Atomic City Adventures - the Case of the Black Dragon
by Dusty Monk · 06/06/2011 (8:18 am) · 20 comments
Hey guys - just wanted to drop a line to say that we're finally taking the wraps off of what we've been working on for the past two years. As I mentioned in the preview, Atomic City Adventures, the Case of the Black Dragon is a third-person action adventure game set in a retrofuturistic sci-fi city. You play the role of Agent Pam Rodgers, whose a member of an elite crime-fighting task force - the Vehicular Strike Force. In Atomic City, with the easy availability of flying vehicles and personal anti-grav packs, vehicular assaults have skyrocketed, and a new kind of law enforcement agency has been created to handle the problem.
You'll fight your way through seven missions, spanning four zones, and battle on foot, on hoverbikes, and in the air on flying jetbikes. Atomic City Adventures, the Case of the Black Dragon will be available later this summer, through online digital distribution. And of course, the entire shibang was created using Torque 3D 1.1 and Arcane FX 2.0 Effects library.
Enough talk, here are the shinys!
And some pictures!
You'll fight your way through seven missions, spanning four zones, and battle on foot, on hoverbikes, and in the air on flying jetbikes. Atomic City Adventures, the Case of the Black Dragon will be available later this summer, through online digital distribution. And of course, the entire shibang was created using Torque 3D 1.1 and Arcane FX 2.0 Effects library.
Enough talk, here are the shinys!
And some pictures!
About the author
Dusty Monk is founder and president of Windstorm Studios, an independant game studio. Formerly a sr. programmer at Ensemble Studios, Dusty has worked on AAA titles such as Age of Empires II & III, and Halo Wars.
#2
And some more action screenshots would of probably done your game more justice (screenshots of robots standing arms down just isn't very insteresting imo), nice move on the video however.
Really liked your robotic ganster and I like the 50's vibe to it.
06/06/2011 (9:02 am)
Don't like the way the hover or jetbike or whatever jitters alot, I think that's one thing that could use some tighting up before release just my opinion though.And some more action screenshots would of probably done your game more justice (screenshots of robots standing arms down just isn't very insteresting imo), nice move on the video however.
Really liked your robotic ganster and I like the 50's vibe to it.
#3
06/06/2011 (9:04 am)
The bike jittering was actually a camera interpolation bug that was just fixed yesterday. Sadly, it didn't get fixed before we cut the video, but it is indeed already fixed. :) And thanks for the feedback! 
#4
06/06/2011 (9:06 am)
Shiny! Awesome! Needs more close ups of Pam from the rear ... ;)
#5
Is it detective type game at all by any chance?
06/06/2011 (9:09 am)
Np updated my post, as I said I like the 50s vibe (it is the 50s isn't it or is it the 40's hmm).Is it detective type game at all by any chance?
#6
06/06/2011 (10:28 am)
@Dusty Monk: This is awesome. Keep up the good work. I can't wait to play it. 
#7
06/06/2011 (11:43 am)
Nice art style! 
#8
06/06/2011 (12:01 pm)
Very nice! Congratulations on release, too. 
#9
06/06/2011 (12:19 pm)
Congrats for the upcoming release. Quick question though, how are those light cones made? I would like to achieve something similar, any pointers? Thanks.
#10
Dusty
06/06/2011 (1:17 pm)
The light cones are just faux meshes with a translucent/glow material on them. I do give them some extra umph by attaching an actual spotlight to the animating spotlight base mesh, so you both see the light cone, and it actually casts light on the building. Dusty
#11
06/06/2011 (1:20 pm)
Oh right, so they still go through buildings and other environment assets; not quite what i'm after, but it is not noticeable here. Thanks for your response! 
#12
06/06/2011 (3:17 pm)
Very cool!
#13
06/07/2011 (3:43 am)
This looks like it could be really fun, it will be interesting to see how the gameplay turns out. 
#14
There is a bit of a problem with the title "Launch Trailer", I would change the title to "Preview Trailer" to avoid misunderstandings...
06/07/2011 (7:38 am)
And congrats for the coverage!There is a bit of a problem with the title "Launch Trailer", I would change the title to "Preview Trailer" to avoid misunderstandings...
#15
But noted and agreed with, the title has been updated accordingly!
Dusty
06/07/2011 (7:50 am)
Thanks Novack - yeah I saw the comments over at RPS too. :) And thanks for the comments. I completely agree, btw - I misnamed this launch trailer - it should have been entitled "Announcement Trailer", and has been updated accordingly. I honestly didn't even know you could change the details on the YouTube upload until I went and tried it. I'm such a YouTube Noob.But noted and agreed with, the title has been updated accordingly!
Dusty
#16
06/08/2011 (4:10 pm)
Nice work. Do you have many cut scenes planned for objectives?
#17
Cinematic style cutscenes are definitely something we'd like to try for the next game, but make no mistake they're expensive. Even disallowing for the costs of either building or integrating a really good tool for building, blocking, and editing them, there's just the content costs of all of those custom animations, working out a good lip sync model, and then of course the actual work of setting them up, blocking them out, and bringing all the cameras, sound effects, animations, and lighting together.
Dusty
06/08/2011 (5:06 pm)
Thanks S2P! We definitely have some story moments, where you participate in some dialog, and get some back, but I'd wouldn't call them cut-scenes, per se, as there's no real fancy camera work or choreography going on in those scenes. Cinematic style cutscenes are definitely something we'd like to try for the next game, but make no mistake they're expensive. Even disallowing for the costs of either building or integrating a really good tool for building, blocking, and editing them, there's just the content costs of all of those custom animations, working out a good lip sync model, and then of course the actual work of setting them up, blocking them out, and bringing all the cameras, sound effects, animations, and lighting together.
Dusty
#18
I did two, but only spent about 1-2 hours on them - so they're not perfect.
Example 1
Example 2
Again, depends on budget, time and the quality of the end result that you want to achieve yourself.
06/08/2011 (6:26 pm)
What you could do to save money, is create some 2D morph images and lip-sync them up relatively cheaply using Crazy Talk and have them display in cartoon style windows. If you don't have the budget for voice over actors then you could go for some voice changing software.I did two, but only spent about 1-2 hours on them - so they're not perfect.
Example 1
Example 2
Again, depends on budget, time and the quality of the end result that you want to achieve yourself.
#19
06/09/2011 (4:58 pm)
Nice! Since this is a preview, er... How far ARE you from launch? Unspecified, still? :-) 
#20
06/09/2011 (7:19 pm)
What a great trailer! Gratz! 
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