If I was good at marketing I would know that I should be building the Squid In A Box brand identity and associating it with a specific genre of game. Squid In A Box would be the developer that makes crazy neon shooters.
It’s probably a good job then that I’m terrible at marketing.
My policy has always been to make the games that I want to play and right now I don’t want to play Waves 2: the Wavening. Nope right now I want to play a turn based RPG with online co-op and procedurally generated dungeons so that’s what I’m making.
With this in mind I have spent the last couple of weeks working on a prototype of such a game. You saw the first stage with the “Blue Fire Dawn” tech demo that had a ball rolling around a procedurally generated maze. Well this has taken it a step further and now there are Space Marines Vs Angry Robots in a turn-based fight to the death.
Interested? More below the cut…
The prototype in that video is already being scrapped so don’t ask me for the code! It’s a mess because it’s a prototype and looking at the code may turn you to stone. The point of it was to answer one question: Can you make a procedurally generated world and do A* path finding in Unrealscript? The answer I’m glad to say is a resounding YES! The next stage is redesigning all of the technology knowing what I now know and making it work on-line. Once I have an on-line version of the above tech demo I’ll start to worry about actual game design things, rules and content.
The one thing I do know for sure is that this project will need art. Lots and lots of art. If you are an artist (either Concept, Character or Environment) and are freelance then drop me an email with a link to your portfolio and your rates and I’ll get in touch. I’ll also need somebody for UI duty on this game as it’s going to be quite UI heavy.
Find the right system for you and with the ability to mod, this can live on unlmited potential street. I’d love to see it on a hex grid, though.
It is a pity that I have no skill for any of project elements you need. Although I will have the money to spend on a the product.
Also: Marketing? WTB Plushie squidinabox.
As long as the box is cardbord.
And maybe had someone living in it at some point.
Smell of stale urine entirely optional.
Assuming you’re not going to just outright share your code, would you be willing to look into doing a tutorial, or even just tips, on how to get something even approaching this running with UDK? Please?
This is pretty fantastic and is pretty much exactly what I would like to be able to do. If you don’t mind I have a couple questions for you.
1. Are those units Pawns or just modified Actors?
2. How are you establishing the grid for your A* algorithm? This is the one that really gets me. If you could provide just a little insight as to how you set up your grid for the pathfinding, I would be eternally greatful.
Your project looks like it has tons of potential, and I’m looking forward to watching it come to fruition. Keep it up man 🙂