Beer Pong 3D (XNA)

[EdBoon]

what up,

I have been working on another XNA game for quite a while now and I'm finally getting through the 2D to 3D learning transition and starting to finally make some progress. The project is a 3d beer pong game which I am using XNA to develop. I have some of the basic game play stuff down, and am using mostly free models from turbosquid to fill in for the models I am having made up. I originally wanted to use Microsoft avatars because they are extremely easy to use and animate but it is against their ToS to have avatars involved in anything with drugs or alcohol (lame) so instead I am having the guy who did all the artwork on Undead Empire build up 3d models and animate them, hes pretty damn talented in that area. The models will probably take a month or two to get back and animated, plus all the scene objects and different tables, cups, customize-able clothing and characters, etc.. so I'm hoping by around March i can start getting it into play testing. I'm planning on having online multiplayer, 2v2 and 4v4.

Also a big part of beer pong is people using their own rules, everyone seems to have that one weird house rule, so if anyone has any rules they think people would like to see in a beer pong game, please let me know. I will have a standard set of rules that are used by world series of beer pong that people can use as default, or they can have their custom set of rules so if they are the 'home' team they can use their rules (bounces, balls back, rebuttal, re racks, all that kind of stuff). I will list the rules I have here so if anyone sees that I am missing one, i would appreciate if you posted it here.

here is the first of the videos I will try to put out weekly/bi-weekly

One of my friends has professional recording equipment, he's into music recording, so we are going to go record sounds at his place soon to get ball bounces, cups, splash sounds. That should be fun.

Also I am planning on having a single player campaign mode where you progress through a story and end up winning the WS of beer pong, but I am an EE so by default I'm a terrible writer. Nothing complex, the normal story progression: start in a garage or party then someone sees you and invites you to a tourny, blah blah -win bigger and bigger events then end up at world series. If anyone is interested in writing the script, let me know and we can work out something I'm sure.

The frame rate on this video is really bad, damn screen cap. I am going to record it with a PVR through xbox next time, should be 30-60 fps that way.

[dandymcgee]

Step 1.) Get hammered
Step 2.) Press Enter to Start

[hurstshifter]

Great idea for a game, I've been wondering why there wasnt a good version of this on XBLA yet.


Also, although many people may not know this, this game is actually NOT beer pong. It is called Beirut. Beerpong is played with ping pong paddles (hence the name Beer Pong) and you might remember seeing it in the Broken Lizard movie Beer Fest. I'm not even sure how or why people started calling Beirut Beer Pong but it has become very widespread.

/in before beer pong is beirut flamewar

[EdBoon]

this game is actually NOT beer pong. It is called Beirut. Beerpong is played with ping pong paddles (hence the name Beer Pong) and you might remember seeing it in the Broken Lizard movie Beer Fest. I'm not even sure how or why people started calling Beirut Beer Pong but it has become very widespread.

/in before beer pong is beirut flamewar

Yep, you're right. I was reading about that a while back, wonder why it is referred to as beer pong so frequently, even world series of beer pong calls it that. We use to play both, we just referred to it as beer pong w/ paddles haha. I'll probably stick to something close to beer pong for the title, just because that's what everyone is familiar with. Also beer fest is awesome!

I'm currently working on kinect controls, messing with the kinect SDK, its pretty cool. That was my original intent for the game but because indie developers can't include kinect sdk on the indie channel, for now its just tiger woods swing stick controls, back and forth with the thumbstick to determine power and angle determined by how accurate your gesture is when moving it forward. Hopefully they will allow kinect controls by the time i am done and i can include both.

[EdBoon]

Uploaded another video, this time with Hauppauge so you can actually tell what is going on. Wondering about the camera transition though, I am not one to get sick while playing fps like others so i don't think I would notice much, but do you think the transition repeating over and over would make a player feel sick? (the motion not sick from the crappy gameplay :P )

Also I have been struggling a little bit the the framerate on xbox, seems it doesn't like to handle lots of complex meshes for collision. I had to take my cup mesh down quite a bit, from about 6k poly count to 1k. Was wondering, for all those experienced with 3D programming (this is my first 3d project) is it common to have 2 meshes for every item i want to 'mesh-collide', where I have 1 being rendered and a separate, reduced mesh to handle collision? that would make the most sense to me but not sure what is more efficient, having 20 1k poly collide/rendered meshes or 20 1k rendered only and 20 .1k collide only meshes. I suppose I know one way to find out, I'll try that next.

So in the video it has 2v2 (only shows 1 robot figure on each side just for reference, but after I get models/animations done it will be two separate) and then 1v1:


comments appreciated, thanks for looking.

[dandymcgee]

Wondering about the camera transition though, I am not one to get sick while playing fps like others so i don't think I would notice much, but do you think the transition repeating over and over would make a player feel sick? (the motion not sick from the crappy gameplay :P )

It wouldn't make me feel sick, but it doesn't look all that great either way. It's weird that the reference point is the center of the table model. Perhaps a rotation around the table center's y-axis (or whatever is your up-down axis) while maintaining a fixed distance from that point would be more suitable.

Assume the cube is the table and the rotation is only 180 degrees.


I'm not sure about the collision tests, but you seem to be coming along nicely.
I'm particularly fond of the fact that the game takes place in a dojo.

[EdBoon]

It wouldn't make me feel sick, but it doesn't look all that great either way. It's weird that the reference point is the center of the table model. Perhaps a rotation around the table center's y-axis (or whatever is your up-down axis) while maintaining a fixed distance from that point would be more suitable.

Yeah I think that is what I will have to do. Something just didn't sit well with the table view transition. I plan on diving into different camera transitions at some point, I think they will be important later on.

I'm particularly fond of the fact that the game takes place in a dojo.

haha, it is an example environment for the sunburn engine I am using, but its royalty free so i might use it for a practice level or a bonus level or somthing.


Since my last video I have done a lot of framework stuff so not much has changed in gameplay, and probably will look very similar until I get some of my models and game art done. I added some different rules the player can customize and also created a new metro style menu system. I felt i might as well do this now because a) i was getting burned out on framework coding, and b) something like this will be needed for when I integrate Kinect controls. They will need a big block to select in the menus with motion control. I will add symbols to the left of the word text to represent the selection, but for now it just has to font.

I finished all the save/load coding and now there is a profile system for each gamer. The gamer will be able to choose his player model, change his clothes, buy new clothes (cash system for winning games), and buy other stuff like taunt animations, victory dances, new tables, new environments, etc.

Next I will be adding a single player story line type mode, which will most likely be a ladder progression (like MK) with an intro to each opponent and him talking some smack, and building up from parties and progressing through tournaments and finally world series of beer pong (still trying to discuss using the official world series of beer pong logos/tables with the league).

Here is a video of the metro menu system, everything besides the blocks are still placeholders.

[JamesParkes]

Also I have been struggling a little bit the the framerate on xbox, seems it doesn't like to handle lots of complex meshes for collision. I had to take my cup mesh down quite a bit, from about 6k poly count to 1k. Was wondering, for all those experienced with 3D programming (this is my first 3d project) is it common to have 2 meshes for every item i want to 'mesh-collide', where I have 1 being rendered and a separate, reduced mesh to handle collision? that would make the most sense to me but not sure what is more efficient, having 20 1k poly collide/rendered meshes or 20 1k rendered only and 20 .1k collide only meshes. I suppose I know one way to find out, I'll try that next.

@EdBoon - That's a great question about the rendered/collide meshes. In my experience with 3D game design and programming, I have found that the majority of collision meshes used have significantly less poly counts than the rendered mesh. Also, I've found that in order to reduce poly counts that artist typically work very diligently using depth-masks, etc. to keep the rendered mesh down as well. A perfect example is something you quite often in huge Triple-A titles like Modern Warfare, Halo, etc. (maybe everyone does it), but if you look at a wall from a distance it looks like it has tremendous depth. However, if you walk right up next to that wall and turn your camera to try and see if the wall has "real-depth" it in fact does not. The wall is actually flat as a board. It is the depth-mask that is doing all the gorgeous work, but doesn't have to sacrifice your frame-rate to do so.

example

Extend01.jpg (70.34 KiB) Viewed 8696 times

This wall is actually flat.

[EdBoon]

@EdBoon - That's a great question about the rendered/collide meshes. In my experience with 3D game design and programming, I have found that the majority of collision meshes used have significantly less poly counts than the rendered mesh. Also, I've found that in order to reduce poly counts that artist typically work very diligently using depth-masks, etc.
This wall is actually flat.

That's a good example. I figured that was the case, it's good to hear i'm looking at it the right way with separate meshes. It has always amazed me how many models they have in aaa games along with all the bullets flying and AI pathing etc, along with a crazy environment without any problems, then I have problems with a few stupid plastic cups! Hopefully I can get some good maps for my models to add a similar amount of depth to the environment, it adds so much to the experience.

[JamesParkes]

That's a good example. I figured that was the case, it's good to hear i'm looking at it the right way with separate meshes. It has always amazed me how many models they have in aaa games along with all the bullets flying and AI pathing etc, along with a crazy environment without any problems, then I have problems with a few stupid plastic cups! Hopefully I can get some good maps for my models to add a similar amount of depth to the environment, it adds so much to the experience.

Yeah those AAA game use lots of special sauce! I didn't start picking up on it till I started doing game development myself. Next time your playing Halo, notice that as you get closer to objects in the game that a more detailed texture is applied to object, but as you get further away a lesser detailed texture is applied. Some call it magic, game developers call it mip-mapping.

[EdBoon]

Yeah those AAA game use lots of special sauce! I didn't start picking up on it till I started doing game development myself. Next time your playing Halo, notice that as you get closer to objects in the game that a more detailed texture is applied to object, but as you get further away a lesser detailed texture is applied. Some call it magic, game developers call it mip-mapping.

Yeah definitely noticeable, pretty cool actually. definitely makes a lot of sense.

I was going to upload another video but not much has changed visually, still using the same placeholders while art and models are being created. Meanwhile I have been working on online multiplayer code which is always fun For the character models I am trying to go for a similar look to Xbox live avatars (was originally going to use them but they cant be involved with alcohol, lightweights) A little more detail than avatars but will probably still hold the flat cartoonish type colors to them. Right now i have plans for 4 different base models then they player will be able to choose skin color, clothing, hair color, accessories, and more. Anyways here are some sketches and prelim face model:

[Diventurer]

Look. Justin Bieber! D:

[dandymcgee]

Look. Justin Bieber! D:

That's almost an insult to his art.

[Nokurn]

Very nice art style. A few notes:

• The bald guy's neck looks just a little bit wide than it ought to be. It's wider than his head at the bottom. Maybe the lack of shading is just playing tricks on my eyes, who knows.
• The blonde looks a lot angrier from the side than from the front. The eyebrow seems to be angled steeper than the front view, and the eyelids seem lower. You've probably noticed the inconsistency if you've already started modelling her, though.

Looks great so far!

[EdBoon]

Look. Justin Bieber! D:

That's almost an insult to his art.

for real

Very nice art style. A few notes:

• The bald guy's neck looks just a little bit wide than it ought to be. It's wider than his head at the bottom. Maybe the lack of shading is just playing tricks on my eyes, who knows.
• The blonde looks a lot angrier from the side than from the front. The eyebrow seems to be angled steeper than the front view, and the eyelids seem lower. You've probably noticed the inconsistency if you've already started modelling her, though.

Looks great so far!

*He's on roids

*Yea they are quick sketchups to reference for the 3d models

and thanks, feedback always appreciated