UFO (Working Title) - Demo for comment

Hi all,

A quick demo of a work in progress project.
I'd appreciate any input (suggestions, feedback, etc) if you get the time. Would especially like to know how smoothly (or not!) it runs on your machines.

Overview :-
Defend the planet from those pesky UFO interlopers.

Screenshots :-





Video (10Mb) :-
http://www.wildebeestgames.com/WIP/UFO-Movie.wmv

Demo (2Mb) :-
http://www.wildebeestgames.com/WIP/UFO.zip

Keys :-
W,A,S,D and mouse = movement / look.
left mouse = fire
scroll wheel = altitude (not essential)

Gameplay :-
Shoot the UFOs to destroy them. Once destroyed another will take its place.
Use the radar (bottom right) to pinpoint the UFOs position on the planet surface.

NOTE : Initial planet loading can take a few seconds with a blank screen - please 'don't panic' (with apologies to the late great Douglas Adams).

Many thanks for taking the time.

Oh - and I should mention, as ever, the physics are ODE using VIP3Rs excellent wrapper :-
http://jv-ode.devcode.co.uk/

Mark

Nifty style.

Don't have any suggestions yet, except maybe add a second shooter (right click) as a bonus later maybe.

As for performance, it was a pretty big killer on my
amd 2800 (1.8ghz)
1.5gb ram
128mb radeon 9200 agp8x
windows XP.

Mainly just the mouse movement was really bad. The render speed seemed fine? (The tweening of the balls showed no lag). And yeah, it took around 10-12 seconds to load, although I had 52 other processes running. Maybe just render a centered white "Loading Files Please Wait. . ." before loading the data so it doesn't seem so awkward.


Time

Edit:
Full screen was a bit better via mouse movement, but it still has no lag compensation.

I like it. you could have people on the gropund getting abdupted by the UFO's and you have to shoot it down before it fills up with people and flys away.

The bad:
Currently, the gameplay gets boring REALLY quickly.

No sound yet eh? You need some spooky music and saucer sounds like this:
http://www.steelmarkonline.com/download_files/Beamship_sounds_from_Billy_Meier.mp3

The good:
Love those graphics! This could really be good if you come up with some ideas to improve the gameplay. Still, early days yet. Keep plugging away!

Memory access violoation in both win/fullscreen modes.
Windows XP
Celeron 2.93ghz
512k ram
Intel Extreme Graphics Controller (82845G)

Very nice!

I like the light and dark effects :)

Like andy_mc mentioned, I think if the UFOs were doing something like abducting people or cows or whatever and you had to shoot them down before they fly away, it would be fun and add a sense of urgency.

Some ideas:

> Variety of weapons and powerups
> Different alien ships, some abduct, some shoot back, some invisible etc
> Alien mothership or something as a boss?
> Alternative mode to play AS the aliens
> Unlockable 'Grey Alien' character ;o)

i get a mav from both of the exes

Nice look - very Zarch like. I think it would look even better in terms of lighting if all your meshes were unwelded and flatshaded.

What are you using the physics lib for BTW?

Stevie

Firstly, thanks everyone for taking the time, i appreciate it.

@ Retimer, MGE and mayamann101 :-
The framework currently is unoptimised, I suspect that the performance and MAV issues are caused by excessive system requirements. Hopefully the optimised version will be much less demanding system-wise.

@ andy_mc, JA2 :-
Nice gameplay ideas ! I think we are on the same lines. Certainly it will feature abduction (I had thought chunky farm animals). I especially like the fly as an alien idea.

@ Nomen luni :-
That sfx is excellent - something like that is a must have. Love it.

@ Stevie G :-
I do aim to have all the media in a similar style, blocky textures, vertex colouring, etc where appropriate.
Visually i suppose Zarch was in the back of my mind, but your work has been an inspiration too if im honest.
The physics lib is primarily for collisions, terrain / tree / bullet / UFO / Etc - although if you hunt around there is a little four wheeled car on the planet (its white and fairly small) - controlled by the cursor keys and flipped upright with the space bar (some headlights come on if you drive into the 'dark side').
I intend to have vehicles in the finished article, perhaps have the ability to drive around with a rear mounted weapon in a pick-up sort of affair.

Thanks again for having a look,

Mark

Ran smooth here.

I'd like to see the ships explode into pieces rather than trail smoke and slowly plummet (is that an oxymoron?) to the ground. Maybe both, as it is now but if you keep hitting them they explode. Everyone likes explosions.

Found the car - be nice if you could swap cameras to drive around in it properly ;-)

Certainly has great potential IMO

Just looking at the screenshots it looks a bit like spore. Will have to try it out when I get home from work.

This demo is fantastic... simply innovative !

The green light of the ship is well redered...

But is it possible to get a better render ?

Great little demo Mark - keep up the good work :)