Bad, Bad Bots! - stress test video

Bad, Bad Bots! stress test vid (4 meg)

Whoever said you can't use MD2 characters because of pops & lighting errors... I confess, you were right.

So now I'm forced to use B3D anim for all of my robots as well as my player character. I threw together this test of 18 bots bouncing around in an enclosed area. It averaged 50fps on my machine at 1600x1200 which is okay since most levels will probably have less than five. Also, I can optimize the model and reduce the number of bones... eventually. But the IGF deadline approaches so I'll just have to keep the number of bots limited for the time being.

Anyways, I thought it was kind of funny watching them ping pong around so I'm posting it here. If you see a bot freeze for a moment that just means that that bit of animation isn't in place yet.

Dustin - look great!

What's the idea of the game?

Thanks Matt.

It's a platform/puzzle type game. There'll be lots of tricks and traps to get past. Not to mention the evil Bots!

There's a *very* small demo and more info in this thread: http://www.blitzbasic.com/Community/posts.php?topic=61915

This will be the first Blitz game I buy. Can't wait to play this...

When is your deadline?
Will you be able to patch the game later on?

This game is really oozing with good graphics.

Dustin,

Looking Fantastic dude! Really great work indeed.

Btw did you see this thread?

http://www.blitzbasic.com/Community/posts.php?topic=62559

Be careful with the url he provides, it is broken, but you can work out what it is supposed to be. 200 animating soldiers on screen!!!!

IPete2.

Makes me think of LodeRunner, but instead of sinister monks you have hillarious robots! Lost Vikings also comes to mind...

Nice animation.

Thanks Guys!

Most likely, I'll be doing a closed beta in a few weeks. E-mail me if you're interested in joining.

@Grisu - (www.IGF.com) the inital deadline is 2 weeks from tomorrow (Sep. 8th) I need to have a 'late alpha/early beta'. So I'm in good shape. I can submit a revision a month after that. Then if selected, I'll submit a revision around January and the conference will follow in March.

@IPete2 - That's amazing!!!! Thanks for the link. I hope he offers it soon. I WILL buy it and plug it in to this game, if time permits. I'll be watching this like a hawk!!!

@TWH - I can see the LR connection. 'Lost Vikings' is a good reference for gameplay. Though you'll only control one chacter, sometimes you'll have to use the Bots to get doors opened and traps turned off. So you'll turn them into reluctant teammates in a way.

Its looking great, and I love the style you have created. Should be a good game when its finished :)

This looks wonderful!

I was immediately reminded of Mr Do's Castle when I saw the screenshot and seeing them in action I'm utterly convinced you should scrap all your intricate plans for puzzling gameplay, give that little blue guy a massive, oversized mallet and LET ME CRUSH YOUR ROBOTS! Please? They just look as though they'd be so satisfying to smush! Is that bad of me?

Thanks tafty!

> LET ME CRUSH YOUR ROBOTS! Please?

Are you kidding?!?! What kind of game would it be if I didn't let you 'smush' these Bad, Bad Bots?!?!

There's numerous ways that you can take these guys out in a cascade of sparks and debris. Here's just one example:

Now that's what I'm talking about!

I had a go at the compatibility demo too and was impressed with the control of the little blue guy - just subtleties like pressing left or right when nearing the bottom of ladder still takes you down and where you want to go, so there'll no awkward mucking around when you're on the run.

And now I'm looking forward to frying them with those laser gates too!

Any news about your bad bots?

I hit some unexpected performance issues that I'm addressing first. It's funny, the FPS difference between 800x600 & 1600x1200 on my machine is just a couple of frames. Collision stuff is the real killer which is CPU dependent. I'll go back when I have time to do some proper retooling. Right now I'm doing some quick fixes

I should have a new beta with nine levels ready by this Friday.

In the meantime here's what the last level of the demo looks like:

It should keep you busy for a while. :)