iPhone Voxel based endless psychedelic faller in 3D/60fps, with procedural terrain and music

Discussion in 'Upcoming iOS Games' started by gjestland, Jan 15, 2013.

  1. gjestland

    gjestland Well-Known Member

    Jan 15, 2013
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    Hello, longtime lurker here! I am an indie/amateur developer from Oslo, Norway, and ever since the ipad came out i wanted a cool flight sim for it, but to get the good fly-feeling, you need 60 frames per second for a really immersive experience, and no flight sim on the ipad can do that to my knowledge. I also like flying close to the terrain and i hate blocky textures. So i started to build one myself. That was four years ago, but i learned a lot on the way (with great thanks to the internet). Today i am ready to show the first gameplay-footage (captured from my ipad2) Hope you enjoy it, Touch Arcade (looks much better in 60 fps, but 30 fps is max on the internet alas):



    Due to the extreme nature of this game (things are contiously generated on the fly), Ipad 1 is not supported. All other ipads are fine (it was developed on an ipad2), but the screen on the iphone is just too small for this kind of gameplay. Believe me, i have tried! :)

    Any feedback is most welcome, I plan to release as soon as 6.1 is released, but i still need to do some small tuning. I also need a name for my baby. Any good ideas?

    Disclaimer: I use the term "flight sim" loosely, what i mean is more the "feeling of flight" sim, but thats too long! :)
     
  2. leonard_dabinski

    leonard_dabinski Well-Known Member

    Jan 7, 2013
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    Intriguing I must say. So what is this actually? You fly until you crash and the game is over?

    I can suggest a name but I would need to know how it works exactly.
     
  3. gjestland

    gjestland Well-Known Member

    Jan 15, 2013
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    Hi there, thank you for your interest! Basic gameplay is about flying downwards, collecting crystals and riding "wormholes" which is both a shortcut and a hazard. The terrain releases "spores" that contain genes that gets strengthened as you fly close to them. These genes are used for generating new terrain and colors which in turn generates the music (a sound is played and picked up in a sequencer when to spores collide). The game starts off pretty slow and quickly gains pace. It's a simple gameplay, but the controls are not dumbed down, so the challange is much about learning to fly and generally having fun. There also will be two online leaderboards, one for furthest travelled and the other for fastest mean vertical speed. Since it's always fun to zip past things, the game has excellent replay value (i still play a lot) I orginally made it just for myself, bit i have tested it on several different people and i think it has appeal outside the usual "flight sim"-people, mainly because it is so strange.

    Regarding the name, i have been doodling around the following names:
    Into the beat
    Deepdive
    Hyperdive
    Freefall fantasy
    But i dont really click with any of them.
     
  4. leonard_dabinski

    leonard_dabinski Well-Known Member

    Jan 7, 2013
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    So is the sounds/beat an important part of the game? Also, is this free or paid? In app purchases? Hyperdive sounds best but you need something more engaging.
     
  5. slewis7

    slewis7 Well-Known Member

    Apr 6, 2011
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    #5 slewis7, Jan 15, 2013
    Last edited: Jan 15, 2013
    Very cool graphics! Maybe the name can play off of the word "psychedelic" or perhaps the shortened "delic".

    Delic Dive
    Phychedivec
     
  6. gjestland

    gjestland Well-Known Member

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    @leonard: its not an important part of the game, but its a big part of the experience, even more than a normal game, because the music will gradually build up during play and changes according to the colors of the terrain (which in turn is based where the player choose to fly, as the spores (contains the terrains dna) release from the mushrooms in the terrain. Also the tempo increases with the depth. Its a bit complicated, but its not a music game. Sometimes you just want to keep going because the music is getting into a good groove. But its more about the feeling of tight controls, narrow escapes and the general joy of flying close to stuff! :)
     
  7. gjestland

    gjestland Well-Known Member

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    @slewis: thank you for kind words and input. I like your thinking, short is good, and it can be a bit cryptic, but it should ideally reflect both the style and the gameplay. I think of the gameplay as a cross between tiny wings and super hexagon, but in 3d. The style is definitively psychedelic as i feel normals mountains are just too 2,5d and desaturated! ;)

    It is also a quick fix with 10mb dl, less than a second startup and near instant restart. I think that is also a good selling point, but maybe hard to incorperate into a short name? :)
     
  8. Abbey

    Abbey Member

    Jan 15, 2013
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    Hyperdive!!

    Hi, love it!

    My question is can you save/continue the "song/tune" after you crash! I mean if you make a groovy song and nice track.
    Hyperdive is definitely the name!
    When is the release date?

    A:D
     
  9. gjestland

    gjestland Well-Known Member

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    Forgot to answer the part about price... This will be a free download, but limited to something like 2000 m, where the ground will be. If you make it that far, you like the game for sure and then you can unlock the endless part with a single 1.99 or 0.99 IAP (havent decided yet. All proceedings will go to make more games with the same engine. It is made for destructible/constructible gaming, so i have lots more ideas i want to do. But this game is strictly non-violent.
     
  10. gjestland

    gjestland Well-Known Member

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    @abbey: thank you for you enthusiasm! At the moment i feel the music works well with the game, but maybe not as a standalone product. We still need musicians thankfully! :) it will be possible to continue with the same genepool, but not excactly the same track, as this depend on how the spores interact. Again, this is not a music program, even though it makes music! :)

    I want to release asap, but a little more tuning is needed and reverb doesnt work under 6.0x, so i will have to wait for 6.1, eta end of month.
     
  11. agentblank

    agentblank Well-Known Member

    May 8, 2012
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    Iphone please!!!!!! This looks awesome, I loved ahhhhhhh(weird app name) but it didn't have endless. My needs can now be satisfied.
     
  12. sweetdiss

    sweetdiss Well-Known Member

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    #12 sweetdiss, Jan 16, 2013
    Last edited: Jan 16, 2013
    Wow, I love the visuals! I'm not sure I've seen anything quite like them in a game before. I love the free/pay-to-unlock model too. Really excited for this!

    As for the name, I think something simple like "Dyve" would be cool.
     
  13. gjestland

    gjestland Well-Known Member

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    @agentblank: it's easy to release as an universal build, but i am afraid that iphone users are going to hate it, because the screen is just too small. But maybe i will release as ipad first and the add universal support a bit later.
     
  14. gjestland

    gjestland Well-Known Member

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    @sweetdiss: Thank you so much for your kind words. I strive to be diffrent, and my approach was to remove texturing completely, because i thought it looked ugly, but also it stole system resources. When i removed texturing, i could increase the polygon-count with almost 100 %, now i can easily handle 200-300K of polys per frame/60 times a second. I love ploys, because they define the virtual space, not the textures, and it's the space that is magical. In conclusion i think it's strange that video-games is so obsessed with realism, when there is so much fun to be had!

    So what you say, i take as a great compliment and a confirmation that my work hasn't been for nothing, so thank you again. :)
     
  15. gjestland

    gjestland Well-Known Member

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    I will also say to everybody that if you are really, really interesed you can beta-test for me, but i require feedback in return. I'm especially looking for ipad minis and ipad4, as i have no access to these devices at the moment, but everybody is welcome. If you want to beta-test, drop me a private message with you UDID number, and i will get back to you. For me it's great to have some dedicated testers when i do the last tuning.
     
  16. leonard_dabinski

    leonard_dabinski Well-Known Member

    Jan 7, 2013
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    Actually, Voxel Run in itself is not too shabby a name. Simple and to the point.

    PS: Or well, Voxel Dive or Voxel Flight.
     
  17. gjestland

    gjestland Well-Known Member

    Jan 15, 2013
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    yeah, i like the word "voxel" also, but i feel its been exploited now that minecraft has become this great success and i don't want be associated with that, but maybe i'll just drop my high brow and get on the bandwagon! ;) I do plan on releasing a whole series, so i could use voxel as the main word, like voxel run, voxel war, voxel jump. But the word is still a bit technical and minecrafty i feel. Opinions?
     
  18. dhondon

    dhondon Well-Known Member

    Jul 22, 2009
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    Looks really cool. Good job:)
     
  19. the loafer

    the loafer Well-Known Member

    Feb 1, 2011
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    Name: HyperDive sounds rather good to me

    Your vid is very impressive, you would have a customer with me :)
     
  20. gjestland

    gjestland Well-Known Member

    Jan 15, 2013
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    @dhondon: thank you, i like your work too, i just browsed your webpage a couple of days ago! :) i plan on making more games on this engine maybe we could work together some day?
     

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