Started casually working in Unity 3D again about a month back. Ended up getting inspired and now I'm working towards a full game. May eventually reach Greenlight, who knows. Having to make all the assets and write all the code has actually turned out to be quite fun and I'm free to pursue any direction I choose.
*Update: Decided to call the game Genobyte. I'll elaborate on that in some future video.
**Update: Due to major complications with Unity the project is now being ported to Unreal Engine 4.
Major Changes/Milestones: *2016-12-19: New weapon system implemented with higher detail models. *2017-01-16: Aiming and steering now uses the mouse for better accuracy. *2017-01-22: New higher detail player model and UI design. *2017-01-23: First low-poly terrain test. *2017-01-24: New UI design theme finalized. *2017-02-03: Basic object replication across a network. *2017-02-05: First playable internal multiplayer test with three geographically separated clients. *2017-02-16: Major roadblock encountered with Unity Networking. Seeking a viable solution. *2017-02-17: Unreal Engine 4 appears to be the better engine for this project. *2017-02-18: Basic physics and input systems ported to Unreal Engine 4.
Definitely feel free to contribute to the ongoing discussion and leave some feedback! *Please PM me if you may want to contribute to the project.
Planning for this to hit Greenlight around Christmas time or so. Once I get the level editing tools figured out I can start working on some early maps. Also planning to put out a public Alpha build around the same time.
Definitely. I plan for a lot of the game play to focus on 3D platforming alongside the standard combat and objective hunting. Falling off the level is going to be a pretty common hazard. Those simple kinetic enemies will probably be pretty deadly.
For those wondering about the platforming aspects, I just uploaded a video showing some very early platforming game play. The physics are buggy as can be but functional. Sadly I fail at my own test level quite a few times.
I'll be posting another development update on 12/20. In the meantime here's a bit of a teaser screenshot showing the very incomplete but functional alpha level and some random visual effects.
A lot of the changes have been code optimization. I basically went through and completely remade the weapon and projectile classes, cleaned up the player physics controller, and upgraded the project to Unity 5.5.
There's also a completely new model for the Plasma Bolter complete with animations and particle effects. A new enemy can also be seen in the background which I'll be covering in the video.
Finally made another video. Going to start splitting these into Part A and B. A will be more of a quick showcase while B will be more in-depth and focus heavily on the actual development that takes place. I'll explain all the scripts and code that I've written as well as my asset development workflow for those interested in indie game dev.
*The glitch with the projectiles not always colliding with level geometry was fixed right after Part A was recorded. I'll explain this glitch and the solution in Part B.
So I've been gone for about 2 weeks now thanks to the X99 motherboard I had deciding to explode. I managed to throw together a temporary PC to use while I waited on a replacement. Unfortunately said PC would not accept my old 780 or new 1070. Instead I was stuck with a Radeon HD 7770. Long story short I couldn't record anything and had to disable a lot of the post processing in the game to actually work on it.
My computer is back online now with an entirely different board. I'll cover the story in the next video. Anyway I plan to just work out the 2 videos that I'm behind on this weekend. One will be the second part to the last covering the technical aspects of development so far. The second will just be another showcase as there have been a number of major changes since the last video.
Multiplayer is definitely going to be implemented. In fact I'll probably end up working on that before any sort of single player component as a lot of the code needs to be adapted/written with networking in mind.
I'm using the latest version of Unity and doing all of the development myself. I tend to use Microsoft Visual Studio Community for coding. I've made all of the graphical assets using a combination of Blender, Affinity Designer, and GIMP. Sound effects and music have either been created at home, purchased through the Asset Store, or adapted from royalty free sources.
I've also sourced some of the visual effects from the Asset Store, Standard Assets, and Nvidia's GameWorks. I've been eyeing GPUOpen though integrating some of those effects requires some native plugin development which I've pushed off for now.
It's quite the project to be doing during college which is why development might seem somewhat sporadic.
Well if there is a closed beta count me in. I would still pay at the end to show support of course. I am not looking for free handouts. Currently loading up UnrealEngine 4 to dink around myself. Your game reminds me of a game called ARC from back in the day. No not the new dinosaur, crafting, and survival game that is newer. ARC was an overhead game where you flew a little saucer ship. There were missiles, lobbing grenades, and bouncing bullets. There were also several different game modes including capture the flag, deathmatch, and team deathmatch. Your game also gives a little bit of a Descent vibe, which is a win in my book.
So I've taken on a higher course load at college this Spring semester and unfortunately that means development has slowed quite a bit. Right now I've been trying to get something done every day if I can but making videos covering that development just isn't possible for now.
I'm going to start posting screenshots and changelogs here and maybe the occasional video if I can. I might see about setting up some kind of blog for further development.
Latest Update (01-16-2017) - Implemented mouse aiming with zoom function (screenshot) - Started drafting a new UI design - Cleaned up the weapon and projectile classes again - Started drafting a point defense turret enemy - Projectiles now have tails - Early network testing for multiplayer
The new HUD design is slowly coming together. I'm now dividing the HUD into components controlled by various objects vs one master HUD object. The weapon, player, and any abilities will now spawn in their own unique HUD elements. In this case the Twin Plasma Bolters have their own purple reticle with the weapon's charge displayed to the upper right.
I've yet to design the ability HUD. So far the only ability is a simple speed boost.
I plan for some standard energy weapons to have a passive recharge which restores a percentage every second that the weapon is not being used. This likely won't be the case on any power weapons. You will also be able to pick up charge packs which restore a small amount based on the weapon.
May I propose something? EA may be crap from the consumer standpoint, but they got some pretty talented designers and developers... Remember Dead Space? The big blue thing on the character's back is his HUD... You should be able to do something similar pretty easily with the ship design. Immediate visual feedback, without the player ever needing to look away from by the center of the screen where all the action is.
I did actually try something similar though it was just a few world space sprites instead of an actual part of the geometry. I didn't even think about how Dead Space did it. I do plan to modify or create a slightly more detailed player model in Blender, maybe I'll see if I can incorporate the HUD into the actual model. If it works I'll probably post an update here sometime soon.
So based on some of the feedback I've been getting as well as my own realizations I think it's best if I shift my focus to multiplayer. I've decided to rework the engine to essentially always be in a multiplayer state. Any solo game play will just take place on a local private server. This results in less overall code and also allows multiplayer to be possible throughout the game.
I'm thinking I'll just do little scenario missions for those who want a campaign-like experience. This model also allows me to easily add newer missions with updates and so on. These scenario missions will allow for solo or cooperative play.
The main multiplayer mode will support a few standard game types and maybe some unique ones. Classics such as deathmatch, free for all, and capture the flag will definitely be available. I'm planning to have a handful of maps supporting anywhere from 2-16 players to start.
So far game play focuses heavily on vehicle combat and plenty of crazy maneuvering thanks to ramps and other features likely being present on multiplayer maps. There will be an assortment of weapons available as with any arena style game.
I'm officially starting on the networking framework today. I've broken a lot of the complex game systems into streamlined modules and cleaned up a lot of messy code. I have no idea when I'll have any sort of alpha out. I'll probably be doing a lot of internal testing with some fellow developers and gaming friends first. Just keep an eye on this thread if you're interested.
I've also made some more progress on the weapon HUD for the Plasma Bolters.
