I Finally Figured It Out

Okay, so I was browsing YouTube just a few minutes ago and looked at my videos for some reason. After that I looked at an old video I posted for the game just for shits and giggles. While I watched the video I noticed something. I noticed why I don't like the game anymore. I don't like it because it's too face paced. Everything is really fast and you can't get close to your enemies, they are simply distant objects that you shoot. I think the reason I liked it before was the fact that you could get up close with the enemies. There was an actual danger of hitting the enemies before that there isn't now. Now you fly a good distance away from the enemies. For this reason I want to bring back the slow motion ability. It would take to long to implement and people would get mad though. So I won't.

The video I'm talking about is here:


Until next time

Oh yeah, who's the Russian dude that's always searching for this blog?

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Escaping details

Hello again everybody,

You know that feeling when you are close to finishing something but there are only small things to do left? That's pretty much me right now. Except I have a lot of really small things to do. Some of which I don't want to do at all. Basically because it takes a while to do these said things.

Off the top of my head I need to:

• Make the rest of the sky boxes
• Make the settings in the main menu have sensitivity options.
• Remove the sound button from the pause menu
• Possibly add sensitivity to the pause menu
• Make enemies look like they're shooting 

Now that I think about it, that's not much stuff to do at all. I'm going to get cracking on it and see where it takes me. Then I'll remember 10 other things I need to do.

Until next time 

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Well, that took longer than expected

Hello errbody

Yesterday I put on the last touch of what I wanted on version 1.2. All of the changes include a cinematic camera mode, changed skybox for Earth that actually has stars in it, and changed pointer dealy-os. I think that's pretty much it aside from a few tweaks here or there. A change I want to implement in the future is a tutorial that teaches you how to fight, even if it doesn't let you fight and simply tells you. After that I would like to put in skyboxes that have stars in it for all of the maps and not just Earth's. After that I don't really have much else to do other than add sounds which won't happen, I want to see how people will respond to a relatively realistic space game that has no sounds or explosions with flames.

Now I have to go and figure out what I haven't studied for good enough and study it.

Until next time

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The Clunk

Hello all!

I just wanted to update you guys on what we will be working on for the next couple of weeks.

First off I don't exactly want to work on what I've been working on lately. It starts to get a bit bland after a little while. Because of this I have started working on the cinematic camera mode again. However, I am approaching it differently this time. Instead of having a bunch of different cameras that will turn on and off when needed I will have one camera that I tell where to go. So, for example, if I am flying next to a wall the camera will attach to the wall and watch the player from there until A. they are out of sight or B. they are too far away. After that the script will calculate a new position to place the camera and so on and so forth.

After I get that done I will go back to the tutorial and fix that stuff up. I don't really like to do that type of stuff now though. I found out why this is and I will try to explain to the best of my ability.

Okay, imagine you are going to make a building all by yourself. You have the basic ideals of how to make a building down and everything so you just start building your building. You start adding the foundation and then the supports and the walls. As you build you find flaws in your building design though. You don't have time to fix these flaws so you just build around them, making an even clunkier building. This goes on for a while and you start finding flaws in even the places that you built around flaws with. Eventually you don't even want to work on this building anymore because it feels dangerous to even set foot inside of the building. The building just feels like a mess. You know have enough knowledge to make a building from the foundation up the correct way, yet you have to finish this building first before going on to the next building.

This is the stage that I'm at right now. I would like to write more about it but I need to get to bed.

Until next time

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Beta!

Hello guys,

Yesterday I updated the Beta to version 1.1. I added in a tutorial map that you must play before you play any of the maps. It's basically just for setting your sensitivity for the accelerometer. I also added Justin's name to the credits. I completely forgot about him. That sounds mean. I didn't exactly forget about him, I forgot he helped us with concept art. Is that better? Anyway, I added his name to the list, moved an asteroid, and found out how to save stuff. Expect stats to be saved more in the up coming updates. I would like to save stats, like best score and what not. I would also like to save the calibration so if the device is dropped or not in the range of calibration while the game is starting we can simply use the saved calibration for the calibration for that time around. Also, another thing about saving stats. Float variables don't save correctly for me when I use player prefs in Unity. The way I got around this was multiplying the variable I wanted to save by 1000 then saving it as an integer. When I asked for it back I just divide it by 1000 again and apply it. I may loose some data this way but if I need more data I can just multiply by a bigger number.

A thought that I have been having for the game is a race mode. I won't add it until a little bit later when we have all of the main glitches fixed and finish the tutorial level. Which could take about a month at this rate. I'm not sure if I would just want to release the game then though. Probably not, I think of us kind of like Valve. We take a while to do stuff, but in the end it will always work good. It won't be half assed. At least what I do won't be half assed. What Patrick does might be half assed. I don't get why he doesn't spruce up his models now though. He has time to do it because I am taking a little while on this game. It would be kind of a pain to update all of the models though, so it might be for the better...

Anyway,  I have to go get my Calculus homework done.

Until next time

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I'm done, I'm finally done

Hello all,

Okay, so I just took the second part of my final for AP Comp Sci. 100% sure that I failed it. I don't care though. I just want this stupid class to end. It doesn't teach you much of anything that you can't just find on the internet. All of the resources are actually free. Yep, that's right. 100% free. The teacher it only there to grade your shit you fail. Honesty, if you wanted to take this class you could download the book and away you go. Learning what AP Comp Sci students learn without even having to spend 1 cent of yours, or the states money. Complete joke.

Anyway, we have currently, as of this morning, got 28 total user downloads and 19 current devices that have the game on it. This is a steady climb from yesterday with 9 current devices. So if you are sharing our game, please continue to do so to get it out there and get our name out there. You guys are awesome :D

We are also making a tutorial map to help teach how to play the game. Some special scripts need to be made and what not. So this map should be done in maybe 2 weeks. Actually more than that, because I have to go work for my dad again. Time to say goodbye to efficient game development and good Calculus grades, and time to say hello to mostly constant anger :D

Until next time

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Beta?

So, for the last few days I have been setting up the game for a beta release this weekend. I only have to change a few things in game, take a few screenshots and make a video for the page. I have also successfully communicated with our website, which is freaking awesome. Hopefully I won't have to take that feature out due to DDOSing the server, then again, hopefully I do. Actually, that would suck. At least we know a lot of people would be playing the game then :D

Anyway, I need to go take a few debugging things out of the game and change up some maps. Then it's onward to beta!

Until next time.

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Well... That didn't go as planned

Hello again everybody!

So, we haven't actually released the game yet due to a lot of hectic stuff I have been doing lately. Such as finishing an AP Comp Sci class in a week. It's pretty easy mainly because programming is just adding on new things you can do then incorporating that into your code. Pretty easy if you know what you are doing. So there's that class and Calculus which is anally raping me so I have to study it pretty much every day, also the final for Calc is coming up soon too so I have to prepare for that. I am feeling good for that though because I have a lot of the 'Calculus' down, I know how to do Calculus. It's just the stuff I will have to memorize that will get me. Like the derivative of Cos(x), that one is easy, it's just -Sin(x). The ones that will get me are like the derivative of Tan(x) and Csc(x) and those other different ones.

Anywho, I should be getting back to development after all of the finals are done. My schedule should die down a little bit. With Comp Sci out of the way it should be smoother sailing. All of my other classes are easy, such as SIG, English, POE (joke of a class), Physics. Then I can set my sights on Calc.

Also, I had the feeling that our game isn't enough of a game to release it yet. I'm not sure if people will want more of a game, more features and flashing lights. Maybe we should just release it and see if people do actually want a hard game that goes until you die. A game like the classics, but better graphics. Our game would be akin to space invaders. That's a nice thought, we made a space invaders remake.

Until next time

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These maps are too damn big!

Hello,

So, I have made a butt load of progress today. I have set up all the maps, they still have some glitches though. Some glitches include not having the icon over the enemy when the player is looking straight at it. Another glitch is a fucked up rocket lock script. Which is weird because I have re written that script about 3 times over. Very strange indeed. All of the other problems come mainly from shitty map designs. All of the other maps that I haven't completely re-worked are very bulky. Although they do look cool, there is no flow to them at all. So I am planing on going back though and positioning some parts of the map differently so they are more linear and lead the player to optimal positions better. Our first/main map does this quite nicely I do believe.

So yeah, I need to fix a few glitches and fucked up map designs and it's off to the races for us. Oh, yeah. I also need FUCKING SOUNDS. PATRICK DO THE FUCKING SOUNDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are finishing the game in 5 days. 5 FUCKING DAYS! Just do it!

Anyway...

Ahem...

Until next time...

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Woaaaaaaaah

Hello,

Today I finally made the push to do stuff that I didn't exactly want to do. Such as making a game over screen and making a points system.

I finally forced myself off of Reddit and put my resources towards game development. Once I redirected myself I started on the points system because I already had the framework down. I just had to make it put on points when an AI ship was killed.

Then I went on to do the game over screen which was a little easier to do than I though it was going to be. I had to tie in the game over screen into the GUI setup I had going on. After that I set up what would happen after you die from anything. Basically the camera detaches from the ship and floats/bounces out in space. Quite a good time.

I also cleaned some stuff up, such as the exit button at the beginning of the game which wasn't actually set up on the right game object. Now I just need to finish the whole main menu.

The game play seems to be down good enough and setting up maps should be able to get going here. That may or may not take a while, depending on how many of Patrick's mistakes I have to fix.

Until next time.

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Holy what the poop

Hello all,

So I decided to make a post because we almost got into a train wreck that could have thrown this whole game off course and potentially never finished. So what happened is I came home after going to the eye doctor, booted up my laptop, and started up Unity 3D for some ass kicking time. Then I took a nap and came back to my laptop after about an hour and browsed Reddit and YouTube for a few hours. Then I went over to Unity and saw some red text and the bottom. This usually means something is wrong in a script or something, so I looked at it and it said about 7 of our most major scripts were no longer in the project. This includes the script that makes the AI move, makes you move, makes the AI avoid collision, etc. I immediately went to my Google Drive where everything is backed up. I went to where on of the scripts are stored and found that it was an old version. Damn it. Wait, what if they are in the recycle bin? So I opened the recycle bin and there they all were, along with them were some skybox materials and other random files. How they got there, I have no idea.

The game is almost back to a working state, I just have to reapply the scripts to the prefabs that need them. The values are still stored so when it knows where to get instructions from it will go back to working just fine. Just a small inconvenience, nothing much.

Quick Edit: Got it back to a working state, if something is still screwed up I will find out later. Anyway, ONWARD TO DEVELOPMENT!

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SUCCESS

Hello all! I have very good news today I just got verified for Google Gheckout! We can now publish games for actual money now! One step closer to publishing the game!

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No more nonsense

Hello all,

So, a couple of things have changed since my last update. The really big news is that I don't have to work anymore, yey! This doesn't guarantee more homework getting done, just because I have 2.5 more hours to work on the game, that doesn't mean I have 2.5 more hours for homework. I just have more time to do what I please, homework or programming.

The other news I must share is our developer console being set up. Yesterday Patrick took the bull by the horns and made a developer console for NewStream Software. This means we can publish games that are free. We can't publish paid for games yet because we still new a Google merchant account. We do still have a pre-alpha 'sale' page being put up, we just need some fancy graphics and stuff. Although we are going to name it a very obscure name so it isn't found amongst the normal games.

As for development I haven't gotten much farther on it. I seem to have hit an invisible barrier. There is a glitch in the game that makes the AI invincible. Even though everything looks good. It's very strange but is probably an easy fix. I am going back and forth between that glitch and getting the cinematic cameras scripts and what not set up. After that all of the glitches are just annoying little things, of course I will fix them because I love games that are very smooth. I just don't need to fix them to make alpha/beta testing possible.

Until next time


Edit: I didn't realize Patrick already did an update. Oh well, just some stuff from the development side of things.

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A big push

Hey, so last night Grant and I made a push towards publishing the game. I set up a merchant account we have published our developer name payed the $25 fee and we have a Pre-alpha ready to go. Also yesterday I had the game downloaded on my phone and it is beautiful. Earlier builds of the game that I had used were choppy but this one is smooth....very smooth. We should all give Grant a big ol' hug and give him a pat on the back this game is imminent to being released.

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What is this black magic?

Hello again,

So, yesterday I was diking around and watching stuff on YouTube and Netflix. Then on YouTube I heard of the movie Indie Game: The Movie. It was on Netflix so I watched it and actually gained some pretty useful knowledge.

So I finished the movie and went back to programming, then I remembered a scene in the movie where someone had a black background for their code. I wondered if I could do that with MonoDevelop and I found out that I can. So I downloaded some files, changed some XML values, changed syntax highlighting and BAM. Black background. The reason for black backgrounds usually is so you can read it at night without it hurting your eyes, it also makes you as productive as fuck. Holy shit, I fixed so much stuff within a few mere hours. I was on fire, I still am on fire. Just tonight I fixed a glitch and was gunning to fix two more when I realized I needed to get some homework done. Stupid homework, always ruining all the fun.

Now, by just mentioning homework I have to go on a rant about the downright stupidest class I have ever taken, POE. POE, or Principles of Engineering, through Project Lead the Way is the most poorly set up class in existence. Some reasons include, a shitty teacher, math that is so structured it isn't math anymore, and math built up around plug-and-play. First off, the shitty teacher isn't necessarily the teacher's fault even. The teacher has to go to a 2 week long training course for the class, 2 WEEKS. You can't teach someone how to be an engineer in 2 weeks. It's just not possible. As for the math portion, it isn't even math. They don't tell you how or why stuff works they just throw a bunch of variables at you while yelling 'learn this you piece of shit'. Then you're sitting there with a bunch of variables struggling to 2 and 2 together because of their shitty teacher + shitty concepts = success plan. As for the plug-and-play system, that's the worst way ever to teach math. They don't teach math, they teach formulas and how to use a calculator. Sure it's fine for stuff that's pretty straight forward such as trigonometry, but for thermodynamics they just throw variables and functions at you and expect you to learn. They didn't even explain heat capacity, you can't teach thermodynamics and the math behind it without even mentioning one of the most important parts of it.

Well, that's my daily rant.

Until next time

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Ok, actual gameplay advancements this time

Hi,

My last post was my bipolarity showing through, I'm not actually diagnosed as bipolar but I'm sure I am. I feel like laughing all day long at one point, then killing everybody I encounter.

Anyway, actual gameplay improvements have just occurred, I just moved the player spawn closer to the actual map. Maybe that will convey the message that you need to stay next to the BIG FUCKING FLYING THING THAT HAS SHIT TO SHOOT AT FLYING AROUND! I swear, everyone that I have given this to play flies toward earth like they can land on it, they actually ask if they can go to earth. This is an android game, do you honestly think you can go to earth? Maybe I should have made a crappier render of the earth then, something that actually looks like you can't go there, it just has extremely shitty textures and everything.

What we are planing to do now however is making a huge sphere around the arena that will stop you from flying away, you can act like you are flying away but the AI will come and anally rape the fuck out of you. Ah, trolling, never gets old. It also teaches the players that they are indeed fucking retards.

Until next time

Grant Oberhauser - :D 

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Back to work, for a moment

Hello all,

It's 11:17 on Saturday night and I am beginning development for the day after having to work for my dad, again. I'm not going to get into that whole subject again, you can find my feelings on that whole issue in other posts. I also procrastinated be watching The Walking Dead on Netflix, completely legit excuse. I also browsed reddit for a few hours. The truth is I feel completely drained and I don't want to work on this at all, I just want it to finish it's self and leave me alone. I am also feeling anger and fear and the same time, which is quite a weird experience. I am angry at the circumstances, that I can't work on this right when I get out of school to when I go to sleep. No, I have to go do work, do homework, eat. No time at all for this, for what actually matters to me. I am also afraid, I'm afraid that because of the circumstances I won't be able to finish this in a timely matter. That for some reason or another the game will be rendered unfinishable. Either that or it doesn't get noticed at all and everybody that comes across it thinks it sucks, like we tried too hard. Then the last year of my life that has this awesome life source rippling through it stripped out of it, and it dies. That is my fear.

Now you are pretty much caught up with exactly how I am feeling right now, tired, angry, and scared.

Until next time

Grant Oberhauser - Hating The World

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New Menu

Hello,

all of today and yesterday I have been setting up the new menu system. I was having some problems with the loading screen earlier but that should be fixed because I just crashed Unity. That makes no sense at all, but it does, trust me. The progress is going pretty good on it too. We had to break our no language rule, but we can bring it back with some fancy graphics if we need to. The credits will still be in letters because, well, it's a bunch of names. Actually it's only mine and Patrick's name, we also thank the Blender Foundation, the Gimp Development Team, and Unity Technologies ApS. I'm just rambling right now, just wanted to update you all and let you know we are still trucking along.

Until next time

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The mountains are behind us.

Hello,

Yesterday I was going to work on the game, but I wasn't because I was playing Halo 4 and going on the internet and stuff. I knew I had to work on it because we need to get it done. So I forced myself to work on it. Then I realized something, we have already jumped all the big hurdles. This is GREAT! This means we are getting very close to finishing the game. We still have a lot of clean up to do now but we don't need to reinvent the wheel any more. All the big stuff has been finished. We do however need to put in a scoring system, a game over screen, setting up the maps, etc. For the most part we are done. We will probably run into some other big stuff we need to do, such as a game over screen, but we have most of the textures down and we can simply reuse code for that. Right now I am doing the skyboxes, I will include a picture here on how it comes out.

Until next time

Cool render!

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Spawn managing

This week I started getting down to business again, although it will make my grades struggle or induce a lack of sleep. Anyway, I have started working on the spawn managing system. I almost have it done, but it is having trouble figuring out which spawn point to use. The enemies are just spawned out of the same spawn point, it's probably an easy fix though.

After I get that done, I have to spruce a lot of stuff up. Like textures and what not. I am also going to put in a cinematic camera mode so we can make a trailer for the game. I am going to leave it in for the final build so people that get the game can make cool trailers/trick videos, or possibly even report a glitch from a different angle if needed.

Anyway, that is all I wanted to share.

Until next time

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