Games Space Bunnies

I am working on a strategy space rogue-like game that features cute animals.

I have been working on Game Dev for a little while, but I am starting a campaign online because I really want to focus one of my projects and improve my skills. It would mean a lot if you wanted to follow or support my project.
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/space-bunnies

 

One aspect I decided when I started programming was that keeping the same camera was important to me. I remembered seeing the illustration of "The Little Prince", how it pictured the little prince on top a miniature planet and depicted a world that was quirky and imaginative.



In most video games, designers take the liberty of loading a new scene when you enter a building or entering a new region of the map, but I have chosen to only do that minimalistically in order to create a the specific tone I prefer to convey.

Space Bunnies gives you a solar system view and will allow you to zoom in on planets to travel them or your ship to manage your crew. The only time I will probably choose to omit this feature is regarding to travel between solar systems.

 

For space combat, I have a number of models too look at. I am most interested in the classic game in which you are a flying ship with left/right controlls dodging and shooting enemies as they come down from the top of the screen. Although I'm ditching that whole movement scheme, I was looking at that game style for the strategy in shooting. I wanted the strategy to be more about maneuverability and directional aiming, and so I looked at four different types of weapons that I want to consider.



The movement accelerates as you press an arrow button once, and slows down over time (expending fuel to speed up and then losing fuel over time.) So, during space combat, there will be a number of factors to consider for the player:

Fuel

Shield (or hull integrity Instead of health)

Weapon type

Weapon level

The enemy AI, in addition to having player stats, will also need to have a randomized behavior for movement and attack, and that is a different subject.

 

Thank you to my campaign participants. These are some early models I will be adding to my game as interactable characters.





I appreciate the support, and enjoy having input from others. I will be adding and changing more content based on your participation and input.

 

Before Planet Combat


Above, is a concept graphic for how I want to plan to interact with planets. It makes it too simple if you can see every planet clearly and know whether the planet is occupied as well as the enemy strength. I want to encourage an element of exploration, revealing planets only as they are explored or if they are owned by allies so you don't start fights with NPCs you want to keep as allies.

 

After some input from various people, I have added to the character icon list again. I’m happy with the overall look, but I have noticed my style changing for a couple of them as I have gotten to learn a little more about vector graphics.

I hope I am able to make this game fun for players as well as everyone who got a chance to have input on the design.

 

"In most video games, designers take the liberty of loading a new scene when you enter a building or entering a new region of the map"

It doesnt have to be set up that way, but it also depends on the project and other factors.

"I was looking at that game style for the strategy in shooting. I wanted the strategy to be more about maneuverability and directional aiming, and so I looked at four different types of weapons that I want to conside"

Why not use/impliment all 4, as i can name many games that have done so, adds flavor/options.

Artwork and concept is very good, now for implimentation, best of luck

 

Thank you for your feedback!

I was planning on implementing all four different firing methods, but I talked about them as "options" because I was not 100% sure that I wanted to implement those exact behaviors for each different method.

I find usually, for me, that implementing although being stressful and unpredictable, is still the easiest part of the process. I find my talent lacking in design rather than implementation, so I'm specifically focusing on that during this time.

 

More fun game art. I will be posting more about game-play, instead of just art soon.

 

Rogue-likes have a common element of having a changing and expanding universe. Originally I wanted to portray this by having different solar systems and galaxies you could explore and recording them in data if you wanted to return to them. Instead, I had an idea that grew of having a unifying story with a finite number of characters that could wander a finite universe that would change over a progression of time.

So, I am stuck with the dilemma of trying to express something infinite in a finite manner. The quick explanation is that I chose an arbitrarily large number. Fifteen. Fifteen isn’t a very large number, but if there are twenty solar systems in a single galaxy, and around ten planets in each solar system, there will be about one hundred and fifty places to explore during a single gameplay cycle, with a changing and progressing world around you.

My goal again is to represent a growing and progressing galaxy. I am doing this by having a population of NPCs with various levels of aggression or friendliness that wander the galaxy and populate planets. Over time they may move to different planets, fly around, or gain in skill level and strength. There are at least two hundred possible locations for NPCs to be at any point of time. Representing a growing population, over the progression of time I wanted to be able to add NPCs to the galaxy during the progression of a game. I again chose an arbitrary number to be my maximum population density. One fourth. At the fullest progression of time, one fourth of space is being occupied by alien species. This means that there are about forty (37.5) characters.

Now, I really don’t want to draw, model, and render forty characters. But I’m going to make this easier for myself. First of all, I don’t have to render them all at once, I only need to render the ones actively in a specific solar system that are visible at the moment (Around 2.67 per galaxy). I am not going to model each individual character separately, but have approximate avatars for different species (Feline, Canine, Equine, Amphibian, etc). Since I already have 17 graphics already finished for different characters, I can however at least create sketches for the remaining 23 characters I ought to have, but given the basic format and given that this is a prototype, it is permissible for me to just insert them as data points if necessary rather than having graphics for them.

Regardless, I can say for certain that the more I learn and discover about this world I am creating, the more complex and intricate it becomes. I hope many others will be able to find this project as fun as I have when I am finished.

 

Pseudocode for data storage to save between gameplay runs so I can load or save data between runs.

Shared Data
Shared data is comprised of variables shared by temporary and permanent data.
​

Characters = [A,B,C,D,...]

A = [name, species, Atraits, Astats, icon, mesh]

Temporary Data
Temporary data is erased and rewritten each game restart
​

World:

World = [galA,galB,galC,galD]

galA = [name, locX, locY,[planetA1, planetA2, planetA3]

planetA1 = [name, locX, locY, size, type, density, (CharName if occupied)]
​

Character Stats:

OutWorld = charList - inWorld[]

InWorld = [A,B,C,D]

Astats = [locName(galaxy or planet), health, level, equipment[],relationship]
​

Player Stats:

Crew = [A, B]

Stats = [fuel, money, shield]

Ship = [model, fireType, fireLevel]

ResearchLevel = [X]
​

Events:

Log += Event.new()
​

Permanent Data
Permanent data may be modified during gameplay but is not initialized or erased at each game restart
​

Character Traits:

Atraits = [class, mode, aggression]
​

Campaign Events:

Log += Event.new()
​

Logical Data
Logical Data will never be changed and does not need to be written outside of scripts
​

Classes = [Pilot, Engineer, Scientist, Medic, Soldier]

Pilot = [firepower, armour]

Weapons = [gunA, gunB, gunC]

Armour = [shieldA, shieldB, shieldC]

gunA = [firepowerBonus]

shieldA = [armourBonus]
​

 

Character selection screen concept design.

 

For those who are interested in joining the discussion, I created a Discord server with more progress notes.
https://discordapp.com/invite/PGx8HHE

 

A redone 3D version of the main crew

 

I started building a website for permanent updates and a primary page for information. Progress is good, but I need to re-build some scripts now that I have revised some important data structures for the project.
https://bunnycadets.wordpress.com/

 

Here's a clip of the current planet interaction status

 

It's great seeing your progression being posted here!
Keep it up and looking forward to seeing the final result

 

My Campaign has ended!!!
I'm excited to get into the scheduled work-flow portion. My next step for the next two weeks is to focus on the following:

• Clean up planet UI
• Add special abilities for Engineer and Scientist [animation, object generation, etc]
• Result to scanning action
• Visible stat increase after resource collection

 

How Did I Do On My Goals:

I was behind on week 2 since I was out of state training for work. To compensate I have factored in the remaining goals from week 2 in week 3 and shifted “Tracking AI” to cover both week 2 and 3 so I can spend a little more time on that. I’m not certain whether I am able to anticipate meeting my near expectations while I get adjusted for a bit with my new responsibilities and schedule, but I am still aiming to keep the original schedule I set.

Week 1: Character Movement ✅
Week 2: Character Interaction ✅

Week 3: Enemy Tracking
*Reconfigure planet controls
*Enemy mesh/animation
*Tracking AI

Week 4: Enemy Attacking
*Tracking AI continued
*Spawn points
*Action keying
(Headbutt,Charge,Sword,Spit,LevelUp,Split)
*Stat management

 

A while ago, I brought a demo for showcase, and I am deciding to share it here, if anyone has any feedback or suggestions from getting a small glance at what is there:
https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1JgmjsEiVtorGtf8KrSqlVn-zxF5PvF31

It is compiled with Blender Game Engine, and I hope to migrate it over to Unity once I have a better proof of concept.

When opening the file, your O.S may trigger security warnings that you may ignore. I am not skilled enough to write a virus for your computer.

MOVE: W, A, S, D
Planetary Interactions: Q
Special Ability (Bluebell and Zoey): E
Leave Planet: Shift
Exit Game: Esc
Pressing "W" multiple times will increase you ship's velocity. (You can't just hold it down)

Known Bug: When leaving a planet you may find that your ship is gone... I believe this has been fixed since the demo export

 

This is the month that I begin tying in gameplay elements to make a cohesive structure. I haven't hit all my goals for the past week, but I am going to have to move forward regardless. Depending on my continued progress, I will have to have foresight regarding whether I am able to make my timeline goal.

For these coming two weeks I will be focusing in on a user interface menu and NPC interaction. This is where I add viewable stats and functionality as well as the framework for conversation and quest-lines from the characters I have been given.

Thank you all for your support and encouragement. I am very glad to be able to work on a project other people can enjoy and look forward to.

 

Two Week Update:
For these upcoming weeks in February, I will not be changing my goals, as I have been having difficulty catching up with so little time to work on development. I have freed up Saturdays now to devote more time to programming so I have given myself a bit more of an opportunity to catch up. This may quite possibly set my overall deadline back, but it is important to give myself a little more time to make my goals so I can share a more robust product at the end of my timeline. I will still be posting updates as I have interesting bits to share.

 

It would be a big help to me if I could get some people to just run my demo game and submit feedback if you are able https://forms.gle/TV3ypoHKVEJTwv6P6
Download is available at bottom of page: https://bunnycadets.wordpress.com/