Happy Halloween from The Maze of Doom
by Timothy Eagan · in Torque Game Builder · 10/18/2006 (9:40 pm) · 9 replies
The demo has been pulled. Thanks to everyone who downloaded and gave us the feedback.
Dec 1st, we will be picking this up again for our April 30th release. We'll post once it's ready.
Again, thanks to you all for your interest and we hope you'll pick-up a copy of Buck Jones and the Maze of Doom v1!
Take care!
Tim and crew
Dec 1st, we will be picking this up again for our April 30th release. We'll post once it's ready.
Again, thanks to you all for your interest and we hope you'll pick-up a copy of Buck Jones and the Maze of Doom v1!
Take care!
Tim and crew
#2
I just updated the link so, give it another try. Hopefully the good folks at Garage Games will give it a better home. In fact, I just sent Matthew L. an email.
The lighting is all done with overlays, particle effects and good graphic artist. Thank God for good artists !
- Tim
10/19/2006 (7:09 am)
Thanks Dan. I just updated the link so, give it another try. Hopefully the good folks at Garage Games will give it a better home. In fact, I just sent Matthew L. an email.
The lighting is all done with overlays, particle effects and good graphic artist. Thank God for good artists !
- Tim
#3
Also liked the Carmageddon (and later, Unreal Tournament) style voice comments as you do things, although the voice could do with being a little hammed up (think: the arena announcer in some of the Ratchet & Clank games).
Congrats on getting the demo out though and well done to the team.
Only downside comments would be the speed at which it loaded (sloooow) and the mem usage was huge (nearly 800mb) but it ran fine once loaded.
10/19/2006 (9:26 am)
Nice one, I really liked the lighting effect.Also liked the Carmageddon (and later, Unreal Tournament) style voice comments as you do things, although the voice could do with being a little hammed up (think: the arena announcer in some of the Ratchet & Clank games).
Congrats on getting the demo out though and well done to the team.
Only downside comments would be the speed at which it loaded (sloooow) and the mem usage was huge (nearly 800mb) but it ran fine once loaded.
#4
10/19/2006 (6:52 pm)
Congratz ! it's a really nice demo !
#5
James - Yeah.. I should have warned you it was a pig. We haven't spent any time yet on optimizing. Its definitely on our next to do list. We have a pretty good content/zone loading and unloading system. So, on the upside, it wont get any worse :-). At this point tho, we really need to sit down and decide what to preload and what not to. Not to mention shrinking and packing the graphics where possible.
Ben - Thanks for the kind words man. Hope you enjoyed it. Great for 30 minutes of unwinding and getting in the Halloween spirit.
- Tim
10/19/2006 (7:13 pm)
Hi Guys !James - Yeah.. I should have warned you it was a pig. We haven't spent any time yet on optimizing. Its definitely on our next to do list. We have a pretty good content/zone loading and unloading system. So, on the upside, it wont get any worse :-). At this point tho, we really need to sit down and decide what to preload and what not to. Not to mention shrinking and packing the graphics where possible.
Ben - Thanks for the kind words man. Hope you enjoyed it. Great for 30 minutes of unwinding and getting in the Halloween spirit.
- Tim
#6
10/22/2006 (9:15 pm)
Yeah, whenever I try to run it my comp freezes up. Although I have been meaning to get an upgrade lately I can run a game like Half-Life 2 with no problem. It'd be great if there was some optimizing cause this looks really cool and I wanna try it out.
#7
This really is a tech-demo. A proof of concept. Optimizing wasn't a priority for the two of us. (until it became a hog on our machines that is :P )
Ideally it would be great right now so we could get more feedback from more users, however, we've only been at Buck since August so neither of us really went into this knowing what we do now.
At this point, we're more concerned with whether we have a product worth putting that extra time and effort into. Our plan was to do a fun-something for Halloween while trying out the TGB engine. We accomplished both of those goals.
As for the next version, we are already pulling out the b-list of things that didn't make it into v0.1. Optimizing is at the top of that, very long, list :) Jason will have his work cut out for him hehe. I see a Poser upgrade I think.
Until then however we really need opinions on game-play, things you liked, didn't like... Bugs. Things we could improve upon. There has been some great feedback so far, and some people who've offered their help while we move into v1. We're going to keep v0.1 available for as long as there are people downloading it and giving us their thoughts :)
Buckin' eh! :)
10/22/2006 (10:03 pm)
Thanks for trying it out Sam. This really is a tech-demo. A proof of concept. Optimizing wasn't a priority for the two of us. (until it became a hog on our machines that is :P )
Ideally it would be great right now so we could get more feedback from more users, however, we've only been at Buck since August so neither of us really went into this knowing what we do now.
At this point, we're more concerned with whether we have a product worth putting that extra time and effort into. Our plan was to do a fun-something for Halloween while trying out the TGB engine. We accomplished both of those goals.
As for the next version, we are already pulling out the b-list of things that didn't make it into v0.1. Optimizing is at the top of that, very long, list :) Jason will have his work cut out for him hehe. I see a Poser upgrade I think.
Until then however we really need opinions on game-play, things you liked, didn't like... Bugs. Things we could improve upon. There has been some great feedback so far, and some people who've offered their help while we move into v1. We're going to keep v0.1 available for as long as there are people downloading it and giving us their thoughts :)
Buckin' eh! :)
#8
What do you mean by 'broken up into zones'?
10/23/2006 (11:27 am)
Seems like a solid start you've got here! Quirky and fun to play, looking forward to the next version. My question is..Quote:We really wanted to test the TGB engine's capacity for 'moody' without making any engine mods for lighting. I'd say we pulled it off. The level is HUGE! *echo echo* And is broken up into zones for ease.
What do you mean by 'broken up into zones'?
#9
As far as the zones go, we broke up the level file into 4 roughly equal smaller level files. Then, we made a few "send collision only" static sprites (probably could have used the trigger objects) to act as "doors" into the next zones/levels. When you hit one of these "doors" it loads the next zone's level file into the scenegraph and then delete's the objects from the previous zone's level file.
Tim
10/23/2006 (11:59 am)
Thanks Corey. Im glad you dig it. As far as the zones go, we broke up the level file into 4 roughly equal smaller level files. Then, we made a few "send collision only" static sprites (probably could have used the trigger objects) to act as "doors" into the next zones/levels. When you hit one of these "doors" it loads the next zone's level file into the scenegraph and then delete's the objects from the previous zone's level file.
Tim
Torque Owner Dan MacDonald