Elysian Shadows

PrototypeB is a small project that I am working on. It is a cooperative top down arcade shooter. Right now there is only one map and it is locked on survival. I am hoping to get a public beta out very soon.

Updated: March 22 2009
Uploaded 4 new videos to YouTube! Check them out: http://www.youtube.com/culwelljase

Updated: March 15th 2009
Sneak Peek Weapons Test: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8deI4AcgjY

You can watch a video of it on YouTube or Vimeo. Its a fairly old video and a lot has changed, but it displays the general gameplay.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOfWEaL4ZLE
http://www.vimeo.com/2160040

Any feedback is welcome and appreciated, good or bad.

looks awesome.

one thing i might try, or at least give the user the options of doing is having the ability to move the camera. what i mean is have at least a orthogonal view.
that be bitchin.

but looks really good mate.

I really dislike the 100% top-down perspective personally, but if I were to ever play a top-down game I'm pretty sure this would be close to the top of my list.

That is incredibly awesome.

Can I ask what API / engine you use? And what langauge?

Also, do you already have the network mulitplayer figured out? If so that's awesome. Seriously, this looks incredible.

RyanPridgeon wrote:That is incredibly awesome.

Can I ask what API / engine you use? And what langauge?

Also, do you already have the network mulitplayer figured out? If so that's awesome. Seriously, this looks incredible.

did you not look at the video....?????

Wow, looks great! Watched the entire video and am pretty impressed. Great job!

Can I ask what API / engine you use? And what langauge?

The video says the torque engine...Did you not watch?

Hi guys, thanks for the kind words!

I experimented with some different view angles, but since the game is not true isometric, any angle creates some imbalance in the gameplay. Basically the player is able to see further in one direction, but less in another. And since there can be a massive amount of projectiles at any given moment in the game then this is not desirable. The player needs to be able to see equally all around them to anticipate what they should do.

The game does indeed use the Torque Game Engine. Torque Game Engine Advanced, to be precise. The Torque Game Engine's core architecture is designed around networking. There is no such thing as a pure single player game in Torque, i.e. there is always a client and always a server. To create a single player game, one simply doesn't broadcast the server to the master server. So, yes, multiplayer is fully enabled and functioning properly.

However, the game does use quite a bit of bandwidth. Max of 2 players, 1 being a connected client, and 14kb/s up is required to host a server. I am working on reducing bandwidth requirements, or at the least, reserving more of that bandwidth for the projectiles. Torque has excellent networking, probably the best in the industry. But, unfortunately, it still needs to be tweaked based on the type of game that is being created. A typical server for a first person shooter on an average 1.5mbs DSL connection could host 32 players, including vehicles, and still be playable by someone on a 28.8k dialup connection(this can be tested with Tribes2, which is the precursor to the TGE). Of course the typical first person shooter doesn't have nearly as many projectiles that I am cramming into a small space. Thus the reason why bandwidth requirements are so high.

Again, thank you all for your replies. PrototypeB is nearing feature complete, and that video is actually pretty old. The game has changed a lot. I plan to make a weapons test video here pretty soon demonstrating the core features of gameplay better. I also hope to have an open beta test here real soon, so keep your eyes out for that if you are interested.

Oh yeah, here is a link to my myspace album for PrototypeB. I have some screenshots demonstrating experimentation with my weapon system. I generally post the most recent screenshots there first before anywhere else. http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.c ... mId=545292

A new video was added to my youtube channel. It is a sneak peek of the weapons system. A better more official video will be made soon when I get some issues ironed out, and all the features finished. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8deI4AcgjY

Four new videos uploaded to YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/culwelljase