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[pnch]

@kitheif:
@YM: OK! 2 ships licensed, 5278 to go. 
@Netsu: Thank you!
@jamesprimate: Thanks! Loving your work, stay in touch!

@Noffle: Thanks! Here it goes:

I hardcoded some pixelated squares, triangles and circles, in different orientations and scales. Also hardcoded different distribution options (there could be 1 to 4 thrusters, and they are always centered). Then, a specific combination of shape/distribution is selected based on the value of a random seed.
For the ship´s body, It overlays exactly the same data, with a different seed and supporting a more restricted choice of distributions. Since all of these shapes are the same color, you don´t get to see the unions. Add to that two sets of lights and a couple variations of cockpits with their cover and that´s it!
Also, since there´s a bug somewhere messing with my symmetry that´s not worth chasing, I just discard half of it and mirror it again to get symmetrical ships.
Once all that is in place, and you massage the data enough to get spaceship-ey shapes, you can throw a random number to the function and it will return a random spaceship
Context and reduced pixel count helps inmensely, though. As Slader noticed, a couple modifications could turn all of these into samurai helmets, pixel people, you name it.

EDIT: not sure if this was detailed enough, feel free to ask again about whatever´s not clear!

[jwaap]

looks great!

[Christian]

Cool, Negspace was featured in RPS's Devlog Watch:
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/06/30/devlog-watch-far-colony-her-story-negspace-prophour23/

[pnch]

Whoa, I was just now battling with an obnoxious camera rotation bug, come back to the devlog a few minutes later and: Vlambeer´s Jwaap posted two nice words about Negspace, AND my first reviewer tells me that my second reviewer has been Rock Paper Shotgun! I don´t have enough words to thank everyone for your support so far!!!

[Scifa]

Loving the perspective on this and the minimalist graphics! You and I seem to have been inspired by Telegitch.

[Noffle]

Thanks for writing about the generation algorithm. I'm still not 100% clear, but I think that gives me a good enough idea to tinker with the idea myself.

Since all of these shapes are the same color, you don´t get to see the unions.

This gave me a "aaaah ha, of course!" moment. Clever.

[eobet]

And I'd like to thank you for writing about your raycasting algorithm. Very interesting to see!

[pnch]

@scifa: For sure, also Lunar Lander, Solar Winds, Descent, 0space, Soldat and so many others!
@eobet, noffle: Glad to be of help! Feel free to keep asking.

Today it´s only boring things that had to be done, you can safely skip reading this , but since I enjoy reading day-to-day things on devlogs...

"Fix cam rotations even if it takes the whole day" was a message left to myself on the milestones list. Sometimes, when spinning fast, it would interpolate in the opposite direction for a couple of frames. Being such a small bug I kept overlooking it, but when it happened it was clearly seen = lack of polish feeling.
Now it works fine, It took some rewriting, and the carefully crafted response curve has been changed... Getting used to the new one.

Sometimes the colliders are generated with lines of opposite normals very close to each other, resulting in two specific parts of two levels sometimes "abducting" the ships inside the wall. That´s now fixed, by separating the problematic parts into different colliders...

The new Unity release apparently includes some bugfix on polycolliders, but on the other hand it seems to be having troubles with 2d rotational inertia. I´ll have to wait a bit more until I can switch safely.

Adapted the playable menu to new ship logic bits, still having troubles with the boarding/unboarding mechanic there, getting back to that!

[CodeSquares]

Hey, just wanted to say that Negspace pushed me over to finally register here. Great devlog, great looking game. In fact I'm more than halfway inspired to start my own devlog here as well.

[pnch]

@CodeSquares: Thank you and welcome! Hoping to see some progress of your own soon.

In the unlikely case that you weren´t getting enough football these days, here´s:

Update #12: space football!

It was really straightforward to implement with what was already done so I gave it a go. In fact I wanted to use it as the base for different game modes but I ended up evading the task  I´m thinking on this as a sort of bonus / hidden level. Also, since the controls for the game are HARD until you get used to them, it´s a nice way to get some maneuvering skills without having to deal with thin corridors + missiles + huge ships at the same time until I manage to put together some sort of "flight school" for beginners.

Boarding, ejecting, fuel and damage are disabled when on this "mode".
It has some rough edges, but it will be playable as soon as I integrate it into the playable menu somehow...

Does the crowd of supporters on the background seems familiar  ? It´s a baked texture actually, but it was a nice use case for the ship generator. Maybe I should add a couple more ships.

Also notice the first appearance of cheesy slow-motion! A couple of background fireworks + hearing the crowd roar and it´ll get closer to a proper space goal celebration.

[pnch]

After some more work on the stadium tiles, now we´re getting there!

I´ve been thinking for a while on how to include smoke in the game, as an environmental effect and also on procedural nebulas / general ambiance. I couldn´t think of a way to make it that fits with the current aesthetic without it feeling just like "lots of particles thrown together". If anyone has an example on nicely evolving pixelart smoke I´d like to see it!

Also, the game now supports gamepads 

[Dohman]

Hi!
I registered on this site, just to tell you that your game looks really nice, and it has actually inspired me to finally get my shit together and start making my own game

I'm really digging your art style.

Have you thought about adding a grappling hook? It could potentially make navigating that much more fun, make quick turns around corners by grappling the corner and shortening the rope, detach the rope at the right time, get flung around the corner at high speed. If you fail to release it in time, you'd get plastered to the wall.

Do you plan on making a ship editor, where the players can design their own ships, by drawing the various components on it? As in, a black colour for hull, white for window, red for whatever that is (I do not know what it is, but it looks awesome!)
Then the game would automatically know to change the colours when appropriate, like when you run out of fuel, the window and red turns black.
I'm not talking about picking your own colours, but choose from a selection of components, which just happen to be colour coded.

A game with this style, would go really well in an open world, with small sectors, but where you can 'warp' to different maps, which could be procedurally generated, and you could upgrade your ship as you went, or simply steal better ships.
Am I correct in thinking that you're going for a more arcade style game? As in there will not be any upgrades, all ships are expendable (no repairs), find ships to get better ships, when you exit the game, all progress is lost, but you keep your highscore?

[pnch]

@Dohman: Thanks and welcome! As someone who was a tigsource newcomer a couple months ago, it´s super flattering to be told I was able to generate the same level of enthusiasm that made me start this devlog twice in a row

ATM I´m aiming for a minimalist and perfectly polished hotseat experience. There´s still a lot to do in this direction. It´s also a way to get things done, playable and FUN while keeping feature creep to the minimum (hey, space football, how did that happen?  ).

On that dream-list of features, keep them coming! I won´t post about any hypothetical future development since that would be sort of cheating, but you´re welcome to do so! The only thing I can say is that I´m aiming for a non-grindy gameplay, no number-farming in this game, you will fail or succeed based on your piloting skills alone (And of course, my dream-list of features is HUGE).

Thanks for reading and keeping the word-of-mouth alive!

PS: still looking for interesting pixel smoke examples!

[pnch]

Update #13: Title screen, gamepad support

It was time for the game to feature it´s own title somewhere (thanks for the feedback on readability, twitterfriends!).

Streamlined the stadium a bit, added white lines to made it easier to understand that you´re actually playing space football, and made the stadium accessible via the playable menu. Also added support for rotation on the goal displays, to make it easier to read who scored.

Changed the layout in 2 player versus, from portrait to landscape:

(Just noticed player 1 got the lower screen, fixing that right now)

The game it´s way harder to control on gamepad than with a keyboard, is it always so? (First time using a gamepad after years)

Had a nice playtesting session in an art event, complete with live music and a giant HD projected screen  They confirmed that playing it with a gamepad is way harder, so it´s not just me, maybe it´s the gamepads being crappy...

[pnch]

Phew, sorry I´ve been off the grid these days, got some more freelancing to do, it´s great because it keeps me fed while working on this, but it prevents me from working on this during work-time...

On gamedev news, I got a new "magnetized" thingy, I should do some coding work to be able to feature it in-game, but getting stuck to a magnetized container while on your escape pod sure does for a fun and tragic death! Also, I could stay a whole day looking at how different interpolation formulas make for different orbits on magnetized stuff. Will come back with a gif as usual soon.

Also, I just uploaded a quick webpage, and  could use some feedback, my dear lurkers! Shocked on how long it´s taking me the simplest PR thing , gamedev sure feels easier, going back to that!

Here´s hoping you´re still tuned, and thanks for reading!

[pnch]

Here it is! Playing with a highly magnetized container in the editor.

[BomberTREE]

The magnetized container is epic 
Also nice website!

[Muzz]

Oh wow this looks really cool! Good work!

[pnch]

@kitheif: thanks for the heads-up!
@muzz: thanks and welcome to the devlog!

Weekend playtesting results: LOTS of fun playtesting with friends, was beaten on my second 2 vs 1 players space football match, featuring some crazy moves by my opponents
Got to test the whole destroyer boarding / shuttles thing on a quieter setting and longer matches. I don´t think it´s balanced yet, but evading a barrage of lasers coming from a destroyer felt as epic as I hoped for.

In short, after the sanity-check that a playtesting session always is, I´m happy with how the game is turning out!
I have just installed Shadowplay, hopefully I´ll get people to come here next time and record + edit a match for you, so you can get a more solid feel of what´s playing the game actually like.

As always, thanks for your support!

[pnch]

Update #14: Sloppy coder days

-Learnt about singletons and decided to untangle the guts of the old manager class.
Now I have a Manager (keeps the currently used ships and live decoys in check), a Camera Manager (keeps cameras zipping between the different ships you use) and an Input Manager... making changes to the old manager had become a nightmare, so this is - the biggest update today TM -.

-Trying yet another pattern for the fuel level indicator, you´d be surprised on how many different ways to flicker 4 pixels I tried! It´s still not 100% readable, but it´s getting better, will come back for feedback once I put some gifs together.

-Ejecting from a ship with a small amount of fuel left now strands it, otherwise if someone else boarded that same ship ship afterwards he was almost instantly stranded and died after thrusting or shooting.

-I´m now able to generate 1 tile wide corridors, the escape pod is the only ship able to navigate them.

-Added a property that makes lasers bounce on some surfaces.

-A friend suggested to have an "easy mode" for charging, since grinding the charger is hard for new users. Now the ship will be charging it´s battery slowly while you stay in contact with the charger. Of course, if you grind it, the battery level goes up way faster, with a successfull grind completely recharging your battery in half a second.

-The playable menu now splits the screen as new players start their engines, adding them one by one (now possible thanks to the new managers ). Before this change, all players were using Player 1´s camera to see themselves... It was more solid conceptually since it´s the moment where the game owner teaches new players the controls, but was way on the border with a "lack of polish" feeling and made them even more difficult.

Sorry, no shiny new gifs today!