Search Unity

  1. Megacity Metro Demo now available. Download now.
    Dismiss Notice
  2. Unity support for visionOS is now available. Learn more in our blog post.
    Dismiss Notice

[WIP] - First Unity/Android Game - CataPoultry

Discussion in 'Works In Progress - Archive' started by czampese, Jul 3, 2015.

  1. czampese

    czampese

    Joined:
    Apr 20, 2015
    Posts:
    68
    Hi all,

    I have been working on this wee game for a few months now, unfortunately only in my spare time as I have a 'real' job that I have to keep going to to feed my family!

    Its still very much a work in progress, but so far I have the key elements in place, and the game is actually playable now (full UI, character selection etc).

    Lots of work to do on level design and graphics, but I think its time to put myself out there and see what people think!

    Its basically a 3D angry birds concept (like Catapult King). Storyline is that the Queen Chicken has been stolen by the farmer (probably for christmas dinner) and now you have to battle his evil minions (currently a pig and scarecrow) to get her back.

    some screenshots below, and a few videos here:
    https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZ5gmcePvVlfsurF5TugpFbV9Ulty6-Dr

    Would love to hear peoples thoughts on:
    - The genre (something people would be interested in....too similar to other games etc)
    - Ideas for gameplay
    - ideas in general

    Thanks for taking a look, and I will try and update this thread as I make progress
     

    Attached Files:

    Last edited: Jul 3, 2015
  2. czampese

    czampese

    Joined:
    Apr 20, 2015
    Posts:
    68
    Okay so I havent made much progress in the last few days, but I had to share the reason as a bit of a warning/reminder to back up your project and organise your folders in a better way.

    Yesterday I managed to delete the folder (within the Unity editor) that I keep my materials in, and I didnt have a backup of my project. I wasnt concentrating and I thought I was deleting one material, but deleted the folder instead! For the most part this wasnt too bad, as my textures were in a different folder, so I just had to recreate materials and re-apply them to all my objects...annoying, but not disastrous. Unfortunately early on I had put my UI sprite sheets in the materials folder, so I lost those completely! So, last night was spent just getting the game back to the state it was before I deleted all those assets :/

    Lesson learned - I have taken a backup of my entire project, and also moved the 'working' files for my textures and all my 3d models to a folder outside of the project, and I just save the final versions in the project itself.

    So - a timely reminder (that I am sure most of you dont need anyway) - backup your project regularly!!

    Oh, and a couple more screenshots just because:
    Selection Screen - planning on having many different characters you can choose from (Crossy Roads style). Currently no special abilities planned for these, but each has its own style and animation, so more of a 'collect them all' thing rather than a gameplay thing. All characters can be earned by completing certain levels, or in some cases by solving a 'secret' like destroying enemies in a particular order on a particular level, or hitting a certain static object etc. Characters can also be bought with in-game currency too.



    Details of the enemy pig - each enemy has various animations that will play randomly during gameplay.

     

    Attached Files:

  3. czampese

    czampese

    Joined:
    Apr 20, 2015
    Posts:
    68
    Okay not sure if this is the right forum for this, so please feel free to suggest somewhere else I can post it!

    My game has a lot of levels (looking to start with 40-50), but I am not entirely sure how to go about creating the world. So far I have decided on a single basic world (that I will probably make a persistent object), and each level will just have the catapult in a different position/different rotation. I have modeled a very basic (IE just cubes and planes) version of the world to test the theory (see below for screenshots taken with the catapult in a few different positions around the world) and it seems to be okay. Is this an acceptable way to go about this though?

    CatapultPositions.jpg

    Im also having trouble with the boundaries of the level, and what the player can see 'off the edge'. My current solution is to extend the world out and have a non-playable region where I just put static objects...hills, trees, buildings etc (The world is about 500 x 500 units, with a 'non-playable' border of about 150 units). The camera can never follow a projectile in to this area because of bounding boxes with trigger colliders - hopefully the image below will help explain. Is this a reasonable approach, or is there a better way to deal with a finite world and what the player can see in the distance?

    World.jpg

    Would love to hear peoples thoughts and suggestions on this

    Thanks

    Chris
     
    Last edited: Oct 22, 2015
  4. czampese

    czampese

    Joined:
    Apr 20, 2015
    Posts:
    68
    Okay after peoples opinions here. My main characters are basically eggs, but with legs/arms. I have been having trouble animating them the way I want (some will play guitars, do various different moves etc) so I decided to try a version with detached hands/feet instead. Screenshot of the two here:
    EggCompare.PNG
    and a quick youtube video of them in action is here:


    I would love your thoughts on the 'detached' version. I like it, but I think thats partly because its going to make my animations so much more flexible/easier!

    Thanks :)
     
    Last edited: Oct 22, 2015
  5. czampese

    czampese

    Joined:
    Apr 20, 2015
    Posts:
    68
    Quick update - the project is still going...slowly...I think I have all the coding sorted so the game plays the way I want, now I am just trying to develop enough assets to put together an initial working demo. Quick screenshot of a few of the 'egg' characters I am going to include (NOTE: screenshot is from the scene view, text added post-screenshot)
    EggCharacters.jpg
     
    Last edited: Oct 22, 2015
  6. czampese

    czampese

    Joined:
    Apr 20, 2015
    Posts:
    68
    I decided that the 'Eggs' needed more variation in shell colour/design. Most of the colours and details are WIP still - just proving to myself that I can create the variations I want first. This is my first real go at textures/3D art so still testing the waters!

    eggs.jpg
     
    Last edited: Oct 22, 2015
  7. czampese

    czampese

    Joined:
    Apr 20, 2015
    Posts:
    68
    A few more characters added. Getting close (thats part-time-dev close, so anything from a few weeks to another couple of months!) to getting a working demo up and running.
    eggs.jpg

    Quick video of them rotating here:
     
    Last edited: Oct 22, 2015
  8. czampese

    czampese

    Joined:
    Apr 20, 2015
    Posts:
    68
    Another small update...slowly crossing things off the list!

    Individual character animations done - these will be used in the selection screen. As each character is shown on the selection screen its animation will play.

     
  9. czampese

    czampese

    Joined:
    Apr 20, 2015
    Posts:
    68
    Would love some feedback as the game is getting closer to being ready. Quick video below showing characters in the selection screen, and a couple of shots to destroy the enemies. Also shows the ability to move the catapult left-right and up and down.

     
  10. KingArri

    KingArri

    Joined:
    Jul 2, 2015
    Posts:
    3
    im interested in your game art how did you make it, i have WIP the skeleton of the game is done but i can not post it to any market because it doesnt have proper characters, or levels :'(
     
  11. czampese

    czampese

    Joined:
    Apr 20, 2015
    Posts:
    68
    Hi kingarri,
    This game was my first intro to creating 3d game assets so i might not be the best person to ask!
    I used Blender for all my asset creation including modelling and animations. I used photoshop for the textures. It was a lot of youtube tutorials and trial and error. I think the current 'egg' character is about the 8th version. I scrapped the others because they didnt look right, were too high poly, didnt animate well etc.

    Having a firm concept in mind (the egg with wings and feet) helped a lot as it gave me a focus for my learning
     
  12. czampese

    czampese

    Joined:
    Apr 20, 2015
    Posts:
    68
    Getting closer and closer to a release now. Would love to hear anyone's opinion, or to be honest, just get any words of encouragement that might help me push past the last couple of hurdles to actually complete this game!

    Here is a quick rundown of what I have so far, and what I need/want before I go live.

    What I have:
    - full in game functionality sorted - the catapult works just as I want it, fires well, breaks blocks, kills enemies, gives the player points etc. actual gameplay is pretty much sorted.
    - Character selection including ability to unlock or purchase new characters
    - level selection
    - 'special' bullets that you can purchase during gameplay that will assist in completing levels
    - functional store where you can use real money to buy in-game currency
    - 'look around' mode giving the player limited scope to look around the level...move camera any direction, rotate camera and zoom in and out.
    - 'points' system that rewards player for completing level, and also gives extra credit for a few simple extras. completion of levels gives player in game currency that they can use to purchase characters/special bullets
    - several areas where levels can be based, giving me the groundwork to build the first set of (hopefully 40-50) levels.

    What need/want to add and or fix:
    - Sound
    - Ads
    - add other non-critical assets (trees, shrubs, fences, barrels, rocks etc) to fill the levels.
    - quite a bit of work still to do on textures...lots of 'placeholder' textures being used currently

    Some images below:

    SELECTION SCREEN

    SelectionScreen.jpg

    In Game / Menu screen

    InGameandMenu.jpg
    Store
    store.jpg
    Special bullets
    specials.jpg
    Areas
    TheAreas.jpg
     
  13. czampese

    czampese

    Joined:
    Apr 20, 2015
    Posts:
    68
    Okay - I have built a playable web demo. Its missing a few things, and there is obviously a lot still to be done (particularly with textures), but gives an idea of gameplay. Unfortunately all the purchasing ability is android specific so none of that is working in the demo. I really just made it to send to a few friends to get a first impression.

    Some things to note:
    level 2 and 3 are the same, but just with the catapult in a different location. Level 2 and 3 also have 3 of the 'special' bullets pre-loaded (because you cant purchase them in this demo).
    I probably need to add some screen tips to the early levels, but the basics are click and drag to pull back and aim, release to fire. There are levers either side of the catapult that can be used to adjust the catapult up and down as well

    Usual caveats with a web demo - requires the unity webplayer plugin and only runs in IE (I think).

    If you do try it out then I would love any feedback - I have a bunch of changes in mind that need to be done pre-release, but I would love to know what other users opinions are. Think you should be able to play the demo here:

    https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/61979030/CatapoultryWeb/Web.html
     
  14. czampese

    czampese

    Joined:
    Apr 20, 2015
    Posts:
    68
    Slowly building up the finished assets - several variations of the 'blocks', a wee brick wall, some small bushes - they are a bit of an experiment as they are just planes with a cutout material applied, not something I have used before.

    I really feel like this is starting to come together, just have to remind myself to just keep pushing!

    newAssets.JPG
     
  15. czampese

    czampese

    Joined:
    Apr 20, 2015
    Posts:
    68
    Really starting to enjoy texturing items and building up the scene - its nice to see the difference between 'placeholder' textures and the potential in-game version. I thought this part of the process would be the most difficult/frustrating for me (I havent designed 3D assets before, and Im no artist either!), but so far I am quite enjoying it. Maybe its because the effort put in gives a pretty instant reward

    house.jpg

    For those interested, the house has 166 verts / 298 tris and uses a 512 x 512 texture (shared with the little wall in front of it). Not really sure how much a mobile game can take with textures/verts etc, but so far this one is running smooth on my galaxy s4
     
  16. Aiden M

    Aiden M

    Joined:
    Sep 23, 2015
    Posts:
    1
    Hello czampese,

    I just played through the demo and it is quite a fun and simple game. I read through some of the above posts quickly and here is some feedback I have for you:

    The only bug I noticed in that game is that there is a slight flicker were two cylindrical meshes are intersecting each-other on the bottom of the catapult. Not a big deal but should probably be fixed before release.

    Without having tested this at all on a phone, it seems like an option to use the phones tilt to control the angle and pitch of the catapult could be a nice feature.

    I feel that the world needs some more decoration. Flowers, different types of trees, windmill on a hill are what first comes to my mind. Also possibly some kind of blur/fog could work to blend out the background.

    If you are planning to build many levels you may want to consider building some type of level editor/tools to speed up the process. I would also love to see a built-in level editor.

    This is a fantastic game and I would be happy to help with further testing. If you need me to test future builds feel free to send me a private message to let me know.

    Thanks,
    Aiden

    EDIT: Also wanted to let you know that it will run and Firefox and most other browsers, just not Chrome.
     
    Last edited: Sep 23, 2015
    czampese likes this.
  17. czampese

    czampese

    Joined:
    Apr 20, 2015
    Posts:
    68
    Hi Aiden,

    Thanks for taking the time to test the game, and to offer such good feedback. Firstly I am glad you enjoyed the game.

    Thanks for noting that slight bug, one i hadn't noticed so i will fix that pre-release.

    I did consider using tilt as a control method, and having someone else suggest it does reinforce it as an idea, maybe as an option that can be turned on/off

    I agree, lots more decoration needed in each scene -something up on the hill is a good idea too. I had thought about fog or some sort of blur, but to be honest i am so new to unity/game dev that i haven't learned how to do it yet. I think it would improve them look though so it's on my pre-release list.

    A level editor may become a requirement i think, i hope to have a lot of levels in the final build!

    An in game level editor was on my initial brainstorming list, but i culled it to keep the project in a somewhat realistic scope! I may look at it as a post-release update if the game gains any success.

    Thanks again for your positive feedback, it gave me a bit of a boost to be honest. I will be sure to let you know when i have the next beta version ready for testing

    Thanks

    Chris
     
  18. czampese

    czampese

    Joined:
    Apr 20, 2015
    Posts:
    68
    A few new characters - only models created, working on their individual animations now. This brings the total to 18...still lots more to go!

    newCharacters.jpg

     
  19. czampese

    czampese

    Joined:
    Apr 20, 2015
    Posts:
    68
    First 20 characters - which is your favourite?



    Oh and a little dev note - ironing out some small issues, but release date for a test version (full functioning, but only a few levels) should be pretty soon
     
  20. czampese

    czampese

    Joined:
    Apr 20, 2015
    Posts:
    68
    Time for a quick update. I have been working on getting my 'enemies' a bit more efficient. I found once I had 5 or 6 enemies on screen the framerate would drop significantly, to the point that it was unusable. I need to have between 10-15 enemies on screen in some levels, so I went about learning what might be causing the issue.

    Firstly, I simplified the meshes as much as I could, removing some vertices that were not necessary, and in some cases redesigning parts of the character completely to cut back on verts. I also reduced the size of the texture both enemies share. (I just literally halved the size of it from 2048 to 1024 - made very little difference to the quality). That gave me slight improvement, but still not enough.

    Next I looked at my rig - I had used rigify in Blender to create my rig and my animations. I wondered if it was just too many bones, so I did some tests with just a single bone, and that seemed to make the most difference.

    So as a solution (that so far seems to be working) I created a very simple rig (14 bones) for each character. I have thrown in some very poor animations as a test, and it appears to be working okay. I can have 20 enemies in my scene now and the framerate on my Galaxy S4 sits around 30-35fps, and feels fine to play.

    If anyone has any suggestions on ways to optimise animations then I would love to hear from you!

    Chris Z

    Enemies.JPG
     
  21. czampese

    czampese

    Joined:
    Apr 20, 2015
    Posts:
    68
    This weeks effort has been on the environment in general. I have discovered I am hopeless at this, so it has been slow, painful progress.

    Apart from the graphics/layout side of things, I have also been experimenting with ways to build the environment. Basically the whole game will take place within one small-ish world. I have been playing around with unity terrain or a mesh made in blender for the ground, unity trees/details or 3d Objects for trees/grass etc and looking at the 'look' and the performance advantages and disadvantages of each. Currently I think I will be using Unity terrain for the ground, and 3d meshes for trees/grass/rocks etc. From the testing I have done it looks like I can get enough detail in to my scene this way without sacrificing the quality too much.

    Screenshot below is really just me testing what sort of limits I am dealing with. Placement of any of the assets has not been thought out at all!

    terrain_trees.jpg

    Quick video as well:
     
    Last edited: Oct 12, 2015
  22. czampese

    czampese

    Joined:
    Apr 20, 2015
    Posts:
    68
    Alright - complete rethink (again) of how I am going to construct my levels. I have discarded using terrain, and gone for a simpler style, and just some modules that I can put together however I want. Still LOTS to do as far as placement of the modules and all the extras (trees, rocks etc), but I think I am getting close to the style I want to run with for the final product. Some screenshots, and also a video of me playing the game on my phone, which shows the touch control, as well as the 'look around/zoom in' feature. NOTE: music in the video is post production, not in game

    Feel free to leave feedback! - Thanks

    style.jpg

     
  23. czampese

    czampese

    Joined:
    Apr 20, 2015
    Posts:
    68
    Now that I have the art style/framerate pretty sorted I am starting to mess around with what sort of world I can create. Today I have been playing with tunnels and more ramps.

    Still performing pretty well on my Galaxy S4...getting above 40fps most of the time, and it feels nice and smooth

    tunnels_ramps.jpg

     
  24. czampese

    czampese

    Joined:
    Apr 20, 2015
    Posts:
    68
    Juts a few screenshots of my 'World'. I think this is the final style that I am aiming for, so getting close to having the world complete, which is one more thing in a long list that I can cross off!

    With the size of the characters I think I can easily get 100+ levels out of this world without things getting too repetitive.

    Moutains/hills/river/lake/basic ground blocks are all in place - other decorations (rocks/trees etc) are not in their permanent places yet, and will probably be adjusted per level to keep frame rate acceptable.

    World1.JPG
    World3.JPG
    World5.JPG
    World6.JPG
     
  25. czampese

    czampese

    Joined:
    Apr 20, 2015
    Posts:
    68
    Starting to get in to some of the smaller details now. Spent the morning playing around with the camera script when a 'Special' egg is used

     
  26. czampese

    czampese

    Joined:
    Apr 20, 2015
    Posts:
    68
    improved on the character selection screen. Characters 'snap' to the centre of the screen much better, and stay there longer as you swipe left or right, which makes it easier to select the character you want, and also makes it 'feel' a whole lot better. Im pretty happy with this update because I have been unhappy with the selection screen for a while, but couldnt quite get my head around how to fix it!

    The selection just uses unity physics (rigidbody.addforce, forcemode.impluse) and the force is multiplied by the speed of the swipe, so the faster you swipe the more characters it skips through (not very relevant at the moment with only the 3 test characters, but will be more useful/clearer once I add more characters)

     
  27. czampese

    czampese

    Joined:
    Apr 20, 2015
    Posts:
    68
    Having finally decided on an art style for the game, i have adjusted my characters to suit. Slightly 'blockier' and I have exaggerated (or should that be Eggs-agerrated) their accessories a bit more too.

    I have also put together a first real test level...once I have 10 or so test levels that highlight some of the various gameplay options that will arise throughout the game (big boulders that you can release, different strength block, different characters that have special abillities, 'Special' Eggs etc) then I will be at very beta testing stage! Yay!

    eggstreme.JPG eggspert_notpurchased.JPG TestLevel1.JPG

     
    Last edited: Oct 22, 2015
  28. czampese

    czampese

    Joined:
    Apr 20, 2015
    Posts:
    68
    Hi all,

    Any thoughts on adding fog to a mobile game? I think my game needs it just for the look of it, but turning fog on seems to kill my framerate.

    I have been playing around with just having a couple of large circular meshes with a transparent gradient material on them, and that seems to be working okay for my game, but I wonder if anyone has a better idea?
    Screenshot of my scene view that night help clarify what I mean:

    Fog_sceneView.jpg

    Also, any opinions on the level of fog/colour of the fog? Here is what I have tried so far (Im leaning toward the last one)
    Fog.jpg
     
  29. czampese

    czampese

    Joined:
    Apr 20, 2015
    Posts:
    68
    Some more progress. I was really struggling with gettting the framerate down on slightly older devices (using a Galaxy Tab 2 running android 4.1.2 as a test device). I have optimised my meshes, reduced texture sizes (in fact got most of the environment, characters and enemies down to two 256x256 texture atlases) and a bunch of other things, but was still getting around 12fps. Turns out it was the new Unity shader that was causing the problem. I switched all my materials to mobile-diffuse, and suddenly I am getting 30-40fps! Will mean a little rework with the lighting, but very pleased to have solved that wee issue
     
  30. czampese

    czampese

    Joined:
    Apr 20, 2015
    Posts:
    68
    I have also uploaded a sketchfab model of the world of Catapoultry.
    Essentially this is where all the levels will be created. I have included several instances of the catapult, and a few of the player characters (in the farm area) so you can get a sense of scale.
    I still need to add a bunch of trees (the hills behind the farm have trees set up with the density I am aiming for, just need to do the other hills the same. I also want to change the castle model completely, but this gives you the general idea. Also, the water in the game is a transparent blue, but this didnt come through to the uploaded version

    https://skfb.ly/HWCW
     
  31. czampese

    czampese

    Joined:
    Apr 20, 2015
    Posts:
    68
    Getting close to testing phase - here is a short video of a first test level with full environment/props etc. Getting good framerates on my TAB 2 as well, sitting around 40-55fps, and around 50-60fps on my galaxy S4 so I am pretty happy with that!

     
  32. czampese

    czampese

    Joined:
    Apr 20, 2015
    Posts:
    68
    righto, I have improved framerate a lot so I went back and did a bit of a stress test with the old version of my enemies (the pig and the scarecrow). They are higher poly, bigger texture and much more complex rig, but I was able to put about 30 of them in a scene before it really started causing issues. I am thinking about going back to these versions, but Im not sure if they fit the style of the game now. The rest of the game has a real low-poly look, but I still think that maybe the 'better' versions of the enemies will suit best. Thoughts anyone? Should I use the refined version, or the blocky version of my enemies?
    EnemyCompare.jpg
     
  33. czampese

    czampese

    Joined:
    Apr 20, 2015
    Posts:
    68
    Still working on this. Tidying up lots of little things in preparation for a test release. Latest thing is that I have added sounds. I need to sort out the points system a little so that it remembers how much in game currency you have, and then its just putting levels together (the 5 test ones I have took me about 10 minutes each, so I am hoping 'real' levels will be around half an hour each) for the test. Going to go with about 20 levels for the test, with 20 characters as well.

    Latest short demo is here:

     
  34. czampese

    czampese

    Joined:
    Apr 20, 2015
    Posts:
    68
    So work has continued on Catapoultry, and i now have an alpha test on the play store. Would love people to test it and let me know what you think/if it even runs on your device.

    Alpha test can be downloaded here:
    https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.BONC2_GAMES.Cata_Poultry

    15 levels and then there is a link to a brief survey about what you thought of the game.

    Would love to hear if anyone tests it and what your experience is like
     
  35. czampese

    czampese

    Joined:
    Apr 20, 2015
    Posts:
    68
    Okay, so progress stopped for a while because I moved countries and my job is a bit more demanding, but I am getting back in to things again now. Been mucking around with some new levels, and also a bit of lighting/rain/burning torches 1.png