User:00zX/Project Silky (UDK)

Project: Silky (UDK)

Status: Pre-Alpha 5 (prototype)

Perspective/Camera: Top Down
Type/Style: Arcade Shooter

Controls/Movement:

Dodging: Barrel Roll left/right

Afterburner: Extra Speed

Weapons:

Pulse Plasma-Gun: Varying degrees of upgrades, TBA.

Missiles: Sidewinder, AMRAAM, SRAAM, Mirv etc..

Bombs:

Rail-Gun: Assault, Penetrate (slower).

Energy Net: Snare.

Gauss Flayer: Pulse lightning beam.

Vehicles:

Air Superiority Fighter: Specialized class for aerial combat.

Interceptor: Specialized class for taking down bombers.

Fighter Bomber: General all round class.

Turrets:

Anti-Air Flak:

Surface to Air missile: Can be countered with chaff.

Environmental Hazards:

Rocks: These come dislodged from the canyon walls and might be within your flight path and must be avoided.

Description

The idea behind this project was to make something simple, fun and enjoyable. I looked at alot of indy games before coming up with this concept, audiosurf, braid, geometry wars. Eventually I settled on making something similar to one of my favourite arcade games which was macross plus. I remember back then and telling myself there wasnt enough of those top down shooters but honestly even back then perhaps I had ideas mulling around in my skull on what could make a fun top down shooter.
The gameplay will revolve around the player being in control of a fighter jet, much like 1942, macross plus or overkill. You'll pickup weapon upgrades of various types, fly through canyons, through cities and other environments yet to be decided. There will be a variety of enemies you encounter along the way with the traditional boss battles.
I just got bored with the whole "lets make a badass FPS/TPS" coming from alot of people, dont get me wrong I love those games as well but as a developer/modder working on/with those types of projects for over 10yrs it was time to move on and try my hand at something new and perhaps inspired. Maybe that was it, I was just lacking the inspiration which in turn showed on my motivation when working on those types of projects. Ive made major progress in short time (thanks to all your help guys big shout out to the #unrealscript channel, you know who ya are ;) ).
Currently Im tackling the projectile/weapon upgrade system, I'll certainly keep this updated on my progress, being a one man project till this hits anywhere near beta Im hoping things will go smoothly. There wont be any logistical issues with team members, team members leaving and taking their work with them or anything to that effect. Basically this is a one man show and this project was chosen partly because of that, its simple enough that 1 multi-talented person could pull it off in a decent enough timeframe. The only external help I'll need is in regards to sound and music, which I could do myself but Id like to keep it quality and I have a specific sound Im after to keep it within the classic arcade feel.

How Arcade is too much?

Well I really miss those times sinkin 20c or $ coins into mortal kombat, super offroad or hell even tekken 3, fighting vipers and SCUD racer. I really want to grasp that back in a big way with this project, Im going to try for an authentic revist in almost every detail while bringing things into the new age in terms of graphics and technology. One thing I would like to explore from my youth is system link much like the game gears but with bluetooth. Id like to go the whole hog, high scores, demo intro and even an insert coin screen instead of the well known "press START".

An Impression of speed

One of the reasons for silky being chosen as the working title is that it portrays a sense of speed and fluidity, these are important concepts through out the design of this game. Overall the player needs to feel like they are moving fast through the air from the top down perspective, now in respect to older titles which are 2d top down shooters trickery was used with rolling backgrounds to give the player a sense that they were going fast. This project however is entirely 3d and will be somewhat accurate in that the jet will really be located within which ever environment you are flying through not simply flying in a layer above like many top down shooter titles in the past.

Implemented

• Controls
• Camera
  • Fixed top down view
  • Crosshairs removed
• Special Moves
  • Barrel Roll
• Weapon Manager
  • Weapon Types
  • Weapon Upgrades
  • Ties to Projectile System
• Projectile System

Tasklist

Script

1. Physics
   1. More correct 'Jet-like' flight
      1. Crash and burning
   2. Special Moves using GameSpecialMove
2. AI
   1. Simple Aiming AI
   2. Targeting Drone AI
      1. Zone Targeting through Radar Actor

Models

• Jet (roughed)
• SAM Turret
• Missles (roughed)
• Radar/Communications tower
• Combat Drone

Levels

• Canyon
  • Rock formations
  • Various boulders

Project Class Tree (May Build)

Object (modified)
Actor
Controller(modified)
PlayerController(modified)
GamePlayerController
UDKPlayerController
SLK_Controller
SLK_Jet_Controller
EmitterPool
UDKEmitterPool
SLK_EmitterPool
Info
GameInfo
SLK_Game - Starting moving over some UTGame stuff into this class, using macro's to separate variables for testing and GameDex (GameInfo) integration of gameplay events.
SLK_GameInfo - Base class for a top down shooter where the player spawns in a vehicle at a certain altitude.
SilkyGameInfoContent - All game content level code will go in here (either that or it'll be deprecated).
ReplicationInfo
GameReplicationInfo
SLK_Game_RepInfo
PlayerReplicationInfo(modified)
SLK_Player_RepInfo
SLK_RepInfo
SLK_Spectator_RepInfo
TeamInfo
SLK_TeamInfo
UDKTeamOwnedInfo
SLK_TeamAI
Inventory >> UTVehicleWeapon
SilkyVWeapon
SilkyVWeapon_Missiles
Pawn
GamePawn
UDKPawn
SLK_Pawn - Mainly a buffer class with a few default properties, vehicle based game but GamePawn requirement for vehicles.
Vehicle
UDKVehicle
SLK_Vehicle
SLK_AirVehicle
SLK_Jet
SLK_Jet_Viper - Content class
Projectile
UDKProjectile
SLK_Proj
SLK_Proj_Plasma
SLK_Proj_Rail
SLK_Proj_Rocket
SLK_Proj_Flock
SLK
SLK_WeaponManager
SLK_WeaponType
SLK_WeaponUpgrade
SLK_WU_AngularFire
UIRoot >> UDKPlayerInput
SLK_PlayerInput - For tweaking up of the controls, mouse input completely overridden.