[WIP] Nimbatus

Could it be your gfx card auto vsyncing in fullscreen mode? I know you can do this with Nvidia cards.

 

Thanks! You were right, Vsync was globally enabled in Nvidia Control Panel.
Even though you can't really see a big difference it just feels smoother with higher framerates.

 

I think something that might help in the drone editor is a simple "Symmetry toggle" so whatever you do on one side of the drone automatically happens on the other side ( symmetry or mirror ). At least in Captain Forever symmetry was really important for flying, not sure how much the weight of the different pieces affect the drone in your game.

Also would be great if you had some way to show damage on the pieces. I think again my recurring example Captain Forever, the pieces would get dimmer.

Looking pretty sweet though = ] !

 

Thanks alot for your feedback

The weight of the Parts matter alot as they are made using rigidbodies. If you build a drone with only lightweight parts and attach a heavy thruster the whole thing will just rip apart as soon as you try to accelerate. And if you balance it wrong you will just fly in circles or crash into the next rock

At the moment its possible to copy and paste a part and all its children, however mirroring is a nice idea too, I'll look into it!
I also thought about a damage display for the drone parts but I don't know if its needed because they get destroyed really quickly and just fall off afterwards. Only shields or other defensive parts can resist some serious damage.

 

In the past two weeks my progress was a bit slowed down because I had alot todo at work and of course the FIFA Worldcup is in progress

However I still managed to add a couple different new drone parts ready to be built in as you can see in the next screenshot. The new parts are mostly smaller basic parts with no special function, they can just be used to build better looking and more advanced drones.

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The remaining time I was working on integrating sound effects into the game. However it took a bit more time than planned.

I have now a system in place to manage all sound effects for the different weapons, ammunition-types and enemies.
This system is utilizing 3D sound which means that you hear everything from the perspective of the main dronepart. If there is an explosion at the left side of the drone you will hear it from the left speaker. It took some time to tweak and adjust it correctly so you hear distant explosions with a much lower volume than near ones.
But its all working now and I started filling in the different sound effects.

Because there was not much progress on the gamplay side of things, I recorded some funny drones I built, to demonstrate you the possibilities the drone workshop offers. Enjoy!

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Feel free to visit www.Nimbatus.ch for more information about the game in my Dev-blog.

 

Dungeons
I finally had the time to work on some of the dungeons for Nimbatus. I plan to add many different places and dungeons throughout the world. Apart from the rest of the world the dungeons are currently not procedurally generated but hand-crafted, this allows me to design some more interesting places and boss-fights.

Here you can see two screenshots from a space station dungeon I'm currently working on, including some laser traps :

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I've also implemented a procedural dungeon generator, which generates a random maze filled with traps and enemies. However it's not yet used in the game, because I'm not quite sure if these procedurally generated mazes are interesting enough compared to the dungeons designed by hand.

Ammunition Types
In addition to the dungeons I was working on the ammunition types and how they effect the enemies. Here is a small overview over all the ammunition types that are already finished and ready to be used in combination with all the different weapons:

• Frost - freezes enemies preventing them from moving or attacking
• Fire - deals high damage
• Poison - poisons enemies dealing damage over time
• Acid - dissolves terrain very quickly
• Electric - emits an electromagnetic impulse disabling near enemy weapons
• Pitch - sticks to enemies and drags them down to the ground
• Snow - used to build walls or piles of snow

Like many other drone-parts the ammunition types can be unlocked by researching different technologies after a level-up. If you're interested I can create a video demonstrating each effect in detail.

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For more information about the game please visit my dev-blog at www.Nimbatus.ch

 

• Pitch - sticks to enemies and drags them down to the ground

Pitch is a strange word, maybe: Glue, Gravity, Tractor Beams, Navigation Scrambler ?

I think having a few handmade dungeons for a "story/campaign" mode is great, and
having the procedural generation for endless gameplay would be awesome (game + mode)

Looking great, so colorful = ]

 

jaw-dropping

 

Thanks!
About pitch...good to know that it is a strange word, I just translated it straight forward as I'm not a native english speaker.
I had something like this in mind :


I will try to find a better name for it.

 

Thanks!

 

Nice to see dungeons making an appearance Micha Looks good so far!

It's always tricky to get the right balance between generated and created content. Perhaps creating larger sections of dungeon that can be connected randomly might give you the right balance - allows you to ensure each section is interesting by design, but still give you the variation and replayability that a purely generated dungeon would.

Pitch or Tar is the right word, but I can see invadererik's point about how it sounds - it's not quite sci-fi enough for a game about spaceships! What about Dark Matter?

Frost and Snow are also a bit similar name wise. Is the purpose of Snow to just build walls?

 

Thanks for the feedback! Dark Matter sounds way better than Pitch I think I'll use that
Yes with the snow ammunition you can basically build walls to trap enemies. See screenshot below:



About the dungeons: The Maze generator I've implemented is maybe too basic for my needs, it just creates simple mazes using different tiles. It did not feel very interesting when playing it.
I need to have a look at other ways to create interesting dungeons that integrate smoothly with my procedural terrain. I'm happy about every bit of repetitive design work that I can avoid by using some algorithms.

 

Happy to help. The screenshot looks very cool (Sorry, I couldn't resist the pun!)

I do think that a 'room' based system would solve the shortcomings of a pure maze system. Each 'room' could then be designed to look interesting (shape wise) and have intelligently placed markers for potential traps, enemies spawns etc. You then use the desired difficulty of the dungeon to decide how many of these potential points become actual content. It's even possible to have specifically designed spaces for boss encounters.

If you're worried that connecting rooms would lead to a very square and noticeable repeating, you could always space the rooms out and generate the connections between them in a more traditional maze style.

 

Yes room based dungeons sound interesting.
One of the main problems I have designing dungeons is the size of the drones, because the drones can range from small fast ones to really big drones consisting out of 500 parts. They can be any shape or form the player can think of, so I'll need to make the rooms large enough for big drones but not too empty for small ones.

 

Hmm, yeah I can see why that might be an issue. I assume there is a limit on the 'space' in the drone workshop, so you could just start out designing around drones being the max size and then see how the smallest drones feel in that same space. You could find that it works to your advantage in the way players tackle and think about the dungeons. A dungeon that feels cavernous that you creep through carefully in your small ship, later changes to a tight space that you charge through confidently in you mobile Deathstar.

Alternatively, you have the core of the dungeon big enough for the largest ships, with narrower side sections that require the player to redesign to smaller ship to explore. Any challenges faced in these small spaces would automatically be harder since small ships tend to be more fragile and less powerful. Either way, looking forward to seeing more of dungeons

One question I did have (and you may have mentioned this previously...), how are your dungeons going to connect to the generated world? Guaranteed entrance? Unlocked as side levels/missions?

 

At the moment the drone size is only limited by a maximum number of parts, the workspace where you can assembly the drones can be zoomed and moved around.

There are no loading screens or side missions, everything is procedurally placed inside an endless world, I have a simple mechanism to carve out the terrain where the dungeons are placed. But even if an entrance is blocked you could just shoot it free

Here a screenshot from inside the editor to give you a better idea:

 

Ah, makes more sense now

 

I'm trying at the moment to improve my maze generator to generate rooms too to make it a bit more interesting.
Here's the current progress, don't mind the placeholder art:



Not quite sure if this is the way to go.

The generator executes basically the following steps:

1. Generate and place some rooms on a grid
2. Create a door for each room and make sure its not blocked by another room
3. Flood-fill the rest of the Dungeon with a maze

 

I guess the real test is how the gameplay feels when your moving about the space. Ultimately if the game design doesn't play how you want it to in this style of dungeon, then it needs changing. It's better to test and iterate things now, then regret them later.

It does feel very maze-y right now. I think it might benefit from making the layout feel more 'planned' - easier said than done when working with algorithms. After all someone built this thing for a reason, and the only reason for a corridor to double back on itself 3 times... is if you're making a maze

 

Worked on other things too, here's a short video of laser guided rockets.

Hopefully I can show some progress about the procedural dungeon generation next weekend!

 

Those are ridiculously pretty rockets!

 

This is awesome. Particle effects are absolutely stunning with that bloom effect. Can't wait to play!

 

This is coming along nicely. Beautiful stuff!

 

Thanks alot guys!
In the video I'm using the built-in shuriken particle system. However I'm currently evaluating Particle Playground (https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/13325) to add some turbulence to the particle effects to make them even better looking.

However I have some performance problems when using alot of particles. I'll have to investiage it further.
If I manage to get it working at a reliable performance I'll upload a before after video for feedback

 

Overall the rockets look sweet but I think they should "point" in the direction of their current velocity rather than the point they are gravitating for. Right now they rotate instantly and appear to fly sideways which is unnatural.

 

Yes you're right, at the moment just rotate them to look at the designated target and apply a constant force in their forward direction.
I just changed it so they always face in the direction of the velocity and it feels better! Thanks!

 

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In my last post I talked about the different ammunition types you can use together with every weapon. After giving the weapon crafting some more thought, I came up with a 3rd grade of customization. The Weapon Upgrades!

It's now possible to further customize the weapons with rare upgrade modules that significantly alter their playstyle. These modules are dropped by higher level enemies and can't be researched like the different ammunition types. Here is a little preview how it's integrated into the drone workshop:

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On the contrary to the ammunition types, the upgrade modules are not shared between all different weapon types. There are specific upgrade modules for each weapon group and sometimes even for a single weapon.
Here is a list of all the weapon upgrades already up and running, there is alot more to come in the next few weeks, for example sticky grenades or penetrating bullets.

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On a personal note: Over the last few weeks I was contacted by publishers, youtube channels and people asking me if there is any playable alpha or early access version of the game available. Unfortunately there is not yet a build publicly available because I just don't have the time to support it properly.

Please keep in mind that I work on Nimbatus on my own and only in my spare time. Therefore it's progressing rather slowly compared to games developed by full-time devs. I hope you can understand this and be patient with me. I will continue to work on the project at my own speed and release a version as soon as it's ready!

If you like to keep yourself up to date please follow me on https://twitter.com/Micha_Stettler

 

Congrats on the interest from publishers and youtubers!!! I'm totally jealous

 

Sounds better than it is, as I had to decline every request so far
I'm far more jealous of everyone who already finished and released a game.. this is something I haven't managed to do yet.

 

Had some fun with reflective Lasers However the raycasts seem to miss the terrain colliders sometimes.. need to fix this.

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Working on a new Boss Enemy:

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It will have procedurally generated weapons at the end of each tentacle and a big laser mounted at the top. If I manage to get the mechanics right, I may post a video next weekend.

 

Worked on some rules to create procedurally generated enemies. Some look pretty good while others are still a bit buggy

• Higher level enemies are built out of more parts and can carry better weapons (Also procedurally generated).
• Bigger enemies are slower but harder to kill.
• The different parts are all individually destroyable, so you can destroy an enemy part by part.

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Procedural enemies, very nice addition! Some of the ones in the last screenshot have some interesting ideas on spacecraft design...

 

hehe yeah need to add some smarter rules

 

AWESOME.

 

Here a short progress update for those who don't visit my blog

Procedural Enemies
One of the biggest changes I’ve made is the addition of procedurally generated enemies. Instead of designing each enemy by hand, I let them generate themselves procedurally out of different parts. This generation underlies some basic rules:

• Each enemy-part has multiple docking points that are used to interconnect the parts
• Some parts have weapon-mounts, which are equipped with a procedurally generated weapon of the appropriate level
• The number of parts depends on the level of the enemy, the higher the level, the more parts it can use
• Each enemy part can be destroyed individually
• Bigger enemies move slower, but can withstand more damage

At the moment there are just a few parts I’ve created to test the algorithm, however it generates already some interesting opponents. Here are some screenshots showing different enemies I encountered on my testing journey



Planet Selection Screen & Risk Level
I completely reworked the planet selection screen by adding a preview of the generated planet instead of the abstract cross section I had earlier. In addition to this, I’ve also implemented something called “Risk Level”. It controls the minimum level the enemies will have at the starting position. So if you just crafted your first drone it’s not recommended to enter the atmosphere of a maximum risk planet, or the fun will be over in a few seconds



Drone Workshop – Item Filters
There are now multiple filters available to sort the growing list of items by their type. I thought about adding more filters so you could sort the items by rarity or weight, however I think the type-filter is sufficient at the moment. The screenshot also gives you an overview over the different types of items besides the ones generated by the weapon builder.



Next Steps
Here is an incomplete list of the next planned features and improvements without any warranty

• Procedurally generated Boss-fights – Every boss will select his weapons and special attacks from a wide selection and therefore play differently each time you meet.
• Complete planetary destruction - As it is necessary for the game progression that your drones get destroyed at some point, there will be some unavoidable events like meteor showers or black holes, that will destroy a whole planet and all it’s inhabitants.
• Background Story / Mission - Why are you sending out drones to all planets? What are you trying to find?

Please follow me on Twitter if you like to see daily Work-In-Progress screenshots or give me some feedback about the game. (https://twitter.com/Micha_Stettler)

 

Looking forward to seeing what monstrosities your boss generation brings out The idea of black holes etc. sounds cool. Are these meant to simply 'kill off' an entire planet? Or are you thinking of adding environment damage in other ways too? (Corrosive gas clouds, Exploding plants, etc.)

It's also nice that you're thinking about story / overarching progress. To me, some understanding of 'why' you're doing something always adds to a game, even games in genres that typically don't use it. I loved Starscape for this reason - it wasn't an overly complex plot, but the feel of working towards something between levels added another level of fun to the gameplay.

 

Looks great, love the art and mechanics

 

Thanks!

I could easily add exploding plants or small volcanos into the world. The destruction of the terrain is multithreaded and should be able handle it pretty well.
The only thing standing in the way is that I just dont like designing or drawing things very much, therefore I do all the interesting programming first and the drawing work later if I can motivate myself

The meteor showers or black holes are more like timed events to guarantee that the player gets destroyed so he can level up and research new technology (Which happens on the "Game Over" Screen) - Maybe need to rethink this..

 

You could tie the 'timer' style of event to a bonus objective system. As it stands right now, the player launches into a mission and explores / kills / mines stuff until they die a horrible death. All of this earns XP, which gets them upgrades.

When you generate the level, you could include a bonus objective that gives them an nice amount of XP for completing. They don't need to be complex (although the more variety the better), just simple things like 'Explore X metres', 'Kill X enemies', Gather X resources', 'Clear a dungeon'. These could be one per mission, or you could generate a new one each time they complete the previous. The tricky part would be making sure the XP given was balanced right - enough to make a player do it, but not so much that it becomes the 'optimal path' to playing the game (in light of that it would probably be best to stick to 1 per mission.)

The more difficult bonuses, and the most rewarding ones, could include the timed element - 'Kill X enemies before the Black Hole destroys the planet'.

How well this would work depends a lot what plot / story elements you plan to add.

 

you could alternatively, just return your drone safely to an extraction point once a certain percentage of the level has been explored and get some bonuses for that.

 

This project looks really cool.
My only critique would be that some of the particles especially the explosion ones could use some attention, but maybe they are just placeholder.
watching this thread!

 

This game concept is so rad! I want to build my own drone! Keep this coming. Your idea is fresh and novel. It deserves to be noticed.

 

I'm not sure if I want to include differnt mission objectives or bonus ones. The player should be able to explore the world freely and discover the things on his own. The only objective should given by the background story.... However I'm lacking experience in game design as this is my first game, therefore I just try different things and see if they are fun or not

This might also be a good idea.
However I like the concept of the player failing and therefore feeling the need to upgrade his drone to survive longer the next time.

Thanks! I previously used particle effects from the asset store that looked better, however the artstyle was not consistent with my game so I tried to do them by myself. They might need some more iterations

Thanks alot! It's nice to hear that someone likes the game

 

Trial and error is still a good way to work things out - it's worked well for you so far, so I look forward to seeing where it goes. I'll just sit quietly and wait for my beta invite

 

"However I like the concept of the player failing and therefore feeling the need to upgrade his drone to survive longer the next time."

I totally dig that idea, but my suggestion really only applies to once you have pretty much conquered the level. If you die before you reveal 80% or something of the level then you have to try again with a better drone of course. But if you are just flying around aimlessly blowing stuff up that cant even touch you, it seems sorta lame that you get killed forcibly I guess.

 

The levels are endless in size as I generate them procedurally on the fly.Therefore it's not possible to even reveal 0.1% of the world
Currently the enemies get stronger the deeper you dig or the farer you fly away from the starting position. So if you want better items you'll have to fight stronger enemies.
But I see what you mean... if the player is on a good run, kills everything without problems and then get destroyed by some timed event could be annoying.

 

Anyone has some ideas for generic Boss-Movement-Patterns that could be used in almost all bossfights?
I currently came up with these:

• Turn around in a circle and fire all secondary weapons
• Move fast to a specific direction (In order to collide into the player and damage him with brute force)
• Face towards the player and fire the main weapon.
• Avoid the line of sight of the player

Maybe I need to play some more Shoot Em Ups to get a better understandig how to design bossfights

Image to see what I mean:
This is the Turn around mechanic for example

 

You'll get a beta invite as soon as I have one
But it's too raw and unfinished to release a beta at the moment, need to integrate some more features first and polish the whole thing.

 

It doesn't have to just be SHMUPS, take a look at boss fight mechanics from any game, most can be translated in some way

It's early and I haven't had enough coffee yet, but here's what I can think of movement wise:

• No movement - Boss sit still and quickly rotates to random directions before firing a burst of its weapons.
• Charge pattern - Similar to your 3rd option. Attempts to damage the player by brute force, but instead of targeting the player, charges between a set of waypoints (triangle of points at it's simplest). Works well if the boss is immune to damage / shielded at the time.
• Teleport - Jumps to a different locations every X seconds.
• Pursuit - Slowly follows the player attacking, before quickly charging in the opposite direction and unleashing a bigger attack

Not strictly movement ideas, but bosses that periodically let out smaller enemies are fairly common in SHMUPS, as are shield (either immunity, reflective, or a temp Health buff) and split / cloning bosses.