Bad, Bad Bots! - new beta v75

EDIT: Update! New version with proper sound effects and the addition of music: Bad, Bad Bots! beta v76

New version: Bad, Bad Bots! beta v75 (10 meg)

Lots of changes!!!



-DDS textures. I switched all PNGs to DDS. The video RAM requirements dropped a lot! I've tried it on several machines and it ran fine on everything except my old RIVA TNT2. So it'll run on a GeForce 2 MX or newer. This should also help the framerate.

-Graphics revisions. While switching out the textures I couldn't help from revising some of the geometry. As you can see from the picture above... I couldn't stop myself. :) Tried to 'round off the edges' to not make it look so 3D blocky. Obviously I also added the starfield backdrop.

-SOUND!!! Yes, finally there are sound effects. These are temp sounds while my sound guy cranks out some much better ones.

-Optimized - cleaned out a bunch of referenced but unused objects and textures. The exe dropped from 18 to 11 meg!!!

So even if you played an earlier version, please give this one a try (it's only a 10mb DL now!!!) . I think it's solid (even with the new DDS textures) but I'd like to get a few more people to check it out before I send this revision to the IGF Judges. Come on guys! Help me get a B3D product into the final round of the IGF competition!!!


NOTE: delete any older beta versions that might be in the same directory. Otherwise it crashes on level select. Not sure why. Maybe a molebox thing?

When the fireball (meteor?) is released on level 14 (Fake-A-Bot) the background picture is shown through the door. It does not hinder play in any case but it just does not look nice.



Otherwise it seems to be running fine on my Athlon X2 and ATI Radeon X1900XT.

Barney

Since the meteors are coming from outside the ship I thought it would be cool to see the hole it makes (and the outerspace seen through it) when it busts through. Maybe, maybe not.

Thanks for the feedback.

Works perfectly, the only (personally) annoying thing is the 'stepping' sound. Great game and great graphics.
Athlon64 3500+ 1Gb GeForce 6600GT

Lookin' good! Temporary as they may be, the sounds already add a lot. One actual bug: The step-step-step sound keeps on stepping when you're caught by a robot.

Gotta have a sound for when you get caught! Maybe a robotic scream and a bash-bash-bash kind of thing. Whatever--I'm sure you're sound FX guy is as good at his role as you've been with yours.

steps sound for main character is a bit weird..it should be like something as a rubbe to metal sound, not like metal shoes over metal surface..

I'll also suggest some kinds of hints how to solve some levels..maybe after few times player try and not succeed, then help hints pop out or something..background music will be nice too..

Thanks for the feedback folks. Glad there are no issues with the DDS images or sounds.

Most if not all the sounds will be replaced soon. Especially the running.

@Barliesque - your're right about the sound errors when the player gets caught by a robot. That will go away when the proper sounds are in place. Now what are you doing get caught in the first place? :)

I have a sound issue as well. When I keep pressing the movement keys in very short intervals it breaks and I only hear crackling sounds.

Another idea from my side:
Now that you have great Space (tm) outside. I think it would be really cool if you could create some kind of "airlock". So the player has to walk "outside" in some levels to solve a puzzle.

> it breaks and I only hear crackling sounds.
Interesting. I can't duplicate that myself so I'm having a hard time tracking down the cause. I'll try a few things and include it in the next release.

>create some kind of "airlock".
Hmm... could create some interesting scenarios. I'll have to toy with that. Thanks for the suggestion!

I must've had my resolution set too high. ;)

>create some kind of "airlock"
Maybe a walkway with a tube of clear glass around it? ...or an airlock that blasts its contents into space? Could be a good trap.

Of course, now you'll have to start looking at adding animated details to the background, like asteroids drifting past, the occasional flying saucer... the possibilities are endless...

is the resolution/timing issue fixed or was there never one?

There has been an issue with that and it's partly hot-fixed I would say. ;)

> is the resolution/timing issue fixed or was there never one?
Yes-ish. I have been using delta timing with tweening since the beginning. But it seemed to be breaking on older machines/higher resolutions where the framerate was constantly in the dumper. If the framerate stayed dead low the tweening couldn't compensate enough. But in the latest version
(beta75) I made a number of changes which reduced if not eliminated this problem. And I'm still working on other optimizations. The biggest culprit, collisions, is what I'm currently overhauling. I think once I've completed these revisions on it as well as a few other things then my render tweening should be able to handle it all with flying colors.

Put it this way, I ran the newest version (beta75) on my laptop which was hooked to a monitor and running at 1600x1200. This is a P3/850 with a wimpy 16meg GeForce2Go card. At this resolution, the framerates were pretty brutal on some of the bigger levels but the timing remained rock solid.

ok that's interesting thanks. I'm thinking of improving my framework in a similar way so that when the framerate drops too low, the timing dyanmically adapts.

Oh man, this looks so cool. I can't test it out until next week though; doh!

There's a new version available now: Bad, Bad Bots! beta v76

The nasty placeholder sound effects have been replaced with first rate professional stuff. Also reworked the way I play them so Grisu's sound problem should be a thing of the past. Also, there's some great music in this version as well.

Oh, and there are now 'windows' as well.

I'm currently polishing up mouse control which I'll include in the next release.

This game is amazing. This "beta" is commercial quality, in my opinion.

SpaceAce

Very slick.

Also runs fine in stereo3d (if you were wondering).

Nice game. Maybe the timing is a bit 'tigh' for a logic-action game if your target is the casual market.

I downloaded this last night...I must say I'm very impressed with the quality of work. And it all runs very smoothly too...

Nice job!

Edit: I finally got caught by a bot. I must honestly say I laughed out loud at the resulting sequence...

I think this will do well.