Mecha war: attempt number 2.

ID:1468297
 
Jan 11 2014, 8:03 am (Edited on Jan 12 2014, 4:53 am)
Back in 2011 i had plans to make my Mecha game but it wasn't long before that was a flop and all i had was my poor programming and some icons yut put made for me.

I plan to bring the game back to life, I'm a slightly better pixel artist than i was back then and i've come fairly far with the main icons needed and I'm seeking Programmer help to get this game on track.



Mock up image of a base:


Mock up image of part of the map.

Walker-Speeder



The idea of the game would be player vs player or player vs npc where you get your base where you need to earn points which you can use to buy ground/air units or upgrades, your units automatically attack your nearest enemy..

Around the map would be numerous gun turrets which sit idle and you can claim them and make their your own which would shoot at enemys. There would be a wide array of weapons for yourself and power ups to collect as well as ways to spend your points earned from killing other than buying new units.

It's a pvp, zone control, point collecting, unit buying, domination type of game.
Jan 11 2014, 9:01 am
This game looks amazing go for your dreams :)
Jan 11 2014, 2:01 pm
What you are describing sounds a whole lot like those really fun MechCommander games. I think I recall seeing your game once before, but it wasn't available, so I didn't take the time to realize that it might be in the RTS/RTT genre.

Anyway, I hope you are successful at developing this, because I know this type of game would end up being really fun on BYOND, as long as it's done correctly and doesn't lag from all of the units running around. Just in case you have any second thoughts about developing this, or if you have never played MechCommander 2, just listen to this and imagine how epic it could be!
Jan 11 2014, 2:19 pm
Thanks guys, lol I've wanted to make this game for such a long time now, i just lack the programming capabilities, that's all that holds it back :(

So i won't have second thoughts!, but that battle theme is awesome :P
Jan 12 2014, 4:52 am (Edited on Jan 12 2014, 9:26 am)


Your Mech unit comes with 2 Gun turret points which you may assign any of the 5 weapons to, which will hopefully prove interesting.
Jan 12 2014, 1:36 pm
I had wanted to make a mech game at one point. When it comes to mechs, one of my qualms ( possibly the ONLY qualm ) is when mechs are drawn like the one you have here. It looks like a rectangle with legs. There's no pizazz or personality, just a box sitting on legs. It's part of why I don't like Hawken. Too many clunky beige crates running around. When it comes to design, I think series like Gundam Wing, Evangelion, Transformers, and my favorite: Zoids got it right. That's what made that show so fun to watch. Each zoid was just awesome to look at. I mean who WOULDN'T want to pilot one of these bad mother suckers?
Jan 12 2014, 2:30 pm
If you're making a mecha game, then clearly the robots in it need to look like this http://img.tarad.com/shop/d/dot35shop/img-lib/ spd_20081210144443_b.jpg
Jan 12 2014, 3:04 pm
I like this idea of a game ;) good luck and i hope this game gets far and i would like to be there for Closed Alpha.
Jan 12 2014, 4:10 pm
Honestly, I can't stand Gundam Wing. The whole concept of highly advanced, brightly colored, fragile looking robots flying around with melee weapons just seems self-contradicting and completely ridiculous. Also, if the technology really is that advanced, why not just safely pilot them remotely, instead of risking your life inside that machine. It doesn't take an engineer to know how poor of a design those things have. They are very tall and appear to have very thin armour. It won't be long before it gets turned into scrap metal. Painting a mech like that just tells all the enemies, "Here I am! Come and get me!". They seriously wave giant glowing swords at the enemy? Gundams would be cut to pieces miles away by high powered lasers!

I could go on and on about how dumb those things are, but I will stop now. Zoids are much cooler, since they actually have some basis in reality. Even today, engineers are designing robots inspired by various things in nature. I would love to see one of those predators tear a gundam to pieces. It's what you get when you try to mix Jurassic Park with Terminator, even though it would be much more awesome as a movie.

Anyway, now that I'm on the subject I should talk about Teka's design:
First I will give my basic description of what a mech actually is, or should be: An agile, heavily armed, bipedal tank. There are minor exceptions to this rule, such as the number of legs, but for the most part it holds true.

I am not judging the art itself, which is nicely drawn. I am only judging the design here. The biggest issue with the above design is the legs. It just looks like an early prototype still in development, which funny enough I can imagine that's a surprisingly accurate description. To get to the point though, the legs have no armour! They also don't appear strong enough to carry around 20+ tons of weight. The robots being developed today are all very small and light, compared to these, so don't take leg inspiration from them. These massive machines would require a much stronger design. However, that probably doesn't matter, since the inner workings should be completely covered by armour anyway.

Another issue is that huge pane of glass (hopefully reinforced) taking up such a large surface area of the cockpit. Chances are, it would be cracked and shattered in no time in the heat of battle. Realistically, a mech pilot wouldn't really look through a window at all, and instead use a periscope. However, if you wanted to keep that style, then the window should probably be a lot smaller. There could even be some kind of armour "eyelid" (for lack of a better term) that can cover it, in case things get really intense.

I should also mention that mechs would realistically be camouflaged. Some of them might even come coated with advanced nanotech invisibility paint. They might even have built-in radar jamming and other stealthy technologies.

Also, you could make some with retractable wings and built-in jet engines or rockets, so that they can fly around like idiots on occasion, getting hit with LRMs. No, seriously though, since your mechs can transform to an extent, they could actually fly, unlike those mechs with pathetic jump jets.

Anyway, I probably shouldn't judge it too much yet, since it's probably just an early design.
Jan 13 2014, 10:11 am
Ok guys lol. Magic man, ET I'm a big anime supporter and i do love proper Mecha like Gundam and it's kin, my games a top down based game and i just don't have the talent to pixel everything i want, plus I've done my Mecha like this to replicate some of the Mech games i did play when i was a kid and enjoyed.

Thanks for the feedback Multiverse :)


Jan 13 2014, 1:03 pm
In response to Teka123
The front of it looks really flat.

I get the impression it's not suppose to be flat because of how the windows appear to be protruding outwards. But a mixture of strange perspective and lack of shading make it look flat.
Jan 14 2014, 10:26 am
I decided to try an edit! I hope you don't mind.

I haven't done any pixel art in a while, so it wasn't too easy. I restructured the top portion and guessed where to add facets based on the apparent shape.

After that, I examined the existing palette, chose a light source at the upper-left, and tried to shade the faces based on their orientations. Then, I went back in, and carefully chose colors for the face edges, still using the same palette. I made a rule that "convex" edges would be lighter and "concave" edges would be darker, with certain exceptions that required black. This made the mech pop out, so it's not too flat anymore!

I hope it looks good. It was hard for me to understand what was going on with the "knees" and the "feet". I didn't really edit the feet. It appears as if it has 5 "toes", but I'm not really sure.

I have to wonder if it would have been easier to just model it in 3D. 3D modeling is good for these sort of shapes. The learning curve is much higher though.
Jan 14 2014, 10:39 am
Nice Multiverse, It looks great :P now it looks like it actually has depth and dimension and that actual metal look.

I will steal this lovely edit of yours!. This Mech image is only intended to be used in the character creation system where you get to swap through weapons etc, It was never intended to be any better than my usual art,Especially since i have no understanding of shadow depth and my shading is still awful.
Jan 14 2014, 2:01 pm
Is this supposed to be the in-game version?

If so, it doesn't seem to match up very well with the large image. Actual in-game art should take priority over HUD art. Maybe you should upload more icons to see if people can improve them. You could make another topic just for contributions. You might be surprised by how many people would be willing to help.
Jan 15 2014, 9:31 am
Thanks multi, but i'm not a professional and i only draw because i like to. I wouldn't want to collect large quantities of art from others or edits. especially if i couldn't match their skill level to do the rest which i need.

I'd say my 32x32 top down view of my mech is close enough,It's color scheme is the same,It has an apparent visor/window at front, Gun turret structure position, Visible feet underneath it.
Jan 15 2014, 12:02 pm
None of us are professionals, and not being able to match their skill level is precisely why you would want them making the art for you. I'm sure you would also learn the techniques from them. Small icons like these shouldn't be too much work to improve. It might also let you spend more time on the programming, and less on the art.

Either way though, the most important thing is just that this game gets released, so if you think sticking with your existing art will help that happen, then please do.
Jan 19 2014, 12:14 am
In response to EmpirezTeam
EmpirezTeam wrote:
I mean who WOULDN'T want to pilot one of these bad mother suckers?

Is... is that you? Tyrannozord?
Jan 19 2014, 2:09 am
Zoids would tear Power Lamers to shreds.
Jan 19 2014, 3:45 am
Titanfall ripped off of Teka. ;o
Jan 22 2014, 2:50 pm
I'm pretty interested in this, and truthfully...I'll support it. I'm willing to do graphics for this, and dedicate a good portion of my time to both learn, and help this grow for the better.

I have plenty of ideas, and suggestions. BYOND needs new original idea, and a little spice to it's game genre'