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[CptJoker]

Captain's blog, date 23-07-16, 2100 hours.
Location, a cabin in the Finnish woods.

Where do I begin...

A free-roaming topdown shoot-em-up across an island seascape...

Fly a jet!
Fight kaiju!
SAVE THE WORLD!

Thunder Highway represents my first foray into a full solo project. Rather than head for space, however, as so many topdown shoot-em-ups have done before, I wanted to set mine in a more visceral, dynamic environment. The gameplay still follows the same "arcadey physics" where the player focus is on quick control rather than flight simulation, serving as a vehicle (literally) for an epic showdown against the game's thunderous kaiju.

- CUT TO THE CHASE -
Where Is This Project Now?
(latest update: September 19th, 2016)

What follows below is the initial project post...

Development is currently in its third week of prototyping. Which is to say, I started all this to make an entirely different game (still involving topdown flying, but more RPG/adventure-themed) with these components forming a basis of tech that I could expand later. But the placeholder assets I was using took on a life of their own, and while that other (grander) game is still on the backburner of my mind, this project has taken on greater ambitions. So here I am, to share the story thus far!

Prototype version 04a

At this stage, I have a lot of the basic functionality in place. Camera motions, player controls, animation systems, basic enemy movement, land, sea, and sky assets, even the start of a menu screen - the works. All the art is my own work, apart from the jet and kaiju, which are placeholders for now. There's still so much to do yet; namely turning all this into a game worth playing. I have two main aims for this:

1) Emulate the "kaiju movie" experience through gameplay.
2) Push the envelope of what a shoot-em-up game can offer.

I really want to capture the feel of the classic kaiju movies, where a towering metaphor of mankind's hubris rises from the sea to wreak unstoppable havoc on a panicked population, shown off in a blast of B-movie effects. Growing up in Japan, I just loved all those tokusatsu series (Japanese B-movies) even with their cheesy special effects. Maybe because of their cheesy effects! The sense of scale, the explosive miniatures, the bombastic musical score... I always preferred the kaiju movies where the monster fights humanity, rather than the goofier kaiju vs. kaiju match-ups. The sense of helpless dread as the kaiju looms over a city, weapons pinging uselessly off its thick hide, sparking a race to find any weakness to stop this force of nature before Tokyo is wiped off the map. I realised as I was flying my jet prototype around that this would make an excellent backdrop for a shoot-em-up!

Mood boarding for the scope and scale of the game

It's been a whirlwind three weeks so far. Originally I was going to settle for a flat 2D look, but the natural environments turned out so nice I've had the confidence to push for a much more realistic 3D style (though still maintaining the orthographic top-down view.) I may end up going 3D for the jet and kaiju, but I haven't yet decided, nor secured an artist to make the final art in either case. Next up my attention will turn to developing the creature AI, including more advanced (and not simply random) movement, health metering, and the ability to fight back!

Other planned features include:

- original kaiju designs
- a storyline (most likely linear, but may involve nonlinear elements)
- adventure choices for progressing the story
- varied gameplay objectives (not just shooting!)
- different environments
- better land textures
- jet upgrades

Brought to you by...

[CullenCoyote]

Wow the lighting is really cool and makes it look like plastic toys and I love that!

[and0]

You will be able to unlock Maser cannons, right?

Love the concept, and the project as a whole sounds really promising. I dig it!

[FK in the Coffee]

The bump mapping on the water looks gorgeous, and I'm really intrigued by the idea of a "free-roaming" shmup, too!

[CptJoker]

Wow the lighting is really cool and makes it look like plastic toys and I love that!

Thanks! I'm really happy with how that all came together, after pondering and testing for a long time with all kinds of setups. Think I've finally found a kind of miniature-ish look to the scale, though still tweaking to do! ^^

You will be able to unlock Maser cannons, right?

Love the concept, and the project as a whole sounds really promising. I dig it!

Ha, I haven't decided yet! Part of me really wants to heap on the cheese and go all-out 80s/90s sci-fi, but another part of me wants to see how it might play out in, say, 1977 in the Gulf of Tonkin or something, and try for a more gritty post-Vietnam military angle, F4 Phantom IIs and Thunderchiefs all the way.

Glad you like the concept! The foundations are there, but the setting is still in flux.

The bump mapping on the water looks gorgeous, and I'm really intrigued by the idea of a "free-roaming" shmup, too!

Thank you! I'm even a little surprised myself how well that came out. It's a texture I made based off a satellite image of the Pacific ocean, so the wave patterns are about as close to real as it gets. But it really came together when I found just the right reflective settings to give it that sense of depth. It's all a trick! Just a flat, opaque texture and a normal map.

The free-roaming I didn't know how else to describe... but rather than restrict the player to a linear axis, I wanted to see how things would play out with a Pirates! kind of free-roaming aspect. Imagine bases dotted on various islands that you can refit and upgrade at, some cities under threat, maybe a few other landscape features to explore. I might add some more linear one-off sections (a canyon run, for example) for a story mission or sidequest challenge. The prototyping continues! :D

[sidbarnhoorn]

This looks and sounds awesome! Following! :-D

[CptJoker]

This looks and sounds awesome! Following! :-D

Glad to hear! I really like your work by the way, I would love to pick your brain sometime for thoughts on the musical score I'm envisioning for the game. I'm thinking something bombastic and classic Godzilla-like, all thunderous brass and cymbals. Although another part of my mind is screaming "Go totally Danger Zone. DANGER ZOOOOONE!"

[sidbarnhoorn]

Thanks! Sure, wouldn't mind!

[CptJoker]

Captain's blog, date 11-08-16, 0650 hours.
Location, high on a hill in a port town.

There have been many developments. And many more yet undone. And most of all those half-begun, existing in a state of limbo as they inch toward fruition. When developing solo, you have so many things to do. Far too many, so you have to pick your battles, focus on what's most important, but sometimes also take a moment to reflect, or time away. Preferably both, but there's only so much time.

Without further ado, then - the first gameplay reel for Thunder Highway:

The prototype reached minimum playable state to be called "a game" a couple weeks ago, consisting of health levels, attacks, hit effects, death effects, and rudimentary target tracking - the very least required for a player to fight and either defeat or be defeated by an enemy. Playtesting was rather successful, at least according to my nieces and nephew, who were extremely excited to get a first hands-on! They even provided some of my very first fan art:

Awww... how cute.

Since then, I've been making great strides toward the potential aesthetic direction, working in some color correction and film artefacting to suitably blemish the visuals and emphasise a 1950s stock footage look, plus a little tilt-shifting to lend a sense of miniaturisation. The combined effect looks quite remarkably like the old Thunderbirds TV-series, and I quite like the twee effect. It's also made me consider what tone the eventual story might take. Originally I had envisioned a much grittier, grimmer battle of naval aviators versus an unstoppable force of nature... but alternatively I could just as readily see a more cheery B-movie adventure tone that might appeal to a more universal audience. Something to consider! And if you, welcome reader, have an opinion between gritty militaristic warfilm or campy 1950s scifi/adventure, do feel free to add your comments. :D

* please ignore the placeholder UI *

But let's talk about setting for a moment.

The year is 1958. The embers of the Korean War still smolder, and Vietnam is yet to flare into a flashpoint. The echoes of Toko-Ri thunder across the quiet waters of the Pacific, but deep in the abyss... a long dormant threat stirs and rises toward the surface.

Meanwhile, a Navy flight are out on routine training...

To Be Continued

[Shnurbs]

Big fan of kaiju movies, so I'm definitely gonna keep an eye on this. Is it gonna be possible to have two kaiju fight in this?

[CptJoker]

Big fan of kaiju movies, so I'm definitely gonna keep an eye on this. Is it gonna be possible to have two kaiju fight in this?

That's an excellent question! I'm still debating the kind of kaiju story I want to create, but I always preferred the kaiju movies where it's one monster against civilisation, rather than the campier monster versus monster matchups. I quite like the idea of mankind's desperate stand being more in focus than the creatures. More on this as it develops!

[CptJoker]

Previously, on Thunder Highway...

The jets rumble over the ridge, their diamond formation holding steady and level as the flight leader uncharacteristically breaks radio silence. "Look at the size of that thing!" he exclaims, staring into the kaiju's roaring maw, seconds before a beam flares out to singe the wing of Tiger 2. "Break left and hit the throttle! Follow my lead!" bellows the commander, as the flight rockets away on full afterburners, veering in a wide arc around the monstrous beam that follows their nimble fighters. As they level out from another banking roll, the Tigers prepare for their attack run and go in guns blazing...

That's one possible scenario, and if anyone's willing I'd like to hear feedback on the tone.

The addition of wingmen this week really opened up possibilities for this game. Instead of being a solo pilot the whole time, part of the game (or even a majority) will play out as a member of a 4-man flight team. Possibly an aerobatics group (The Red Tigers? Something red anyway...) caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, pressed into action by the emergent threat of this kaiju rising from the deep. In any case, the gameplay upshot of it would be the ability to pick and choose your teammates, each potentially with unique abilities, strengths, or at the very least personalities as far as combat barks go. That will depend if this sort of feature adds to the gameplay I have planned, or if it doesn't really present an interesting variable to the game. It does also mean that there's some framework to support a story between meaningful characters, again depending on what level suits the overall flow of the game. Could be linear cutscenes (at the very least) or there might be scope for some adventure dialogue choices or light-RPG elements with developing these team members... Like I said, it's opened up so many more possibilities than just a solitary shooter! I will need to think and test and prototype a lot more. And try to stave off feature creep.

So what does that leave next: the UI, new kaiju, new gameplay objectives, different formations, wingmen abilities, cutscenes and other story elements, some kind of plot and characters, missions, music, sound effects... And that's just to make the game. I hope you enjoy reading, because there's a lot more to come!

[Ghat-Smith]

Ho ! I really like the graphical style, looks very particular.
The result is interesting after just some weeks of work. I hope you will continue like this.

[Pixel Noise]

Big fan of kaiju movies, so I'm definitely gonna keep an eye on this. Is it gonna be possible to have two kaiju fight in this?

That's an excellent question! I'm still debating the kind of kaiju story I want to create, but I always preferred the kaiju movies where it's one monster against civilisation, rather than the campier monster versus monster matchups. I quite like the idea of mankind's desperate stand being more in focus than the creatures. More on this as it develops!

This is looking very cool already. I agree - it makes more sense from the player's standpoint to have one kaiju at a time...but maybe there can be different ones at different times/missions/etc?

either way - really looking forward to more 

[alvarop]

looking very unique so far. Will be tracking.

[CptJoker]

Captain's blog, date 19-09-16, 2330 hours.
Location, under battened hatches.

Storms have wracked the coast of late. Storms of winds, storms of words. A torrent of ideas and, slowly, a rising tide of completed features. As my little project is tossed about by the winds of inspiration, it draws me ever nearer to that horizon, lit with the promise of opportunity...

A lot has been going on with this project, so much that I ought to be a better chronicler of its progress than I have been thus far. So here at last is a major update, since as of this week, the first milestone was reached: completing a full vertical slice!

All the major components of the game are in place, though crucial elements are still missing. Just little things like a menu UI and the ability to even exit the game... But these are mere details! What's important (and my primary goal to this point) has been to complete the full gameplay loop, and work it into a fullscale playable demo that I will be previewing at the next IGDA gathering here in Turku. But more on that later.

MEANWHILE... I've been in contact with some exceptionally talented artists to provide art assets and music in order to give this project the most professional kind of quality. The first I'd like to introduce is the amazing art of Oskar Alvarado, a highly experienced 3D animator and... well, let his work speak for itself!

You can get a sense of the project's target quality from the above animation, showing the first test of a new kaiju design. The design is still subject to change, naturally, and this is but the first of several I have planned with my esteemed compadre. It remains to be seen how much of them I want to reveal in advance - certainly not all of them, because I do want to maintain the sense of adventure into mystery as the story unfolds. :D

Speaking of which, this ramble has unfurled long enough, and let me literally cut to the chase and present a demo reel of the prototype mission in its complete form. All the gameplay elements are in place, though still still rough and some not completely expanded yet (not indicative of final quality, you know the drill!) The dialogue is currently just a monologue (adding additional characters is next on my agenda), the writing is mostly just for testing out pacing and getting a feel for the kinds of story beats that the full missions will cover, the kaiju is the old prototype placeholder (not Oskar's fantastic new models), there's no sounds, and the music is a few temp tracks that convey the mood I aim to set but lack the original sound I'm looking for. So here you have it: a fairly straightforward gameplay loop, but a complete one that I feel demonstrates the core concept!

Would love to hear your feedback, especially if you noticed something odd or poorly explained!
Thanks for reading, and expect more developments to follow soon.

[CptJoker]

Ho ! I really like the graphical style, looks very particular.
The result is interesting after just some weeks of work. I hope you will continue like this.

With a few breaks here and there to let the creative jets cool, and then back to full speed again! But it's on track for a release one way or another. Glad you like the style, it's the most fun aspect of working on the project! A perfect excuse to watch every single Godzilla and Gamera movie.

This is looking very cool already. I agree - it makes more sense from the player's standpoint to have one kaiju at a time...but maybe there can be different ones at different times/missions/etc?

either way - really looking forward to more 

That's a really good point and a perfect excuse to follow up my latest post about it! As I mentioned, I've been in contact with an artist named Oskar Alvarado, and he and I are working up some new designs for kaiju, with the aim that these will appear at different stages as the story evolves. Most daikaiju films have the creature either fight against humanity (which the player encharacters in this case) as in the original Godzilla (or the 1985 remake) - or they fight other kaiju as in most of the other ones. But if the kaiju fight each other, then that leaves the player out of the loop, barely more than a bystander to the inevitable titanic battle... Yet those multiple-kaiju matchups have the most variety. So! I intend to weave a story progression where this xenomorphic kaiju rises from the deep, and things... escalate from there!

looking very unique so far. Will be tracking.

I hope so, thanks!

[j-swan]

Love the visuals of this, curious to see how it turns out!

[wizered67]

Wow, really intrigued by that last video! The concept is really interesting and the graphics look very nice too! I especially like how zooming out turns it into the green grid view of things. Keep it up!

[JShrum.Composer]

Upon reading this thread I wondered why I had never heard of a similar game. It seems like such an obviously good idea. Maybe I'm just out of the kaiju video game loop.

Anyway, the last video looked great! I definitely want to see how the gameplay turns out with various tactical formations and various specially-skilled pilots to keep things feeling fresh as the game goes on. I feel like the game would probably benefit from a lot of missions without kaiju so it doesn't get too monotonous, but I guess that also depends on how well each kaiju mission can differentiate itself from the last. Very solid foundation here though.

I like the choice of music as well, especially the first track. Everything works well with the action in the game, but Godzilla scores have a history of being these sort of big blatant brass-driven cheese-fests, which I'd love to see reflected in some way for the final music, haha.

The game is looking like it could be a lot of fun. I look forward to more!