Once more with feeling
Hey everyone! We’re back with a brief catch-up as we descend into the metaphorical maelstrom of the the next phase of our game. We’ve got a few different things to focus on before the game is ready to be shown for the final milestone of this quarter but I’m more than glad to say that they game is coming along nicely as more and more people experience it and hope to see its potential realized. And with that, let’s begin!
New revamped Lobby UI
New Networking room system
New crazy and juicy powerups
New vehicles
More feels
Improved feedback and particles
And more
Matchmaking
This last few weeks were spent mostly on setting up our matchmaking system so that players would be able to join and create matches more efficiently than before. Thanks to our programmers Jason and Robin a lot work went into our new lobby system so that players are able to choose more easily between local split screen mode, matchmaking and some other custom options in menus like going back and forth (before this update players had to restart the application), typing your own custom name and indicate when they are ready to play the match through our new room system which can handle any number of players up to 4 with less problems of connection and disconnection. Not only that but our online and local modes are a little more coherent as the code base structured has been modified to better synchronize. Besides the technical magic that they did, the game has now a new lobby system that will eventually let players input their custom choices other than their name. Yep that's right! this game will have the option to let the players choose their own vehicles among a few different options that will be available in the upcoming weeks but for now let me just say that is looking awesome and it gives a nice preview of what this game can do.
Weapons Test
With our newest member on the team, Carry, that means we now have 3 amazing programmers working on the game which means we also have a little bit more room to try out some crazy but very cool ideas that will make this game a different and incredible experience every time it is played. As some of you may have read from previous updates, powerups have been a huge success ever since their first prototype iterations. However the main challenge with them is that players had a hard time figuring out what they were and how to use them. On one hand once they got the hang of them they turned out to be pretty fun but on the other it took some really long time for players to get an idea of what they could do with them. Not only that but since our first power ups were the canon and missiles, that automatically made players assume that they had to destroy other opponents instead of just pushing them off (as I discussed on previous updates). Our solution came with an experiment and new powerup that we call “Spike Ram” or “Ramming Grill”. This powerup really made the experience of ramming into other players be really rewarding and the highlight of the game. So ever since we’ve been working on power ups that really coordinate with the ramming and sumo aspect of the game more efficiently.
The first one of this new generation would be our “Morning Star”, which had been under the concept stage since the previous term. The best way to imagine this “toy” would be to visualize a giant Skull of the size of a car attached to the player’s vehicle through a chain and just being dragged by the vehicle causing wreck and destruction to anyone unfortunate to be in its path. Needles to say it is a fearsome item to face but a really rewarding one if you can control it.
The next one would be our flying boxing glove or as I like to call it the “ForzePunch”. Just like the name implies it is a giant boxing glove projectile that has limited range but can send an opponent flying away thanks to the high damage it inflicts. A player has only one shot per pick up as it packs “quite a punch”.
Next up is one of the most fun and unique ones, “The Hot Potato”. This power up consist of two parts to use it effectively: As one can assume from the name, this is not a powerup one wants to keep for long, in fact it has timer before it explodes and sending the vehicle carrying it flying. Luckily one can pass it to other players simply by bumping into them, therefore “hot potato”, but even more fun is that once a player “passes” it to someone else they can detonate it remotely. We’re beginning to test this one and so far it has proven to be a satisfying item to use once they can safely detonate it to other players.
Another powerup in this crazy and unexpected fun category would be our “Snowball” powerup. Remember those cartoons where a little snowball rolls down the hill and becomes a giant behemoth? Well this powerup recreates in incredible exciting way. A player collects this item and can shoot up to three snowballs that will start small in size but will grow huge during their lifetime and stay on the arena rolling around. Any player unfortunate to bump into them will be bounced back. So in a nutshell this powerup creates some interesting and dynamic obstacles in the game.
And last but not least we have our first prototype of our “trap” general powerup. Basically this is a placeable trap that players can lay like landmines that will send their opponents flying if they step on it. What I mean by general is that we will have several variants of trap-like powerups that players can setup each one with a different effect either stunning or bouncing them back.
Hitching a Ride!
Ever since the conception of this game one of the appeals was vehicles battling it out in a competitive match. Now that we have some of the basics of our gameplay down with our “War Buggy” and “Proto-Jouster”(our first tank model with wheels that we used to playtest our controls), we are bringing in new vehicles that are waiting to go into battle!
Our first newcomer would be our “Dust Buster” modeled by our CSU Northridge artist Matha. This new vehicle is one of the medium type vehicles just like the “War Buggy”. In brief these are the cars that have a good balance between speed and the damage they give and receive.
Next up would be our “Vortex Surfer” modeled by our Art Director and Lead Artist Ring. This new vehicle will introduce the “light” type vehicle. This means that this category of vehicles will be fast and maneuverable but will take more damage whenever a heavier car bumps into them, if they can catch you that is. Not only that but it is a hover car, how cool is that!?
Based on the previous categories the next one shouldn’t be a surprise, that’s right the next vehicle is a heavy type. Meaning that it may move a little slower but they more than make for it with the strength they posses. The first representative of this lineup would be our “StreamBreaker” modeled by me, aka Outrider. This a green, lean, and mean fighting machine that has the power to back up its appearance.
Needles to say we cannot wait to have these vehicles playable, they will be in the next few weeks as we make some visual adjustments and mechanics implementation as we near some milestones that will be crucial to set the core of our game.
Them feels...
This game is all about the emotion and excitement that multiplayer games can achieve for their audience. This includes satisfaction from crazy maneuvers and tricks that players may accomplish during a match. So we’re experimenting with visual polishes to make our dear audience feel the Forze! In other words the core mechanic of this game is to ram into other players and knock them out. To that end we’re making that be as rewarding as possible by adding little details like sparks, camera shakes, and other enhancements that will let players really immerse themselves into the competitiveness of the game.
Not only that but we have started to tweak some of the rules to juice the fast paced quick match aspect of the game but in a way that doesn’t require players to keep the rematch button over and over again. In other words, players love how quick matches can be and they are so into the game that they keep using the rematch button (which is a really good thing!). What we’re changing is that the rounds will last 3 minutes no matter what and players can respawn as many times until time runs out. In the end the player who scored more knockouts will win. Players can still rematch after that. Basically instead of clicking replay over and over again, we are letting players still be immersed in that game so that they can get back to the last player that knocked them out or also have the chance for an underdog comeback. It might need some tweaking after we implementing but we are still keeping the short time matches, and hopefully players will still continue to click on that rematch button like there is no tomorrow.
With all of that the game is coming along nicely every week that goes by and we’re closer and closer to presenting ForzeBreak in a big way to the public. That is all for this week but keep tuned for the next upcoming updates.
Sprint Summary:
In this first sprint the main points we managed to achieve have been working and adjusting the new matchmaking menu that Jason implemented to have better networking setup of rooms and players being able to join matches more easily. Not only that but the new lobby has more options that enable players to write their custom name and the menu will also allow the vehicle selection before a round begins.
Gameplay wise the major achievements for this sprint would be the implementation of five new powerups that really add to the game sumo aspect and have proven to go really well with the ramming experience against opponents. The programmers have also restructured the base code for powerups so that they are easier to implement and create new ones (taking into account collisions, network lag, etc…)
Art wise we have new models for the new powerups including some lighting updates for our stage and other things in general so that players have more vision of where their opponents are at all times.
Not only that but we finished three new vehicle models giving us a total of 4 completed ones that can be implemented into the game so that players have options to choose from( this will be worked on in the next couple of weeks as we improve the matchmaking systems so that players can choose).
We’ve also added more player visual feedback with some basic particles and the ForzeBreak messages popping up during collisions. This will be changed with the audio effect in the upcoming weeks.
Overall this sprint main goal was to apply feedback from vertical slice (which was mainly new ideas for powerups and enhancements for the game) as well as being a setup for the next sprints so we can revise old powerups and test new ones as we try new ideas for what we want the game to be for Sammy showcase.
