Cloudburst - Preview video
by Fenrir Wolf · in Torque Game Builder · 03/05/2005 (5:06 am) · 28 replies
I wuv Torque 2D! I just want to share a short video of me playing against the boss of Cloudburst, which is my demo T2D project. It's not a full game; It will only contain one level and just serve as practice game for getting my T2D legs.
Cloudburst Preview (low quality MPG, 4.8M)
Cloudburst Preview (high quality MPG, 10.2M)
Cloudburst, in case you are interested, is a side-scrolling shooter that's based on my Adagio game. (It's also a side-scroller, but has a far more retro-90's feel to it.) The concept of the game is that you're just doing a training mission, so it's like a prequel of Adagio.
I've tried to make use of just about every neat thing I could think of in T2D for this boss. It is composed of six seperate objects that are all mounted onto the central body (with a slight lag, so they convincingly "drag" as it moves). The arm is the only object that rotates, as I originally intended for it to be holding a gun. Now the robot just kind of does Superman-like moves with that arm as it flies about in the sky. :)
It's controlled entirely by scripting. A main move_boss script gets invoked which then acts as a simple state machine, incrementing a variable on the boss object as it moves between its various behaviors. (Move to here, pause, fire a laser, etc.) If you destroy a part of the boss, the state machine is interrupted as it plays a "stunned" animation, but then afterward resumes.
When you blow off the backpack rocket, the boss does this "oh CRAP!" animation and then dies in a HUGE explosion. I mean, HUGE. And I never break below than 150 fps on my system (with a Radeon 9800) with debug info turned on. T2D simply rocks!
As an aside, you don't have to shoot off the legs and arms to kill the boss. I just like doing it. :) It also nets you more score, in the tradition of "milking" a boss for more points instead of going for quick kills.
PS: That boss is a reference to a shoot'em'up I did many years ago, all in DOS with ugly VGA mode 13h. He was seen in the game, but of course much smaller and far less impressive looking than his new re-incarnation. ;)
UPDATE: Oh crap, forgot I had Winamp going when I recorded that video. The music isn't from the game!
Cloudburst Preview (low quality MPG, 4.8M)
Cloudburst Preview (high quality MPG, 10.2M)
Cloudburst, in case you are interested, is a side-scrolling shooter that's based on my Adagio game. (It's also a side-scroller, but has a far more retro-90's feel to it.) The concept of the game is that you're just doing a training mission, so it's like a prequel of Adagio.
I've tried to make use of just about every neat thing I could think of in T2D for this boss. It is composed of six seperate objects that are all mounted onto the central body (with a slight lag, so they convincingly "drag" as it moves). The arm is the only object that rotates, as I originally intended for it to be holding a gun. Now the robot just kind of does Superman-like moves with that arm as it flies about in the sky. :)
It's controlled entirely by scripting. A main move_boss script gets invoked which then acts as a simple state machine, incrementing a variable on the boss object as it moves between its various behaviors. (Move to here, pause, fire a laser, etc.) If you destroy a part of the boss, the state machine is interrupted as it plays a "stunned" animation, but then afterward resumes.
When you blow off the backpack rocket, the boss does this "oh CRAP!" animation and then dies in a HUGE explosion. I mean, HUGE. And I never break below than 150 fps on my system (with a Radeon 9800) with debug info turned on. T2D simply rocks!
As an aside, you don't have to shoot off the legs and arms to kill the boss. I just like doing it. :) It also nets you more score, in the tradition of "milking" a boss for more points instead of going for quick kills.
PS: That boss is a reference to a shoot'em'up I did many years ago, all in DOS with ugly VGA mode 13h. He was seen in the game, but of course much smaller and far less impressive looking than his new re-incarnation. ;)
UPDATE: Oh crap, forgot I had Winamp going when I recorded that video. The music isn't from the game!
#2
03/05/2005 (6:30 am)
Read the story of Adagio.....suddenly the giant rat makes sense :o)
#3
03/05/2005 (6:43 am)
I would love to know what program you used for the art. Event though the video is very choppy for me, the boss looks impresive as hell 
#4
Wow.
You post that on a plan or somewhere public and me thinks T2D sales will jump somewhat. Just awesome looking. I love how the background works, less is definately more in this case.
Can I post a link to this somewhere like the dev-snapshot? It's just too nice. :)
- Melv.
03/05/2005 (6:51 am)
Holy Mother of God!Wow.
You post that on a plan or somewhere public and me thinks T2D sales will jump somewhat. Just awesome looking. I love how the background works, less is definately more in this case.
Can I post a link to this somewhere like the dev-snapshot? It's just too nice. :)
- Melv.
#5
03/05/2005 (7:01 am)
Looked good from what I could see, but I think I've got a codec problem as the video was quite garbled and had lots of flashing blocks on it.
#6
03/05/2005 (7:19 am)
Yeah, anyone have any idea what codec is being used?
#7
03/05/2005 (8:38 am)
It was garbled for me too.
#8
Now only if I knew which one!
03/05/2005 (8:50 am)
I'm thinking its just one of those codecs used by screen capture programs and since people like melv have made screen caputured movies, they can see it just fine. Now only if I knew which one!
#9
Same codec problem here too though, but does look very nice in-between the flashing blocks though! :-)
03/05/2005 (8:54 am)
Cool looking game - love the artwork.Same codec problem here too though, but does look very nice in-between the flashing blocks though! :-)
#11
I didn't have any codec problem with the videos, though.
03/05/2005 (9:18 am)
Wow, that's just insanely awesome. I love the old shooters.I didn't have any codec problem with the videos, though.
#12
Any chance your going to release that as an example of some advanced shooter code? :D
- Warspawn
03/05/2005 (10:12 am)
That looks really awesome! Can't wait to play it! I love the old school fast paced shooters (that's what I'm working on for my T2D fun).Any chance your going to release that as an example of some advanced shooter code? :D
- Warspawn
#13
03/05/2005 (11:13 am)
What the crap, that rocks! Thanks David!
#14
@Charlie: Pretty much all of the sprites are rendered in Lightwave 3D. It's my program of choice for stuff like this. That's why I was able to crank that out in less than week; I already had most of the artwork (except for that rat-robot boss), so it was just a matter of rendering it from a side view. ;)
@Melv: Thank ye for the comment, sure you can post that wherever you wish! And alright, I'll make a .plan and talk about the game and post it up there. I forget that only T2D devs can see this forum. :)
I am a big old-school shooter fan too (heh, it's probably obvious by now). I took the included 2D side-scroller and modified the heck out of it. As for releasing the code, I really have no problem with that, as this is just a sort of demo-ish game and really didn't plan on going any further with it. However, the license for the EA might make that a bit complicated... Not sure I can release the source files for now!
@Josh: Yer welcome, I know screenies look good but I know that nothing can beat moving video!
I'm still not entirely happy with the boss. I think he needs maybe another movement pattern or two. Something involving some splines or curves, so it's a bit more realistic looking.
03/05/2005 (2:47 pm)
Hmm, I'm not sure why those videos are giving problems -- they're just standard layer-1 MPEGs. It could be programs like WMP doesn't like streams at certain sizes, so I've resized them to 640x480 and tried different settings. I've re-uploaded them, so they're available from the same links I posted above!@Charlie: Pretty much all of the sprites are rendered in Lightwave 3D. It's my program of choice for stuff like this. That's why I was able to crank that out in less than week; I already had most of the artwork (except for that rat-robot boss), so it was just a matter of rendering it from a side view. ;)
@Melv: Thank ye for the comment, sure you can post that wherever you wish! And alright, I'll make a .plan and talk about the game and post it up there. I forget that only T2D devs can see this forum. :)
I am a big old-school shooter fan too (heh, it's probably obvious by now). I took the included 2D side-scroller and modified the heck out of it. As for releasing the code, I really have no problem with that, as this is just a sort of demo-ish game and really didn't plan on going any further with it. However, the license for the EA might make that a bit complicated... Not sure I can release the source files for now!
@Josh: Yer welcome, I know screenies look good but I know that nothing can beat moving video!
I'm still not entirely happy with the boss. I think he needs maybe another movement pattern or two. Something involving some splines or curves, so it's a bit more realistic looking.
#15
All I can say is wow......... I never even thought about using a 3d modeler to make sprites. So basically, you can go about making a really detailed model and just use renders of it? That sounds like an awesome way to go about things.
As far as what you said about the robot boss... I think he looks good. The only that struck me odd was that his legs are never really moving. Even twitching would help the effect.
Now this is just my opinion but if you put some form of platform on the bottom of the screen that whipped by real fast like the sky and had the robot bounce his feet off of it every now and again and had it destroy stuff, that would look cool as hell. It would probably kill the frame rates though.
Speaking of fram rates, what are you getting for frames during that scene?
Sorry to ramble on, but honestly that is some serious pro looking stuff you got going on there
03/05/2005 (3:49 pm)
David, I downloaded the player that Melv suggested and I saw the video great.All I can say is wow......... I never even thought about using a 3d modeler to make sprites. So basically, you can go about making a really detailed model and just use renders of it? That sounds like an awesome way to go about things.
As far as what you said about the robot boss... I think he looks good. The only that struck me odd was that his legs are never really moving. Even twitching would help the effect.
Now this is just my opinion but if you put some form of platform on the bottom of the screen that whipped by real fast like the sky and had the robot bounce his feet off of it every now and again and had it destroy stuff, that would look cool as hell. It would probably kill the frame rates though.
Speaking of fram rates, what are you getting for frames during that scene?
Sorry to ramble on, but honestly that is some serious pro looking stuff you got going on there
#16
Of course, sometimes the "plasticy/ultra detailed" look of 3D rendering can be a turn off to some.
Don't be so sure about killing framerates! I get a rock-solid 100fps or higher whenever the boss is onscreen. (I suspect it's even higher, as the framerates drop a bit when I invoke the debugging stats.) The only thing that could be a problem is all those blended sprites, but one could easily disable some of those with a simple global detail control.
I like the platform idea! I have been tempted to add in some tilemap effects, such as having you fly down into a city, but I've nixed those ideas. I want to finish this thing in the next few days and be done with it, so I prolly won't be changing it much from what I've shown here. :) But it's a good suggestion.
03/05/2005 (4:27 pm)
Charlie, that method is pretty well established, almost all of the 2D shooters I've seen published use rendered sprites like that. Mainly because it's dreadfully simple to animate them; No need to redraw anything, just animate it inside of your 3D art program.Of course, sometimes the "plasticy/ultra detailed" look of 3D rendering can be a turn off to some.
Don't be so sure about killing framerates! I get a rock-solid 100fps or higher whenever the boss is onscreen. (I suspect it's even higher, as the framerates drop a bit when I invoke the debugging stats.) The only thing that could be a problem is all those blended sprites, but one could easily disable some of those with a simple global detail control.
I like the platform idea! I have been tempted to add in some tilemap effects, such as having you fly down into a city, but I've nixed those ideas. I want to finish this thing in the next few days and be done with it, so I prolly won't be changing it much from what I've shown here. :) But it's a good suggestion.
#17
Game looks good. Keep on keepin' on
03/05/2005 (4:40 pm)
David, good to hear. I only asked about the frame rates because of the problem that you had posted before.Game looks good. Keep on keepin' on
#19
03/05/2005 (11:32 pm)
David, re: releasing the source scripts... we'd probably be interested in this as an official demo, if you wanted to go that route. Even though we already have a shooter demo... we want to start seeing tons of community-generated subsmissions, and hopefully soon here we'll have a full on demo submission and releasing process so everyone can show off their stuff. :) But we can talk more about this after GDC, if you're interested.
#20
@Josh: Offical demo is cool by me! And, hey, the included side-scroller is well done, I rather liked it, it's play mechanics just didn't appeal to me. I'm quite a snob when it comes to scrolling shooters, they have to play a certain way for me to like 'em.
My goal was to whip up a fairly quick game and show people that, yes, I can indeed do more than 16-color low-res blocky sprite graphics. ;) If I did turn Cloudburst over to GG as a demo, I would want to redo the graphics and remove the Adagio association, just so I can keep the rights to my game series. But that wouldn't take too long to do and I'm totally OK with that. Anyway, we can talk more about this when you guys get back from knocking people's socks off at GDC. ;)
03/06/2005 (2:11 am)
@Charlie, once I set my bin size appropriately, all framerate issues completely disappeared. :)@Josh: Offical demo is cool by me! And, hey, the included side-scroller is well done, I rather liked it, it's play mechanics just didn't appeal to me. I'm quite a snob when it comes to scrolling shooters, they have to play a certain way for me to like 'em.
My goal was to whip up a fairly quick game and show people that, yes, I can indeed do more than 16-color low-res blocky sprite graphics. ;) If I did turn Cloudburst over to GG as a demo, I would want to redo the graphics and remove the Adagio association, just so I can keep the rights to my game series. But that wouldn't take too long to do and I'm totally OK with that. Anyway, we can talk more about this when you guys get back from knocking people's socks off at GDC. ;)
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