OK, but what about combat?! What does the actual game look like? That’s what the next three screenshots are about.
TANK is using his machine gun to stop his foe. This weapon is the starting weapon. Off-screen to the top-left is a landslide — blocking the path. How will TANK get past?
One of the things I most enjoy about BOT is the way the enemies die. They explode into fiery bits. In the above screenshot, you can see the three remaining pieces of a Robo Wasp. This isn’t just for dramatic effect. There’s also some strategy to it. Each remaining bit will eventually explode, possibly releasing a gold coin. Here, TANK sent the bits flying over the edge — which means the gold coins could fall into the abyss below. In this cavernous scene, parallax scrolling is in effect for an added sense of depth.
Part of the fun of BOT is using equipment to suit your mood. Certain parts of the game do require a specific item or weapon, but it’s up to the player to select their preferred weapon. Will it be the laser… the machine gun… the fire gun… or the rocket launcher?
So, what do you think? Do you like the game? Are you looking forward to the launch? So far it’s looking like the second week of June. It depends on how much I fuss over the remaining details. The game could use some more enemies and quests.
I’m a bit surprised at how well the latest GameSalad update has been received. I’ve read lots of praise on the GameSalad forums, but there are so many issues with the latest version. In addition to the issues I’ve been experiencing with the new Game Center feature, my background images disappear. But worse than that — my project file wouldn’t even open. Double-click… nothing! How do you fix that? There’s an easy solution to this problem, but it’s not as visible as it should be on the official GameSalad forum. So, I’m posting the fix here.
Things are getting exciting. This week, GameSalad was updated to version 0.9.3. Now it support’s Game Center Leaderboards — one of Apple’s social networking features for iOS games. I’ve been testing this feature with BOT, my new science-fiction role-playing game. This project has been an extreme challenge. But overall, the results have been amazing. This could be the biggest “Photics” project in the 12+ year history of the business. The game should be ready soon, but there are still some important matters to resolve.
Oh, what’s the matter my little salad-head friend? What troubles you, my brightly-colored Mac desktop application? What’s that? The server is down? You’re unable to connect to the GameSalad server? Thousands of GameSalad developers are now unable to publish their games? That is a big problem. I can see why you’re sad. Seriously, this is why cloud computing is a bad idea. A huge community is locked out — without even the forums to fall back on. The GameSalad discussion board is down too. What’s a GameSalad developer to do?
Guild Wars 2 is one of the most beautiful video games that I’ve ever seen. Yet, I have zero desire to play it… none… zip… zilch! I’m so far away from Guild Wars right now that my main computer is a Mac. And yet, I saw something from ArenaNet that actually excited me — the Guild Wars 2 “Commando” profession. Now obviously, it’s an April Fool’s Joke. When the calendar hit 4/1/2011, I knew to limit my Internet activity. There’s just too much miss information out there. But 21 days later, I discovered ArenaNet’s little jest. The sad thing is that the joke is on ArenaNet. This is what their game should have been.