DescentBB

Hi guys,

I just joined up. I wanted to directly message a moderator with my question but it seems that I'm not allowed to do that without first making some posts.

My problem is this:

I've made a game that lots of people are comparing to Descent and I'd obviously like to let you guys know about it but I feel it's very inappropriate to join a big forum like this and then spam links like I'm advertising.

I wanted to ask a mod about it first.

If there is a mod active at the moment could you give him a nudge so he can let me know if it's cool to post a link to a video etc?

I've sent you my credit card and social security number. Do you also need my address and date of birth?

go a head

Hello vdwar - welcome.

Thank you for approaching the subject in an appropriate manner.

I'm not a mod, but given the subject matter, putting a single introductory post in the Other 6DOF games section is probably the best way to go for now.

EDIT: Flip beat me to it!

Knock yourself out. We're desperate for these things.
But we appreciate the asking first. And if you need volunteers for your project there will be people here who want to help.
And what's with suddenly all these designers popping up? Three new people posting in a year is a rarity, three new people all wanting to build something for/like/about this game popping up in two months is... suspicious. Who are you really?
Just kidding, welcome.

Maybe it's a sign that game development itself has gotten better, in the way that the tools are easier for one person to make a complete game.

Ah, hey again guys.

I put that post up last night about 90 mins before I went to bed and there was no reply by then.

Thanks for the welcome. I'll post up links here but if it really needs to be in another part of the forum let me know and I'll move it.

So a quick overview. The game is called Neon, it's still pre-alpha, but initial alpha testing is close.

The main influence from Descent comes from putting a spaceship inside. It's also heavily influenced by the speed and weapon load out of Quake. However, there are 30+ balanced ships in Neon so there are slow destroyer type ships with heavy shielding and more gun turrets that more resemble the speed of Descent.

Then I put the whole thing in a proceedurally generated world with 1000+ other ships, from four different warring factions, flying around doing their own thing. Add to that Diablo like loot explosions when you kill enemies. The loot contains parts from all of their upgrades, weapons and hulls so you can collect them to upgrade. There are already 600 upgrades across 80 different tech levels.

That's enough of an overview. What you want to see is gameplay I'm sure so:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/f ... 1354935821

That's the greenlight page. You can watch the trailer there and I recommend you do that first. The graphics are rough around the edges still because I wanted a great game before I wasted too much time on graphics. Right now I'm testing if the game concept has enough community support by using greenlight.

If you like the look of it, and you want to know more, read through the comments and the 'Chat with the Developer' discussion. I answer questions on just about everything.

However, I will be checking here everyday so if you have questions feel free to post them here too.

@Isaac. That is most likely the case. My game is built on Unity Basic right now, which is free. That opens the door to a great deal more developers. I'll update to Unity Pro (and add glow and other graphical improvements) once I feel there is enough of an audience for the game. So if you like the concept of Neon do tell people about it. My market is quite niche and it's hard getting the word out to the players that will get behind it.

The last guy was using Unity too, I think. hmm... I might have to look into this game kit.

Unity seems to be doing well, judging by how many games I've seen recently using it. So, what was it?

it's like it's set in a Tron world

Neon is set in cyberspace yes, but as strange as it might sound Tron was not an influence.

Originally I wanted to do a filled wireframe game to look like the games I played as a kid. This was because I was a solo developer and I didn't have time to paint textures for 2 million polygons.

So it started with me outlining polygon quads (every two polys together). That was fine early in development when the poly count was low, but it looked a bit crap to be honest.

As I increased the polygon count everywhere, it then started to look like a jumbled mess with all the polys outlined. So I then spent time outlining the key shapes in the architecture. The result was the look Neon currently has. The fact it looks a fair bit like Tron is actually accidental, but I suppose it's hard to do a game in cyberspace that doesn't have Tron similarities.

@sdfgeoff : If you were asking what Unity is, it's a 3D engine with scripting geared towards making games. The reason Unity is growing in popularity is that there is a free version. Neon is currently made in the free version. If your game makes more than $10,000 you need to upgrade to the Pro version which costs $1000 but they take no further royalties after that. Unlike Unreal SDK that wants 25% of the games revenue.

i wonder if it was perhaps that same train of thought that lead to Tron's visuals originally. Everything was wireframes back then, so they embraced the motif.

Quite possibly.

I thought you guys may be interested in a little update that is Descent related. After chatting with some other Descent/Forsaken fans they were discussing how triple chording was one of the things that made those games stand out for them.

Last night I was experimenting with adding the same type of system to Neon. I realised that by thrusting forward and strafing the ship did indeed accelerate just a little faster already because both thrusters would fire simultaneously. Neon already has extremely high thrust so it didn't make much difference though due there being a speed cap based on the installed engines.

To cut a long story short, I added code to magnify the effect and at the same time reduced the standard thrust.

Ships in Neon also have boosters that increase speed slowly over time. This increase in speed was also locked at a percentage per second, so I altered the code so that using multiple directional thrusters would allow increased boosting/acceleration.

The final result is that maximum speed can be attained in about 60% of the time by using two thrusters at once and moving at an angle. Using forward, side strafe, and up strafe magnifies it further.

So technically Neon now has it's own form of triple chording. Obviously it will not feel exactly like Descent but that was not the goal, I just wanted to have a control system with added depth for more experienced players. Let me know what you think about that.

I've kept my eye out for new replies here over the last few weeks and now enough has changed for me to make a little update.

Neon is now super close to starting Alpha, and the graphics have changed considerably. It now has colour schemes that can be changed by the player at will, along with lots of new areas, a new interface, new upgrade models, and lots of general spit and polish.

Better yet, I set up a Twitch.tv account at the weekend and I've done a couple of lengthy live streams so the videos of those are now online. They add up to over 6 hours of gameplay footage.

Introduction to Neon video + Playtest:
http://www.twitch.tv/paul_intravenous/b/358923480
(The first hour of this video introduces the game and how everything works)
(I start messing around with the colour schemes much later at about 1hr 50mins but then I'm rambling, chatting with viewers, and randomly playtesting.)

Second Playtest Video (testing out a couple of the other ships)
http://www.twitch.tv/paul_intravenous/b/359271513

Main Twitch Channel where you can see live streams when they happen.
http://www.twitch.tv/paul_intravenous


As always, the home of Neon is still the Greenlight Page. There is tons of new information in the Developer Diary and in the Announcements area just above the videos. But of course if you have any questions you can ask them here.

Oh and if anyone is interested in watching a live stream let me know and I'll post whenever I plan to do one, so you can maybe watch them live and join in the chat.