Yes I am the dev. It will be available for iPad 2, iPhone 4S, and *maybe* iPhone 4 if I remove some effects. This has only been in development for a week so environments will get better.
Why are you only targetting A5 at this point? So far there's nothing on the screenshots that would justify that. Well, maybe excessive overdraws of the particle effects, but I'm sure you could work that out to work on A4 easily. I don't think there's anything to brag about at the moment. You've got empty environment, ugly textures (anybody noticed the rock texture on the trees?), and the only things looking decent are stock 3d models. I'm not expecting the game to stay this way, I just think it's much too early to make any serious hype for your game. Best of luck.
Actually there is, full scene shadow mapping with dynamic light and PCF filtering (only just made available on IOS 5 and iPad 2). There are no light maps/baked lighting in the scene. That alone is enough to require A5. The mech also uses skinning with bump and specular shaders which can be slow on older devices. I would also like to add god rays as seen in the Infinity Blade 2.
Well, of course, using advanced features does require advanced hardware. But you should ask yourself if you really need them? Technology alone won't make your game better, it will only make it available to less people. Shadow mapping as the only lighting engine will make your scene look flat, you'll get better visual results by baking global illumination and ambient occlusion on the objects. This does not limit your possibilities, just requires a little different approach. And that PCF - I can't see it on your screenshots, the shadows are really low quality. I'm not sure what kind of game, other than mech-themed, are you aiming for, but unless it's a slow paced sightseeing tour - those things aren't really going to matter. If you pack the game with action, the player won't have the time to focus on wether the shadows are blurred properly on the edges, etc. You should only reach for advanced and resource hungry features when they're really necessary. Mesh skinning is also no biggie. Iphone 3GS is perfectly fine with skinning 10k vertices without a choke. That being said, there's probably no reason to use skinning on mechanical parts. Either your artist, or you, could split the mesh into different parts and parent them to the bones without skinning. The shaders can make a blow to the performance, that's true, but there are tons of things you can do to avoid that. And unless you'll have a top-notch art assets in there, specular maps won't make that much of a difference. Well, I guess you get my point with all of this. There's many things you can do to make your game look good. Consuming system resources for no reason isn't one of them. Best of luck.
I don't need them. I could turn off the shadows and bump mapping and have everything using single textures. But then people wouldn't be playing the game as I intended and would probably complain about the graphics lacking. I have done this with other games (see Zombies The Last Stand) and people have a very different opinion based on what device they play the game on. This game is based on that engine and it had baked lighting with ambient occlusion but for this one I removed that and am going with full dynamic lighting. I made some advances that let me cast shadows from any position over large scenes. I'm not concerned with how many people will be able to play it. I want to make a game that looks different and stands out from the rest. The fact that I can use the same techniques as on a PC now is great, so I enjoy doing this stuff rather than faking it just to make it run on a mobile device.
Here is what it looks like without PCF. As you can see very chunky, which is why I wouldn't even consider doing this before IOS 5 came out.
My first iPhone game in 2008 was Blue Skies, which looked like this: Can you spot the improvement? LOL
I say to the dev, make your game the way you envision it. Don't hinder it by trying to reach too far back to older devices. If it needs A5 only, then make it the best you can for it. For all those that still have 2nd or 3rd gen devices, time to upgrade. Besides, the ipad3 will probably be close to releasing by the time you're done with the game. More horse power!
Q: Why there are currently absolutly no good Mech Games? A: Because every Developer Studio thinks that they are the Best and they know how to do it the right Way instead of doing the following Steps first: a.) Watch every Episode of Patlabor. Most of the Developer will already stop here to even think about they could create a Game/Story as good as this was... Track from Patlabor 2: Subscribe to the TouchArcade YouTube channel b.) Stop thinking that Mechs have to be always 3D. Square/Enix did prove 1995 that 2D is enough with Front Mission. Front Mission: Subscribe to the TouchArcade YouTube channel And after that the did Front Mission 2,3,4,5,... and each sold Million Times. Front Mission 5: Subscribe to the TouchArcade YouTube channel So as you can see 2D/3D is enough and noone needs Full 3D in that Genre. And if you are still going to create a 3D Mech/MechWarrior Game take a look at the following Games... Subscribe to the TouchArcade YouTube channel Subscribe to the TouchArcade YouTube channel Subscribe to the TouchArcade YouTube channel And now to the Part where i am telling you to re-think your hole Project. This Year at the 2011 Tokyo Game Show two AAA Developer have confirmed that they are working each one of them on an Mech Game for the iOS/Andriod Plattform. I am unsure if it was Square/Enix or Namco/Bandai since i can`t find the damn Press Link i had got a few Weeks ago. I don´t know what Engine you are using. If it`s the UDK/Unity 3D Fine, if it`s your own Engine - Good Luck. Both Square/Enix and Namco/Bandai are using the UDK so i guess after watching the Trailers above you can at least get a little idea what you will get 2012 on the iOS Systems. And if someone doesn`t think that this will be possible 2012 on the iOS/Android Plattform. Please sit down and we will talk about that Topic again in 8 Months...
By your logic I shouldn't make any game because it's all been done before. I welcome more competition especially on other platforms. I was inspired by the Hawken video and figure by the time that comes out people will also be searching for mech based games on IOS so it will help my game not hinder it. I would also like to have helicopter and tank based missions so it's not strictly a mech game. It will have some variety to the missions. I am using my own engine, but I sold it on PC for 15 years before porting to IOS. I don't have to rely on someone else's tools or code. I know that Unity was slow to support shaders and it's a bit behind with what I can do with my own engine. Even Unreal Engine is just getting shadows on IOS and I've had it since January 2010. Anyways the engine is done, and assets are ready. Just have to work on the game itself now. Will post more shots as things develop.
I am just saying that you should make sure that the Game is having a.) a nice Story and that b.) you shouldn`t feel that a Mech Game needs to be in 3D. You still could scale down your own Engine i guess to make it similar to those Front Mission Games and add a RPG Gameplay Style to it at the End. It`s your Choice. It doesn`t have to be always Gameloft who play Copycat if a Franchise is already working great. At the End i am looking forward how your Project will move along so don`t get it the wrong Way when i try to inspire you to create something that outstand the other Appz at every Aspect
I don't like turn based games and I think one of the drawbacks of mech games is they are slow and cumbersome. Armored Core and Hawken look to make mech games fast paced and interesting to seasoned gamers. One good thing is that the engine is mature and that leaves me with more time to work on story and other aspects.
I don't know what the other big companies are planning for their mech game, whether it'll be slow like the mechwarrior games, or more arcadey. However, if you haven't already thought of it, making it similar to virtual on (or if you want a more recent example gundam vs gundam) would definitely stand out a greatly amount from the other ios games. This is pretty much on the opposite spectrum of the turn base style mech games that you aren't big on. Since I don't know how to embed youtube links I'll just put the link here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Vi5KKWRCt0 (virtual on) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7mCSRf0O2I (gundam vs gundam) The only issue with these games would be the controls on a touch screen. But anyways based on your design of your mechs, it's probably not geared towards such fast paced action but hey, who's to tell you what you can/can't do with your imagination.
