Games Stevedore 2024

Still working out the basic systems, but making steady progress on my next effort, Stevedore 2024. A few months ago I saw the Synty "Street Racer" pack set out at the shipping port but focused on race car projects. Sure, those cars are fun to drive but the pack also included at least three other unusual vehicles... so why not put together some controllers and have fun with it?

This first little video shows the so-called "Straddle Crane", a specialized device made to hoist intermodal containers off of trucks and into the alleys awaiting their day to be shipped abroad. As big as these vehicles are, it's the baby bear of the set. I had to make quite a few small changes to the Synty original to make it operational. Blender and @_geo__ 's Mesh Extractor are the tools of choice here, but I also used his Polygon Material Painter to make alternates, like the lit/unlit light tower shown here.

The second video shows a similar but heavier mama bear version, those in the industry call these a "Rubber Tire Gantry." Since Synty gave each of these a full cockpit with joysticks, it has been a learning experience to get the Unity Input System to play nicely with modifier buttons and separate maps. Also, at the end you can see my game gives the driver some "x-ray vision" assistance, which is being drawn in Immediate Mode using @Acegikmo 's Shapes package.

Later I will show the papa bear, the "Ship to Shore Crane."

There are whole YouTube channels devoted to the bizarre vantage point that these vehicle operators use every day. I hope to make this same vertigo-inducing perspective into a fun physics-based game with a little RPG and mini-management aspects to go along with it.

 

I like how in the end the tower falls. It's oddly satisfying

 

Looks very interesting, specially the RTG
Are you planning to add some flexibility to the structure of the crane?
I spent in the past a lot of time in such a crane programming traction control and power electronics of such a crane. It was always fascinating to feel the flexing of such a strong metal structure when it moved (specially trying to correct the direction) or when the spreader released the weight of the container and the structure "relaxed".

 

I am going to have to spend time tuning the camera shake, haptics, and sounds to try to convey even the slightest bit of that feeling. I do wish I had better access to the kinds of structural bending sounds than I have seen in generic sound effect libraries. Also, the sound of an RTG tire grinding against concrete as it steers.

 

this is a rather cool ' sim ' - game, and not sure could look at Railroad Tycoon . . .

think it has potential, and the graphics are also good . . .

the lighting - post falls at the end, it was perhaps bit funny

 

First public release - waiting for the deluge of bug requests and criticism.

https://hariedo.itch.io/stevedore-2024-free-demo