Swamplands Demo 1

Reading posts and looking at screenshots is all well and good... but you can't get a good idea of what a game is like until you actually sit down and play it.  Swamplands isn't really in a "playable" state as of yet, but this little demo will at least give you a look at the engine and at some of the mechanics.

Download it here

Press 'f1' in-game for help.

Impact Effects Screenshots

The playable tech demo is on the way.  For now, take a look at these screenshots of the previously-mentioned bullet impact effects.  Lighting was turned off so they're more visible

Both of these were basically just me going nuts with unlimited ammo.  It's unlikely that you'll see this much dust in-game since you have very little ammo.  

This shot is perhaps a little more realistic.

And just for fun, here's a shot of the same room with lighting turned on.  As you can see, there are some added textures since the last screenshots.  And if you look closely, you'll notice that the light bloom now actually casts light rather than just colored halos (a little hard to see).

Impact Effects!

In contrast to AI, coding weapon/impact effects is one of the more rewarding parts of making a game, in my opinion.  It's just awesome to try and perfect all the little details to make shooting as fun as possible.  Pit was the first game where I used any sort of hanging dust effects, and I was very happy with how they turned out.  So I've added a similar system in Swamplands.  And it looks AWESOME.  Firing a full clip into a wall fills the area with grey dust that takes awhile to dissipate.  And I just love how that feels.  I'll also be adding some gunpowder smoke, muzzle flash/sparks, and possibly shell casings.

Sadly, due to the tile-based handling of walls, there will be no destructible environments.  But all the time I'd spend on that can now be put towards other weapon-specific visuals and effects.  Although this is nowhere near a game about shooting things, it's still a game designed by me... and as a result, I want guns to feel as good as possible.

Nope, I don't have any screenshots of this entertaining little effect.  But I will soon.  And, even better, I plan on soon putting up a playable tech/atmosphere demo for people to play around with.  Stay tuned!

Stealth

So yes... the "visibility gem" system has been replaced.  Originally, your "hiddeness" effected the probability of an enemy NPC dice roll turning up as 1, and if the dice turned up as 1 then he would see you and give chase.  Sounds good on paper, but in reality this system ended up being far too unforgiving to be fun.  In fact, I don't think I've ever played a game with a "random roll" stealth system that was fun.  Morrowind is a perfect example: there's no way to recover from being seen, and at anything other than higher levels its almost impossible NOT to be seen.  Because it's all based on dice rolls.  As long as you're within an enemy's view range, it's completely random whether or not you are seen.  So in other words, stealth is useless unless you have an ungodly high level, because there's no way to use skill or strategy to ensure that you won't be seen.  To a certain extent, the original Swamplands stealth system was a little like this.  You it was too unforgiving, which is odd to say for a game that is SUPPOSED to be unforgiving.  But still...

Now, we have a system more akin to the one in Far Cry 1.  You have a bar at the top of the screen that shows how close enemies are to spotting you.  Your "hiddeness" determines how fast the bar fills.  Stealth is not easy, but it's possible.  And it feels a lot fairer, since you get a sense of whether or not you're hiding well enough without immediately failing.  And, there's no randomness.

 

A quick update

It's been a little while since I've posted anything, since I'm in the process of getting engaged, and that's taken a lot of my free time (as well as some time that really shouldn't be free).  Unfortunately, that means that I also haven't been putting as much time into Swamplands as I'd like.  I'm still working on the AI right now.  The detection system and hunting routines aren't coded, but the test NPC will currently walk around randomly and run from you if you get too close.  It will also avoid walls while doing both these things, using some simple motion planning.  I've also done a bit of visual work, adding in some rot and "missing chunks" to vary up the floor tiles.  I've also cleaned up the control scheme and added matches for making fires.  Evan has done some work on the story as well.  At this point, we're going to do something very odd narration-wise:  Every 30 or so days (this number will probably change later on), your character loses their memory.  Which means that you'll wake up somewhere different with new gear, surrounded by evidence of events that you don't remember happening.  It's odd, to be sure, but then again that's kinda the deal with this game... there are a lot of very odd things.  Benji seems to have slowed down on the art, but that's a little understandable considering the manic pace that we were doing things at the beginning.   

So hopefully once my beloved has something sparkly on her finger and wedding plans are finalized (or at least MORE finalized), I'll be able to do more work.  And once I've built a new computer (aka, one that can capture footage at a decent framerate), I'll probably have footage to show.  For now, rest assured that the game is still moving along.