettes, and make every pixel count.

I've done another test with more pronounced shading and some manual sharpening of the edges around the top deck which makes the shape read more as I imagine it to be:



It loses a bit of the bevelling because the highlights are compressed, but I think that's probably an acceptable compromise, so on balance I prefer it.

[Bezzy]

I think it's perfect. It's like pixel-art bump mapping :D

[Will Vale]

I've been busy recently, contract work in the daytime and Space Effort in the evening. It's probably not going to get finished for the deadline but it's been fun to work on and I'm hoping to finish it eventually, OOS/RSI permitting

Interestingly, there's some overlap with the previous competition in that my time has been taken up with procedural galaxy generation, plus a load of systems coding since I got caught with my pants down partway through a giant library restructuring. It's not that the code is new, but everything has to be ported into the new structure and cleaned up.

Anyhoo, here's a picture and a bit of DivX video of the galaxy map, which is where I am at the moment. The bitrate is low enough that things like the raster interference come out poorly, but you get the idea:

http://www.secondintention.com/files/effort-1.avi



The map is generated from a single seed, and the background is some twiddled Perlin noise. I was really keen to get a pixellate dissolve in there because I adore them - pretty simple to do this nowadays by biasing mipmap levels.

The name generator works pretty well considering how little effort it was.

At my current rate of progress I probably won't get much further than the map, but that's been a really fun project in itself and the side effects (my libraries getting sorted out) are worth it.

Cheers,

Will

[Bezzy]

So long as there's a painfully long loading screen between the high level map and the low level map, and then a really long loading screen to get to the planet surface, I'm happy.

[muku]

Wow, the galaxy map is dead sexy.

Also, how did you do the name generator?

[PeterM]

This looks really cool, Will. Good stuff!