Somni's site

Couple of quick videos.

Mon, 31 May 2010 05:10:13 +0000

Just a couple of quick videos showing off some of the newer systems working. There's been a bit of progress since my last post, I would have posted videos sooner, and posted more of them but I don't always have a connection that can handle uploading the video.

Flooding
The flooding system is pretty neat, if a window is cracked to a certain point a leak will start, the water pushes in from the leak affecting any existing water it touches, eventually the water will settle if there's nothing pushing on it.

As the water fills the room it'll push anyone inside around causing damage if they hit walls and solid objects. If the water gets so deep you'll begin to drown if there is no source of oxygen avaliable.

Flashlights
A big element of the game is the lighting, so I wanted to make the flashlights interesting, it was decided early on that they would project light in front of you instead of around you, so you can only light up what's in front of you and slightly to the side of that. It has turned out pretty cool so far and I've had some pretty exciting moments during zombie mode because of it.

Don't mind the little lighting glitches here and there, those will be resolved eventually.

State of the game address.

Tue, 30 Mar 2010 09:02:25 +0000

Howdy folks, I know it's been a while since my last post on Submerged progress.

I lost my primary internet connection at home and can only access the internet through a rather weak wifi signal I'm picking up from long-range, so I haven't been able to upload any new screenshots or videos from the work I've been doing.

That coupled with various household mishaps and issues the last few months I haven't gotten as much work done as I had hoped to by this point; but work is getting done. Having to focus on other things sapped a lot of my initial motivation to work on the game but I am slowly getting it back and progress is speeding up again.

I have recently been rethinking how flood waters work, the old system was functional but I never really liked it so I've been reprogramming it using techniques I developed working on other little side-projects. I've also been revising bits and pieces of the general enemy AI system that handles the various "invader" type enemies to the station. They make for some interesting rounds.

I have most of the items Neblim showed off implemented into the game in some form or another, however not all of them have been finalized so they may or may not end up being changed as things go on.

Someone loaned me a copy of Bioshock recently, I've only played a tiny bit of it but it has given me various forms of inspiration in a few areas such as atmosphere and general feel. I was told early on in the project that Bioshock would make a good source of inspiration and it has done pretty good so far.

Not sure when a beta will be ready, but the game is pretty playable as it is now, it's just a matter of making everything usable and putting a GUI on the stuff. Aside from that the rest is mostly just content work like adding more game modes and coming up with new item ideas and whatnot.

Sorry for the delays, hope to get something for you guys as soon as I can.

Quick Submerged Video

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 20:55:48 +0000

Just a quick video of me testing the vent generation system.

Left-clicking a vent entrance on the ground enters the vent, left-clicking it in the vent exits. Right-clicking the entrance when in the vent peeks outside of the vent.

Eventually you'll need to have something in front of the entrance to climb up, and climbing down without something there stands a chance of breaking your leg.

Submerged Alpha Test comment

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 05:07:59 +0000

So Nadrew and I were playing a quick round of Submerged for an alpha test, and within 1 minute, the station starting falling apart. The typical camera movement, the lights flickered and debris fell down, consequently knocking me on my head and giving me some damage.

Nadrew and I were pushing our way out of the rubble when suddenly, it happened again leaving Nadrew and I trying to maneuver our way around the rubble until suddenly we were trapped. I suffered damage to both my arms and was not able to move them anymore, leaving me trapped. A fire then broke out and I died.

I think I traveled about 3 hallways and 2 rooms. It was exciting, suspenseful and very fun. And it was just an alpha.

Neblim has been working on the graphics for the base icon, looks a lot better now. It's all coming together!

Don't hold me to this, but we could be in closed beta by Christmas!

Feel free to add questions, comments, concerns to your comment, we love the support!

Another quick Submerged screenshot.

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:33:41 +0000

A couple of days ago I had an idea of how to make a fast efficient mini-map for the game, this is what I came up with after about 45 minutes of programming.

The yellow is the room you're currently in (and any hallways belonging to it) the white are normal floors, gray are walls.

That's a grid control, sneaky, eh?

New Submerged Progress Screenshot

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 07:07:19 +0000

Just a quick screenshot I took.

It's kind of a hybrid of old and new graphics, plus a better temporary player icon.

As you can see lighting is in to a degree, there still aren't many light sources. Currently only rooms and fire emit light but flashlights are going to be in of course (and they'll be awesome, trust me).

Submerged progress report.

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 08:24:49 +0000

Howdy howdy, this week I've been focusing on finalizing the last few bits of the map generator and getting some of the game modes functional.

I reprogrammed the way the map generator handles generating multiple levels (floors) so that it's not quite as likely for small low-room floors to be generated. It also speeds up the process a little bit. It usually takes about 50 seconds to generate a 100x100x10 map or so (between 10 and 12 floors during my tests). Each floor has about 7-15 rooms on it.

I added two new game modes in addition to the existing 'all out chaos' mode. The first one is a generic zombie survival mode, where you have to survive approximately 15 minutes as endless hordes of zombies rock their way through the station.

The second is an electrical malfunction mode that puts you on a severely messed up station with electrical errors running rampant. This means things like lighting and door/elevator access will be iffy so you'll have to get creative to reach the surface to finish the round -- and remember, water and electricity don't play together very well.

Also, on the note of lighting, I've been doing some work on the core of the lighting system as well, it's not very far along yet but it already adds an interesting atmosphere to the game. Especially during zombie mode.

As far as programming goes there's really not a ton left to do aside from general content work, and adapting existing systems to new graphics as I get them. The brunt of the work lies in things like item content and mode creation (which is very easy thanks to creative programming). Most of the core systems are pretty close to finished as far as it goes, only needing work to make sure they work properly as I implement new things.

Sorry, no video this week -- my computer has been having massive issues lately (hardware issues, yuck) so I've been trying to take it easy on it and not do anything too resource intensive. No worries though, I backup Submerged every time I make a revision to the code.

Hopefully I can finish this stuff off before I'm forced to use a computer I can't get on the internet. When I get paid I get a laptop, so it'll solve the problem.

Stay tuned for more progress reports, and keep an eye out for beta testing. Once I get a good amount of graphics it won't take me too long to have a beta ready!

Submerged early gameplay video.

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 20:25:28 +0000

I did a little gameplay video last night of one of the beta game modes called 'Into the Deep' basically the premise of the mode is that the ground under the station has started shifting causing the station to slowly shake itself apart. Your goal is to reach the surface floor of the station without dying. The round ends when all players have either died or reached the surface.

I died in my attempt, unfortunately.

Right now the mode is only partially complete, each 'rumble' of the station can cause debris to fall down onto players, cause gas leaks or even spark fires. There are other disasters for this mode planned (which will also be used in other game modes) such as flooding and electrical malfunctions.

A few things to note about the video: The quality isn't fantastic, I'm still experimenting with recording software and settings of said software. I did capture the whole game screen this time instead of just the map portion. The output control is purely debug stuff right now, none of the text (if you can actually read it) is going to exist in the actual game. The statpanel at the top right is also debug, it will be replaced with more 4.0-friendly goodness soon.

The video is a bit better if watched in HD mode, so keep that in mind. All graphics are either my half-assed attempt at something to make it playable or donated graphics slightly modified. None of the graphics will be in the actual game.

Submerged Graphics/Staff Announcement

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 22:44:38 +0000

Hello my fellow BYONDers!

We've picked up a new face here at Somni, we're working with Neblim to do the graphics for our game, Submerged.

Here's a teaser (still not finished, but getting there)

Quick Submerged screenshot.

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 21:37:39 +0000

Just been working on a few things and decided to post a screenshot. Keep in mind that these are the DEBUG graphics, meaning drawn by me, with no talent at all. Real graphics are being made, don't worry.

A few things to note about the screenshot, I was standing in a room during a 'rumble' disaster which sparked a fire and caused rubble to crash down on my head. Both causing severe damage to all areas of my body (as seen on the right). ALL of the text in that output control is debug text, notifications of damage and other events will be much prettier when more work is put into the interface.

screenshot_two.PNG