Holy Shit, Robots!

[Tobs]

Howdy,

I'mma working on a game, once again, and it's gotten to the point of almost having some playability, I thought I'd show you all.
It's a robot game, very simply it's like Future Cop: LAPD from the PSX, but I think there's a lot of scope for improving the gameplay and overall experience.
For those that never played it, you have to get your tanks into the enemy base without letting them get their tanks in yours. Simple enough, but there's more, like defence, powerups, outposts and dreadnoughts.
Story's basically a cop out: a city has been overtaken by gangs, and you go around sector by sector taking them down.

I'm looking for a 3D modeler/artist who would also contribute to gameplay ideas, concepts of enemies and the like.
Hints to where 3D artists hang out would be appreciated!

Links to screenshots: here
Screenshots show the green and blue team fight, which I think looks terrible, even for programmer's art.
The weird cube is like the targeting reticle, it's on the most appropriate target, indicating where your missiles are pointed.

Currently, it's on my Mac, but it's pretty much API independent, so it'll be fairly easy to get working on the Pandora.

Give me a shout if your interested, any comments, suggestions etc.
More importantly, if anyone knows of any artists that might be interested, I'd love to hear from them!

Tobs

 

[Luftwaffles]

I can't tell you how many times I played Future Cop against my brother .
"SOUND SIMPLE?
I DON'T THINK SO!"
That quote still echoes in my mind lol.

 

[Farox]

Hey nice...i have played a lot Future Cop LAPD on my PC (i have the original box somewhere ).

 

[Tobs]

Yes, multiplayer and epic voices are a planned must.

 

[zapman]

Sounds nice! Did you write your own engine?
Some of the textures look like UV test-images from Blender

I would like to contribute, but maybe you should also start a wanted-thread at http://blenderartists.org There are plenty of talented 3D artists there and if you can offer planning and thinking (looks like programing as well..) already done you might find further team-members.

If you do so, please reply here with a link to the BA-thread, I wouldn't want to miss it.

So, what do you exactly need and what are the details? (openGL usage?, aimed polycount of models and scene?, how many models? what models? formats?, etc..?)

Good luck and I hope I can help..

-zapman

[I did a Blender Game Engine game already, but I'm not pixar (yet) . Check it out at http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=158364 ]

 

[zapman]

I just watched a review of future cop at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qwi5XY9CZ4

In my opinion the single player mode sucks. I would concentrate on the multiplayer part and get that done first. It shows nice potential for lots of fun. If it works out nicely you can still add single player content..

The problem with most hobbyist game development is mostly too ambitious goals with too few people contributing.

Sorry if I bother you because you already considered all this; I also don't know how far your development has already progressed..

So, looking forward to your reply.

-zapman

 

[traylorpark]

Dude! a fun multiplayer game is an awesome idea!
A place I hang around sometimes is in the Polycount forums - its filled with 3D artists.
Annnnd, out of curiosity, what kind of art are you looking for?

 

[Tobs]

Yeah I wrote my own engine. Nothing special though... I don't really want to implement graphical effects until it's running in GLES, so I know I won't have to rewrite it.
And yup, programmer art created with Blender. The UV test images bit is where some advertisement is going (in-game stuff, I just haven't got round to drawing it...)
I'm still not certain of how powerful the Pandora is, but I'm thinking about 500 polys for tanks/turrets/aircraft (since there'll be loads of them at once), 1-4k polys for the players, and whatever's left for the maps.

This project was born out of the realisation that my projects are normally way over ambitious. It's a fairly simple game, simple AI, robots are easier to animate/draw than humans etc.
The game is based around just the multiplayer (precinct assault), but in single player, you fight against an AI instead of a player. Both because multiplayer was more fun, and also because it's way simpler to program =p

Problem with posting at BA is that they don't have a category for looking for teams. Don't really think it's the kind of place to ask.
Funny though; I found I have an account there from about 3 years ago ^^

Do you have any examples of stuff you've done before? Can you do things like animations? Texturing? Bump mapping?

Tobs

Oops, didn't see your post Peter, one second...

 

[Tobs]

@Traylorpark:
Yeah, I thought about the times I had fun on my DS. Mostly it was with other people, or playing Henry Hatsworth. But there's not many Pandora users, so I thought a multiplayer game with single player capability and rounds that take <10 minutes would be perfect (i.e. get it out for 10 mins on the bus, at red lights...)
As for art style, I'm not really sure. I'm half tempted to go with a crazy cartoony/Japaneseish style, and keep the name "Holy Shit! Robots!", and make it fun and silly. In which case textures just need to be mostly block colours with some simple shading, maybe similar to Valkyria Chronicles... Quite tempting, but I'm not settled at this point, I guess it's a case of whatever looks the best =p
They seem to get a lot of request posts, but I'll post at Polycount this evening, after lectures!

 

[trabitboy]

Holy shit robots! and valkyria ( even much simpler ) style sounds very cool B)

title as hilarious as " holy invasion of privacy ! badman "

 

[zapman]

It's not exactly made for your request but the BA subforum "Works in Progress and Game Demos" would be suitable: http://blenderartists.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=35

I do have some experience with modeling and texturing (would rely on colormaps, normalmaps and specularmaps). I think it would be best if I just whip something up and show it to you. That way we could develop a style and you can get some impression of my abilities. Just tell me what formats you need, otherwise I can also post simple .blend files...

 

[Tobs]

Well how about we do that then?
See if you can design some little hovertank, since that's the most basic unit (and mine sucks...), model and texture it and at the end of the week I'll put together some shaders/code and we'll try and nail an art style!
I may have to play Valkyria Chronicles again though *shifty eyes*
I'll go googlin' for some interesting art styles now, I'm not certain how to best portray what will mostly be metal without making metal seem boring, but I'm thinking of more of a cartoon style than a nitty gritty one...
As for formats, I'm cool with Blender. My engine will take anything .ply or MD5, depending on if it's static or animated.
I hope I'm making sense, I'm not the most arty person!

 

[traylorpark]

Japan eh? I might know a little about that odd place. For locations ... I'd recommend image searching for Ameyoko and Dotonbori, those are two interesting and lively places and could give some interesting style direction.

As to using metal but making it not boring... don't use the color gray ... or use it as rarely as possible. For example, search for the game Grandia and look for the opening city Parm. There is virtually no gray in that.

Since the camera is pulled back and the tanks are small, I'd suggest that they should have really obvious silhouettes - easier to quickly read what an object is. My opinion is that it would be fun to shoot stuff that is brightly colored and exaggerated, but that is of course your call on style.

 

[FlippantBird]

Looks sweet! I would like to contribute 3d art. I greatly enjoy making robots and tanks.

 

[zapman]

Ok, this is what I got:

blendfile: http://www.pasteall.org/blend/2203
turntable vid: http://rapidshare.com/files/364561213/0001.avi.html


I didn't try to fix every flaw there is in my model (there are plenty) cause there is still too much unclear about general requirements; It's more like a quick testmodel
If you think my skill is fine for your aims, I suggest we should meet in skype (PM me) and have a chat. That way we can nail down some general issues concerning models, texture, gameplay etc..

What do you say?

[Edit: The model would be only few centimeters big in normal gameplay mode; probably this model is already too detailed here and there; it has got 722 tris, that should be ok I assume..]

 

[Tobs]

@Traylorpark: Damn you're good! And now I might be about to buy Grandia...
The camera's only pulled back for the screenshots, to show off more of the scene - I've done very little work on the player at the moment. Guess I'll decide camera angle later on.
I also looked at Jet Set Radio Future, since that had a lot of industrial settings that weren't grey at all.

@FlippantBird: And I would like you to contribute! Looks like Zapman's already in but if you're both okay working as a 3, that's awesome!

@Zapman: That looks ace! It really goes with the style I was thinking of. I'm not sure how to describe what I'm thinking of without calling it toon shaded, except not in a toon shading way... We'll see how it works out this weekend!

I need to conjure an assignment for tomorrow, so I'll PM you both tomorrow?

 

[fusion_power]

Ok, this is what I got:

blendfile: http://www.pasteall.org/blend/2203
turntable vid: http://rapidshare.com/files/364561213/0001.avi.html


I didn't try to fix every flaw there is in my model (there are plenty) cause there is still too much unclear about general requirements; It's more like a quick testmodel
If you think my skill is fine for your aims, I suggest we should meet in skype (PM me) and have a chat. That way we can nail down some general issues concerning models, texture, gameplay etc..

What do you say?

[Edit: The model would be only few centimeters big in normal gameplay mode; probably this model is already too detailed here and there; it has got 722 tris, that should be ok I assume..]

I like the design and the fact, that you can do coll Texturing with Blender. I have no Talent for UV-Texturing and I also should learn some better light settings too. ^^ Your Model is simple but has a very stylish look, the SFX Textures makes it even more impressive. I hope the game engine can produce these effects too.
I would make some more rivets onto the model and the existing ones larger and better visible, should fit very well into the look.

 

[foxblock]

The lightning and design ("roundness") of the tank somehow instantly remind me of Conker's Bad Fur Day.
Looks really great, keep it up

foxblock out

 

[zapman]

thx guys!

If we work on this together I suggest we share a standard light-room file. It'll be easier to keep color and style consistancy later on in the final game engine.. somethink like this: .blend file

The setup might change though, depending on the atmosphere we decide on..

Opinions of those involved?

 

[conso]

I've got some modelling experience with blender.
If noone objects, I might join in.