Lets see some particle effects

Well, we made some changes to the game, like bomber mode and reticle placement.  We also added some particle effects.  Check out our newest video.

Back to work

Well, after about 2 solid weeks of 15 hour days working on getting BomBIRDier ready for GDC, we've taken a week off after the convention.  Honestly, I think we earned it.  It was an amazing chance to show our game prototype off and get some really good feedback from industry professionals.

The most prevailing critique was that our bomber mode needed to be reworked.  Apparently the camera swap is disorientating.  Additionally people seemed to think the projectile should have some forward momentum.

Well, we're listening, and we're making some changes including:

1) Changing bomber mode from a a camera swap to a actively changing the position of the camera.

2) Angling the poop camera forward instead of straight down.

3) Projecting the reticle onto the ground instead of just as a filter on the camera

4) Giving the poop projectiles both forward and downward velocity

He's at the 20, the 10, FUMBLE!!

Yup, I dropped the ball.  Despite being told we were being shown at GDC, I didn't follow up.  Turns out I made one of my old common mistakes, assuming.  In addition to there not actually being an Android tablet to show our game on, we weren't scheduled to have a computer either.

Thank you Valerie Carmer.  You saved the day!

Luckily I have a very dedicated team member who was volunteering for the convention and realized we weren't scheduled to show and took care of it.  As it turns out, one student had pieces showing on two computers.  The department was kind enough to give us one of those.  It was close, but we made it.

A seriously big thank you to Valerie.

Ready or not, here we come.

It was close, but we have a build ready for GDC.  Despite having our coder back, we got nothing useful out of him.  In addition to not working on what I requested from him, he spent two days coding something that doesn't really work, that was more or less already done. Instead of turning and shooting, I got Xbox controller code that almost worked.  My favorite thing though was his answer to the question "why doesn't it work?"  Response: "Hmmm, it should, the logic is almost exactly the same."

/sigh

So, I got to spend all day Sunday, the day we needed to submit work, fixing it so that it did work.  In the end though, we have both a PC and an Android build ready for the convention, and they came out pretty well.

We thought you were dead man!

So our programmer has re-emerged, although with no more work finished than when he disappeared, and just in time to get the only thing I really need done, done for GDC.  Here's hoping we'll have turning and shooting at the same time ready.

And we have T-Shirts!

So I ordered T-Shirts for the group to wear at GDC and they came in today.  They look pretty good :)

So um, optimization? Who's afk?

We've hit a snag.  Those pesky frame rates just seem to be happy at  15fps.  Well, that's not what we in the industry call "great."  That's also where a programmer can really shine.  Unfortunately, our programmer has gone missing and hasn't been heard from in a month.  So all that sloppy code I wrote to prototype mechanics, is now going to be our only code.  So I have to do some major clean up and try to get our frame rates up.

The point is poop, poop for points

So we really wanted to focus in on dropping bombs and make it desirable to the player to do so as well.  So we've implemented bomber mode.  In conjunction with activating a camera on the target when they get hit, we've added a function to allow players to swap cameras between the bomb camera (the one that faces down) and the main camera.  You can also steer the projectile onto target, making it a little easier to hit your mark.  Also check out the new models we got in game.

We're going to GDC!

So the Academy of Art has a booth at GDC and has asked us to show our game at their booth.  Since GDC  starts on March 25th , we've kinda got a lot to do.

Its starting to come together

So our environment artist has put most of the newly designed buildings into our build to replace the previously ugly block world.  Check it out!

Tilt Controls: It sounded like a good idea

Mobile phones come with a lot of cool features.  For example an accelerometer.  Everyone I hand this game to always says the same thing; it would be awesome with tilt controls.  Ya ya, I know, it sounds good in theory.  But I promise you, the game sucks with them.

So i paid for and downloaded an acceleration control package from the Unity store and got it working with our game.  However, working is one of those relative terms.  When a game uses tilt controls, typically their on a rail.  What I mean is they run on a predetermined track, with a little bit of play from one side of the track or the other,  In an open world game, where you can move in 3 dimensions and accuracy is required, its not so good.  Trying to line up a target when every little movement changes your trajectory and then pressing a button on the screen to hit a target, it just didn't work.  So we're going to work on refining the virtual joysticks and buttons.

It's not you it's me... ok it's you

Alright OUYA, I think we should take a break, see other platforms, and get some perspective.  After weeks of trying to get the controller working for our game on the OUYA system, I've about given up.  Especially considering there is no way we're going to finish a whole game in time for the OUYA launch.

OUYA has a really cool offer going on where if you release a game for their system at launch, you get a year of free advertising, not to mention being one of very few games available.  The exposure would have been amazing.  But that goal was utterly unrealistic.  Trying to create a game from scratch with no experience making games in six months... umm, no.  

So we're shifting focus and aiming for mabile maybe later this year, maybe next.  But, that means we can focus on a set of platforms, i.e. Android and iOS for release.  Porting it to Xbox or Steam later should be pretty easy, but for now we're going to focus on mobile.

Lets release it for all platforms... yes for the Atari too.

One of the coolest things about Unity is how easy it is to switch platforms.  From PC, to Xbox, to PS3, to Android, to iOS, to web player etc.

Since we're developing this for the OUYA, an android based console, I thought why not get it on my phone too.  That means virtual controls though, so I did some research and some learning.  Turns out its not to hard to implement virtual controllers and on screen buttons.