Vanarchy - Sept Comp Entry

Started by STEVIE G, September 11, 2018, 22:42:57

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Qube

QuoteScreenshot below shows improved self shadowing - noticeable on the Monument and the new water fountain.
Now that looks real nice :) - Everything is sharp and the subtle lines in the road work well.
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Until the next time.

STEVIE G

#31
Working on the Powered up versions of your van ... meet the Booster, Rammer, Normal, Shooter, Miner and Cloaker.  You keep the powered up version for approx 10 secs.  The Rammer will be your staple when you pick up a power pill (crate) to allow you to gobble up the ghosts (cop cars).  The rest will be randomly available through the course of the stage.





The squares with black outlines are placeholders to indicate vehicles off screen.  Works better than a mini-map I think.
Implemented a single surface particle system and started adding some sound effects.

Getting there.  :D

STEVIE G

Particles fully working now with subtle shadows  ;D

Also, working on some simple AI which broadly mimics the original Pacman where they have 3 main states and flip between chase and scatter for varying amounts of time depending on the stage.  There are going to be 4 main protagonists (possibly more on later levels) and a small number of pedestrian vehicles. 
A nice doc here on the ghost AI .. http://gameinternals.com/post/2072558330/understanding-pac-man-ghost-behavior


I was thinking about stages and settled on allowing the user to select random or seeded, where random means each stage is different each time you play and seeded means each new stage is the same every time you play (at least on your own PC).  Basically, there will be an almost infinite number of levels - gotta love procedural generation  :P

A cop car being eaten / destroyed ...


The booster


STEVIE G

Quick update ....

Rammer, Cloaker and Booster powerups fully working.  Will add more if I get time.
AI now fully working and added ability to increase difficulty. 
Cop cars flash when you've got the Rammer powerup indicating they can be destroyed.
Buses roam around but stop at every bus stop they find, indicated by a little white sign.
Buses and Pedestrian vehicles cannot be destroyed.  There are no real collisions with them but they slow you down to half speed if you try to drive through them.  I tried various combinations of collisions and penalties and this one worked best - at least that's what my playtester tells me.
Added Tanks which will appear on later levels and shoot shells which can destroy you.  At the moment Tanks are indestructable - might change with one of the powerups.
Added sound effects, car engines, horns beeping, pickups and skidding etc..
Bonus gold bullion now appears twice on a stage, depending on the number of coins you have picked up.
Bonus Powerups which are random appear 3 times each stage.
Added almost permanent skid marks and improved other particle effects.
Added a in-game front end which includes score, coins left, lives and a mini-map showing where things are relative to you.  Non obstructive and minimalist was the plan - I think it works well.
Also been thinking about new names as Pac Van might land me in bother with Namco  :o  ... some suggestions ...

Mac-Van
Van-Tastic
Wee Van Thief
Shitty Shitty Van Van
Van-archy

I think I've settled on [Son of]  Vanarchy for now as it fits the gameplay.


This weekend I'll be working on the Menu's - nice and simple and will make better if time permits. 


Some recent screenshots ....








Steve Elliott

The gameplay sounds like great fun, look forward to having a go.

Quote
I think I've settled on [Sort of]  Vanarchy for now as it fits the gameplay.

Based on your description of the gameplay it seems very appropriate.  Great stuff  8)
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Derron

Next he will do a GTA-Clone: VANdalism!


VANtastic work already - as always.


bye
Ron


Xerra

Son of Vanarchy. EXCELLENT title. In fact a lot of your suggestions are. I loved the TV show, however, so this one gets my vote too.

The game is really coming along now by what you've said. Can't wait to try it out.
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STEVIE G

#37
Lots more done over the weekend  ...

Done ...

* Cop sirens now animate nicely .. kind of like an additive blended helicopter rotor  ;D
* Tanks now shoot at you which can get pretty hairy.
* You can now take jobs - involves picking up a briefcase and taking it to a specified location on the map for points.
* Added a couple of basic very retro fonts
* Worked on the random generator - there are 10 cities to choose from, each with 100 stages (yes, you'll never need that many) and an option for levels to be completely random.  Basically, I create 1000 random   seeds when you first run the game and load these back in each subsequent time and use those seeds to create the city / stage.  Works well.  You can create 1000 brand new ones by just deleting the seed file. 
* Tidied up some of the graphics - each vehicle now has a little more detail and headlights.
* A new protagonist added - the Super Cop - it will go faster than the other cops.
* Options ini file loading and handling

To Be Done ...

* Menu / splash screen
* Stage difficulty balancing and vehicles
* Extra lives when you reach certain scores - possibly every 10,000.

Nice to have ...

* 2 Player mode - not screen sharing - just turn about.
* Shortcuts that only the player can use and bonus points for using it.
* More Vehicles
* More buildings
* More powerups

Some more screen shots ...  see if you can see my influence for the Super Cop  :P







Steve Elliott

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STEVIE G

#39
Quote from: Steve Elliott on October 07, 2018, 19:51:18
Some nice touches, any videos?   8)

Quick and dirty - no sound and video does not do the smooth 60 fps scrolling and animation justice BUT it gives you a flavour of the gameplay.  FRAPS is total sh*te!


Derron

police headlights look a bit like this:



Else: I assume it gets more and more fast paced at the end - for now it looks like it can get a bit "boring" the first game play minutes (long roads, less vehicles) so maybe beginner courses are smaller / more concentrated ?

Coin-vanish effect looks cool: dust in the wind.

bye
Ron

Steve Elliott

Thanks for the video, a bit of a particle-fest - which is always a cool thing.   8)

I assume it gets more frantic and more difficult as the game progresses?  In the video it looked a bit easy.

Quote
video does not do the smooth 60 fps scrolling and animation justice

That always makes me nervous when people say that, because not all monitors sync at 60 FPS.  Mine syncs at 75 FPS, so without compensation that would mean jerky movement.
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STEVIE G

Quote from: Derron on October 07, 2018, 21:43:55

Else: I assume it gets more and more fast paced at the end - for now it looks like it can get a bit "boring" the first game play minutes (long roads, less vehicles) so maybe beginner courses are smaller / more concentrated ?

Coin-vanish effect looks cool: dust in the wind.

bye
Ron

The Cop AI is as dumb as it gets here and their speed is only about 75% of yours.  This is what they will be like on the first level.  You wouldn't last 10 secs with alot more vehicles and cops.

Anyway, "boring" is a little bit harsh I think based on a quick and dirty video- typical Derron.  Best to press judgement when you play it.  Dungeon crawlers on the other hand - now they are boring - at least to me ;)

STEVIE G

Quote from: Steve Elliott on October 07, 2018, 21:56:06
Thanks for the video, a bit of a particle-fest - which is always a cool thing.   8)

I assume it gets more frantic and more difficult as the game progresses?  In the video it looked a bit easy.

Quote
video does not do the smooth 60 fps scrolling and animation justice

That always makes me nervous when people say that, because not all monitors sync at 60 FPS.  Mine syncs at 75 FPS, so without compensation that would mean jerky movement.

Again, the AI is dumb.  It also takes around 25 secs before all the cops are out of the station and about 40 before both of the tanks are out.
I knew it was a mistake to post a video of a test level.

Was Van Tourisimo fine?   

Derron

Nah, did not want to say it _is_ boring, but it "looked" that way - you drove around without much "danger". My game currently has a very similar "problem".

In the game it might of course be different but for now I was only able to judge by the video. And my impression were was that the long streets/scrolling might be "too much" for the first levels - you might be aware of this already.


@ cop speed
maybe have different levels? So once you collected some more money, their "awareness" increases and they start to drive more risky/faster?


bye
Ron