It’s summertime here in the mountains of Western Maryland, well almost, technically summer doesn’t start for another week or so. True to this region’s reputation, after a pretty long, harsh winter, a ridiculously cold spring, now it’s suddenly hot, humid, and oh-by-the-way full of the sounds of the 17 year cicadas that have inundated much of the region. Man those things are annoying! And clumsy. And stupid. Since fishing is now ruined thanks to them, I got some time to spend on Saucermen.
First up, I fixed the issue with the VR crashing. It was due to a dead battery in one of the controllers. Simple fix to make sure that doesn’t crash the application any longer. Did some more play testing, and I just have to re-iterate how fun this game is in VR mode – and that despite it’s relatively fast movement and pace, does not cause any nausea. This I find interesting given the Frenzy actually gives me some after a few rounds.
So largely, I have been focusing now on the core game play, getting items like health, armor and ammo functioning. I am keeping this simple – all items use a similar hi-tech looking shell with a different center section that indicates what it is. I will continue this focus until I feel that the base game play both offline and on are working and fully playable. After that I will move on to some on-the-go renderer items. What I mean by this, is that I will be creating some new things in the maps, and will write the code as I need to complete.
Random thoughts…
Saw a really cool new aFPS VR game on the aFPS Reddit page! Me and my brother are big fans of arena shooters! We decided to make a VR arena shooter with swim-like locomotion, wall climbing and blasters. What you think? : ArenaFPS (reddit.com)
Looks early in dev, but some very cool ideas going on here, this is what I am talking about when I speak of innovation of the genre. VR is where it’s going to go, and this really looks like some fun, judging by the reactions I am not alone in thinking that. I’ve probably pontificated on the state and fate of the genre too many times to count, but I do think that innovation and embracing new technology is the only way to re-invigorate it. Re-making Quake III and UT with a new skin isn’t going to cut it. Those days are over.
Alien Arena seems to have just about completely died out as of late. I applaud those like Jar’El and Blindman and some others that have tried to keep a community going on Discord(though I am absolutely not a fan of the politics that seemed to have permeated it, which have alienated some). The bottom line is that keeping Alien Arena alive and vibrant is much harder work than anyone could have ever imagined or would be willing to do. There are fits and spurts of such work, and minor increases of activity, but those have gotten spaced further apart, as have the matches, tournaments, and regulars that join matches. The game had a very long run, nearly 20 years, some of those years it had popularity that many of today’s aFPS games would die for. The nostalgia I have for this game is very deep, but yeah, it’s time to move on, and I hope when Saucermen is in a fully playable state (which will be soon), the community that’s left will at least give it a try. I think they’ll be rather surprised at how much better it feels and plays than AA does.
Keeping it simple…
The reality is that I don’t have nearly the time to spend making games that I once had. I’m involved in a number of other projects/hobbies, so in order to make Saucermen as polished and cohesive as possible, simplicity is somewhat of a necessity. However, I also believe that simplicity is what will be a large part of the game’s appeal. Without getting too redundant, I’m sure I’ve stated this many times, the trend of the aFPS game over the years has been to keep adding things and making more features, and the game play more complex, more tweakable. I won’t be doing that with Saucermen. There are three weapons, and only one firing mode (at the moment) for each. There are only 3 ammo types, and 1 health, 1 armor. There will be a couple of as of yet undetermined powerup types. That’s it folks, seriously. The only other nuance will be the character abilities/features. I firmly believe that keeping things simple will make this game far more enjoyable for a larger swath of players. Players will spend more time fragging and racking up achievements than worrying about learning complex item/armor/ammo and movements.
I also intend to create only 8-10 stock maps. A big feature of this game is the in-game editor and the Steam Workshop. This is a huge departure from Alien Arena, and while that community had for many years an extremely active mapping community, this will take things to a new level of ease of creation and publishing. I will make a number of video tutorials and demonstrate just how easy it is. Speaking of videos…it’s about time to get a short game play video out there to start getting some interest generated. Thus far I’ve been developing this in the back shadows, and not talked about it other than this blog. It’s definitely getting closer to where I can show it off.
Map ideas…
So far I have 3 maps that have been started, with work to do on each. Here are those, and some other ideas.
- Ground Zero – This map is the burned out rubble of a city block in the desert. It’s super detailed with a lot of structure that provides cover and some fun jumping and flying off of things. Due to the smooth physics, even the super cluttered areas are fairly easy to fly right over if you do it right. This level is probably around 80% completed, aside from item placements, etc.
- Temple Of Blood – Set in a mountainous, semi-forested and rugged area, it’s essentially two sets of ruins situated on a sloping hillside. There is definitely a “King Of The Hill” feel to it. It makes great use of the lighting and shadowing, especially with the trees. It’s a very rich, eerie, and immersive atmosphere. My plan is to eventually modify the ground to have a flowing river and a bridge. I’d say this level is maybe 50% done, if not less.
- The Saucer – This is a remake of the very first map for Alien Arena, one that was remade several times in the past. The layout is not overly complex, but it’s circular and a lot of fun. I may revisit some of the palette on this one, and I do plan on adding a second “Giant Robot” room that is adjacent to the current one, as well as another loop out of the back of that room that connects somewhere else. I’d put this level at 80% done.
- The Violator – I have only begun creating/importing the assets from the Alien Arena version of the map, so not much done on this one as of yet. I will stay relatively true to the current layout of that map, but I’m going to change the palette up, and probably find some assets for the central room that fit with a more complex visual style. I will keep the atmosphere dark and mysterious, and make use of colored lighting.
- Wastelands – I think a remake of that Alien Arena map would be a wonderful idea. It’s got an awesome layout, it just suffered from the problems Alien Arena had with it’s terrain and physics. In Saucermen it would be smooth, and really cool looking. I will probably compress it’s overall size and scale somewhat though.
- Oasis – A map with sandy terrain, palm trees, perhaps a swamp or water hole with flowing rivers coming out of it. Maybe add some old wooden structures, some shipwrecks, etc. I probably already have enough assets from Frenzy to get that done.
- Red Light – Burned out rubble, but with some still functioning seedy looking areas with signs and lights. Great opportunity to use colored lighting and keep it dark and creepy, perhaps situated in a dark sky. Maybe have this as a secret hub for the Enforcer-C rebellion.
- The Swamp – Dark, foggy, lots of water areas that you can run/swim in, some old creepy buildings and bridges, etc. Maybe a strange alien outpost structure as well. Will definitely require some good water effects(some of which are already built-in from Frenzy).
