[WIP] Nimbatus

With procedural boss battles, are you worried about unforeseen combinations of movement and weapons that create impossible scenarios?

Also, I'm not really a SHMUP guy but it seems like in a lot of those kinds of games defeating bosses is basically a matter of being nimble enough to dodge different bullet patterns. This may be difficult to pull off in such a physics based game where you can't necessarily turn on a dime. Additionally is it possible for certain drones to be too large to fit in-between bullet streams?

Not trying to come off as negative or skeptical at all, just wanted to voice these potential roadblocks in the off-chance you hadn't considered them. The idea of procedural boss fights is uber-cool and I don't think I've seen it before! Excited to see how you handle it

 

@NomadKing Thanks for your Boss-Movement suggestions, I will add them and see how they work

The size of the drones can range from really small to basically screenfilling. However I don't want to constrain the players too much. If they build some exotic drone it may work good against some bosses but get destroyed by others.
In my opinion it's part of the fun to try out many different styles of drones from fast agile ones to battleships with 200 weapons and see how it works.

One option is to make the bosses adapt to your personal playstyle after each round. I could for example remember which boss-weapons dealed the most damage to the player or which movement-behaviours worked best and then prefer these when generating the next boss.

 

Most of the procedural movement patterns are already implemented
Working on the dynamic camera movement for bossfights now, so the player always has the boss in sight.

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Was a bit occupied with my day job the last weeks....
However I'm still working most of my weekends for Nimbatus. Here are two screenshots of a meteor shower I'm currently working on. It will basically destroy the whole landscape.
Progress update blog post will follow next week!

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meteor showers looking sweet! How are you getting that awesome "glow" in all of your particles?

 

Im using Sonic Ethers sweet glow shaders available on the asset store here (https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/17324)

 

it's a very nice looking effect. I'll have to keep it in mind someday when I can afford Unity Pro

 

As it looks better in movement here is a small video of the meteor shower I recorded today:

Update: The sound does not seem to work yet, there should be some background music in the video... maybe youtube needs some time.


PS: 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 great as always
Keep it up! Looking forward for more gameplay videos

 

Thanks! Will record some more

 

I want to play this game!

 

That looks really awesome. Keep it up!

 

Sorry for not being active for over a month. I will record some gameplay next weekend to show you whats new

 

It was a bit quiet here for the last month. It's time to change that
Even though I did not post alot of news, I was still working very hard on Nimbatus and added a ton of new features I'm about to show you.

Testflight Mode
The biggest new feature is an aditional game mode called Testflight, maybe I think of a better name later
In this mode you maneuver your drone within a restricted area and battle against waves of increasingly harder enemies. In contrast to the planetary explorations, you won't find any new items and don't receive any experience in a Testflight. Here are some screenshots to show you what it is all about:



The goal is to survive as long as possible. At the end of a round you will see a collection of interesting statistics, for example how many enemies you've killed or how many shots you've missed. I plan to synchronize these stats with a server, so you will be able to compare your results with other players.

GUI Progress
The whole user interface of nimbatus has changed a bit. The level display and the technology research screen are now directly accessible next to the drone workshop. Additionaly there is now a mission selection screen to choose the mission (mode) you want to play. I may add more different game modes in the future.





Music / Soundtrack
I'm currently listening to all the samples of music that were sent to me from different composers/musicians to narrow down what style of music I want in the game and what composer I like to work with. If you think that you can produce a great soundtrack for Nimbatus, feel free to contact me and I will include you into the evaluation.

Last but not least, here is a 10 minute long gameplay recording of the current version of the game with some music in the background (provided by youtube). Please ignore the bugs and keep in mind that everything you see may be subject to change in the future

 

Does anyone have a suggestion for a good video recording tool?
Somehow the colours always looks a bit washed out compared to the screenshots.

 

Fraps is pretty much the standard.
If you want to make gifs, I also really like LICEcap.

 

Thanks great to know! My gifs always look awful...

 

Well that was a update worth waiting for - everything looks great as usual!

Have you tried recording with ShadowPlay?

 

Thanks, I will try it too. I used a tool from MSI to record and adobe premiere to encode it, but I think the recording was not that great.

Depending on how much time I can make free the rest of this year I'll try to submit Nimbatus to Greenlight

 

Awesome work. This game looks amazing!

 

The creator looks great but it seems like your doing a lot of work to make the craft symmetrical. In order to speed up the process, why not add a mirror function? Difficult to implement, but it removes a lot of the tedious stuff from the build screen. Just a suggestion, awesome progress so far. Keep it up!

 

Thanks for the feedback!
You are absolutely right about the missing mirror feature. I tend to build my drones symmetrically because they are easier to steer that way I'll spend some hours next week and see how complicates it gets

 

I'm currently thinking about switching from 3D over to 2D Physics.
It's not an easy task as basically every collider in the game is a procedurally generated MeshCollider and those are not available in 2D.

Did someone already made some performance tests 3D vs 2D? Is it worth the effort refactoring the procedures so they generate 2D EdgeColliders or PolygonColliders instead of MeshColliders?

 

Looking awesome! The shooting with lasers on the ground reminds me a lot of a really well made GGJ game, its purpose was to drill down through the earth. It was very fast-paced and also had drone building with parts. Can't bring up the name anymore though..
Keep it up

 

Thanks!
Would be interesting to know what game you mean, as I never played something like this.

 

It’s been a long time since my last update, however I have good news for you! You can now vote for Nimbatus on Steam Greenlight! Please visit my Greenlight page and vote for the game, if you would like to see it on Steam later this year.

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I’m also planning a closed alpha release of the game, to get more valuable feedback from a small group of people. More information will follow.

Newly added content
Besides this I’m still adding alot of new features and content into the game. Here is a small update of what has been added over the last weeks:

• New Meteor Shower Simulation Mode – avoid incoming meteors as long as possible
• Multple tiers of item rewards for the different game modes
• Over 25 new and unique weapon modules
• New gameplay mechanic to open portals leading to boss enemies
• New movement and attack patterns for boss enemies
• Updated particle effects and some new locations

Here are some recent screenshots of the game:







Soundtrack
I’ve teamed up with José Mora-Jiménez, who will compose the soundtrack for Nimbatus. If you like to listen to some of his previous work, please visit his soundcloud page.( Soundcloud/Music-Vortex ).

Thanks again to everyone else who contacted me in this regard. I got to listen to many fantastic soundtracks and various styles of music, therefore I’ll keep everyone on my list for future projects.

 

Great to see this on Greenlight Micha - already voted for it!

 

Thanks! It's quite addicting to look at the greenlight statistics and see how many votes you get and how the game compares to the Top #50.
Let's see how many months it takes to become greenlit

 

If I was in your position I'd be refreshing the page every 5 seconds

 

Nimbatus offers alot of options to customize and build the weapons you use on your drone. In order to build a weapon you need to select a base weapon, an ammunition type and an upgrade module. Each of these modules can really change the playstyle of the weapon. I will give you a short overview over the customization options of three selected weapons, to give you an idea how it all works.

Overview over three selected Weapons

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Ammunition Types

The great thing about the different ammunition modules is, that they work together with every weapon you can get. This means you can build heatseeking-poison-rocketlaunchers, liquid-frost-flamethrowers or electric-cluster-grenades. Here is an overview over the currently implemented ammunition types:

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Support Nimbatus on Greenlight

I’d like to thank everyone who already voted for Nimbatus on Greenlight! However there is still a long journey ahead of me, therefore I need all the support I can get! Click on the image below to get to my greenlight page where you can vote for the game!

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Play Nimbatus at the GDC
I'm collaborating with Alan Zucconi to bring Nimbatus to life using his awesome DodecaLEDron controller.
You will be able to play Nimbatus using the DodecaLEDron controller at the alt.ctrl.GDC exhibition running from march 4-8 in san francisco! Alan Zucconi will be there and show you everything!

The DodecaLEDdron is an alternative controller built in the shape of a dodecahedron. Every face is equipped with a distance sensor and two LED lights. You can find more information about it on his website -Alanzucconi.com

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The faces of the DodecaLEDron will be mapped to the thrusters and weapons of the drone, so you can fly around and fight enemies approaching from all directions just by moving your hands over the respective face.

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If you are unable to attend the GDC - don't worry! I plan to release a demo containing the drone workshop with a selection of different items and a fully destructible sample level a few weeks afterwards.

Steam Greenlight
My greenlight campaign is running well, but there's still a long way ahead of me before I'm able to release the game on steam. So if you like this project, please support it by voting for it on steam greenlight!

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There was alot going on in the last few weeks. So here is a short progress update for you.

New chargeable Droneparts
I've added a new type of drone parts to the game that can be charged for some time and released afterwards to trigger an effect. The first item of this type is the Jump Thruster. It can be charged and released to gain a short burst of thrust. Another item using this new mechanic is the Plasma Blaster, it simply shoots more plasma bullets the longer you charge it. Like every weapon module it can be combined with any ammunition type and has various upgrades. Here are some screenshots of the new parts in action:



Boss enemies with multiple individual parts
Until now the Bosses in Nimbatus were built out of one big part and had various weapons attached. However as soon as you've destroyed this main part the bossfight was over.
But now it's possible for me to design bosses that are built out of many different destroyable parts, each with an individual healthbar and movement patterns. $

The first boss using this new feature is currently in development as you can see in the following screenshot:

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New Gamplay Video of Nimbatus
As you might've already known from my last post, I'm currently collaborating with Alan Zucconi with the goal to control Nimbatus using his dodecaLEDron controller. He will present his controller and my game at the Alt.Ctl.GDC in san francisco next week, so feel free to drop by and play the game

Here is a short gameplay video showing Alan controlling the thrusters and weapons of a drone using only his hand movements and the twelve sided dodecaLEDron controller.

If you like this project please vote for it on Steam Greenlight!

 

Nimbatus has been greenlit on Steam!
I'll post some news and a release roadmap soon

 

Congrats Micha!

 

how work your Drone building system ?

 

It's pretty simple, the player can just drag and drop the parts onto the screen and attach them to other parts.

Internally each part has a list of children parts that are attached to it. So it's basically a tree
Each part has a Rigidbody and I create different Joints to connect the Parts with eachother.

 

But when you link a Part With Another Part , have a predetermined distance or this is determined by the player ? , you have a Variable (example: Gameobject[] ) for each part , So you get all childrens and create the joints ?

 

There is a maximum distance, to ensure stability. But otherwise the player chooses where to place the parts.
Exactly, Each DronePart knows it's children and creates the joints.

 

Hey guys.

Just a quick life-sign of me
Here is a short trailer I've made for the playable demo version of the game coming later this week.

I need some people with Linux and Mac operating systems to check if there are any shader or performance problems with the Demo Version.
Please drop me an email at micha@Nimbatus.ch if you are willing to help testing the demo version!

Btw: Nimbatus will have a booth in the business area at Gamescon in Cologne this year. Drop by if you are interested to play the game!

 

Hey man. I'm on macOS on iMac 5K Late 2015.
If you want me to test, simple send them to me.

 

Ok i've finally released the playable Demo for Windows, Mac and Linux.
Please tell me if you like it and if it runs properly, as I did not have the resources to test it on multiple PC's

I've also made a new thread in the Made with Unity Section: http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/demo-nimbatus.416541/
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DOWNLOAD DEMO HERE: http://www.Nimbatus.ch

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Feedback Wanted!
Feedback is really appreciated! The game is still in development until Q1 2017, so any feedback you have is really helping me. You can post the feedback here, on our facebook page or in our new forums.

Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Nimbatus/
Forums: http://www.nimbatus.ch/forums/

Cheers

Micha

 

Finally!!

Gonna give it a try today Micha

 

Yeah it's been about three years since I first posted about it
I finally have time to really develop the game further!

The whole turn-based galaxy travel part is not in the demo.
But I'll send you a steam key after the gamescom so you can test the full game if you're interested

 

I'd love to test the full game Micha, very kind of you to offer!

3 years... wow time has really flown by. I guess it's nice to have the finish line in sight now

 

Way to stick with it. Looks very interesting. I'll have to check out the Steam page tonight.

 

Thanks! There is not much going on, on the steam page. It's still the greenlight page
You can have a look at my blog or download the demo at http://www.nimbatus.ch

 

So far 421 people have downloaded the Demo.
It got more downloads for Linux than MacOS, which is quite surprising.

You can download the demo at: http://www.nimbatus.ch

Unity Analytics is great! Here you can see the distribution of Weapon and Ammunition Types used in the demo by the players

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Long time no see..
After 3 years of developing Nimbatus in my spare time, I finally managed to quit my job, found a game studio and develop games full time



Nimbatus - The Space Drone Constructor is now live on Kickstarter.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/strayfawnstudio/nimbatus-the-space-drone-constructor
We also have a new demo version online at http://www.nimbatus.ch/demo/

Thanks for all the support from the unity community and the great engine that allowed us to build this game

 

Congrats!!!

 

Thanks We are already funded and going strong with the stretch goals