Chaos Rising

I'm going to be covering some of my notes for new features to add to ARZ. I think with the addition of traps, it may be time to go back and clean up the games interface - give it more of a real HUD but I think I want to sort out a better level first.

So to put aside ARZ for a moment, I'm very pumped about the annoucnment of Chaos Rising for Dawn of War 2 (DoW2). Being a long-time fan of the 40k universe as well as the game itself, I'm very pumped to see Relic adding a new faction and even more so, a whole new campaign. For those not in the know, DoW2 Single Player game brought a whole new level to RTS awesomeness. Instead of just mission after mission of building a group up and moving through the map, DoW2 added the a constant group of units you command, upgrade, and equip through each mission (that you get to select the order you approach btw). Basically it combined a light-action-rpg with some pretty awesome RTS elements to create something truly unique. Chaos Rising is going to increase the level cap on your squad and allow you potentially turn to the Dark Gods as well. I've already dipped back into the campaign to gear up for this (even though it sounds like it won't be out till next year). This time through I'm making my Force Commander a heavy weapons specialist. In fact I just got him the ability to carry Heavy Bolters and now him along with Avitus can leap frog around the level giving constant covering fire. So far, its been a great strategy (of course I've pushed Tarkus to be full on melee which if you haven't tried yet, he is incredble at).

The game is just that damn good (especially when taking in small chunks). I can't wait for more!

Traps!

I was in the midst of writing a new blog entry about how I was going to be adding traps into the game but then had to put it aside. Turns out before I could go back and finish it, I had traps actually in the game. Go figure.

So over on the right you will see a link to Proto 0.2. The 2 big features to notice here are the inclusion of "spawning arrows" that will show you which spawners have become active and are pumping out dudes. These will point offscreen as well so it won't matter where you are on the map. The other big feature are traps. These are enviroment hazards that take the place of a tile. In the demo map, there are 3 that will hurt enemies as long as the are touching them.

The idea behind traps was to encourage players to use the Attractor power (now linked to 2 key) and drag the enemies into a trap. This gives you a better chance to use the attractor or slowly murder a large group while you focus on another.

So far, I like the traps. Tell me what you think or what other kind of traps you'd like to see included!

ARZ Update

Its such a small endevor, but getting feedback from people on ARZ (even in its dorky state) has just put liquid shortz in my pants.

So time for an update! First off, the side bar has been updated to maintain a list of all the Prototype links to Attack of the Robo Zombies. I just added Proto 0.1 which has the first great piece of feedback which was a "power circle" to show you how big the emitter blast will be while you hold it down. Should help with aiming on those zombie bastages! Behind the scenese I threw in some better camera smoothing using quadratic equations.

I'm compiling notes for the next set of improvements (and the people who get credit):

  • Arrows that point offscreen where enemies are coming from (M. Brenner)
  • Enviroment hazards (spikes, lave, etc) (S. Emberton)
  • Custom Cursor with particle effects to tell you what power you are using (S. Emberton)
  • Finer tuned wave - reduce spawning amounts (S Emberton)
  • Improved level layout
As always, I am always in the mood for more feedback of any kind (even arg suggestions). Thanks everyone!

Attack of the Robo Zombies!

Its finally time again.

After way too long I am ready to start developing a game with you fine people. How do you participate? Play my game! A long time ago, I worked on a game called Blobula and I found the process of posting prototypes and demos frequently was very helpful. So ladies and germs - its time to start again!

So this time out I'm working on a game using the XNA framework (so s'all c# up in here). However, that is not really important (unless you have some pointers for me). The game is tenatively titled Attack of the Robot Zombies (or ARZ for short).

In ARZ, your objective is to fend off hordes of lil zombies as they rush your energy nodes. Every zombie that gets in will score them a point. Your objective is kill all the zombies and have the fewest amount get in.



Right now the game is in an early proto/tech demo phase. In theory, you could say that too much work was done before getting to this point in the proto. My arguments are that the effects, etc that are in the game (even though they are rough) help remove the overall ugliness and should hopefully get me better feedback.

SO hit the link fools! And shoot me feedback here or at naveen.nattam@gmail.com!

www.naveennattam.com/ARZ_3/ARZ_Proto_0.0.zip

The Face of Happiness



Thats my nephew, Zander Rajeev Nattam. Always original, never duplicated.

Gateway into my thoughts : Doing Fine

This has been an odd week for me so far but to give you a heads up, its the good kind of odd. The odd thing is so incredibly odd that its oddness alone is enough to blast all those that know my oddness and odd situation for how odd it really is will have their minds shattered. Be prepared! Be forewarned! This shit is ODD!

I have come home and been with my wife 3 nights in a row. I have gone to bed next to her and woken up next to her.

How Odd is that!?