Still no real screenshot to show yet. Just been pottering away in R&D mode. The first three missions of the game are set in Japan's Shizuoka Prefecture, so I'm working towards implementing a simplified, scaled down (maybe 1/4 scale or less) but still somewhat recognisable version of that in Unity. (The reasons why I chose Shizuoka are two fold, one is because of the view of Mount Fuji, and the second - which I only found out after I had already made up my mind on Shizuoka - is that it's entirely appriopriate to have giant robots there because of this)

I think I'm growing more and more fond of Unity the more I use it. I really like the "convention over configuration" principle that Unity has (assuming you want to do something the most common way but making it as easy as possible to customise), especially on the enormously flexible and configurable Game Objects. Thinking about it further, Unity's Game Objects are actually kind of analogous to Drupal's Nodes.

Been dwelling on how to implement turning in Battlesuit. While most First Person Shooters only limit the player's maximum rotation speed by how fast he can physically move the mouse, I'd like to have different limits on rotation speed per mech so it feels more authentic and the lighter mechs handle more distinctly to the larger ones. The current idea that I've been thinking about is kind of a hybrid of the traditional PC FPS controls and the Wii FPS controls. The player will rotate towards where they've placed their cursor on screen, which will be dragged back towards the center (ie, the player will always be aiming at what is under the cursor). I also think it'd be cool to aim and fire at something you're not directly facing (which is neat on Wii FPS games, even if overall the controls are more frustrating). This should also add some tactical depth as you can't just spin on a dime if there's an enemy behind you. Any thoughts or suggestions?

I haven't had a lot of time for the project, partially due to my Toshiba Laptop (that had just marked the milestone of being my tool for four consecutive Global Game Jams) finally packinging it in couple of days ago. I guess I can't complain, the laptop wasn't ridiculously expensive for the performance it had and it lasted me a fair amount of time. Still, I'm much happer with my new laptop. Everything is vastly better - Performance, Battery Life, Weight, Construction, Windows 7 (I never upgraded the Toshiba past Vista). The only downside is a marginal downgrade in the amount of screen real-estate. Despite having a 2GB Graphics card, 15.6 inch screen, 4GB RAM, i7 processor and 750gb HDD it was also pretty inexpensive - cheaper than even the most bare basic Mac laptop at approx $1,200 NZ. Cheers PB Tech.

My team is coming together very slowly. I wrote a basic draft pitch for the game that I have used to approach potential team members with, which is:

Emi Muharu, a sixteen year old Japanese High School Student, has no idea that she is about to be thrust into the front line of a war she thought had been over for forty years.

The year is 1987 and the Mars-based remnants of the Third Reich are in conflict with the Space Navies of NATO and the Warsaw Pact. Bolstered by superior technology and a seemingly endless supply of German war hero clones, the Axis forces have gained the upper hand. Their leader is Adolf III, the reckless teenaged clone of the notorious dictator with malicious designs on Earth.

The weapon of choice for both sides is the Battlesuit, a 30-foot tall bipedal tank equally capable of land and space combat. The Battlesuit was invented by the kindly yet deviant "Professor" Muharu, formerly of the Axis forces but now the captain of the anti-Fascist privateer space vessel Shinano.

The Professor's squadron of elite Battlesuit pilots - the headstrong Karen McDonnell, the philosophical Kaya Mori and the carefree Catgirl Android Neko - are a constant menace to the Axis forces. At the beginning of the story, the Third Reich attempts to kidnap the Professor's granddaughter, setting in motion a series of events that lead to Emi becoming the Shinano's fourth Battlesuit pilot.

Features:

• A fresh gameplay experience that combines relentless First Person Shooter action with tactical planning and precision timing
• A darkly comic storyline that pays homage to the Giant Robot Genre of Anime, and spanning over two hundred pages of script
• Twelve different playable Mechs, each with unique characteristics
• 36 intense missions in three episodes (including a 12 mission free-to-play shareware episode)
• Online co-operative and competition modes

I know the pitch is ridiculous, but it's the game I'm going to make, damn it! Fortunately so far no one has been put off yet!

Well, that's it for today. Stay tuned for next weeks post. Same Battlesuit time, same Battlesuit channel.