Starlings - Protptype...Come and Play..New Mirrors...

Starlings Trailer

http://www.vimeo.com/8024075

So over the last few months I’ve been working on Starlings, and have finally come to the point where I’ve got an early demo/ prototype build available to play.

The purpose of this build is to showcase the core game mechanics, test performance, and get QA feedback…hopefully from some of you lot…

There is both a Windows and Mac version to download.

Mac

Primary >> http://www.psychicparrot.ca/downloader/Starlings_OSX.zip

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=2ZR4DUA2

Windows

Primary >> http://www.psychicparrot.ca/downloader/Starlings_Windows.zip

Whilst it’s an early prototype build, it does have most of the core game mechanics in place, albeit, in the roughest of forms.

Controls
Mouse Control to move starling
buttons 1 and 2 switch between cinematic view, and main camera.
M button speeds up the flight speed.
Cinematic cameras are location dependent, and there are currently 4 situated in the map, the windfarm, railway bridge, small farm and the harbour.
There are also 4 flocks, in similar locations. Acquiring flock will depend on your current flock size. Start with the smallest flock and work your way up.

I’d like to think that most aspects of the gameplay are carefully planned out, and if they’re not in their most basic of form here, are planned to be included in future builds. However, I’d love to hear your opinion on how you think things should be done, e.g. how flocks are represented, controls etc.

I hope you enjoy, please give feedback…just a quick tip…

The first flock is by the bridge…the last is the windfarm. when you’ve acquired all flocks (flocksize = 110). head to the harbour, switch to the cinematic view, and fly around, I think this represents what the game is about…

hope you enjoy

I understand some people may have had issues downloading…

forum user psychicparrot has very kindly provided server space to host the currents builds.

If anyone does have issues download, please let me know, it would be very handy to know.

This is coming along really well!

I totally love the concept of it and I think there’s a really cool game here.

Personally, I would look to add:

Ability to invert mouse y (since I’m so used to inverted controls for flying games)
A more ‘fluid’ camera - since it’s just a prototype it’s a given that you haven’t finished this, so I’ll just move on … :wink:
More movement in the camera - I’d love the camera to lean a little when I turn, too. The camera should be as ‘floaty’ as possible I think, but you probably already know this!
The animations on the flock weren’t running … my little guy was flapping, but the flock were still.

Since this is a prototype, I don’t know how much you’d like to hear - I would love to see some kind of mini objectives, places to land perhaps, maybe a stunt mode for flying through stuff or under bridges … there’s a LOT of directions you could take this game in, which is probably why I think it’s so cool :slight_smile:

Keep up the awesome work!

Thanks for that!

I really really appreciate you taking time out to give it a play.

I’d like to think that I’ve got most of the game ‘mapped out’, but I really wanted to know what people thought, in the most impartial, objective way possible.

Everything has been noted… I’m working hard to get an updated build, which includes ‘most’ of the actual game by the new year

thanks to everyone that has viewed the trailer so far… if you’d like to play it, that file is only like 30mb…its not much… :slight_smile:

oh…

Starlings is currently gaining some attention over at indiegames.com