prototype game
 

Hi Guys,

Just thought I'd post up a prototype game I've been working on for Uni.
It's programmed in Virtools (game prototyping software) with the modelling, texturing and animation done in Maya. The still background images and buttons are also done by me.
I've only been learning Virtools on and off for a month or so and as such the game itself is only one level and is very very basic ;)

Here's a screenshot of one of the scripts - not hardcore coding like you think but drag and drop behaviours and drag and link to connect behaviours, objects and variables.
This script simply sets the character back to the start position when hit, adds a hit to a counter, resets the chasing dogs and determines whether the character has lost all his lives.
http://www.flash-fx.net/3D/images/ga...rHitScript.jpg

Here's some of the models I (very) quickly knocked up in a day just to get some half decent content in there. If I had time then they would look FAR better.

this is the main animated character (about 150 polys)
http://www.flash-fx.net/3D/images/ga...acter_cone.jpg

here's a simple truck (around 400 polys)
http://www.flash-fx.net/3D/images/game/truck.jpg
wires
http://www.flash-fx.net/3D/images/game/truck1_wires.jpg

a bike (around 400 polys) - never made it in as I didnt have time to model a person sat on it)
http://www.flash-fx.net/3D/images/game/bike.jpg
wires
http://www.flash-fx.net/3D/images/game/bike1_wires.jpg

a car (around 400 polys) - very bad UV and texture job!
http://www.flash-fx.net/3D/images/game/car.jpg
wires
http://www.flash-fx.net/3D/images/game/car1_wires.jpg

a tree (around 500 polys) - a very simplified version of one I found online
http://www.flash-fx.net/3D/images/game/tree.jpg

and the prototype game itself (about 20 meg so it might take a little while to stream into the browser) :)
http://www.flash-fx.net/3D/masters/i...ents/virtools/

you will need the virtools life player installed to play (a real quick browser plugin installation) from:
http://www.virtools.com/downloads/player/install.asp

Like I say, its just a prototype for one easy level in a game so dont expect rocket science.
The only other thing to note is that the killer dogs are actually chequered cubes as I didnt get time to model and animate them...
Have fun!

Oh and one final note, you now have some idea about what my final animated short film may be about...

Si

hey t1ck - very interesting - your models don't look too bad! this is very cool - thanks for letting us in on how you went about doing this. make sure you keep us posted on your progress. I'm stuck at work, so I can't check out the game at the moment, but i'll take a look when i get home.

...and one question: your main character is a traffic cone...?! :confused:

Woo hoo, I found the general!!

That's pretty neat Si, kind of like frogger at the start and the barking dog/cube is pretty effective at making you think that you're about to be killed!!

Take it easy,

Mat.

hehe, cheers guys,

Arran - things will become clear, I assure you ;)
It's effectively a finished prototype now and will be put to bed till after my final project (unless I get the urge to do a little more).

thanks for the test Mat, you got it in one with the frogger description for the beginning. The camera is a really wide angle so you can see quite a bit of the road but it's still hard to see whats coming. My Wife's little sis tried it the other day and just ended up running across the road blind. Saying that it helped me iron a nasty bug out :)

Si

cool lol. did you buy it? or is there a free version?

too bad, the plugin doesnt work for vista :( i can't play it :(

it hardly works for XP well my computer.

starjsjswars - its on the computers at Uni, I think it costs thousands of pounds for a proper licence but I dont think they have a free/demo version. To be honest they should really consider doing a PLE version like in Maya just so that it atttracts people like us 3D modellers into game development. I really believe that a PLE version available to the guys (and gals) on these forums would spawn a whole range of games and interactive programs. The programming is very easy to get into, even for non programmers and only becomes more difficult as you try to do more difficult things.

Joopson - I thought they had updated it to be vista compatible but there may still be issues :(

Here's a very quick video grab of the game in action (low quality with no sound and still a 27meg .avi)
game demo video

Si

my computer sucks is there anyway you can upload it and then i can download it to my computer?



heres a good site if you can.. filefront.com

thats pretty cool looking. I wish I knew how to make games, looks pretty tricky though, and I haven't even learned (succefuly) how to rig a character, so i don't even know anything about animating yet.
Thanks for sharing with us.

hey what uni you at?

starjsjswars - once its loaded in once it should be cached in your browser and run ok. It's not really optimised though as I'm still learning the basics so it might run a bit crap on some PC's. I guess if you look in your browser cache for the file index.vmo and then drag it into a browser it should run straight from your computer.

Rhetoric Camel - thanks :) its not too bad actually as the program I'm using (Virtools) uses a 'CASE' based programming technique where you drag and drop behaviours onto objects and link them to different things.
For example the car movement is a script attached to a car object and is run when the car is copied to a position. All I did to set that up was create a blank script on the car, drag a 'move to' behaviour onto it and then add a random behaviour to randomise how long it took to move to the position. It got a little more complicated as I was making instances of the car (like copies but still sharing the same mesh, shaders and textures as the original car) but thats only because I made it so ;)

richand26mhz - I'm at Leeds Met, UK, doing a Masters in Creative Technology

Si

Ha ha!! Just watched the video - Excellent!

Well done mate!! :beer:

Good job.
I just played it then and it was funny. :)
My only crit is that the end bit was a bit hard to get into the dumpster. The start with the cars was fun.

cheers arran, the quality of the vid is a little poor but you get the idea :)

thanks some guy :) yeah I wasnt sure how hard to make the walk up the plank. I figured that it wasn't too bad when walking but when running it can be very hard.

The motorway bit has been done so that the number of traffic lanes and speeds of the vehicles can be altered - the plan was to have a futuristic level with 20+ lanes with little breathers/rest points between groups of lanes. Maybe that'll come if I go back to it ;)

Si