MechCorp Update (27th August 2015)

It's update time again. In fact it has long overdue. Good thing that I've actually got quite a lot of stuff done. The game is approaching its beta state at this point

So, the most notable different between the last update is the visual. I have overhauled almost all of the UI. You will notice in the screen shot I have got custom produced asset now instead of placeholder. The star-map have been enhanced with some really cool parallax effect. Everything has been made to be more interactive in general. The difference is dramatic I have to say.

Moving away from visual, the most important stuff is I've made quite some change to the game itself. Apart from the existing resource that the player need to manage, a morale system has been added. The morale would affect how the units perform in a battle. They would have some impact outside the battle. Let just say it's not a good idea keeping the morale of the crew low. Of course the morale is affected by how well the squad is doing on a whole.

Then there's combat. A new flanking system is added so that unit's facing is taking into consideration in an attack. Attacking a unit from the rear will grant a bonus. So it's a good idea for the player to try to flank the opponent while keeping their own back covered. This is to give the battle another layer of tactical depth. There's actual reason now to try to move the unit around other than just getting them into attacking range.

To compliment the new system, a considerable amount of work has been put into AI. The AI will take advantage of the flanking. Some AI unit will actively try to flank the player while some will be very defensive. All in all, it makes for a more dynamic combat.

 

So I guess that's all the update I have for now, unless I talk about the less exciting stuff such as save system, or goes into detail explaining all the tiny detail and polish. So until next time.

Demon Rise - A game made using TBTK

I just have to make a post about this. Apparently this beauty, which is built using a modified TBTK, has been released on AppStore and I have missed it until now. I can't comment on the gameplay as I don't have a working iOS device to play this on. The dev says he plans to release it on Android so here's hoping.

Ignore the fact that I've never play it, it looks gorgeous. Look at it.

Being involved in the development (to a certain extent) of something like this does makes me proud. Very proud indeed. If you have an iPhone or iPad, go download it - https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/demons-rise/id951205464?ls=1&mt=8

Status Update

Once again it feels like I've fallen off the face of the earth or something. Can't believe that it's been 2 months since I last post something. I started this blog with the intention to post regular update of the things I'm doing and the progress I've done. Just to remind and motivate myself, if not to anyone who is interested. It seems like I've either have so much to do I've forgotten about posting, or I've been doing nothing all this while.

Truth is, my status hasn't change much since the last few months. That is I'm concentrating almost all my effort on MechCorp. It has been taken way way too long than I first expected. But it's all because of my own doing. Indecisive in finalizing the various aspect of the project and inexperience in many of the execution. The consolation is at least progress are slowly being made.

I've now built almost two dozen of mech models, along with another two dozen or so of interchangeable weapons for the mech, and other units. They all have been integrated into the game. I've got most of the game mechanic nailed down, at least half of the UI finalized and done. There are still a lot to do but it feels like I've crossed the half way line. There's no reason why this can't be finished now.

Honestly, it has been a very rocky process with lots of roller-coaster like ups and down. There are days I feel like I'm nailing it and it's going to be the a very good game, then a little design flaw I found later makes me feels like the whole thing is a big waste of time. Project fatigue is certainly closing in. I've lost count of how many time I'm tempted to scrap everything and start again, or just do something else.

On another note, as of this month, it's been 4 years since I started this blog. It also means that it's been 4 years I'm trying to do this professionally on a full time basis. Not saying I'm surprise that I'm still here, I know I have the will to see thing through. I will most certainly still be here this time next year. But it would certainly be very nice if I've a moderately successful game released by the same time next year.

MechCorp Update (11th March 2015) - Colors!

Feels like ages since I last post something. But this time I'm back with many cool update about MechCorp. Most importantly, there are eyes-candy.

First, more customization option for the mechs. By which I mean the colors on the mechs. They no longer stay grey. And also there are skins. Well there's only one for now. I'll see if I can put more in later.

Then there's the combat. Thing has been spiced up a bit by the addition of randomly placed obstacles on the grid. This should make line-of-fire a more prominent role in the game and making the game more tactical.

These two are the obvious visible changes since the last update but they are not all. There have been other progress as well. A simple plot has been added, giving the overall progress of the game more context. The pacing of the game has also been re-structured around that. So the game now has a clear objective in which the player needs to work toward with certain sense of urgency.

To put it bluntly, all is well at this point. I'm pretty pleased with the progress and how the game is shaping up.

MechCorp Update (4th February 2015)

A little gameplay footage, I didnt record the sound unfortunately

It feels like it has been an eternity since I last posted. I've been hiding in the mountains working on MechCorp and I've done an awful lot since. I think.

So I've ported MechCorp from to Unity4.6, rebuilding the UI from NGUI to uGUI, update the TBTK component from the older version to version2. In the process, I've done a major restructuring to the coding. I've also done some redesign to some major component the gameplay. It's quite an operation to say the least. And I'm quite glad I manage to get it done within 2 months. Considering I've manage to take the project past the point where it were before the update. The only 'but' is the new build hasn't got a save system like before. I figure that can wait.

The new gameplay offer more stuff to do and more reasons to explore the world. I feel like it should give a tighter experience. Basically all the major component is done at this point. There might still be room for one or two features that I really want to try but that's my feature creep sneaking in. I should be able to just focus on building content and it wouldn't be straying too far from my original vision.

By the way, I would like to have someone playing it and give me some feedback. So if you are interested in trying it out. Please let me know and I'll be happy to send you a demo.

MechCorp v0.2 (Early Alpha)

It's good to be back working at MechCorp. I've been working on other stuff *cough* AssetStore *cough* for way too long. The good news is, I've managed to get it working to a reasonably playable state before I got distracted, with most of the core aspects of the game working. In fact, I think it's that good that I've decided to share with the world about what I've done, and gather some feedback if there's any. So I proudly present:

MechCorp v0.2 alpha

>> unity webplayer <<

>> download standalone <<

This is pretty much the first playable build demo I released. Well, technically second, since I once made public a prototype build. On a hind sight, that was simply too imature to be consider a working game. So let's just ignore that.

As an alpha build, of course nothing in the build is finalized. A little bit of technical info, it's build with Unity4.3, with TBTK as the backbone for the battle scene, and NGUI for the UI. Now with the new Unity4.6 is out, and combine with the fact that I've rewrote TBTK2 (which is better than its previous incarnation in almost every single way), I'm tempted to port it to the new engine. And while doing that, I might redesign the map exploration and event encounter aspect of the game. Somehow I feel the current execution falls short of my expectation. It's simply not very engaging to me.

On the other hand, I'm quite happy at how the combat and to a certain extent, the mech customization system turns out. But I was hoping to hear other opinion about that. So any comments or feedbacks are much appreciated.

Screenshots from current version:

Mech Configuration

Squad Screen

Battle!

Exploration and loots

Shop

Tech Upgrades

New TDTK and TBTK is out!

Finally, I can now get back to working on MechCorp. Well, in case you haven't read the title, both TDTK3 and TBTK2 is now live on AssetStore. It has taken me 3 full months of working like mad to rebuild both of this packages from ground up. But it's well worth it I say. Both of them are now more polished than ever.

It's as promised, they now use the latest uGUI. For that reason, they now require Unity4.6 to work. And since uGUI is a lot more accessible then both NGUI and old script-based GUI, both the old GUI has been scrapped.

Anyway, I've updated each respective page to reflect the new update. Check them out for more info.

• TBTK - http://song-gamedev.blogspot.co.uk/p/tbtk2.html
• TDTK - http://song-gamedev.blogspot.co.uk/p/blog-page_27.html

Oh, did I mention they are free update to the older version. So if you already bought it, go download it! Just remember they are not backward compatible so don't import it into an existing project.