Embryo (videos and screens)

hey scirra folks

been working on a game for a month, so far, started when I heard about the indiepub competition. Unfortunately didn't even get a full level done for the contest, hopefully my sandbox will garner some fans. Now that it's uploaded an such I wanted to share what I have with my scirra friends, those who haven't already seen it in chat that is.

the vids really are where it's at, because it's the motion that shows off anything special there is to see. The sword vid being the one that reveals the most about gameplay. All motion and controls in the game will be fully dynamic like that vid, swinging swords catapulting grenades, moving arms of vehicles, etc, will all be fully controlled by the player.

first some screens: (right click view image if it doesn't fit)

<img src="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1013446/mantis/Temp%202010-07-31%2021-30-04-96.png">

<img src="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1013446/mantis/Temp%202010-07-31%2021-30-32-05.png">

<img src="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1013446/mantis/Temp%202010-07-31%2021-31-43-67.png">

the detail is going to be uncompromising, everything you see in these shots, can be zoomed in to fill up the entire screen without pixelating or blurring, the sword sprite for instance, is 1703x421. At certain times in the game it will zoom in and slow down to capture a moment, and the details will be revealed:

here's a closeup of the in-game sprite for the one of the rat's handguns:

<img src="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1013446/mantis/rathandgun.png">

and here are some early vids: (they're kinda big so probably easier to rightclick download than to view in browser)

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1013446/mantis/mantissword.avi

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1013446/mantis/cartransform_new.avi

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1013446/mantis/mantiselevator.avi

one more vid here, not as hi res as the others, but if you're one not to wanna download stuff:

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/4994274/embryo_game_alpha/

and it's basically the sword and car vids combined with grass, but here's the hi-res version of that metacafe vid:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1013446/mantis/mantis2.avi

in a few days the little alpha thing I uploaded to indiepubgames will be ready for download and I'll be back here begging people to go vote for me. It's insanely incomplete, hopefully someone there will see some potential though. I'll post some more info about the game in future postings as I plan to fully develop it. But for now, I'm going to go rest, I've done nothing but work my dayjob and work on this game for a month and I don't even want to think about it anymore now:)

thanks for taking a look

Whoa

That's what I call High Quality.

HOLY !@#$, I'm sorry but those are the only words i think i can use to describe what i think of this.... That sword video was just amazing. You have got my vote.

Now brb, i have to go and pick my jaw up off the floor.

Impressive stuff! Though will my 512 MB graphics card be able to play that, or am I going to have to upgrade to 1 TB? (kidding, kidding)

Also, what's up with the .bmps? Use PNG or JPG! Those images are like 5 MB!

That looks really cool! Does look like a bit of a cpu/gpu hog, but that's to be expected for such an impressive display.

Good luck with the continued development.

Very Cool!! Can't wait to see the finished product.

Haha I love the mantis sword vid! Awesome work.

thanks guys, by the way here's all the entries:

http://www.indiepubgames.com/games.php?sort=contest

pretty much what you saw in the video is what there is to play there, so there' not really a game at all, I'm placing all my hopes in the following statement made as a reply to someone's question in one of the contest threads:

[quote:bz7n0sk6]Hi!

We never intended the contest to be only for games made at the contest start. We will accept games made earlier. There isn't any way for us to verify when a game was made anyways. The contest time frame was to give some time to get the word out there, and to give developers some time to finish up their games. But we'll definitely give full consideration to games made in the last 3 months, with understanding that they may be less polished or developed. For example, I made my game Storm in the last few weeks of the first competition, and that won Community Favorite.

What we look for is potential in a game. Sure, we are interested in super polished games made by highly experienced indie developers, but we are just as interested in quick and dirty prototypes built by young, new, aspiring developers. If your game is interesting and has potential to be a great full game, we are completely interested in it.

and

[quote:bz7n0sk6]We aren't only going to find one game to be published: we will try to work out publishing deals with any developer who seems to have a promising game. We are certain that we can attract all sorts of great developers; we already are doing deals from previous contestants (like me!).

even though there's isn't much to go on in my game, I'm hoping I have a shot because of the art direction, and the idea of total control. it's a longshot though.

I'm going to try all of them eventually, but so far the best looking one's i've seen are alpha squad, which is insanely polished, if not too original, basically a beautiful ghost shooter, and clayton something, it's a tower defense game. oh yeah and dustforce looks fun too

if anyone sees any other really good looking one's let me know

I can see that you will go far.Good luck.Btw the vids are stunning.You are one off the few future little big planet type games creators out there.

I tried the demo, and there appears to be a serious problem with the fullscreen effect canvas. The screen is really zoomed in and i can't see the main character at all.

<img src="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1010927/Forumpics/sadfacemantis.jpg">

Also, the window size is wayyyyy too big. I can't even move it around on my screen (1440x900) or see it fully because the caption bar is cut off at the top when it starts. I'd limit it to around 1024x720 (somewhere around there) so people can actually see the window.

Aside from that, great work. I love the game idea, but i'm wondering if construct can handle it effiently. And please make sure the gpu requirements aren't over 512 mb.

I love the procedural animation! At least I love it in the videos - I'm having the same problem actually running the game, it spazzes out for me in exactly the same manner as Davioware described.

Looking forward to more updates!

JUST, TOO, BIGGGGG

i think my laptops integrated card would die loading one texture.

i do love the mantis sword swingyness though

i had set out to make something similar with the whine engine, but alas i didn't have the determination to ever go far with that great job.

thanks all, especially those who tried it and reported glitches

try this:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1013446/mantis/test.exe

it's a virus....just kidding

it's a new version, took out a bunch of stuff like buildings, and backgrounds.

I'll worry about adding stuff that should be added later, later

I want to get the basic game working on peoples machines first

this version allows you to set resolution, and should run on machines with 128 megs vram

Just started the exe. Both windows are partly located outside the top of the screen. On the selection window I couldn't even see the buttons above the 1280 options.

The mantis is running and jumping smooth (and very interesting). The zoom function doesn't work correct.

(graphics processor load 20%)

I'm still seeing the same thing - the first screen is way off the top left of my monitor. Full screen mode causes an immediate crash, and the other display modes freeze on me.

I thought it might be my weaksauce laptop so I took it over to my gaming rig and the same thing happened.

I really wanna try this!