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[m3xican]

Hi guys, at the moment I'm working on this game:

The undergrounder is an action/puzzle game based on the hard life of millions of workers that every day have to use the underground to commute to work.

The player plays the role of a worker that needs to travel around a city using the underground for his/her duties.
Even if this could seem a simple and boring activity, there are a lot of hazards making things hard and challenging every day: underground faults and congestions, strikes, work rivals... Everything makes regular duties become challenges against the passing time.

The game is currently under development for Windows, Mac and Linux and a first beta release is planned for 2010 Q2, so more it's going to be shown soon in our dev-blog and announced on Twitter.
For any game related discussion, users can use the dedicated folder in our forum or join our IRC chat to discuss in real-time with the developers.

As I wrote, I'm going to cover most of the development in our dev-blog, but I'm also going to post here the main updates (first game screenshot, first beta, first release, etc...).

LATEST SCREENSHOTS

UPDATES

• level editor in BETA (15 Oct 2009)
• new Lowpoly Studios website (27 Oct 2009)
• Level editor BETA3 + video (13 Jan 2010)
• A new graphic style... (11 May 2010)
• First game screenshots! (31 May 2010)
• private Beta with new screenshots and new graphics! (13 Jul 2010)
• The Undergrounder - debut trailer (03 Aug 2010)
• New game and editor screenshots (06 Sep 2010)
• edit and play preview video (06 Oct 2010)

www.the-undergrounder.com

[m3xican]

after "only" 7 weeks it's time for the first "important" update!

Yesterday I finished a first version of the level editor, this is a screenshot:



The graphics used in the editor won't be used for the game, but they can give you an idea about what the game's graphic style is going to be.

The editor is totally based on a OpenGL GUI framework I started to develop when I announced the project.
For now most of the development has been focused on the GUI, but starting from next week the focus will be moved on the game, so I hope to show you something new soon.

[Alex May]

Not using wxWidgets for the editor then?

[m3xican]

Not using wxWidgets for the editor then?

hahahah, NEVER EVER NEVER  :D

[Alex May]

:D

once bitten...

[m3xican]

I guess using wxWidgets so long is the main reason why I decided to create my own library, but please, don't say anything to Richie

[John Nesky]

I'm starting to use wxWidgets. Is there something I should know, aside from it being vaguely annoying to use?

[Ivan]

it's old and ugly

[Alex May]

So is this like a route-finding game? Do you play one entity or many? Are you controlling the system or travelling through it?

[m3xican]

I'm starting to use wxWidgets. Is there something I should know, aside from it being vaguely annoying to use?

I don't like several of their design choices and sometime I feel like if the API lacks of coherence, anyway it's free and OS, so probably nobody should complain too much, but I'm a coder, so I'm always swearing for something

So is this like a route-finding game? Do you play one entity or many? Are you controlling the system or travelling through it?

At last a non-wxWidgets question

More than a route-finding is a route-planning game, so probably it's more an action/strategy than an action/puzzle game.

Anyway the basic concept is you are a worker (so a single entity) and have to travel around a city (level) for your duties.
It's a route-planning game because the game it's not just going from the point A to the point B, it's more finding the best way to your destination according to the dynamic state of the level (lines closed, stations packed at rush hours, train delays, etc...), the power-ups placed on the several lines and other factors.

[dbb]

Interesting idea, but to be honest it sounds a bit too close to my real life to be something I'd be drawn to play for fun. Are you going for realism? Or will it have humorous/exaggerated/action elements to spice up gameplay? Like, if there were some baddies to evade, or something.

[m3xican]

Interesting idea, but to be honest it sounds a bit too close to my real life to be something I'd be drawn to play for fun. Are you going for realism? Or will it have humorous/exaggerated/action elements to spice up gameplay? Like, if there were some baddies to evade, or something.

I think using real life as inspiration for a game doesn't mean killing the fun, the only important thing is the gameplay.
We're definitely not going for a simulation or any kind of realism, The Undergrounder will be a (quick) action game based on a daily life "game"

[m3xican]

A new update, even if it's not totally related to The Undergrounder.

We have a new website: http://www.lowpoly-studios.com
and we started a contest where we are giving away 3 free copies of the game, all the details are on the homepage.

Some sections of the website are still incomplete, like the Games one, but the style is pretty well defined now, so any feedback is welcome!

[m3xican]

Hi guys,

just yesterday I posted the latest news about the game in our dev-blog and I think it's time for posting an update on TigSource too

In the last months I've been working mostly on the level editor, integrating the game engine for a real-time preview of the levels.
Anyway, most of the progress is showed in the following two videos:

Level Editor BETA2


Level Editor BETA3


There's still a lot to do, especially for the game, but I hope we'll be able to start a closed-beta period in few weeks, maybe a month. I'll keep you posted about it

[godatplay]

I really like the everyday-life theme of this game.  I wouldn't worry about being boring with it.  Most people in the world are interested in these kinds of stories.

Examples of well-known works with everyday life:  Great Expectations, Great Gatsby, Grapes of Wrath, Crime and Punishment, Our Town, Revolutionary Road.

[m3xican]

I really like the everyday-life theme of this game.  I wouldn't worry about being boring with it.  Most people in the world are interested in these kinds of stories.

Thanks godatplay 

I'm more inclined to the John Carmack's idea of story in a game... players want fun, the story is not the most important part of the game, that's all.
That could be not true for some particular games, but I'm not planning to make any RPG or any other heavy-story-based game for now

[m3xican]

At last it's time for a new update

We have a new logo for the game (showed in the first message of this thread), the level editor is almost finished and we decided to change the graphic style of the game as you can see in the following video:



You can read the full story on our dev-blog, peace out.

[m3xican]

At last I can show you two screenshots taken from the latest alpha build of the game:



The first one is taken when starting a level, instead the second one after few minutes of play. For a more detailed description and more info check the related post in our dev-blog.

Any comment/feedback is welcome.

[Alex May]

The graphics currently look quite technical and computery... probably not too compelling for a lot of people. Have you thought about making it look a bit more appealing? How about something like this:

?





I think you need more of a graphical hook.

[m3xican]

hey Alex, thanks for the feedback!

I think we're not going for a radical change in the art style, but we had a chat yesterday and now we're reviewing some ideas to improve what we have and make different elements fit better together.