Starting to refactor systems. Split out the enemy wave manager into a ship builder class (build and configure enemies based on type), spawn position solver, and a waveManager (that decides WHEN to spawn WHAT ship). Turns out I need to put more effort in the last part, while the two former worked pretty well.
Did a new enemy type as well. A re-make of the shotgun turret from pewpew5 (that never made it into the game).
Finally got some time for this old prototype again!
Added one more enemy (you can glimpse him in the gif), strolling around and planting mines to hinder your movement!
Turns out that having enemy bullets (and mines) be solid color really messed up your sense of depth. And that is super important in this game! So I changed it to simple lit. Sense of depth is improved, but it looks really ugly now! I need an artist to fix this… =(
Started on a strategy for spawning enemies today. I don’t want you to die becaues they appear from behind our out of your vision, so focus is ahead! Trying to find a good min/max distance forward and curving outward. Wanted to keep it wider to the sides and narrow it down a bit in height to allow for an easier feel when looking around you.
First try:
So many Trumps
Second try is to distribute the enemies more evenly. Try to find large patches of empty spots and avoid where it is already cramped.
More even distribution, no overlaps
This turned out quite well. I can tell you that it feels a bit intimidating watching all those Trump heads stare at you in VR X-D
I also made a new enemy type:
LASER EYES
And here is a very short video of todays progress. Let me tell you that without too much time put into this one, it is already FUN AS HECK!
Really quick dev today. Added a fourth shiptype that bursts out a ton of bullets. I have a good initial setup now! Time to start on spawning them in sequence.
Some more progress, this little VR prototype is going in the right direction indeed!
I needed a way to distinguish the different enemy types, so I just pasted different Trump faces on the cube. Consider it placeholder graphics (even if it is kind of funny) =D
The controls did not “feel” right. Has been working on improving them for a couple of evenings now. Great improvement even if there are still some work to be done.
Got an Oculus Quest a few months back. Love the device, but I’m not overly enthusiastic about the games you can buy. Not to mention that they are very expensive!
So I started writing a small game of my own. A little space shooter/bullet hell with fast, arcade-like gameplay inspired by games like Geometry Wars.
This is the very first progress. Only an hour into the project… good progress for such rapid prototyping. Lots left to do (obviously).
Ship Ohoy! Narrows is a strategy game inspried by games like FTL, but with it’s own spin on it… and on the high seas of course!
I was on the project from the very start, prototyping, production, polish. I worked mainly on the ship view/sea combat. I was the only programmer during prototyping and the fencing mini game, but was involved in almost every part of the game.
This game is very close to my heart. Near the end the game was so much fun to play that development took forever since every time I needed to test something I got stuck playing…
Unfortunately the game is not very easy to get a hold of. At the time of writing this it only exists on Google’s (now discontinued) mobile VR headset Daydream, or Oculus GO. I hope it will get ported onto more platforms!
Three months after the initial release we added Pass and Play functionality to Wonderglade, and at the same time added a new mini-game.
I think it is worth mentioning this update in its own post as Hamster Hoops is (in my own humble oppinion) the very best of all the mini games. In this game the greatness of our team really shined through!
I spent over two weeks just prototyping the controls (turns out throwing basket balls using a 3-DOF Daydream controller is not only more difficult than you can imagine, it’s pretty much impossible), and also working very close with our new, and extremely talented game designer to make the challenge interesting enough. Not to forget the awesome 3d-artists who implemented most of the art during the two days I was home sick with the flu.
Wonderglade is the second game from Resolution Games I worked on (also the second game they released). It’s a collection of mini games in a theme park setting, and it was released for Google Daydream, their mobile vr project. The game was released for free, and has really good ratings!
Screenshot from Google Play Store, taken 25 sept 2017
Today Resolution Games (where I work) have released the game Bait! for Samsung Gear VR.
Relax, catch some fish, upgrade your gear, chat with the local hillbilly.
I was on the team for the last three months of development.
