Hunt and contain hostile robots in a cartoonish cyberpunk setting

Hello all!

The idea is a colorful action game, suitable for ages 8 - 80. The aim of the game is to stun and capture robots. Yes, like Ghostbusters but without the ghosts. Ghostbusters the game from 2009 was the best example in my opinion, of an action game where the player does not kill anyone. There are also minor influences from the movie “I, Robot” in the game as well.

The story takes place a few decades into the future. Its about a man who invented a device that tames hostile robots and allows him to shut down and repair them without causing any damage in any way to them. Law enforcement on the other hand is armed and trained to destroy hostile robots on site due to an incident in the city where robots malfunctioned and massacred hundreds of civilians. The players device saves money for his clients and allows him to repair robots that have sentimental meaning to some of his clients. Of course something goes wrong, robots go rogue and begin to organize and build armor for themselves that deflect bullets. They raid powerplants and weapons, even taking control of top secret technology, unleashing it against the city. When humans retalizate, the robots attack is so aggressive and unbridled that much of our defenses are neutralized and humanity is left vulnerable to extinction. Enter, our hero! He just happens to have a little gadget that can neutralize the robots and shut them down! The basic story is still under construction but I wanted it to be a foundational story that allows for expansion. Once the main game is done, any idea can be added to the lore over time.

The game is meant to be very simple, colorful, basic, and be a visual treat if at all possible. It took so long to get anything done because I was trying to make a AAA title and use ALL the ideas I had at once. Lesson learned? Work within your limitations. I have no formal skill in anything related to game development aside from playing games so I will start simple and each new game will have improved art and effects.

It will feature several large levels, bosses, upgrades (dont know how to do upgrades, XP or leveling yet so it will be dumb simple for now), a basic checkpoint save system, A.I, optimized to run at 30 frames minimum at all times, menu with volume/music control, soundtrack, custom sounds and it will be free to play, open source and all.

This is a solo project. With the exception of Blender Game Engine, UPBGE and publically available source code, I will build all the art assets. There isnt a website yet, but there IS some simple code ready to build a site. I multi task alot because I really enjoy the entire process of building, learning and creating. I also enjoy long romantic walks on the beach and BBQ.

Progress will be posted here and any youtube videos showing the tech demo features in action. I already learned to build some engine features and will upload them for demonstration of progress and as a tutorial for anyone that wants to know how. The game is exclusively using UPBGE 0.2.1 because it had features turned on that the new Blender had turned off like animated textures. UPBGE is more game friendly and I will likely be sticking with it for the forseeable future as its got it all!

It’s been a year already? Anyway, the old pics have changed and are much simpler.

Looks good, an alright pitch. A few points I want to make:

  • I would make getting a working game skeleton your absolute first priority. Story and setting should come later. Any designer will tell you that the game itself will likely change and morph to the point where your original setting idea no longer fits, and a game that sticks close to its setting tends to be a poor game.

  • A pitch always looks a lot better when you have some gameplay to show, even if it’s some in-engine screenshots or working models/sprites. The concept drawings do look good, but concepts aren’t indicative of the final product, and like I said above, can change easily.

  • I think the biggest concern I have with this project is the sense of over-ambition. You’re saying that you want to work within your limitations, but you’re planning features that you’ve said yourself you don’t know how to do yet. I’m not saying “never have dreams or goals”, I’m saying “this pitch hasn’t inspired confidence from someone that’s been in this same boat her entire career”.

A very ambitious project indeed for a solo dev. I agree with MichelleSea, having a working basic skeleton to show from the get go inspires confidence.
Anyhow I really hope this goes along, even if it morphs into something totally different (which is usually what happens, not necessarily a bad thing though). Good Luck

Hey my thread got approved!

MichelleSea - Hello and thankyou!
By working game skeleton, do you mean a tech demo? Ive been working on that since early 2017 and still have a few modules, as I call them, to implement to complete the framework. It uses cubes for placeholders, but has ALL the features the game needs for now. Blend file should be ready over the weekend.

I should have had some playable assets ready before posting. That gets top priority right after uploading the tech demo. A demo with playable assets. Your right, the game has already changed so many times over roughly 6 years! Im open to scaling back to getting it done this year, preferably by summers end.

By working within my limitations, I mean doing what I absolutely know I can do. Features like leveling is for the next game as its just taken too long for me to get to this point. Once this game is complete, I can devote time to adding new modules to the engine.

Wissam - hello and thankyou as well! By the weekend, monday the latest, the tech demo Ive been working on and learning since early 2017 will be available here. Lets see where it goes over the next few months. I appreciate the kind words.

Will return in 2 - 3 days bearing gifts.

Hello all.

Here is the demo.

Its not much, just a VERY basic functional tech demo.

As I add new features to the tech demo, I will upload screenshots here and if you wish, you can watch the features being added on my Youtube channel. The videos will show how the game tech was done and especially for features I had a hard time with like getting an Empty or any object to follow the ray.hitposition. I found a blender file that pulled it off perfectly and once I get the persons name I will credit them for it because I wouldnt have solved that problem if my life depended on it.

Ok, the next step is Im building a second demo with some low polygon art assets, namely the player, one robot enemy and one level. That will take a while. Im estimating 2 weeks, so March 1 the demo with art assets and more code should be available.

Forgot to add blend download:
Blender Game Tech Demo 3 - Basic AI and Gameplay.blend (533 KB)

I posted on Monday but it seems that the moderators haven’t cleared my post.
Just in case there was an error I’ll repost a shorter version.
BGE tech demo.blend (533 KB)
Having trouble with blend file upload. Maybe the above works ?

Testing - I responded Monday but posts aren’t showing up?

EDIT - It took a year but I’m on track again. Here is a sketch and basic model of the character. I might add detail later.

And here is the latest update:
Player run and idle animation in UPBGE.

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Another update. First off, thanks to BluePrintRandom, your Scale script helped me make sense of the Ray sensor and I modified it to fit the game 🙋! And here it is in action: [Update] https://youtu.be/gTkX0tGuQiU

Last 2 years were NOT fun. In any case, hello all!

My game has changed a bit. Got more story and characters. It’s no longer 3rd person, it’s first person now.

Forced myself to make progress.
It’s not much but it’s something.