Andy Hawkins Blog

TPS Test for iPhone - Dev Blog # 1

2012-01-29T06:12:00.000-08:00

http://vimeo.com/35826621

I've been working on an idea for a horror game and I needed an "over-the-shoulder" TPS engine. I love all the models and the editor from The Games Creators (TGC) and own about 15 of the packs. The Science Pack is the best for my horror idea but the problem with making a 3d game in FPS Creator is that it won't work on an iPhone.

So I've begun converting the Direct X models from TGC to Collada format and imported them into ShiVa which is capable of building 3D iphone games.

In this test I've used Cartography Shop - which builds constructed solid geometry (CSG) - and loaded the exported X file into ShiVa, then made it a collider.

Next I've imported the Colonel from the TGC and attached his mesh to a dynamics objects which pretty much rolls along the floor. The faster the ball rolls the faster he animates.

For the camera I'm casting a ray back from his head directly behind and if it collides with a collider (ie the level) it puts the camera at the point of collision. This means the camera will never get stuck behind geometry and so will not lose sight of the player.

Next blog I will report on my work on adding detail to the level to make it look more realistic.

Surf Prodigy (DrewFX) 1.3.0 Christmas Update

2011-12-21T07:13:00.000-08:00

Just in time for Christmas I've made a special updated version for those Surf Prodigy owners! Grab a fresh copy if you haven't bought one yet.

I've tweaked the game quite a bit to make it easier to play and added a new level for Christmas. The level is already unlocked ready to play (no need to complete the circuit) and you get a bonus item if you complete it. So UPDATE if you have it. As for some promo codes - I'll post some soon but there's some legal issue I have to look into which I think requires you to read an agreement. So more on that soon.

What's New in Version 1.3.0

* Christmas Update - Aerial jump contest off coast of an iceberg that floated into the bay for Bonus Item you can wear. Open the map to see the iceberg.
* Dodge ice fragments.
* Enhanced controls to make it more fun to play.
* Will stand up for you if you reach the top of the wave and are still paddling.
* Only fall off on lip of wave or out too far in front when cruising at low speed.
* Snap turn on lip of wave using Lightning button.
* Pump for power on middle of wave using Lightning button.
* Better turning.
* Better calibration.
* When holding the rail it drags you into an auto-barrel ride.
* Two bonus moves added on default - one aerial grab and another barrel move.
* Auto aerial jump if you have done a bottom turn.
* Holds on lip of wave and stalls if you haven't done bottom turn.
* Extended music tracks to full length.
* Earning more money for each location so you truly can compete without a sponsor.
* Moved buttons to work more ergonomically on iPad.
* General bug fixes.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/surf-prodigy/id323764843?mt=8

Surf Log - 19th Nov 2011

2011-11-18T23:22:00.001-08:00

I'm doing this as an exercise to see if it yields anything interesting for myself. What I'm doing is recording the surf I was in, and what the charts were doing at the time. Theoretically I should be able to predict what the conditions are going to be like to go surfing. This is especially important because some of the locations take a long time to drive to.

Surf Log: Surfed at Avalon. Chest to Head high occassionally said the report. The reality was pretty close, but more like Waist / Chest to Shoulder high. Fairly uncrowded on spot I chose. Got long rides. Wind was SE but break could have tolerated S. Wind was moderate, and worked out fine. I thought it was going to be blown out. Forcast we moderate (15 kts) SE all morning. Worked out a bit different (see below).

Swell was 3meters falling rapidly to 2m.

Here's the wind chart. I surfed between 9 and 11:30am.

Tide went from 1.8m down to 1.3m over the session. I noticed around 10am the reefs started to show and the waves got suckier and easier to catch.

Personal Notes: Got about 8 decent rides, between 50 to 150m long, lefts from 3rds. Total asshole out there was tring to tell me to move to another break because this was for SUPs only. I ignored him and continued surfing. He snaked me one time too. His mates called him the Hog. Fat pr*#k.

Visual Journal: Here's some photos and video from the day. Taken about 10mins after I got out ~ 11:45 am.
(video link if not shown: Surf Diary on YouTube)

Holidays, freedom and film

2011-09-18T07:07:00.000-07:00

So we're off again to Bali soon, and I'm lining up some fun project to do while I'm there. Of course I'm taking an eeePc loading with my game dev stuff, but I'm also thinking about writing scripts. I have a time travel script almost completed, only a few scenes to go and I have a new one in mind.

I am inspired to write my next script which is heavy sci-fi because of my disappointment in Moon and Source Code. I feel that the director, Duncan Jones, kinda let the twisted sci-fi tale down a tad. I guess I'm spoiled by Primer which is exactly the depth that I like my heavy sci-fi. Supernova kinda got there, and Sunshine touched on it.

Moon let me down because I figured it out about 2 minutes after the accident. Source Code let me down because it was kinda dumbed-down twisty ploty time bending storytelling. However it did give me some ideas for other projects.I'm thinking of a sci-fi story idea that asks the audience to get involved in the tech, kinda like Primer wanted, but not to alienate - my folks got turned off by it when I thought my Dad would be intrigued.

I believe we are all tech savvy to a certain degree and if I can craft one of the characters to be like the helpdesk operator for the storyline, I think I can take the audience in pretty deep and not confuse, frustrate or bore.Once there I want the intrigue to build from the possibilities of the tech involved, and also from a metaphyical/philosophical/anthropomorphic point of view.

Sci-fi is really the analysis of life as it is now, with some predictions (usually) of a better future. However, I don't want the promise of a happy ending. I want the audience to worry that they might not get one. I want the audience to take on the anxiety felt by the characters as they journey deeper into the world they are exploring.

It's going to be about how each of us deal with situations unknown, and how we triumph ( mostly ) over adversity. As Spock says to Jim in Wrath of Khan when asked how the new recruits will respond under real pressure, "Like all living beings, Admiral each according to his gifts."

DrewFX has released Turbo Flick: Demon GPU

2011-04-21T23:47:00.000-07:00

Here's a link to the video
DailyMotion hosts DailyAppShow review

Link to iTunes
(AUS)
http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/turbo-flick-demon-gpu/id421990966?mt=8
(US)
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/turbo-flick-demon-gpu/id421990966?uo=2&mt=8&uo=2

Turbo Flick is out there!!!! Tell your friends. Please buy and rate it. Thanks in advance.

DrewFX to release Turbo Flick:DemonGPU

2011-04-21T05:52:00.000-07:00

Release date: 22nd April 2011 (US) for iPod / iPad (scaling) / iPhone devices.
Price 99c (USD)
Publisher: DrewFX

Somewhere in one of these computer memories the Demon GPU was born. Now it is in your mobile device. It will destroy your world - unless, you can defeat it first. Battle your way through 6 sectors to find it. There the Demon GPU will be waiting.

* Cyberspace themed flick shooter.
* Physics based skill required.
* 36 levels to perfect.
* Star based reward system. Can you get them all?
* Retro arcade style shooter blended with pinball.

Videos and screen shots will be released the same day.

Bali herez I come! Game In A Day sprints a-go-go!

2010-08-09T08:37:00.000-07:00

My last blog post was from Bali on my last day there, and here I am again about to jetset back there! Where has the time gone?
Well I've made some more sales with Surf Prodigy which seems to be picking up momentum again. I think the iPad has added a bunch more customers.
I have one new game almost ready to ship, and I am taking over another few game stubs to Bali to do my own little GameJam - soz for not coming this time guys - I just had too much lesson planning for TAFE to do. Promise I'll be there next time.
So I should be able to do my little Game In Day sprints on 3 game ideas I've got, in between lazing, grazing and surfing.
Here's a link to my original GID post - http://drewfx.blogspot.com/2009/12/game-in-day-post-1.html

Good Vibrations - Surf, Sci Fi and Sex On The Beach.

2010-04-25T17:07:00.000-07:00

Typically when I go away on holiday I find myself away from computers with just a notepad in hand. In this situation I am usually inspired to write something new, either in the form of a script or a video game. This inspiration came about in a time when I hadn't released either.

Now that I have released a script or two and have software on the shelves I find myself on the other side and inspiration doesn't come the same way. Before it came from blind optimism and desperation, meaning I thought I could make a game / had to make a game (or movie) and a kind of frivalous form of imagination allowed me to design unimpeded by software engine min specs, language constraints and memory limitations - not to mention budget, team size and economy models of a particular platform I might develop for. Now I find myself looking (properly) at the market for both.

I have been playing a lot of iPhone games on my break, reading and watching lots of movies and have come up with the following.

For iPhone games, I haven't decided what to make, but I have decided that I can pretty much write any type of game I want and it will be well recieved if it has the eye candy on the appStore. Of course it's gotta be good, but that's to be expected. I will start working on a kind of grindy, post-apocalypse adventure game for the iPhone with lots of the assets I've accumulated over time.

For movies, I have thought seriously about it and in wanting to bring two of my favourite genres together I have come up with ... "teen slasher sci fi movie" - stupid hey? But I think it will work.

Oh by the way, I thought coming to Bali would mean endless days of surf and sun. Unfortunately there was only a bit of surf for the first couple of days - but plenty of sun, which is why I have time to reflect, rather than be out there being pounded by waves.

I have been reading "Salts and Suits"by Phil Jarrat, a book about the surf merchandise industry, mainly founded by Quiksilver, Billabong and Rip Curl (all Australian companies). At the moment I am reading about the history of surfing as a sport which was discovered as early as 1778 by James Cook when visiting Hawaii. Of course it must have been going on long before then, but of interest was the emergence of two "travel journos" Mark Twain and Jack London, who both had a go at surfing.

They got totally worked of course and developed an appreciation for the elegance and exhilaration of the sport. By the way, the locals were completely starkers when they surfed, which leads to sex on the beach - a particular pagan ritual the locals adopted after a day out in the surf, and a drink I could buy from the sunked pool bar ;-)

Said Twain, "In one place we came upon a large company of naked natives...amusing themselves with the national pasttime of surf-bathing. Each heathen would paddle...out...and wait for a particulary prodigious billow to come along; at the right moment he would fling his board upon it's foamy crest ... and here he would come whizzing by like a bombshell!"

Said London, "When a breaker curled over my head, for a swift instant I could see the light of day through it's emerald body; then down would go my head, and I would clutch the board with all my strength. Then would come the blow, and to the onlooker on shore I would be blotted out... I should not recommend those smashing blows to an invalid or delicate person".

Fortunately for London he was a boxer, swimmer, fencer and cyclist so he was strong enough to survive a wipeout.

I did find this archival footage from ASO on surfing in 1949. http://aso.gov.au/titles/documentaries/thrill-of-the-surf/clip1/?nojs. I found it in a attempt to find some ancient footage shot by Robert Bonine in 1906 of surfers in Hawaii, but youTube seems to keep taking it down.

Facinating stuff and if you have information of surf history especially in Australia, maybe your parents or their parents have some yarns, please email me.

Surf Prodigy 1.2 Update Released.

2010-03-02T15:29:00.000-08:00

Tutorial video soon to come on YouTube but here's an old version that shows off the new perspective.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-wISrsxkjc

Quick man... that's all I can say. I submitted on Sunday and now it's out, plus the Lite version. Here's some screenies.

DrewFX needs you for Surf Prodigy

2010-01-10T17:15:00.001-08:00

Hi all,

I figure the aggregator should get the word out if I blog here.

I need beta testers for the 1.2 version of Surf Prodigy. If you would like to help me test it please send your iPhone/iPod id to admin AT drewfx DOT com.

Thanks in advance.

Andy H.

2009 Retro in Gaming and Learning

2010-01-05T15:27:00.000-08:00

Falling in line with others I've decided to do a wrap up of my year.

Jan - Came back from holidays to IZ to find - well, not much to come back to. Thus began the year of meandering. Also found that my Skeleton Pack was no longer on the Garage Games website because they changed the requirement for all packs to work in TGEA and above, so I created this PLAN. I have since learned that Torque 3D supports Collada so update 1.4 as part of my plan is not required (still haven't finished this).

Feb - Started a course in Microsoft Sharepoint to get my MCTS quals (not completed yet). Started teaching an afternoon class in Python with B-Rad at TAFE as part of an association with IZ and TAFE.

Apr - My birthday - got a Wii! Starting thinking about motion tracking games, also picked up another class at TAFE on Wednesdays teaching students traditional programming OO concepts but also applying to the super-fun subject of XNA programming.

July - Picked up more classes at TAFE, still working at IZ, started learning about iPhone dev to begin Surf Prodigy, XCode and picked up a contract programming job to make another iPhone game as well. So let's see, this is about where I was working 4 jobs, finishing at 3am the next day and was getting 4 hours sleep. This lasted until August.

Aug - Released Surf Prodigy for the iPhone, and it was not enough for me, apparently, as I picked up another job - making graphics for Simon's 3d simulation project "Hermes" in conjunction with BHP and Subversive Games.

Sep - Went on a field trip for BHP for site photography, and on entry to the first location we were asked to do what I thought she said "DNA test" - I was thinking "Jesus, so if I get blown to pieces on site they can identify my fragmented remains??? - she actually said D & A test - ahhh.

Oct - Good sales for the Surfing game which went on to get 3000 customers by the end of the year. Note at this point Sharepoint training not continuing, still working for BHP, TAFE, IZ, Hibana and DrewFX. Around this time suspended from IZ because I was just too tired!

Nov - Students produced TAFE's first ever XBox game demo for exhibition. Me proud as punch - students, ready to party. Hibana game complete.

Dec - Began wrapping up 1.2 update for Surf Prodigy (boy I wanna move onto the next game) , finished at TAFE until next year, BHP job complete - time to relax. By oh gnoes - started prepping for TAFE next year.

So all in all, a very busy year, made a bit of cash, released 2 games, and helped build a mining simulation, and got way better at surfing IRL.

Outlook for 2010 - make crazy cash in games for XBox, PC and iPhone, finish MCTS, Dip Ed and teach students the value of study - or at least teach them to not aim for the least amount of work required.

Wish list - make a mil on a game, go snowboarding, see Europe.

Game in a day - Post #2

2009-12-14T02:33:00.000-08:00

I realised (because I'm so awesome) that I don't need to provide just Ad Hoc releases. I can spit out Mac, Linux, PC and Web versions of my games as well. So send me an email to admin (...AT...) drewfx (...DOT...) com and tell me what format you'd like to test on (UID needed for iPhone/iPod Touch) if you wanna help out.

Game in a day - Post #1

2009-12-13T21:03:00.000-08:00

I'm going to develop 3 games in 3 days for the iPhone.

Anyone that's interested to test and play for me, please contact me at admin (..AT..) drewfx (..DOT..)com. I will need your unique id for your iphone or ipod.

Of those UIDs sent I will send out Ad Hoc releases and then get you guys to vote on the best one. From there I will develop the most popular one into a full blow commercial app.

I've blocked out each game so far into what I will achieve each hour - up to 9 hours.

For each day, and each game I will be demonstrating what I believe will be a compelling game dynamic.

Stay iTuned.

Blog entry removed

2009-11-01T21:53:00.001-08:00

Blog removed.

Surf Prodigy 1.2 Update Progress

2009-10-30T17:56:00.001-07:00

DrewFX Update 1.2 is nearing completion. One of the most significant changes is the camera
angle, predominantly fixed behind the surfer. This removes the confusion of how to steer the player. There is a speed gauge so you can understand where you need to be on the wave to propel the board.

Here's a link to Surf Prodigy on iTunes - now $2.49

Here's a list of the features

new logo and in game art ( 10% )

Sharks!!!! ( 50% )

jetty, submerged structures ( 50% )

new animations for moves and wipeouts ( DONE )

onscreen joystick ( DONE )

camera system to make steering match joystick moves ( ie no inverted moves - DONE )

dead accurate collision detection and physics for jumping ( DONE )

tweak control system to add stall, pump on wave ( DONE )

new obstacles such as rocks and pilings ( DONE )

fixed wave height on wave 1.0 so you don't pop above it ( DONE )

crisp textures on menus and in-game. ( DONE )

persistent settings - music on/off, low res on/off - remembers after restart so you don't have to change them again ( DONE )

upgrade surf/comp/free buttons ( DONE )

upgrade button resolution for options/stats/help/location ( DONE )

changed first wave to be 1.0 size to look better for first user experience ( DONE )

added better spray and foam from board ( DONE )

added aerial targets ( DONE )

glide better on wave ( DONE )

Doom price drop for iPhone $3.99 TODAY ONLY

2009-08-15T20:13:00.001-07:00

If you are a fan - grab Doom Resurrection today only for $3.99 during QuakeCon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t67QravCrbE&fmt=22

Are we learning yet?

2009-08-07T18:27:00.001-07:00

I was reading about Panedemic (Brisbance studio - Destroy All Humans) and how they recently shut down. They were bought by EA a few years ago. One of the employees came from RatBag Games, who were bought by Midway and then were shut down.

Are we learning yet? Pandemic and RatBag were my ideal companies to work for by the way - glad I didn't.

Just to state the obvious
- Never surrender your IP.
- Companies that want to buy your company don't want you around as competition.

So why did RatBag and Pandemic sell to Midway and EA respectively? Money I would think. Do you think the CEO's of the original companies got any kickbacks on closure of each studio? Do you think they even got severence pay (or super)?

Erm... ever worked for a games company before?

New game coming soon.

2009-08-03T09:00:00.000-07:00

I've started a new iPhone game. Rather than specialise, like I did with Surf Prodigy (go get it), this time I'm focusing on a mainstream market idea - fun for the whole family and all that. I'm wondering if I should just come out with the idea or not. I feel it might be worthwhile blogging my progress on this one to increase the hype, but I'm not sure - because I perhaps want to keep it secret.

I think I might go halfway and start blogging more specific details when a release candidate is ready.

If you are interested in Surf Prodigy and how the sales are going, I have blogged on my old favourite site GarageGames.

Second Hand Dealer Sux to the Max

2009-05-29T22:51:00.001-07:00

So I won't mention the second hand game franchise name but you know who I mean.

Not so long ago, I had a nice long chat with the manager on the first day they opened their store, and the manager pointed out clearly that unlike other stores of this ilk they would offer a higher rate of return on second hand games, with a minimum of $5. The manager said they were a special type of store that could offer a higher rate.

So I go in with my 7 games, expected to get $35 minimum trade, and two punks are at the counter, no manager on the weekend. Punk #1 scans all my games and comes back with a trade value of $20. I look at the screen and see they are offering mainly $3 and 1 for $2. I look at Punk #1 and #2 and repeated what their manager had said.

Punk #2 says, "you'll have to take it up with the manager. Our rates are the same, state-wide. We are like the other stores". "Yes, yes you are, and very special", I thought to myself and took my games home.

Skeleton Pack revamp

2009-01-22T17:57:00.000-08:00

Since Torque just got engine of the year, I've been asked to update the Skeleton Pack for Torque 3D. Here's the plan..

Pack update 1.2 ( Project duration 4 weeks - then put it up again - free update for existing users )
- Fully tested in the latest TGEA.
- Normals maps for everything included in the original pack
- Lights upgrades to TLK
- Bloom and DRL in small doses to enhance the look.
- Packs 1.0 and 1.1 combined into one convenient install for 1.2
- Documentation in video and pdf format for all changes.

Pack update 1.3 ( Project duration 4 - 6 weeks )
- Monster maze, includes generators, portals, checkpoints, start and exit
- My own version of multiplayer deathmatch - collect all the coins to get access rights to doors, be the first player to find the goal and go back and hamper the other players before the time runs out. Best score wins round.
- DIFs included which are the segments to "make your own maze"
- Documentation and video tutorials as extensive as before on how to make mazes and compelling level design.

Pack update 1.4 ( Project duration 4 - 6 weeks )
- Blender and/or Milkshape support
- Fully documented with docs and video

The reason for update 1.4 is because I believe a lot of people don't buy the pack because it only supports Lightwave. I don't have a Max license and providing it in an open source format should satisfy most people.

File Storage

2008-11-27T16:04:00.001-08:00

BRAVE Beta Released

2008-04-30T18:03:00.000-07:00

*************************

The Beta 1.0 Is Released.

*************************

1) Go here to download it.
Register as BRAVE Beta Tester

2) Play it.

3) Please click on the link below here to send me Feedback and Bugs by clicking on this link for the Beta release of B.R.A.V.E.

[ Feedback Form ]

4) Click me to Sign up for future updates!

2 days to Launch!

2008-04-28T09:08:00.000-07:00

Well it's coming down to the wire now and things are taking shape. I had real problems with L3DT trying to generate a decent terrain so for the launch I've resorted to using the legacy terrain for now. My sister's got the landmarks well underway and should look really good when they are done. Here's some screenshots. I've got the saucers to work, the landers, trucks and humans are ready and all the weapons systems are up and running. Tomorrow I'm going to get the mission working and Wednesday will be polish on the game design doc, website and game - then it's upload time!!!!

2008-04-14T07:21:00.001-07:00

Very, very, VERY happy now. I started spending some money and time on content and started getting some VERY pleasing results. This is an update of my world building of London for BRAVE - due in 2 weeks EEK!!!

So kudos to RRGT (Really Really Good Things Studio) for the amount of effort Alan and Kyle put into helping me. I was uncertain of the speed and performance of their District Pack so Alan sent me a sample city block "on loan" to trial it. He even went ahead and added another LOD so that buildings go to simple blocks at a distance, which was really important for me to make sure I could cram heaps of buildings into the scene.

I generated these pics below and on my crappy lappy the frame rate rarely dips below 60 fps.

The guys also stayed up til 3:45am to deliver files for me even though they were restructuring their website - how cool are they? Kyle painstakingly typed the same info over and over again in email after email of me asking "so do I get the source files too?" and he's like "well, yes, yes you do" - he didn't flinch and go "jesus Hawkins, read your frickin emails properly the first time", even though I asked the same question twice - so these guys deserve lots of praise.

Finally they saved me heaps of time. Considering how long it would take for me to model all these objects, not to mention downtime tracking bugs and problems, these packs have saved me heaps of time - thanks guys!!! Content packs save you time - remember that!

So finally I'm adding several ship classes, there are ally planes, landers, mutants, harvesters and motherships. Once I get the code from the previous alpha in to TGEA I will start creating missions, adding content and polish and polish and polish.

These screens are my shape replicators, London aerial map, RRGT sample city block, and my new British Aerospace Harrier AV-8B, leveraging FGE - Decane's Flight Game Engine all running in TGEA 1.0.3

Shaders and Terrain

2008-04-04T22:33:00.000-07:00

As promised here the video showing the terrain and shaders I got in place. The footpath is a DIF with a cobblestone texture bought from DexSoft added to it. I created the normal map using CrazyBump. The enviroment comprises a blended terrain created with L3DT and imported into TGEA using Atlas script. The trees are placed using fxFoliageReplicator from TorqueScript.

Harrier Pics Up

2008-04-04T09:37:00.000-07:00

Here's my efforts after 1 hour of modelling. I set the view inside an inverted cube and started sculpting out the basic shape. Then I mapped the blueprint (found here) to the model along the planar axes to get a feel for how the textures are going to be layed out.

Next pass I'll be adding more polys to join everything up and add the missiles, aerials, wheels etc.

Environment Style - Nailed!

2008-03-21T19:33:00.000-07:00

While I was driving through Kwinana the other day (industrial area) I started taking snaps with the phone camera of the refineries and buildings. This lead me to come up with the environment style I want to put in the game.

I'm going to have evidence of a suburb that was hastily bulldozed to set up an ad-hoc launch base with modular sheds, plants and equipment. I want to convey the sense that it was setup very quickly and houses weren't important anymore. It was time to blast the alien menace.

Here's a photo collage of the refinery and areas I shot while passing through Kwinana plus some inspirational art I've grabbed from the 'net (copyright to the various artists remains) - I'm just using it as art style to help me focus on the look and feel of the environment and buildings.

Terrains hurt my brains

2008-03-20T22:16:00.000-07:00

I've been playing around with the terrain for the first level and it's completely out of control!!!

I wanted a large playing area because the user can fly anywhere quickly and so I generated some huge terrains in TGEA as seens below. They are around 10k x 10k. I flattened an area to put buildings in it.

Only problem is, the flattened area is miniscule and I couldn't find it! Also trying to world build something this size would be a nightmare but it has given me an idea.

I will use the one large terrain (well I'm scaling it down now) and set up 10 areas of operation. From there I will world build per mission. All missions of the final game will be on the same terrain so I can make a compelling game with less assets.

I needed to scope it down to make the deadline and I think people will like the game this way anyway. Here's the pics.

Alpha Feedback and Bugs

2008-02-29T07:22:00.000-08:00

********************

The Alpha Is Released.

***********************

1) Go here to download it.
[Mirror #1 -Divshare]
[Mirror #2 -MediaFire]
[Mirror #3 - Thanks Patrick]

2) Play it.

3) Please click on the link below here to send me Feedback and Bugs by clicking on this link for the alpha release of B.R.A.V.E.

[ Feedback Form ]

Emergent Behaviour

2008-02-10T15:10:00.000-08:00

So I've implemented half of the system to allow my humans to load and unload trucks. I am fighting the AIWheeledVehicle2 resource at the moment, because it didn't expose much to TorqueScript and I need control of the pathing system. The AIWheeledVehicle2 resource reads in any path you assign to the vehicle and then uses C++ and physics to control it.

I guess I still want it to do this but I need access to where it is along the path so I can program the nodes with instructions. I've managed to get the trucks to roll to a stop on every node, so now I am going to extend a method to TorqueScript so I can get the current node and check the correlating nodes in the mission to determine if they need to stop or not. In most cases they only stop at depots such as the rocket they are refueling or the hanger they are ferrying parts from.

I also want to work on what happens to men and trucks when aliens start flying around. If humans are picked up and you shoot the attacking alien, the human will drop to the floor and then run back to it's path - emergent behaviour very cool! But I want the humans to cower in fear as well, so the alien presence will inhibit their own objectives. This means the player need to keep aliens away from humans and truck if the mission is to progress.

More soon.

The Path to Success

2008-02-06T13:32:00.000-08:00

(or the 'Road To Hell Is Paved With Good Intentions')
I didn't get much done this month. However I have ALOT!!! to do for the alpha in March. So that's why I've named the blog as such. I have so many ideas, so many things to add, and so little time.

This month I started my marketing research and found that Valve are in the process of launching 'Steamworks'
which you all should get very excited about. It's a way to launch, market and live patch your game quickly and easily. It leverages Steam's community and tools, and best of all it's free. So I'm trying to sign up - emailed Jason twice but still no response :(

I also added a simple teaser to my web site DrewFX

Anyway, so I got the human pathing system to work in TGE this time. Here's a youtube video to watch. It allows me to set spawn points which link to paths. Every human spawned from that point with follow the spawn points designated path. The path nodes then have instructions like wait5, load10 etc to give the impression the humans are doing something. Anyway here's the vid and I'll blog each week up to release of the alpha.

Truckin' along

2008-01-02T17:49:00.000-08:00

Intro:

For the month of December 2007, I focused on getting pathing to work. I have already proven the humans can follow paths and wait, and appear to do jobs. So now I have done a proof of concept for the vehicles.

Paths:
Based on my previous blog I want to have trucks leave from a depot and resupply a weapons bay or ferry crew to the rocket. What they do is follow a path and on certain nodes a special instruction is place to make them wait. They receive crew or get fueled up by crew at the depot and generate crew at the drop-off points.

I implemented the two main AIWheeledVehicle resources and found that the second one was much better because I could set speeds for the vehicles, making it easier for them to turn corners, slow to drop-off etc.

Simple AI Vehicle AIWheeledVehicle

AIWheeledVehicle2

I had issues with the turning. It seems there is a limit on the steering for any vehicle and so to get the trucks to turn sharp corners they had to slide out to do it. I will post on the forums later to see if anyone know why this occurs.

Here's a video of what I have so far with regard to truck paths...

Truck Paths in BRAVE on YouTube

Aircraft Carrier:

I've done a bit more modelling of the USS KittyHawk as a part of modernising (or contemporising) the human arsenal. Here's a couple of snap shots. I've also designed what will happen aboard ship but I'll post that when the sketch is easier to understand.

Joystick:

I fixed up this resource for people when Ed Johnson who runs TorqueSchool discovered it didn't compile. I found the same thing, so I WinMerged the code to get it to work, rather than blindly copy it, and uploaded it back to the resource for people to use in TGE 1.5.2

Racing Wheel, Flight Stick and Gamepad Support for Torque (Windows)

I'm having a go with this code to see if I can fly the plane with a gamepad which is what I want the main control to be in the future. It's only because Ed contacted me that this came about.

Sign Off:

I'll be finalising the truck paths next and then getting the humans and trucks to work together. I will continue working on the aircraft carrier and progress toward completing the first level so I can release an alpha for people to try.

Constructions

2007-12-03T04:42:00.000-08:00

This month was mostly about design and construction. I first designed the mission I wanted as below. It involves having humans ferry supplies to a rocket from the store house, and troops resupply to control points, to protect the humans, while the aliens attack.

In the screen about mid-way down this sketch you can see shields, humans etc. You need the humans to resupply your ammo and shielf depots, and also you need to stop aliens from grabbing your humans, otherwise the rocket never gets launched. I'll be interested to see how this plays out, as it will require some careful balancing. [MORE BELOW THIS PIC]

Next I sketched up a control tower and then proceeded to build it in Constructor. It's only just started and so I've placed a copy in the game for reference. There will be several styles of buildings and you will be able to enter them on foot (presumably so can the aliens). I'm going to use textures and objects from Dexsoft.

I've also been working on vehicles. I needed a space truck to ferry parts and troops so I sketched a few designs and iterated upon it until I had something I liked. I've only done the front, but the plan is to make it like a truck rig that can pull a bunch of different trailers, ranging from cargo to missile launchers.

Finally I had a paradigm shift in game design. When I saw the IAV pack coming out, I knew I should probably shift directions. I like conventional vehicles and weapons, so I want to model those now. So instead of space ships for the humans I'm going to make modern day stuff. Should be an interesting mix and pays hommage to Independence Day.

Here's the CV63 Kitty Hawk boxed modelled 1 hour in. I will post more progress over the next month as I have more time during the holidays to work on the game. It looks butt ugly I know, but what I've done is got the dimension accurate, and have started with boxes. I will iterate on them and add more and more details as the modelling progresses. I am going for a balance between realism, texturing to cover fine details and enough detail to satisfy a shooter, but also allow the player to land on it. More soon.

Lander and Rockets and Mutants - Oh My!

2007-11-04T07:36:00.000-08:00

I have some sort of action shooter going now. I have implemented a system to allow landers to find and abduct humans. They then rise up and when they get high enough they turn into mutants. If this sounds like Defender by Williams, that's because it's an exact copy of the gameplay dynamic. The reason I have done this is, is because I need a benchmark to create my final game from.

My game is about aliens attacking Earth and the player must stop them - so it made sense to me to emulate the gameplay from Defender to get the ball rolling. It represented various challenges from a coding point of view which I achieved.

I have mocked up a launch pad as the first mission finds the player attempting to protect the humans as they prepare to launch a rocket into space. I purchased some sci-fi buildings from www.modelbank.com and made my own Saturn V rocket in about 1 hour. The rocket will change later.

I forgot to record audio in the following clip, which are rips from Defender. The reason I'm doing this is to build an arcade soundscape and then at the end replace it with my sounds. Arcade game sounds used to be very simplistic but because of this, they were very carefully designed to give the player audio clues about the state of the game. I want to copy this idea. Here's a video of the action so far.

Video: BRAVE FGE TGE Integration

I have also begun my endeavours into speed paints. These are used to mock up a concept and the idea is to attempt to finish one in less that 3 hours. I grabbed a few tutorials off the net and came up with this image as my first ever speed paint. I will get better over time, but it allows me to visualise what the level is going to look like before actually modelling it.

It was a battle of wills when I started this. For some reason my Wacom tablet and Corel Photopaint don't like each other so when I released the pen it kept drawing. I got extremely pissed off and tried on my faster computer - still same laggy problem. So I switched over to GIMP which is pressure sensitive tolerant and managed to complete the image. Some of the shadows are dodgy and I need to add mood by recolouring, but this will do for now.

I have a map of the new level drawn up (will post when neater) which outlines how the mission will play out. Trucks will move missiles, shields, crew and refuel to depots. The player can use the missiles and shields, and the crew and fuel go to the rocket. Little men meet the trucks and do the loading and unloading. The aliens attempt to eat the humans, and if the player doesn't protect the army and depots they quickly run out of weapons and die. It's about resource management on an arcade scale. The player doesn't control it like Command and Conquer but it does play out like that.

So the player flys around shooting bad guys, and trying to keep as many humans alive to allow them proceed with their own mission. Should be a hoot! Next update I will hopeful upload a tech demo for every one to play.

Backstep to save the project

2007-10-05T07:45:00.000-07:00

Lots of things have happened to BRAVE. I got the FGE (Flight Game Example) integrated into the game (or vice versa) and I have started working on the gameplay a bit more. I've dropped back to TGE 1.5.2 while the TGEA LOD bug in 1.0.3 is worked out. I really want the game to run with shaders and if TGEA isn't going the way I need in Jan next year I will implement the Modernisation Kit and just use TGE.

My humans are still using the job system, but I have introduced landers (just mock ups) and have created some spawn points to work on the waves. I did a mini crunch to get the game playable, but there is still heaps of work to do before I can nail down a tech demo.

Here's some screenshots of the game so far. I have put in Defender sounds as placeholders until I can create my own sounds. I was playing Bosconian the other day and when the action gets thick, there's lots of sounds going off. The sounds you hear in the old arcades is the sound design I want to create for BRAVE. They are simple sounds which you learn to know what they mean, a human is being picked up or killed, you get a free man, an alien shoots etc. I also want them to be synthetic so they are just like the old arcade games.

I have to hand it to Decane for the excellent FGE kit. It has saved me heaps of time in development, and the flight model in it is almost perfect. I want to add straffing to the flight controls, and I am going to change the aiController of theirs so I can tell it which ships should not fly like planes, but like floating platforms. The landers for example float down the ground looking for humans. They don't pitch and roll like planes would.

Next I am going to get the landers pickup the humans, get them to rise to the stratosphere and convert to mutants, add scoring and level complete. I'll post an update mid October. Of course it all sounds like a big rip off of Defender - that's because it is. I want to make a 3d Defender as the basis and then derive my own game from that game play dynamic.

AI Pathing system

2007-09-05T07:59:00.002-07:00

My AI path finding works like this. Bear in mind I read about A* and thought it sounded too complicated when it's all precompiled anyway.

Preparation:
Open editor and click out a bunch of separate paths around buildings - you should try and make as many paths that lead to other location as possible.

Algorithm:
1. When running AI search find closest path to destination.

2. Start COST at 0

3. While traversing nodes on current path, can any nodes on this path see a path to player OR Is node to next path obstructed? (add 1 to COST per node traversed) Store x,y as you go - the idea is to make a path using nodes of existing paths, the paths are just helpers.

4. If failed on either in 3, continue to end of path (summing COST)

5. When at end of current path, look for next path along "rough" vector toward player - tick FAILED counter - pick next path - log JUNCTION(x) ( and COST to here )

6. If FAILED counter < n, pick a new path from destination and goto 3.

7. When FAILED reaches n record COST for *this solution is stored.

8. Next solution, go to JUNCTION(x) until all paths exhausted.

9. Pick lowest cost path.Presumably, when laying the paths down you should have given the algorithm enough chances to get to the player.

So in this pick (black lines are placed by user/programmer) at each junction only nodes "roughly" heading toward the player (even though obstructed) where chosen.

What do you think? Too complex? Not efficient perhaps? Full of errors ?

September - Posts from GG and MyDreamRPG

2007-09-05T07:59:00.001-07:00

Here's my latest GG blog which covers everything.

http://www.garagegames.com/blogs/31800/13492

So next is the hard work. AI pathing and behaviour. I was wanting to avoid it, but it has to be done sooner than later. I wrote my own AI pathing for another game, so I might adopt that. It will involve drawing paths in the editor and then the code works out the minimal cost to get somewhere, thereby choosing the best paths.

I've also been thinking about scene handling and I don't really want to hand place every building. I might try an organic, grid aligned algorithm to generate cities and job locations. Will see how this goes.

Post for August - belated

2007-09-05T07:53:00.000-07:00

Here's August's activity... mainly blogged on GG and MyDreamRPG...

http://www.garagegames.com/blogs/31800/13335

I've spent most of this month working for 'the man' so development has been slow. I thought I should check in as the month flies on, and blog a little about my progress. It's been mainly research this month.

I've animated the male human using a cartoon-like jutty run cycle. When my pay packet comes in I'm going to invest in an animation book and continue creating unique walk and run cycles for a handful of humans.

I've discovered a free program called Make Human that uses a standard mesh with subtle morphs to create a bazillion different types of humans. So I will use this to create most of the humans and work on skinning to create different looking humans using very few different meshes, about a dozen textures for clothes and unique run cycles.

I've also been implementing the hud and an onscreen debugger, which does something strange every now and then. For some reason writing out play.gui destroys the mouse control and I can't figure out why. It's got something to do with the way the editor writes out the datablocks, but I'm still debugging that to discover the reason.

Next I want to animate the man to work on a machine, and pick something up. I will work more on the Harvester to get it to chase the player a bit better and hopefully in a few weeks have the Harvester eat humans.

Signing off for now. I'll do a bigger update next week.

Moving the humans

2007-07-18T07:27:00.000-07:00

I've just implemented a pathing system for the humans. They will appear to be doing a job. At the moment I have one human moving from the beach up a hill to a jetty. What I will do next, is at every node there may be extra information on how long to wait, what anim to play, and any objects to interact with. This will make them appear to be performing roles. For example a human could get a box from a boat on the shore, walk up to the jetty and drop it off. From there another human may pilot a boat, drive up to the jetty and grab any boxes there. I will then create a scripted approach to assigning roles. Humans must be kept alive to keep your infrastructure going, otherwise you run out of shields, fuel and weapons.

I have also implemented a rudimentary scoring hud.

Waypoints and AI Video

2007-07-08T08:36:00.000-07:00

I've got some video here of the Harvester using the Waypoint and AI system to find a human. Looks kinda ominous when this thing heads across the water to the human.

YouTube Harvester Attacks

The Harvester will suck the human into it's chamber to be stripped of flesh and the bones spat out - gives me a chance to use my Skeleton Pack.

I've also blogged at GG to show the Harvester and work on interiors.

http://www.garagegames.com/blogs/31800/13196

Waypoints and AI

2007-06-21T16:40:00.001-07:00

I've implemented a system borrowed from the GG pages that allows me to spawn alien bots in avatar form, then mount them to a vehicle. Once they have done this, they then scan for humans - the function is more adaptive and will scan for any type - and then they go after it.

What's really cool is they know how to fly the ship I've mounted them to.

Future work this month will include the following...
- Spawn enemies from barracks inside mother ship
- They have to walk to a ship in the hangar
- They then have to fly the ship out of the hangar
- Once disembarked they will then look for humans to eat / shoot / capture
- When they have a human they will perform their role on them.
- Missile / Laser / Weapons inventory system for player
- Recharge systems for player
- Humans to perform work - infrastructure.

Art Style update

2007-06-07T17:04:00.000-07:00

Boy am I happy with this one! If one single image captured the look and feel of my game BRAVE it would be this one.
It's Mike Trim's artwork for the series UFO. This is what I want, this is what the game will look like - time to learn those shaders!!!

Missile system added.

2007-06-03T06:46:00.000-07:00

Here's a new video of a rudimentary missile system I have added to the game. It shows the player running through a missile POW and then being able to fire missiles at the environment.

BRAVE Video # 2 - Missile Systems

The missile system, like other add-on systems will be either POW generated, or by choosing your ships configuration to suit. For example some "mission platforms" (the configuration you chose) are heavily "seek and destroy" , while others are purely "rescue" based. A "seek and destroy" platform will see you with a special preference for weaponry and so you find plenty of missile POW's to pickup, and your "refueler stations" will make sure they are heavily stocked with weapons.

However therein lies the problem – or the “fun”. You are basically asking your "army" ( the humans you are protecting ) to reconfigure their own tasks to suit your own needs, which in turn services their needs.

If you chose a “platform” that was “troop deploy and protect” and the mission was primarily to destroy all aliens, and not use troops, the humans would find this insulting to put their own army on the line for no good reason. The net result would be that perhaps you go to a “refueler station” and they haven't re-stocked your missiles because they are pouring their time into evacuation procedures.

Of course this is all happening at a frenetic pace, because it's an arcade shooter. You will need to think fast to recover situations such as these. The best course of action in this case is to switch “platforms” and chose the configuration that helps win the current battle. However you ultimately choose how the game unfolds, so maybe you will want to fly the mission however you like – damn those pesky civis.

3D Flight Engine Prototype # 1

2007-05-27T16:40:00.000-07:00

This is my first attempt at the flight engine for the game. The terrain is done with L3DT and exported to Torque as an Atlas terrain. The building is part of Tim Aste's Combo content pack I bought. The rest is stock Torque Game Engine Advanced. The space ship is a placeholder Belair Cruiser I made for another game. Enjoy!

Brave Prototype Flight Engine @ YouTube

Apologies for the low qual - but it's the best way to broadcast it versus bandwidth.

I've also been working on the design for the ship which is blogged here...

BAE-Hawk 271 Ideas

The idea is to have a ship you can reconfigure and based on your choice will determine how you try to win each level. I have also been thinking about AI. I'm going to have citizens and troops running around on the ground manning turrets, refuel bays and buildings, and they manage themselves. However aliens come down and grab them so you will have to protect the humans to keep your resources, and back-up weaponry ticking along.

I was thinking about the bit where you will have to rescue a snatched human. Most probably you shoot the alien taking it back to the mothership (think Defender). But when they fall, if you just grab them like in Defender, you will rip them to shreds - which I will let happen. What you have to do, to save them is match their descent speed and allow them to fall into your cargo bay at less than half a meter per second. Once you grab them safely you have to drop them where they can run back and man a building, vehicle or turret - should be interesting to program, but will make a cool game dynamic I'm hoping.

I'm having a fairly easy time sliding into TGEA from TGE, but there are some annoying bugs, such as tears in the Atlas terrain, no shadows from DIF's and limited view distance.

However I'm really digging the water, the extent of the terrain and playfield, the ease of adding shader effects and how quickly I was able to port my old flight code to the new engine.

Next I'm going to work on missiles and lasers and blowin' stuff up :)

Hawk design ideas

2007-05-21T06:08:00.000-07:00

Here's a sketch of the Hawk space ship the player flies. I've implemented the multi-purpose attachment nodes on various parts of the ship. This allows different things to be attached to the ship such as thrusters, legs, missile launchers, tracks, cargo pods and drop pods. This makes the ship multi-role and the player will need to select the appropriate load-out to complete each mission.

B.R.A.V.E Story and Game Design

2007-05-11T19:53:00.000-07:00

B.R.A.V.E
British Response to Alien inVasion of Earth. Okay pretty abstract but it works for me!

Background
1984: The SETI Institute is founded as a home for research investigating all aspects of life in the Universe. Initially, Institute activities were supported by NASA.

2002: On a particular warm Autumn night in California, a new star system, 55 Canceri was under the scrutiny of planet hunter Debra Fischer of the University of California, Berkeley. Referring to one of NASA's next generation of space telescopes, said, "This planetary system will be the best candidate for direct pictures when the Terrestrial Planet Finder is launched later this decade".

2010: The Terrestrial Planet Finder is launched, and upgraded to see into 55 Canceri. What they see is unbelievable. A massive fleet heading towards Earth.

2011: In what was considered the worst attack in history of Earth invasions, aliens from the nearby system of 55 Cancri, a star system about 41 light years away decimated London. A particularly wiley bunch of miscreants from the British Isle decide that enough it enough. One of the youths, Rick Eastlake, a decendant of one of the main engineers of BAE / British Aerospace (John Findley - The company was formed on April 29, 1977) takes this rag-tag rebellious youth gang to a hidden hanger. There he reveals the BAE-Hawk 271. This jet can fly underwater, through air and through space - "heck we might just jig it to jump FTL if we have the right mechanic" he is known to have said.

2012: Present Day

The young rebels are ready. Earth is in tatters as wave after wave of 55 Cancri aliens, or "Kanks" as they are known on Earth, scour the landscape, looking for precious "meat" for their young, and transforming anything else into "nuke cake" to power their machines of war. The action begins now. Power up your ship and help in the fight to bring Earth back from the brink of destruction.

The Earth needs you now! Are you B.R.A.V.E?

Engine / Gameplay

This game will be a 3d land, air and space shooter paying hommage to Defender, Asteroids, Blaster and Bosconian.

You will start on Earth defending the surface, and as each mission completes you work your way back to the Alien homeworld.

Games and Theory # 1

2007-05-05T07:59:00.000-07:00

I want to base the game dynamic like that in Robotron, Defender and Llamatron. That premise is basically "save all humans", something used in Half-Life. I will be including the game dynamic of having the aliens swoop down and grab people from the ground, rise up into the air and the moment they get high enough they mutate into a nastier spaceship.

I also found this, the final official William's Defender game, called Striker Force...

Strike Force is an arcade game that was released by Midway in 1991.

The game shares many features with earlier Defender and Stargate in that play takes place in a horizontally-scrolling play field above a planet's surface on which humans are under attack from alien invaders. In all three games the player gains points and other advantages from protecting and rescuing humans from these attacks.

Strike Force adds several new features; two players may share the screen at one time, the surface of the planet is littered with various special weapons that can be picked up and deployed, the humans can be "mutated" into small green creatures that will fight against the player (although the player may still pick them up for points as with the unmutated humans). The mutants may use vehicles found on the planet's surface against the player.

One weapon the player may deploy is the commando, who will hang off the bottom of the player's craft shooting at enemies, or drop to the surface to pick up humans, mutants or weapons for the player. Many commandos can be in play at once.

So I think I'm going to grab all these elements (borrow) and put them into the game. The game is going to be about making a space shooter fun and strategic.

Another element I want to add is depicted here, the drop ship manoeuvre.

It's like the reverse of Choplifter. You pickup troopers from your base, fly into a hot zone, drop off the troopers who go onto to attack a cocoon, which releases humans. If there are troops captured in here (all collected by harvesters - below) they can go on to join the attack force. You can pick up these troops at any time.

B.R.A.V.E Kickoff

2007-05-04T17:16:00.000-07:00

Here's my rundown of the all the elements I want in the game in the form of coding achievements, assets and game elements. Next I might start planning out the game play dynamics and control system because that's what's going to form the core of the game.

BRAVE - Work list / Progress

- install and start using L3DT for terrain

- compile a library of placeholder objects for

BRAVE ships

- jet
- hover craft
- earth mover

alien ships

- lander
- mutant
- harvester
- serpent flying craft
- saucer dropship
- bud launchers
- ground hive
- ground bug
- turrets

instances

- trees

difs

mothership
buildings
colony hut
cargo
barrels
landing pads
corridors
doors
storage
drop ship/escape capsule
use d&d plans in blue book
pre fab with cardboard kit

textures

terrain maps
star fields
planets - solar system and alien world/system
hud

characters

people
alien trooper

- music
- sounds
- splash screens
- persistance code (save / load / stats)
- use existing space engine -> port to TSE
- level design (lightwave exporter?)
- develop AI
- develop combat engine
- build actual elements to replace placeholders
- create levels
- level stager
- test
- package