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Battlesuit Dev Diary #2

Time for another rambling post.

I don't really have much new to report, but for the sake of keeping momentum, I'm going to write a blog post anyway.

Still no screenshot to show. I've started a basic prototype in Blitz3D but it's still extremely rudimentary at the moment so it isn't really worth showing. So, yeah, not much progress but at least it's a start. To be honest I'm not actually sure if I can be bothered doing much more on the prototype, knowing I'm almost certainly going to throw the lot of it away when I switch engines. I might just spend the next while researching alternative platforms instead.

I've been dwelling on AI a bit. A good AI is going to be essential to immersion in the game. In my previous blog post, I mentioned how bland AI in Shogo was a real immersion killer for me, so I do want to have challenging, realistic feeling enemies. Fortunately path finding and cover isn't going to be much of an issue as most of the missions will be on open terrain or in space. The core mechanic I have in mind with the AI is some sort of 'initiative' meter where enemies with high initiative will charge into battle, medium initiative will attack or snipe from a distance, and low initiative will retreat or try to regroup. The value of the initiative meter depends on certain pre-configured elements such as pilot personality and mecha type (Lighter melee-type mechas will want to stay close to the battle, whereas heavier sniper-type mechas will want to stay as far away as possible), but will also dynamically change depending on the the tide of the battle.

Asides from feeling at least semi-realistic, I want the AI to be a decent challenge. Most first person shooters seem to let you breeze through dozens of enemies in mere seconds, but I want each and every kill in Battlesuit to feel like it was earned. I intend to have two simultaneous enemies to be a threat, four to be a menace and six to be a grueling challenge (again, like in Wing Commander). Fortunately you'll always have one or more wingmen to help you out of a tricky spot.

Currently, the official team is just me (although, as I mentioned earlier, Anthony's done some great concept sketches). I certainly don't want it to remain a solo project though - my skills in virtually everything bar programming are lackluster (and even then, my programming's not exceptional!) so I'm keen to put together a small, dedicated team with a shared vision. But I'd rather wait until I've got some basic design documents plus the second draft of my episode 1 script out before pitching the project to potential team mates.

That said, if you're interested in the project at all, even just as a playtester, let me know and I'll keep you in mind.

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hydra9
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I can't remember if this has been discussed before. So: What d'ya think about switching to Unity?

Btw, I think your game design skills are excellent. And your writing is really good, too. Very tight and effective in both disciplines.

Am I interested in this project? Of course! Would love to playtest and could do more, if you need it.

hydra9
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P.S. I think the dev diary is a great dea. It really seemed to keep you motivated when working on Derelict. It's a good way of measuring progress, too. And interesting to read!

Good luck!

Earok
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Joined: 02/06/2009

Cheers Sam, you're making me blush 

Funny you bring that up - Unity's exactly what I'm thinking about switching to, though UDK and XNA via Monkey are also still on the table. I'm actually thinking about diving into it this week as training for the Global Game Jam (just incase I end up on a Unity team, otherwise I'd be perfectly happy with Blitz3D or Monkey again).

I'd love to have your thoughts on the 2nd draft script for the Shareware episode, though I've only done a tiny bit of re-writing from the 100 page 1st draft from April last year (and a fair bit of re-writing is involved, not the least of which is because of swapping the protagonist's gender!)

arran4
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Joined: 05/05/2009

I need to learn these tech!

Sergio (not verified)

Unity would be pretty cool, UDK also sounds interesting. I'm hoping you're going to include a huge clunky cockpit that obscures some of the screen as a GUI. And loud mechanical noises every time you walk, or even move the mouse to look around (making assumptions about the controls here)!

Earok
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@arran I can help you with Monkey but not the other ones!

@sergio There'll be plenty of screen real-estate taken up by the GUI but I'm not sure that I'll go quite as far as Wing Commander did in obscuring the screen. Mechanial noises would be cool, I'll keep that in mind. See you Friday.

arran4
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Yeah I want to pick up the source SDK and see what exactly it is. As I am curious. Not too sure about other platforms though.

Earok
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I can't make any recommendations about a platform at the moment. I think in general UDK has the most power and the highest learning curve, Unity at the opposite end of the scale and Source in between (someone correct me if I'm wrong?)

arran4
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To be really honest I am just really curious just how much these platforms offer, and what specifically they offer.

Earok
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Fair enough. Definitely download and install each of them when you have the time, and have a play with the included sampes.

arran4
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Yeah that is a very good idea.