After seeing the movie "the blob" (old version), I thought: "man, that would make a great videogame" my scenario ideas: 1) maybe you could be the blob , trying to eat and thrive in a city. Sewer lines, scyscrapers, street free-ranging... 2) you could fight the blob w/ various types of human units, industrial devices, and sewer valve controls 3) blob vs. blob among the fearful and clever humans 4) realtime 2d as a lone merc vs. the blob or as the blob vs. mercs. I want the game to be in real-time, least-commandish as possible, I don't want game-of-life type grid-graphics either. I was thinking a large amoeba that could: 1. be any size (3' to city-block size). 2. take any shape, but retain the same volume (unless it eats or starves). Therefore, it can slink through sewers. 3. the game would be best as a zoomed-out 2d-overhead view 4. have floating things in it like various organs, assorted debris, and digesting "food". Blob AI personalities I've come up with so far: 1. stupid: foraging only (ignores threats) 2. normal: foraging, path of least resistance 3. agressive: foraging, chases things (eyeballs in jell-o), path of minor resistance 4. smart: it learns How would any of you handle these details? : Blob Rendering Blob Data structure (good performance is a must) Blob Behavior modeling Blob Control scheme (should be simple but versatile) Gameplay ideas? (Don't be afraid to get detailed)

Quote:Original post by zealotgi

Quote:Original post by fuzinavl
How would any of you handle these details? :
Blob Rendering
Blob Data structure (good performance is a must)
Blob Behavior modeling
Blob Control scheme (should be simple but versatile)
(Don't be afraid to get detailed)

All require vertex shaders

No they don't. Control and behavior modelling certainly don't. And nothing really "requires" vertex shaders; it's simply a method of offloading certain CPU computations to the GPU.

There's a clear parallel to Katamari Damacy, of course.... you should consider looking at that for examples of control and gameplay. Also check out "Gish", for a slightly different approach to blobbitude.

In terms of the representation of the blob, you could do metaballs, or you could do a volume-preserving particle-spring simulation sort of thing.

For rendering, I suggest you check out articles around the web on the rendering of translucent objects, and of subsurface scattering. IIRC, the original Blob was dark red, almost opaque.

Quote:Original post by Sneftel
There's a clear parallel to Katamari Damacy, of course.... you should consider looking at that for examples of control and gameplay.

Yeah, maybe the particles get bigger if my blob evolves to gigantic proportions... to save cpu time

Liquid war has a good control scheme, but I need to keep the particles together. (unless it has enough particles to "split") Eating enough will form new particles at the center of the mass. If the mass is damaged or broken up, only groups of 5(?) or more will survive.
http://www.ufoot.org/liquidwar/

As for rendering, I'm thinking a counter-clockwise solid-filled spline-type thing. Convex hulls are easy, but I have to figure out a way to handle concave portions.