inXile and Unity Crowdsourcing Experiment for Wasteland 2

We wanted to alert you to a crowdsourcing experiment between inXile, creators of Wasteland 2, and Unity Technologies, that will put the development of the games’ assets in the hands of fans. This is an industry first of its kind.

Each week, inXile will be putting up concept art to be turned into 3D models for Wasteland 2. By opening up the creative process behind their art asset creation, inXile will be able to work with their fans to increase the overall game experience and free up their internal team to focus on elements that directly impact the gameplay of Wasteland 2. (more…)

Fail-Deadly

I came across Josh Sutphin‘s rapid-fire RTS Fail-Deadly thanks to a high-score challenge competition on Eurogamer.  As it’s a Unity game, it runs nicely in a web browser without the need to download anything.. so trying it out is a no-brainer really 😉

The game has two opposing factions at war, and you.  You’re a sly third party with secret agents hidden within both factions, and your goal is the destruction of both factions!  Every five seconds, a building or power-up appears in the build queue, for you to deploy to the map.  It then belongs to whoever’s side of the map you placed it on, and produces units for that faction, or provides a boost for them.

This turns into a balancing act, as you don’t want either side to win.. instead, you want them to keep fighting until you can force them into nuclear war, where mutual destruction is assured!  The longer you can get them to hold out, the higher your score 🙂

However, in pursuit of a very high score, I found a slight flaw.  The boosts stop coming once each faction has three of each, which makes the game easier.. and the longer you last, the less each new item matters in the balance.  I guess chasing silly high scores wasn’t quite expected! 🙂

I also had a quick look at the developer’s blog, and I found this.. a quick overview of the techniques he used in making the game.  It’s not a beginner’s tutorial.. those can actually be found on the Unity forums, but I love it when developers share info like this.. the more people learn, the more awesome games we’ll end up with 🙂

Come Home

I just played something beautiful: Come Home, an interactive and rather personal true story by independent developer Quick Fingers.

A beautiful but sad story.. I thought it was very cleverly done and the rain fits how this made me feel.

This was produced in just two weeks, using Unity as well as image stock and music.

Castle Story Devs talking Unity and Voxels

I’m watching Sauropod Studio‘s Castle Story out of interest in the game itself, but I’m also interested in the latest blog post on how they’re building it, using Unity3d.

I’ve always been interested in game design, but I’ve not studied it.. many technical explanations are inaccessible as they use terms I don’t understand, or refer to other concepts I’ve never heard of.

That’s why I was pleased to see this post, and an explanation which covered some basics.. hopefully there’ll be a few more of these too!

Man Vs Machine: Review

Man vs Machine is a browser-based FPS, designed as a world-record attempt and tech demo by MuchDifferent.

The aim is for 1000 players to simultaneously battle it out as either Man or Machine: Man is equipped with an explosive projectile dealing splash damage, whilst Machine uses piercing, precision lasers to deal damage to single targets.

First up, the main site was unable to take the strain, and had a Google redirect slapped on it.  I found a mirror; a page with unstyled CSS but most importantly, the option to get in and play.  I managed to get in (as Man) long enough to see a mass of machines under shields on the horizon..

I fired a shot or two before the connection dropped.. I got one kill, anyway.

I reconnected, and was placed on the side of the Machines where I was killed as soon as spawn-protection was over.  This happened over and over, and I don’t think I even killed a single enemy.

Man has splash damage, meaning they only needed to keep firing in the direction of the Machines to guarantee a kill, while Machines have to wait for the shield to disappear before firing, find a target and aim.. and then hope to hit something.

Machines are bunched up in groups, there is no cover, and nowhere to run out from to try and flank the humans.  I feel the Machine’s model is too large as well, as your allies all-too-effectively block your view of the enemy.  A larger map might allow players to get out and move around, and let this be a bit more fun.

Sure, this is a world-record attempt and tech demo – but this wasn’t even close to fun to play as a Machine.

Man vs. Machine

Man vs. Machine is a browser-based FPS game intended to be playable for just one day as part of a world-record attempt / demonstration of Unity and load-balancing server technology PikkoServer from Swedish non-profit organisation MuchDifferent.

The World Record attempt will be made on 29th Jan, 2012.  On that day, players pick their team: Gamers (Man) or Developers (Machines), and then play.  Man is equipped with an explosive projectile dealing splash damage, whilst Machine uses piercing, precision lasers to deal damage to single targets.

Man vs. Machine will be limited to 1000 players concurrently, with slots only becoming available if players leave the game.

More information, including technical aspects of the game, is available here.