Another new addition: Pieces break into rubble (just for the looks). So here are some amazing rubble models!
Game Development Blog:
After we picked the red style from the last post, it was time to come up the paddle design. Here are some possible versions.
We currently have a dummy of version K in the game. Some research also went into how paddles look and behave in other breakout games. I was really surprised to learn that most paddles nowadays don’t use proper reflection. But that makes them way more controllable. The worst problem is really when the player hits the ball and it still goes out – that feels unfair.
So in our push to get a new demo together we’re also adjusting some gameplay. For one we want to give the player a clear goal what to aim for in a level.
Our idea is to add an alien artifact, that crashed in each level. The player is basically the alien rescue team. Here are some ideas for how the design could look.
It has a clear contrast to the world, to be easily spottable. It also gives us an excuse to make the goodies easily spottable. Red looks nice – so we’ll run witht hat, but we might have to use more colors for different goodies.
This new object is a bit simpler than the old batch, because the rushed assets usually turned out nicer in the game than the detailed ones. It’s one of the toughest parts in game art to keep the bigger picture in mind. When an artist works on something, then it is easy to optimize detail/contrast/colors for this specific item. But all those properties work completely different in a scene it has to share with many other objects.
So here it is: thicker lines on the texture. Less and softer details. And less color.
The makers of the Ardor3D engine have put an interview with our team on their website. It’s about how their engine works for us, about the art style and some more. Thank’s guys!
We also have been visiting an event by the Dutch Game Association about funding, to get some feedback about the business side and maybe some contacts for publishing plans. It was encouraging to hear that there is good potential and helpful to learn about the next steps to go. We got a lot of work ahead of us.
Here is team-mate Thomas giving an interview about Caromble (in Dutch). There is also a video about the event and the Dutch Game Garden in general. With some interesting interview tidbits.
The last update is a while ago, but there has been nice progress. Most importantly the programmers have been very busy with the editor, as we planned after our Indigo-reviews. We have now a working tool to build levels without working only in abstract text files. There are bugs left to fix for sure, but new levels will pop up here soon.
On the art side there have been mostly changes to the existing assets. Lot’s of boring resizing. But it was necessary, since the whole setup in the demo didn’t quite work. The steps will be always in multiples of four – its easier, and more logical. (Interestingly – after figuring this out with lots of number crunching, I learned that four is a recurring number in “Scaling Laws In Biology And Other Complex Systems“.)
Object Resizing
Some gameplay tweaks are in already and just need tweaking and extending. For example the spin idea mentioned in earlier posts.
A new gameplay mechanic: the spin ball.
And some features we’re planning still, if we get around to it. One of them is to let the people in the game run away from the ball. Should make it a bit more livelier, relatable… and fun! Who doesn’t like chasing little scared humans with a wrecking ball?
Gameplay Addition: Crowd
BTW: We're featured on the Ardor3D frontpage (the engine we use).
The main things we want to figure out now is how to move on commercially: We all agree that we would love to make some money out of it. Maybe early investments (not just after we’re done), so we can put it in the development.
We also want to try some more gameplay tweaks – we have the chance now to still test around. The main mechanic is too simple, we should at least allow more interaction for better players.
Taking aside the problems that result from presenting a prototype (missing content and features, lack of consistent quality, not much guiding of the player), here are the points we agreed on from the feedback.
- The good:
- It is already a lot of fun, so the basic idea can stay. In my experience early prototypes are often more of a drag (because of the mentioned shortcomings) – Caromble is a positive exception.
- It ran really stable. After some trouble setting it up, I don’t think we ever had a crash or performance problems.
- The art style can stay. Also the decision of the scenario with the cities got really positive reactions.
- The music worked well.
Indigo - yet another picture
Since that is the last roundup: A thanks goes again to the game garden for letting us show our game at thier event.
- The bad:
- The art is too inconsistent. The idea with making it comic-style is not getting across enough. Funnily it seems I put too much work into it. All the assets I rushed for the event got the most positive feedback. I could write a whole article about the state of confusion and dilemma that puts me in – but I spare you.
- The sounds: There was not enough variation. They were not convincing enough. But we knew it, since it was a bit rushed but still there is much work ahead for us.
- Several things caused confusion, that we ourselves didn’t even see anymore: The pink blobs that fly to the player. We should remove them or make them useful. We have to add walls to the level, to make clear what the ball reflects from.
- The slogan has to change – heh I liked the joking “yet another breakout” – but some people took it seriously. So we’ll have to come up with something more positive. No ideas yet.
So the plan: Fix the problems, add a deeper layer of gameplay and get the level editor going. Then we can test around more, and create a playable version with more levels. Once that all works, we can show it to publishers or even publish it as beta on the website.
One of the assets rushed in for Indigo. Will get some brush-up and normal maps later.
That was by the way some of the interesting feedback I got: the most rushed assets got repeatedly positive reactions. My perfectionism makes me cringe a bit – but of course I should be happy because I can work much faster than I did with some of the older assets. They turned out too detailed – it does not only not show up but also makes their impact lower.
So maybe even this one is a bit more than needed.
