Lately I’ve been working a day job, and doing other experiments for games…but the one that has stuck and is getting the focus is this project. I have evenings and weekends to get this thing together and have been making progress on assets. Below is a screenshot from an iPad2. Here are a few Youtube videos of some of the assets so far. This project is classified as a tower defense game, but is a little more elaborate in player control. Most of the defense will take place on the shoreline with enemies coming from an inlet into a harbor. You will be attacking targets from the sea and on the shoreline. Not only will you defend from a fort on the shoreline itself, but you will also have control over defense from the sea within the harbor. This means control over Spanish Galleon ships over the water, as well as artillery from the Castillo De San Marcos fort itself.
I’m targeting the iPad at first, then will port to the iPhone and possibly some kind of desktop application as well.
@Kridian - Hey man, thank you for the offer, but I’m actually going up there this weekend to take texture reference photos. Hey, though I’ll take a peak at any photos you take on your adventure. I mean you may very well capture something better than myself. I only live 40 minutes from St. Augustine, so it’s pretty darned close.
@goat - ah ha someone knows their history! Yeah I don’t foresee the fort being destroyed in my game, but I definitely see carnage with ships out in the water, on the outter walls and decks of the fort and the town around the fort. This not a typical tower defense game, you’re defending a city that had been burned down once or twice. Nothing says we couldn’t tell history with a little fantasy mixed in either
Pumped out another asset late last night…these will populate the shoreline area near the town itself. I imagine some would be near the fort as well. They will be fully destructible objects, so if your stray cannon ball hits one you’ll get a nice show of showering splinters!
And just for giggles why don’t you make a game with a modern twist: tourists and locales are milling around St Augustine, the old school house, the fort, what not, when a Spanish Galleon loaded with treasures arrives along with Pirate ships in modern day St Augustine to do battle. How to stop the pelicans, raccoons, and sea gulls from picking the rations right out of your hand?! How do you get to your side’s ship in your old dingy with cannon balls landing all around? Which team are you on? Which team takes home more loot?
Here is a screenshot of the first character for “The Defense of St. Augustine”. His geometry is currently 3,004 triangles and the model is currently untextured. This is an early representation of one of the cleaner, more lean pirate variations.
BTW I’ve also uploaded a bunch of 16th, 17th and 18th Century ship blueprints on my Wordpress Blog… follow the link and you’ll find them with preview images as well. These are very cool ships like the Golden Hind, The Essex, The Revenge, HMS Bounty, etc.
This is my take on developing something that is for historical educational purposes. Here is a very early look at it, and there is an interactive Webplayer. Roam around, check out the Spanish soldier AI patrolling and the two cannons firing at a “cube” enemy ship out in the bay. Now this is VERY early, so I am aware of some things that just aren’t right in the build. Collision is missing in several places, animations aren’t final…small details too, like the smaller mortar cannon will fire different type of shells and will make a different type of sound while firing. Of course the cannons will not intelligently move themselves to aim at an enemy. This will all be player controlled in groups…very similar in RTS games where you might select a group and give them a command. In this situation I see you being able to command spanish soldiers to do tasks, defend sections of the fort, etc. You will also be able to adjust fire with the cannons in groups.
The Spanish soldiers will get more work done as well, proper armor, proper helmets and then a couple texture variations. I’m considering firearms as well for AI. Basically this will be an in depth tower defense demo, the large frigates will come into the bay area, you will destroy them, the small rowboats will abandon ship and the enemy will come ashore. Once ashore you play it as if it were an FPS game, using your sword or musket to repel them from the fort. The AI will help repel enemy as well.
