....queue the viscerals please.
by KevinG · 10/10/2007 (6:35 am) · 9 comments
It has been a while since my last blog post. Here is what we
Have been up to over the summer [sadly, no surfing :( ]
Micro-Warrior!!
Now with a crystallized design and some really unique game
technology! It's true the path less traveled often takes more time.
Those who might be interested should try our free demo upon
release. We hope you'll agree, it was worth the wait.
Here's some screenies:
This shot is somewhere near the Superior Cerebellar Artery in one of
our larger brain based levels.
This is one of our mech skin variations
And this shot is somwhere in the pancreas. mmmmm endocrine.
Game summary:
Micro-Warrior pits you against a sinister viral plague that is
waging a secret war against mankind.
The battlefield could be you. Control a Micro-Warrior bot injected
into infected hosts. Fight the virus directly, inside of living human
patients!
Your goal: Terminate this virus with extreme prejudice to save as
many people as you can.
Use your Micro-Warrior to collect samples of the virus and its
mutations to manufacture antigens and cure your patients.
Keep your bot running smoothly with power modules. Uplink
to the Lab to upgrade your shields and weapons or download
new melee moves tailored to the evolving threat.
Your Micro-Warrior's power reserves are limited and the plague is
spreading fast. You know what you have to do:
Track. Treat. Terminate.
Tech:
Here is a list of custom things we have added and have been working on:
-Real-time deformable, animatable level geometry.
-CreatureFactory. This allows us to control the level of random
viral mutations per level/situation.
-Appendage Class. Much like the AIturret, these are add-ons
that have their own limited AI, re-grow rate, damage dealing,
special functionalities, and enhanced IK.
-HyperConform. Play on any surface object or creature. Player roll
is handled automatically for ease of use and tactical execution.
-Procedural level generation. Lightning fast at load time and run time.
-Shader system. OGL/GLSL/Cg.
-Evo-cycle. Creatures evolve/mutate in real time.
-Blood Flow system. For blood flow simulations.
-Necrosis system. The level tissue's health is directly tied to player
performance.
Some of the more traditional things we have added and have been working on:
-Weapons systems.
-Inventory system.
-Gui mini-game[of sorts].
-Multiplayer modes.
-Lobby system.
-Basic melee.
-360 degree Jetting.
Yes, it's as bizarre and juicy as you think. The game controls are fairly simple
and intuitive.
The game play itself has a much needed difficulty throttle ranging from 'I need
an adult' to 'Impossible'.
Take a peek at www.zerohourgames.com for some small screen shots
and rough proof of concept videos with placeholder audio. We have a touch of
deeper game info there as well.
Please pardon my speed-test frontpage site, I don't get much time to do promo
stuff. Nor is it time to, but it gets the points across for now.
Aside from this spiffy dev blog on GG we'll be working on a new 'upcoming games'
page on the official ChronicLogic site. We'll have
nicer videos, larger screenies, pricing, developer press, and beta tester forums,
etc.
Looking forward:
From here we have a lot of work to do. The game/sim runs a fair amount of bots
totally un-optimized. I imagine we'll need some optimizations at some point. We
will be ramping up high quality GUI art, twisted new creatures and slick weapon
art in the next month or two. Weapon FX are on deck. Then to cut our audio tracks,
sick-sick sound FX and narrative tutorials. After that, I'd like to say we will only
have to do cross-platform testing and hammering out dozens of shader profiles,
but something usually comes up [like a month and a half of balancing, network
code, polish! polish! polish! etc].
The next few months should be interesting, challenging, and fun.
Have been up to over the summer [sadly, no surfing :( ]
Micro-Warrior!!
Now with a crystallized design and some really unique game
technology! It's true the path less traveled often takes more time.
Those who might be interested should try our free demo upon
release. We hope you'll agree, it was worth the wait.
Here's some screenies:
This shot is somewhere near the Superior Cerebellar Artery in one of
our larger brain based levels.
This is one of our mech skin variations
And this shot is somwhere in the pancreas. mmmmm endocrine.
Game summary:
Micro-Warrior pits you against a sinister viral plague that is
waging a secret war against mankind.
The battlefield could be you. Control a Micro-Warrior bot injected
into infected hosts. Fight the virus directly, inside of living human
patients!
Your goal: Terminate this virus with extreme prejudice to save as
many people as you can.
Use your Micro-Warrior to collect samples of the virus and its
mutations to manufacture antigens and cure your patients.
Keep your bot running smoothly with power modules. Uplink
to the Lab to upgrade your shields and weapons or download
new melee moves tailored to the evolving threat.
Your Micro-Warrior's power reserves are limited and the plague is
spreading fast. You know what you have to do:
Track. Treat. Terminate.
Tech:
Here is a list of custom things we have added and have been working on:
-Real-time deformable, animatable level geometry.
-CreatureFactory. This allows us to control the level of random
viral mutations per level/situation.
-Appendage Class. Much like the AIturret, these are add-ons
that have their own limited AI, re-grow rate, damage dealing,
special functionalities, and enhanced IK.
-HyperConform. Play on any surface object or creature. Player roll
is handled automatically for ease of use and tactical execution.
-Procedural level generation. Lightning fast at load time and run time.
-Shader system. OGL/GLSL/Cg.
-Evo-cycle. Creatures evolve/mutate in real time.
-Blood Flow system. For blood flow simulations.
-Necrosis system. The level tissue's health is directly tied to player
performance.
Some of the more traditional things we have added and have been working on:
-Weapons systems.
-Inventory system.
-Gui mini-game[of sorts].
-Multiplayer modes.
-Lobby system.
-Basic melee.
-360 degree Jetting.
Yes, it's as bizarre and juicy as you think. The game controls are fairly simple
and intuitive.
The game play itself has a much needed difficulty throttle ranging from 'I need
an adult' to 'Impossible'.
Take a peek at www.zerohourgames.com for some small screen shots
and rough proof of concept videos with placeholder audio. We have a touch of
deeper game info there as well.
Please pardon my speed-test frontpage site, I don't get much time to do promo
stuff. Nor is it time to, but it gets the points across for now.
Aside from this spiffy dev blog on GG we'll be working on a new 'upcoming games'
page on the official ChronicLogic site. We'll have
nicer videos, larger screenies, pricing, developer press, and beta tester forums,
etc.
Looking forward:
From here we have a lot of work to do. The game/sim runs a fair amount of bots
totally un-optimized. I imagine we'll need some optimizations at some point. We
will be ramping up high quality GUI art, twisted new creatures and slick weapon
art in the next month or two. Weapon FX are on deck. Then to cut our audio tracks,
sick-sick sound FX and narrative tutorials. After that, I'd like to say we will only
have to do cross-platform testing and hammering out dozens of shader profiles,
but something usually comes up [like a month and a half of balancing, network
code, polish! polish! polish! etc].
The next few months should be interesting, challenging, and fun.
#2
10/10/2007 (7:04 am)
Great idea! 
#3
10/10/2007 (7:34 am)
Niceeeee ;) 
#4
10/10/2007 (1:57 pm)
Hey Kevin, looking good. Have you checked out "Remission"? Nicely done game (animation is so-so) and one in the "Serious Game" category you may find interesting. 
#5
10/11/2007 (1:23 am)
Looks great. 
#8
10/12/2007 (1:35 am)
Awesome, great to see this is on it's way to completion!
#9
Needless to say, i did in fact survive it, and it was a huge success for all of the 135 attendees.
Now my game development funds will normalize again!!!! Nice.
@all
Thanks. The game's visuals are getting sicker by the day, but now things are going well enough that we hope to let you guys _feel_ how this game plays. We want to deliver a slick game that draws from many aspects of successful games and brings them together in a way that hasn't been _grossly_ overdone.
@James
Yes Remission is pretty cool. I almost landed a job at HopeLabs back in the day. They were
working on therapeutic phobia "games" ie: fear of height simulator, arachnophobia sim, etc. Remission
is the logical extent of how games can be used to help us heal. Amazing things going on in the SeriousGames sector.
We applaud the work HopeLabs is doing. We like the fact that our battle-scape is only shared by a small handful of titles. Not many games made or in development can say that. We do use the human body as our battle ground, so we have some neat never-seen-before tricks to help us stand out from the few that dare tread where we do.
I think the key difference in our game is that we first are making it fun[for fun]. To be first and foremost a neat little change of pace game that you'd pick up and play between your heavier game titles.
@Brain
Duuuude!! Wait until you see what we have done with that old PathedShape resource you helped us with!!
We are hoping to release that as a resource at some point, but now may consider making a custom FlowSimulation module out of it. hehehe. Thanks a ton for your help, and do drop us a line or hook up with us at GDC08 for a pint!
@all
Tune in for more posts as our development pieces fall further into place. You guys will be the first to know when we start our private beta, and when we post our free demo.
Oh, i'll also be posting shots of the non-prototype creatures as they are developed. Should be fun.
Cheers.
10/17/2007 (9:07 pm)
I am almost back up to speed and recovered from producing my Daughter's wedding.Needless to say, i did in fact survive it, and it was a huge success for all of the 135 attendees.
Now my game development funds will normalize again!!!! Nice.
@all
Thanks. The game's visuals are getting sicker by the day, but now things are going well enough that we hope to let you guys _feel_ how this game plays. We want to deliver a slick game that draws from many aspects of successful games and brings them together in a way that hasn't been _grossly_ overdone.
@James
Yes Remission is pretty cool. I almost landed a job at HopeLabs back in the day. They were
working on therapeutic phobia "games" ie: fear of height simulator, arachnophobia sim, etc. Remission
is the logical extent of how games can be used to help us heal. Amazing things going on in the SeriousGames sector.
We applaud the work HopeLabs is doing. We like the fact that our battle-scape is only shared by a small handful of titles. Not many games made or in development can say that. We do use the human body as our battle ground, so we have some neat never-seen-before tricks to help us stand out from the few that dare tread where we do.
I think the key difference in our game is that we first are making it fun[for fun]. To be first and foremost a neat little change of pace game that you'd pick up and play between your heavier game titles.
@Brain
Duuuude!! Wait until you see what we have done with that old PathedShape resource you helped us with!!
We are hoping to release that as a resource at some point, but now may consider making a custom FlowSimulation module out of it. hehehe. Thanks a ton for your help, and do drop us a line or hook up with us at GDC08 for a pint!
@all
Tune in for more posts as our development pieces fall further into place. You guys will be the first to know when we start our private beta, and when we post our free demo.
Oh, i'll also be posting shots of the non-prototype creatures as they are developed. Should be fun.
Cheers.
Torque Owner Jean-Pierre Cuerrier
It looks pretty creative! Nice work to you and your team!
Best of luck in sales,
RT