An overhead view type multiplayer game i am working on: Small gnomes Big guns.
Back in the 80`s there was a game called "Psycho pig UXB" , and i wanted to do something similar, but it evolved somewhat =).
The idea is to have it multiplayer with up to 4 players on the same screen. Powerup pickups for weapons, healthpacks and shields.
Scenery as houses and things are dynamic and breakable with proper mass for larger objects.
The game atmosphere is a Tongue-in-cheek parody on lawn gnomes gone crazy boxed in to an arena. And no blood or violence
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It is DBP and Dark Physics / Ai.
My first DBP project, not so much shadering going on yet =)
Features and goals:
Character controller that automatically becomes dynamic when hit or falling.
I feel this was the most important.
Breakable scenery, i wanted to be able to make the objects in Blender and have the game divide the limbs up and join them together with breakable joints for the physics.
Now I just have to add the object to a ini file after modeling it for the game to read it in and break it apart for the physics.
Scorchmarks for the ground/terrain.
Tried planes but it didn't work as i wanted, it now uses a 3 stage blending with a mask for the terrain texture, first showing the grass texture and when a bomb hits it reveals the dirt texture underneath and adds some soot stains.
The whole arena will eventually become a desert with a little grass around the edges =)
Ordnance; Has directional, guided and timed bombs, and static ordnance (mines).
I want to include cluster bombs that divide on impact or trajectory apex. And some exotics like the Bunnybomb =P
Note:
Many things are placeholders still, as the guns and textures on the characters, i have been focusing on the engine. Tested it on my five year old Singlecore AMD AGP Nv7200 and it's playable with some reduced dynamic scenery. It uses timed movement, so it runs the same on any machine down to a limit, as the collision (Sparky's) for the impact triggered ordnance tend to tunnle at too low FPS (the physics still work all the time, just some bombs won't explode on impact).
Gameplay view
Another view
Video: The first portion is the game overhead view, then i roam a little with the camera. This is all Ai characters (white against blue). Either you can play against them with your joypad or have them as allies in teams. Starts off a little boring, I just kept spawning the current max characters (10) to get some action going =)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfbbonRH2h0
Video 2:
I added the scorch marks, boosted the alpha a little on this so they show up faster on the short video. Plan to use this as a detailmap later to show sooted dirt trough the grass.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIQLni7I1GI
Video 3:
Shows the player controlled character (me!) playing with an ally Ai character against two enemy Ai's.
Added 3D sound and simulated 3D sound for stereo speakers, and some gnomelike sounds =)
Also has the scorch terrain blending that peels off the grass showing the dirt underneath where bombs explode, using only the black scorch marks became too dark imo.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0bq6-7_yV4
Video 4:
Added the final version of the scorch marks. Now uses the blending fully (thanks for updating the command) with a dynamic updated mask, main grass and a underlying earth texture and a fourth dynamic layer with faded scorch marks that also adds some grass spots and can be used to add other decals as blood stains.
Also began to add speech bubble emotes for the characters.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xO23UP970Tk
Video 5:
Outdoor arena with fence, dynamic nuisance/obstacle objects. 3D explosion fireballs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1uo_0vrEyo
/Regards
