Thursday 31 July 2014

On Call Patch Notes

On Call should be out soon, and what that means is that from here on out we will need to add / change / fix things that players find that are wrong / broken / not as super cool as it could be, and then patch those things remotely.

The first patch is now complete and ready to be uploaded as soon as the game is released. We cant change / upload the patch yet, as the game has been unchangeable for over a week as its prepared and tested.

NOTES:
  • Made new, more professional buttons
  • Simplified the HUD as it was cluttered with useless information (why have a health bar if we are showing a red vignette as the player gets low health?)
  • Added a better control image in the menu
  • Tweaked AMMO visual feedback for both the gun and the ship (Gun/Ship now lights up blue, yellow and red to show different levels of AMMO)
  • Fixed some AI bugs in Bridge, Crew and Arcade levels
  • Added gun sway, idle and walk animation
  • Tweaked timing of end credits
  • Tweaked the distance and health of the Rebel ship to allow audio to finish playing before its destroyed and new audio plays
  • Re-baked shadows at a higher resolution
  • Fixed GUI glitch with objectives
We are now testing these new changes and still seeing if we can find new things to fix / add / change. I've been looking into a bloom shader to make the neon styled lights on the gun and various other objects stand out and seem more light like, but so far I've not found a way to do it that offers the effect I am looking for, while maintaining 60fps.

Wednesday 30 July 2014

On Call Progress

Spent the last 24 hours re-baking shadows at 2x the resolution... Some areas are still not great, but I cant bake higher for time constraints and Vita memory limits... Will need to approach this aspect better next time from what I've learned...



On Call Feedback

So people have started to notice On Call.

This is great news, as it means we can FINALLY start listening to what they have to say so we can add to what we have and tweak stuff further.

FEEDBACK
  1. Buttons look unprofessional
  2. Gun needs to sway
  3. The HUD isn't really needed as we show information through other visual feedback
  4. Someone noticed a typo
WHAT HAVE WE DONE ABOUT IT?
  1. Created and rebuilt our menus with our own buttons
  2. Started implementing Gun sway animations
  3. Completely rebuilt the HUD
  4. Fixed the typo
WHAT DO WE WANT TO CHANGE?
  1. Re-bake shadows at a higher resolution to boost visual quality that 1 extra step further

Here's some screens to demonstrate the changes we've made, and please, feel free to give us feedback, we are listening and working to make this game better ;)







Tuesday 29 July 2014

On Call Trailer

My brother has made a theatrical trailer for On Call and I thought Id share it here



For some reason I cant post the HD trailer directly here, but here's a link: http://youtu.be/qetx6Uv6HFA


Sunday 27 July 2014

Day 3

Just thought Id show off what I've done before leaving for class... Hopefully Ill have this level finished by tonight.


Platformer Progress Report

DAY 2

Just taught Id show off what I've done today.

Other than the obvious work on the graphics assets and art, Ives also re-coded the default 3rd person controller to have Walk on the D-Pad, Walk and Run on the Left Stick, and a full orbital camera on the Right Stick. I also coded a script using some stuff I found online in order to bake light maps anywhere from 512 - 4096... This is great news! I will only bake at Maximum resolution before I ship, for now Ill just bake at 1024, as baking higher takes along time and that's not good for rapid deployment and testing.

I've also managed to stay well under 100 drawcalls, the technique I learned from On Call is already paying off. The game runs at a flawless 60fps no matter what I throw at it.

Ive had to revert back to using the black borders... But that's fine as I'm now using textures and the borders work amazingly well with the style of 'sketched' texture work I've dedicated myself to.

I'd love On Call to sell well enough to give this game good funding as then I'd be able to spend more time on it.

Other than that. Development is moving fast, here's some shots that show the vast improvement from yesterday:




Saturday 26 July 2014

Concept

On Call is done for now and we are just waiting for it to go on Sale.

But that doesn't mean we can stop working.

For our next game, I've been thinking it may be nice to do a platformer. It will be heavily inspired by my favorite platformers, such as Mario 64, Spyro, Ratchet and Clank etc. It will give me a chance to work on my art skills, from animation to modeling... Its something I feel I need to work on. I made On Call to learn the last things I needed to know with progression and saves, so my goal for this project will be improving on my art.

As for gameplay. I want it to be a platformer, so any combat will take a back seat and therefor it will focus on exploring and platforming. Everyone who play-tested On Call seems to have liked the space segments, so I thought it would be nice to keep it as a level select hub world (Not dissimilar to Ratchet and Clank: A Crack in Time)

I spent a few hours today doing some concept designs. The first level is going to be a bar on the roof of a sky scraper in a metropolis styled city. So I improved my workflow from what I learned with On Call, and started working. I've not got a lot to show just yet, but its shaping up really well. I'm moving away from the black outlines of on call, as I'm not happy with the way that they made aliasing more apparent. On top of that, my new workflow minimizes draw calls drastically, while still allowing me to bake lighting into every object in the scene.

Here's some shots (Please remember that On Call also started off looking really bad while it was in conception, all good things come in time... and lots of hard work)





Wednesday 23 July 2014

On Call Promo Shots

Hi there

I just put together some treated 1080p promo shots for On Call. (Not that we need them as we don't have any adverts or anything...) We're also busy making a trailer and a couple game play videos.

We've uploaded the game and are just waiting for Sony to review it and then it will be out ;)





Tuesday 22 July 2014

On Call Final Fixes

Had to do some last fixes to things that needed to be changed because either I was not happy with them, or testers were not happy with them, or they did not comply with PSM's rules

DONE:

  • Controls now no longer include any PlayStation specific controls, like references to the Vita or Triangle, X etc as it is not aloud on the PlayStation Mobile sdk
  • Gui Bar to a better looking bar, as I was not happy with the old, sloppy looking bar
  • Made the player a fraction faster
  • Recorded game play on PlayStation Vita
  • Vastly improved Space ship AI according to both my own wants and play testers feedback:
    1. Ship AI is far more intelligent when it comes to speed control
    2. The red ship is no longer irritatingly good at shooting the player
    3. Its harder to die
    4. Its easier to score points
    5. Added more AI controlled ships
    6. Made AI more intelligent at looking at things and moving to wards locations
    7. Its more fun to play
    8. Added variety to where AI fly to and from to make it seem more random
TO DO:
  • Record story/game trailer with no hud

Friday 18 July 2014

On Call Progress Report

We are currently testing to see if we've fixed the last of the bugs!!!

This is great news for us, as its good to see our hard work come together.

DONE:

  • Made space camera able to lock behind player or orbit player as it was requested by testers
  • Tweaked Creep animations
  • Changed 6 levels to be more interesting / challenging
  • Replaced dialog with new better dialog
  • Added "loading" text when loading
  • Added more conventional controls, at the request of testers
  • Fixed Audio bugs
  • Fixed general crashes and bugs
TO DO:
  • I'm happy with the performance of the game everywhere EXCEPT ONE CORRIDOR! Its super frustrating, as the entire game runs 45-60fps, yet there is this one corridor that runs at 30fps... i know its not the end of the world, but I feel I am not happy with not delivering far over 30fps... I can understand 30fps when say, there's a flashlight, props, creeps and 4xMSAA, not when its an empty corridor with no lights or AA... I will do my best to optimize this!
  • Upload Game-play video of On Call being played on the PlayStation Vita
  • Upload to PSM Store
  • Decide on Price
  • Decide on Screenshots / Final Icon
These things will be done by the end of tomorrow. I was hoping to be done by tonight, but alas, there is that 1 corridor that is giving me grief, so it will have to wait. After all, its better to delay a game as a delayed game can always be better, but a rushed game can never be better... But we've run out of time and budget, so this is the last little push we can give :P

Here's some screens captured directly from my PlayStation Vita, as well as our Icon:













Monday 14 July 2014

On Call Progress Report

We are nearing release now and things are shaping up extremely well!

DONE
  • Fixed MANY bugs
  • Optimized Turret AI and Draw calls
  • Added "Arcade" mode with spaceship AIs for dog fighting in space (The game needed something to do while riding buses and trains... And frankly flying through space is cool and fun.)
  • Tweaked timings of end credits
  • Tweaked Creep AI
  • Tweaked Space AI
  • Tweaked Turret AI
  • Tweaked Damage
  • Tweaked Health
  • Tweaked Upgrades
  • Added footstep sounds
  • Recorded more dialogue for story purposes
  • Recorded better sounds for the more lacking ones
  • Got LOTS of feedback from testers / friends on several issues that will be looked into
  • Added super slow-mo effect to the menu (for pause)

DOING
  • The ability to lock the camera in space for more old school players
  • More depth to Space AI / Arcade mode
  • Collectibles
  • Bonuses
  • Implement new sounds
  • Replace Creep animations with newer, better ones
  • Add Sprite on Creep Death
  • Add Sound on Creep Death
  • General bug fixing
  • AI bug fixing
We are going to record some game play soon on the actual Vita in a "lets play" type video, just need to polish up some of the big issues first.

So as you can see, the game is starting to be amazingly polished for (what will be) a 3 week $5 game... We are just polishing and waiting for the paperwork to go through, then we will release as soon as we are satisfied with the production quality.

We cant wait to see what everyone thinks. But for now, here's a look at the new Arcade Mode!


Friday 11 July 2014

ON CALL Progress Report

So work has slowed down to far less stressful pace while we do paperwork and stuff, which allows us to polish and tweak and test.

We had some friends play test today and got reactions and such from them as to what we sould change and make better.

In response to that I've re-written the Creep AI to be twice as complex as it was, which isn't saying much as it is just simple Creep AI... But still, They will walk around their designated "Hunting ground" minding thier own business and wont pay attention to the player (As they are blind) BUT the moment they feel the warmth of a flashlight they start moving towards the heat and when they hear a gunshot they get angry and charge at twice the speed. Its simple, but it works well for a cheap and simple horde type creep.

Ive tweaked the ending to be better and Im considering cutting the wait time down as I think they player might want to quit out as soon as possible after they are finished... Which is a pity as Id love for them to listen to the beautiful music we've made... But alas, its the players choice haha.

To our surprise, the Half Life style of minimal explanation of objectives has gone down horribly with EVERY SINGLE play test... So, while we will add a small amount of dialogue from the AI to explain the objective and we will add in some HUD for the objectives...

I tweaked the upgrade system to be more fun, helpful and balanced.

And Ive fixed several bugs (mostly with the AI) as well as further optimized performance, stability, graphics and fixed crashes.

Thursday 10 July 2014

ON CALL Progress report

We are officially out of Alpha!!!

What this means is that from here on we are adding as little as possible, but polishing everything that we currently have.

We could release right now, but we need to do some paperwork with Sony first which gives us some time to do some polish and play testing on the PlayStation Vita.

Another aspect is that it gives us time to reach out to people to test and provide us with feedback so we can tweak the game to be better than it currently is.

Its a bit of a buzz kill to slow down and polish after these last 2 weeks of crush, but at the same time, I know that we will benefit A LOT from polishing the game, finding unknown bugs and pushing it even further performance and graphics wise, I mean, we could always use that 1 extra frame on the Vita!

Man we've been really busy these last 2 weeks... We've been working full time 8am-7pm on this protect, and its only me and my brother on this team... I hope all this effort pays off in the long run ;) SO EXCITING!!!
















Wednesday 9 July 2014

So Close

We are so close we can almost taste it!

DONE
  • Side missions
  • Upgrades
  • Enemy AI
  • Turrets
  • Health
  • Life Support decoration
  • all rough levels
  • Asteroids and space polish
  • Ending
  • Optimizations for PlayStation Vita
  • Bug kill
DOING
  • Final tweaks to health
  • More objective markers
  • More sounds
  • polish / optimize: Bridge, Crew and engine levels
  • Collectibles

Monday 7 July 2014

On Call Progress Report

Spent most of the day optimizing and re-coding most the scripts in order to reduce any lag and reduce the impact on any frame rate drops on controls, as a good example, no one likes it when a games frame-rate drops down and the game goes into an unintended slo-motion, so Ive optimized a lot of that stuff.

A positive outcome for this is that now the game runs well over 60fps in some areas and the minimum frame-rate no longer causes the controls to feel noticeably more weighted.

I've also added 2 buttons in the options menu, one for Performance and one for Quality.

  • Performance sacrifices V-sync and anti aliasing for much higher fps.
  • Quality locks and V-syncs frame-rate to 30fps, but has 4xMSAA.
Purely because I believe that the player should have the choice to lock the frame-rate to 30fps when confronted with 120-45fps, as some gamers do not like fluctuations in frame-rate (despite how much work I put into making it feel as good as possible at any frame-rate above 30fps) The positive is that when locked down I can afford expensive AA solutions.

(Keep in mind that this is captured off my Dev PC and not the Vita)



ON CALL progress reprort

As you all know we've been working hard on a Vita game for the last 2 weeks.

Progress is slow as we work only on weekdays and there are only 2 of us, 1 to do Coding, level design, props etc and the other to do sound and story.

But we are pleased to show off our latest version of On Call.

Here are some pictures, and we will try to record gameplay from the actual Vita (even if we need to use a hand cam) so you can get a feel for how it looks and plays on there.