Gribble Games - Independent Video Games

Redesigned HUD

2011-06-05T22:20:00.009-05:00

Over the past few days, I've been working on redesigning the HUD. The HUD (short for Heads-Up Display) is a visual way of allowing the user to know there stats in game. Different games are going to have different HUDs. For example, the HUD can be designed to be simple (Super Meat Boy) or complex (World of Warcraft).

For Canine Combat, I had debated a long time as to how simple or complex I wanted the HUD to be. In the early alphas of the game, I decided on a more simplistic design:

As you can see, the game has a radar, a picture of your pilot, and some bars on the side...but...that's about it. Something you might notice is that the HUD is not very well marked. For instance, simply by looking at it, you can't tell what those blue, yellow, and red bars stand for. It turns out, the blue represents the planes boosting power, the red is the player's health, and the yellow is the amount of ammo you have. But again, just by looking at it, you couldn't tell. Now lets take a look at the players picture and the number next to it. What do you think that number is? Turns out, that is how many lives the player has left (ok, ok, you might have been able to guess that one).

I think the only part of this HUD that makes any sense is the radar. I mean, it should be pretty obvious that red dots on the radar are enemies, green dots are friends, and yellow dots are neutral.

Now, after having examined all the flaws with this HUD, lets take a look at the new one below. The following screenshot was taken this morning:

As you can see, the HUD has changed considerably. Looking at the radar, it has stayed about the same, however, the right side definitely had a makeover. For starters, the yellow and blue bars are now "prettier" and the red bar (referring to health) has been denoted as so by encircling the players picture and having an image of a cross snapped to the top of it. I'm still debating whether the intention of the blue and yellow bars are clear enough, but so far, I think yellow bar is clear due to the fact that text saying "Machine Gun" is right under it (the blue bar might get some text or image for it latter).

As for the bottom right section of the HUD, well, this might not be so obvious, but the currency used in Canine Combat is bones and the dog bowl (and number on it) refer to how much money/bones you have. As for the backpack, well I plan to add a bar next to it letting you know how filled your inventory is. Again the HUD is looking much better and after implementing said tweaks I think the intent of everything will be even more clear.

Really, complex or simple, there is no right way to design a HUD. If you are making a game, you might find that at the start, your HUD works better with a simple design, but as you add features you might find you need to starting packing more information on the screen.

Forum Registration Down

2011-05-25T14:21:00.002-05:00

Hey guys, you may have noticed that you aren't able to post or register on the forums right now. The reason is because I've been having a ton of trouble with spambots lately. Fixing it isn't a huge priority right now for me, so I'll get around to it when I get around to it!

ATI cards! ARRRGGGHH!

2011-05-22T18:24:00.001-05:00

*WARNING: Tech Post*

When porting Canine Combat between my Windows (NVIDIA) and my Mac (ATI), I've been noticing that my game doesn't render quite right. The reason for this is because ATI is more "strict" about what they allow you to do with your shaders. This isn't so much of a problem as it is a pain. I basically have to re-write my shaders so they work on ATI.

Basically, for any web developers out there, ATI is like the Internet Explorer of graphics cards!

Summer breeze, makes me feel fine...

2011-04-24T11:53:00.007-05:00

Can you feel it, can you smell it? Yup, it's almost summer!

So anyhow, I've been busy working towards optimizing Canine Combat. So far, I've been getting great performance on all three of my target systems: Windows, Linux, and Mac. Whatever OS your using, you should expect Canine Combat to run fast!

In other news, I had an email the other day from a Linux user who was wondering what version of OpenGL Canine Combat is using. This is a good question because Linux (via Mesa) only really supports up to OpenGL 2.x. Well, I thought since it was such a good question, that I would share the answer with everyone. Canine Combat uses OpenGL 2.1! For those Windows users out there, OpenGL 2.1 is basically the DirectX 9 equivalent. And as for you Mac users, you'll be fine. After all, Mac's just work!

New Gameplay Footage

2011-03-13T22:34:00.005-05:00

It's been a little over a month since my last post so I figured I would give you guys a treat: New gameplay footage!

The video showcases some of the new art for the game as well as outdoor/indoor transitions (seen at the end).

For some reason, the colors look a little "off" in the video from what they really should be. Not sure if it's my recorder that's causing the problem or what. It may simply be that some colors are lost in compression.

Regardless, I will post some still screenshots in the coming days, so stay tuned.

New Website In Works

2011-02-04T17:15:00.003-06:00

Over the past few months I've been working on redesigning this site. As some of you may know, I started Gribble Games back in high school as a way to catalog my hobby, gaming projects. But, with the release of Canine Combat, I plan to take things to the next level.

Canine Combat will be my first commercial indie title. I've been putting a lot of work into it's development to try to make it the best it can be. Some of the other games I have on this site do not reflect my current ability as a developer. I feel that with the release of Canine Combat, which takes my games to the next level, that it is only fair to update the site as well.

Over the next few weeks, I plan to release more information about it's development. For right now I will say that the new site will be much more dynamic and feature packed then the current one.

Canine Combat... Offensive!?

2011-01-28T15:39:00.005-06:00

I had a friend tell me a while back that Canine Combat seems "offensive." Our conversation went something like this:

Him: "So what is the game about?"
Me: "It's a World War II aerial-shooter game set in the dog universe. You basically fly a plane piloted by a dog and face off against other planes/dogs."
Him: "Isn't that a little offensive and disrespectful?"

...

You get the idea.

Anyway, back when I was talking to him, I had billed the game as a "World War II aerial-shooter game set in the dog universe." However, this is no longer the case. In fact, Canine Combat is NOT (nor was ever) intended to be set in World War II. What I really meant to say was, "The art style, technology, and theme of the game will resemble World War II, but the actual plot itself has nothing to do with Hitler or the Nazi's."

For instance some of my art is reminiscent of WW2. Take a look at the "bad dogs" flag and "good dogs" flag:

Looks familiar doesn't it?

Now, my question for you is: "Do you think Canine Combat is offensive?" I'd love to hear your emails or posts on the forum.

Icon Tangent

2011-01-21T15:18:00.001-06:00

I've decided to take a break from the game to work on the icon. Here is what I have so far:

Mac App Store

2011-01-14T15:21:00.005-06:00

So, as you Mac user's may know, Apple launched the Mac App Store earlier last week. I was originally excited for this thinking that this would be a great venue for Canine Combat. However, upon inspecting the developer guidelines, it appears that it may not be possible at the moment:

"According to Apple, your Mac app will be rejected if:

Your game portrays realistic images of people or animals being killed or maimed, shot, stabbed, tortured, or injured. (Such as Counter Strike, Halo, and pretty much every other good video game ever produced.)"

This worries me a bit, because Canine Combat is a shooter game... with animals... But, and here's the but, Canine Combat will never show any dog being harmed or killed. For instance, in Canine Combat, you only destroy vehicles and never the pilots themselves. And, when you do destroy the vehicle, the dog will bail out either in an ejection seat or parachute, thus you never actually shoot, stab, or injure the dog himself. Also, Canine Combat will never display any blood or other organs.

Also, the guideline says "realistic images" of these things will get your app rejected. However, as previously stated these things never occur and as for realistic...well... How realistic does the screenshot below look:

In conclusion, I think that Canine Combat should be allowed on the Mac App Store because I don't think it violates these guidelines. However, the real problem will be convincing Apple.

RPG Elements

2011-01-08T14:59:00.012-06:00

In my previous post, I mentioned that I would be adding RPG elements to Canine Combat. I'm going to discuss how this will be done:

As you may know, Canine Combat so far has been a generic shooter game. The shooting, of course, is done in planes piloted by dogs. Check youtube for some clips of how this is achieved.

"Ok" your saying, "It's a shooter in that you fly a plane, point it at a target, and shoot. But, how could you possibly add RPG elements to it!?"

Well, my friend, take a look in the screenshot below. As you will see, the player is flying into the entrance of a hanger.

After the player flies inside the hanger, he then enters a first person perspective.

"Oh no!" you say, "Your turning Canine Combat into an FPS!!!" No, no, no. Canine will NOT be a first person shooter. The only shooting will be done outdoors. The inside areas are purely for interacting with NPC's. (ie. Receiving quests and such).

Here is a shot of the interior of an underground bunker. (Somewhat dark isn't it?)

Anyhow, that is the way RPG elements will be done. I felt I had to do it this way because I wanted the player to have a pause in the action to rest and receive missions from NPC's. I didn't feel the player would be able to do that in a plane because it's constantly moving.

You might have also noticed the backpack and dogbowl in the lower right hand corner of the screenshots.

You will hold your inventory items in the backpack and the dogbowl signifies how much money you have (bones are the currency of the game).

Happy new year!

2011-01-01T18:18:00.002-06:00

Thought I'd pick up from my last post and discuss some of the new changes that I've been mentioning:

As you may know, Canine Combat is an aerial shooter game set in the dog universe. But, what else do you know? Thats about it eh. I haven't really talked about the story or much else behind the game. Sure, I've thrown out some screenshots here and there, but now I'd like to take a moment to delve deeper into the game.

In Canine Combat, you will take on the roll of Ace, a small town underdog who eventually finds himself working for the CCAF (Canine Combat Air Force). How he gets there will be unveiled in the first few levels of the game. Those levels will also make up the demo (when it is released).

Originally, I was just going to have the game be a generic shooter game. Granted, the game takes place in planes (which are constantly moving) thus making the gameplay slightly different from your average shoot-n'-duck FPS. Still, that wasn't a big enough change for me.

Indie games have always been about doing something different, so I decided that regular shooter elements, although somewhat different, wasn't enough. So, I've decided to add RPG elements to the game.

You might be wondering how thats going to work and I'll discuss it more in the coming days. For now, rest assured, these elements will only add to the depth of the game.

Happy Holidays Everyone

2010-12-26T18:06:00.002-06:00

Just wishing everybody a happy holidays. I'm going to be posting some Canine Combat updates soon so stay tuned. For now, you can know that I'm going to be changing part of the core gameplay mechanic... More details coming soon.

Happy (Late) Thanksgiving

2010-11-29T15:11:00.003-06:00

Hey, hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I ended up not working much on Canine Combat over the break due to other obligations. But stay tuned, I plan on integrating some key components over Christmas break.

Fall Progress, Part III.

2010-11-08T12:22:00.000-06:00

Over the past few posts, I've been showing off some of the work I've done towards modeling and texturing. I'm going to keep this post short, but below I've posted a picture of everything put together.

It's basically an enemy encampment from one of the levels.

Fall Progress, Part II.

2010-10-27T16:54:00.000-05:00

This is a follow up to my previous post, Fall Progress, Part I. As you can see in that post, I've been busy making models for Canine Combat. Well, I've got a few more to show:

The above is my water tower model. Whats interesting is not the model per-say, but the dog skull and crossbones. Since first starting Canine Combat, I've been challenged with coming up with flags for both the good and bad dog factions.

Personally, I like the idea of a dog and crossbones, because it conjures up images of pirates, evil, and renegades.

Below you can see the flag on a flag pole:

It's not animated yet, but it will be soon...

Fall Progress, Part I.

2010-10-15T18:25:00.009-05:00

It's hard to believe it's been nearly a month since my last post. Sadly, I've been so busy with school that I've had hardly anytime to work on Canine Combat. Fortunately, I had some time off this week so I was able to work on some new models and textures for the game.

This is supposed to be an enemy barracks. The'll be placed around enemy encampments and other enemy settlements. Eventually, the 'good dogs' will get there own barracks too. Although, it will probably be a re-skinned version of the model seen below.

Ok, this model is supposed to be an enemy warehouse. And yes, before you go posting in the forum, I am aware that I've mixed German with English :D I plan to fix it later.

So as you can see, progress continues. One interesting thing to me as a game developer is the sheer amount of art that goes into game making. I'm really a programmer by trade and whats funny is that I haven't touched a bit of the C++ code of the game in a while (as in 2 months). So, you may be asking me, how is it that I've been able to develop levels? The answer is: with lots of art and lots of scripting. So much of the game involves scripted sequences and a ton of art work.

Thats why I've decided that if Canine Combat does well (read: makes money) I will definitely be hiring on an artists so I can get back to the real fun: programming!

Cartoony vs Realistic Art Style

2010-09-21T17:45:00.006-05:00

You may have noticed that I've been playing around with more realistic textures.

Below, I've posted a shorter clip comparing the cartoony style vs. the realistic one. Granted, the game is still a "cartoony" game even with more realistic textures. I mean, come on, we have dogs flying in planes! How realistic can it get?

Well, the realistic/cartoony thing really only applies to the environment (ie. the terrain, props, skybox, etc.) not the HUD or player/enemy models.

Let me know which one you like better on the forum:

Screenshot, XNA, Mac vs PC...FLAMEWAR

2010-09-09T21:46:00.005-05:00

This week, I've been working on a new level for Canine Combat. There really isn't much to show yet, but I'll post a screenshot anyway :D

Yeah, I know, just a satellite dish and mountain range. I'll have more to show in the coming days.

But anyhow, I've been thinking about getting a new Mac laptop, more specifically a Macbook Pro. Most of my friends hate Mac's but having grown up with them has earned them a special place in my heart. Also, having grown up with them, has shown me how much Mac gamers appreciate their games, since there so far and few between. I always wished more game companies would support Mac, thats why all my games are cross platform.

I must confess, over the past few days I've been taking a closer look at XNA from Microsoft. No, don't panic, I'm not going to be using it for any of my games, I'm actually going to be teaching a class on game programming and the students wanted to use XNA. If your a non-technical person and don't know what I'm talking about, XNA is basically a game framework put out by Microsoft in order to promote indie game development on Windows. As stated previously, I'm a huge proponent of Mac gaming, and as such would never adopt XNA due to the fact that it locks you into Windows. I'll talk more about my game class in the coming days, till then, I'll be anticipating the Mac vs PC flameware on the forums.

Life of a student...

2010-09-06T10:38:00.003-05:00

As I hinted in one of my earlier posts, I am a full time student, and as such, it can be difficult to manage my time effectively. Sometimes, like this labor day weekend, I thought I would've been able to work on Canine Combat. Unfortunately, I'm drowning in school work right now.

Hopefully, I'll try and get some progress made on Canine Combat and post about it tomorrow.

Pre-Rendered Cutscenes.

2010-08-21T14:05:00.005-05:00

Thought I'd post to say that I'm currently working on new levels for Canine Combat. Hopefully within the coming months I will have some new screenshots to show.

As to my recent whereabouts...
1) I've been tweaking the camera.
2) I've made some new additions to the HUD.
3) I've added more polish to the level you see in the video below this post.

In addition to making new levels, I'd also like to start doing some pre-rendered cutscenes. For those that don't know what a cutscene is, click here.

Basically, I'll be using a program called Blender to make the cutscenes. Blender is a free modeling and animation suite. Commercial alternatives, such as 3ds Max are easily priced within the thousands. As an indie game developer on a budget, I can't afford to spend the funds on such expensive software.

Thankfully, Blender is not only free, but it is just as well equipped as 3ds Max is. In fact, when I first started it up, I was overwhelmed by all the features and do-dads.

It's perfect for hobbyist and small business and they give you a great array of tutorials to help you get started. In fact, if any readers out there are curious as to how modelling and animation is done, you can download it for Mac, Windows, or even Linux and try it for yourself.

New Video (at last)!

2010-07-24T00:05:00.004-05:00

I finally got around to putting up a new video of Canine Combat!

I spent about 20 minutes trying to think up what I could say about it, but I think the video speaks for itself.

New Video cross fingers

2010-07-22T01:12:00.002-05:00

I'd like to share a new video with everyone before this week is up. Cross your fingers, I've got more work to-do on Canine Combat, more specifically, I need to perform some optimizations to make it run faster.

But, fear not, my working on the optimizations won't stop me from recording a video to share. Stay tuned...

In-Game Cutscenes!

2010-07-13T06:23:00.002-05:00

It's time to unveil what I've been working on this past week. Drumroll, please... I present to you, in-game cutscenes!

For those that don't know what a cutscene is, it's basically a movie used to help tell the story. Unlike prerendered cutscenes, which are rendered ahead of time in animation software, in-game cutscenes are cutscenes done using the game engine and art.

They each have their advantages and disadvantages. Some of which are listed below:

Lets take a look at the +/-'s of prerendered cutscenes.

+ Typically look nicer.
- Usually stored in some kind of movie format (like avi, mpeg, etc) which tend to be very large.

Now, in-game cutscenes:

+ Can allow the player to manipulate the scene (if the game chooses).
+ Take up less memory than prerendered movies.
- The quality of the movie is dependent on how graphically powerful the game engine and art is.

For now, I will stick with in-game cutscens, although I will admit, I have been playing around with AVI files...

New Biplane Models.

2010-07-06T09:14:00.006-05:00

Well, from my post last month, I announced that I was going to use a more realistic (yet still cartoony) art style for Canine Combat.

You can see the differences here in the old and new enemy dog models. But, of course, there's more to a game then just "actor" models. And, being an aerial combat game, I must also redo the plane models the dogs fly in.

A while back, I posted about a biplane model I was working on. Here it is for those too lazy to follow the link:

Well, I decided that this model was just too cartoony for the new art style ... so ... I decided to redo it.

Here are the results:

4th of July WOOT

2010-07-05T20:59:00.001-05:00

The 4th of July has come and gone! Hope everyone had an awesome time.

Stay tuned for more news on Canine Combat in the coming days...