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[RELEASED] Star Wars : Commander

Discussion in 'Made With Unity' started by zombiegorilla, Aug 21, 2014.

  1. duke

    duke

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    It would be interesting (although a gamble) to see a pay model where, for example, the first 2 chapters were free, then the subsequent chapters ramp up from 50c to $3. The build times would be quicker and you could overlap battles so you're fighting while stuff is building at base. The chapters would be tied to various things so you can only upgrade buildings (and thus research/units) when you unlock certain chapters. That kind of thing would piss me off far less than cash grabs all over the place - you know exactly what you're getting and for how much.

    That said, I do like that you've gone with The Simpsons model instead of the Family Guy model, which is practically impossible to play (particularly the special events) without spending money.
     
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  2. zDemonhunter99

    zDemonhunter99

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    Any plans for porting it over to Android and WP8?

    Amazing game though. Can't seem to put it down. :D
     
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  3. zombiegorilla

    zombiegorilla

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    Indeed. It will be available on a variety of platforms. Currently is exclusive to the App store. After the exclusivity agreement finishes it will appear on other platforms. (During the geobeta it was available on both iOS and Android). Gotta love Unity for the multi-platform. In our office we have a version running HD on a big screen... it looks real pretty. ;)
    Thanks! It has few hiccups and some growing pains, but those should smooth out in the coming weeks, and we have some killer new features and content coming very soon.
     
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  4. zombiegorilla

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    I have been doing this for a while now, and after several large scale game I am happy to see that what would appear to be common sense, be proved out now. Mainly that quality games that make payment optional, will make more money and have a longer life than games that try squeeze out every dime early on.

    Sadly I have worked on games like that. In the short term, pay-walls, premium content and hard squeezes to pay can generate a TON of cash, very quickly. A couple of games ago we had one like that. We raised prices, sold exclusive content and well... just did things that I, as player, was not particularly fond of. Those things do work, but they work on a small group, and eventually drive away players. But they look great on quarterly reports, and on people's resumes. On the flipside, we have also been around long enough to have also learned the other side of that, that a good game without heavy handed pressure will eventually do better and last much longer. I have great faith in my current team, and believe they recognize that and feel the same way. An added benefit is that we can all feel proud of our work. Obviously we want to make a ton of money, but we want people to happy with their choice to pay. And by same token, the ones that choose not to pay not feel like the are second class citizens or missing out.

    Personally, I don't have a problem spending money on games like this (have already spent about $40 on Commander), as long as it my choice. If a game tries to force to me spend, or has content that I can only get through paying, that is usually when I stop. I am happy with the route we have gone with Commander.
     
  5. duke

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    Oh also that recent campaign thingy you had was too short IMO. That and there wasn't much incentive to participate - I could either keep ploughing through the chapters or divert resources to that to get a temporary currency.

    One thing that the other comparable games do for these events is to have some unlockable character or item that you get towards the end. It's useful once unlocked within the event itself, but outside of that and after it's completed, the item is basically a trophy with some ordinary function. It gives the incentive to participate to earn a unique item that may never be available again. In both Tapped Out and Family Guy, these are usually static buildings or characters. Seeing as in SW, you only see the unit in battle and don't get the opportunity to show them off in your base, i'd suggest a building or other placable item, for example a credit facility variation that does something unique for that event, but after that it's just a regular credit facility that looks different.

    As a side note, I'm in Tokyo right now and just visited a shop containing the biggest collection of SW stuff I've ever seen.
     
  6. duke

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    Ok, one more thing I swear. The AI is dumb as walnuts. My walkers go for whatever is closer, even if it's being shot at by dudes or a turret that's in range.

    Edit: it would be more forgiveable if you could nominate targets like an rts - even if it's a common target for all units.
     
    Last edited: Sep 11, 2014
  7. TheRaider

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    Yeah the AI is a bit silly at times. My pathfinders often run one way around a wall then change their mind and change their mind again. (because part of wall was destroyed)
     
  8. FuzzyQuills

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    @TheRaider, duke:
    Now that's hilarious. Almost reminds me of my own AI in a couple of projects, mainly my brawling one. (Characters landing on each other's heads and getting confused, repeated attacking, (this IS funny to watch!) etc...)

    @zombiegorilla: This is definitely looking nice! Would a Pendo Pad's specs be enough to run this on android? (Well, once the android version's out of course! :D)
    Basically, all I know about my Pendo Pad:
    • 1GHz processor (I think it's an allwinner A8 or something like that)
    • not sure how much RAM. probably about a gig or two.
    • 2GB internal space. SD card is 16GB
    • 800x480 touch screen.
    • GPU capablility: GLES 1.1/2.0 compatible (3.0's out...)
    • My racing game on Unity runs on this pad at about 60fps most of the time, unless a lot of shuriken particles are involved... :D
    • Android 4.0/4.0.3/4.1 (Not sure which, probably 4.0.3)
    This beefy enough? :p
     
  9. Left2Craft

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    I want android version :(
     
  10. FuzzyQuills

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    @Left2Craft: We all do buddy! fortunately, zombiegorilla aims to publish to android once the exclusive campaign is over.

    From the looks of QA testing, it would probably be worth the wait, as the majority of in-game bugs will (hopefully) be eliminated once the game gets to multi-platform stages.
     
  11. zombiegorilla

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    That is probably one of more polite descriptions we have got for it. ;)
    The next release will have some extensive improvements to the AI and gameplay logic. I won't say it is "fixed" because it is an ongoing process, but hopefully it will address some of the major issues. After our beta, we took feedback into consideration, and made some changes. Some of those changes didn't play well some of the other logic, and well... walls became popular targets. It's always a learning process. But improvements are just around the corner.
     
  12. zombiegorilla

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    To both of those points, I would say to consider the game hasn't even been fully live for a month yet. This is just the first campaign/event. We'll use info gained from it and tune for the next one. And we have so many cool rewards coming (our art team is pretty fantastic). I obviously can't say, but you may have noticed there are several popular elements of the SW universe not currently in the game. ;)
     
  13. zombiegorilla

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    It should be, but I'll double check.
     
  14. zombiegorilla

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    I had two AT-MPs chase after TIE fighters at one point. (on base defense).
     
  15. zombiegorilla

    zombiegorilla

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  16. zombiegorilla

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  17. VicToMeyeZR

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    Grats on the IP release. That's a huge deal with Star Wars. Since I don't do IOS, and I won't support people that only support one platform, I can't play. Sorry
     
  18. TheRaider

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    Yeah we definitely need jar jar.
     
  19. TheRaider

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    They have clearly stated it will be multi platform.....
     
  20. zombiegorilla

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    Heh... twice now I have tried to slip JarJar in. Both times my art director threatened to hurt me.
     
  21. FuzzyQuills

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    @zombiegorilla:
    REALLY?! This is sad! :( if anything, I'm one of the only JarJar fans around, (Well, apart from TheRaider. ;)) but your art director has something wrong with his sense of humor, IMO :D (If anything, he makes some parts of the movies hilarious, not bad! Especially when Qui-Gon has to grab his tongue... :))
     
  22. VicToMeyeZR

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    I read what he wrote... Doesn't change my post.
     
  23. TheRaider

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    That sounds like work place harassment. Go rouge.


    Although I was obviously playing on the dislike towards jar jar from hardcore fans, I too didn't mind Jar Jar. He added plenty of fun. I am sure lots of the haters still enjoyed watching him.

    But clearly this wasn't the character zombiegorilla is hinting at. They have a good collection already in Chewie, Han and Yoda.
     
  24. TheRaider

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    A couple of questions on development.

    Are the buildings 3D models?
    How did you do the black around the rotating coins?

    And why only empire or rebel?
     
  25. duke

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    I'll take a guess at these:

    Yes they're 3d models and 2d elements (terrain background).

    The black can be done with a shader or in your dcc. Offset triangles outwards, flip normals, apply black culled material.

    The other factions are needed for enemies, but we're talking about something just released, so maybe there will be more in the future (sail barge == at-at?).

    Oh I have a question, were you given SW lego? ;)
     
  26. TheRaider

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    I more meant why can't you have 2 games? Once android is released I will play empire there.\

    http://toucharcade.com/2014/08/27/star-wars-commander-review/ <-- review

    I actually decided to buy some crystals and now the app just won't load and hangs (it isn't the server down wait for later). It sucks pretty badly at the moment :(
     
    Last edited: Sep 13, 2014
  27. zombiegorilla

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    @duke, You are pretty close.
    Everything is 3d. Some sort of appear 2d because there are no lights used anywhere in the game.

    Yes to both. The coin/alloy is made of 3 parts a mesh that extruded via shader (and scales relative to the camera), the unlit icon, and then the shine which is animated via mechanim.
    outline.png

    Heh. We bought tons. (the UCS Star Destroyer is at the center of our art area, and in our team photos) I already had a bunch, I am huge Lego fan and proud member of BayLUG. In fact, one of my personal projects is a Lego mini version of X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter.
    LSW_bigships.png LSW_ships.png
    It was one of my first Unity projects, and I actually started it before we bought LucasFilm. It's what I work on to relax.(it currently has about 32 ships and 178 brick types).
     
  28. zombiegorilla

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    Heh... well, pretty much every mobile game only supports one game. If you really want you can delete the app and start over, but most wouldn't because you will lose all your progress and purchases. As to why you pick a side, it lets us use all the great characters and not just have it be a empire or rebel game. With an IP like this there are rules defined by the fiction, and it is part of a story. There won't be 2 Hans in a battle and Chewie won't be shooting at Leia, things like that. "Choose A Side" is part of the Star Wars branding, you will see it in most games and even toys. Epic battle of good vs. evil and all that.

    Yea, there was some hiccups with the roll out of the latest update. Part of the problem is that our update went out on the same day as preorders for the new iPhone, which meant the new version rolled out in the app store much slower than normal. It should fixed or close to fixed now (depending on where you are in the world).
    Every day is just a new adventure for us! ;)
     
  29. zombiegorilla

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    As was I. ;) To be honest, my usage of JarJar in the game was when you completed battles a huge JarJar appeared on the screen with rainbows and confetti, giving you a thumbs up saying "Yousa Win!" I did it to amuse my team, no chance of it ever going in.
    Most of us are hardcore fans, with a good chunk of us (myself included) having seen the original in the theater, first run. Not a lot of love for JarJar. But if I am being honest, like you, I really didn't mind him that much. He wasn't really any more annoying than C-3PO. (..yea, probably blasphemy, but there it is).

    Yoda!?!

    ---

    While I won't divulge what is coming (though, October will be fun), I will point out that the game does take place in a certain time and place. Somewhere after ABY-0 but before ABY-4. (Since, Han is part of the Rebellion and Vader is still alive). So you can kinda guess who you might see and who you won't. Most of the characters from the Prequels and Clone Wars are long dead by now.
     
  30. zombiegorilla

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    Also, as a note, the new version is out. It has a lot of bug fixes, chapter 9 is out, and a bit of new content, and updated art (now the shields have level art).

    @TheRaider, chap 6/6 should be doable now.

    The biggie is the updates to the AI, battle logic and tuning. It should play a lot better, and less random aggression targeted at walls.
     
  31. TheRaider

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    yes it was easy once I got 3 more tanks, did it first time. I have now 3 stared everything up to the current time barrier I am at on chapter 9.
     
  32. RoelVeldhuyzen

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    Good to see the level with the missing tanks was fixed. It's very doable to get 3 stars now.

    I noticed an issue with Chapter 8 level 8 (rebel side) though, that level won't finish, it keeps going until the time runs out and you can't get more than 2 stars. When your troops finish destroying every building on the map, they get bored and start demolishing walls until the timer runs out. The completion screen shows 100% damage, but you don't get the 3rd star.

     
    Last edited: Sep 14, 2014
  33. TheRaider

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    I was abl to finish that one, but before the update.
     
  34. TheRaider

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    There is a serious bug with pathfinder AI. If a bunch of them go near a troop carrier they will just stand there and not do anything at all. This has happened a few times to me.
     
  35. FuzzyQuills

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    @TheRaider:
    Now I wonder what your troopers were up to... :p
    Maybe they forgot what to do, so it's a matter of telling them. "Back into battle, lazy butts!" (Just Kidding!) :D

    Again, I had a similar bug with teh AI in one of my projects, only the guy would walk to a spot, then constantly move left-right-up-left-right-forever amen! :)
     
  36. TheRaider

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    Yeah cause they all form a mass on point like they are having a....

    however if I use air support to blow it up they break up and get back to work.
     
  37. FuzzyQuills

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    That'll teach them! hopefully, zombiegorilla makes them a bit more... hardworking in the next update! :p
     
  38. zombiegorilla

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    In battle, correct? Which troops? (or is it all?) I haven't seen this one, any more details would be great so I can get QA on it. Thanks!
     
  39. zombiegorilla

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    Just for the sake of clarity... I don't actually do smart, I do pretty. (I am on the art team). But I discuss this with, and get it in the correct hands of the boys and girls who do. ;)
     
  40. TheRaider

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    the name of the troop may of made that a little confusing. It is the "pathfinder" troop type only. I have it occur 3 times (when the troop carrier was their next best target). When I destroyed the trooper carrier building they returned to normal. They all move into a single point until it is destroyed.

    Yes in a battle, but not a particular one. The 3 times have all been different battles/levels.
     
  41. zombiegorilla

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    Cool, thanks! We were able to reproduce it, eng is working on fix.
     
  42. FuzzyQuills

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    @zombiegorilla:
    So i guess all the troopers ran round the back of a wall and sat there, havin' a root beer or somethin' in that test? I guess, after destroying a two-hundred ton vehicle, why not? :p (Problem is though, they're not supposed to do that... :D)

    Either way though, good to see your AI programmer was able to reproduce the, dare I say it, the laziness bug! :D
     
  43. zombiegorilla

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  44. TheRaider

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  45. zombiegorilla

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    Soon, and other events as well. Eventually there will be a regular releases. Right now we are focusing on stabilizing and bug squashing. Should be soon though.

    Also, if you are going to play a new game on the Android, make sure to not sync it to your facebook account if you did on iOS. You can only have one game synced with a single facebook account.
     
  46. Sydious

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    Super happy for the android port! Thanks devs! Looking forward to playing this!
     
  47. zombiegorilla

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    We love Android, I think more than half of our team are Android users. And many are the annoying vocal ones. ;)

    Technically speaking, it's not a port. It was built from day one for a handful of platforms, mainly iOS and Android. It's exactly the same game (a couple of minor platform specific features), when we cut a build, it spits out all the different platforms at once (and even different versions, like old iphones, odd android devices, etc.), all from one Unity project.

    My last game (Avengers Alliance) was a completely different platform (and code base) for each device, including web. Separate teams (except art), separate QA, etc... a complete nightmare (and basically took 3 times as long as it should have). There are many reasons to like Unity, but for me the nearly seamless (compared to porting) multi-platform support makes it the only choice. As developers, we simply build a game, platform deployment becomes a just a technical/pipeline process and not a production one.
     
  48. jack-sparrow

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    Game looks great - a huge congrats to you and all team, it is a success! Everybody in gaming industry is talking about it.

    a) Did you get special help from Unity - to make a game like this, I believe you had to get Unity support you, like opening codebase and making some changes?

    b) In our experience, for prototyping Unity great - though when you want to make a global free2play game , a perfect production - Unity is nightmare, especially on the polish part. And most of the problems / bugs - you can not find on forums - since forums are targeting indie community. Did you have similar problems, and was it hard also for you?
     
  49. duke

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    I was playing this out in the sun today because why look at the scenery and the GUI holds up except for red credits on a dark blue icon. Swapping out the black drop shadow with a light one mighty fix it.
     
  50. lilymontoute

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    Zombie! Didn't realize this is what your team has been working on. Big congrats on the release, the game is fantastic =)
     
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