Nov 30, 2012

Produce more, better and faster

Hey!

I had a hard week so I couldn't work as much as I wanted on Alone in Space. However, the week-end is here and that means free time to use!

Tonight, I worked on the transposition between 3D coordinates to 2D coordinates in order to manage zone structures in a 2 dimensions array : [X,Y].

The cursor snapped to the invisible grid was already done so that was not hard work :

That's just a cube for now but it will be a sexy 3D pointer in the future (if a pointer can be sexy)!

After a few moments, I got a simple 2D coordinate vector for my structure array. Yay!

This part done, I could start the structure management. For example, you cannot build a new structure on a square where there is already another structure! The interesting part comes after.

Now that I can handle structures (simplified) construction process, I can start the natural resource extraction process. And THIS is the heart of the project. The resources. Those rare and precious resources the player will chase all around the galaxy.

The core engine was written days ago but I couldnd't test it. And it was well written (cheers me!). A few mistakes or omissions but it is functional.

The game can now manage resource extraction, storage and depletion. Nice point.

Nov 27, 2012

Structure selection

I got some time to work on AiS. I added structure construction selection (simple button for now). It creates a temporary model following the mouse until the player right or left click.

A right click will deselect the structure and the classic cursor will come back and a left click will build the structure. 3D model placement seems ok. I still have tricky bugs with cursor position on map but that's not a big problem (i guess).

Say hello to the refinery structure placeholder. That's a work in progress, I'll add more details on this model later :


Though weekend

The week-end is silently disappearing, as my neurons. That was a tough game jam!

I worked on an old school point & click with 5 other awesome guys. The story :
A man who doesn't remember who he is awake in a frightening railway station. He want to go out of this freaky place.

The game was done using XNA 4.0 and a custom engine I'm working on with a friend : YNA.


The game is open source so feel free to take a look. We'll clean it during this week to get it fully playable : http://imlost.codeplex.com/
YNA source code : http://yna.codeplex.com/

This event was organized by the Game Dev Party

I may not be able to work on Alone in Space tonight but I will get back to development very soon (surely tomorrow). So stay in touch. Big things are coming!

Nov 23, 2012

Game Jam

This week-end i won't be able to work on Alone in Space...


But i'll do gamedev! A game jam is taking place in Lyon this week-end and i'll participate. It seems like i could write one post per day (almost). So don't be surprised if there's nothing new until tuesday or wednesday!

I'll be back next week.

Nov 21, 2012

Natural resources

Tonight i worked on the natural resources extraction. That's it. The core of the game.



Zones will have a starting amount of resources from 4 types :
  • Carbon
  • Metal
  • Gas
  • Antimatter
Each of these natural resources will be differently distributed according to the zone type (space, planet, asteroid...). Randomly distributed of course. Natural resources will have to be stored in warehouses. And those warehouses will have a maximum capacity. Gathered resources at max capacity will be wasted. Oh and by the way, all structures will need energy to operate (produced by special structures).

Yeah, Alone in Space will be hard to master. And also hard to code. :-)

Nov 20, 2012

Work in progress screenshots

I'm currently on the Zone view, managing to place correctly structures on the ground. That's quite done even if i still have somme bugs.

Here are two screenshots showing the actual Zone view in wireframe mode and the first model : the command center.

Say Hello to the Zone view!


As you can see on this one, the camera angle changes as you zoom in.

Nov 19, 2012

Stop complaining and keep moving forward

A day away from my week-end adventures, there is a note to myself i want to share :
Stop complaining and keep moving forward
I'm not a 3D artist, however i'm good at industrial design (i've done a lot during my studies). That's why i'm in search of a 3D software based on industrial design. Something like the Unreal Ed (love it, even with it's bugs) :


In my mind, the 3D representation is the result of the 2D designs. I'm used to. And that's so freaking difficult to get rid of that! I feel lost with only a 3D representation!

With help from a Blender pro, i managed to set up my worskapce with familiar view. Now, i feel better. Home sweet home!


Here we go then, i'll use Blender!

Nov 18, 2012

3D models

I downloaded the evaluation version of MilkShape. This is a simple 3D editor. It was supposed to be a 30 days evaluation software but i was really disappointed to discover that after a few exports (may be 5 or 6), it was not more possible to export anything else.

I have 28 days left but i can no more use this software. That's not what i'm calling a 30 days trial. That's just bullshit...

I have this model of a command center to show, even if i'll have to redesign it in another editor :





Nov 16, 2012

It's all about architecture

Yesterday i could throw away some hours in developing Alone in Space. The game core engine is created, even if it's still empty. I designed it to be used in multiplayer / solo. The multiplayer management is not handled yet, i'll take care of that later but the actual structure makes it possible to handle it.

I also worked on the universe generation. Yeah, generative content is sweet. It gives some depth to a game by getting some randomness. The global generator structure is here, ready to be used. For now, it can generate all kind of visions in the game :
  • Zones
  • Regions
  • Sectors
  • And the galaxy itself as well
Natural resource repartition is still fixed but some random will show up later. This will make the exploration more interesting for the player : will i find an awesome gold mine of just another junk world?


If you're discovering this project, let me introduce the concept of "vision" in Alone in Space. First, the game takes place in space. That's huge. And barely impossible to represent in one simple scene. So i decided to cut the gameplay in visions. Each vision is a representation of space at a different zoom level :
Zone < Region < Sector < Galaxy
The galaxy is separated in sectors. Each sector contains regions. Each region contains zones. That's like russian dolls. Each vision gives different possibilities, according to the zoom level :
  • In Zone vision, you will build structures, harvest natural resources, create advanced components
  • In Region vision, you will explore and colonize new Zones
  • In Sector vision, you will explore planets, asteroïds (represented by Regions)...
  • In the Galaxy vision, you will explore deep space, find new sectors, worm holes, black holes...
Now that "containers" can be generated, i'll be able to go forward and  create the Zone management with :
  • Building structures
  • Harvesting natural resources
  • Creating advanced components
  • Handling catastrophies

Nov 13, 2012

Here we go



The travel begins.

After more than one year of prototyping and gamedesign, the project is now mature enough for the developement to begin.

The first lines of code are already written, the adventure is started. Don't forget to subscribe to the feed to get the lastest fresh news about it!