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[Pishtaco]

I reckon blowing up is just a very efficient way to dissipate heat. Maybe the mech drags itself back together afterwards.

[SimpleSyrup]

Think ExciteBike.

[feeblethemighty]

I'm no authority on finishing games, but i know that you need to keep things simple and polish later.  Rules i know but can never follow properly.  It'll be fun just to blow things up with a mech.

Also, have you thought of multiple players?  Since the NES days, i've always been a fan of two players on the same computer. 

[saluk]

Thanks for all of your comments. I'm not interested in giving up, I just pushed a bit too fast at the beginning and got to the hard/not fun stage before I was ready for it. Sometimes doing something else for a bit gives me the perspective I need. I'll finish this for sure. It's almost playable, I can probably put something up this weekend.

A splitscreen mode is quite doable, as long as it doesn't screw with the perspective. I really want to fix that code so it's not so finicky. I do tend to get bogged down in such details.

The overheating mechanic is more inspired by my poorly designed laptop than by any previous game. I have learned to save twice as often as usual for fear of my computer exploding, although it usually just shuts off first. Maybe your mech will shut off instead, leaving you like a sitting duck until you cool off. Or that could be one of the add-ons you can trick yourself out with, overheating failsafe

Hmm, keep things simple. I'll try and keep that in mind. Thanks for the encouragement!

[Pencerkoff]

Hello this is Pencerkoff

Or that could be one of the add-ons you can trick yourself out with, overheating failsafe

When I'm not making games, I moonlight as an engineer, and the idea of failsafes being upgrades is delicious.

-PENCERKOFF

[saluk]

I is chased.

Working on some performance issues, and the ai. AI is cheap and not fun, next is to add some randomness to it so they don't simply follow you around with robot-like focus and unending persistence.

Performance is less than I'd like. Too many GL calls I fear. Vertex array time?

[HanClinto]

Looks great, Saluk!

I loved the Mechwarrior games, and I really look forward to playing a 3rd person version of it like this. :-D

[Pencerkoff]

Hello this is Pencerkoff

Looks great, Saluk!

I loved the Mechwarrior games, and I really look forward to playing a 3rd person version of it like this. :-D

I think they have a game like that.  Mech Commander, maybe?  One of those sort-of-fun but got no respect games I think.

-PENCERKOFF

[saluk]

[saluk]

DAY IVE LOST TRACK



I have spent many hours trying to get to the bottom of the performance problems, at the end of the day I think I'm just doing too much with what I've got. I've managed to get it to acceptable, playable level, with the unit count I'm expecting, so that'll have to do. Other than that, I also added the smoke, and started implementing some ai behaviors. Getting close to demo status but it's not quite there. Once I add the fun I'll upload it

[saluk]

DAY AFTER DAY I LOST TRACK



Here is a quick look at the title screen/intro. It's going to play out some opening bits of the story and show some animation, but you can skip it at any time to start the game.

I've finally got a bit of an outline for the story and mission structure. Instead of having a long chain of missions, I'm instead going to have a single playthrough only last a few missions, with branching being a big element. In order to see every level, you will have to play several times. Similar to starfox I guess, except even shorter, because I don't have that much time!

As soon as I have explosions and collisions work better I'll post a demo.

[feeblethemighty]

Can't wait to try this out!  Lookin' good!

[dbb]

Here is a quick look at the title screen/intro.

Looking good indeed! I did a 128x128px "portrait" of the mech in question. Maybe you could use it for a title scren or soething...

[saluk]

feeblethealmighty: hopefully not too much longer. I'm the kind that likes to tease for a while before letting people play, hehe.

dbb: yeah, I'll be using all of those portraits somewhere. Maybe for mission success? For the title screen though I kind of like the zoomed in walking mech (it walks endlessly and the ground scrolls). If I can I'm going to do a zoom out when you start the game.

DAY ER, IT'S STILL THE SAME DAY (AT LEAST IN MY TIMEZONE)

Total chaos:


Finally put explosions in. It's amazing how much more fun it is with explosions (and particles to tell when your hitting something) than it was before, even though the underlying logic is identical. I can't seem to win against 25 bots, played it about 20 times but they end up getting me every time. It's funny though, the bots have friendly fire. I suppose I could win if I hid in the corner until they all wiped everyone out. But where's the fun in that? Performance with all the particles etc is not the greatest, but it's at least playable and not too bad on my machine. I'm a bit worried about slower machines though. Demo soon. I need to take a break.

[saluk]

Playable version:

http://www.mediafire.com/?dmmnwwjkmyj

Windows exe. If you have python, pyopengl, and pygame, you can also run from source in the gameA_pywright_mech folder by running test.py there. If you just feel like looking at the source, that's also where it is.

Here is readme:

Untitled action game with mecha and light rpg elements

How to play:
run play.exe


Controls:
wasd - torso walk and turn
arrows - body turn
space - shoot


Known issue:
a bit slow with this many guys
a bit hard with this many overpowered guys
collision between mechs is funny
bullets dont collide in quite the right spot (aim for the feet)
shakeycam is maybe too shakey
bullet sfx gets annoying (I have a habit of annoying sound in my games)
AI lolz
I probably know more things wrong but those are the big ones


to come:
levels, ai story, overheating, gameplay, etc



Made for (1st?) tigsource assemblee contest part 2

Using these peoples assets:
tiles and sprites by dbb
font by agj
sounds by stian_stark and feeblethealmighty
music by stian_stark

[dbb]

Arrrgh! Insanity! It's good, but yeah, it's really hard. I suck at it.

I found the movement controls a bit hard to get my head around - personally, I'd prefer it if, rather than have A & D rotate your legs and W & S walk forward and backward, if the controls were absolute, so W always moved you up the screen, A always moved left, etc. But I've had similar disagreements with people before regarding absoute vs. relative directional controls - other people do seem to prefer it the way you've got it here. Ideally, I guess, one would be able to choose.


And yeah, I like the intro sequence the way it is. And all the bullets and explosions and stuff flying about are very cool. And no, the shakycam is not too shaky. Just shaky enough; really adds to the intense, chaotic feel. And the perspective works really well.

[saluk]

Thanks for the comments. I actually plan on including both movement systems eventually. I know people have different preferences. With turning you have a little bit more control, being able to walk in truly all angles, but yes it can be confusing, especially when it is a bit hard to see on the sprite which direction the legs are even pointed.

The framerate was OK for you?

As for the difficulty, this is basically a test level mostly for seeing how many bots it can handle. On my computer this is about the limit. I can't beat it either hehe. In a real level the bots won't be completely free to move about the level, so you wont have to fight as many at once. The ai currently just walks to random points near them, but they do actually turn toward you to shoot. It's kind of funny how well this works sometimes. I might have to adjust the fire-rate or force them to miss more often or something. Not quite sure yet.

[Pencerkoff]

Hello this is Pencerkoff

I have to agree with dbb on this, the controls are obviously not natural.  I'm trying to think of a way to help correct it, but having a separate rotating turret makes this difficult.  Have you considered mouse movement / clicking for targeting or maybe even movement?

I'm not sure you would want to hear this, but another thought would be to make your mech fire forward at all times.  Maybe add some interesting powerups that effect your pattern?

Game still looks sweet.  Oh, and turn up the music!  The sound effects take over.

-PENCERKOFF

[saluk]

Thanks for input pencerkoff! I'm pretty sure I want to keep the rotating. It's kind of a staple of the genre (I'm aiming more for mechwarrior style, and less for shmup bullet hell style). I have changed the torso to be screen relative movement however, and it's definitely an improvement. I might still change the gun aiming to either be with the mouse, or with the directions being firing directions instead of rotation, but we'll see.

Latest progress:


I've been working on the weapon system. I want to make weapons pretty darn configurable, more for my ease of balancing and creating them than for having a large variety of weapons to choose from, but that may happen as well. The screenshot shows the grenade launcher in action.

I'm thinking you will collect various weapons during a mission, and then have the option of actually swapping them in between missions. I might have a swap station in the levels too, but I don't want it to be too easy to swap. The weapons will also upgrade while in use, so you will have to choose whether to swap your leveled up but sucky weapon for a weapon that might be better later on.

I've also added npc's who must be protected. The ai is not good about choosing to go after you or choosing to go after the npc, it's going to be a challenge to balance that. Why do I have to be so ambitious! Fortunately for players, lost "friendly" npc's will not be a mission failure event. It can affect the story though. The rpg part is starting to come through a little bit

If I can get to where the first few levels are at least implemented (if not balanced) by next weekend, then I think I will be on track for what I want to do.

[feeblethemighty]

Just tried your playable version.  It ran smoothly for me and everything looks great!  The explosions and screen shake makes the game exciting.  But the controls are completely mind-boggling!   

I have been messing around with a similar style of game, maybe mostly because it was also inspired by dbb's graphics.  The controls might end up being similar even though my game will be much more action and little to no RPG.  Check it out and maybe you can find a nice mid-point between the two: http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=9912.0