XNA Thrust Game - "Thingy"

[Twenty7]

"Thingy", for XNA/360/PC.

I've had this game in progress for about 8 months now, on and off.



It's called "Thingy" for want of a better name, it'll probably have a name like "Rescue Nova" or something dorky like that.

I wanted to make an engine with realtime lighting, shadows and dof, then use that to make simple oldschool arcadey feeling games polished to the 9's. 60fps, ~720p, yadda yadda.

The engine is finished, all of the major game code hurdles are done, and now I'm just adding levels and art; which sort of sucks because I'm only a programmer and my art is terrible.

So, at this point, I'm considering shopping around for some funding to get some artists in. Having never done this before personally, I only have the vaguest idea of where to start with that and would appreciate some help.

Also, I would like some feedback on what people think of the game so far based on some videos.

So without further ado, some links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaLQFO3KYZY <- puzzle level

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZrKFR59ypE <- quick bossfight tester

Theres some more videos of various stages of development on my channel.

My blog is over at http://www.athiadev.com

Bump! Still looking for staff to help out with this, so in that interest there is now a playable build available over at www.athiadev.com

[luggage]

That looks awesome, great job!

For an artist you could look at the art portfolios on this site or post a help wanted ad presuming it's paid rather than volunteer. With the current look of the thing I'm sure you'll get some help.

Have you considered releasing your engine?

[barrygamer]

Impressive! The videos show how the lighting + dof really make the graphics stand out.

[electronicStar]

Wow this is ace, your engine looks better than the unreal engine. Good luck with the game.
The art doesn't look that bad.

[ManuelMarino]

This game is A W E S O M E !

From the screen you posted I never imagined to see the great game I saw on the videos.

Wonderful job!! Thumbs Up!

[luggage]

If there was one thing I wasn't keen on it's the lunar lander looking craft. It looks a little clumsy as a craft if you get me. Just a minor point.

[Bad Sector]

Very impressive game, i liked the variety of the puzzles you can make with it :-)

[Dan MacDonald]

Lotta good tech, the ship looks pretty maneuverable. Some of the levels could use a little more attention to detail. Somethings like the ship are great but the boss and level mesh's seems like basic shapes from a 3D modeling program. I know it's easy to pick on content, especially in indie games where resources are constrained.

The only reason I do is that I think you have something good here and want to encourage you to hit a consistently high quality bar across all aspects of the game.

[AlexWeldon]

I agree with the OP, and disagree with the others who say the art is "not that bad." It is actually pretty terrible. Mostly, it's that it's horribly inconsistent in level of textural detail; the rocks have smooth perimeters, but the texture applied indicates roughness. The trees are smooth and shiny like plastic. The sky looks almost like a photograph. Essentially, it looks like a hodge-podge of stock bits and pieces that are almost passable individually, but don't go together at all.

If the game's as great as everyone says, then you really should put some money into the art, as I think you'll lose a lot of potential sales at the "glancing at screenshots" level.

[Maupin]

I have to agree with Alex. The art looks like all placeholder stuff - it really needs to be consistent.

The gameplay looks great!

[GDI]

Something must be wrong with my eyes then, since the "hodge-podge" aspect reminds me of Little Big Planet.

If I had an Xbox, I'd buy it in its current state (assuming there's no bugs and there's a decent amount of levels).

I dunno, I find it easier to find flaws in 2D than 3D. Maybe add lots more bloom lighting or whatever.

If you were to hire an artist to redo the graphics, what exactly will improve? They're all supposed to look like toys anyway.

[Bad Sector]

Yeah, consistency is paramount. In fact i consider consistent art more important than good looking art because if you mix good looking art with mediocre looking art the good parts will make the mediocre parts look much worse due to the contrast/clash :-). On the other hand if everything is at the same level, things look more "normal". Unless they're abominations of course :-).

In any case, i agree that since you spent so much time on the design, engine, etc you should try to find some nice art for it. But i will add that if you don't manage to find nice art for whatever reason, don't let the game die :-P. It's better to release something imperfect than release nothing because you couldn't perfect it.

[Twenty7]

*Phew* Im glad people think the art is terrible because it really really is. Hodge-podge is exactly right, I threw stuff together to try and put the engine through it's paces and not much else.

eg: the boss fight is just basic primitives and a greybox of the levels collision.

Same with the intro level. Thats about as good as my programmer art gets, which I wouldn't even give a pass on my other projects, normally, but the engine makes it look better then it should.


Bit of a chicken and egg syndrome; I'm cautious about approaching a publisher while it still at about 20% of its potential awesomeness visuals wise. Asking for volunteer art help is frowned on around here, but I think I will anyway.

If you can produce better art then whats here, and you're interested in getting involved, shoot me an email at pmcneill (at) athiadev.com.

Re: the engine. It's basically a realtime version of the 3dsmax scanline renderer. Supports all the basic lights + most of the material propertys, you build in max then it shows up looking better ingame due to dof and post. I'll probably open source it once its published; xna games are so easy to reverse compile it's probably a good idea anyway.

[electronicStar]

Actually I kind of like the roughness of the textures and models, it makes everything look like a construction game and it gives it a sort of LBP vibe.
I'm affraid that by trying to use more elaborate art he could end up making the game look worse (less consistent and with clashing styles for example)

[Twenty7]

LBP is sort of what I was going for for the 2nd level. Its only a tiny bit more work to throw a wood texture on a block then it is to leave it on the default grey material.. so what the heck eh?

I wouldn't mind carrying that look over the rest of the project, but again, even thats really outside my current range. I guess I'll just keep prototyping levels and challenges out and eventually figure out how to get the visuals made.

[AlexWeldon]

Actually I kind of like the roughness of the textures and models, it makes everything look like a construction game and it gives it a sort of LBP vibe.
I'm affraid that by trying to use more elaborate art he could end up making the game look worse (less consistent and with clashing styles for example)

But that's exactly it. No one's saying that the problem is that the art is too simple; it's that different bits differ in their level of simplicity.

I think the game could look nice if, for instance, everything were minimally textured and kind of geometric, angular and stylized in the modelling. But some things have detailed textures, some have no texture at all, some are shiny, some are matte, some have smooth contours, some are blocky...

[electronicStar]

LBP is sort of what I was going for for the 2nd level. Its only a tiny bit more work to throw a wood texture on a block then it is to leave it on the default grey material.. so what the heck eh?

I wouldn't mind carrying that look over the rest of the project, but again, even thats really outside my current range. I guess I'll just keep prototyping levels and challenges out and eventually figure out how to get the visuals made.

What editor do you use to create the levels?

[LiquidAsh]

It looks like you have a great start to me. The shaders look sharp, and the gameplay looks interesting. I think level design will be key in turning your gameplay into a quality game. Limbo seems to be the invogue exemplar of level design for these kinds of puzzles progression and pacing. Best.

[ManuelMarino]

I'm reading too much harsh comments... the quality is clearly above average and the game and art just need some adjusting. It's a wonderful rude gem... if polished can become a real jewel.

[Twenty7]

Thanks for the kind comments

The level editor is 3ds max. You design the levels using meshes and materials in max, then use splines to define the 2d collision or physics things like joints.

[AlexWeldon]

I'm reading too much harsh comments... the quality is clearly above average and the game and art just need some adjusting. It's a wonderful rude gem... if polished can become a real jewel.

The quality of the programming is above average. The art clearly isn't... but when you're dealing with 3D, the final visuals are as much at the programmer's end of things as the artist's, so what you're seeing is the code compensating for the art. If you know how to separate the two, the art part is clearly bad.

This isn't harsh, because there isn't an artist involved. The dev himself says that it's exactly what it looks like: a bunch of random crap thrown together and made to look kind of okay because the programmer knows what he's doing.

[Twitchfactor]

Good looking stuff (well, not exactly good looking, as people on this thread have pointed out, but good-looking progress, tech, gameplay). Reminds me of a 2.5D Thrust clone I was making for XBLA back in 2007, until people at the company I was at conspired to get the project shut down, but I digress.

If you could get an artist to spruce it up, I think you'd have a hit! If I wasn't embroiled in another project, I'd volunteer. Maybe you can put out an ad?

Keep up the good work and keep the videos coming!

[Artinum]

I'm currently thinking about a title for your game. I was confused by the word "Nuts" in the screenshot and didn't realise they were the bolt kind of nuts until I had a second look, and was wondering about a spaceship flown by a squirrel!

Here's the question - what theme are you going for? If you're looking for fresh art, you can pretty much do anything you like here and a spaceship-flying squirrel would be just one example ("Astro Squirrel"! I like it!)

[Twenty7]

yeah, still working on the theme. I can do the gameplay but I think I need a concept artists help.

[piXelicidio]

WOW!! I wanna be a part of the success of this fantastic game!! I'm writting you and an email right now!!

3DSMax 3D Artist / MaxScript programmer

[lennard]

That's really cool. I hope you do well, I can see lot's of retro games being made with that tech. that would just look terrific. Nice job.

[DayDream]

Been following this topic for a while now... Been teased by Dan about it... and I would love to give this game some loving art touches...

[JGOware]

Game looks ace as is. Congrats. Would go over the top with updated media. But don't go too nuts with media expense, regardless how good it looks, it's still a niche market with this one. I personally think with thrust games, playability is a higher priority than graphics.

Would it do better with a cute jet pack character in a cartoon world?

[Twenty7]

Bump! Still looking for staff to help out with this, so in that interest there is now a playable build available over at www.athiadev.com