Mech Starter Kit
by Britt Scott · 08/28/2008 (11:15 pm) · 9 comments
First plan, so a little about myself: Recently graduated from Brown College with a bachelor's degree in Game Design. I then found out that's it a lot harder to get a good job in game design than I thought. Now I'm trying to build up my portfolio without the hassles of work and school. Which lead me to the design of the Mech Starter Kit.
It all started from a forum thread about making a mech game. The brainstorming was coming along pretty good with my partner in crime Levi Walton. Where it started falling apart was the lack of a well-rounded team. So it was kinda of decided to work together independently, if that makes any sense. The first goal was to get a mech into torque as a character. Easier said then done. I had imported a character into Torque, but that had been more than a year ago. So while working on this goal I came to the realization that the game we were going to make was very similar to Dark Horizons. .That's when I stepped back and had to decide how to salvage this project. I couldn't let Levi and the other mech lovers of Starseige and EarthSiege down. So while cruising through my Torque folder, I rediscovered the Flight Game Example. Then it clicked, Flight Game Example, First Person Shooter Example, Racing Example, why not a Mech Example?
So work began. Got the mech in Torque and have been progressing ever since.
Eye Candy Below:
The Blue Mech
List of items in the kit right now:
Destructible objects
Interiors
IFL animated objects
Character with dexample animations
Weapon with Decals and Casing Ejection
Character Cloaking
Swappable texture skins
List of items to be added?
Weapon Cycling (This will be more than likely added)
GUI hud (Recently decided this needs more thought and work put into it. As it's hard to aim
without crosshairs in 3rd person and I need to know how much ammo I have)
Second Mech (If the rest of the kit is functioning as planned, then it be added)
A.I. (This one is a maybe, maybe. We have little experience in A.I., so if something is done
it will be pretty basic)
Multiplayer (Almost got to have multiplayer, but it again may be pretty basic)
Health Repair (Think it will be easy to code, just trying to decide on which direction to go art wise.
Pickups or interior "Repair Bay")
Docs/Tutorials (Not sure how to tackle this yet... PDF doc with forum support may be a good option.
Structuring it may be another problem)
Question and Comments are extremely valuable! As we're still deciding on what defines the kit.
It all started from a forum thread about making a mech game. The brainstorming was coming along pretty good with my partner in crime Levi Walton. Where it started falling apart was the lack of a well-rounded team. So it was kinda of decided to work together independently, if that makes any sense. The first goal was to get a mech into torque as a character. Easier said then done. I had imported a character into Torque, but that had been more than a year ago. So while working on this goal I came to the realization that the game we were going to make was very similar to Dark Horizons. .That's when I stepped back and had to decide how to salvage this project. I couldn't let Levi and the other mech lovers of Starseige and EarthSiege down. So while cruising through my Torque folder, I rediscovered the Flight Game Example. Then it clicked, Flight Game Example, First Person Shooter Example, Racing Example, why not a Mech Example?
So work began. Got the mech in Torque and have been progressing ever since.
Eye Candy Below:
The Blue MechList of items in the kit right now:
Destructible objects
Interiors
IFL animated objects
Character with dexample animations
Weapon with Decals and Casing Ejection
Character Cloaking
Swappable texture skins
List of items to be added?
Weapon Cycling (This will be more than likely added)
GUI hud (Recently decided this needs more thought and work put into it. As it's hard to aim
without crosshairs in 3rd person and I need to know how much ammo I have)
Second Mech (If the rest of the kit is functioning as planned, then it be added)
A.I. (This one is a maybe, maybe. We have little experience in A.I., so if something is done
it will be pretty basic)
Multiplayer (Almost got to have multiplayer, but it again may be pretty basic)
Health Repair (Think it will be easy to code, just trying to decide on which direction to go art wise.
Pickups or interior "Repair Bay")
Docs/Tutorials (Not sure how to tackle this yet... PDF doc with forum support may be a good option.
Structuring it may be another problem)
Question and Comments are extremely valuable! As we're still deciding on what defines the kit.
About the author
Attended Brown College in Mendota Heights, MN for Game Design and Development. Projects include the Mech Starter Kit and the Battle Frog. Currently working toward a game design career.
#2
Maybe a skeleton system of customization?
08/29/2008 (5:08 am)
Wow I'm actually interested in this. Something I never thought about doing. Maybe a skeleton system of customization?
#3
08/29/2008 (9:35 am)
I loved your targets on the video, very neat.
#4
08/29/2008 (10:45 am)
Thanks, I was going to make them move from side-to-side. But remembered that it's a starter kit and not a shooting gallery game. 
#5
i am VERY interested in this one ^____^
will help with art, if needed...
08/29/2008 (11:02 am)
any help needed?i am VERY interested in this one ^____^
will help with art, if needed...
#6
A couple of suggestions/requests:
Have the mech be mountable, so you can go from player character, to hopping into the mech.
Maybe a Third Person Crosshair.
First Person HUD, complete with weapon/ammo, damage display. You could even animate the eye node so that when the mech is walking, it looks like the player inside is bobbing around in the cockpit.
While already a resource, the GUI Reticle HUD would make and excellent addition to a mech game, as well as the homing missiles resource.
08/29/2008 (12:29 pm)
You should totally take Maxim's help... He has a great eye for scifi, especially mechs.A couple of suggestions/requests:
Have the mech be mountable, so you can go from player character, to hopping into the mech.
Maybe a Third Person Crosshair.
First Person HUD, complete with weapon/ammo, damage display. You could even animate the eye node so that when the mech is walking, it looks like the player inside is bobbing around in the cockpit.
While already a resource, the GUI Reticle HUD would make and excellent addition to a mech game, as well as the homing missiles resource.
#7
08/29/2008 (5:39 pm)
Posting from pax on my iPhone so I apologize for the short response. Your kit sounds interesting to say the least especially since it's can also serve as a good tank starter kit when you are done. As a heads up you should check put Lore Aftermath when it goes on IA in a few weeks it might inspire you to do more and also see what we did to take Lore from an fps/mech game to a 100% pure mech game right down to the grassroots level. 
#9
@Maxim, any help would be awesome! I was thinking a mech for TGEA might be worth doing, because I know the community would want a TGEA version. Although, I don't have TGEA, now sure if I can do much with the demo. So might need help on that. I wanted to at least get a TGE version stable before moving on to TGEA. Seeing how the kit is aiming for free, you might do some type of content for the kit that you could sell. I won't want to waste those awesome art skills, as you have already given so much to the community.
@J.P., Thought about it. If it is done, I doubt it would be as good as Mech Assault 2's mounting. No animations of climbing ladders. 3rd person crosshair will get in there. Not sure on the 1st person HUD as of yet. But I'm sure once, I get the 3rd person HUD done, the 1st HUD hopefully wouldn't take that long. I would like to add all the cool resources, but I'm not that good at programming, yet. I was also trying to do the kit without engine changes. That way, more users could just drop the folder in their torque directory, change like one line of script, and away they go. That's not to say that there couldn't be an advanced kit so where down the road :)
@Logan, before I forget, thanks for the help on rigging the mech! I learned a lot. I'll try checking out Lore Aftermath, but I doubt IA is dial-up friendly.
@Trenton, hopefully someday. I still want to keep the kit as "starter", as possible. Here is some screenshots of those mechs in torque.
08/29/2008 (10:58 pm)
@Everyone, thanks for the comments far. FYI: Pretty sure the kit will be free. I figured, I'm learning as much as the next person and my game design skills are pretty basic at the moment.@Maxim, any help would be awesome! I was thinking a mech for TGEA might be worth doing, because I know the community would want a TGEA version. Although, I don't have TGEA, now sure if I can do much with the demo. So might need help on that. I wanted to at least get a TGE version stable before moving on to TGEA. Seeing how the kit is aiming for free, you might do some type of content for the kit that you could sell. I won't want to waste those awesome art skills, as you have already given so much to the community.
@J.P., Thought about it. If it is done, I doubt it would be as good as Mech Assault 2's mounting. No animations of climbing ladders. 3rd person crosshair will get in there. Not sure on the 1st person HUD as of yet. But I'm sure once, I get the 3rd person HUD done, the 1st HUD hopefully wouldn't take that long. I would like to add all the cool resources, but I'm not that good at programming, yet. I was also trying to do the kit without engine changes. That way, more users could just drop the folder in their torque directory, change like one line of script, and away they go. That's not to say that there couldn't be an advanced kit so where down the road :)
@Logan, before I forget, thanks for the help on rigging the mech! I learned a lot. I'll try checking out Lore Aftermath, but I doubt IA is dial-up friendly.
@Trenton, hopefully someday. I still want to keep the kit as "starter", as possible. Here is some screenshots of those mechs in torque.
Associate James Ford
Sickhead Games