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Here is where I write about the development of my projects and my general thoughts.

Total Invasion II - Plans for Remake

January 10, 2022

I have begun work on the remake, which will simply be called "Total Invasion II 2.0" and will replace the original game on all of its distribution sites. I will, however, keep the original version accessible.

My plan is to remake the engine "from scratch" (that is, using OpenGL and a handful of other libraries instead of an existing game engine) as an enjoyable learning experience. The game's graphics are simple enough that this shouldn't take an excessive amount of time. So far, my plan is to write it in C++. Despite C++ being a pain in the butt to develop in, I think the experience will be valuable for a future in game development. I am also thinking of making a new version of the map editor in Rust, as a way of exposing myself to that language.

Technical talk aside, here are the features planned for 2.0:

  • Balance difficulty in all areas
  • Fix collision bugs
  • Fix raycasting (enemy sight) bugs
  • Improve hit detection on explosions
  • Improved game performance
  • Improve grenade physics
  • Fully serialized saving and loading
  • Developer console
  • Rebindable keys
  • Support for multiple resolutions
  • Improved lighting and fog

And if that all goes fine and well, I might try my hand at making further enhancements for 2.x:

  • Cleaner art style and music (with option to switch)
  • Improve look of map geometry (add crevices, slopes, height variation)
  • Add bonus fourth episode
  • Add Russian localization
  • Add alternate character (Ivantari, scythe wielder)
  • Add multiplayer deathmatch mode...? Eeeh, maybe.
  • Remove Geoffrey

As an example of what a future art style could look like, take this screenshot from my Godot prototype:

godot_screenshot


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Total Invasion II - Difficulty rebalance update

January 9, 2022

Guten tag!

While recording my playthroughs on Youtube I realized that, once again, many of the maps in this game were much too difficult! I spent about 40 minutes trying to get through E3M4 -- screw that map, I want to punch whoever made it...oh, right...

So today I released an update that changes some of the level design to be more forgiving, particularly in episode 3.

However, there are many more problems with the game's difficulty that revolve around its fundamental workings -- Proper raycasting is poorly supported in my janky custom engine, so explosions tend to get you in places they shouldn't, grenades don't bounce properly, and it is easy to get stuck on corners.

Damage taken from enemy contact is accumulated every frame and is also the leading cause of death!

Fixing these problems would involve significantly changing the foundation of the engine -- one that I wrote in 2015 and is an absolute mess.

This is part of the reason that I'm planning to remake the game to be much more maintainable, polished, and stable.

I'm still debating with myself what tooling I'm going to use, but rest assured it will be coming eventually™.


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