So I’m making a pretty open game where the player drives around shooting the enemies with missiles and lasers (and later drop mines). I’ve made the map look like the picture so far but my idea tank is draining…
So far I’ve thought of making little driveways and adding random dinosaur bones and a ramp. However I don’t want the player crashing into stuff too often so I’d like to have just a few obstructions in the main play area.
What are your thoughts on my job so far? What is this missing? Also this is for mobile so I can’t add fancy stuff like grass, wind etc… and since I’m developing for Android first this is an even bigger limitation as Android is pretty bad with graphics…
A skybox, a few more variations in the ground texture other than just plain beige, maybe a directional light with cloud projections that move along the scene.
If it’s not relevant for the layout also place a few more items that maybe even tell a story if possible. A cave with a few marks/tracks that look like something was dragged into it. Some stone formations, dead trees, an oasis.
Some background objects outside the playfield in a lower resolution than the actual objects…
Basically look at artworks and artbooks, movies, set designs etc.
Maybe consider obstacles that do different things than just a rigid body collider that the player crashes into and is stopped.
Something like simulated wind/dust devil flying by could spin the vehicle in a different direction. Areas of quick sand could slow the vehicle down, tumbleweeds could fly by and if desired could be interactive to bump the vehicle slightly on a different path.
Flaming Joshua Trees that periodically collapse after burning up.
Giant diamond back rattlers that slither out of the ground to attack the player and opponents.
Tarantulas.
Wind can be simulated - without physics, triggers & colliders. Also think of area of effect stuff. Maybe the sun is so hot it melts the tires of the vehicle when it drives in an area.
What would be really cool is sand dunes that have a high grade/pitch which causes the player to have to steer differently while traversing them.
What kind of experience do you want to give the player? A need to drive around really fast all the time? Or sneak around and set up killshots? A wide open arena, or lots of twisty passages? etc. This will influence how you lay out your levels.
I suggest temporarily getting rid of the dinosaur bones and anything with actual textures. Make a “graybox” level. Add primitive shapes like cubes. Also consider varying the ground texture height. Add functional things like ramps, speed boosters, and other powerups, again using simple primitives for their visual representations. Then keep tweaking it until it’s addictively fun to play. Once it’s fun, swap out the primitives with actual, textured models.
Great ideas you guys gave me. It is a pretty open game where the point of it is to kill enemies while completing a story. So probably a combination of driving skills and shooting is best. Here’s a newer version. I just shocked myself with how radically different a scene can look just by changing the skybox and directional light…attached are some examples I quickly made.
A big part of driving design is the idea of momentum in leven design- open space is not as fun as a path that takes you through a series of maneuvers and culminates in a big jump or some massive destruction.
There simply is not much variety. The ground looks all the same, how about some patches of grass? Also, you should be able to add more objects. I don’t know how big your terrain is compared to your vehicle, but even on mobile, you should be able to optimize enough to add some rocks and similar things to break the tiling and monotony of the ground. Also, note that these things can be purely visual, not actually causing collisions, which makes perfect since if they aren’t that big. But they can go a long way in the visual department.
What else, aside from the passive environment, are you trying to add? Skyboxes and lighting is important, yes, but it’s not going to fix the environment. Do you plan on adding some more props? More vegetation? More buildings, etc.?
I could experiment later with bushes, grass and buildings however it is a pretty open game where the player in a car shoots at enemy cars, so I don’t want the “play area” to be too busy as it will be frustrating to keep ramming into things. However I think it could use some vegetation.
Also it is for Android, iOS so performance is tricky
As far as the crashing into things goes, that’s not always bad. Shows the player that they need to get better. And for mobile optimization, you shouldn’t have a problems. There’s some mobile games pushing a lot of polygons. i.e Vainglory. Not made with Unity but it pushes nearly 1M polygons every game, on every device that can play it. Mobile isn’t just about the amount of items on screen, you can always adjust your performance without removing them.
Thanks so much for your ideas. I’m working on the upgrade system and adding more cars into my game. Once I’m done with that I’ll see how different cars interact with the terrain…
Test things before going into detail. And liste to the advice given here. So far it’s been really good and helpful advice.
Why not TEST if obstacles would make the game more interesting?
Personally I’d hate a too open arena where I have to drive miles to reach an enemy only to miss it and then chase it over a long distance. Look at Carmageddon! Not much open spaces at all. Don’t say: “Naaaaw. I can’t do this.” TRY IT! Don’t save on the polygons - do save on the shaders and drawcalls for mobile.
those things can be very cost efficient little details, just enough to accent the environment.
(and they don’t need high resolution textures or anything, low poly, even blurred could be good enough, since no one would look at it long enough or close enough)
Didn’t have much time today to add stuff to the map… had to fix bugs with the car upgrade system and player health. However I did get a train and AI for it going
