WebPad: Bring your Own Controller
Going to take a break from my Useless Designer series to talk about a personal project which has me very excited. While judging Dare I came across a good idea which could be brilliant: using a mobile device as the controller in a shared space. The idea was shown by Lucky Ghost using the iPhone and a native iOS app. However, Apple would never let it through the AppStore and not everyone likes Apple. The idea was good but limited, but then a solution hit me there and then and I excitedly shared it with them.
The game hosts a web-service providing HTML5 WebApp with WebSockets transforming any modern mobile device into the controller.
Project Humps
This LudumDare I was hit by a blaze of inspiration. I was soooo excited by this project!!! Then the truck of problems ran me over, several times.
Build a 3D Spatial Puzzle based on a secret phrase. The phrase is revealed when the person completes the puzzle.
Then I opened Unity3D and it constantly hit me with minor irritations, though to be fair I've gotten over most of those. The real stumbling block is lots and lots of obscure Math and Niggly technical problems.
Now an interesting problem is exciting and one which you can get your teeth into and gets you excited. One example of this is the generation of the spatial puzzle. Which is awesome procedural content generation.
No I'm talking about stupid little math problems, rotations, parenting and frankly silly stupid problems. Stuff which on paper is stupidly simple. Things like smoothing out camera behaviours, improving physics performances and glitches.
I think I can safely say 90% of the project has been hung up on technical glitches and minor issues. Not sure if I'm going to continue. Taking a breather and thinking about it again.
Prototype - Click to Try
WASD + QE = Camera Controls
Space = Break-up & Rotate Drag Piece
Left Mouse = Select Object
Right Mouse Drag = Drag Object Around
LD19: Discovery
Puzzle Scrambling itself with easy Physics
SSHeart: Secrets in the Space of my Heart
So this weekend the theme was Discovery which really inspired me. The plan was simple.
Build a 3D Spatial Puzzle based on a secret phrase. The phrase is revealed when the person completes the puzzle.
The idea is you could share secrets or even send messages to people in a playful fashion. I really like the concept.
Time Lapse
Cambridge Jam
The CB2 Jam was amazing! Really helped and I would have given up much sooner without it. A great atmosphere and a brilliant lot. So plan to make plans for any Jam that is planned at CB2. Also my first real location based jam. That wasn't just with house-mates or at Uni/school.
Also thanks to CB2 to being so accommodating.
Unity3D
I'm forcing myself to use Unity3D at the moment because of work. It's not my preferred package but its very powerful but its annoying to have to learn things on the LD weekend. A key thing you shouldn't be doing.
- Shaders: Still not quite sure what I think of the Unity3D system. I understand why it is the way it is but it takes a bit of getting used to. Though I love I can go to pure HLSL if I want to.
- Event Model: mmm quite nice, like the message system and of course the mouse interaction is nice. Also the gravity on axis configurations is awesome little cheat for quick tricks.
- Debugger: Unity3D really really falls down in this area I feel. Also not greatly impressed with Mono.
The rest were minor niggles but thanks to the Jam I was helped out a lot with those.
Future Plans
I plan to finish this before the new year, make it sparkely and easy to share phrases via the web. Also to greatly improve the random generation.
COP: Game Flow
Game Flow
So basically that's the game flow detailed there. The mission select is of course random.
Tonight development goal is as follows.
Build a blueprint and save it
One Page Designs
I am becoming a bigger fan of vector based one page designs. The 80 page word document which never gets read gets trumped by the A1 wall poster with overview.
Ludum Dare: The October Challenge
So POV declared The October Challenge : Make a game in a month and sell it.
New Grid system for Game
The game is relatively simple and based in the Channels of Power world using some ideas from the MMO I was making. The idea is I will use Google App Engine as a backend and Unity as a front end.
Setting up a Defence
First a player is given a limited budget to setup the corporate defences on a location. They will also need to script and issue orders. They are contractor to be brought in to setup the defences. It is then saved on the server.
Attacking
Then using a limited budget an attacker equips a team and selects a mission from the server. Then using X-Com turn based style combat they must break through the defences.
Reputation and Replays
The moment the defences are breached that replay is saved for the viewing of the defender. Reputation is built up for how many assaults a map can take. Offensive reputation for breaking assaults with minimal failures. This is of course weighted and balanced, and persistent.
Scope
For the challenge I'm keeping it very very feature light. The plan is to sell pre-order copies at the end of the month if I feel the project is going well and then continue development. Much as many other indie games are doing.
In terms of DRM and platform. I'm going to be releasing PC version with possibility for future platforms. The DRM is online-always account based system. So basically the client is DRM free so to speak and can be installed multiple times but your account is persistent and can only be logged in at one machine. The online is needed to play the game.
Feedback welcome!
Podcast Problems
I have an idea on how to relaunch the podcast but I'm having trouble getting audio equipment together. Please bear with me on that count.
Chess and Unity
So the big milestone for the Data Driven Dialogue project is in and frankly it needs some time to sit on the shelf while I gather my thoughts for a fresh assault. So I set about learning Unity, something I've been interested in for a long time as a prototyping tool.
The first thing I will say, and I found this with XNA as well, is 90% of the tutorials, resources ect... are worthless to anyone with any base level knowledge. Throw them out, you just need a quick run though the UI, and some quirks pages. All of 10 mins then just use your gathered experience and the reference docs from there on out.
Now when learning new tech two of my favourite test projects are Pong and Tetris. I immediately dismissed these however as Unity made both very easy with its built in functionality, and I knew I wouldn't learn much because I wouldn't need to solve too many problems. I immediately settled on Chess as a well defined game because as anyone who has worked with high level world based tools knows.
- Using any coordiante system for game logic not directly tied to render space is a pain
- Object and Game logic conflict requiring you to split things up
- State based animations and effects can be a pain
- A simple chess AI is a nice little work-out
So yeah I'm tinkering away with that at the moment. Slowly building more layers of complexity on top of it till I'm satisfied I know Unity well enough for a real project I have in mind.
Oh and if you asked why I'm writing a boring Pong / Tetris / Chess game to learn Unity when I could be making Cool Idea #63? The answer is simple always learn new tech with a pre-defined and tested design. Otherwise you will compromise the design to avoid problems rather than be forced to overcome them. The goal is to learn the tech not to make a super awesome game.