RGB

I spent my free time during the past week or so working on an experimental prototype for a new gameplay mechanic.

RGB is an experimental prototype of a 1st-person puzzle game. The core game mechanic is based on the idea that "if you can't see it, it doesn't exist", such that if your line of sight to an object is obscured, then the obscured object will no longer exist. There's also the added twist whereby many objects only exist in one or two color dimensions, and those objects will only obscure other objects of the same color. For example, a red object will only obscure other red objects, while a yellow object (a mix between red and green) will obscure red, green, and yellow objects.

Puzzles consist of finding proper vantage points, pressing buttons to change the colors of objects, and moving blocks around. The puzzles are physics-driven, but physics is only a supporting element to the real challenge of mixing colors.

You can download PC and Mac versions of the prototype.

Starship Builder - New Art?

Wow, it's been almost 3 months since I posted anything about Starship Builder! Mostly I've just been taking a break from the project.

I would like to share with you a new art style that I'm experimenting with. I'm not sure if I like it yet, but figured I'd share it to get feedback. (Click the thumbnail to view full size.)

Future Walt says: It sucks.

This build also has a few other changes:

• Removed the concept of ship control "modes".
• Double-left-click to move the ship to a location.
• Left-click and drag to select weapons.
• Hold C while left-clicking and dragging to select people.
• Removed Repair Bays and Small Cannons.

Download this build for PC and Mac.

48 Hour Film Project: SGmOVIEmAGIC's Quack

Last week we (us Schell Games folk) wrapped filming on our submission to the 48 Hour Film Project. The result is called Quäck. I play Zombie Hitler, brought back to life by a magical umbrella. So be warned, this film should not be viewed by anyone easily insulted by Nazi jokes. Here it is:




Oh, and we made this awesome poster too!

Starship Builder - UI Revamp & More

I've spent the past couple weeks making a lot of little improvements to Starship Builder. Most importantly, the game's user interface has been totally revamped to be a lot cleaner and more self-explanatory. Here's a full list of improvements:

• Added repair bays. Crew stationed at repair bays will automatically seek out systems needing repair.
• Lots of user interface improvements, including tooltips for just about everything.
• Movement is now back to using the left mouse button. Future Walt wonders why he kept changing this.
• Can right-click to target all weapons while in movement mode.
• New thruster particle effects.
• You can pick what team you want to play on in multiplayer.
• Can now play with up to 8 players. (But only 4 teams are supported.)
• Added an observer mode to multiplayer.
• New blue-ish background image.
• Lots of bug fixes, performance improvements, and tweaks.

A screenshot showing off the new Builder user interface:

And another showing the new background:

Download this build for PC and Mac.

Starship Builder - Ion Beams and Substructure

Another week, another round of improvements to Starship Builder! There are two significant new features in this week's build...

The most fun of the new features is a new type of weapon, the Ion Cannon! Ion Cannons are large, powerful energy weapons that deal great damage over time. Their disadvantage is that they consume very large amounts of ammunition and also can only fire directly forward. This means that it is much more difficult to target specific systems on an enemy ship, and they also may be less useful when built on larger, less maneuverable ships.

The other big new feature is less fun, but arguably more important: Substructure. I've done a number of playtests since adding multiplayer, and the biggest imbalance issue was that ships would break apart into multiple pieces too quickly. My solution to this was to add a layer of "substructure" underneath the existing systems. When a system is destroyed, it reveals the substructure underneath. The substructure itself can also be destroyed, but doing so takes longer, and the ship will not break apart until the substructure is destroyed. In this way, the substructure acts as a kind of glue, holding the ship together even under considerable damage. I'm still working out the exact balance between substructure and regular systems, but it seems to basically solve the problem.

Here's a screenshot showing both the new Ion Cannons and the exposed substructure. Click on the image to get a better view of the substructure.

Download this latest build for PC and Mac.

Starship Builder - Multiplayer!

I've spent the past few weeks doing a massive overhaul of Starship Builder's code to support networked multiplayer. It's been a very long process, requiring a lot of code to be rewritten. But thankfully, and finally, everything seems to be working pretty much okay. Here's a glorious screenshot of two ships in the heat of combat, each belonging to a different player:

Download this latest build for PC and Mac.

Here's a more complete changelist:

• Added basic network multiplayer.
• Can specifically target a part of the enemy by right-clicking on that part.
• Added armor pieces that do nothing but provide lots of protection.
• Press F to make the camera follow your ship.
• A black hole is now spawned after 3 minutes. It's not very powerful, but will suck in stray debris. Whatever you do, don't touch the black hole!
• A massive asteroid swarm now spawns after 5 minutes. Good look surviving it!
• Ships now maintain some amount of thruster stability even as many thrusters are destroyed.
• Added a basic minimap.
• Added small and big cannons.
• A single enemy ship can now be spawned in the simulator.
• Added a new mode that allows you to directly control your ship using the WASDQE keys.

If you want to play multiplayer yourself, here's some basic instructions for setting up a match:

1. On one computer, start the game and click the "Multiplayer" button once the game is loaded.
2. Select the ship you want to play.
3. Type a game name where it says "Host a game".
4. Click "Create".
5. On another computer, follow steps 1-2.
6. Click the button matching the game's name under "Connect to".
7. Repeat steps 5-6 for up to 2 additional computers. (Total of 4 max players.)
8. On the first computer, click "Start!".
9. Have fun!

Starship Builder - UI Modes

This is a somewhat experimental release of Starship Builder, focused primarily on trying out different levels of control that players have over ships, systems on ships, and people in ships.

Here's a rundown of what's changed:

• Added two separate "modes":
• Combat: Allows you to select and give targets to specific weapons. Left-click and drag to draw a box around and select the weapons. Right-click on a target to focus-fire on that target.
• People: Allows you to select and give orders to specific people. Left-click and draw a box around the people to select them. Right click on a system order some of the selected crew to operate that system. Hold U to select only those crew without any orders.
• Ship movement (when in "Movement" mode) is back to right-click.
• Crew can now be ordered to operate specific systems such as weapons, thrusters, ammo supplies, and cockpits.
• Crew's Quarters have been removed. All parts requiring crew now automatically start with their required crew. Crew can also be added and removed manually in the Builder. Hold P when placing a part to not create the default number of crew for that part.
• Crew must be assigned to specific Ammo Supplies. Those crew will then supply ammo to nearby weapons.

Here's a screenshot of the player selecting a handful of cannons:

And here's a screenshot of the player selecting a handful of people: (If you look closely, you can also see lines indicating the paths that the people are travelling.)

Here are download links for PC and Mac versions of this build.

I'm unsure yet whether the player should have this level of detailed control over ships, and I'm especially not sure about whether the individual crew members should be directly controllable or whether they should be completely automated. The direct control of crew in this build seems unnecessarily tedious, so I think I'm leaning towards totally automatic for the future.