Impromptu Games Thread! InFlux is all up on this PAX Australian Indie Showcase

LaCabra

A) Soon!
2) Both, yes. Some areas aren't accessible until you have a certain ability which you can only get from a certain puzzle, for instance
thrice) Out of our hands, and in Google's, then Epic's. If they expand the UDK to include Android, then definitely.

LaCabra

Hey, so, deviating from Ballin' for a bit... this is where all the Shotgun Sunrise fans hang out, right?

I had an idea and busted it out real quick in the last 24 hours.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuwybSU55b0

Lord Yod

Zombie survival truck racing game?

Lorahalo

Well the truck is supposed to be used for a getaway, but I always got caught up racing around in it.

Flippy_D

I actually thought just last night about that truck.

Don't ask me why; I don't know.

LaCabra

Hey folks - question: back when we were making Shotgun Sunrise, someone here made a flash video of the truck driving while the sun rose and set in the background and tumbleweed occasionally blew by. Anyone know who that was, or if it's still around?

Mustachio Jones

There is a slight chance I've got it on my external HDD at home. I should be heading back there this weekend.

LaCabra

So here's a phone-quality video of the menu of the racing game we're makin'. It's not actually going to be called Shotgun Sunrise (we don't have a name yet), we're just using the logo as a placeholder. Also, ignore those analog sticks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AA9xGglbRZ0

The menu picks a level and does a flythrough of it, this is the level I made over the last 2 days.

LaCabra

Which reminds me, what's a good name for a Shotgun Sunrise-derived mobile racing game?

Bearing in mind that the name needs to be pretty short to not get truncated on an iDevice...

LittleBoots

Shotgun Sunrise: The Racing Game: IPad edition: 2011: The Movie.

LaCabra

LITTLEBOOTS THAT IS THE OPPOSITE OF WHAT IS REQUIRED

Jintor

Sunride

IceBurner

LaCabra wrote: »

Which reminds me, what's a good name for a Shotgun Sunrise-derived mobile racing game?

Bearing in mind that the name needs to be pretty short to not get truncated on an iDevice...

Riding Shotgun Sunrise?

Edit: For those of us with no iOS devices, can you give us a rough idea of the character limit?

Edcrab

Jintor wrote: »

Sunride

I was thinking "Sunrace" but I reckon that works better!

Presumably there are specific engine limitations to keep in mind when running it on an iOS device. Neat stuff!

LaCabra

Seems like there's not a character limit as such so much as a max width in pixels, which is irritating.

zerg rush

Would you care to give advice for someone looking to make their own games (or get the skills to join a mod team) in their free time?

I know C++, Photoshop, 3ds Max, Maya, etc. But I haven't the foggiest about how to turn that into something where people can shoot other people. Do you recommend a tutorial, or joining a mod team, or such?

I too wish to make great things like Cowboys killing Zombies and puzzle games based on genitalia jokes, but I'm currently honing my skills solving complicated math problems via programming.

Antithesis

Ridin' Shotgun? Western Zombie Driver? Angry Birds Texas?

It would clearly sell well with Zombie in the name.

plufim

edit: beaten by antithesis, that handsome bastard.

LittleBoots

No, zombies are played out, they're the new Nazis of video game villains as in they're not new and have been done to death.

LaCabra, take your racing game prototype and steal the art assets from TF2. Make a TF2 / Mario Cart hybrid. It will work! Send it to Valve and demand money.

Maybe you wont get your money, but I'll get my TF2 Mario Cart hybrid I've always wanted.

Antithesis

plufim wrote: »

edit: beaten by antithesis, that handsome bastard.

Oh, you're magnificent, too.

Shotgun Redding? I don't even know what that means.

Miso Ronery

Shotgun Racing is too blatantly obvious, and kind of boring.

Racegun Shotrise on the other hand...

I'll assume the check is in the mail.

LaCabra

how about VROOOM

CorriganX

Shotgun Sunrise: The Quick and the Dead, and have the other racers be zombies. Done and Done.

Jintor

VroomstickShock

Raslin

Shotty Driving

plufim

This here is my VROOM stick!

Bethryn

The Fast and the Undead

Antithesis

I rather like Vroomstick. I will use it for largely unrelated puns.

LaCabra

zerg rush wrote: »

Would you care to give advice for someone looking to make their own games (or get the skills to join a mod team) in their free time?

I know C++, Photoshop, 3ds Max, Maya, etc. But I haven't the foggiest about how to turn that into something where people can shoot other people. Do you recommend a tutorial, or joining a mod team, or such?

I too wish to make great things like Cowboys killing Zombies and puzzle games based on genitalia jokes, but I'm currently honing my skills solving complicated math problems via programming.

Oh hey I missed this before.

Well duder, it sounds like you already have the skills to join a mod team, unless they're a particularly unforgiving sort who absolutely need you to already know your way around their engine. Which I guess a lot of them are. But as an example, Remington, who makes most of the models in our games, had almost no Source experience when we started out and really just used his Google-fu and a shitton of perseverance to get things done. There are tutorials out there on just about everything you could want to do. I would start by taking something you've modelled and textured and getting that into an engine.
This would be a good place to start for that on Source.

Getting your assets ingame can be a real pain in the arse on Source, but that's part of why I usually recommend people start with it. Its relative user-unfriendliness forces you to gain some idea of how things actually work rather than just clicking import (which you can do, up to a point, in UDK). The ability to make yourself stay up all night with Notepad and cmd wrangling the .qc system that should really have a GUI for it but doesn't, just to make the wheels turn in the right directions on your vehicle, for instance, is more important than how good your models look.

If you can find a mod team who aren't full of themselves and treat their modding like a learning experience that is also a great way to get knowledge'd.

Also, I totally haven't come up with a better name than Vrooom you guys.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PPnJ-W0rQU

LaCabra

Finally got ahold of an iphone to try this on. Good news, it works on iphones. It definitely was slower on the 3GS but I just need to optimise stuff more.

Spoiler:

Andrew Ryan

That is a spiffy looking splash screen you got there

zerg rush

LaCabra wrote: »

Oh hey I missed this before.

Ironically I missed it too until the blue dot reappeared tonight. I'll definitely look at that and see how to do things in source. I'm currently trying an open source SDK (OGRE) and didn't even realize I automatically had access to the source SDK until tonight. Apparently I got access when I bought HL2, and wouldn't have realized without your prompting.

I'm still at the learning phase either way so it might not matter which one I use. Still, I feel more confident learn an engine I'm familiar with from gaming. Thank you!

LaCabra

No probs! Hit us up if you have further queries.

Thanks, Ryan.

Spoiler:

Alternative image!

LaCabra

Spoiler:

Achievement for collecting three dead zombies in the back of the truck? I think so.

LaCabra

So after about 5 months of work and distraction later I've just submitted Vroom to the app store and it's finally waiting for review. Feeling pretty proud right now.

I'm having some serious internet troubles these days so I don't have time to make a better video than this clumsily-filmed over-the-shoulder one but I reckon it'll do the job:



It should be on the store within a couple of weeks for iPhone (3GS and 4) and iPads, and all the iPod Touch 3rd-gen-and-ups. It'll be $1.99 and there's also a lite version going up for free. The game is all about driving around hitting zombies in your truck and doing ridiculous jumps. I am also hoping we can do a promo code thing and give all you dudes who contributed to Shotgun Sunrise half price or something.

Here's the description going on the store:

Vroom is a racing and vehicular-zombie-flattening game made with the UDK. Drive your big blue truck around three zombie-infested tracks, boosting up half-pipes, catching mad air, and revelling in your extermination of the loathsome undead.

-3 levels (so far!)
-Customise the aesthetics of your already amazing pickup truck
-Marvel at the ragdoll physics as you mercilessly slaughter the walking dead
-Use said slaughter to fuel your Vroomometer and set incredible new lap times
-Featuring the incredible musical stylings of Jonathan Yandel

LaCabra

Hey guys, I just made Shotgun Sunrise open-source. The post and download aren't authorised on ModDB yet, so I guess that means you heard it here first.

Here's what the post says. When it's live you can look for it here.

We've received quite a few requests in recent months and years from other mod teams who want to take over Shotgun Sunrise, but we never felt great about giving it to any one of them. A while ago we decided to give it to all of them, and also everyone else, by open-sourcing the mod. It's taken us a little while to get our shit together in order to do so, but it's mostly together now, we think. Certainly there is an archive with our source code and a bunch of other stuff you haven't seen before in it, and that archive is on the internet, and you can download it here at ModDB on our downloads page.

We're happy for you to use everything in that package in your own stuff, as long as you give us credit where appropriate, and differentiate any continuation of the mod you might make from our own work. We still really want to make another, better, Shotgun Sunrise game someday, so that name's taken. If you do want to continue the development of the mod, I humbly suggest you name that project Open Sourcegun Sunrise. Amazing name.

I for one have always greatly regretted not having been able to support this game more, or release a less buggy-and-laggy product from the start. Not being able to work on videogames all the time sucks. We appreciate all the support you've given us, from the 42% of you who rated the mod 10 of out 10 to the 21% who gave it a 1, and everyone in between. Hopefully, this source release, and the ability to play a Shotgun Sunrise game on iOS, make up for it to some degree.

If you're super interested in the process that led to this mod's more-or-less stagnation in spite of being super fun to play, you should go check out the comments on this news post, which you may find informative!

Be prepared: everything in the source package is pretty old, sometimes super old. Those of you who know what you're doing with the Source engine are going to look at some of our stuff and say "holy god that's stupid" and you couldn't be more right. For instance, our solution to making sure the truck never flipped in Shotgun Sunrise was to place its center of gravity 40 feet underground. Good times... good times.

In closing, here are some choice quotes regarding how awesome Shotgun Sunrise is/was.

“Fan-goddamn-tastic…I love this mod so much”
“...like Left 4 Dead, Tony
Hawk’s Pro Skater, and Grand Theft Auto all in one mod”
“...the most amazing
Half-Life experience in a very long time”
-Podcast 17

“…probably one of the most hilarious mods I’ve ever played”.
-JoshuaC, creator of TF2’s Arena_Watchtower

"It might be the Citizen Kane of games... and it might also be the Citizen Kane of Citizen Kanes"
-James Benson, animator of Dance Fortress 2, on Vroom!

“…going down the hall to your QA organisation is easy, but the most talented people you’re going to find halfway around the world, developing some crazy… co-op zombie Western.”
-Gabe Newell

donhonk

Hoping something totally rad comes of the open sourceness! And thus a revival. Zombie esque.

LaCabra

The_Spaniard

If somebody remembers this remind me, cause I only have a vague memory and I might be completely mistaken. When SS started didn't I shit out a quick logo for it that was used for a short time, before somebody else made an amazing one that shamed me, and then that one became the official logo?

Remington

Not that I remember, but it's been a long time.

Hey, who was the guy that was all mad about my double barrel shotgun having two sight rails?