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Games Scraps: Modular Vehicle Combat - Vehicle combat with buildable vehicles

Discussion in 'Works In Progress - Archive' started by Nition, Dec 8, 2012.

  1. Nition

    Nition

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    Original post, December 2012:


    ☆Scraps is a vehicle combat game where you build your vehicle from parts.☆​

    I've always really liked the extensive car customisation in Interstate '76. A while after it came out, I also played a demo of Stratosphere: Conquest Of The Skies (does anyone else remember that?) where you could build your flying fortress from parts, and I started thinking of a game like the melee mode in I76, but with more customisation of the car itself.

    Later I got a demo of LEGO Racers where you could build your own car from scratch. Awesome! Except it wasn't, because the parts were all cosmetic and any effect your creation had on the car's stats was dubious at best. I want to be able to build a car that SUCKS. A car that falls over whenever it corners or only has enough power to fire its guns once a minute. I want each component you place to actually have a function, and have a physical effect. Not to the point of adding needless complexity to the game, like having to wire everything together; just obvious things, like your vehicle being lop-sided if you put all your guns on one side.

    All those games came out last century. I've been waiting so long for someone to make a game like this that I gave up and I'm making it myself. I'm excited about this project because I finally get to play it.

    Here are some really early screenshots of Scraps (placeholder/buggy/missing stuff everywhere):


    Build screen, then In-Game

    TL;DR: It's like Kerbal Space Program except the spaceships are vehicles and they fight.


    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    New Stuff:

    Screenshots:








    Video:


    Early Access Launch Trailer.

    -----------------------------------------
    Download:

    You can now try the Builder Demo which lets you build vehicles and test them out.

    -----------------------------------------
    Keep up-to-date:

    Subscribe to the RSS feed on the official website: scrapsgame.com
    Or join the Moment Studio Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/bestmomentstudio
    Or follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Nition
     
    Last edited: Jun 22, 2017
    Iman_col, ADNCG, Beennn and 3 others like this.
  2. Ben-Massey

    Ben-Massey

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    Awesome!
     
  3. Zulthus

    Zulthus

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    Ahhh, stratosphere.... I wasted many hours of my life playing that game. Sucks that I lost the CD a long time ago, I kind of want to play it again.

    This game looks like a great idea. I haven't seen games that let you customize your vehicles where each part affects the vehicle in some way. Looking forward to updates.
     
  4. Nition

    Nition

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  5. Nition

    Nition

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    Just looking at the IndieDB Top 100 Indies list for this year. There isn't even a category for vehicle games, or racing games. They have "Tactical Shooter" I guess. Clearly to get your fill of sweet vehicle combat, you will need to play Scraps.
     
  6. xKroniK13x

    xKroniK13x

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    Looks awesome man. Are you gonna include online multiplayer? That would make it awesome, have like a twisted metal online type feel to it and battle others with your own car. Maybe also have sharable cars that you can download other's cars. The industry has a lot of followers that LOVE sharability and customization. Looking forward to more of this.
     
  7. Nition

    Nition

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    Definitely will have local and online multiplayer. It has to really because fighting other people's vehicles is the crux of the game. I doubt there'll be a single-player campaign/career mode, at least not in the first release.

    I really like the way Gimbal lets you share your ships via an image of the ship, whatever magic is going on there.
     
  8. mamoniem

    mamoniem

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    i like your idea, Bookmarked ;)

    m;
     
  9. Kaze_Senshi

    Kaze_Senshi

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    Lololol interesting idea, besides the multiplayer mode you could create a puzzle mode like that Bad Piggies game, but in 3D or something like.
     
  10. Nition

    Nition

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    Not an exciting update by any means, but in the interests of showing that I'm doing something; I made this logo:

    I have some minor problems with it but I don't have the designer's eye to make it better. Is it obvious, at least, that the parts are meant to be in the process of slotting into place?
     
    Last edited: Dec 20, 2012
  11. Nition

    Nition

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    Been messing around with a different logo design:


    But in the game I've been implementing an input manager and adding controller support. Yeah, Unity has an input manager built in, but it's a bit lame how you can only edit it in the little prelauncher window before starting the game.


    It's not perfect - you can't assign axis inputs to buttons or buttons to axes - but it's working pretty well.
     
  12. dtg108

    dtg108

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    Yea, it's obvious that they are slotting into place. I liked the blue log o better :p bookmarked.
     
  13. Nition

    Nition

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    Graphics options...



    A bit of real DevLog content:

    Unity is a good system, but once you start seriously making Unity games, you also run into some limitations. Limitations which are inherent in the system, at a level you can't access.

    I find it quite interesting to see how other Unity games solve or work around the limitations.

    For instance, Unity has no Dropdown/Combo Box GUI class, so I made one (I needed a more custom solution than what's on the Unify wiki). That's fine - that's not a limitation in what you can do, just in what's already done. Unfortunately Unity provides no way to consume clicks. As in, if you have a dropdown covering a button, you'll click through and activate both. Why is there no way to consume clicks...?

    Anyway, you can work around it in various ways. Personally I'm detecting that a dropdown is open and disabling anything that might be underneath it while it's open. But it's a always bit messy.

    Next problem is that most, but not all, of the graphics options that you can change with Unity's Quality Settings system are available to change via code. Why can't I set shadow type for instance?

    Anyway, sometimes I think to myself, "I'll see what other Unity games did." Almost always, they didn't. But now I know why. Check out the Kerbal Space Program graphics options for instance. They have pretty much the same options as me, because they're the ones you can access in Unity. Then see how no GUI components ever overlap each other?
     
  14. Marrt

    Marrt

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    agree, but i guess thats the price of having a stable tool... we just can post suggestions and bug reports

    e.g. Unity 4 added HW-Cursor support but when getting Input.mousePosition you only get the SW-Cursor XY creating an inevitable inherent mouseLag!
     
  15. Nition

    Nition

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    Which looks better, the textured look or the cel-shaded?



    Of course you can also have textured with outline and cel-shaded with no outline, but trust me when I say they look worse than the options presented. One of the points for the latter option is that it's just easier to do reasonably well. Obviously neither of these are final graphics, but the toony one already looks a bit less amateur than the textured one IMO.

    And yes, those are still mostly placeholder models - obviously more detail would help the textured version.
     
    Last edited: Jan 21, 2013
  16. cscotttaakan

    cscotttaakan

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    This is really cool! The shaded one a little less bold would look good! That would just mean your art would have to match as well as your particle effects.
     
  17. squared55

    squared55

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    Well, it's hard to decide without seeing environments, buts I also think the toony version looks better, and fits better with the overall style of the game, especially the:



    I spent WAY to long looking at that...



    Anyways, this game looks great! :D
     
  18. Myhijim

    Myhijim

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    I really like the look of the cartoon one.

    It's almost like borderlands, car style :p

    Great work, looks amazing
     
  19. Nition

    Nition

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    Thanks, and yeah, I agree that it fits with the slightly less than serious style of the game itself.
     
  20. laakerules

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    Combine the 2 a textured cartoon look, try and get the feel of borderlands, since this game reminds me of borderlands a lil.
     
  21. Nition

    Nition

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    I tried that and I didn't think it looked as good, but I just did it again so I could post it and actually it doesn't look bad:



    I think in the context of the game (which you don't see here) it doesn't look quite so good because the semi-realistic texturing doesn't fit with the cartoony outlines. Maybe I just need cartoony texturing...
     
  22. dtg108

    dtg108

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    I've thought about something like this for a while, can't wait to see the progress, it looks good!
     
  23. laakerules

    laakerules

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    Yeah, like on the objects and not the terrain style of texture changes, so like if theres rocks sticking up giving them the cartoony look would make the game really sick. Just my opinion though.
     
  24. Nition

    Nition

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    Here are a whole bunch of options together:

     
  25. mightymike5321

    mightymike5321

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    3 and 5 are my favorites, 3 would be my first choice
     
  26. _RC

    _RC

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    same here.
    Great game idea btw, i thought i am the only one who remembers Interstate 76.
     
  27. Nition

    Nition

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  28. zenarion

    zenarion

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    I'm going to bump your thread, and tell you that this is an awesome project.
    Good work mate.
     
  29. Nition

    Nition

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    Thanks, I appreciate it! Still working on it all the time but there's a lot to do. At some point, when I'm ready, I'll release the current vehicle creator component to you guys so you can try out making some stuff and see if you can break it. You won't be able to actually fight anything, but you'll be able to drive around the test map.

    Also, I no longer have that raycasting issue since I realised (with some help) that my problem was literally impossible to solve. :)
     
  30. Nition

    Nition

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    Hey look, engines aren't undefined cuboids anymore.



    Edit: Also:

     
    Last edited: Feb 3, 2013
  31. getafix99

    getafix99

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    i honestly think your idea and the outcome of this unique project (multiplayer,puzzle levels,racing,whatever you gonna do with it finally) can make it game of the year indie at least, one of the more creative ideas I saw for a while, this is amazing! keep up the good work!
     
  32. Nition

    Nition

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  33. The Ghost

    The Ghost

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    ^lol
    This game has tons of potential, I prefer the art style in number 1. With a bit of refining it can give off that TF2 effect. I also think the blue logo is good, but should probably be touched up by an artist. Bookmarked.
     
  34. Nition

    Nition

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    Made some generators. They're not as interesting as the engines, but they're better than basic shapes.

     
  35. Nition

    Nition

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    Better chassis and cockpit designs (yeah, they're not that much better) tie things together a bit more cleanly.


    I also made a "medium" chassis (that's the small above). Working on some weapons now. Have also been tweaking the physics but there's still a lot that needs messing with there. Plus you know, the millions of other things still to do.
     
  36. MD_Reptile

    MD_Reptile

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    This project looks cool, and physics games are always fun. Maybe get it well optimized enough to do a mobile version, could be an entertaining Android battery killer.
     
  37. listener

    listener

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    I love the idea sounds really interesting also i like the clean graphics nice progress can't wait to see more.
     
  38. carmine

    carmine

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    This looks like a ton of fun. I'm looking forward to making something entirely hideous that packs a mean punch! This is a great idea! It's almost kind of battle-bots-ish... maybe add a flipper incase you get flipped over, or even a small boost (to push you into the air), maybe a shovel part.. or spikes on the side.

    Keep us posted on this project!
     
  39. Nition

    Nition

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    At the moment the vehicle will automatically reset if it's flipped over (like, normal racing game style) but there's a bit of a delay so if someone else knocked them over then they have a chance to get a few shots in. Although having flippers would be neat, everyone should have one, so it'd just become redundant to add. You don't want to be the poor guy without a flipper who falls over going up a hill and stays upside-down for the rest of the match. I could leave in the auto-flip but make the delay longer, but that's not fun either.

    I have similar thoughts about fuel. I was thinking about having limited fuel, and you could buy extra fuel tanks. But with limited funds, you're usually going to put fuel at last priority unless I make the "on-board" fuel ridiculously low. And if you run out of fuel in the middle of a fight, sure it's fun for the other guy, but it's not fun for you. So there's unlimited fuel because I think that's more fun overall.

    However! I do definitely want to put in boosters/thrusters that you can add, which would let you flip the car back over but more specifically, would let you control your rotation/speed when in the air.

    And of course, all my preconceived ideas will probably be ruined once other people start playing the game, and they're making kamikaze fuel-tank only cars that explode on impact or something.
     
  40. Nition

    Nition

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    (click for big)​

    Also, I swear every time I have some problem with slowdown which I think is due to adding tons of objects or whatever, it just turns out that I have some rogue print statement somewhere. Gotta look at the console more often!

    Edit: Small Chassis and Medium Chassis being friends:


    Spot the problem with the medium chassis' configuration though.
     
    Last edited: Feb 13, 2013
  41. The Ghost

    The Ghost

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    That looks so cool. How far do you think you are in dev?
     
  42. Nition

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    A lot of the really big stuff is still to do. Multiplayer, some sort of updater system... the online stuff like that is the worst but there are lots of other things as well. I have to give one of those When It's Done type estimates at the moment I'm afraid.

    When I've got the vehicle building stuff working OK then I'll let you guys have a go with it, just so people can play around with making stuff (without multiplayer or a damage system etc, just an early test bed). Once I've got a minimum viable product, which requires heaps more work, then I'll do the first paid alpha release, and keep building on it from there.

    I have a specific list of stuff to do before the free "builder" release and even that's quite long unfortunately. I want to do stuff like put in a few sounds first and make a basic Scraps website. However! At least it's possible to build vehicles and they can drive around already, which is the most important thing!
     
  43. Nition

    Nition

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    Here's a new video. Still no sound or real gameplay, but it shows building a vehicle and driving it around, with all the basics working.



    I also finished making scrapsgame.com(!!), which has taken me all week. It's just a Wordpres back-end. All the latest information will be available there, but I'll keep up the posting here as well. Mostly the updates will probably be the same at both places.

    Have a couple of new screenshots too:
     
  44. scrawk

    scrawk

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    This looks great. Will be following closely.

    Ive often though about a space ship game where you can build your own ship. Will be interested about what sort of problem and limitation you encounter in Unity with this and how you solve them.

    Good work. Keep it up.
     
  45. Ethaninja

    Ethaninja

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    Well I'll be a son of a bitch! I JUST posted up my thread about a vehicular combat game, didn't even know this was here xD Haha looking great though man!
     
  46. Ethaninja

    Ethaninja

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    You have no idea how long I have been waiting for a game like this! You sir, are a champion! Although, try not to make some of the guns TOO heavy, we don't wanna have to be all symmetrical :p

    Also, just an idea, mayhaps a first person camera like Interstate '76 had? :) '82 just got too boring with the constant third person camera.
     
  47. Nition

    Nition

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    There are a few cool spaceship-building games that I know of actually.

    There's Kerbal Space Program, though I suspect you're meaning a space combat game. I've played (and bought) KSP though and it's a lot of fun.

    Gimbal is a really polished 2D space combat game. I've played the demo of this and it's also a lot of fun.

    If you're looking for something 3D, check out Kinetic Void, which is in development and was recently Greenlit on Steam.

    I also saw some other Minecraft-in-space looking 3D spaceship building game that I think was being made by one guy, but I can't find that one now.

    Ha, I probably do. I've been wanting to play this game since the nineties. I hope it can live up to what you're imagining as well.

    First-person might happen but I'm not sure it'd work too well with the aiming system. Currently there are actually two camera options - the default free-look mode (like if you play GTA IV with mouse and keyboard) and chase cam (like I76).
     
    Last edited: Mar 2, 2013
  48. Ethaninja

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    So keen man!

    Yeah no fair enough. Maybe, you can only use static guns (like the non-turret machine guns in Interstate) for the first person view or something? I dunno :p Either way, keen to play it. Last game like this that I remember playing was that Hard-Truck one or whatever it was called. Good idea, poor execution. Hopefully this kicks it in the arse. You have my full support good sir! :p
     
  49. Nition

    Nition

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    Had it so you could switch between keyboard/mouse or controller as your in-game controls. Wanted to change it so both were actually actually active at once, so you could easily switch between or use both, but was worried about the overhead of checking both inputs all the time. Actually profiled the time taken to check each one. Time is about 0.0000007 seconds. Decided that having them both enabled will not be a problem.
     
  50. trooper

    trooper

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    Very cool, those shields can be combined into 1 object but rotating the mesh based on the normal of the mesh where the pivot is.