Saturday, March 18, 2006
Apocalypse Cow
More bits from the game about flying cows. Tentative title: "Cutter Hawke In Apocalypse Cow." The graphics are all stand-in right now, but I think the screenshot conveys some of the action.
As you can see, it's kind of a 2D game with 3D graphics. I'm not going to say that it's wildly innovative, but so far it's very fun and funny. And it's got flying, exploding cows. What is NOT to like about that?
I'm using the Torque engine, version 1.4 plus the Torque Lighting Kit, which has it's own strengths and weaknesses. Since it's an arcade-style game, extremely responsive movement, collision detection, and camera movement in a single-player game is critical, and I've had to do some tricky work-arounds to make Torque responsive enough. On the plus side, much of the game logic can all be handled within TorqueScript, and of course Torque provides great support for 3D terrain, objects, animation, and particle systems.
Most of the interactive objects in the game (except for the weaponry) were created with a subclass of ITEM, of all things. I chose Item because it was a fairly lightweight object. The camera-code is all custom, client-based stuff.The game still has quite a ways to go, but it's been coming along pretty nicely.
EDIT:
Okay - here's a special effect that just didn't work (still stand-in, mind you): The idea was to have a blown-up cow fly through the air and smack the screen like a bird hitting a window, and then slide down. The problem is, it obscures the gameplay area too much (which I was afraid of, but prototyping proved it to be the case).Any suggestions?
Labels: Apocalypse Cow
- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 7:42 PM (Permalink)
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Okay - here's a special effect that just didn't work (still stand-in, mind you): The idea was to have a blown-up cow fly through the air and smack the screen like a bird hitting a window, and then slide down. The problem is, it obscures the gameplay area too much (which I was afraid of, but prototyping proved it to be the case).
That's a great one. I could see a critic ending a review with a note on that. "If there's one thing that sums up the game's character, it's this sequence..."
Two thoughts about adding gags that are to be repeated throughout a game:
a) A dash of minor randomness might keep things fresh. For example, if the cow were to hit the screen at different locations (or sometimes even miss the screen entirely?), the player might think, "hey, there goes another cow," rather than, "hey, I triggered the animation again."
b) How about requiring the player to trigger a gag by exercising a skill (e.g., by hitting a cow a certain way)? There ain't much less funny than a joke that's told repeatedly. But if I'm the one in control of the delivery, I'll only see it when I'm receptive to it. (Similarly, I have visions of those lab mice trained to hit buttons to deliver themselves tasty juices, here.) And I can imagine myself trying to cause the cows to splatter themselves against my screen as revenge for a particularly tough sequence. ("You just took half my health. Take this, you bovine jerk!")
I'm not sure if there's any validity there; perhaps it'd be a good excuse to conduct a study!
It's a shame the gag didn't work out, but I'm guessing that you have a handful of these that are just as fun.
That's a great one. I could see a critic ending a review with a note on that. "If there's one thing that sums up the game's character, it's this sequence..."
Two thoughts about adding gags that are to be repeated throughout a game:
a) A dash of minor randomness might keep things fresh. For example, if the cow were to hit the screen at different locations (or sometimes even miss the screen entirely?), the player might think, "hey, there goes another cow," rather than, "hey, I triggered the animation again."
b) How about requiring the player to trigger a gag by exercising a skill (e.g., by hitting a cow a certain way)? There ain't much less funny than a joke that's told repeatedly. But if I'm the one in control of the delivery, I'll only see it when I'm receptive to it. (Similarly, I have visions of those lab mice trained to hit buttons to deliver themselves tasty juices, here.) And I can imagine myself trying to cause the cows to splatter themselves against my screen as revenge for a particularly tough sequence. ("You just took half my health. Take this, you bovine jerk!")
I'm not sure if there's any validity there; perhaps it'd be a good excuse to conduct a study!
It's a shame the gag didn't work out, but I'm guessing that you have a handful of these that are just as fun.
I am sure I'll use it - probably as a payoff for defeating a particular boss. I'm guessing that a lot of the alpha stage will involve adding additional gags & easter eggs. This is just the kind of game that demands them.
I guess this is a little bit beyond the slight "Tongue in cheek" humor of Void War. :)
I guess this is a little bit beyond the slight "Tongue in cheek" humor of Void War. :)
Super Smash Bros Melee has characters hitting the screen, and they usually just fall back off. They aren't there for more than a moment, so they don't block the screen much.
If you don't want to do anything too derivative, I suppose you could just have a cow splatter milk, with the milk slowly disappearing as it drips down the screen.
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If you don't want to do anything too derivative, I suppose you could just have a cow splatter milk, with the milk slowly disappearing as it drips down the screen.
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