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[Patata Games Studio]

M.A.R.S.S.

#0

Time to make this planet red

Hello, We are Patata Games Studio., a bunch of game dev students with 0 idea of what they are doing.

This is the project we are currently working on, we took inspiration in Pikmin but decided to add a twist adding puzzles and certain action components in our levels. Art wise, we decided to go for a 50s Russian Space Race vibe.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/patatagamedev
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/patatagamestudio/

[bram_dingelstad]

You had me at Robocommunist! The screenshots look fun, even with the little info you guys put out, I'm excited to see what you guys share next or what the game holds in store for us!

I'll keep my eye on this thread 

[Patata Games Studio]

Thanks! We appreciate it, we wanted to make a short intro, but maybe it was too brief, however from here on out we'll be posting longer posts.

We're really excited that people are looking forward for the game and its development, this week we'll be posting more!

Twitter: https://twitter.com/patatagamedev
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/patatagamestudio/

[Patata Games Studio]

M.A.R.S.S.

#1 - Main Characters
This week, we’re introducing you to the various characters we’ve come up with as the tools for the MARSS Conquest.

First, we have Propaganda for the design we wanted something light looking, because we didn’t want a combat-oriented companion but rather more of a puzzle solving one. His unique abilities are that he is able to walk through electrocuted water and charge up certain switches.

Next, we have Combat, since we added different enemies, now we wanted a unit that is more damage based (Maybe that’s why we added the chainsaws), but also something that makes him useful when the player has to face puzzles.
Not only are his special abilities damage based but, Combat is also immune to fire.

And finally, we have Overload, so far, we have a sparky-weakish comrade, a DPS one and to finish this crew, we needed to recruit a tank for our perfect party, that’s where Overload comes in.
He has an armor that protects him, granting him a damage resistance that no other comrade has, but also, he’s immune to knockback which gives him a wide range of advantages in different areas.

These 3 will make up the team that our players will control, but in the end, it will be up to the player how they all overcome the various challenges we have in store for them.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/patatagamedev
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/patatagamestudio/

[Patata Games Studio]

M.A.R.S.S.

#2 - Movement System
Hello everyone, today we are going to show you how we struggled to made our movement system.
We have used Unity NavMeshAgent for the movement of the comrades.

The real problem comes with the generation of movement points for the groups to move.

First Iteration

The first idea that we had was to make a GameObject with some children GameObjects, where each comrade would move to one of the children GameObjects.

As we can see on the Gif above this heresy first iteration, had a couple of problems.
The first one was the difficulty to adapt to the level obstacles. The second one, is the comrades always end in the same positions. And the third one is the lack of adaptability to different numbers of units without making a lot of points.


Second Iteration

The second iteration was focused on solving the first and third problems of the first iteration.
The solution that we ended up with was to make to generate the grid via scripting. For the grid we used raycasts to check for the floor and if the point was inside the Navigation Mesh.
When we have located the grid’s central point, we generate a list with positions and order them by proximity to the central points so the comrades can stay together.

If there are not enough points for the units, the system generates more points.
You may be tricked to think that was it, our suffering journey was over.
We were wrong too.

Alas, as all our previous creations, this one was flawed to the core too.
The first of the issue was that the grid was very homogeneous and visible to the player, so we added a little randomness to the points so that they don’t stand in clear lines.
The second issue was with additional point generation, each time that we generated more points we regenerate all the points, causing the comrades to move each time.
The third issue was us forgetting to properly check if the comrades had reached their desired destination correctly.



Third Iteration

For our third attempt. We solved the point generation problem by generating only the new points, dynamically adjusting the size of the grid while capping the distance from the center that new points can have.

This little cubes help us see, if the system is working as intended. The green cubes are the points that the units can reach. If the point is to far from the center point, or if the unit can´t reach the point by Unity NavMesh the cube is colored red.

We hope you have enjoyed this detailed account of our suffering the development of our movement system.
We certainly didn’t.


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[bram_dingelstad]

Great work on the movement system! There's always a struggle of implementing any system, no matter how much its been implemented in the past by others or even by yourself! I've been doing some vehicle simulation in some side projects and every single time I mess something up where I have to rethink the entire thing again.

Good job on keeping your attitude up. Can't wait to see what you guys do next!

[vivaladav]

Moving multiple units together is definitely a hard problem to handle, but there's also good documentation out there.

For example have a look at Cooperative Pathfinding (PDF) from AI Game Programming Wisdom 3.

Good luck with the development!

[Patata Games Studio]

Great work on the movement system! There's always a struggle of implementing any system, no matter how much its been implemented in the past by others or even by yourself! I've been doing some vehicle simulation in some side projects and every single time I mess something up where I have to rethink the entire thing again.

Good job on keeping your attitude up. Can't wait to see what you guys do next!

Thanks! Indeed we're lucky, because we are currently working on this project only, so we had a lot of time until we ended up with something cool looking and efficient.

Good luck to you too with your projects!

[Patata Games Studio]

Moving multiple units together is definitely a hard problem to handle, but there's also good documentation out there.

For example have a look at Cooperative Pathfinding (PDF) from AI Game Programming Wisdom 3.

Good luck with the development!

Thanks! We will definitely make sure to check it out! Any help we can use is more than welcome!

[Patata Games Studio]

M.A.R.S.S.

#3 - It's a trap!
Ah yes, obstacles. Those little things, littering games designed to make a level more interesting by artificially impeding player progression. 

Damm, when I say that way it looks like we know what we are doing.

Allow me to dispel such a notion.

When we first started making levels, we “designed” them to have zones of interest where enemies and empty spaces would be located where you just needed to travel. That way we could have some sort of flow curve between encounters where tensions would rise and fall, maintaining engagement. 

What we actually had were barren zones, sprinkled with enemies with the taste of amateur bakers making a 3 story wedding cake.

It’s a problem that comes marked with a lack of content (enemies), which stems from the need to make every threat to the comrades clear and predictable (end me) and then animate in them 2D with a distinct personality (I beg you).

We simply don’t have the man power to design, script and animate the amount of enemies needed to make the barren surface of our maps.

Well now what?

We give up.

We double down on what makes our game fun: playing with the comrades. 

What if instead of just facing the capitalistic forces of doom, you also face the capitalist defenses of doom? I mean, they arrived before you, those piggies. Of course they set up some defenses.

And the comrades will make them squeal. After they stop getting blown up by the previously mentioned defenses.

Bellow I have mustered my last available brain cell in concocting a list with the currently available defenses we have.   

Lasers

What is it about lasers that make them so attractive? They go bzzt and you dead.

Isn't’ that what we all crave?

Anyway, our laser definetly go bzz but they won’t one shot a poor comrade. Yet. They’ll toast them up a lil bit, a second exposure to the laser will, however, seal the deal and make the robot go boom.

Laser can be stationary, rotating or can patrol corridors between two points, always creating safe and unsafe zones for the player to stay in or avoid.

Cannons

Sure lasers are cool and stuff, but what about some good old cannon? We have them aswell.

This capitalism ™ enabled cannons, disperse those despised communist units with blunt force, breaking ranks and causing damage. Cannon fire at a steady rate, and are usually found immobile and covering long corridors.

All cannons made by CapitalismCorp come covered with a 2 minute warranty, starting at the moment of manufacturing.

Flamethrowers
No game is complete with some flamethrower action, this time is pointing at you though so start running. 

Flamethrowers work in a similar fashion as lasers, but with a shorter range and with more AOE capabilities, as they can fry entire groups if not properly dodged. 

Burnt robots is kind os running theme in this game huh.

Mines
Mines are indeed, another classic. But we wanted to be original ™ so intead of beep beep and explody. Our mines spin ™ spin ™ and then explody. 

Magnificent.

They also deal tons of indiscriminate damage and take no prisoners. They don’t have arms duh.

Rocks

Rocks are modelled and designed in our image. They stand there and do nothing while awaiting obliteration. 

Rocks are a cheap and organically sourced means of block a path, but they can be destroyed by the comrades.

Why do they keep using them you ask? Yeah we don’t know either.

Boxes

This pesky box-shaped boxes not only work as petty obstacles that may or may not block your path to glory, they also drop precious CPU resources when destroyed. We could name them booxes with loot, heck, maybe even lootb.. Nah, we don’t want to get involved in those stinky business practices. That is why we are poor too!

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[JobLeonard]

Is the name inspired by M.U.L.E. perhaps? 

[Patata Games Studio]

Actually not! We are all from Spain and here the Soviet Union is called U.R.S.S. instead of U.S.S.R. so we thought it would be clever taking R.S.S. from it and adding it to Mars!

But now we're definitely gonna check that game out!

[JobLeonard]

Hah, that's a cool pun too!

Well, given that M.U.L.E. is about making money by mining at the edge of space, and actually has some market negotiation sim aspects to it, the description of this game did give me high hopes for a bit of humorous satirical Marxist critical game design

[Patata Games Studio]

Now we are definitely checking it out!

[Patata Games Studio]

M.A.R.S.S.

#4 - Getting Wet, Hot and SHOCKED
Don’t give us that look, we’re talking about the systems we have developed around water, fire, and electricity.
 
Water
Contrary to any of your beliefs, water doesn’t damage our precious soviet units. We were prepared for that! Each and every one of our C.O.M.R.A.D.E.S. is water-resistant, and wont sink or take damage while on water.  

But these liquid areas do present a problem when paired with an electric source: It becomes electrified!
 
Electric Damage System
Except for the Propaganda type, any robot entity (including enemies) that comes into contact with an electrified water surface will rapidly take massive amounts of damage.

Electrified water is one of the deadliest hazards in any level. It can be used to your advantage, wiping out any great number of enemies, but be careful not to destroy your own units!

Water can be electrified by two entities, electric towers and Propaganda C.O.M.R.A.D.E.S.

Fire Damage System
Fire works quite similar to the electric damage system (yeah, we didn’t reuse some of the code or anything).

Fire hazards are presented in the form of lava lakes or pools, fire geysers, and flamethrowers.

Unlike water, our precious but numerous and easily replaceable bots are not prepared to sustain exposure to high temperatures and will light up in flames for some time and take damage for it.

Only two entities are inmune to fire, those are our wonderful Combat C.O.M.R.A.D.E.s and the foul liberty-loving Flamethrowers.  


If any of your units, while being on fire, attacks an enemy, it will take fire damage too. This means you can take your units suffering as an advantage, how great! Another glorious victory for the Motherland!

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[Patata Games Studio]

M.A.R.S.S.

#5 - Let's build a map!
This week we are going to talk about a new topic, MAPS, those things that some may say are needed for a game to be playable!

In MARSS our maps are pretty much floating islands in Space, some may see this as something not very realistic, but we disagree, they just don’t have as much imagination as we do. But before our maps become… well maps, depending on our designer, usually a drawing is done beforehand, this allows us to make a sketch about where everything is going to go, and a remarkably interesting one (if I may say so myself) that in a couple weeks we are going to look back and realize that we may have a better future as Abstract Painters.

Following we transfer this drawing into a 3D version, which we can finally understand way better, but now we must rethink and reposition tons of different components (obstacles, enemies, puzzles, our happiness…) we were sure about but now not so much, because we may think they could affect the player's experience negatively.

Afterwards the map is ready for testing and Oh boy! Let me tell you, that is going to be tested a lot of times, specially since we may have a wide range of problems from our navigation mesh could be broken once, twice or six times, to a script decided to have a fit and stopped running.
This testing is only inside the team so it may be biased. After some general thoughts have been said, its time to use the public, for that I mean beg them for some playtesting to get the real deal about how good or how bad, generally how bad sometimes good, the level is and how can we improve it.

When the playtesting ends, and we have all the opinions, we apply their feedback into the level to upgrade it and fix it, afterwards its time for some decoration!

For this part we usually start by getting a model for the ground, this process starts off with us taking the floor we already have, bring it to our 3D Modelling tool and get a nice island or different islands that will replace it. Then we use different types of resources as rocks, mountains and asteroids to add dimension to it, depending on the type of biome the level is based on.

 
And for the Grand Finale! our scenes will disa... will be applied a coat of shinny post-processing, hiding any flaws that we definitely don’t have, anywhere…

And this is the process we go through when we make a new level!Hope you enjoyed!


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[JobLeonard]

but now we must rethink and reposition tons of different components (obstacles, enemies, puzzles, our happiness…)

Good to see that this project is leading to personal growth

[Patata Games Studio]

Indeed! Like a roller coaster! Like a very Communist Red Roller Coaster! Sometimes we grow up... sometimes we grow... down?

But in the end we are happy, even if we get the casual headaches!