Sumo Basho Game Mode!

In Japan, sumo is the sport of two very large menu battling it out, trying to push each other around, in Robot Wars however it is a chance for the robots to take on the mighty House Robot Shunt, and attempt to push him out! The game made is as simple as that, survive in the ring with Shunt for as long as possible, or get him out of there. You lose if you are pushed out yourself.

In my game the player can pick a robot and then go up against Shunt in the sumo arena to attempt to do just that! Shunts AI will turn and face the player, moving towards them in an effort to push them off itself. Survive the 60 second or get him out and you win! there are problems with how the AI works however, as Shunt is trying to be exactly where the player bot is, if he gets ontop of you, he will sit and spin, with nowhere else to go and not pushing the player around like he should be. There are also a few issues with collision and the robots weapons. These can cause Shunt to jitter around, and flip and collide in all sorts of manners he shouldn't be.

Due to this issues I've decided not to make another playable build just yet, and will try and come up with a solution while working on other modes in the mean time, Shunts model itself isn't finished or textured either. Sumo Basho itself works as intended though, its literally Shunts AI that needs working on. I will start work on another playable mode that hopefully will get released as a build when I have the time, as my final university semester starts soon, and no doubt I will be extremely busy!

In the meantime, please enjoy these screenshots of the newest robots I have created! They will be playable in all modes, and of course, I hope to add many many more yet to come!

Panic Attack

Self righting working as intended

Killerhurtz

Dead Metal (Series 1)

Pinball Warrior Preview!

Playable Build!
Download

I've been busy this week getting together a playable build of the Pinball Warrior mode I've been working on! Its finally ready, but is still in development. I made all the models and scripted everything. The only thing I do not own is of course Robot Wars itself and the music.

I'll keep on developing this in my free time, but in a few weeks uni modules will start back up again and I will be busy working on them, so this will be put on the back burner again. Now that I have a fully completed arena, I can use those assets to put together other modes quicker. I can also model more robots for the player to try! I think I'll make Sumo Basho next...

End of Year Summary and Future Goals

Its the end of 2016, finally! Hopefully it will stop killing off celebrities, muscians and being a generally bad year for the world at large and myself. So I thought to sum up I would go over everything I have achieved and a mini evaluation.

Firstly, I created this blog to record my development process in my game development in June, its been over half a year already! I've aimed to have a blog post at least once or twice a month, to keep up a digital record of my projects. I did this not only as a record, but also as a quick source to show people that are interested in my work, be it potential employers or others. If you're reading this, thanks for being interested in what I love to do!

In the summer months, June - August time, I worked on a Wipeout inspired anti gravity themed racer game, and when I say game, I guess I explored HOW I would make a game like that. Doing this vastly improved my knowledge of programming in the C# language and problem solving as I coded everything from the ground up, and in the end, had working ship and track selector, lap timer, as well as a playable level (in an early alpha stage) that incorporated all of these.

In the last few weeks of summer I used the Construct 2 engine for the first time and created a simple infinite runner platform game, inspired by the Overwatch character D.va! This was my first time using the engine, creating pixel art, and creating a game of the infinite runner genre. I hosted the game via my own GoogleDrive, but after encountering some hosting issues, I uploaded the game to Itch.Io and ScirraArcade websites for the public to play and it gets some good attention! Maybe in the future I will recreate the game in a more complex engine such as Unity and make it a deeper experience for players that holds attention for longer. You can play it here!

During the university semester I was very busy with modules, creating a Virtual Reality game using Google Cardboard on Android phones, programming a text summary software (not my favourite, I must admit) and deciding on a final project topic, which has evolved into ARIA. An Augmented Reality Integrated Acquaintance, again on Android phones. These games have really opened up my skills and introduced me to new hardware and technology, expanding on my development experience.

On the side of my personal project, scroll down for the latest on my Robot Wars inspired game which I intend to keep developing into 2017 and hopefully have a alpha build to play as soon as I can.

In 2017 my university modules will cover my final project, Mobile Technology and building a portfolio, which I am hoping this blog will be featured in as evidence of my work. Happy New Year, and lets make more games!