Hello!I'm gimblll (
http://twitter.com/gimblll) and since it's been exactly 1 year (according to my SVN log) since I started my current project, I thought I'd post something about it finally.
My game's called Cosmic Mechanic and it's for iPad (at first, other platforms depending on interest). It's about building cool gadjets and vehicles to traverse the various scenarios.
There's no real story present in the game, but the premise is that the protagonist crash lands on a remote planet and must build vehicles out of random scrap material to find a way to get back home through the mysterious portals that are in each levels.
It has 4 gameplay modes in levels. 'Puzzle' is normal "get to the goal"-mode, 'Time' is a time attack, 'Jump' is a mode where you have to get the furthest before hitting ground and 'Collect' is a a mode where there are 100 collectibles sprinkled around the level and you have to go collect them all. Each mode has their own levels (total of about 50).
Story so far:I've always wanted to do some kind of a construction game ever since I played Bridge Builder ages ago. Eventually through the years the idea kind of solidified on building rocket ships that fly from ground to space. Then about two years ago I built the first prototype in a few months in Flash, but later decided to abandon it for other projects as it didn't really give much promise beyond a few seconds of fun. (And in retrospect I'm glad I didn't pursue that avenue too much, as that has now been done much better by Kerbal Space Program.)
So after finishing a few smaller projects that turned out better, it was time to decide my next project again and I still just couldn't let the idea go. And thus project codename 'Space Engineer' was born!
This time I tried to forget flying from ground to space, and concentrate just building different space ships in zero gravity. But unfortunately that failed miserably too. I just couldn't find the fun in it, and controlling the vehicles was way too difficult. And if I cheated with the physics to make it feel better, it lost the feeling of space completely and turned into something really confusing. So just on a whim I decided to put gravity on and add wheels, and bang, the game suddenly became fun in a day after few months of despair! It wasn't very "space engineer" any more, but so what, it was a better game.
And that's the game I've been building ever since. Build gadgets and get to the goal. It's been really hard to balance all the ideas I have for the game, and still keeping it in a form that I can actually finish as a solo project with limited time, but I think the set I've ended up with now is pretty good.
It was never supposed to take this long to make this game, but the game this eventually turned into after prototyping kind of required it and it got a bit out of hand. But I'm really happy with what I have right now, so no regrets. Best indie game I've made by far.
I'd say it's about 90% complete currently. I wanted to make this small devlog so I can see if there's any interest in the game and maybe get some more motivation for the final polish push to get this thing finished already!
Anyway, there it is.
Screenshots: I hope my coder art doesn't make your eyes bleed
Time attack mode in progress.
Rocket powered thing breaking up amid chaos.
A desert themed level with slippery ice too.
Here's the screen where you edit your vehicles.
This is the controls edit screen where you can wire up your parts to different buttons and select which direction should motor arms turn, or the the wheels roll, etc. Or you can just leave it at automatic, where the game will setup the controls for you.
Earlier sneak peek images.
http://screenshotsaturday.com/user/gimblll.htmlTech and stats:All art, code and levels are done by the not so talented
me and the sound design is done by my very talented musician
brother.
Statistics for version (15. February, 2013)
- 481 commits
- 307 source files (excluding external libs)
- 45035 lines of C++ code (excluding external libs)
- 217 pngs
- 62 sound files
- 89 levels (of which about 50 will be in the final game)
External libs used: Lua, Box2D, JsonCPP, LodePNG, GLEW
Tools used: Visual Studio Express, XCode, Sublime Text 2, Photshop CS5, Wacom Intuos4, Paint.NET, Audacity, TimelineFX, Python+PIL, Cygwin, and some I forget now
Why custom C++ and not Unity or at least Marmelade or something I hear you ask? Well, the best answer I can give you is that I'm a bit stupid that way...
Altough I'm developing this for iPad, my engine works on PC too (and I mainly develop on a PC) just as well so I might eventually release this on PC too if there's any interest. The controls would need a lot of work though, as it's tailored for touch screen right now.
I also made a custom in-game level editor.
Things still todo: (15. February, 2013)
- graphics for title screen, icon, more effects etc.
- sound design is still unfinished
- lots and lots of testing, I'm pretty sure some of the levels are not very fun right now, but I need more testers and feedback
- improve player learning path (I hate tutorials, so I'm afraid I might slip on the too difficult to figure out territory here, but we'll see how it turns out)
- GameCenter support for iOS (achievements / leaderboards)
- I would love to do some story panels, but I doubt I have time as my drawings take ages to do and it would be a lot of work...
- optimization (I haven't tested it yet on the older iPads, I doubt it runs fast enough )
- bug fixes and lots of little polish items
Things still todo: (27. March, 2013)
Done! Submitted to Apple for review.
Done and in App Store: (3. April, 2013)
https://itunes.apple.com/app/id606118389
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