next »

[cijolly]

Hey everyone, I've been working on a 4 player single PC game for a while, and am experimenting with different display directions.
The idea is that home pc users are being indiscriminately recruited to pilot remote combat drones. So, the display has to be low tech enough to run on the lowest common denominator pc.
If anyone has any ideas as to how to carry on with the low tech but (hopefully) aestheticaly pleasing them, I'm all ears!
Also, is the Scanline/LED look better, or the Softsprites/Grid look?

Basic, prototype graphics






Experiment with Scanlines and LED type display







Experiment with Softer sprites and grid background







http://droneuplink.webs.com/

[cijolly]

And two screenshots of a simple level in play

[Bree]

I think either the soft version or the scanlines would be pretty nifty-looking.

[genericuser]

The softsprites are better, in my opinion. 

[Nate Kling]

Id stay away from those gridlines because it reminds me a lot of geometry wars.  The scan line pic was looking pretty interesting but i would experiment some more as that pic looked a bit too blurry to read the graphics well.

[cijolly]

Thanks for the comments guys. So, no clear winner between Scanline and Softsprite, so I guess I may as well go for softsprite as it's easier!

[Joseph]

The softsprites will look good! Whats this game about anyways?

[Farbs]

I'd definitely vote soft sprites above scanlines. Soft sprites may be less unique, but they're far more legible.

[cijolly]

Yeah, I've gone with the softer sprite option at this point. The other method used a pretty interesting method, in that it took an arbitrary texture, read through it's pixels, and then redrew it using particles to try and mimic an LED look.
This was indeed as innefficient as it sounds. It looked OK in 1 player, but when the resolution was halved and the number of screens quadroupled it got a bit choppy.

As to what the game's about:
Somehow, be it through a forum post, advertising, or word of mouth, you have found a website which claims it requires your help. It's scant on the details, apparantly for reasons of confidentiality. But if it is to be believed, there is a very real conflict which you can influence from your home computer, by downloading the drone uplink.

At the moment, however, only the "Training" levels are functional. So, a 10 level arena shooter introducing the weapons, and the onslaught mode. Coding has taken a backseat to writing, at the moment. 4 players = 4 stories = *sideshow Bob-esque shudder*

[Dim_Yimma_H]

My personal favorite would be the scanline stuff, it looks nearly ancient in a good way, it doesn't require much power and most importantly it's clearly visible.

The LED effect is hard to focus on, it feels like I'm crossing my eyes and losing focus. I would probably not play a game with that style entirely.

The sprites look good, but they're quite modern I think and don't look very special. By the way, I'm curious, why is it called "softsprites"?