Testing with Control Pad

I finally broke down and picked up a Logitech Gamepad F310 today because it was on sale and I needed one BADLY to properly test out my game the way the good game gods intended my game to be played and just as I had suspected it plays like a dream with the game pad. I had to get comfortable with it for a quick moment after having been so familiar testing my game with just the keyboard and mouse which is fine too but the game pad F310 with dual joysticks by Logitech works like a dream, so for all you sissies that were bitching and moaning about how hard the character is to control I say Bah! Yur on crack! Get a game pad for PC and rock the Spud!!

Late Update: It took me a little bit of playing around with my new control pad to figure out how to get it to work in the Unity 3D's game editor but it was a lot simpler that I thought so now I can actually test out in the game editor as well as when my game is exported. Very cool!!

More Scenic Details to Level 03

After tweaking my "Toy Wind Up Robots" for Bud to deal with in the Tree House I started adding some scenic details to level 03. Here you can see "Bud the Spud" with an old beat up box of Mashed Potatoes. Needless to say this is a real WTF moment for Bud. I'm actually thinking of him saying something like that first time he comes across a trashed used box of mashed potatoes. Not really sure what the best way to approach that is yet as I only want him to say it the one time, maybe a game object that activates when collided with and then destroys itself once the audio clip has completed might be a way to go here??

Next I added some "Toxic Waste Barrels" to this muddy bog filled area. Here you can see Bud standing on a hill overlooking just one of the piles of dumped toxic waste barrels. I felt the fog was a little too dense so I've adjusted that which means I'll need to go back to level 02 and adjust it there too, Unless I leave it and figure on it being like the fog has lifted a little between levels, might mean I'll need to play with my sun's azimuth as well maybe??

Robot Character Tweaking

I thought I would take a little time today to tweak my Toy Wind Up Robot Character a little more. You see because he is using a projector for his "Blob Shadow Effect" which works very well for characters that are on the ground but because my toy robots are in the Tree House one of the things I noticed when I was testing out my game is that the projector casts the "Blob Shadow Effect" right through the floor of the Tree House and onto not only the tree below but also the ground. On the ground you do not see it very well because it gets wider and more dispersed the farther away in projects, you can see it clearly projecting through the floor of the Tree House. So I thought I would use my old method of a plane under the robot with the "Blob Shadow Effect" as it works better for this character who is above ground level.

I also added a couple of "Point Lights" to his arms with a "Flicker Script" attached so his lightning bolts will have a bit more of a realistic look to them. I'm going to see if I can find a nice sound effect for little electrical discharges to REALLY make him sweet!

We Love Bud The Spud

A little video capture of some of the game play action in my indie game development projects called "Bud the Spud." In this video you can see many of the changes and improvements I have made along the way from level 01. I've improved the blood splat effect using projectors to ignore the static layer so as when my enemy characters pass through the effect it will no longer project on top of them any more. Also it does not project onto the "Fertilizer Pellets" too.
In this video you can see the damage effect that the "Potato Beetles" take when "Bud" jumps on them and their blood spurt effect. Also witness a very unsuccessfully attempt at jumping over on of the "Hibachi BB Q's" and the burning death "Bud" will suffer as a result. Also shows how he starts back at the levels beginning after such a death.

Wind Up Robots Added to the Tree House

It took me a little while to play around with their waypoints but the Toy Wind Up Robots are now on patrol in the Tree House in level 03 of my "Bud the Spud" game. I was having some problems trying to keep the robot on the top look out deck from wanting to walk towards the waypoints in the actual Tree House, I had to do a lot of experimenting moving them around so as they would not be in line with the ones below. After much tweaking and playing around I think I have something workable. The robot in the Tree House walks along 4 waypoints arranged in a sort of box pattern of 3 sides;

_____
|        |
|        |

Sort of like that across the floor of the Tree House. The robot above walks a similar pattern, it took me some tweaking to get it so as he passes very close the hole in the deck that Bud must fall through onto the tree branch below. That way if he's not looking out and takes to long trying to figure out which angle is best to drop down from and is not aware then a sparking wind up robot will zap him.

Wind Up Robot & Other Discoveries

Well I've had quite the busy weekend with all sorts of tweaking going on and trying to figure out new stuff. One thing that had always been bugging me very badly about my blood splats effects was that because I'm using a top down projector to instantiate blood splats whenever my enemies are killed by "Bud the Spud" although it left behind a very nice blood splat effect that formed well against uneven terrain what would happen was if another enemy say was following close behind and would walk through the blood splat the projector would also project that blood splat on top of the enemy which looked very odd. Also when my enemies died and left behind a "Fertilizer Pellet" for Bud to pick up they too would be covered in blood from the instantiated projector, which I did not mind so much, but my other enemies passing through the effect, well that was another matter and did bother me quite a bit. I discovered over the weekend that if I place my game characters onto another layer like the "static" layer for instance and tell my projector to ignore that layer then it works perfectly. I guess I could make a new layer and call it "Characters" for simplicity. But in any event it works so now my projectors no longer cast a blood splat on top of my enemy characters if they pass through a nice gooey looking blood splat on the floor, How cool is that?

Next up was the challenge of creating my "Wind Up Robot" to patrol around in the Tree House for level 03. I wanted to be able to have him wander back and forth between "Auto Way Points" but I also wanted him to emit sparks that can hurt Bud if he gets hit by them... you might recall me mentioning that was my goal? Well it took me the better part of the day to get it working but I finally got it just how I want it using the "Walker Boys AiPatrol Script." I had to make some changes like "Tag" robot with a name; "robot" and then in the "Controller Collider Hurt Script" I had to add a few if statements and add a few Variables to the "Ai Patrol Script" and Viola! Success!

That particle effect for his sparking lightning bolts was fun too, I might tweak it a little more to add a secondary effect for a small shower of sparks to accompany the lightning bolts, I'll see ;) But what I've got works very well and now I have a walking wind up toy robot that will patrol and inflict damage, he does not attack Bud deliberately as he is simply a wind up toy but he'll dish out a good 35 damage which more than makes up for his lack of intelligence ;)

Level 03 Developments

I've had some good stuff happen today and I've had a lot of frustrations as well. First off I spent a good deal of the day today trying to figure out why every time I baked my light maps using the Beast light mapper in Unity 3D that all of my materials that are being effected by the light maps seem to loose not only their specular properties but also the Bump mapping or "Normal Maps" as Unity calls them get lost, deactivated or no longer seem to have the desired effect?? I spent a lot of time searching for an answer to that problem and I think it's just another one of those if you want light maps and bump maps it's a Pro Only feature... another way to stick it to us struggling artist who are desperately trying to accomplish something half descent on a next to nothing budget Grrrrr. Maybe I'm wrong but none of the answers I managed to find so fare point otherwise :(

I did however FINALLY manage to figure out how to get that blasted lens flare effect for the sun. That was another thing I thought certain was a pro only feature. So I'm somewhat happy that I can do that cool effect at least.

I did a lot of playing around with lighting today using Beast, adjusting my directional light and playing around with my setting trying to see if I can get my level lighted nice before I go too nuts adding all the other stuff into the level. Here you can see "Bud the Spud" standing on the top lookout of the Tree House with that nice sunlight lens flare behind him. I added some more trees, rocks and some bushes to the terrain and placed in an extra health pickup just to work out his jumps across the rocks to get it and get that part working right. I'm still trying to figure out how to get him to make a tighter turn around for when he is standing on small rocks or branches as this would greatly improve his being able to climb up the ladder boards of the Tree House.

Tomorrow I'll see about getting the "Wind up Toy Robot" happening.

Tree House Placement

Took me a while to add all of the foliage planes to my model and then once I got the model into Unity 3D I had to change each material to the "Big Tree" texture materials in unity manually which took a while as I had to do each one separately and there are close to 200 of them. Then I had to go in and remove their colliders as they are not needed here.

While giving it a testing to see how difficult it would be for "Bud the Spud" to climb up the ladder to get into the tree I found it a bit difficult with just the mesh collider alone so I created a few empty game objects and gave them box colliders, tweaked them into position and scaled them to fit each ladder board. It makes it a lot easier to climb now although once he is at the top of the ladder it a bit tricky trying to jump onto the branch so I may need to make a small wooden board nailed to the tree branch to serve as a place to jump onto just to make that a lot easier because although it can be done it does not feel or look quite right as he kind of lands on the side of the branch which looks a bit awkward. I'll see about making a small extra model that I can just import and place into position and adjust as needed.

I place the 2nd key pick up in the location I wanted for it. You would really have too look for this one which is just what I want a bit of a hunting challenge for my players. But I'll mention a little clue here. On the lookout platform there is a hole in the floor that Bud can drop down through onto branches below ;)

I have to add a lot more decorations and things to do in this level but I'm trying to keep this one as simple as I can, that last level was much larger than I had expected it to be which kind of surprised me because there is not really that much to do in that level.

• Explore it a bit
• Find the two keys
• Pick up a Health pick up
• Pick up a Extra Life pick up
• Kill Worms & Potato Beetles
• Jump over two Hibachi BB Q's
• Use the ball to get on top of the 3rd wall
• Find the exit

See not that much at all. This level it's more get across the mud bogs safely, kill Worms and Potato Beetles, climb the tree into the Tree House and find the two keys, make it the rest of the way across the mud bogs to the exit and you're done level 03 :)

Level 03 Tree House WIP Continued

In continuing with yesterdays post I thought I would keep you up to date on how the Tree House is coming along. I've been busy all day mostly just adding the foliage to the tree. Because it's going into Unity 3D in my game environment I figure I might as well use the "Big Tree Leaves & branches" from the standard terrain assets pack. Because Max does the transparencies a little differently than in Unity I had to make a new reversed transparency map from the alpha channel in the unity "Big Tree Leaves & Branches" PSD files and use that in order the get the same effect you see here in my Max render using "Mental Ray." As you can see I've added some more branches to the tree and started to texture a few of the simple things like the tin roof that only needed a simple box texture mapping. I'll see if I have time to do the UVW texture mapping for things like the tree house parts and the tree trunk but that will depend on how much longer it will take me to add some more foliage to the tree, I still want to fill it out a little more in a few areas, but overall it's coming along nicely I think.

I was trying to think of things one might see in a tree house although I could not think of much outside of a few things like wooden boxes to sit on, an old cable cart for a table, a crude wooden bench, and maybe some comic books. Maybe some toy blocks on the floor and the occasional cola can. I'll have to see if I can search the Internet and see if I get some ideas from there.

Level 03 Treehouse WIP

Here is a sneak peek at the Tree house "Bud the Spud" will have to climb in level 03 of my game. Level three takes place in a muddy bog filled area with a tree house located at the center. Bud will have to fight worms and potato beetles on the way to the tree house along with trying not to fall into deadly mud bog goop, climb up into the tree house and find two keys located inside that will unlock the exit door to this level. Inside of the tree house bud will also have to deal with a few rogue toy windup robots which should be not too much trouble as these robots are only stupid wind up toys that patrol back and forth across the floor, they will however on occasion emit sparks that can hurt Bud if he gets hit by them. Well that's my basic scenario for level three. I figured I'd share a sneak peek at the tree house model's work in progress (WIP) exclusively here on my blog.

Character Control Note: Based on the opinions of some of those who have test played my game I've been looking more closely at the character controller system, I've made a few tweaks, (not yet uploaded) and he seems to have a more tighter control now.

Level 02 Completed!!

Level 02 is basically done, I was hoping over the weekend to have it uploaded to the game test site but I was having some issues with it every time I tried to export the game to a web player. I just don't get the problems, my game is only two levels in size!! What about when it starts getting to around 10 or 20 levels in size?? Are they trying to tell me that the "Indie version of Unity 3D" cannot handle a game bigger than 1 or two levels?!? I just can't see that being the case I think my problem is in the optimization area still, or perhaps in the way I have it set up to handle all of my games assets. Still so much to learn with this stuff.

• First I kept getting an "Out of Memory Unity Editor Host View On GUI ()" error every time I tried exporting my game to a web player.
• Every time I tried to add the mud bog haze particle effect to the mud bogs in level 02 they would act strangely, they kind of "Wink" on and off for lack of a better description. At first I thought it might only be in the editor so when I was finally able to get a web player version exported to test I noticed it still did this strange "Winking" in and out?? So I may have to just NOT use the haze in that level. :(
• When I was finally able to get a web player version exported my file size is now a whopping 60 MB in size!! How the hell is anybody ever supposed to play that on line?? I went through and optimized my textures to a low a resolution as I could before they start to look really crappy, I've nothing bigger that 1024 X 1024 and 512, 256 and smaller wherever I can get away with it. My music is all set to "Stream From Disk" except for my sound effects (I'm not sure what the recommended practice is for small sounds like that)

So those are my BIG GIANT ISSUES right now other wise you fine and somewhat patient folk would be having a good go at level 02 of my game by now :( I can attempt to upload the 60 MB file and see if that works but I just can't see that.

The other issue is that blasted "Load Bar" which I still can't seem to find any help on whether or not it's doing what it's supposed to which I don't think it is because it does not go all the way to the end, it just suddenly loads the game after only moving a little ways along?!? Should it not go all the way to the end at a certain speed to indicate how much of the game is remaining to be loaded?!? At least the freaking load bars I've seen perform that way!!

Sorry for the rant it's just so many things about these projects tend to REALLY piss me off and frustrate the living crap out of me.

Feedback from Deviant Art

I was checking out my "Deviant Art" this morning and got some feedback on my game from another DA member and figured I'd share it here as it's here that it would do the most good I feel.

~RealTimeBrush2 hours ago

An interesting little game but I believe there are some problems with it in my opinion.

1) The controls are difficult to use, the independent camera rotation and movement takes quite some getting used to, I 'suspect' with its casual nature and delivery people may not give it the time to get used to the controls.
2) The way the character circles when reversing makes it impossible to backup if you get too close to the edge of a rock or platform. I found alignment with the jump target difficult with the degree of turn too.
3) Even in this demo the lack of a save or check point is quite frustrating. In the puddle again back to the start.

 

 

I agree with a lot of what the poster has said and I do sort of have plans to change a lot of these issues as the game develops. That having been said, while testing out the game I've gotten quite used to the way the controls work and myself using the keyboard controls which in my opinion are no match for a good control pad with dual controls for both player and camera. I've had no problem learning how the character works and have adapted just like any player would to any game situation or play type scenario. I've played plenty of games that I hated the way the controls worked. For instance the original Mario on regular Nintendo I just hated that the character did no stop on a dine, that he would kind of keep moving after he landed. I eventually got used to it but at first I just hated it. I really loved the Super Nintendo versions of Mario that cam out much later. And even though I've only played it once the 3D Mario I loved. It's the 3D Mario that my game is basically based off of BTW ;) At least as far as character control and independent camera controls go. And yes it does take a bit of getting used to. But that can be said for so many games yes? I personally think it just adds to the challenge of the game. I find that when I'm just testing it out I can't help but keep playing even if I dye in a puddle it's like "Oh Drat!! I gotta do that again!!" And off I go to try for that key again.... "What am I doing?!?" I keep saying to myself... I only wanted to test out my new Bug Splat effect near that far Hibachi BBQ! Doh... But yeah, what happens in most games, you die because you mucked up, you start over right? At least in most of the games I've played. But he is certainly right about a save point about half way up the level... I can do level 01 usually with no problems but an auto save point of some kind about half way up would be pretty handy I would imagine... and who knows... maybe I'll make one, maybe not??

Potato Beetle Damage

FINALLY!! Some headway today! With Chad Walker's help from "Walker Boys Studio" I was able to get my Potato Beetle characters to take two hits from bud before they are killed. The first hit makes them do a nice little gooey blood spurt and then they look damaged, the 2nd hit kills them with a bigger blood splash and they leave behind a nice gooey mess. I'm using a projector for that still as it makes the blood splat go over the bumpy terrain more effectively than the instantiated plane with a transparent texture map that I was using several weeks back on my enemy worms. So that little bit is done, took me all day to figure it out. Code stuff that an experienced coder would just buzz through in seconds takes me all day to figure out Grrrr...!! Oh well... we live and learn ;)

Level 02 Additions and Optimization

Sorry I didn't post an update yesterday but I was swamped trying to figure out some stuff. First it took me the better part of the day to work on and then texture map my exit door area for level 02 of my game. Not sure why really, I had made a good start on the actual model before going to bed on Thursday night so basically all I had to do was add a few more details and then texture map it but the texture mapping too quite a while to do for some reason. Finally when that was done I managed to make it so you have to jump on the "Potato Beetles" twice in order to kill them. I had some great help from Chad Walker of "Walker Boys Studios" on the scripting for that, he pointed me in the right direction and I was able to get it so you jump on the beetle once and you get a nice enemy pain sound a "Squishy" bug blood spurt sound as well and then on the 2nd jump he splats and leaves behind a nice gooey mess.

I had some other issues with Unity Crashing on me every time I tried to save out as a web player version. I kept getting some "Fatal Memory Error message" and then Crash!! I think it might have been due to a lot of the massive 2200 sized texture maps I had imported into Unity, I'm so used to working in the print industry where you always need the highest resolution images possible that sometime it's difficult for me to think in terms of "smaller is best" when it comes to game engines. I just always want to see super sharp detail in my textures. So I expect a good deal of the morning making then no bigger that 1024 X 1024 and smaller wherever I could get away with it.

Above Right: you can see "Bud the Spud" about to head across the final deadly mud bog in level 02 towards the exit. It's kind of had to see in this screen capture as I wanted to show the path he must take in order to get there. I promise I'll post a good shot of the level exit area later on today. But first I want to see in on my "Potato Beetle" I can make it so that after Bud has jumped on him the first time he will look damaged. Chad Walker had mentioned in his email that a change in the texture map material might be a way to go, and I have seen that done before, I just need to figure out how that is done.

Final Mud Bog Areas in Level 02

I finally got the final two deadly mud bog areas worked out in level 02. Here we can see Bud the Spud standing on top of a tin foil wrapped potato baking on the Hibachi overlooking one of the final mud bogs. You can see the key sitting on the cinder block in the middle of the bog, you can also see an extra health potato leaf pick up item as well hovering in the air over another cinder block below. In the next image you can see it as well.

In this screen capture you can see Bud the Spud has made his way onto the cinder block in the middle of the deadly mud bog and is about to grab the final key. I made these jumps a lot simpler as I know retrieving the first key from the mud bog located across the paving stones is a much more difficult jump series, getting across the first few rocks is no problem but landing on that toadstool in the middle of the bog takes a bit of practice I found. So I figured I'd give my players a bit of a break with this 2nd key retrieval scenario. There is one more mud bog to cross on the way to the exit pipe which I've still yet to work out. I'm thinking maybe perhaps a grungy wooden board in front of the pipe like a crude wall with a small door located at the mouth of the pipe with crudely painted text that says "EXIT."

I've still yet to add some direction signs and maybe those helpful butterflies I was talking about in an earlier post. I might try and do those with a particle system that has animated particles just like the Fire flies in the Underground level. Perhaps I'll see if I can get to that tonight. Oh as you can see I did make that "Drainage Pipe" I was telling you about to help justify why the Bud cannot jump off other right side of the wall, I think it turned out very well and does the job pretty good ;)

Potato Beetles Added to Level 02

I've been working hard on getting the Potato Beetles into Level 02. Could not figure out how to get my characters to work with the Way Points. The Walker Boys Scripts are set up way different than how I'm used to with my "Alien Zombies" project which was based off of the first person shooter tutorial on Unity 3D's web site. So for now I'm just going to have to settle for them working the same way the worms do in level one, on the plus side though at least I can adjust character speed, damage and a whole bunch of other stuff to make them a bit more of a challenge.

I have them placed here and there on top of the brick topped wall in the yard. These guys dish out 35 damage to Bud the Spud and are a lot quicker than the Worms. I have a few in the grass along with a few Worms as well. I was trying to figure out also how to make it so Bud would have to jump on a Beetle twice in order to kill it but so far no luck on that, more script studying is definitely in order. I did give him a more juicier "Splat Death" for when Bud does jump on them, it's quite tasty looking as you can see below. You especially have to love it if you kill one right by the edge of the wall. Because I'm using a projector it looks like his blood splatted all over the edge of the wall and ran down the face of the wall to the ground below, very yummy looking if you ask me ;)

One more thing I want to try and do today before calling it a day is do a drainage pipe running along the top of that last third brick topped wall to justify the character not being able to jump off the right side of the wall back into the yard. If I can get that done before bed time I'll be a happy little maniac lol ;)

Potato Beetle Testing & Set Up

OK I've made my animation for the Potato Beetle, they are pretty simple nothing too complicated. I was checking out some insect footage on YouTube last night before I called it a day and hit the hay to check out a little about how beetles actually walk. I've got something pretty close I feel. I gave him his attack animations, idle state, die, target enemy, run, and walk. So that part is done. I've set up his character controller and added his foot effects for when he walking on various types of surfaces his feet will make sounds and kick up a little dust as he moves. I gave him his blob shadow projector and assigned his enemy controller script. I'm trying to figure out his Auto way points because ideally I would like this lil guy to wander back and forth between two point across the wall tops in level 02 and attack Bud when he gets near. Right now it seems like that if I assign the way points script he ignores his attack range and leaves bud alone except to run right over him like a run away truck! lol If I remove the way points script then he performs just as he is supposed to from an "idle state." Hmmmm I think I might have to take a look at how I did the AI in my "Alien Zombies" game which is on temporary hold right now until I can get some help with that project as it's super complicated compared to my "Bud the Spud" game.

But yeah, just gotta work out those little issues which I think are minor and I'm hoping to have this lil guy placed into Level 02 by the end of the day. I have to make a nice bug splat for him just like the worms but different, bigger and juicier if ya know what I mean ;)

Cartoon Potato Beetle

Just finished the texture mapping for the Cartoon Potato Beetle which is Bud's new enemy to deal with in level 02. Just like all of the other characters I've given him a decidedly hand painted texture map. I'm just now in the process of giving him Bones in Max 8 and rigging him for animation. I thought I could use a Biped, I was pretty sure there was a horse or dog biped option but buggered if I could find it, character rigging and animation is not really my strong spot. lol

I ended up just creating individual bones so I'm hoping that will work. Once I get him rigged I'm going to scope out YouTube for some insect footage and see if I can determine how six legged insects walk so I can better mimic his motion in Max 8. It does not have to be exact, in fact if he's a little more original and animated when I'm done that will be perfect as it will give him a more characteristic walk I figure.

Next will be his attack animations and killed animation which will no doubt precede the "Splat" when "Bud the Spud" jumps on him for a nice meaty "Squish!" Then will come the scripting in Unity 3D and character controller so he'll be able to perform his animations and interact with his environment.

Cartoon Potato Beetle WIP

A sneak peek at the Cartoon Potato Beetle I'm developing for my "Bud the Spud Game." Just a WIP right now but he's starting to shape up nicely, big and plump just the kind of thing Bud will want to squish when he jumps on them just like the Worms in level 01.

I've never animated a beetle or anything with six legs before so I'm sure this is going to be fun. I have a few ideas on how insects actually walk but I'm not sure, maybe there is some video on YouTube I can study to get a better clue as to how I should have this lil guy move. I do need to make his antenna and texture him fist before I get into the whole rigging him and animating bit. I'm going to try and use another Biped as I seem to have better luck with those that fiddling about with the bones option, I never seem to get the hang of it right. But I'm pretty sure I should be able to use a custom biped and just move things around a bit.

Character BlockerWalls

I added some more eye candy to the scene in the form of these functional "Character Blocker Walls." I originally thought just having the bushes there was justification enough for why the character could not go over the other side of the wall but it just seemed kind of funny when I was testing out the game so I thought maybe I need some kind of fence or railing, or wood structure, maybe even more brick walling that is higher in the back, just something to really justify the characters restriction of movement within his 3D environment. So I came up with these boards of wood mounted to the back of the wall on long metal posts. I got the idea when I was out for my walk and looking at various fences in people's yards. I remembered seeing something like this last year when I was out on my bike doing some garage sale hunting last summer and thought; "Yeah... that's what I need here." It works very well for this portion of the wall but over on the 2nd Hibachi BB Q that Bud will have to cross on the 3rd wall I have it on one side but I need to come up with some way to justify restriction of not being able to go off the other side of the wall?? Maybe a drainage pipe or something?? Not yet sure on that.

I need to start making the "Potato Beetle" as they are introduced in this level as a new enemy for "Bud the Spud" to have to deal with. I also need to make a few bricks to use as character blockers in some areas as well like in behind the backs of the Hibachi BB Q's.