SwampLand game proof-of-concept

Hello everyone, I'm Joe Mueller, I've been here some time now, soaking in the knowledge of this community and really enjoying it. There is so much freaking amazing talent collecting itself here! You guys are putting together an engine that for people like me is tops right now- way more practical and useful than anything out there (for me that is). Anyway, I've been dabbling at this SwampLand game for almost 4 years now, without realizing that much time has passed. I'm seeing a lot of great games starting to go up here, so it's time to announce my game and add to the mix. Actual good games being put out can only help the Torque Snowball keep rolling.

My game is about a place called SwampLand, a huge crocodile-infested swamp with lakes, ponds, ditches, and rivers intertwined in a way to make you get easily lost. There are 24838 possible spawning locations for crocodiles at the moment, but this number could increase, so don't hold me to it. You can make money by shooting crocodiles and selling them. You can purchase weapons of varying quality and firepower, ammo, permits to shoot crocodiles, boats of varying speed, quality and range, etc. If you're starting out or just dirt-poor, you can rent a cheap rowboat for 10 bucks a day, but be warned! A large croc will easily flip your boat and eat you. The best and fastest boat is an airboat, which runs you about $35000, so you need to shoot a lot of crocs to afford that one. If you miss a lot and get frustrated, try buying the Rocket Launcher, and watch those crocs go flying in the air. Of course, on the black market, a good rocket launcher will run you 25 grand, and blown-up crocs are basically worthless on today's market.

When designing the crocodile AI, I wanted them to act in a quasi-natural kind of way. In nature, crocodiles are surprisingly more intelligent than than we give them credit for, so I wanted to reflect this. Putting hunting pressure on a certain area will cause the crocs from that area to flee to another area, and the more pressure, the further they will flee. There are currently 164 areas, averaging 151 spawn locations each. If you wound a croc and he gets away, he will remember you, and either have it in for you, or avoid you at all costs. There are male and female crocodiles, with the males reaching the largest sizes, up to 24 feet, and being the most dangerous. For females to reproduce, there must be an adult male present in their area. If there are a lot of adult males, predation will occur on young crocs. Crocodiles continue to grow their entire lives, and my crocs continue to grow during the game. When spawning crocs, the game incorporates a system I designed that determines from the players' position which ones spawn and which ones get deleted (no point running AI out of the player's range). The spawning and deleting are spread over time(256ms) and it seems to work pretty smoothly.

The swamp covers an area of 16 square kilometers. That may sound small, but it is a lot of area to cover with interesting things. The motorized boats run on gas, and have various ranges. It is easy to start exploring and go too far, then run out of gas. If you run out of gas far from home, chances for survival are slim. Sometimes, when it rains a lot, the levee surrounding SwampLand will break and flood the swamp for a few days, completely changing the landscape, providing access to formerly inaccessible areas.

My plans are to try to generate interest in SwampLand, and if successful, start a kickstarter campaign to fund a quality production of the game. Even if I ultimately fail, I have thoroughly enjoyed making the attempt with Torque and this fine community! My web page is here.