Last Update ... For Now

Over the last several months, I've been working on a long term freelance project, out in Los Angeles. Sadly, NDA prohibits my disclosure of ... well... anything. At all. Sadly, this doesn't leave much use for a development blog. Still, With GDC in the near future, I may be able to post my own work again in the near future. Until then!

- Mike

Unity Unity Unity

Well, it's been way longer than expected, but I figure I should post a quick status update. (Be forewarned! Terrible programmer art ahead!) My original physics based puzzle game (from April) in Unity had to go on hold. The studio in Pittsburgh has obligations to existing projects before bringing in external ones. It was pretty far along, but without some sort of contract, I was pretty hesitant to keep investing time into it anyway.

So, since that project was on hold, I started up with another I've been dying to work on. The original concept is based pretty heavily on the movie Red Line. (If you've seen it, it should be pretty apparent the types of issues I was expecting to run into) Specifically, extremely high speeds, and maintaining of fluid controls at said speeds was an issue I tried to tackle first. The char has full customized controls and a very customizable car construction, which supports almost any number of tires (2 -100) and applys drag, and forward momentum accordingly.  





But, as much as I'd like to continue working on this, a good friend of mine let me know they had a Unity project with a fair sized team, and were in need of a programmer. We are building a platformer, with strong references to Megaman, Metroid, and the newest Donkey Kong country remake for Wii. On the team includes several artists I've worked with in the past, and a programmer from Pittsburgh.





So, its been back to the drawing board, for yet another prototype. Although the game design document is still in the early stages of development, there is a large amount of rather generic preparation to be done in setting up Unity. Even early on, the prototype has made considerable headway, but I'll save the gory details for another day. For now, sleep.

GDC and a New Prototype

With GDC wrapping up, and getting ready to head back to LA, I finally have a moment to post an update. As expected, I met some awesome people, saw some very interesting tech, and of course the parties every night. I've started construction of a new game prototype in Unity. At the moment, it is up in the air, as to whether it will be acquired by a studio from PA, so I can't go into specifics. Either way, I should know by mid April, so I will make another update then.

Scaleform Complete

I've just finished my Scaleform demo. I tried to minimize the use of Kismet as much as possible. With the exception of a single trigger, everything is handled by a combination Actionscript 3 and Unrealscript. Unreal passes item data to the interface when it is opened. The flash then handles the information accordingly. Flash also provides handles to pass data back to Unreal, but since this is just an interface, the Unrealscript doesn't do anything with it yet.

In any case  I'm a big Borderlands fan, so I figured I would try and replicate some of their HUD elements. Here is the final result.

Actionscript3 and Unrealscript with Scaleform from Mike McCollum on Vimeo.

Scaleform - Ready to Skin

My project in Scaleform is well underway. It looks terrible, but the functionality is all there. It is also entirely Unrealscript, since I was trying to avoid using Kismet if possible.

When the menu is initialized, Unrealscript loads the player's inventory data, and passes it to the flash file. There is a system in place for easy communication and data passing between the two, in either direction. Additionally, the placeholder art is setup with simple transitions, which should make adding the final effects work down the line, considerably easier.

Here is the skeleton running in UDK. Pardon my programmer art, and terrible placeholder text.

Derek Hetrick just sent me over a pretty awesome interface. I need to revamp the code to handle the layout, but it shouldn't take too long, and time permitting, should be done by the end of the week.

Prototype: Generals

Just an update on a prototype I've just dived back into, out from not too long ago. I was working on a couple options for a top down tactical game. Originally, it was planned as a typical tower defense scenario  We really liked the idea of dynamically generated tracks, and were considering allowing the player to purchase length onto the track, as an upgrade. So, I wrote a small code sample, that could produce a track of any length, and make sure it never loops back in on itself.

Ultimately, we decided to try out using hexes, rather than squares. the project began to shift more into a top down tactical game, rather than a typical tower defense. This meant adding path finding as well. I set up a few options, including A-Star, and node based path finding, which takes elements from both Hammer and Unreal's bot pathing systems. As a final touch up, I added a simple level editor in flex, that would allow me to generate levels far easier.

At the moment, it's just a matter of figuring out what types of games could best make use of this. If all goes well, this will hopefully start up into a new project in a few weeks.

Engine Completion, Updated Demo Reel, and a New Project!

At long last, I can put away the engine for a bit. I've laid down the foundations for data management. This includes systems for saving and loading level data, simple spawn points, and triggered events, and ship load outs. Sadly, I have no way to showcase this, since it's hard to show data management via screenshot. Ah well.

From here, the next step would be actually programming the game. This unfortunately, would not be a wise maneuver. The engine itself, has given me a great deal of insight into many areas I previously had no experience in. (Tools programming, lighting calculation, 3D rendering, graphical APIs and advanced 3d math to name a few) That being said, it is time to move on. There is not much more to learn from this project, and so it is time to say farewell, and put it away for a while.

On to bigger and better things! I've realized firstly, that my demo reel is in dire need of an update. It really only demonstrates my Flash work. Firstly, it needs updated to include my work in UDK, as well as the engine. Additionally, I've started a new project within UDK and Scaleform. Its a complete menu and interface system. I'm going to get the skeleton setup, and pass it to an artist for effects and artwork. (My programmer art is frighteningly bad.)

More updates on the way!