Bgmc 10 | WALL-E

I think this time I can find some time to join the challenge.

I selected the thopic:
[INDENT]WALL-E
http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110414080436/pixar/images/thumb/7/70/Wall_e_ver2.jpg/125px-Wall_e_ver2.jpg
[/INDENT]
I can’t remember to much of the movie and I do not have it ready for watching. I do not even know the existing game. But for this short time we do not need big stories or complex game play.

In Germany the movie was advertised as:
[INDENT] “Der letzte räumt die Erde auf”[/INDENT]
[INDENT]The last one cleans up Earth[/INDENT]

So lets do that. Grab your remote control and let WALL-E clean up Earth - at least a small bit of it :D.

Idea:

  • The player controls WALL-E (no he is not the one from the movie, there are more of them running around :wink: all called WALL-E)
  • collect trash from the surrounding (collect cleaning points)
  • compress the trash to blocks
  • put the blocks into giant towers

Extras:

  • solve logical riddles (to overcome obstacles)
  • ensure he survives
  • collect spare parts
  • upgrade your WALL-E
  • repair your WALL-E

I think two or three levels should be enough.

Current State:
[INDENT]in work[/INDENT]

I like the idea, good luck :slight_smile:

First prototype:


WALLY is pretty simple to model as he is basicly a cube. I will ad details later. This dummy is able to move around according to the users input.

The user can controll WALL-Es left and right chain. This makes it a bit tricky as you need to press two keys for making him move forward :D.

On user input he can collect objects in range (blue area) until his storage is full. Currently he suddenly “grabs” all the objects (animation needs to be added … after he gets some arms). I plan to make him grab slower like one thing after the other.


Now WALL-E can collect as many trash as he needs to press a block.
He will not collect trash that does not fit into his remaining storage.

next task: Unload a block.

@carlo697: Thanks :slight_smile:


WALL-E can now create a block and release it on User action. But I’m not happy with the current logic as it needs a few inter-object connections. I will redesign it to use messages. WALL-E should drive backward to unload the block rather than to spit the block.

The block will be a dynamic quader after unload.

Next things:
WALL-E still collects trash while driving. I think driving should be disabled when collecting (his chest is open while doing this) - Fixed
Animation + driving + unload animation all in one sequence.

Then can think about creating a first playground. A real level needs a goal with goal validation.

Very cool.

Damn hell, now I have a lot of ideas to enhance the gameplay. I do not think I will even add a fraction of it. But I just want to write them down.

Scanning
WALL-E gets a scanner to search through the trash before collecting. This should allow him to selective pick up things. For more complexity he can update his scanner to look for

  • spare parts (for repair and upgrade)
  • manuals (for upgrades)
  • special objects
  • specific material (to create blocks of one material => valuable blocks)

Picking
Like the WALL-E from movie he can pick things out of the trash (via user action) and store it separately (inventory).
Dependent on the scanner WALL-E can filter when collecting trash. This allows to create more valuable blocks. E.g. woodblocks, plastic blocks, steal blocks, copper blocks --> Recylcing.

Home
As far as I know WALL-E lives in a WALL-E transport vehicle. This can be his home base witch can act as a main menu (for upgrades, storage, reload etc.

Energy
Even if WALL-E is solar powered, he can’t collect enough energy while working. So he has an energy limit.
Upgrades like energy blocks, batteries, power supplies could help him.

NPCs
There could be other WALL-Es or even WALL-As. They could be part of a story line with complete different behavior. I can think of they get a complete different personality. Imagine a WALL-E was watching chainsaw masker :wink: so no dancing ;).


to be continued

Excellent idea! I thought of making a WALL-E type game awhile back but my skills in the game engine were at best mediocre. Its great to see a breakdown of a game being produced solely with the BGE :slight_smile: Thanks! look forward to seeing more as you progress.

Great idea and Enhancement proposals(I would rather loved to see complete game then any of those, add home if u do).

I really love the movie! And would love to see a game made by you!
You’ve got my eye on you! Keep it up professor!

WALL-E gave me more headache than I thought. I got rid of the interobject connections. This added some more logic. Which is not that bad.

WALL-E can now compress the collected trash to blocks and unload it while driving backwards.

I think I need to add arms now to allow him to grab existing blocks and carry them around rather than playing sokoban ;).

I can’t spend to much on this as time is running out.

ToDos:

  • level(s)
  • level goal
  • full textured presentation mesh for WALL-E
  • WALL-E animations?
  • GUI with status of WALL-E
  • Sounds??
  • Introsequence
  • a lot of garbage models
  • ability to grab blocks

Edit:
done - birds view player camera established

Wow, I go offline for a day and when I get back Monster is making a game. Good choice, the movie was great. Good luck !

Short update:

Wall-E didn’t want to grab the compressed blocks of trash. I think he wated to play ping-pong with himself, which resulted in some jiggling blocks. Anyway now he can grab the blocks and carry them around.

The first step in the GUI is done: a valueBar that shows how full wall-e is. This was pretty easy. I didn’t even need to look at the BGE Guide to Messages. Seems I still know how it works :smiley:

I didn’t get a chance to start my own entry for this contest, so if you want me to make a couple of models for you, just list what you want.
(I am not asking for any share in the prize, I just want to model something!)

It seems there is a lot of expection. I do not think I can met that. But I’m sure it will be a playable game. At least the prototype level is working.

Update:

  • The different parts of the game are in separate files right now.
    — unfortunatelly WALL-E itself can be separated as he uses rigidbody joints which are not established on group instantiation
  • A goal is added, which measures if wally comes to a certain distance.
  • a few new trash types are added.
  • WALL-E can fill a trench to cross it.

update:

  • Wall-E has a head now :slight_smile: - unfortunately the head animation disturbes the hand animation … welcome to the ActionActuator bugs :no:
  • the project is now placed in an SVN repository.

sdfgeoff jumped in to help on modelling. This is pretty good as the time is running out.

Update:

  • Geoff:
    –> added some textures to WALL-E so he looks more like the original now :).
    –> added new textures to the trash.

  • Monster:
    –> Added chans animated with UV scrolling. Looks cool but currently it is a test-map
    –> Wall-E has less chances to fly away when grabbing objects. It is still not perfect, but ok for now.

ì´m looking Forward to it, beacause i see your Tutorials, but no game from you. ( zu Deutsch da ich ja in Blendpolis und auch hier seh wie du den Leuten immer hilfst bin ich echt gespannt was dabei raus kommt, da ich noch kein Game von dir gesehn hab ) Good Luck

The game is finished. You can find it in theFinished Games Forum.

After exceeding the size limit for one post, I decide not to torture anyone with a long wall of text. So here is my project review in short phrases:

  • Geoff as team member helped to keep motivation up - thanks for that :slight_smile: and thanks for your Modelling/Texturing work!

  • The movie selection was pretty easy after letting the ideas slowly flow through my brain for a day ;). Luckily Josip already posted a lot of movies, so I was able to avoid the “blank paper syndrome” :spin:

  • The ideas for the game flow came pretty fast too and quickly made clear only a fraction of the ideas can be achieved

  • A working prototype (as single file) was very good as proof-of-concept and development start

  • After a short period of trial and error a pretty good physics model came out

  • Unexpected physics behavior/interference consumed a lot of time finding an acceptable solution even in later stages of the project

  • Some bugs in Blender caused additional work:
    – missing rigid body constraints in group instances (solved with Python code - this was hard as it is nearly undocumented)
    – the still defective ActionActuator (solved with property mode [playing animations is basic and should not need coding at all])
    – a suddenly corrupted FontObject made the BGE crash shortly before publishing the game(solved by converting to mesh)

  • GUI development was very smooth (thanks to previous experience) -> If you want to participate check the BGE Guides to Messages in my signature - it describe the used implementation
  • The early design decision to use messages for communication payed off at later stages of this project (this can be a drawback in other projects)
  • A single file is not a good place to work in team as this creates sharing conflicts
  • The creation of a working folder structure with linked groups was pretty easy and fast
  • Placing components into separate files enabled us to benefit from versioning systems and it is essential for teamwork
  • A proper naming convention helped to identify the right objects, especially when the number of elements is growing.
  • Separation of components avoided the need to use copies of something.
  • Creating a level needed more time than it was planed
  • Using instances of linked groups allowed a very fast level creation except:
  • Creating of the terrain model took most of thelevel creation time.
  • There was not enough time left for testing the level
  • I Knew that I would have enough available time before I joined the contest (There is a live beside BGMC :wink: )
  • Visits from the family over the weekend took away a lot of time :o

  • Last minute changes (especially experimental once) can waste a lot of time (with a versioning system you can compensate failed experiments)

  • There was no time left to test on other hardware (luckily it was fine at later tests)

  • still no experience with music/sound

Recommendation:
=> Avoid everything where you are not sure you or a team member can achieve it in the time you have.
=> Consider all parts of the development process (including concept, manual, distribution and presentation)
=> Focus on the goal = a playable game. It should be playable after 50% of the time. So you can meet your main goal.

Just some thoughts

Thanks for taking the time to write that post, its incredibly insightful and useful.

Okay, so I’ve played the game for a while now and have some things I would like to say.

Pros:

  • I loved the concept of gathering things from the environment and building a bridge to the goal.
  • The game ran very fast on my machine(which is always a good thing).
  • The art is very good, especially WALL-E, when he looks up and around I connect with him as the character from the movie(big plus).
  • I liked that you could look around with the mouse so that you could see all of WALL-E.
  • The physics in the world are good, to a point.

Cons:

-There is a huge design flaw that I don’t know how you overlooked, but it basically allows the player to go to the goal without first doing any tasks. Being a person who has played a lot of games, I found this loophole the first time I played, and it kind of ruined the whole experience of getting to the goal, i.e., no invisible walls.
-The movement controls for WALL-E were a little too complicated for me. I’ve gotten more used to them, but I still think they could be more intuitive.
-Even though I’ve gotten to the goal multiple times, it has never been from building the with the blocks. I always get thrown to the other side of the level by picking up the blocks. I know that the physics works better when you stay still and grab the blocks, but sometimes that interaction throws me to the other side anyway.
-The biggest problem I had with the game was that there was no sound whatsoever. If there was a nice positive sounding chime whenever WALL-E produced a block of garbage it would really keep my moral up, allowing me to have a more positive experience building the bridge. But without any sound at all the world feels lifeless, and boring.

Please don’t take any of these critiques personally. I know as well as you that there was a very limited time frame to complete our games.
Overall I really like the concept and the graphics, but the physics need work. I give you three thumbs up(that’s good!):slight_smile:

Thanks for the feedback. No I do not take it personal. It confirms a lot of m own critique points and adds new issues I haven’t seen.

I feared that players try to go to the goal without the need to pick up trash first. The water was one of last minute experienced that does not work that well. Invisible walls … a good idea I wonder why I haven’t thought about it :eek:…

Yes I miss the sound too. This is my weakness. I think with the next game I will try to team up with someone who can do this (and has a large library of sounds ;))… or even better I improve on sound skills :D.

The controls are explicit designed that way. The idea is that the player should get the feeling that he can control only a subset of WALL-E’s component. So a player needs to keep in mind that WALL-E will not just drive into the direction the Player points to. It makes just his chains move. It is a part of the experience to get the right feeling (two big joysticks left and right of the user would be perfect input :evilgrin:…)

Thrown to the other side … hmmm … this sounds strange. I think the test phase were way to short. This confirms what I wrote earlier … have a running version after half of the time … so you can find and fix more bugs and to adjust the levels.