Tuesday, 9 December 2014

Atomic Super Lander Update #7 - New Level Generation and astronaut animations!

Things are rolling smoothly. We have just finished a smarter level generation algorithm that should eliminate some pesky impossible scenarios and errors created by the old one.

The old algorithm used direct noise maps for generating caves, which meant we could only control the density and overall size of the WHOLE cave system. The new algorithm uses noise controlled worms that carve out the caves. In addition to 'noise controlled worms' sounding fantastic, we now have control over the AMOUNT of caves and the size of EACH. We can even make dead-ends which weren't possible with the old one.

So far the tests of this new level generation are looking excellent. Here are some comparison screencaps for you to judge =P

Old boring level generation and errors:




Some walls were way too narrow and looked ugly

Here the narrow walls create a hole in the mesh!

New and exciting level generation!:


Dead-ends and wildly varying cave sizes



An example of the narrowest ALLOWED wall

In the graphics department, work is on the way for the player characters long neglected final sprites. The new astronauts have a total of 18 animations with roughly 97 frames, over doubling the amount of the old placeholder graphics. Here's a sneak peek of the finished inked frames!:



Finally, we have also begun work on the final batch of new enemies and hazards. This batch contains FOUR new enemies, THREE new hazards and TWO new items. These will be revealed eventually once the code and the graphics have been finished.

Stay tuned astronauts!

Monday, 27 October 2014

Atomic Super Lander Update #6 - Creature report: Space crabs!

Our crack team of googlers have found a big one! It seems to be a government report of a live alien D=

-------------

Report on EBE #1 (aka Snappy the space crab)

Description:

The creature seems to be somekind of wild animal, a scavenger if you will. The crab is roughly the size of a Volkswagen Beetle, sporting two massive claws and spiky feet, allowing it to crawl on walls and ceilings. Reports confirm a firm punch will dislocate them from any surface.

Passive in nature, it doesn't recognize humans and simply walks in a single direction, in what seems to be a ritualistic route. The purpose of this march is probably to eventually catch some kind of ugly alien meal.

They don't seem to be too intelligent and react on instinct instead. Many an attempted handshake at the early days of this research failed messily. Our reports confirm it is wise to stay out of their way, as they seem to have lightning fast reflexes and a reducing effect on the limbs of our brave astronauts.

A cutting edge moving photograph of the creature
Secret Bunker Street Nein, 27 October 30XX
Prof. Horst Wunderbaum

Monday, 13 October 2014

Atomic Super Lander Update #5 - Demo Release!


Grab your nukes and put up your fists! It's time to punch aliens and save the planet from asteroids!

Finally, after a full year, the first public demo of Atomic Super Lander, version 0.7.0.285, is in the bag!

You can download the demo from IndieDB here:
http://www.indiedb.com/games/atomic-super-lander/downloads




  • The demo is currently available ONLY for desktop platforms. Win & Mac. (mobile releases will follow eventually)
  • It includes TEN levels with increasing difficulty.
  • The levels are fully randomized, so no playthrough is exactly the same.
  • Super nifty support for XBox360 controllers!

...actually, we've yet to finish a proper TUTORIAL... so in the absence of that, here's a dare:
Can YOU make it through the demo? Hehheh.

  • Can YOU master the WEIRDNESS of ORBITAL spaceflight?
  • Can YOU fight back the alien hordes?
  • Can YOU tolerate the smack talk of Libertica's President?

We'd love to hear what you think about the game! Love it? Hate it? Let us know.
Tell us your experiences and funny happenings!

(And pssst, don't forget to tell your friends too, teehee)

 photo Astronautpresidentbanner.png

Tuesday, 7 October 2014

Asteroid Lander Update #4 - New Name!

Our game has a new name:

Atomic Super Lander


We have been hard at work with our little game and soon you get to try it.
A demo will be available for the public very shortly.

In other news, alpha testing is going great. Thanks to our small test team, we have been able to iron out bugs and improve features. More content will go in to testing in the following weeks.

Look for more announcements coming soon!




Wednesday, 11 June 2014

Asteroid Lander Update #3 - Upcoming Alpha Tests

At long last, more news from spaaace!
Believe it or not, as it says, we're nearing the start of the game's alpha release testing.

We're currently adding monthly content to the game in order to spice things up a bit. New monsters, items and vehicles! We attempt to release a new alpha version every month for testing and are currently nearing the very first one. Stay tuned astronauts!


Tuesday, 10 June 2014

Thursday, 5 June 2014

Project Night Z Dev Diary #00 - Concept

Hi!

Here is a concept of a side project I'll be working on. I'll be pursuing this strictly on my free time and I would appreciate any comments, impressions or suggestions you may have. A topic about it can be found in here: http://www.gamedev.net/topic/657122-project-night-z-ai-team-management-game/ .

Project Night Z

Project Night Z is an AI team management game.

It's zombie apocalypse. A few survivors have banded together to fight the zombies. At day they build defenses and at night they fight hordes of zombies. The zombie horde keeps increasing every day they stay put and at some point they must abandon their base and start anew. All the while trying to reach a mythical safe haven far in the horizon.

Gameplay

You have a level of control akin to Dungeon Keeper. You give tasks for the survivors to do, like building a barricade, setting up a machine gun point, fixing the truck etc. and the AI team members will carry them out.

Survivors must gather supplies and building materials from the surrounding area. If you run out of supplies you must send a team to collect some farther away.

The AI team members have skills which determine their efficiency with given tasks. The more they use a skill, the better they become with it. They have an inventory and you decide who carries which weapon or item.

At day only a trickle of zombies wander around but at night there will be hordes of them. The more noise you make during your stay, the more zombies are attracted to your position. At some point you must abandon the camp site or be overrun. You can carry only so much and must decide what to take to your new camp site, as the game progresses you may find a vehicle and be able to carry more.

There are two screens in the game: camp site screen and map screen. When you move the camp you go into a map screen, where you move your caravan and you must decide a new camp site. Traveling on the map will consume supplies and eventually you must camp and restock. Where you decide to camp on the map will define your camp site area, like if you camp near a gas station your camp site will have a gas station next to it.

You start on one side of the map and your goal will be to travel to a specific place or places to win the game.

Other design thoughts (not fleshed out yet)

-Modable (including AI)
-Randomized events requiring users input
-Somewhat random overall map. So you won't have the same experience on every play-through
-Random(ish) starting group of survivors. You may gain or lose some along the way
-Character personality diagram. Defines how well survivors get along. Decisions concerning one character may trickle down to others as well
-Character back story. Tells who they were before the apocalypse. Defines starting skills.
-Likely to be made with Unity. Mainly because I'm more interested of making a game rather than an engine.

My next steps

-Write down more in-depth design document of the game.
-Make an AI demo. I'm thinking of using behavior trees and something to facilitate the moving of masses of characters at once (crowd fields or flow fields or whatever it's called).

-Jaerom

Sunday, 27 April 2014

Exposure in local media again

This time Paimion Kunnallislehti visited us and made an interview.


Now, who might be winning?

Friday, 25 April 2014

First official trailer of Lander



New gameplay video of Asteroid Lander

Allright, lots of new graphics. Check out our new hazards, new HUD, cool monsters and that extremely blue space background!

A-Mazed

Hammerspace entered the 36 hour programming contest at ComBounD 2014 in Salo. We created a cute little guy named Buggy. He needs to get out of the maze before his energy runs out. There are monsters and walls that drain energy, there are naughty little buggers that make the world spin around, there are the keys he needs to find, to open the exit, and a lots more. Can you help him?


A-Mazed game play

Wednesday, 9 April 2014

Nostalgia time


                    Wohoo! After only 

                    - one hour
                    - three different tape drives
                    - one calibration tape
                    - one screw driver
                    - one floppy station

                    we got a game of Pacland up and running.

"And they were all friends of Pacman"...

Tuesday, 25 March 2014

Our press release - sent to local newspapers as well as some game related magazines.



Wednesday, 12 March 2014

Sunday, 9 March 2014

Asteroid Lander Update #2 - Leg Day

We have received leaked footage from a top secret government lab. The video contains NEVER BEFORE UNSEEN material of questionable content. Watch at your own risk:



And this is what a man in the streets has to say about it:
"Please help me my foot is stuck to the sewer grate! Wait!"

And another one said:
"I'm surprised the government doesn't have better cameras to record their stuff"

Stay tuned, OBEY the law and VIVA LA REVOLUCION!

Thursday, 27 February 2014

Asteroid Lander Update #1 - New Sexy HUD!

It was time we updated the old, ugly heads up display. Now in sweet opaque green! (Inspired from a car dashboard display)

With the new HUD we wanted to make it as compact as possible while still displaying all the information from before. We fused the HUD elements into three panels that slide neatly in and out of view. Most importantly, the clock is now below the dialog box and they move as one piece, letting the player see more of the game world.

Also the astronaut's oxygen meter is now a slick circle thingie.

HUD when open

HUD when closed

Old HUD look for comparison

Tuesday, 4 February 2014

Asteroid Lander gameplay video and screen captures





First major footage of the first world. The level here is relatively challenging but is made easier here with only one bombslot =P

A bold approach
The approach backfires
Running for the hills
Long jump
Goal in sight
Years of experience put to work
Strange encounters
Sticky situation

Concept art

Screens

Scenes



Sketch of title screen


Actual title screen


Sketch of menu screen


Actual menu screen


Hideous lizard men




Our hero in action

The mother ship and Transportation Retrieval And Co-operation persuation vehicle aka T.R.A.C

Various characters





Re-entry debris planning




Planning the tutorial

Hi!

We are team Hammerspace and this is our developer blog.

Our first "for real" game project has started. It is a single player game for mobile devices.
In the game the fate of the world is threatened by asteroids hurling towards Earth.
Your mission is to land on the asteroid, find a weak spot and plant the bomb. Then you must escape and detonate the rock from the sky.
However, the asteroid is teeming with bloodthirsty evil monsters, whose unfortunate fate is to stand between you and your goal.
Levels are circular, procedurally generated and possessing real physics.
And there will be much much more.

Welcome to our blog.

Team Hammerspace


Some examples from our training projects during our Game and Software Development Course held by Opiframe