Finally! After 3+ years of development I can show my unique aiming system.

It took me a while, but it was worth it - we had a great time testing my game this weekend - check it out and tell me what you think!

 

very impressive, lots of work you must have done.

 

Looks cool!

 

Thank you, indeed it took me a tone of hours to learn and produce all this stuff.

 

in my opinion would do exceptionally well on steam, if not already on greenlight

 

Cool! Can you damage/destroy buildings?

 

For now - only decals. Wall destruction is a tone of work.

 

Looks good.
Don't show bugs in the videos.
Smooth the camera.
Is it just illusion or bullets go through the cars ?

 

which bugs? Could you give me a timestamp?

not sure it's a good idea. Have you heard of an fps game with a smoothed camera? I am afraid that introducing smoothing will hinder the control that the player has.

they can go through car windows - there is no glass breaking effect right now.

 

you can always make the smoothing optional.
I think if there could be a slight lag for the camera to catch up on the aim it may make the camera less jittery

 

im sorry, i dont see what took 3 years? If you can be a bit clearer i would appreciate it, cool game!

 

is it ik aim, with camera on aim point? hmm nothing here says 3 years to me.

 

this can easily take 3 years, even some popular 2d game with many devs on studio take this long.

 

Well, it's actually 4 years (I'm bad with math):
First year was spent on writing the main character logic and making animations with smooth transitions, IK and immediate multiplayer support.

The next three years were spent on building the level you saw in front of you. I was completely unable to make 3d models and had no texturing skills when I started. The buildings alone (23 if I remember correctly) took me a year to make.

Also during those three years I made a tone of visual effects, shaders, stuff like buildings smoothly fading from view when you walk, the black-n-white filter in the warehouse (everywhere but where there is light). All of those things had to be designed from scratch in my head first (or at least found in other games and reverse-engineered). I made a tool to highlight code in Visual Studio that allowed me to navigate it much faster, made a tool that introduced blender-like gizmo into Unity to position meshes easier, made a number of iterations to the camera position. I also created quite a complex sound system and made/found high quality sounds for most of the stuff I needed.

The aiming system was initially designed 4 years ago, but back then the character was positioned in the center of the screen, the FOV was 90 (so that you could see much more in front of you than on your sides) and it was horrible. Over the course of these 4 years I gradually introduced small ideas (moved the character to the side of the screen, reduced FOV to 15, introduced partial laser sight, etc.) which took me a tone of time to invent and very little time to implement.

If u wanna know - I am NOT proud of myself. I am very much sure that all of this could have been done much faster and I blame my laziness and my mediocre brain for wasting so many years of my life on such a small level. Still in the end, I am very happy with the final result, I only wish I could have made it faster.

 

camera looks aggressive, smooth them

 

Aesthetically it looks great. The camera being linked to the controls seems bizarre and uncomfortable.

 

i cant see how this could possibly equate up to 3 YEARS unless your making the engine too...

 

YOU SPENT A YEAR ON JUST ANIMATING SOMETHING AND RIGGING! DUDE! WHAT!
i Wish you the best, but you need to get going lol, i dont sleep until i have completed a task, as my World, completion desires! wish You Well!

 

It is perfectly reasonable in my view to take time for a project. I'd like to let's see what you have done...

 

I think this project looks pretty good. I agree with the feedback that some kind of inertia or smoothing on the camera is needed.

 

Excellent effort so far. As with all things, you get better at it over time and manage it with less code in future etc, really well done so far so keep at.

 

Thank you.

 

i dont appreciate laziness, when making something, just do it, dont drag it out that long, not only does it not benefit anyone but it also just ruins the goal, unless your making gta 6 there is No reason at ALL for anything to last more then a week, to be compelte, just wurk bra! thats one tip i can give you, and dont be ashamed to have a humble beginning, and keep pushing yourself BEYOND any previous project endlessly SO, then, surely you are destined for Greatness, not just paper...

all though i wish them the best ofcourse as Always, its just i dont wanna see anyone fail... Guud Luck!

 

Bra?! stop talking bout women's undergarments...
Where or how does laziness come into this? Unless you can prove how you have "just worked" to finish a game in a week (no offence but me thinks asset flipper?) then it is difficult to take your view seriously. It depends on the individual's circumstance on how much time they can dedicate to a project.
Think about this, if you take time you can: Plan better, add quality, be less stressed with work, build up marketing, do rigorous testing.. it has so many benefits.
I'll stop responding to you, just as a heads up, so I can spend more time on my game.

 

@cubrman whatever time it took, it looks cool so far
I agree with others, on camera motion matter. Lerping could probably solve most of issues. It is too jumpy right now.
I like its general art. These little characters are also funny looking (in good sense). How such style calls? Arcadish?

 

Anyone remember narc arcade machine? It's kinda like an updated version of that isn't it.

 

Nah, it is actually downgraded version. In 1988 you could collect money after kills, in 2020 this feature has been depreciated

 

Shhh you'll give the OP ideas

 

As an aside, is the game camera using orthographic projection?

 

if only i could use assets lol

 

Well, to be honest, I was making a level in a realistic style: I simply copied a real location from Google Maps, here it is:

https://www.google.com/maps/@38.9164534,-77.0218885,3a,75y,141.58h,96.57t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sy2ucGLtWo311Kh9UZ5xd7A!2e0!6s//geo3.ggpht.com/cbk?panoid=y2ucGLtWo311Kh9UZ5xd7A&output=thumbnail&cb_client=maps_sv.tactile.gps&thumb=2&w=203&h=100&yaw=179.00085&pitch=0&thumbfov=100!7i16384!8i8192

The character was created by an artist around 6 years ago, when we worked on the first iteration of Zombie Hunter Inc (back then the camera was exactly like in Dead Pixels, only with 3d graphics). As with most things we add into the game, the main goal of the big heads on characters was to make gameplay more fun (in this case to make headshots easier). The main inspiration for the game was always Seal Hunter and in Seal Hunter almost every enemy had big heads. The artist invented the weird body proportions and I liked them. So that's the story.

No, its perspective, only FOV is 15. The reason Field Of View is so low is because when it was higher, the players would see enemies in the top part of the screen, rotate the "turret" to shoot them, only to watch enemies hide from view due to perspective projection.

I honestly don't understand the problem: do you feel motion sickness or what? Moreover, can ANYONE give me an article about camera smoothing in an FPS game? Because I don't even believe it's a thing. Do they have camera smoothing in Counter String GO? If not, there might be a reason for it, and the reason might be the fact that players prefer precise movement, which is what I prefer for my game: remember the gameplay will revolve around precise headshots. If you want to know my general bet, its this: there aren't many top-down games with rotating world right now, so it's natural that it feels alien to players. I hope my game might change this fact in the long run.

 

Oh cool, that even looks similar

Interesting choice of making head bigger.

I watched again briefly your vid.
First problem is, that we are viewers here, not actual players.
Watching video seems more comfortable, when eyes tracking imaginary aim pointer.
For example, when aiming and shooting at enemy.

However, when just being viewer, eyes normally goes all over screen, as viewer normally don't know, what player thinks, where want to aim in very next moment etc. Also looking for maybe something interesting. Hence viewers eyes try to rack and keep up, with chaotic camera motion.
Which effectively creates discomfort and in some cases, possibly motion sickness.
But as being player, like being driver, this effect may not be present. It is hard to tell, without playing it personally.
As payer, you know exactly what will be your next move and target, so brain can adjust itself.

 

This a very good analysis and mirrors perfectly my tests and conclusions. One thing I can add here is that there are people who feel quite comfortable watching the videos only (without playing). Moreover, everyone who played the game - watches the video without any issues. That is why I feel confident that the problem might disappear once people start playing the game.

 

Mind, your potential customers are these, who never played a game. Mostlikely will be these, who will watch few gameplays, from others. People can be very critical. You don't want to put big text at beginning of vid, saying "For best experience, look at the pointer". I for certain, wouldn't release this vid as marketing material. People don't know different, what you may know. But good thing is, you exploring matter now. You got something fun to play at least, thats for sure.

What I would suggest, is to run some surveys. Lets say, put your vid, on some game forums. See what people feedback will return. If you can also release a demo that will give you good supplement, what you present otherwise.

 

It looks great i would definitely play it as is. One thing I've learned is if many people are suggesting the same thing, take a good look at it. I would add a second camera mode with slight smoothing that you can toggle on/off for yourself. You and your play testers might just get used to it...or not, but its worth trying.

Excellent sound by the way

 

Looks great!

 

0:23 left site of screen jumping character. It is a bug right ?

 

Yeah that's a bug, fixed it already.

 

Can I offer some perspective of the snapping camera. No one is suggesting the aim is any less snappy, the camera just needs to play catch up. I am developing a racing game that can illustrate what people are referring to. The first half shows the camera snapping to the cars direction and the second shows the camera easing in and catching up to the cars direction.

Also, to anyone dissing your 4 years can shove it. Work at your own pace. I took near 3 years to complete my first real game. Life gets in the way. This isn't and spare time is scarce.

 

I have not yet tried playing with the camera and I don't think I will ever do that. I clearly understand what a smooth camera does but there is no way of comparing a shooter with a racing game because in a shooter you want your camera to follow the mouse precisely as your crosshair is connected to camera. My game values precision much more than any other twin stick shooter, that is why I don't want to mess with the laggy camera.

 

@cubrman Very nice Work !!!
hope see your game soon on Steam

 

@RafaNobre thank you.

 

Looks awesome, I like the aggresive camera, gives the game some attitude and makes the actoin more intense.

Few random thoughts, didn't read over all the feedback so hopefully not repeating too much.
I'd love if your character had more attitude and character. Duke Nukem style or Bro Force come to mind.
The lighting on the particle smoke bugs me since it doesn't change as the camera rotates, you might consider making the diffuse flat and generating a normal map for the smoke.

Where are the hordes of zombies to murder?

 

I'm afraid this won't happen - I am incapable of envisioning or creating a juicy character. Moreover, the game is designed to be played in co-op, so the character will mostly be a blank slate by design. Furthermore, the game will most likely have a serious tone (closer to STALKER), rather than a colorful fun tone like in Duke Nukem, because, again, that's the only tone I am capable of handling.

I've made the 3d volumetric light system (the rubic cube, just like in AURA) so the lighting is accurate on the smoke, all my tests show that it behaves properly.

Oh they're coming, just wait another 1.5 years .

 

I remember the arcade version I saw back in the day had a screen that was too high for me to see as kid (this was in the 80s). It was deemed a violent game and I think they used the higher blocked off screen to prevent kids from seeing it.

 

Such cruelty...

 

The environment is very nice. Great aesthetics and amount of details. But player models don't fit in stylistically. They look "cartoonie" I guess.
Walls dissolution effect is cool but perhaps a bit distracting. Maybe simple disappear will be better, to not distract from high-paced gameplay.

 

You're completely right - creating character models is my weak spot and these are the models that are 7 years old made for the previous iteration of this game. Still creating models that fit would be a big challenge moving forward as I want to retain the human proportions I have both for the player character and for the enemies.

It sure might, but Unity builtin pipeline does not support shadows on semitransparent objects . Will be sure to experiment with this effect once I move to HDRP.