Joe's Old Blog. There's A New One, Go There Instead

2011-08-04T04:45:00.000-07:00

This blog is old and busted. The new hotness is over here.

I moved my blog-thing. All two of you who ever read it can follow me over there.

2011-07-16T04:14:00.000-07:00

2011-07-09T22:28:00.000-07:00

iOS game is coming along.

Vroooooooom

2011-06-04T03:48:00.000-07:00

Finally got ahold of an iphone to try this on. Good news, it works on iphones. It definitely was slower on the 3GS but I just need to optimise stuff more.

And Now For Something Completely Different

2011-04-11T18:10:00.000-07:00

2011-03-03T16:18:00.001-08:00

Overworld video

2011-02-02T16:32:00.001-08:00

2011-01-20T22:31:00.000-08:00

I'm back from not being where I now am, and can begin working on this videogame again.

2010-12-15T16:01:00.001-08:00

It's A Really Pretty Screenshot

2010-12-13T01:11:00.000-08:00

So the environment in this screenshot, and everything in it, which is, of course, entirely custom, took us - me and Matt Pierson - two or three days to do. With all the other unrelated shit we both have to do, plus time differences, I'm pretty proud of that. I've heard it's not polite to boast about your accomplishments, or something? Yeah, I don't know. Forget that, guys.

2010-12-08T04:14:00.000-08:00

BOC

2010-11-25T02:00:00.000-08:00

2010-11-15T06:41:00.001-08:00

Ballin' Outta Control

2010-10-27T03:26:00.000-07:00

The ball game, which is called Ballin' Outta Control, has been progressing pretty nicely. I had some dudes play it and give feedback, which is always great, and we improved a lot of things. Lately we've made the change that in rotating areas anything that is ever a floor is the same concrete, and anything that's never rollable is glass, rather than the checkerboard thing we had going on before, one result of which is it's easy to tell when you're in one rotation whether you'll be able to get to the area you're looking at after the spin. Also added pipes of the relevant colour that lead from where you find a ball to where you need to take it, which gives an idea of direction without being specific enough to solve the puzzle for you. Purple is still for anything that can move. One thing we haven't done yet is make a ball's receptacle visually distinct enough from its spawn - both are green or orange areas.

Here's a video. Watch it on Youtube for superior quality. Feedback is always appreciated!
This also shows the grappling function we're experimenting with, which basically lets you leash an object to you so you can pull it around rather than having to shoot it around.

2010-10-07T00:19:00.000-07:00

The ball game quickly became very visually confusing (which is not the type of confusion we're after) so I've replaced all the materials with cleaner, more utilitarian ones. If a surface is purple it means it can be moved, and orange areas are goals. Other than that everything's either clean concrete or gridded glass, which in particular is far more readable than the frosted glass I was using before.

More ball puzzles

2010-10-06T19:03:00.000-07:00

This shows a second way to deal with the first puzzle and a whole 'nother area. Orange ball spawn areas are orange as are the receptacles, anything that can move glows purple, and I replaced a lot of the glass with opaque materials - turns out it's pretty difficult to see what's going on if everything's transparent. The first puzzle rotates every ten seconds, the second every twenty. Also experimenting with allowing the player to control when the room rotates or operating it by rolling over special tiles.

Ball game puzzle

2010-10-04T21:39:00.001-07:00

Today I made a puzzle for the ball game. Put orange ball in orange receptacle. There are two ways to do this that I know of. Works pretty well. I may continue this.

James Benson's Dance Fortress

2010-09-28T19:45:00.000-07:00

My good friend James Benson has just finished his TF2 dance video, which you should be watching in fullscreen over on his page.

This is the guy responsible for the Velociraptor's animation in VJISP, and Zombie Fruit Fucker Prime in Shotgun Sunrise (although that never had code written for it, and wasn't in a released version). I've watching him go from kind of okay at animating to completely amazing in about a year and a half.

Good Game

2010-09-27T01:25:00.000-07:00

I might be a year late with this, maybe, but I just stumbled upon the Good Game coverage of the Fly Gabe event, which I missed on TV, and maybe you did too.

Campaign progress

2010-09-12T00:28:00.000-07:00

The L4D campaign is now an L4D2 campaign, and is ready to be described as nearly finished, which is really pretty disgraceful since it was two-thirds done in November. There are still some bugs to fix, some lighting to rearrange and a finale to script.
Visually, the art gallery from which the survivors are plan on evacuated at the end of the third map is based on the Queensland Art Gallery (QAG) in Brisbane, which looks like this. I think somewhere back on this blog there are some pictures I took there as well.

Sidescroller test

2010-09-09T00:35:00.000-07:00

Here's what I've been messing around with sidescroller stuff for. It's good unrealscript practice.

Sidescrollin' camera

2010-09-05T18:33:00.000-07:00

Been messing around with Unrealscript lately in the interests of great justice.

L4D Campaign

2010-08-23T05:52:00.000-07:00

Got a chance to work on this again and smashed out the following overnight.

A Ball Rollin' Around Only Now It Has A Third-Person Camera Goin' On

2010-07-21T09:08:00.001-07:00

Update: More ball-related updates

A Ball Rollin' Around

2010-07-13T20:49:00.000-07:00

Messin' about in UDK, you dudes.

Making a small game involving rolling a ball around. I'm controlling the ball, which rolls. Oh my.

Everything is fixed

2010-07-11T01:40:00.000-07:00

New display adapter (5770), new SD card, business can resume. This is just to prove I've been doing stuff.

D:

2010-07-06T07:46:00.000-07:00

Everything is broken

2010-07-03T06:22:00.000-07:00

Yesterday my phone's 8GB microSD card died for no adequate reason, and now this morning my 9800GT has stopped working entirely. It was fine last night! I didn't do nothin', you guys. Now I'm stuck with terrible onboard graphics. No creativity for me for a while, I guess.

I've been making progress on my L4D campaign, though, I'm working on the finale.

In other news, Linux can apparently now be run on the HD2, which is the phone that I have. It's a Windows Mobile device, but I guess now you can have Android on there, or even Ubuntu, which is pretty awesome. I will probably do that.

Mind Blown

2010-06-21T06:04:00.000-07:00

Still mappin'

2010-06-19T07:53:00.000-07:00

L4D1's Hammer causing BSODs is apparently a known issue, and hasn't been addressed yet. The crashes persist, but so do I, so it ain't nothin' but a thang.

Screenshots

2010-06-18T08:34:00.000-07:00

From the third map of the L4D campaign. Haven't mapped on Source in ages. It's fun coming back to it.

Left 4 Dead Campaign

2010-06-13T06:38:00.000-07:00

I've decided to start working on my Left 4 Dead campaign again. I suppose I realised I wasn't happy with having it so incomplete. I don't mind the length, but ending the second map with "to be continued" or some such is something I'm not really happy with.

I won't be completing the full four or five maps I'd originally planned, partly because that's a lot of work that I don't necessarily have time for, but partly because I've enjoyed the short campaigns Crash Course and The Passing more, lately, than the full-length campaigns, particularly in L4D2. When I released the campaign for testing I probably hadn't thought twice about making it the usual length, since that was the week that Crash Course came out, being the first campaign that wasn't four or five maps long, but it definitely made it a lot more accessible for a quick game.

The currently released two-map version of my campaign, though, wasn't really played that way a lot, and I think a lot of that has to do with the anticlimax of it not really finishing. The finale and even the "credits" are pretty essential to players' enjoyment, in a way that I think is probably pretty unique amoung multiplayer games.

So, the plan is to make the campaign three maps long - the first map being mostly as it is now, the second being almost as long as it is now and the third having the survivors circle around the art gallery building, getting in, making their way to the roof and evacuating in a mystery escape vehicle (go on, you'll never guess*). I'll most likely release both L4D1 and L4D2 flavours. Unfortunately, I've currently got a problem with Hammer whereby it, and only it, cause BSODs every half hour or so. Hopefully a fix eventuates.

*you'll totally guess

Windowsill cat is on the windowsill

2010-05-28T19:36:00.000-07:00

I don't own a cat, this awesome dude just climbed up from the apartment below mine, came in the window and explored my home for a bit. He is still on the windowsill right now, locked out, apparently content to just sit there indefinitely. I feel Henry Nourse put it best when he said "Dude. Motherfucker is a cat."

Doot doot doot

2010-05-25T00:39:00.000-07:00

Found a couple of not terrible pictures from the Gabe event of old. Sweet.

More Velociraptor news soon.

Apartments and headcrab zombies

2010-05-03T20:08:00.000-07:00

Velociraptor lives here.

And here's Joe the Headcrab Zombie (on the right).

So I got this badass new phone

2010-04-23T18:58:00.001-07:00

It's pretty awesome.

Finished with the P-4000

2010-04-15T07:44:00.000-07:00

My two readers won't have to put up with paperclip men on this modding blog anymore.

Velociraptor Voice Acting

2010-04-13T05:01:00.000-07:00

I recently sought out Ross Scott of Freeman's Mind and Civil Protection fame to run some voice acting opportunities by him. Specifically, I liked that his voice was able to carry Freeman's Mind, essentially a playthrough of Half-Life 1, and keep it a pretty entertaining experience. Ross has re-recorded the raptor dialogue for our test interview, and I'm running it by the team and the public to see what people think of him in the role. Post feedback.

P-4000 again

2010-04-12T02:40:00.000-07:00

I haven't actually made any changes since the last photo, but he's more moodily lit now.

Quality Assurance

2010-04-12T00:06:00.000-07:00

They say it's the worst living you can possibly make.

P-4000

2010-04-07T06:24:00.000-07:00

He's coming along.

Shotgun Sunrise Videos From The Wider Internets

2010-04-04T16:50:00.000-07:00

I don't think I've ever posted a video of Shotgun Sunrise on Youtube, so it's pretty awesome that I'm able to go on there and find a few uploaded by random players. It's really cool to see people having an awesome time with it. I'm still hoping to stumble across a coder and get another release done without all the terribad bugs, but it's neat to see that they don't really interfere that much with people's fun.

Shotgun Sunrise, for the uninitiated, is a Vehicular Co-op Objective-Based Zombie Western, and has been described as "fan-goddamn-tastic" on more than one occasion. Recently it was nominated for Best Multiplayer Mod on the ModDB Editor's Choice Awards, which was very neat. It was created by a team of three guys, lead by myself, and was released in March 2009. You can find out more about it through that link on the right there.

What A Difference A Door Made

2010-04-03T21:14:00.000-07:00

Previous post + post before last = this post

Modelled a Door

2010-04-03T18:35:00.000-07:00

The screenshot in the last post is missing doors. To rectify this, I created one. Here it is.
This is the first door I have ever modelled. I think it could look worse.

A Dismal Subterranean Storage Area

2010-04-03T16:00:00.001-07:00

It's also somebody's office. Pity the fool.

Enter the Matrix

2010-03-31T02:35:00.000-07:00

Today I started playing Enter the Matrix. I played it before, back when it came out, but for some reason I found myself wanting to play it again recently. I spent something like an hour on the first level, wandering around some ugly, barren post office in the middle of the night looking for a package, and killing guys, because apparently I can't wait until the post office opens in the morning like a regular person, but about fifty-five minutes of that was backtracking, and re-backtracking, and re-re-re-backtracking. The level was actually called "Backtracking". Also, you have to open doors a lot, and you can't open doors without taking your guns out, because it's the same button.

And what the fuck does "Classical FPS" mean?

Google tells me nothing. Is it Classical Frames Per Second or Classical First Person Shooter or Classical Fabulous Parsley Skirt or what the fuck? I really want to know. It's on by default. Nothing seems to happen when I turn it off. I think maybe they put it in there just to fuck with me.

Speedtree again

2010-03-28T02:03:00.000-07:00

I think I'm improving.

Speedtree

2010-03-27T20:50:00.000-07:00

I've been messing about with Speedtree, which comes with the UDK, and is awesome. Makes me wish I had a tablet. Here's my first tree! I think it's pretty adorable in a retarded way.

By Kind Donations Of The Internet

2010-03-26T04:43:00.000-07:00

I have just transacted with Epic Games, and purchased a UDK Commercial Distribution License. This license will be play an important role in the eventual publication of Velociraptor Job Interview Simulator Pro, and other such wondrous productions, which I hope you will all gleefully purchase. By "you all", of course, I mean the hundreds, thousands of readers who frequent this blog, and conscientiously refrain from commenting so as not to taint my Unknown Indie Developer reputation.

Those readers will most likely have noticed that this blog has been equipped with a new look, which will hopefully be less likely to make your eyes bleed. I'm not saying that won't happen, but viewing the page should be at least a little bit less medically inadvisable now.

I'd also like to point out that James Benson is a pretty great animator. Benson animates for Velociraptor Job Interview Simulator Pro, and before that for Shotgun Sunrise, and currently is employed by Lionhead Studios. That's kind of a big deal, but he's like Jenny from the Block. Don't be fooled by the rocks in his possession.

On Conveying An Atmosphere Of Despair

2010-03-19T02:52:00.000-07:00

For Velociraptor Job Interview Simulator Pro's first set of offices, we're trying to convey the feeling of working a soul-destroyingly low-level office job. These offices (and related areas) are actually subterranean, and we're trying to make them as depressing as possible. Compare these screenshots to those in older posts. Is it more depressing? Is it depressing enough? We need your input!

Also - and this isn't really up for discussion - these are some damned attractive cardboard boxes.

VJISP Developments / I Have A House Now

2010-02-25T01:54:00.001-08:00

So I finally have internet set up in my new place, and can start VJISPing again.
Of course, in the meantime I have been doing stuff.

Unlike on Source, most mapping in Unreal Engine 3 is done with placement of static meshes, even for stuff like walls. That gets you a lot more detail but to someone who's used to an engine like Source it can be a bit off-putting - suddenly you have to be familiar with a modelling application like Maya or Max or XSI just to make stuff that's pretty, whereas Source's BSP stuff is robust enough to make some very pretty stuff without resorting to meshes. Just different ways of doing stuff, basically. Anyway, I've been doing some adapting. Remington's been making some sweet Maya tutorial videos and I've been working that thing out. So now, the walls are more detailed.

I always thought it would be a pain in the ass but once you have some models it turns out to be much faster to lay out maps this way. So we go from what you've seen previously (flat walls) to slightly more detailed stuff like this (I'm no crazy-amazing modeller, mind you).

Guys, Kismet is great.

2009-12-15T16:50:00.001-08:00

This is a dialogue tree.

Velociraptor Job Interview Simulator Pro

2009-12-11T23:32:00.000-08:00

At this point things are beginning to happen re Velociraptor Job Interview Simulator Pro, the mysterious game advertised in the L4D campaign and on this site. I should therefore probably make a post on this, my blog, about it. Might as well update on the other various project things I undertake as well.

Shotgun Sunrise:
Still needs a coder. Nobody applied, so I guess we didn't get the news out there enough or just nobody wants to code for Shotgun Sunrise. That's pretty annoying, because we have the assets for about a million new features ready to roll out the door and no code written for them. Previously we've pretty much just been lucky in this department. That's stopped now. One guy from PA had a go but Real Life took him away again, as it does.

So Shotgun Sunrise is pretty much on Hiatus Of Indeterminate Length. Speaking for myself I have lost interest a little bit but I'd say that's entirely as a result of nothing happening with it since Aaron (our previous coder) left. We would absolutely love to get the content update we've been planning released, but that may not happen. If we get a coder, it will happen.

Awesomely, a lot of people are still expressing interest in the mod on the ModDB page and various other venues and that's really cool. A lot of people really liked our mod and continue to have a lot of fun with it. That impresses me because it really is buggy as fuck in the state we had to release it in. Just shows our ideas were good enough to overcome our inexperience, I guess.

L4D1 Campaign
This is also on Indeterminate Hiatus. I really wanted to finish it but I found myself extremely busy very suddenly with stuff pertaining mostly to Real Life. Currently I'm trying to
-get a job
-find somewhere to live
-move cities
-etc
and it's really pretty taxing. On the plus side I've almost certainly got into RMIT in Melbourne so hopefully I'll be able to get there.
Anyway, basically I got distracted, and then L4D2 came out. I really liked L4D2 but I've found myself somewhat less interested in my campaign, and indeed in playing L4D at all, since then. The SDK also isn't out yet to port the campaign to L4D2.
I haven't been playing much L4D2 either, though, and I'm not entirely sure why. It might be because in order to play with uncensored players I usually have to have a ping above 300. And although I could play on Australian servers something feels weirdly wrong about my (gory) experience of the game being out of sync with everyone else's. So I haven't been, basically.

So at this point I think I'm unlikely to wind up finishing the L4D campaign. I have kind of lost interest. I'm glad I released the first two maps, though. Everyone pretty much loved them. Go play.

Velociraptor Job Interview Simulator Pro
So not long ago, the UDK came out. That's exciting. I'm excited about it.

For a while now myself and Matt Pierson (also of Shotgun Sunrise fame) have been planning a game called Velociraptor Job Interview Simulator Pro and I basically decided to go ahead and make it on the UDK instead of Source as we'd pretty much assumed. This has the advantage of us being able to sell it when it's done.
We've teamed up with a few guys from the Penny-Arcade forums (again) including Brian Gefrich of Blue Planet Games and we've made a pretty big chunk of progress for how long we've been going.

Velociraptor Job Interview Simulator Pro is the story of a lone velociraptor who wishes to become a successful businessraptor in spite of the insurmountable racial prejudice which would normally prevent a raptor, or, indeed, any dinosaur at all, from securing a position in a respected corporation. The only recourse for our hero is to attend his job interviews in a cunning disguise, masquerading under a pseudonym.

Desperate to achieve success in his harsh corporate surroundings, he is forced to employ not only his razor-sharp wits but his teeth and claws, which are probably even sharper.

Here's how awesome our velociraptor model is.

Now that's pretty fucking amazing, am I right, guys?

Genre-wise, VJISP is something of a cross between adventure, a third-person pouncer, and amazing.
Progress has been swift. We have our velociraptor fully modelled and being animated, our third-person camera, our Suspiciometer and our conversation system are up and running, and a few other things. Basically this game is going to rock your socks the hell off, so probably wear two pairs if it's cold.

If you want, you can donate to us. It would help a lot. Q&A on that:

"Now wait a bit, if this is a commercial endeavor, what are the donations for?

I mean, I'm not against commerce, and I'm not against the Internet supporting awesome people and helping them do awesome things. (See: PA nearly ten years ago.) But if you're making a profit then you're kinda asking for tiny quantities of venture capital from The Internet. Right?"

"Since this is a commercial endeavour, there are inevitably going to be expenses involved. The donations will go into an Impromptu Games PayPal account where they'll stay until they're needed - for licensing UDK, for licensing whatever other apps we use that require licensing to be used commercially (Things like XSI or Max or Crazybump, for instance), setting up a website, maybe moving our SVN hosting to a better service than NAS's garage, Unforeseen Expenses, actually registering a company down the line, that kind of thing. If someone's power is about to be cut off we can talk about using money from the account to help them pay their bill. We're not looking to spend your money on hookers and blow."

Here's the donation button, anyhoo.

So that's what I've been doing lately.

Shotgun Sunrise needs a coder

2009-11-01T20:11:00.001-08:00

Hey guys!

Due to the ever-increasing workload put upon a guy by creating multiple babies and working crazy hours, it is with immense regret that we report that our beloved coder Slapdash will probably not be able to contribute to Shotgun Sunrise any longer.

For this reason, we are now in search of an experienced programmer to help us create awesomely fun things, especially Shotgun Sunrise. Currently, we have many assets that need code put to them - our bull, plant and spider NPCs are fully modelled and animated and in-game, but their minds are empty.

Our plans for this mod are vast, all-encompassing - and yet entirely achievable, but not without someone who can bust out sweet code. So apply, my pretties! Send us your availabilities, examples of previous experience, and all that jazz. Remember, this isn't one of those mods that takes itself all seriously and never releases. This is Shotgun Sunrise! Our mod is fun already. You just have to come help us make it more fun. We've got so much stuff waiting for code that if some awesome coder put in like a week's steady work we could probably bust out a significant content release straight up.

Thanks dudes, hope to recieve some applications any time now. You can PM them to me on here or send them to shotgunsunriseapps@gmail.com

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck.

2009-10-22T00:45:00.001-07:00

This country is officially terrible. The appeal on L4D2's RC status has failed, meaning we're stuck with the censored version. The details, since I've played it:

-Infected corpses fade out literally the instant you kill them. This applies to both common and special infected.
-None of the extra gore added in L4D2 is present, and also very little of the gore we all had in L4D1. For instance I didn't see anyone get decapitated.
-Blood still exists where it's textured onto the infected but I didn't see it anywhere else.

That's all I can think of for now but it's a pretty fucking big deal.

Campaign update

2009-10-17T02:25:00.001-07:00

Thanks for all the feedback, you dudes. Keep that up.

This update is mostly bug fixes, but also some other stuff that isn't bug fixes. I'm tired, hopefully that doesn't mean I messed anything up. You guys just let me know. It's also still just two maps, but I'm workin' on that third one. As always, feel free to throw

Changelog:

-Changed download link URL in VPK to the correct site

Map 1

-Optimised things slightly
-Fixed some stairs not being climbed smoothly
-Fixed an infected ladder being climbable by survivors
-Fixed scaffolding near map start being climbable by survivors
-Fixed vent covers not breaking under Infected
-Closed off an irrelevant section of street, relic of a previous design
-Fixed a texture issue in a storage room that you probably didn't even notice
-Fixed some safe room graffiti only partially appearing
-Fixed plastic sheeting in town hall being invisible from far side yet still blocking infected players, making for confusion
-Made pistol spawns random rather than reliably appearing at both spawns
-Added a rescue closet
-Added/moved some item spawns
-Added some player clips to prevent survivors getting stuck in areas that should be unreachable
-Redesigned the entrance to the underground area. This is probably the biggest change you'll notice. Leave comments and let me know what you think of it.

Map 2

-Optimised things somewhat
-Exit from offices is hopefully more evident now
-Replaced boards over gap at office exit with hopefully more plausible alternative
-Removed largely useless window on rooftop that had been intended to help infected out in versus
-Changed up the lighting in places
-Fixed three ways for survivors to skip the entire apartment building
-Fixed a spot where players could get stuck on a burning barrel
-Added an additional window for infected to spawn from
-Set interior smoke to only turn on when panic event is triggered, and to disable when all survivors have left the building
-Added some possible item spawns
-Removed a bus from street outside finishing safe room
-Hopefully fixed some nav issues
-Added an ornamental statue outside the office building, which is a placeholder for an even more impressive one
-Moved one of the hole-in-the-walls in the apartment building to make the correct escape route more evident
-Removed some bits of fire hangin' in the sky
-Fixed an issue where tier 2 weapons would never appear in the conference room, and the second team to play the map in versus mode would sometimes miss out on tier 2 weapons
-Put glass in car windows
-Added some graffiti

Download links

Download (thanks Roland)

Gabe answers questions

2009-10-13T20:48:00.000-07:00

Threw together some Youtube vids. This is just Gabe answering questions. It's interesting. At the end of the second vid you see me playing L4D2 for a bit.

I should probably point out that the campaign is released

2009-10-13T16:37:00.001-07:00

The first two maps, anyway.
Details here:

http://flygabel4dcampaign.blogspot.com/

PRESSURE

2009-10-03T03:10:00.000-07:00

The day draws near.

2009-10-02T01:59:00.001-07:00

More campaign stuff

2009-09-28T21:28:00.000-07:00

Second map's very nearly done. It is fun to play, which is great. I've also been polishing up the first map some more. So here's some more images.

Still workin' on this campaign

2009-09-27T05:34:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted fresh images in a while, so here're some.

Releasin' an old map

2009-09-17T23:31:00.000-07:00

In 2007 I made this map for HL2 for a highschool project. It had no gameplay and only existed to be pretty. A few months ago I made it into a L4D survival map. You can now play it if you so desire.

Here are some screenshots and a download link.

To trigger the horde, use the book. I forgot to add a message to draw attention to it, but it's resting on the handrail right next to where you spawn.

Also forgot to align the survivor names on the poster. Oh well.

Second map starting to not look like shit

2009-09-15T17:26:00.000-07:00

First map pretty much done (Pics rehosted by Sol Invictus, thanks Sol)

2009-09-10T22:54:00.000-07:00

So here's a screendump.

Hosted by http://hellforge.gameriot.com

Today I made a Safe Room

2009-09-07T00:55:00.000-07:00

It's arguably the safest of all rooms. If I had to hang out in a room, I'd hang out in this one, on account of how safe it is.

New intro animation and general gameplay vid

2009-09-02T23:37:00.000-07:00

Did my first ever animation today in XSI. It's not perfect but I think it's an improvement on the previous intro animation. Also I continue to keep playing til the end of the first map.

Intro test animation

2009-09-02T02:30:00.000-07:00

It's a bit fast, but it's a good start. Animation by the divine James Benson, voice acting (though you can barely hear it) by Improvolone.

Shotgun Sunrise loading screens

2009-09-01T19:10:00.000-07:00

The next Shotgun Sunrise update will have loading screens, different ones per-map. Like these, for ss_shotgun and ss_revolver respectively.

Backgrounds created by a nice dude called Wraith from the Penny-Arcade forums, newspapers created by me.

I CAN'T SEE SHIT

2009-08-31T19:28:00.000-07:00

Sweet-ass playtest

2009-08-30T21:17:00.000-07:00

Screendump thereof.

First map is now finished other than intro bugs, second map is just about done gameplay-wise so I can start making shit pretty and designing the third.

Also, apparently some dude already named his campaign Unnatural History, so there goes that.

PARTICLES

2009-08-30T16:30:00.000-07:00

Bustin' out some sweet smoke particles.

Took some photos today

2009-08-29T01:59:00.000-07:00

Went to the museum/art gallery I'm planning on using as inspiration for the museum/art gallery in my L4D campaign, and also to some other places. Mostly for textures, the following not so much.

Upbeat Dinosaur 2

2009-08-27T22:09:00.000-07:00

IMMATHIRSTYDINOSAUR

Upbeat Dinosaur

2009-08-27T20:51:00.000-07:00

Today I managed to demonstrate my extremely dynamic artistic skills by drawing a person who is not only a dinosaur, but is also the man.

Look at him! What a specimen. Observe the skill with which he balances on his bar stool.

In other news, I am pretty much calling the first map of the campaign done, apart from bugs in the intro and an ugly elevator. And maybe I'll work my dinosaur in there somehow.

Followin' Up That Last Post About The Trucks

2009-08-25T03:10:00.000-07:00

This sweet image shows the adjustment more clearly. The red line is the route players had to take previously, from the garden area to the entrance to the underground bus terminal. The blue line shows the new route. The presence of the trucks necessitates the longer route. This way, players don't have an outright choice between right and left coming out of the gardens, which was resulting in people backtracking in case they missed something, which they hadn't, which wasn't fun. This way, the players are forced to one end of the street first, which makes the correct escape route obvious. The new route also makes use of what had previously been a lot of fairly pointless empty space. I also added some brighter lighting around the goal area.

2009-08-24T23:21:00.000-07:00

Podcast 17 have pleasant things to say about the new Shotgun Sunrise media update.

2009-08-24T05:12:00.000-07:00

One of the things that last playtest tipped me off to was that when leaving the hedge area in the first map, folks don't know where to go. You basically come out onto a street and have to choose whether to go left or right without really having a lot of data on the situation. I've changed up the lighting and thrown in some trucks to help guide players more effectively. I'll put up some shots that illustrate the difference better tomorrow.

2009-08-22T21:58:00.000-07:00

Unnatural History Versus playtest, Shotgun Sunrise news

2009-08-18T03:52:00.000-07:00

Today for the first time I managed to get a full eight-player Versus game going of my totally unfinished L4D campaign (the first two maps of it anyway) which I'm calling Unnatural History until I think of a better name (the finale takes place in a museum, thus History). It was totally awesome. It plays very differently in Versus, and is really, really hard (though all the infected players were extremely competent, which isn't always the case in L4D). I've got a bunch of ideas on how to improve things now that I've seen a bunch of dudes playing it together for the first time.

I also made a big ol' news post about Shotgun Sunrise wherein we reveal...

Zombot Fruit Fucker Prime!

Our totally awesome Evil Zombie Bull!

And more, so go check our the Shotgun Sunrise ModDB profile or Penny-Arcade thread. Because I've forgotten how to update shotgunsunrise.com.

2009-08-16T07:02:00.001-07:00

L4D campaign progress, millionth post

2009-08-14T05:57:00.000-07:00

With a million screenshots!

Today I joined my two maps, which doesn't sound like a big deal, and isn't, but it feels like one because they can now be played through end-to-end. Awesome.

So I ran through them and took an unreasonable number of screenshots. Fuck you, it's my blog and I'll do what I want ya'll don't know me.

These are all in reverse order because Blogger's pants-on-head retarded.

Further L4D mapping

2009-08-05T06:31:00.001-07:00

It's sort of coming along.

L4D map 2

2009-08-04T04:22:00.000-07:00

Doot doot doot, doin' more mappin'.

man

2009-08-02T20:58:00.001-07:00

next time someone makes a your mum joke on me

i'm going to act all offended

and tell them my mum was stillborn

so thanks for bringing that up

Still L4D'in

2009-07-31T06:48:00.000-07:00

Broke mapper's block through cunning use of gridded paper. Working on second map of campaign. Has more indoor areas. Might also be good as survival map. Ho-hum.

Exciting, I know.

Podcast 17

2009-07-23T01:15:00.001-07:00

mentioned Shotgun Sunrise in their...last podcast? The one before? Something. I'm just kind of catching up. Anyway, it was pretty awesome:

Steve: ...been trying to sneak in some time on Fistful of Frags, their new update, enjoying that as well...

Emanuel: You're a fan?

Steve: Yeah, a lot. I really like that game.

Emanuel: ...Huh. How do you think about how it's evolved in the past year?

Steve: Um, I dunno, I think they're doin' a lot of good things with the... I dunno. It doesn't seem like the combat has changed that much, you know what I mean, but the maps they're adding are definitely helping the game a lot, and the game modes. I'm enjoying it more and more every time.

Emanuel: Yeah. Alright - pick one. Shotgun Sunrise or Fistful of Frags? If you had to pick one.

Steve: Fistful of Frags.

Emanuel: Oh, come on.

Steve: I haven't played the other game, so...

Someone else: Shotgun Sunrise seems like it's good for, you know, a few cheap laughs, but if you're going to stick with one for any length of time it would be fistful of frags.

Emanuel: Yeah, but it's such a good laugh. I - Maybe when they add more stuff you'll change your tune, but I love that mod so much.

Steve: I'll have to give it a shot.

Emanuel: You will. It's silly. You'll like it. It's good for a little... mostly mods take themselves very seriously so it's nice to play something that doesn't. Well, actually Age of Chiv doesn't, so... you know about that.

and then it moves on.

I like when people love our mod.

More L4D stuff

2009-07-19T18:34:00.000-07:00

Here's some screenshots I took of last night's playtest. We played what is known as Odd Man Out where you haven't got enough players for a full versus game, so everyone's infected except one survivor, who has to lead the bots, who are stupid. It was pretty fun.

I think I've improved the atmosphere of the place pretty significantly.

And Now You Know

2009-07-17T00:33:00.000-07:00

a mouse: so what's making a level like?

Lacabra: it's like having sex

Lacabra: but the orgasm lasts forever

An experiment

2009-07-15T22:04:00.001-07:00

At the request of a smashing young lad named James Benson I have converted my Year 12 D&T major work into a L4D survival map. I might even release it, maybe. I haven't decided. Having furthered my skills significantly since mid-2007 I am able to look upon some of my previous works and despair.

More L4D campaign stuff

2009-07-15T06:03:00.000-07:00

Improved some lightin', fixed some bugs, added some graffiti, and also product placement.

Left 4 Dead Campaign

2009-07-13T19:41:00.001-07:00

So I've been working on this Left 4 Dead campaign for something like eight days on and off. It'll be a four-map dealio the ultimate goal of which will be a museum, from which they're evacuating. Co-op and versus, and maybe survival if I can be bothered. Currently I have the first map mostly done. There's a few bugs, but it is mega fun.

Shotgun Sunrise stuff

2009-07-13T18:31:00.000-07:00

Here's some random Shotgun Sunrise screenshots, mostly pretty recent. I'm still getting the hang of modelling stuff, so check out my book model. It's The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham. Read it. And my table. My first table! Also, some of these are me testing the new SS map in L4D just to see how that works.

Throwin' up some old stuff

2009-07-13T18:07:00.000-07:00

Here's some stuff I did for Year 12 assignments way back when, including my first custom 2D skybox.

Here's some crap I did whilst experimenting with custom blend textures. Also my first custom prop.

2009-07-13T06:42:00.000-07:00

Doot doot startin' a blog

2009-07-13T03:25:00.001-07:00

Sup droogs. I'm going to be posting stuff in here. It'll be things that I make. I make things most days so I'll just throw screenshots up whenever I do. Occasionally I may also post old stuff, just for the arseing hell of it. Why not, right? This is my blog! You don't like it, there's the door. Shit, I don't even remember inviting you in here. Did you just come in off the street? Get the fuck out, you bum.