wanna be an engineer?
Author
What do you think of the following game concept?
Since I'm close to complete my little multiyplayer game, I was thinking about programming something more physically challenging.
I can't get rid of the idea of 'building your own catapult'.
Wouldn't it be fun to construct your own type of catapult in a special menu, and then use it on the battlefield?
There have been several games which are close to this idea, but you could only assemble certain modules that the programer predicted.
Is it possible to build something unique just by using a maximum amount of wood, springs, wheels or whatever type of material?
The laws of motion would then calculate the bahaviour of the projectile or piece of rock you place on your construction.
Maybe it's just a bad idea, due to the complex physics one would probably encounter or the intense cpu load you would cause by collision detection or other neccessary calculations.
Is there an article on that that would come close to my idea?
even if you could get it to work with reliability, the majority of people who would play the game would set out to build a catapult and end up with a bookshelf.
Here's a cool online 2D erector set type of construction program (sodaconstructor). If I recall, you can build things and then apply forces to put them in motion and watch them move. It might give you some ideas, but not sure how much they go into technical details on the site.
Author
thanx, reana 1.
that got me playing for at least 30minutes:)
Well, I guess there are two questions then.
1. with acceptable time investment (since this is my hobby and not
my life) is it possible?
and
2. would it exceed the user's comprehension as dgaf thinks?
that got me playing for at least 30minutes:)
Well, I guess there are two questions then.
1. with acceptable time investment (since this is my hobby and not
my life) is it possible?
and
2. would it exceed the user's comprehension as dgaf thinks?
Look to Chronic Logic's Pontifex2 and BridgeIt! for the model of success. Pontifex and Pontifex2 were bridge building simulators. P2 was quite ugly, but a damn good game design. It won Audience Choice for IGF 2003, and I think it should have taken Innovation In Game Design, but something else beat it out. Then ChronicLogic parlayed their IGF win into some kind of publishing deal with NVIDIA and some other company. They sexed it up, providing the eye candy needed to make it commercially viable. I hope they've sold well since then.
Catapults sound like a damn fine idea to me, if you can actually make their design tractable. Play BridgeIt! to understand what 'tractable' means.
Catapults sound like a damn fine idea to me, if you can actually make their design tractable. Play BridgeIt! to understand what 'tractable' means.
The bridge thing I would "guess" could be annoying and not worth it like most games. It’s a good idea but there is always room for improvement I would guess.
The catapult game can work and I am making something like that.
Viper173 I message you with details on how to make a catapult game more plausible. Sorry that I do not post it for everyone to see.
The catapult game can work and I am making something like that.
Viper173 I message you with details on how to make a catapult game more plausible. Sorry that I do not post it for everyone to see.
Quote:Original post by Viper173
what do you mean by 'message me'? you're e-mailing me? ok.
I sent you a private message in Gamedev. Did you get it?
Author
yes Warsong I received it.
that was my idea too. construct your catapult and see how far you can shoot your projectile using the same amount of material.
that was my idea too. construct your catapult and see how far you can shoot your projectile using the same amount of material.
Author
it seems to me that the spring model 'soda constructor' uses is a pretty easy to understand approach to implement the discussed feature.
But also Bridge Constructor could base upon the same model, right?
What you have is point A and point B. the distance between them is acting like a spring, applying forces to the masses that are connected to the points when A is moving away from B. At some point
the connection breaks due to to much force as we see in Bridgeconstructor. That way you can construct 3dimensional structures that hold up on its own.
but of course only when more points are connected to point A, which makes the entire idea pretty complex. huuh, I wish there would be a tutorial on that somewhere, but I guess it's too detailed already.
But also Bridge Constructor could base upon the same model, right?
What you have is point A and point B. the distance between them is acting like a spring, applying forces to the masses that are connected to the points when A is moving away from B. At some point
the connection breaks due to to much force as we see in Bridgeconstructor. That way you can construct 3dimensional structures that hold up on its own.
but of course only when more points are connected to point A, which makes the entire idea pretty complex. huuh, I wish there would be a tutorial on that somewhere, but I guess it's too detailed already.
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