City Project: Proof of Concept Demo Video (HD)

I finished this 'Proof of Concept' demo of my 'City Project' a little more than a year ago but, with the software I was using at the time and my modest PC, I could only record a quite low resolution gameplay video of it. I now use a better program that, usually, lets me record videos at 720p and decent framerates, so today I thought maybe I should make another video of the demo using it.

 

link to the HD version

The demo is still the same, it's far from a finished game but, if you want to try it, you can download it from: http://www.indiedb.com/games/city-project/downloads/city-project-proof-of-concept-demo I programmed it using C++, DirectX 9.0c, OpenAL and Bullet Physics. I haven't worked on this project since then, although maybe some day I'll resume it. The goal back then was just making this 'Proof of Concept' demo and start working on a different game, High Entropy www.highentropy.net

Video: 'City' Project: 'Proof of Concept' Demo

I've decided it's about time I make the first working demo of the project, and the last few weeks I've been trying to implement what I'm calling a 'Proof of Concept' demo, given the early state of the project, that includes all that I've made so far. Here's a video:

I'm planning on publishing the demo this week when I've polished it a little more, in case someone is interested in checking it out or helping me test it.

Work in progress video 53: Game menus

Here's a video of the first working version of the main menu's custom GUI I'm coding for the game (the sounds are just placeholders to test if everything works as expected):

Work in progress video 52: New sound manager (using OpenAL)

I've created a simple sound manager using OpenAL (previously, I was using DirectSound/DirectMusic). Now, when a sound asks the manager to be played, a preallocated pool of channels (OpenAL sources) is checked to see if there's one available, in which case, the sound will use it. The manager is not finished, I've yet to implement priorities so a sound using a channel can be stopped to give it to a new one with more priority that needs to be played, but it's already usable:

Work in progress video 51: Vehicles + physics are back

I have the vehicles, with physics, working again (not the sound). With the new improved code it should be easier to create, destroy, customize and manage them. Also, now AI and players use the same interface to send them commands (accelerate, turn...), which will be cleaner than what I first implemented.

Testing GWEN

Today I've integrated another GUI library into my code to test it. This one is called GWEN. I've to make more tests to see how much it can be customized but I like it so far, it could be used to make an editor or some game menus, and it was quite easy to integrate.

Testing libRocket

I've integrated libRocket (a C++ user interface middleware package based on the HTML and CSS standards) into my code to test it. Although it is quite interesting, I probably won't end up using it to make the game menus. I may test another library called GWEN but, right now, I'm thinking about programming my own code to add simple menus...

Work in progress video 50: Customizable vehicle colors

Today I thought it would be nice to be able to change the vehicles' color in real time, to add more variety to the city's traffic. Here's a video of my first implementation:

Testing AntTweakBar

I'm rewriting the code of my game project (I want to improve and redesign some elements now that I know what I'm doing a little better :D) and adding some new things. Today I've integrated AntTweakBar into my code, a library that provides a simple GUI that could be useful to easily tweak some parameters. Here's a video of my first test:

From its website: "AntTweakBar is a small and easy-to-use C/C++ library that allows programmers to quickly add a light and intuitive graphical user interface into graphic applications based on OpenGL, DirectX 9, DirectX 10 or DirectX 11 to interactively tweak parameters on-screen"

Work in progress video 49: Accomplished in 2011

This video shows the state of my game project at the end of 2011. Now I'm going to continue developing the game. I'm happy with what I've accomplished these last months, I'm learning a lot, but it's still very far from finished.

Work in progress video 48: More sounds

I've edited and added more sounds for braking/sliding, hitting pedestrians, using the car's horn... Also, all the cars have engine sounds, not only the player's, so the city is much noisier and alive :)

Work in progress video 47: Car engine sound

A video showing my first attempt at implementing the car's engine sound I wrote about in my previous post:

Work in progress video 46: Taxi mission

I've just finished the first version of a new type of mission for the game: the taxi mission. Basically, you can start this mission if you're driving a taxi (pressing a key) and once it's started clients are generated, one at a time, so you can take them to some random destination before the time runs out. As long as you take the clients to their destination on time new clients will be generated. Not exactly original, but I've always liked this kind of missions.

The car model's doors don't open so I can't make the clients open the door before they enter the taxi, when they get close to the door I just make them disappear, and when they have to get out something similar happens. It's not too realistic but it will have to do.

Work in progress video 45: Crowd simulation (II)

These days, I'm trying to add a new type of mission to the game, but I've also had time to improve, a little, how the pedestrians move: now, they don't make sudden changes in direction anymore, they turn gradually (if they want to make a 180º change in direction, for example, they don't do it instantly like before, something that looked very unnatural); also, they avoid objects like parked cars, benches... there are still many circumstances where they get stuck, so I'll have to work more on this area.

Work in progress video 44: Handbrake turns

I wanted to add the possibility of making handbrake turns, to make driving the cars more fun, so I've been experimenting with the friction values of the wheels and adding a handbrake key that, when pressed, applies a brake force to the rear wheels. It needs more work but I think making the car slide, and trying to control it at the same time, is already quite fun.

Work in progress video 43: Hand to hand combat (I)

Another short video. Today I've started implementing some simple hand to hand combat. Right now the player can attack other pedestrians and they get hurt:

Work in progress video 42: Running over pedestrians

Someday, I want to implement ragdolls for this but, until then, I've decided to add a falling down/dying animation for the pedestrians that triggers when a vehicle runs over them. It isn't very spectacular or realistic and still needs a little tweaking but it is an improvement.

Work in progress video 41: Crowd simulation (I)

I'm trying to make my pedestrians a little more intelligent. This video shows my first attempt to make them avoid bumping into each other, and the player, applying a repulsion force when they are too close to another pedestrian:

Work in progress video 40: Vehicle + trailer

I want to have a type of mission in the game where you have to transport some boxes, or something like that, in a open trailer attached to your vehicle from point A to B, or through a series of checkpoints, without losing them (or most of them). So, today, I've made a test model for the trailer and attached it to a vehicle using a constraint from the physics engine:

Work in progress video 39: Minimap

Added a minimap and some text that appears when you pass or fail a mission. Also, you now win money when you pass a mission.