My other game needs a lot of levels (= time) so I thought I’d start a second game that can be completed quicker.
Then, as a motivator to begin something, I announced that I’d be showing a prototype at Ingenuity Festival in Cleveland this week Nothing beats a ridiculous deadline to make myself get to work!
Here’s a sneak peak at one of the main villains… still a work in progress:
Polycount is very low (and no textures at all yet, except on the ground). It’s the scripts (that control the growth) that slow it down: if I pause the game, I can orbit the scene really quickly.
I’m hoping to optimize the scripts further, despite having important game functions that have not yet been added to them. There are nearly 100 of them active at any one time, and probably more in the final game. Right now the speed is not quite acceptable. If I have to, I’ll remove the effect of the trunks continuing to “fill out” after they have grown into place. But I like that effect: it makes the older/lower branches broader than the fresh growth.
I really wanted the whole thing to have physics joints so hitting the tree would make the branches bounce. But THAT was not happening without a severe CPU load!
One thing that will help: it won’t grow nearly that fast in the real game. There will be more of them, but each one will grow slower.
There will also be numerous “allies,” but I haven’t totally decided what form they will take. Originally it was going to be good plants vs. evil, but now I’m planning to have creatures vs. plants. It will be mindless action, not story or strategy, and with very simple controls.
This is about all I expect to have done this week–it’s enough to demo
Nothing beats a ridiculous deadline to make myself get to work!