Introducing Diver

[JeffWeber]

UPDATE (9/15/200)

Diver has been released: Play Diver Now


Original post:
I've just finished the prototyping stage for a game I'm working on. It's a physics game and I thought it might interest some people here.

Diver uses the same control scheme as Ski Stunt Simultor. I feel this type of game mechanic is VERY under-utilized.

Here's a link to my blog that talks more about the game and has some screenshots and a video: Farseer Games

Or if you prefer here is a direct link to the youtube video

Any feedback good or bad is always welcome.

-Jeff Weber

[MrGreed]

Looks good, good luck finishing the game.

[muffinmonkey]

ok
looks nice by the way

but feature requests:

• some kind of water simulation (the make of tri-achnid made a very good one, see if you can find out how he did it)
• Ragdoll for when he hits the rock (maybe blood)
• A Beta, I really want to play this

yours sincerely
Muffinmonkey

[soad667]

Looks good, dude...
Waiting to see more

[edthefirst]

Originally Posted by muffinmonkey

• some kind of water simulation (the make of tri-achnid made a very good one, see if you can find out how he did it)
• Ragdoll for when he hits the rock (maybe blood)
• A Beta, I really want to play this

yours sincerely
Muffinmonkey

Looks really good, but as muffin said, these features would be great.

Maybe he could ragdoll if he hit the diving board on his head or back, a rock, or as he enters the water. And yes definitely a beta.

[ericman666]

really cool!

i like how you used the same system as SST.

is there going to be splashes as he hits the water?

[dsfargeg]

Moar eye candy. Those are boring colors, but I know you're still working on it.

[turunen45]

damn that is cool! is there going to be distance meter?

[JeffWeber]

Thanks for the comments everyone.

but feature requests:
some kind of water simulation (the make of tri-achnid made a very good one, see if you can find out how he did it)
Ragdoll for when he hits the rock (maybe blood)
A Beta, I really want to play this

What you see in the poor quality video is pure prototype. I just wanted to make sure the Diving would work using the Ski Stunt game control mechanic. It did so now I'm beginning actual development.

Water simulation is definetly on my list. I want to have some sort of splash that is proportional to the amount of body area that smacks the water.

Ragdoll and breakable joints is already supported by my Farseer Physics Engine, so that'll be in there too.

Alpha version will come soon hopefully soon. I'm waiting for MS to release the beta version of Silverlight 2.0. Currently Silverlight is in alpha. I'm planning to make the game available to play all the way thru the dev cycle... alpha, beta, final including all the iterations in between.

For those not familiar with Silverlight it is Microsofts version of flash. I chose it because i'm a Microsoft developer and using Silverlight will make the game available on both windows and mac in ie, firefox, and safari.

Moar eye candy. Those are boring colors, but I know you're still working on it.

The colors are just temporary and thrown in without much thought. I can't promise superb graphics as it's not my strong point but I'll definetly do my best.

Thanks again for the comments. I'll post again when I have something playable.

-Jeff

[Whef]

Was the youtube video making the game look laggy or is that what the game is now? Just wondering. Anyways, looks like a good game, I think you might need some more control, the guy seemed to do the same thing every time.

[mikybee93]

I wouldnt reccommend ragdoll untill after the diving board, even if he does land on his head, cuz that will just limit us more. If i want to spring out of a handstand on the diving board, i dont want to spend 30 minutes trying to keep my head safe. I'm imagining this more of a toy than a game, but with certain requirements, flips, going through rings, avoiding things.

-Maybey rings to fly through
-Requirments, # of flips needed
-Powerups? (mebbe)

I dunno, it looks really cool and i love ski stunt. Cant wait to play it, make a blog about it or sumthin so we can check up on it.

[What?]

I think this game has a lot of promise and with some tweaks and additions this could be EXTREMELY fun.

[Ryu Hinote]

Originally Posted by dsfargeg

Moar eye candy. Those are boring colors, but I know you're still working on it.

Personally, I think it would be nice if it were simple colours for everything in this game as in background's blue, waters darker blue, diver is black, bombs are red, etc.
On the other hand, I wouldn't mind high quality either.

[JeffWeber]

Was the youtube video making the game look laggy or is that what the game is now?

Yeah, that was youtube and the screen capture software I used. I need to come up with a better way to capture video. Game runs at a solid 60 fps.

I wouldnt reccommend ragdoll untill after the diving board

Ragdoll won't kick in unless the hit is fatal. Once ragdoll kicks in (ie. an angle joint breaks), you won't be able to control the character and he will fall to his death.. or at least hit the water with some broken bones. :-)

make a blog about it or sumthin so we can check up on it.

see my signature.

I'm imagining this more of a toy than a game, but with certain requirements, flips, going through rings, avoiding things.

-Maybey rings to fly through
-Requirments, # of flips needed
-Powerups? (mebbe)

Well, it will be more a game then a toy in the sense there will be levels of ever increasing difficulty. That said, it will be pretty straight forward and easy to pick up and play for 5 or 10 mintues if that is all the time you have.

Personally, I think it would be nice if it were simple colours for everything in this game as in background's blue, waters darker blue, diver is black, bombs are red, etc.
On the other hand, I wouldn't mind high quality either.

Gfx will be pretty simple. I will be sticking with the silouette look for the foreground. The background will have some simple landscape imagery but nothing to fancy.

Thanks to all who've taken interest in this and thanks for the feedback.

[muffinmonkey]

By the way, this should be moved to Feedback Request as there is no game yet

[JeffWeber]

Sorry, I didn't notice the Feedback request when I posted this.

[muffinmonkey]

Originally Posted by JeffWeber

Sorry, I didn't notice the Feedback request when I posted this.

no biggyyyyy

ETA for the Beta at all?

[JeffWeber]

It's really dependent on when MS releases the next beta of Silverlight. They said the beginning of this year.

I don't want to release it with the current alpha version of Silverlight 1.1 because it will be defunct soon.

So my answer: Probably within a week of MS releasing the Silverlight 2.0 beta.

-Jeff

[walaber]

this is great, I had actually been thinking about making a 2D diving game as well, based on the same control scheme!

my idea was a bit more or a springdoard and platform diving simulator idea, but to be honest, you idea looks like more fun

can't wait to play it!

[Kamikaze189]

Map editor and moddability.

If you have those two things, and a responsive control system, this game will go far.

[Zatochu]

Originally Posted by JeffWeber

Yeah, that was youtube and the screen capture software I used. I need to come up with a better way to capture video. Game runs at a solid 60 fps.

Use AviScreen, HyperCam, or CamStudio. Search for the CamStudio Lossless Codec for good compression, but no lost quality, or download the Microsoft MPEG-4 codecs,Microsoft Codecs(Alternative to get codec: Download GameCam, and let the installer download codecs, then cancel the download of GameCam itself) have good compression, and doesn't lose too much quality.

[JeffWeber]

@Zatochu
Thanks for the tool suggestions. I will look into them.

@Kamikaze189
I won't have an editor right away. This is a web-game so the editor thing wouldn't be as easy as if it were a downloadable game.

I am considering a downloadable version in the future if there is enough interest. In that case I'd definetly make an editor so people can create levels of there own to share.

@walaber
Thanks. Big fan your work, as well.

[Zatochu]

Also, make sure the screen recorder's fps capture is decent for what your recording. (For a game, 20-40 fps capture will due)

Forgot to mention, but I'm looking forward to seeing a release of this. A level editor "would" be nice.

Microsoft MPEG-4 V1,2,3
Here's a more reliable download for the codecs.

Also, you may want to use Cheat Engine so you can slow down an app so each and every frame can be recorded smoothly(Note, you will need to tweak your fps capture rate, so it doesn't capture duplicate frames, unless you have a good animation software that can remove duplicate frames). And then you can speed it up in a video editing software.

I made an example, using Line Rider's in-game slow motion button. Which puts out the frame at a controlled rate.
Looking at my capture settings, you can see it will only capture a frame every 500 milliseconds, while the playback will be 10-15, which will mean it will play those frames at a decent speed. instead of the rate of capture. While having the big delay on capturing a frame and having the frame by frame mode activated, it will capture the needed frames, without missing frames due to system lag(This also eliminates the speed editing process by setting the playback speed in CamStudio. Complicating, but easy to figure out. Wait, what.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTczU9Encwg

Edit: I tweaked things around and found a good combo if you use CamStudio and Cheat Engine together.
First open up Cheat Engine, the game, and Cam Studio.
Then attach Cheat Engine to the process the game is running in.
Now in the speedhack box, slow it down to 0.4.
Then go to CamStudio's video settings, and set "Capture frames every __ milliseconds" to 125-150 and 12-5 for the "Playback Rate __ frames/second" box.
Minimized and close unneeded windows, and start recording. The slow motion will feel a bit awkward, but it will get a decent playback.


Edit: New Settings

Speedhack: 0.5
Capture frames every 150 milliseconds
Playback rate 20 frames/second

[JeffWeber]

Ok, thanks for the additional info.

[muffinmonkey]

without an editor this game would be nice
with an editor it'd be PPPPHHWWOOOAR