Defining Awesome

About 2 months ago I came to an important realization. Actually I don’t feel I thought of it, it sort of found me. These are game design principles. Universal and guaranteed to just work. The holy grail of game design.

This isn’t anything new and I feel no ownership over the ideas. I did though, come to my own understanding of these principles and it changed how I perceive game making.

It started because of my random interest in random stuff… read more »

I finally compiled a version of Link-Dead under Linux with working graphics and sound. So this is the same as the PC version! If somebody wants this please e-mail me or ask on the forums. If you donate I will send you the link.
Next system to conquer – Mac OSX!

I’ve been working further on improving the map editor to accomodate the new bump mapping rendering. I got some initial tests working, nothing fancy, because I’ve drawn it myself. I’m waiting for a real artist to draw the tiles.

In the meantime I’ve been figuring out some changes I want to make in the next release. Here are some things that I’m pretty sure of, but discussion is of course welcome.

1. 30% smaller characters
There is something off with the scale in the current maps. The character should be actually larger I think. But I am not going to make him larger. I made him smaller for a test and it feels awesome. I don’t know why but I want it this way (maybe cause it feels more like Soldat?). This decision means all maps will have to be redone. This isn’t so bad because they would have to be redone anyway with the new shading technique.

2. Default 135 degrees FOV; out of view field painted black
FOV will stay as default. I think it is essential for good tactical combat.

3. Teammates FOV adds to yours
This option will be essential for making the FOV much better. Basically you will see what your teammates see. It will be a variation on 360 degree FOV and no FOV at all. Because if there will be lots of teammates you will practically see the entire map.

4. All weapons and items will be redesigned for the new game mode called “Intrusion”.
This is the game mode I initially designed for LD, where two teams have to attack their bases. Some of the weapon and items were made for the Huntdown gamemode. I’m not sure if cloak for example will fit in the new game mode. All of this needs careful rethinking.

That’s all for now. I hope to have some screens soon.

Remember this?

Multiple light sources done. I’m restructuring the map editor to make it work with the new tile format.
Does anybody know of a good GLSL pixel shader optimization resource? Like what instruction costs how much GPU ticks?

I introduce real-time bump mapped tiles with directional ambient occlusion aka self-shadowing. Here is a little gif preview.

OK… I tricked you. That’s how 2D tile maps look nowadays and looked since 1979. Here is how Link-Dead tilemaps will look for real.

This is a technology to render 2D maps with realistic light sources. The highlighted bumps create an illusion of depth and material shininess. The shadows create the illusion of volume. Can you imagine how godly this game will look like with this?