BGMC15 | Planet Smasher


I managed to finish at 12 minutes to midnight on day 7! It’s nowhere near as finished as I’d like, but there’s 2 fully playable levels, and most things should work as expected (well, at least I hope so). I’ve not play tested it much, so the game probably has some balance issues. Still, hope you all enjoy.

.blend version:

Initial submission: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ybu9hwxokaq705s/Planet%20Smasher.rar?dl=0

bug fixed version: https://www.dropbox.com/s/9ph48qqq1pbixlm/Planet%20Smasher%20blend%20bug%20fix.rar?dl=0

Here’s the Windows .exe (I couldn’t get it to build in full screen):

Initial submission: https://www.dropbox.com/s/8m778ab39zzyh1i/Planet%20Smasher%20windows%20exe.rar?dl=0

bug fix version: https://www.dropbox.com/s/habtezlq4skmobe/Planet%20Smasher%20window%20exe%20bug%20fix.rar?dl=0

Tasting notes

When playing both the .blend or the .exe please make sure that you extract the .rar first. The font, assets and textures folder need to be in the same place as the .blend or .exe. If you’re using the .blend version it was created with Blender 2.73a, I don’t know how it will work with other versions. Let me know if it does!

Story:
You control a remote controlled mining bot sent to Mars to gather resources. While digging you unearth an alien cyborg race that, angered by your intrusion, plan to invade Earth. It is up to you pick your mining tools and destroy the alien threat before it’s too late.

Let me know if you spot any bugs/major issues and I’ll try and fix them over the next day or two. I’m unable to do .exe builds for other OS’ if someone would like to do a mac or linux .exe I’d really appreciate it…

Big thanks to all those who gave feedback and support development over the past week. Good luck to all entrants!

Edit: updated post with screen shot and link with updated game to include credits, updated again to include the bug fix versions.

I like the set up of robot… Very nice setup. Maybe a bit too weak graphics, but that means nothing if it has perfect FPS, nice content and understandable gameplay;)

Thanks for your feedback! I know, I’m not much of a modeller or artist, still good to know it runs well.

Played it a little bit. Found the loadout confusing, and it is easy to give your mech a broken loadout ie. not having the jump jets makes most of the level inaccessable, and it’s possible set yourself up with no weapons. There are too many options, and it’s hard to tell what you need to bring into the level with you. This would have been better with hard-coded equipment types, while giving the player a smaller number of options in each category (choose one primary weapon/secondary weapon, support equipment, movment equipment), or give us the option to change the loadout in-game (I saw you doing this in the WIP videos!)

I could not figure out what the Minerals were for (I was assuming they were for buying/changing your equipment?)

Models looked great, and the movement felt responsive and smooth (if a bit slow). Good use of color/texture; it was easy to see everything, and nothing seemed under/over-developed or too busy or dull-looking. Again, the menu and UI are well-made and easy on the eyes.

Thanks for your feedback Nines. I plan to work on it some more after the contest, so it’s much appreciated.

Agreed, it’s too easy to give yourself a broken loadout. It’s possible to play it without any movement powerups (there are different routes through the level), but is next to impossible without weapons. Limiting selection is a good idea. Perhaps some explanation, or a map of each level beforehand to help the player choose? Pressing esc allows you to reset the level and change the loadout.

Yeah, minerals do nothing! Was meant to have some sort of scoring system, or unlocking new loadouts, or extra slots.

Managed to get a windows .exe working for those that couldn’t play the .blend version. Would someone be able to make .exe’s for other platforms?

Everything looks great, but When I reached the second level the bullets didn’t disappear, little yellow dots appeared everywhere I shot, and it started draining on the fps, but overall I liked the theme of the game and the gameplay, and I enjoyed playing it.

This has quite a lot of impressive customization, I like how the credits are also opened in the web browser. I tried the .blend but everything was pink. Not sure if this was intended or not, but it was fun never the less. The explosions look cool but I think the camera shake is a bit excessive at times.

Thanks everyone for playing and your feedback!

@fredstash: thanks for bringing that bug to my attention, I’ve fixed it and updated the top post with the new versions

@Thatimster: I’m going to continue developing this game as it’s not far from finished, so I’ll tone down the camera shake, but since it’s not a bug fix I’ve kept it as it is for my entry version. Everything was meant to be textured, but the textures aren’t packed due to most things being linked in. Was that the .blend or .exe? Did you extract the .rar? If you just run the .blend or .exe from inside the .rar it doesn’t load the textures. The Textures, Fonts and Assets folder all need to be in the same place as the .blend or .exe. Could you check that out for me please? If it’s not related to how the game is run I might have another bug on my hands!

I wrote a shorttutorial today on how I did the menu items and opened webpages for those interested.

I extracted the .blend along with the other files included (the menu background and font). Maybe like you said the linking might not work too well.

Awesome work for the tutorials, I will definitely use them as a future reference!

Cheers for the clarification. I had the same issue a couple of times, but it spontaneously resolved its self. This was the first time I used link libraries as a way to manage a game. Speeds up development, but makes exporting and packing textures difficult. Think I’ve got a few things to learn about linking.

Thanks, I plan to write some more based on things I did in this game.