Starbound Aces Promo Trailer

Today is a good day to dogfight! Here is the official Starbound Aces Promo Trailer, featuring epic space combat!

Unreal Engine 4 Mini-Project

Today I started a new project. The project is a simple Pinball game made in Unreal Engine 4 using C++. As it stands right now, I have a framework already up and running for the project and will soon go to implementing special features. After that, I will have need for my own sounds, meshes, and textures. When that is done I will then make a simple UI for the main menu of the game, again using C++. Here is a short video on what I finished today:

Starbound Aces Update - The Countdown

With the impending end of our project, I have been in scramble mode. Our project Starbound Aces is coming to a close and there is much to do to get a viable product from the 16 week development period. So, first and foremost, we must focus on fixing any issues we have that reside in the game. As it stands, there are a few. These issues are as follows:

• Network problem when joining a second game after playing the first
• Sound issues
• Projectile / Weapons are lame

The last one is more or less a comment on how we have not gotten to adding awesome effects for the projectiles themselves.

Enough gripping though, I have some nice art content to show off for our game, as well as an in game screen shot! Enjoy!

Unreal Engine 4

Last night I had the time to work in the Unreal Engine 4, as I have finished a lot of my Senior Project. I do have a few comments about it in regards to the C++ Programming. They can all be summed up in one word though - Smooth.

Indeed, the C++ programming is a smooth process once you understand the patterns and design of the system itself. Knowing C++ definitely helps too. For instance, yesterday I began implemented my own Inventory system derived from the one found on the Unreal Wiki. It when all as planned with only a minor hick-up in having no support for Unions as a UPROPERTY (So it can be seen and edited in the Visual Scripting Engine - Blueprints).

The ability to program in features with the ease of Unity and its managed scripting engine and the performance of C++ makes me very attracted to using this new engine. Having access to the source code also helps with understanding the core components. I also find that the unity website, wiki, and forums have a wealth of knowledge to start with. Finally, the free games and demos I can download from Epic aid in understanding the system even more.

I am sure I have mentioned before I was never a fan of UDK, so I was a little hesitant to begin with UE4; however, I am glad to be spending the measily $20.00 for this awesome engine and I plan to keep on using it. There are also some nice community works in progress underway such as an Adventure Kit.

Oh, and don't even get me started on how EASY it is to do multiplayer games in UE4.

Decided to share my thoughts and tell you that getting Unreal Engine 4 is worth it!

Weekday Update w/ Video

I hope everyone had a good Memorial Day and weekend - I sure did. Now onto business, the state of the game.

Starbound Aces is coming along very nicely. Since my last video update I have introduced a lot of new features and changes since my last update. I will compare as they are seen in this video:

This video shows everything from a week ago. Over that time I have made a lot of changes. Many of them are simple optimizations and bug fixes. However, there are a few that are noticeable in the game. These changes are:

-Inserted a new game menu option: Ship configuration
-Changed the engine effect to a trail renderer
-Changed the tracking system of the seeker missile.
-Tweaked some variables

Here are the changes that the other programmer, David Tiscerano, incorporated:
-Cooldown system for manuevers
-HUD Display of cooldown

Many of the other busy work has been behind the scenes tweaks and optimization. Until next time - Enjoy game programming!

Systems Operational (5PM Hosting of Alpha Test)

Alright, alright, alright, it has been a long day of coding for the past six hours of my life. That makes a total of  eleven hours of coding in the past sixteen. So I have a few new features to show off, some screen shots, and later in the day, some videos.

First off, let us take a look at some of the new features. These new features are:

• Weapon Configuration in Multiplayer
• In-match HUD Display
• Weapon Cooldown
• Current Ammunition
• Damage Effects
• Server Side Configurations

The weapon configuration goes hand in hand with the server side configurations I just listed. Now a player can choose between two weapons at the moment, Cannon (More damage, straight shot) or Seeker Missile Launcher (Less Damage, Longer Range, Follows target). When the player chooses one of these options pre-match the GameManager takes a note of this and when the player spawns, tells the server to get all of the data needed to implement the weapons. Visually, they are the same at the moment and we want to add one more - a laser beam.

Secondly, we now have some information in the game during a match in regards to combat. This information is minimal. The first is a cross-hair, that when within a certain distance of an object - tells you the distance to that object. Two other key components of the HUD are in the lower right hand corner - weapon cooldown and total ammunition in relation to clip size. Pressing escape will bring up a menu that lists all players in the game as well as the ability to logout / leave the match.

In game screenshot of a match

Finally, I added some visual fidelity to the combat by add damage effects. The damage effects of ships takes place when a player reaches 30% or less health and then again at 10% or less health. Right now it is some simple particle effects of fire and smoke.

I will also be hosting Alpha testing at 5 PM (Central Time) today, so if you want to join in please leave a comment on this blog and I will get you the required information.

Spit and Polish

Its that time of the year again. Spring, everything is clean. Everything that is, except for my code and our project.

It seems that with the rapid development we have been going through, the code has gotten a little messy and non critical errors are leaking through to show themselves in our final product. With only five more weeks to go, we need to fix this and get a nice, clean, game up and running. That is what I have devoted my past few weeks to - cleaning code, cleaning game play, and implementing some necessary features.

Soon, I will have a video up to show all the new features and game play for you to see. I know I keep promising it, but as all programmers/software engineers know, the coding is never done.

Until next time, enjoy!