Robot Wars Case Study!

Sorry Anti Grav Racing.

So as a child I loved Robot Wars! Who didn't want to see 100kg bits of metal destroy each other to an awesome soundtrack and splatter bits of metal all over the arena? And don't forget about the Houserobots you had a awesome recipe for non-lethal robotic entertainment.

And a video game.

Now, the official games release between 2001-2003 while entertaining weren't exactly amazing games, not that they were bad either, and I'm certainly not saying I could do better! What the games were though was unique, and after replaying some of my own (and also that fantastic Robot Arena 2 Mod) it got my brain thinking on exactly how things worked.

Lots of the gameplay seemed to be physics based, with the ability to flip robots around and out of the arena, pushing them around and the like. Armour would fly off in chunks depending on the types of hits you sustained, and damage took. So i started my own mini case study on how these mechanics might be re-created in Unity. Things like the arena flame pit can easily be done with a damage over time collider and particles, the arena pit of oblivion would be even easier. i found from playing the games some more the robots themselves would be the harder part.

So I went ahead and created my own robots! I have two bots currently, a spinner and axe user. Both can be driven around and 'played with' I'd love to continue with this, as I'd love to model the arena and implement its hazards, maybe recreate the obstacle gauntlets from the earlier series and create something that resembles a game.

However with university starting again in the next few days and heading into 3rd year I doubt I'll have much free time for my own personal projects!

D.va Dash Live On Itch.io and Scirra Arcade!

Play here!
Itch.Io - https://katd.itch.io/dva-dash (Reccomended)
Scirra Arcade - http://tinyurl.com/gu5nmkn

Edit: I also uploaded it to my Itch.Io page! I'll be posting mini little games there like D.va Dash and Dsyphoria. Enjoy!

So I caved and uploaded the game to Scirras website directly. I didn't want to host it on the website as it seems even more awkward than hosting it as HTML5 through my Drive, but oh well... At least the game is back up and now playable again!

D.va Dash Problems.

So D.va Dash no longer works.

I'm not sure when or how exactly this happened, but I believe it might have something to do with Google Drive itself. Upon accessing the games link either on mobile or PC, 1 of 2 things will happen.

1. You will get a Google 502 Server error with little information other than 'Please wait for this issue to fix itself.
2. The Construct loading screen will display with a red (instead of green) loading bar, and the game will not load at all.

Looking into the webpages HTML code through Chrome, it seems that the 502 error is persistent there as well, either displaying a black screen and saying loading failed, or in the case of the Construct loading screen, it reports that it is unable to get and load images. (A quick search into this I found unusable characters in the asset names might be the problem but after double checking my asset names, none use any abnormal characters at all.)

I don't know any HTML so its very hard for me even try and figure this out to fix this, so I tried a simple solution of re-uploading the game under a different folder in my Drive and making that accessible in the same way as the first upload (under a googledrive.com/host) and this time I don't even get a playable version of the game, I get a list of the game files.

Has Drive stopped the support of hosting HTML5? Or am I missing something stupid? Either way the game now can't be played and I either have to fix the hosting or find a way to convert the game to a standalone app.

Anti Grav Racing Development Continuation.

So after finally finishing D.va Dahs, I can get back to working on Anti Grav, its been 2 months since I was last doing anything actively on it, so today I spent the day re-familiarising myself with everything I coded in the past, as well as making some small tweaks and comments to the scripts.

I imported the v2 version of Track 2, and because my AI is so simple, following a predefined path, I now have to tweak each AI's ships path so they fly realistically around the track. I only have 2 weeks before University starts again in which I wont have time to continue this project, so I want to get as much function in terms of gameplay done. These include:

-Modelling Track 2 (at least without textures)

-Implementing latest Game Manager script to Track 1

-Polish Main Menu abit more

-Adding AI to Track 1

-Maybe some basic audio

If I can get all this done with some time left, I hope i can fix the bugs that will no doubt come up. Wish me luck!

D.va Dash Version 1.1! Project Conclusion.

Play here!
http://tinyurl.com/DvaDash
Note: You can save the webpage to your homescreen via the Chrome browser by opening the options menu and choosing 'Add to Home screen' unfortunately you still need a internet connection to access it.

Patch Notes:
Added:
-Tire explosion animation and sound when destroyed.
-Sound on coin pickup.
-Updated pause menu.
-End game screen on death.
-Additional sound effects.
-Tweaked platform spawn. The player should now always have a reachable platform to jump on.
-Added doors in the background.

Known Issues:
-Main Menu music does not play on mobile devices.
-Can still 'fire' when game is in a paused state.
-Sound lag (Mobile only)
-Sound Effect of 'Are you even trying?' plays only after restarting the game, and not when the end game screen appears like it should. (Mobile only)

Project Summary and Conclusion.
D.Va Dash started off as a small project I started playing around in with in the Construct 2 Engine. Its my first game in this engine and also the first time I have done any 2D art or animation. So I feel just for a little game to waste a few minutes on it came out really well!

I feel the gameplay is simple yet engaging enough for a good few replays in one play session due to the random placement of the platforms, coins and tires, especially after tweaking how the platforms spawn. With the tweak, I also feel the slowness of the gameplay has been fixed as there is much more going on now.

I have lots of ideas on how this game could be extended further. More art, more gameplay elements, different events that happen when the player reaches a certain score, etc etc but as this was only meant to be a mini project its taken up more time than I expected for a 2 week game. I am eager to return to developing Anti Grav Racing. I also would love for it to be a standalone app rather than a HTML5 webpage, but as I have no experience in HTML or Android programming I think I will struggle creating this. HTML5 to Android APK converters I have used haven't been very successful (No music, black screen) but I will keep an eye out incase I do find a away to make it standalone, as I would love to.

I really enjoyed working on this mini project! It was fun to make a fan game of an actual game I love to play, and I might share it with the Overwatch Reddit page to see if people like it!

D.va Dash v1.0 Feedback.

More of a informal note to myself for fixes and changes needed to be made.

Version 1.0 is live here!:
https://6b13ebfd4795475fd7d0bdd54c04aad99d2e9703.googledrive.com/host/0B7BJ3arWr-thMDdEZnVsWXlKeVE/ (Built for Mobile, can be controlled via PC though too with mouse)

- Player needs a dedicated platform to reach higher areas.
Solution1:
Reworking platforms to have two 'sets' one that spawns in the upper half of the screen and one in the lower, ensuring the player always has a reachable platform.
Solution2:
Having a platform always spawn on a reachable level to the player.

-Layer/Clipping Issues
Simple Fix: Pretty sure this is just down to the UI not having its own layer yet, and clipping with the newly instantiated objects. Very obvious when using the pause menu.

-Gameplay Speed/Control
Suggestion: Either increasing the speed of D.vas running to make gameplay more engaging or adding 'speed up and slow down' control. Personally I feel increasing the spawn of the platforms and/or tires will fix this but we will see. Note: Was maybe going to implement increase in speed based on score value. (Higher score = Higher speed = Higher difficulty)

Polish to add:
-More/Improved background art
-Sound effect for picking up coins and destroying tires
-Animation (explosion or something) when tires are destroyed

Known Technical Issues:
-Audio problems when running via hosted, mostly on mobile. Main Menu music does not play and some sound effects are delayed. Not sure why this is, might just be due to the HMTL5 host? Problems aren't present in-editor previews.

Mini Project: D.va Dash!

So, I picked up Overwatch recently. Yes I know, jumping on THAT bandwagon I see. Just between you and me, I personally preferred Battleborn in the beta stages, but Overwatch is really fun still and worth the pickup! Plus I can be a Korean girl in a battle mech, which can fly and explode and destroy EVERYONE! Whats not to like?  So inspired was I by this little mechanic of being able to pilot the mech but also hop out of it and blast things with a cute pink pistol I decided to make a quick and easy 2D sprite based game off of it!

Made using the Construct 2 engine ( a free 2D based engine) in some free time I had, D.va Dash is a simple infinite runner/platformer where you control D.va out of her mech, collecting Overwatch medals and avoiding deadly Junkrat RIP Tires! Nothing amazing just something you play on the pooper or to kill some time! Construct2 doesn't have many great export options for a free user (No standalone support, ew.) So I currently have a test build being hosted on Google Drive (HTML5) on the below link.

https://d5e4338a7152d35cf6a85a1be9b0bfccab08e145.googledrive.com/host/0B7BJ3arWr-thTlcwQWVidjVEZGc/

Please note this is a TEST BUILD. Not everything is finished, and while I plan to add touch support for mobile devices, there is currently no touch controls. Its also worth noting that this is my first attempt at a 2D sprite based game, with all hand drawn sprites and animations, so don't expect anything flashy.

I plan to hopefully get a more polished build out before returning to AntiGrav but we will see, this was just a fun little mini project done in a week or so.

Progress Report!

Hey all, been a while since the last post I know, apologies. I've been busy with work IRL and other stuff but I just wanted to confirm development is STILL continuing, the project has not been scrapped or abandoned. I just don't ave alot of free time to work on it efficiently currently, i am hoping I can come back to it soon in the coming weeks.

I also wish to start another project (prolly not a good idea to start yet another thing I know) and make a clone of the old Atari game River Raid! Either using Unitys 2D features or the Construct2 engine.

The last thing I was working on was the opponents AI pathfinding, it is rudimentary and simple but it works, I then plan on either finishing Track 1 with polish (more models, textures, etc) or getting a start on Track 2 and releasing 0.2 with it in graybox format, only time will tell.

Small Update, 14th July

Today I continued tweaking the AI ships until I was satisfied with the rudimentary behaviours for now. I also added more to the timers, adding individual lap timers that start and stop whenever you finish a current lap. I've got a bug where the lap times wont display on the end game panel that pops up, but the total time will.

My future plans for these tweaks include adding a position counter that displays if you are 1st, 2nd, 3rd etc etc. As well as hopefully start modelling Track 2 and Ship 3.

Lets hope it will be easier than these silly lap counters!

AI Update

I might be able to get AI working for 0.2 in a very simple form. I currently have a waypoint system in which a object follows it around. Still needs quite a few tweaks to make it seem more fun, and of course realistic. This AI may or may not stay as well, it all depends on how I get it working if at all.