Gyro-PhyterNEO- Update w/ MOUSE aiming! Done 4 now,. .

Post screenshots, binaries and projectfiles of the projects you have made with ZGE that you want to share!

Moderator: Moderators

User avatar
jph_wacheski
Posts: 1005
Joined: Sat Feb 16, 2008 8:10 pm
Location: Canada
Contact:

Gyro-PhyterNEO- Update w/ MOUSE aiming! Done 4 now,. .

Post by jph_wacheski »

NOTE; check down the thread for the NEO-est ver. !

Since Ville added this much better collision system (obb) I thought I would start a new project! Well it is just a re-build, in ZGE, of my Gyro-phyter / Cluster Funk ideas,. but wow I got it working in just one day! I am getting a better grip on working with the system,. and using raw hacking to do stuff that at first I thought was just not possible,. cutting and pasting from my older work is convinent too with the ability to grab whole objects and groups,. just gotta re-name some values and shazam,. sweet!

Things im proud of;
- got the parts to blast back in the direction the shot came from,. needed a global value for that,. looks nice though!
- was able to rebuild the simple movements and camera to follow them,. even though my trig. knowlage is still seriously and sadly weeeeeeek! 2*pi is making me hungry. I keep reading strange web sites i find searching trig and game strings,. . some usefull.

the speed of this thing rocks Ville,. 768 polys per cube ( minus back faces i guess ) and it runs steady here!

One question I have is the rendering of objects with Alpha<1,. if you watch the rising cubes (A=.2) you will see they are transperant to the background but not the other cubes ??? why is that ? I would like to see the other stuff behind them too,. it is a neat effect however it will become confusing,.

also does anyone have a nice enviro maping shader ? Crome effects would be sweet,. I will search for shaders some time,. I need more time! or some interns,. lol
Attachments
gyro_phyter_neo__006.zip
1280x1024 full,. I like to use ALL my pixels,. eh. This is why I built a middle of the road system,. not a screaming death machine. Otherwise noone would be able to run my games,. .
(37.99 KiB) Downloaded 1781 times
Last edited by jph_wacheski on Sun Jul 06, 2008 5:54 pm, edited 2 times in total.
iterationGAMES.com
User avatar
Kjell
Posts: 1876
Joined: Sat Feb 23, 2008 11:15 pm

Post by Kjell »

Hi jph,

Looks promising :) Some key combinations don't work though ( keyboard limitation ) of which S+D+K is the most bothersome. It's probably solved most easily by using the arrow keys instead of WASD. Also, personally I would add a slight inertia on the camera's rotation ( maybe even the position too ), to give it a little more smooth / dynamic feel.

Keep it up!
K
User avatar
VilleK
Site Admin
Posts: 2274
Joined: Mon Jan 15, 2007 4:50 pm
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Contact:

Post by VilleK »

You impress me once again, jph! A very nice example of 2d-action with 3d-graphics. It is very cool that you were able to create it so quickly too.
About the alpha stuff... the order ZGE draws models is dependent on the collision category (not very logical I know), so you can try setting a higher category for the rising blocks to make them render after the other models.
User avatar
jph_wacheski
Posts: 1005
Joined: Sat Feb 16, 2008 8:10 pm
Location: Canada
Contact:

drawing order,. interesting.

Post by jph_wacheski »

Kjell - yes indeed the camera could be done much nicer,. inertia and such, this is super basic, quick and dirty, but it works ;) Not sure what to do about the keyboard hardware limitations,. [ er, gamepad support - nudge, nudge ] but yes the arrows are likely poled more,.

Ville - Ah, great! The transparent 'ghosts' are looking right now,. thanks for that info. yes perhaps one day we could have the draw order sepearated from collisions,. but whatever, we gota learn to work withing tthe limits eh.
Yup ZGE is a very fast tool for building stuff once you learn it workings,. once we get some massive funding support we can work on making it supper intuitive, I have loads if ideas for that ,but I am more focussed on working with it now, to produce some nifty games,. so we can find the funding support ;) always that circular problem,. ain't it.
Attachments
gyro_phyter_neo__007.zip
now with proper ghosts! (1280x1024 still)
(38.05 KiB) Downloaded 1629 times
iterationGAMES.com
User avatar
jph_wacheski
Posts: 1005
Joined: Sat Feb 16, 2008 8:10 pm
Location: Canada
Contact:

steering behaviours are usefull !

Post by jph_wacheski »

current state of this, here be an update;

-working on steering behaviours for the drones,.
-some procedural primative modeling,.
-procedural textures,. needs more work.
-camera fade when dead,. sweetening up some stuff.

a couple more days work on this and I am getting happy with the drones,. they don't roll over each other as much, I hate that brake of realism,. yes I do belive realism has some place in minimalist abstract games,. its the realistic movements and the perception of intelegence that makes even an abstact 'build-shooter' such as this will eventually be,. enjoyable. So, these things are what I have been working on,.
Danm Ville, ZGE is quite deep. I just have not had time to experiment will all the systems you have built in here,. I was just reading about animators,. and have yet to use one! midi as well,. and those shaders,. etc. however it is the fact that all those goodies are in here that has attracted me to start using this fine system,. and even though some limitations are initially frustrating,. I have not given up, and continue to belive that I can eventually build a great game using ZGE! Thanks for it,.
peace.
Attachments
gyro_phyter_neo__011.zip
getting good now,. 2800x1024 needed still,.
(38.88 KiB) Downloaded 1626 times
iterationGAMES.com
User avatar
jph_wacheski
Posts: 1005
Joined: Sat Feb 16, 2008 8:10 pm
Location: Canada
Contact:

for today,.

Post by jph_wacheski »

more done on this;

-the player ship now angles into the movements,. (realism!)
-removed all the textures,. likeing the flat shading for now,.
-some more sound work,
-added some 3d particle effects,.

I am now using Animators for value changes,. as thay should be self corrected timeing wise. and are simple and clean to use,. nice ;)
Attachments
gyro_phyter_neo__012.zip
getting better all the time,.
(39.13 KiB) Downloaded 1647 times
iterationGAMES.com
User avatar
VilleK
Site Admin
Posts: 2274
Joined: Mon Jan 15, 2007 4:50 pm
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Contact:

Post by VilleK »

I also prefer flat shading over the textures from the previous version. Nice audio improvements too!
Animators can be useful, and yes they are automatically deltatime corrected.
User avatar
jph_wacheski
Posts: 1005
Joined: Sat Feb 16, 2008 8:10 pm
Location: Canada
Contact:

friday,. update

Post by jph_wacheski »

did some colour work, redsigned the WELL models,. lots of particles added., some new sounds,. added eyes or beaks? to the player and drones,. and now the drones will fire at you if they roll over a pow-up! well acutally they simply fire in the direction they are going however since they often chase the player or circle the WELLs it all works out nicely,. oh and my favorite addition, I added some beer bubbles to the pow-ups! yup, thought of it while, you guessed it, sitting on the patio pondering in a cold pint! ;)

some things i've realised;
- states are great! having the app and each model have definable states is a very usefull feature,. great design Ville, one again!
- animators take all the trouble out of moving values,. and keeping the timeing delta-time correct!
- working with ZGE is like building the wireing under the board,. kniting together a bunch of processes to acheive a 'game'. I like it.

may be too many particles or I need to change some colours to achive more clear view of things,. is still fun to blast throught it all,. have at 'er.
Attachments
gyro_phyter_neo__018.zip
current state of it,.
(40.28 KiB) Downloaded 1568 times
iterationGAMES.com
User avatar
VilleK
Site Admin
Posts: 2274
Joined: Mon Jan 15, 2007 4:50 pm
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Contact:

Post by VilleK »

And I who thought it was difficult even before the enemies started shooting back at you! But it is a good gameplay addition since now leaving lots of powerups behind becomes risky.

I first did not understand why I couldn't pickup powerups, but this is because they can only be collected after you've been hit and you need more energy right? Perhaps they could give you score when you don't need them.

I finally managed to clear the board after a few tries. Nice hectic action! Could perhaps be even more intense using more particles and stressful audio, but it depends on what feeling you want for the game.

Yes, beer can be an inspiration in smaller doses ;) . Is that where you pick your wonderful game-titles from also?
User avatar
jph_wacheski
Posts: 1005
Joined: Sat Feb 16, 2008 8:10 pm
Location: Canada
Contact:

thanks.

Post by jph_wacheski »

Glad you played it through, it is not that hard,. yet.
You make a good point about the power-ups; it may be un-fair to not let you pick those up as they are used against you now. Yes you are quite correct in that they currently only get picked up when your health is down.
With all these little updates, you can see my iterative design technique; build, play, change, add, subtract, etc. I do have overall design goals, however it is nice to just add stuff as I think it up and see how it effects the game-play.
I keep starting these and thinking they are just little demo games that I am building to try stuff and learn the ZGE system,. and I am constanly suprised by the good results! I am planing to do something a bit larger and more fully complete, enouph to sell for money.., as I keep hearing about my debt, and the price of food and what not,. so perhaps this one or the next will be developed into some form of 'product'. Although it would perhaps be good to try to get a small team of talented people together, to work on a slightly larger comercial venture,. where are the seed monies to start up an indie studio ? I guess its too risky for the monied folks to help with creative ventures eh. ah well,. suppose it's just me in the basment and my trusty ZGE ! I'm just going to make something fun and see what grows out from there,. .
iterationGAMES.com
User avatar
jph_wacheski
Posts: 1005
Joined: Sat Feb 16, 2008 8:10 pm
Location: Canada
Contact:

more new works,.

Post by jph_wacheski »

the work continues,. and I am happy!
I have been doing a bit of genrative 'music',. basicly simple beats currently,. one is on the info. screen at start, and another is on the title screen when you are dead,. very basic still, however I am a fan if minimalism, and I like these bits so far. Also remixed the sounds overall for a smoother feel,. .
Spent a bunch of time tweeking out the graphic/partical effects,. added some sprite based stuff,. I do quite like the procedural sprite generating,. and I am getting better at finding the equations to make what I am looking for,. I am perticularally happy with the smoke effect. i have been working to incorporate tall vertical elements to give more of a sence of motion as you move and rotate around the play-field.
Next thing I think is to add an articulated boss type thing for when the wells are all knocked out., stay tooned. lol
Attachments
gyro_phyter_neo__023.zip
my little 42k game,.
(41.17 KiB) Downloaded 1590 times
iterationGAMES.com
User avatar
jph_wacheski
Posts: 1005
Joined: Sat Feb 16, 2008 8:10 pm
Location: Canada
Contact:

Post by jph_wacheski »

just to keep you up to date,. .
I moved the camera in a bit,. as things are looking so nice! ;)
still tweeking everything,. colors lastly,. the drop shadows add some needed depth,. I am considering adding an edge rendering shader,. would like to see it will thick dark lines on the edges,. will have a search for that in the morning,. I am very happy with the results so far,. and it still runs nicely here,. does anyone have performance issues ? those WELL explosions keep getting more elaborate,. and all those little bits flying around gives a nice sence of accomplishment as stuff blows up, as well as taking advantage of the vertical depth,. I have an idea for adding a flying UFO, in a higher layer of play, that slowly chases the player and if you sit still too long, drops a beam or missile straight down on you! as well as having more modes for the drones,. perhaps some will transform into turrets of a sort,. but I need to sort out some aiming code for that,. I am attempting to keep this minimalist, and simple to create the elements that are needed,. once the wells are down I intend to have some form of larger thing in the center with parented bits that can be blasted off till the center is destroyed,. time will tell. Ville you roc! peace,. nighty night.
Attachments
gyro_phyter_neo__026.zip
not bad for 10 days or so dev. time,. eh!
(41.41 KiB) Downloaded 1560 times
iterationGAMES.com
User avatar
VilleK
Site Admin
Posts: 2274
Joined: Mon Jan 15, 2007 4:50 pm
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Contact:

Post by VilleK »

I like that the Wells are shooting back at you, this makes the action more intense. Also the new look of the playfield looks better. The smoke looks nice. Maybe you could rise the camera momentarily after each time you destroyed a Well so you know where to navigate next?

I had a try at this game last night and became quite immersed in the retro-style action. Reminds me a bit of old arcade game "Star Castle".
I think you have done it again jph :)
User avatar
jph_wacheski
Posts: 1005
Joined: Sat Feb 16, 2008 8:10 pm
Location: Canada
Contact:

flying camera,. fun!

Post by jph_wacheski »

yup, indeed StarCastle has been a big influance on me! loved it as a kid,. sucked in quarters quite well too,. I like these games with a simple play system and a skill or finesse style of play,. asteroids, starcastle, defender, joust, some of my faves.
Cool of you to suggest the camera pull back,. as that was what I was working on when you posted that,. I have it now so you can pause at any time by hitting the space bar, the camera then shootes straight up and you can look aound with the movement keys (whatever ones you are using). I am quite happy with this system as it seemlessly brings the camera back to where you paused at,. sweet!

I am going to leave this project for a bit, due to this new 4 week compo;

http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=1646.0

it starts today and the theme is; procedural content generation ! If VilleK or Kjell are interested in working together on something I am open to the idea or else get on your own projects!
Attachments
gyro_phyter_neo__036.zip
last one for a bit.,
(42.23 KiB) Downloaded 1609 times
iterationGAMES.com
myraneal
Posts: 26
Joined: Tue Apr 08, 2008 8:00 pm

Post by myraneal »

Really great job jph! I see that the game has improved a lot since the previous versions (I think I played 007). I really like the illusion of blurriness of the ground as you get away from the center of the playing field. Gives you at least a little bit of sense of where you are. I couldn't tell if the game world has a limit as to how far the player can move right now but it *might* be a good idea to add that maybe? Also when I killed off all the enemies and wells in the level (at least I think I did, no more came for 30 seconds and I searched for them) the game didn't end so I assume that's a feature you'll be adding later on.
Really fun game. Good luck with the contest too.

-Yılmaz
Post Reply