Dump Zone Demo Video!

       
So its taken a fair few weeks since I showed a video for the Pinball Warrior mode, but I finally have something to show for Dump Zone! I felt the mode was polished enough to show off with all the new things I've added which include:

• New Robots! (Apollo, Behemoth)
• Weapon Physics! (Flippers and Spinners etc)
• New Arena! (Series 3 inspired)
• New Mode! (Dump Zone)
• Updated UI! (WIP, coming soon)
• Multiple Cameras!
• Updates to robot handling (Added in 'Tank Steering' functionality)

Adding in physics that felt, looked and handled correctly was a challenge for me as I've never programmed them before and will more than likely have to keep tweaking them as development continues. There are also a few inconsistencies with the flipper animations which I will revisit and fix at a later date, for now they are all functional which is what matters. I also want to add more audio! The only music and sound effects in the game are the background music and the sound effects of grinders, sirens, announcer etc. I'm going to try and implement noises for the bots themselves, for when their weapon is activated and more.

My next task is to re work the placeholder UI I had for the old build and make it so you can select what game mode and what robot you want to play as in a user friendly manner. This will include writing more code, as well as creating more visual UI elements.

Apollo 3D Model Step by Step Build

This post will be a step by step explanation of how I modelled the latest robot for my Robot Wars game, the 2016 champions, Apollo! Apollo ended up being the lowest poly robot I've modelled yet! Despite this, it was still quite the challenge to get all the angles and proportions moderately correct with the real thing. So please enjoy these photos!

1: I drew out the base shape using splines locked to the grid.

2: Extruded the splines into a 3D shape.

3: Using splines again, I drew and extruded the back plate that attaches to the base.

4: Bending a bottom part of the back plate to gain the angled look of Apollos body wedge shape.

5: Using splines (Once again) I drew out and extruded the smaller side panels Apollo has and duplicated the shape for each side.

6: Larger triangle shapes are placed in line with the corners of Apollos back plate and extend right down to the nose. This is the basis of where the flipper arm will be placed.

7: I drew out a spline shape of how I imagined the main panels to be shaped, taking note of the bit that sticks out of the main shape.

8: As you can see... My first attempt was slightly off, even when trying to adjust the shape to fit.

9: On my second attempt the spline shape was much closer, and with some adjustments of the smaller side panels it fit pretty well!

10: Having finally got the main panels fitted correctly, I duplicated them and started adding the upper panel details. 

11: The flipper arm was easy to model, with the beveled box at the top and the small metal panel at the base.

12: Since the flipper arm raises so high and exposes the inner body of Apollo, I decided to model some inner components such as the CO2 canisters and piston arm, as well as some rear motors and battery boxes. (Much like my Killerhurtz model)

13: Created some textures in Photoshop and placed them onto the model, a simple matte white with some scuffs and scratches to make the bot look a little worn.

14: Apollo all finished and in Editor in the gray box for the new game mode! What could it be? Find out soon enough!

So that was the Apollo step by step modelling process, a fairly simple bot to recreate but still taking the time as a regular maybe more complex bot to model. Work on the new game mode is coming along nicely, Most of the programming of mechanics has been completed, and I plan to make it nice and pretty like Pinball Warrior and maybe even release a build of it! I'm really busy with other projects too, which I might make a separate post about.