What happened to "Bad, Bad Bots?"

Not that anyone has actually asked me that. :) But now that I'm quickly approaching the 2 year mark since I posted the demo I thought I'd offer a status update. To quote Monty Python: "I'm not dead yet."

Here's a couple of pics:




And a couple of vids as well (15meg each:)
Closeup of Gameplay
Wide view of Gameplay

A quick list of some of the changes:
-Revamped the graphics
-Rebuilt the collision system
-Rebuilt the timing system. Now it works on a fixed frame system.
-Added a new Powerup feature to add numerous more puzzle elemnts
-Built a record/playback feature (the videos are examples of the playback feature)
-Cleaned up countless bugs & quirks

I won't offer a timeframe since the day job always forces this project onto nights & weekends. But it's fun to look at the progress, both on screen and behind the scenes. When I began woking on it over 3 years ago I didn't even understand the concept of types or functions. Now at over 23,000 lines of code I'd say I've picked up a few tricks over the years.

Nice. I like the graphics style.

Glad to hear it's still alive! I find that bright green on the walls/floors a bit distracting.

I like the bright green border and the general vividness. Looks really funky. The problem is, the characters seem to get a little lost amongst the background. Perhaps a full-bright or clean cel-shaded effect might enable them to stand out better.

Not my thing, but I LOVE those sneakers the robot is wearing.

Keep going at it! It looks very quirky and original, which is just what an indy needs in my opinion.

The background night sky thing makes me want to re-examine my breakfast. Why when anyone uses a night sky in their game is it always some fake multi-colored nebula.
The level needs a ship around it.

You should enable the user to change that intruding green border into something else much more pleasing to the eye. Characters should stand out a bit more. As JustLuke said, "they seem to get lost amongst the background".

Otherwise I hope you'll release this one ASAP, preferably around this Xmas.

Barney

I must confess I'm disappointed. I liked it much better with the original visual style. I'm not sure if I would have liked a more toned-down cartoony appearance but this is entirely too garish for my tastes. Green, Red, Blue, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Orange all on the same screenshot is just too many colors.

Thanks for the feedback guys. I amped the colors up to go more towards the 'Zuma' casual crowd. But judging by some of the comments I may have over amped it. :)

I played with the colors a bit and came up with the following. Some of the colors need to stay in because they're used to connect controls to their target so you know what each is controlled by. I also replaced the colorful background with a temp starfield. It's looking a little naked without the upcoming hud and background objects.

Hm. The original colour scheme is way better than your new toned down one.

This blue border is much better than the green.

It's lost all its "funkyness" now.

I vote for the blue border. The background is a bit too dull now.

Do it your own way.

How about having the colors change for different levels / situations?

Glad to see that everyone feels the same way. :)

I think this is a change in the right direction. Ideally, I'd like to have multiple tile sets. And with a more unified 'blue' theme I believe it lends itself better to that approach. The colorband changing is an interesting concept. I'll see if I can make that work somehow.

By the way, if any of you guys are attending SIGGRAPH next tuesday, swing by the Newtek (Lightwave) booth at 5:00. I'll be giving a quick talk on "Bad, Bad Bots!" and how I used LW to create the models and animation. Of course, I'll mention Blitz3D in my talk as well. :)

Isn't this the classical 'design by commitee' at work.

Stick to your guns and be true to your vision. If you change everything people don't like about your game, you will end up remaking Pac-Man, and even then people are going to complain.

There's no harm in listening to opinions if they make sense.

I prefer the second screens. The less distraction from the game area the better.

Personally, I think the level color scheme is too garish. I would change the blue/purple level color scheme to some light colors like bronze, off-white, cream, silver, shades of grey. It's too strong even for a cartoon world. I would also avoid overkill on the neon stuff. For example, do you really need neon green door frames?

Does the world need yet another PC game featuring "shades of grey"? It's been a blight on video game art since 3d became popular.

Really, I wasn't aware of the blight of 'shades of grey' games. I was of the impression it was the other way round. :)

This is close to what I would prefer, Dustin.
Edit
No, but seriously now...

Which of the two halves of the pic below do you prefer overall, top or bottom?
I just added a quick gamma 2.0 to the bottom and cut out the character.
Edit

Top part gets my vote.

Barney

Top also, I love the cartoony over-the-top* color, its quite a unique style.

(*i would have used the word "egg-zaduated" but have completely forgotten how to spell it after a few beers.. -as you can see :)

Nope, this is my cherry picking from the long list of (conflicting) feedback. I don't think there's anything wrong with getting as much input as possible and pulling from that what you consider improvements.

For example, markcw had a point about the briteness. I work on a 24" Dell lcd which I tend to forget runs very bright. After firing it up on my Wife's computer & my laptop I realized it was coming up darker than I intended. So I did tweak the levels a bit. Although not nearly as much as he showed in his pic. Maybe a 1/3 of that.

I agree that the neon screams a bit but that was always the intention. The green segments are helpful bits (hiding spots, exit doors and keys). The orange/gold are transportation/powerup segments. So I believe they serve more of a purpose than just making select viewer's eyes bleed. :)