Wibble Wobble Jellyfish on a plate!

We're coming up to the 2017 Robot Wars series Grand Final in a few days and I recently saw one of this years competitors Dave Lawrie was retiring from the hobby due to being rejected for the next series. You can find the full post here, but long story short he is having to dismantle his robot 'Jellyfish' and distancing himself from the sport.

I felt for the guy, and decided that I wanted to immortalise Jellyfish of some sorts, so what better way than to model it? No CAD was used to make the actual Jellyfish so I thought he might appreciate a fan made digital recreation!

I sent Dave a few images of the renders and a small message that included a brief description of what I am doing with this project and was surprised to receive a response, and quite a flattering one at that!

He gave me permission to actually have Jellyfish officially in the game! Of course this meant I had to improve the model I spent a few hours producing, adding extra details and tweaking the scale of a few features such as the pipes.

Then it was a simple matter of implementing the bot into the game like any other robot I've made before. I had to make a brand new script for Jelly's weapon, which is an actuated grabber claw designed to pin and hold robots.

I'm going to film a few bits showing Jelly in action and send them to Dave, most likely updating this post when I do. Thanks for letting me have such an awesome interaction with a roboteer and giving me permission to create Jellyfish for the game Dave!

EDIT: Jellyfish in action!

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.

Robot Combat Game Update!

We recently started a portfolio module at university and we have been tasked with creating a game to show off our skills and 'hireability'. I had two options 1: Was to make a successor to my 2D platform game Dsyphoria, with similar themeing and art style. 2: Was to pitch my Robot Wars Game to my tutor and get the go ahead for it (despite it being in development anyway)

I sketched out some ideas for a game called 'Holly is Lost' which is about a girl trapped in her dreams and nightmares, who she has to fight and explore the lands of her minds creation and wake up. Visually I took alot of inspiration from Tim Burton and games such as Don't Starve, Binding of Issac and Limbo. I was worried about how I could keep things artistically  consistent however and still produce a game with fun gameplay. 2D animation is not my fotay and I feel my 3D art is much better than my 2D sketches.

Due to this, I felt like despite me liking my idea it wouldn't be the best option and therefore I pitched my Robots to my tutor and he approved my decision! I'm glad I'll be able to actually work on this project as part of my uni work and not feel guilty devoting more time to it like I want too! I'll continue to post updates and document the development here as normal!

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!

There's a Firestorm coming your way!

More Robot Wars Development!

I made a Firestorm replica! Isn't he looking pretty hot? Firestorm is one of my favourite flipper bots from the old series, alongside everybodys favourites Chaos2! I scratched not only the modelling for bots, but also threw together a simple concrete themed arena to warmup. It may or may not get used in the game, but hey ho, nothing wrong with abit of practice.

Firestorm was quite enjoyable to model, looking through the pictures of him, a basic wedge with a front flipper, it wasn't until shaping the body I noticed that my current shape was a little flat. I then realised Firestorm has some slight bevels on its edges, to prevent it being beached on its side no doubt, and once I added those, the shape looks much better. I quickly mocked up a texture in Photoshop and it fit almost perfectly right off the bat! I feel like it does hide the bevels a little though, oh well, that can be easily fixed.

I also completed a gray box of the Gauntlet arena run! Like the real life version, there are 3 different paths a robot can proceed down after driving out of the turntable. Each path is different and features different hazards to avoid and score points with! I will also be doing the Pinball Warrior arena, as well as a Sumo Basho arena too in the future (hopefully) and with them I can release a playable demo of what I have worked on so far!

Of course everything is still VERY MUCH A WORK IN PROGRESS! There are untextured things, unfinished models and mechanics because I am doing it to further my skills as a developer, and to try my hand at making a robot combat game since we don't really have any of those! I feel its a great project to practice all my skills as a developer, programming as well as design and art, and it seems I have caught the attention of a friend on Twitter, much to my delight.

I must admit, this was amazingly flattering and great motivation to work on the project, and I am still debating whether or not to share some screenshots with some GameDev communities or Robot Wars fans on Reddit. Thanks awesome Twitter friend!

Today was a good day of development on this project, nice to be able to work on something other than my uni projects (which are eating up ALL of my time lately, deadlines, yay) which I will post on when I have a bit more on them to talk about! Firestorm came out great, and its flipper is successfully emulating physics, something I was worried about my game using, Firestorm tossed those thoughts out of my head, literally!

Life can be dark, wandering without a cause.

But theres lots of fun to be had, on Robot Wars!

Goodnight.

3...2...1...Activate!

The Robot Wars inspired game is FINALLY shaping up and after losing myself in development today, parts of it are starting to look rather pretty if I do say so myself!

For fun I made a rough version of the 2016 Robot Wars arena, complete with a fully textured prototype Hypnodisc to replace the boring grey box version I was using. I also threw in Shunt and got him working to wreck some destruction on some poor robo souls.

In terms of progress, I accidentally deleted the Canvas gameobject without realising... So I need to redo the HP bars and other minor text I had done. Shouldn't be too hard. in terms of gameplay, I also imported the first version of the old Gauntlet arena! I'll more than likely be adding a point system to it, so theres something to actually play, and would also like to do the Pinball Warrior stuff from Series 4+ just to give some more singleplayer-ability. I'd love to flesh out the arenas some more so they look like they're in studios or indoors, would be a good opportunity to practice with the lighting too. All the while making some more bots of course! I'm unsure whether to use more 'real' bots as I don't know what the effects of that are if they ever reaches a releasable stage, or mix in some of my own designs with some of my favourites.

Either way, I'll continue gray boxing for now, as uni work is definitely keeping me busy. More on that stuff as it develops!

Busy, Busy, Busy!

So over the past week or so I have done work on not 1, or 2 but 3 projects of mine! Third year sure makes you be productive.

Firstly I have started developing a AR AI companion app for my Final Project. Inspired by the real life (and super expensive) robot companions you can buy, my aim is to create something similar using the magic of Augmented Reality! 

I've already got a prototype up and running with Vuforia for Unity, coded some basic variables and animations to go alongside them. I am using the Unity-chan asset as she is a high quality, fully rigged model that already comes with a boatload of animations, and being mecanim, I can add almost any other kind to her easily. She currently has differing Idle animations depending on her mood states, and will emote when you feed or complete a game with her! I am currently looking into text input registration for her as well, so you can ask her questions and talk to her, and later, hopefully this will change into speech to text interaction!

Secondly, I've spent about two days working on a little game for a little game jam we hosted at the university (a casual thing) with the theme of  Contrast! Its uploaded to itch.io and you can play it here! Its a simple platformer that uses the Contrast theme to express mood changes, and how things for someone with depression can seem or suddenly turn ill favourably.

Its a extremely simple game, and I decided on the art side of things being a main focus to get the theme across, everything is hand drawn and coloured by me. If you do check it out, well thanks for playing! I am currently also looking at getting D.va Dash to work on there and hosted too if possible!

Finally I did some more robot modelling this evening and created the angry bulldozer himself, the mighty Shunt! He has no wheels because I will be throwing him into the robot game for funsies and i am also currently working on that Gauntlet arena I mentioned, but finding it hard to find time in between university work to crack down on it, lest assured the interest is still highly there and I want to continue it!

I'll try and keep this updated with any future endeavours and updates on all of these current projects as they progress!