This is the post where I list each Milestone needed for completing the Blow Stuff Up remake. I plan to complete each Milestone in both UDK and Unity before moving to the next step.

I'll also post my results for each Milestone on the blog, and declare either UDK or Unity the winner for that step.

1: Environment

The "World" will be established with an infinitely long, flat plane with a rocky texture. Next the "Island" will be added as a terrain on top of that, hopefully using my existing Heightmap and Texture from the Blitz 3D version.

A blue sky will be set up at this point, hopefully a good looking skybox or skysphere would not be too difficult to add.

2: Water

Another infinitely long plane is established to be water. A thick blue fog will be visible if the camera is underneath the plane, to mimic the effect of being under water.

Having light refract and reflect off the water would be a nice touch, so I will have a play with Unity's and UDK's shaders. Having actual 3D waves would be brilliant, though not entirely necessary.

3: Movement

By this stage it shouldn't be to hard to set up the game's camera to be able to 'Walk' on the terrain. The game needs to be playable with standard FPS 'WASD + Mouse' controls.

I also want to test to see if UDK and Unity have inbuilt solutions for overcoming Gimbal lock, ie being able to rotate an object on all axes independently. Not having an adequate solution to Gimbal lock was one of the key reasons why I ditched Dark Basic for Blitz3D.

4: Buildings

This one might be one of the more complicated steps. In the original Blitz3D version, the buildings were procedurally generated. Random facade and roof textures were applied by the process, and also the heights were set randomly (though buildings near the centre of the city were set to be taller.)

I am not sure about either UDK's or Unity's ability to create meshes during the game, so this one will be interesting to say the least.

5: Weapons (Edit - Made this a separate step)

At this stage I simply want to add guns. I'll just make them out of textured primatives in the engine, one loosely in the shape of a gatlin gun and the other loosely in the shape of a bazooka, and then attach them to the player.

They should also sway slightly while the player is moving, and have recoil when the player shoots.

6: Effects

Now this is where things get fun! Here I'll test out Physics, Explosions, Dynamic Shadows, 3D Sound, Particle effects and the like.

One major enhancement I intend to make over the original Blitz3D version is being able to knock the buildings down on each other, Dominoes style.

7: AI

There are three kinds of Vehicles that now need to be added to the game.

• Cars simply drive through town without turning, although they will back up and reverse if the player is standing in front of them.
• Tanks drive across Terrain from the edges of the Island to hunt out and shoot the Player (or at least, the building he is standing on!)
• Jet fighters roar overhead, releasing accurate bombs that will always hit the Player if he is standing still.

Depending on how I'm going for time, I may look at adding a Fourth - an enemy Battleship, out at sea, that serves as the sort of final boss.

8: Polishing

An introductory text screen will be added to the front of the game, with a concluding text screen for anyone who successfully destroys everything on the Island. GUI elements, such as health and crosshairs, will also be added.

After this stage is complete, I should have at least one new version of the game that is at least on par with the Blitz3D original, and hopefully a heck of a lot better.

And if I don't, then it's definitely back to C++ and Ogre!