Week 4 – Controls, Physics, and Road Bumps
So, I will wait at least a week before sharing some of our concept art / and core game design. First off, we are still getting some concept art done, and I rather share a good chunk. Also, I will probably have a variety of concepts, and I would prefer to share that with you and get your guys feedback as to which ones you like and don’t like.
Also, this week as just been a massive pain. Last week I mentioned the two roles I play; producer and designer. The producer side of me was having a bit of a panic attack this week realizing the scope of the game. I think I spent every day in at least two coffee shops, working about 16 hours per day – and that is not including writing another project I am working on with Freddie. I was looking back through the GDD, stripping levels not needed, combining others, and the like. Then most of my time was spent laying out those levels in 3D.
That is taking longer than I thought. The main cause of this is simultaneously being obsessive, and incredibly self critical. Each one did end up getting to a place that I feel is worthy of a “first pass”, but it was a long and brutal battle.
Another thing taking a while are the controls.
When we first pieced the game together, we went off my basic idea, and used Unity’s physics engine for the majority of it. Morgan, ,being the good programmer he is, realized that this may not be the best way to control the game I had in mind. So he is rewriting the controls from scratch, and essentially making his own physics engine.
To explain this simplym, Unity has its own physics engine, which you can tweak various variables such as gravity, mass, drag, acceleration, etc. To have an object exist with in the physics you simple add a “rigid body” component. When you do that, you essentially say “all right engine, this shit is now existing in your physics engine, go ahead and apply all your variables to it”.
The problem with this – and Morgan can feel free to add detail – you are limited by the scope of the physics engine. It doesn’t take long to realize this is very limiting in regards to having things move that feel good in terms of gameplay.
Take basic controls of almost any game you play and its clear characters don’t move like people do in real life. Mario has physicality, but his physics are not our own, but instead are carefully crafted so that his momentum, acceleration and weight FEEL right. You can only tweak Unity’s variables so long before you realize your character is never going to actually stop on a dime AND accelerate quickly AND then STOP accelerating at X speed, unless he is going uphill, then you want him to slow down, but… the problems pile up quickly.
You don’t want your character to act like a physics engine. So you create a “character controller” instead of a rigid body. That problem is now when your character is on a slope, or trying to push a block, nothing happens. He is not part of the physical world. So Morgan has to go back and essentially create physical interactions for every collision and situation.
Some are easy, others are not and I am now learning which is which.
I am going to switch my priorities to tweaking those levels, and providing Morgan detailed notes on what needs to be scripted into those levels. I also have boss fights and minigames to be designing. That and a whole lot of story and dialog to write. So I have plenty to work on that I can leave levels for a bit as more controls and environmental levels come in.
I am also going to be working on the scripts that Morgan has done, specifically combat. Morgan did a great job with combat this week, and the basics feel great. Now its just a matter of attack range, how fast it should be, how could combos work, how enemies should react, etc. If I can get combat feeling right, than that is a good chunk of the game that will be fun.
Once I reveal what the game is, I would like to discuss some finer details about controls, as the touch pad and tilt controls present some unique challenges in getting the right feel. Such as do you jump when the pad feels your finger touch it, or when your finger stops touching the pad?
Anything you guys are interested in me discussing? I am sure most of you just want to know what the game actually is. I promise that will be soon. So if you have anything else, just comment below.
Also I will be looking for people who want to model and texture aspects of the game. I you are interested go ahead an email jobs[at]Facerocker[dot]com. That is a major concern of mine, as the game is rather large, and Nico has come up with a great art style and look. However, there is just a lot of work to be done to actually get it all made. So I will definitely be looking for outside help.
Follow me on twitter for more insight on the project: twitter.com/mattlarnold
Hey, interesting read. The entire situation about being your own manager is universal to many situations. It’s hard to control your own ambitions but too easy to run off with ideas.
Do you ever run into “hardware limitations”? or cut an idea because of that?
I would love to do some modeling, however, I just started teaching myself only few months ago and the architecture class I’m taking doesn’t necessarily teach modeling in the “artistic sense”. ie: modeling and texturing buildings.. bleh.
modeling buildings is a first step to become a 3d model legend
lol agreed. Gotta start somewhere. We did photo realistic in-door lighting and now moving onto camera matching. very interesting stuff. You have any experience?
a late respond, but i do have a little experience.
but i keep trying to get better.
Yup – the entire game is built around the “limitations” of not having buttons. And mobile is nothing but dealing with limitations. Now, while iPhone is pretty impressive graphically, it is still not like a computer where you can do whatever you want.
Level size is determined by a strict polycount, as are things like dealing with shadows and real time lighting.
By any chance will this game be available on android devices too?
That is the plan.
Although we are not sure atm if it will be a simultaneous release, or what Android handsets will be able to run it.
Do you ever use inventor for special effects animation
i wil gamen
Could you post some kind of tutorials for the touch controls?
I was inspired to create a game by your blog.
The touch and accelerometer is what fucks me up.
Thanks for inspiring me.
Game but…