Bank Heist - new game beginnings

For years I've been interested in creating a bank heist game. With one attempt of a side scrolling jump-over-obstacle style game. Which flopped pretty badly.

Recently I've enrolled into a new Tafe course that offers us a chance to use their computer labs as our office space to develop a project of our choosing. So I decided why not, it's a perfect opportunity to actually start this project and do it right.

The new plan so far is to create a 3rd person bank heist game in which the player has to case the joint then plan out the execution of the heist. With hopefully all the aspects going smoothly.

With a similar art style to the popular mobile game Hitman Go, the game will be turned based.
I'm hoping I can get this one done and see it through to the end. It all begins now.

More to come.

2016 - Latest post in months!

Unfortunately I've been neglecting my blog a little over the past months. So much has happened since the last time I posted.

In summary:

• I passed my course (with awards!)
• Took part in the global game jam (made friends with some local devs!)
• Went to a Unity Roadshow
• Tested out a HTC Vive + Occulas Rift
• Made a few models for a friends VR game
• started posting more frequently on Twitter
• anxiety and depression was a huge thing.
• Volunteer work at WestTV

But the biggest news so far is Corporate Combat is back in production. I've decided to re-make the game inside Unity 5 (the old build was Unity 4) So Importing the project gave me the basics and it all worked fine after a little tweaking. But Playmaker was causing too many issues. So I made the switch to actual code this time. And with the great help of a friend, I'v been converting the Player prefab into one that's run off scripts not playmaker. Once that's complete. It's onto the environment, which I aim to do a complete workover for. Then gameplay aspects, possibility of AI to vs in single player mode. But those are long term goals. Plenty of those so far, but at the moment I'm sticking with getting the basics working again like in the old game :)

For updates about my progress the best place to see them regularly is my twitter account 

@m_halse

Till next time! 

Unreal4 Level Design

So today I found a great tutorial on setting up a level inside Unreal4. It covers everything from level layout using BSP brushes, to replacing the BSP brushes with static meshes then lighting and texturing the scene etc etc.
You can find the tutorial here: http://www.worldofleveldesign.com/categories/ue4/ue4-how-i-created-the-corridor-environment-in-10-hours.php

I really recommend it. He explains each step in a clear and understanding way and personally I love tutorials which do this. It helps me learn and understand what process I am undertaking.

Some screenshots so far:

Latest and greatest - 1/12/2015

So much has happened since I'v last posted. Been extremely busy, sorting out all the projects and assignments due in for Tafe, getting bugs fixed in my Corporate Combat game so it would be ready for the Perth Games Festival (it was ready in the end)

The Perth Games Festival was crazy busy this year, 2160 people showed up, compared to last year's 1600. Might need a bigger venue soon!
I showcased Corporate Combat this year and it was a huge success! Lots of people came past to play it, with some even returning to have another go. Big thanks to my friend who's laptop I borrowed for the day to run the game on, made the day a lot easier.
I should also mention sorry to my friend and classmate, Kirsten, who is part of the group who worked on Blunder Down Under. Sorry I couldn't show the game more than I did on the day, I hope you understand the reasons why on both our ends I guess. And that I'm working on the bugs now for Wednesday.

My kangaroo model has also been 3D printed! By the great guys and girls at X3d in Mt Lawley, super friendly and helpful, I'll be going back there in the future for sure!
I just finished painting the model ready for our end of year expo as well, I'm not much of a painter but I tried my best.

Currently finishing up my edit for my showreel, at 1am. Who needs sleep these days? I'll take the time tomorrow to check over it before saving out a final version to use on the expo night. I also have to dedicate some time tomorrow to fix some annoying bugs in our Blunder Down Under game, so it's ready to be shown off.

1/11/2015 - Kangaroo rigging

Having never done this type of model/character before + not being particularly great with character creation itself. I'v almost finished the rigging for a kangaroo, getting it ready to be animated for our game. I'm hoping it's okay, skinning is a tough one I still haven't fully got my head around

Blunder Down Under Framerate + batch call fix!

So yesterday we figured out what was causing some lag issues and the batch calls to spike repeatedly while playing the game. Turns out the Reflection probe on the sun manager and player(?) was set to real time. Not what you want when the game itself features a dynamic day night cycle.

Glad to know it wasn't my terrain, so I'v bumped the quality back up a bit on that.

Blunder Down Under kickstarter draft

For our final game: Blunder Down Under, one of the tasks we had to do was to set up a Kickstarter page. Here is our draft for that page.

Video

Introduce ourselves and what we want to achieve. Include shots of gameplay and concept art. Explain the core gameplay. Explain how much it will mean to us to have our Kickstarter funded.

Tagline

It’s time to channel your inner Steve Irwin! Crikey!

About the game

Blunder Down Under is an Australian survival game with mystery, desperation and a little humor added to the mix. The game takes place in the middle of the Australian Desert, well known for being a deadly place where very few organisms survive in, including humans.

This game provides great entertainment for everyone. Tackle dangerous drop bears, run with wild emus, fight boxing kangaroos and see if you can survive a desert situation long enough to get rescued. Get hooked with the games captivating art style, challenging game-play and hilarious notations that will surely have you chuckling in your seat.

You play as the main character, a middle aged man called Jacob Hudson, an Australian inventor who has a wife and kids at home in Darwin. He is flying over the Australian desert on a business trip to Adelaide when his plane crashes.

Have you got what it takes to survive a blunder down under?

Read more: *Include link to short story about the game*

What’s Unique?

Unlike most survival games, we want to take a fun spin on the usual ‘serious’ type survival games while still keeping it challenging. Also there is yet to be a survival game based in the Australian desert.

About us

G’day mate! We are a trio games developer team from Perth, Western Australia who has a passion for making and creating games. We have worked on small projects, some of which you can find on the Google Play store, but now we want to put our extraordinary talents, creativity and imagination to the test and create one big exciting project!

*Include a picture of us making/working on the game*

Why pledge us?

Backing our Kickstarter will help us tremendously! This will enable us to have all the materials, resources and expenses we need in order to produce an amazing and fun game. We are aiming to have the finish product on Steam.

We are dying to make this project a reality but we need your support!!!

Rewards

$5 – Cheers mate! You have our most heartfelt gratitude.

$15- Cor Blimey! You will receive a limited edition artwork and our most heartfelt gratitude.

$25- Awesome! You will receive a digital copy of the game and have our most heartfelt gratitude.

$40- What a ripper! You will receive a digital copy of the game plus 2 limited edition artworks and our most heartfelt gratitude.

$100- You beauty! You will receive a digital copy of the game, a jar of Vegemite to munch on while you play, 3 limited edition artworks, a personalized letter from the creators to show our thanks and our most heartfelt gratitude.

*Free shipping to any items

Our Stretch Goals

Our funding goal is the minimum amount we need in order to complete our game but we would love to make it even better! We want to make the best survival game possible and we are dying to expand with new exciting features and add-ons. But this can’t be possible without your extra help!

Our Kickstart goal $5,000: If we reach this amount we will have enough money to make our full game. What a ripper!

Over $6,000: Upgrades, polishing and retouching assets. Fair dinkum!

Over $7,000: Expanding the world with new and exciting areas, more badassery weapons and more deadly enemies. Bloody oath!

Over $20,000: Multiplayer and online servers. You beauty!

Risks and Challenges

This is our first Kickstarter so we didn’t want to ask for an outrageous amount of money. We are all committed to this idea and are eager to make this game regardless if we reach our goal or not but we all have jobs and other commitments that come first. The game industry is hard and is extremely difficult to making a living off of. The amount of money we get will determine how much time we can take time out our busy lives to work on it. We have already started development but the game is still in early alpha and won’t be finished a little while longer. Good games take time to make.

More Info

*Link to the facebook, twitter, website, blog*

*FAQs*