3DU : The Last Hope

[BeyondCloister]

Here we are again - back at the start of a new thread for a new contest.

Don't get excited - nothing to download yet and there is unlikely to be anything for a while.

So what is the plan this time round?

I aim to work to the three week plan for this contest.

Week One
Get the game play up and running.
Build a couple of levels.

Week Two
Graphical asset creation.

Week Three
Cut scenes and title page.


Time to go off and get the show on the road.

[funkboy]

How much intense work will you do per day? And you have a 40 hour work week in addition to doing this, right?
I hope to enter, too, and I will build my game entirely in Unity. Hopefully things go well!

[BeyondCloister]

I'm looking at doing between 1 and 3 hours per day during the week and 4 a day over the weekends. This is on top of my normal 40+ hour working week.

[BeyondCloister]

The first playable is now available.

Use the arrow keys to move your robot. Use your robot to push blocks out of the way to let the bomb move to the end zone.

Due to the early build nature of this game lots of stuff is missing - such as end game detection.

Enjoy

Download : http://office.asae.co.uk/misc/lasthope001.zip

Sorry for the large download size (16.1 MB) but that is the price of Unity.

[funkboy]

Wow, so a simple Unity game has a 16MB minimum file size? Or was that with a lot of ... um... debug code in? ;)

Looks like a nice, simple concept that can be done in Unity fairly easily. I did have a weird happening when pushing a barrel out of the way: my guy was boosted WAY up in the air, and it took about ten seconds for it to fall back down to the ground. Very strange, not sure what sort of physics were going on there.

Good idea though, I look forward to more of this! (unless, seeing as I'm your competition, I shouldn't be commenting ;) )

[bronxbomber92]

I'm guessing you have left in som of the assets that you didn't use? Or did you delete those?

Anyways, downloading right now :)

[BeyondCloister]

The debug symbols were removed but the textures were not compressed due to their 'it may take a while' warning.

I have since tried the compression and the whole thing zips down to 10.6 MB however that version has not been uploaded due to lack of internet connection.

With regards to the physics - I've no idea what it is doing as Unity is handling all that kind of stuff. I suspect it will be a case of quick to make a game and then months to tweak the physics :(

[OneSadCookie]

62.28s... but I can't help feeling that I should be able to get faster!
59.76...

[aarku]

I'm guessing you have left in som of the assets that you didn't use? Or did you delete those?

Anyways, downloading right now :)
Actually, Unity automatically only includes assets you use in your builds with a fancy dependency resolver.

A blank compressed Universal Binary Unity Player weighs in at about 7.5 megabytes. Hooray for two copies of most libraries.

-Jon

[BeyondCloister]

I forgot to take a note of how fast I could complete the level.
I know that there are creative ways of finishing it quicker but I intend to block them when I make the real levels.

Out of interest, how many levels do you think the game should have for the contest version?

[funkboy]

Don't block the quicker ways to get through the levels! Keeping creativity in the game is a good thing :)

aarku,
are you saying Unity imports many libraries twice and is bloating up the file size for no reason? If true, that's a bit of a bummer.

[MattDiamond]

The debug symbols were removed but the textures were not compressed due to their 'it may take a while' warning.


Note, you only pay this compression cost once per (unmodified) texture. So if you leave compression on the build will be quick after the first time.

[aarku]

aarku,
are you saying Unity imports many libraries twice and is bloating up the file size for no reason? If true, that's a bit of a bummer.
I'm saying they need to ship x86 (Intel) versions along with PPC versions of binaries when you build a Universal Binary. That's exactly what a UB is. Reality is a bummer.

You can build a PPC or Intel only build if you wish, too.

But basically they are shipping a lot of parts of Mono, which in a lot of respects is even more encompassing than Cocoa. And it is fairly large. However, you get a ton of great stuff for free, like ArrayList, Hashtable, Sockets with additional high level interfaces (TcpListener), XML parsing, Threading, great regular expressions (RegEx), and it goes on.

-Jon

[BeyondCloister]

The second public build is now available:

http://office.asae.co.uk/misc/lasthope002.zip

This build comes in at 10.6 MB

New in 002:

* Title page - click the play button if you cannot work it out ;)
* Game ends once level is completed but can be restarted
* More challenges to get past (more blocks and some robots)
* Time display better formatted
* Some physics changes

I can complete this level in 1 minute 47.5 seconds

As always, feedback is welcome.

I hope to have another updated over the weekend but don't hold your breath due to real world distractions.

[BeyondCloister]

Today I received the first version of my in game music. Unfortunately I am unable to upload the new build at present.

I've never noticed the game missing music but the first time I tried it with the sound off after playing the audio version it stood right out.

I've also managed to get my time down to 1 minute 36 - not good when the bomb has a 1 minute 30 seconds fuse!

[BeyondCloister]

The third public build can be found at http://office.asae.co.uk/misc/lasthope003.zip

This build is 12.2 MB.

New this time:

* In game music
* Robots can now intercept and destroy the bomb

On the To Do list:

* Limited time bomb fuse
* More levels
* Title / end of level / end of game music
* Enhanced display
* Special feature items

[BeyondCloister]

The fourth public build can be found at http://office.asae.co.uk/misc/lasthope004.zip

This build is 11.5 MB.

New this time:

* Updated soundtrack
* Bomb countdown
* Level changed
* Untextured alien flying saucer at end of level
* Game now ends when : bomb countdown reaches zero, bomb intercepted or bomb reaches the alien flying saucer.

[mt_maui]

I failed mankind!

Nice - quite a step up from the last build. Pretty challenging though - I couldn't get down to push that last block out of the way in time, I was chasing the bomb from way far back.

[BeyondCloister]

The fifth public build can be downloaded from http://office.asae.co.uk/misc/lasthope005.zip (11.6 MB)

There is now also a Windows build for those stuck at work wanting to play or for those poor Macless people : http://office.asae.co.uk/misc/lasthope-win.zip (7.6 MB)

New this time:

* Visual changes to the game display
* Minor graphical changes
* 3 levels (including training hints)
* More ways to fail mankind

[BeyondCloister]

The sixth build can be downloaded from http://office.asae.co.uk/misc/lasthope006.zip (11.5 MB)

New this time:

* New title screen
* Bomb now emits sparks into the air to indicate its position from a distance
* Explosion when bomb timer runs out
* Graphical changes
* Bomb mass reduced to make it easier to push around

[akb825]

Someone set us up the bomb.
All your base are belong to us. You have no chance to survive, make your time.

Sorry, I had to. :p Pretty nice. That one with the gap was especially challenging. The collision detection could use some work, though, specifically with pushing the bomb. It's rather difficult to push it sideways due to the curvature. Perhaps a square bomb droid? :p

[funkboy]

How about making the player object translucent so we can see what's in front of us easier?

[BeyondCloister]

How about making the player object translucent so we can see what's in front of us easier?

If I knew how to get Unity to make stuff transparent I would but I'm finding it is not always straightforward to do what you want in Unity :(

[akb825]

If you're textures are set to modulate, you could simply add transparency to the texture.

BTW, I noticed that in the third level, 2 of the robots are stuck in the middle of a wall.

[BeyondCloister]

Someone set us up the bomb.
All your base are belong to us. You have no chance to survive, make your time.

I'm sure that would make sense if I knew the reference.

The collision detection could use some work, though, specifically with pushing the bomb. It's rather difficult to push it sideways due to the curvature. Perhaps a square bomb droid? :p

I'm not sure how to improve the collision detection when Unity is handling it all for me. I guess that is the downside of using somebody else's engine instead of writing your own.

[BeyondCloister]

If you're textures are set to modulate, you could simply add transparency to the texture.

I will have to admit that I've no idea what you are going on about.


BTW, I noticed that in the third level, 2 of the robots are stuck in the middle of a wall.

I've noticed that too. Sometimes they get stuck in the wall instead of reversing their direction as the script tells them to :(

[akb825]

I will have to admit that I've no idea what you are going on about.
I have no idea what options Unity gives you, but I'm assuming that one of the options is to modulate the textures, or multiply the texture color with the polygon color. (that way things like lighting show through textures, for example) If it's set like that, and you add transparency to the texture itself, it will multiply the alpha of the model by that amount, and make your object translucent.

However, I don't see any lighting, which leaves me to one (or both) of these conclusions: you have no lighting set up, and/or you set your textures to simply replace the color.

[PowerMacX]

Someone set us up the bomb.
All your base are belong to us. You have no chance to survive, make your time.I'm sure that would make sense if I knew the reference.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero_Wing_(translations)

I've noticed that too. Sometimes they get stuck in the wall instead of reversing their direction as the script tells them to :(

Check this post (wild guess):
http://forum.unity3d.com/viewtopic.php?p=23816#23816

[socksy]

To make something transparent in unity, set the material from diffuse/bumped/specular etc to alpha diffused/bumped/specular etc and change the alpha value of the main colour - if the texture doesn't already have alpha. If you do change the alpha value of the main colour, a bar at the bottom of the colour preview will show how much the alpha is at a glance.

[skrew]

maybe i just suck but i found that really hard to play and control but cool concept. it would be better if the player had a little more control over the bomb say if the robot thingy had talons or wings or something

[BeyondCloister]

maybe i just suck but i found that really hard to play and control but cool concept. it would be better if the player had a little more control over the bomb say if the robot thingy had talons or wings or something

A nice idea. Maybe something for a more expanded version should I take it beyond the contest.

[BeyondCloister]

The seventh, and final, public build can be downloaded from http://office.asae.co.uk/misc/lasthope007.zip

New this time:

* Some graphical changes
* Minor physics changes
* Title screen music
* Success and failure music

Enjoy!

[akb825]

A few suggestions, even though this is your final build:

Cylinder pushing on cylinder still sucks. You really should make the robot square.
Lighting could really add quite a bit to the graphics, and it shouldn't bee too difficult to add.
You appear to be using bilinear texture filtering: use trilinear.
IMO, the bomb goes too slowly on the first level now. It makes it much more difficult to get past the enemy robots.

[BeyondCloister]

A few suggestions, even though this is your final build:

Cylinder pushing on cylinder still sucks. You really should make the robot square.
Lighting could really add quite a bit to the graphics, and it shouldn't bee too difficult to add.
You appear to be using bilinear texture filtering: use trilinear.
IMO, the bomb goes too slowly on the first level now. It makes it much more difficult to get past the enemy robots.

Thanks for your suggestions. I doubt there will be a new version until well into 2007.

The collider on the robot is square and has always been square.

My initial experiments with lighting did not go well - I could not get the ambient lighting to turn down and let the other lighting effects work as I wanted. Due to the limited time available to me I did not take it any further.

I will have to pass on the bilinear vs. trilinear texture filtering as I have no idea what you are going on about and I've left Unity to do all the stuff to do with displaying textures for me. I know that there are no actual textures on any of the models built in Lightwave as the exported objects did not appear as I expected or as in Lightwave.

The bomb picks up speed as it goes. If you give it a bigger run up then it has more than enough speed to pass the robots on level one. Also using the blocks to block the bomb or robots lets you pass them.

[akb825]

Hm, then I guess the colliders in general just suck. It's often overly difficult to push the capsule. I don't know what way there is to improve that, though.

Assuming that the settings for Unity lights follow what's done in OpenGL, you should have ambient, diffuse, and alpha. You'd want to have a directional light from overhead, facing somewhat down. Common values for, in RGBA with a scale from 0.0-1.0, are {0.2, 0.2, 0.2, 1.0} for ambient and {1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0} for diffuse and specular. You'd want to set your textures to modulate (which should be under the texture options, but may be called something different under Unity) Having trilinear filtering should also just be an option for Unity.

I have 0 experience with Unity, but this is how it would work in OpenGL. Since it uses OpenGL at its base, I'm sure that it has high level ways to enable these options without much trouble. I'm sure somebody who has used Unity can give you instructions.

[BeyondCloister]

Out of interest, what spec Mac are you playing it on? I've only developed / played it on an entry level MacBook (1st gen).

[BeyondCloister]

The eighth, and first post contest, public build can be downloaded from http://office.asae.co.uk/misc/lasthope008.zip

New this time:
* Some texture changes
* Lighting changes

Even though the contest is now over I decided to fill a little spare time with playing around with the lighting before moving on to other projects.

[akb825]

I've been playing it on my PowerMac: Dual 2.7 GHz G5, 1.5 GB RAM, Radeon X800. I'm trying out your newest version now.

[akb825]

It looks pretty good with the lighting, good job. I can now finally see some detail on the ship, too. :p

[BeyondCloister]

Screen shots from build 008:


http://office.asae.co.uk/misc/lasthope/pics/lh008_001_t.jpg (office.asae.co.uk/misc/lasthope/pics/lh008_001.jpg)

http://office.asae.co.uk/misc/lasthope/pics/lh008_002_t.jpg (office.asae.co.uk/misc/lasthope/pics/lh008_002.jpg)

http://office.asae.co.uk/misc/lasthope/pics/lh008_003_t.jpg (office.asae.co.uk/misc/lasthope/pics/lh008_003.jpg)