W.I.P - UnitedEarth

[SpaceFabric]

Greetings everyone!

Well, I am quite new to UDK and I must say it's wonderful! I've been programming for several years in C++, using DirectX, Win32, OpenGL and bunch of other libraries/APIs, even worked on a game engine, however nothing gave me the visceral visuals and possibilities as Unreal Engine 3. Understandable, since has been in development for over 10 years. It's been sort of a dream for me to work with it (with the possibility of getting a standalone game at the end, mind you) and once again: Thanks, Epic Games! You did a splendid job.

Now, back to to the project. As I am an avid gamer above all and the last game I played was Mass Effect 2, my tech side tried to dismantle everything I saw in the game, the cylinder used as a "sky" on Omega outside Afterlife, the beautiful Illium. So I left my game engine project for a while and started learning about UDK, UnrealScript. And hence I got "UnitedEarth" (don't mind the working title, I had to call it something).

I've done some workarounds with the space scene, for example, the planet itself, or better the sphere mesh is not rotating at all, saving me the trouble of making it a dynamic object and kicking around unnecessarily in Kismet and thus Matinee. I just animated the material, every texture moves with a certain offset to the right, and the clouds are a little faster than the rest.

For the city scene, as it is a preliminary scene, I used the geometry offered within UDK which sufficed and a few materials of my own for the glass (not finished) and the walls.

What's next? Well, I am working on importing meshes I've been working on in 3ds max and placing them around, adding some interactivity, enabling more post processing, adding in a Sun, crowd network with flying cars (not the annoying Illium sounds of cats whisling xd), a couple of particle systems, replacing existing geometry whilst keeping the organization. And after that comes what I've been working on for the most part, hopefully it'll work. Yup, cinematics with skeletal meshes, with some voiceover and lipsyncing with FaceFX, and then adding two different paths "it can go down" and allowing the player to choose in a MassEffect-style. Of course, I'm working on it initially through UnrealScript with plans to integrate it within Kismet. But, you know... Res, non verba.

Here's the video, I'd recommend viewing it in 720p:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmgeVADcBA8

If you are interested, I'll keep you posted. I'd appreciate some feedback, ideas on how to improve. Much obliged. The song in the background is called "All Is Violent, All Is Bright" by God Is An Astronaut, used with permission from the band. And yeah, the project is non-profit, of course. Nevermind the comments on the video if you don't understand them, Croatian language. =)

[Thurman]

Looks really good. I checked the vid before reading your post, and the 1st thought I had at the beginning title when the music started was how similar it was to Mass Effect. so if that's what you were going for, you got it spot on.
Definitely keep posting your progress!

[vahidpoor]

PLZ show some of Game play video if is exist

[CoffeeGrunt]

Really sweet trailer. How far have you got with implementing gameplay, etc. I'd love to see what you've done on that front...

[H4wkeye1]

Amazing. I am a huge fan of Mass Effect and BioWare, so this looks even more appealing. Good luck with the project! :)

[Forgetful]

It looks like you been working hard to learn some of the UDK tools. Nice job.

1 constructive criticism though, The small type in your trailer is really hard to read because its made with that title font.

If you want to keep the futuristic style and still have a readable font try some Helvetica variants.

Futuristic type styles tend to be kerned wider -kerning is the space between the letters- and sans serif.

[SpaceFabric]

@Thurman - Thanks, I hope the final implementation will keep it. I have plans to bring in the FrontEnd as close in idea to Mass Effect... But the most important thing is to get the basic gameplay feel out. Also, on the question of the inventory, should I try to recreate ME1's or ME2's solution (basically, "no inventory" with those hotspots)?

@vahidpoor - As soon as it's working... Although I prefer to polish it first a little, a big important chunk of the Mass Effect feel is basically the polish and the attention to detail. I wish to respect that.

@CoffeeGrunt - I'll write a "dev-diary" explaining some of my UnrealScript work so far (I believe there is no need to explain the actual material creation and such?), but in a nutshell I've managed to create some preliminary UI visuals which will pop up during a "cinematic sequence" which, like in Mass Effect, cannot really be considered a cinematic anymore. One of the things that are problematic (but not unsolvable) is saving, I'll have to work on that one later because the most important thing now is getting it all to work. The second thing is mainstreaming the whole idea, there's too much jumping around. As it is gameplay interactivity, I would like to manage it from Kismet properly, thus allowing more complex actions.

@H4wkeye1 - Thanks mate, just done my third pass through ME2 (almost 100 hours), it's amazing how it changes. I think one of my favorite things in the game are the dialogues, choices and the repercussions of those choices which echo through out the game and even the first game if you import it. Amazing feel of polish, and all that fueled by UE3.

@Forgetful - Thanks for the heads-up, I'll take care of it in the next video which should come out soon featuring some of the here-by mentioned, actual gameplay.

Once again, thanks for the positive feedback. I just hope it will be a decent "clone" of Mass Effect. One of the things when I'm done with the basic ideas is to perhaps expand on it. But first things first =)

[Thurman]

If you're on the fence with inventory, in my opinion, go ME2- even tho i haven't played it, and i have absolutely no idea about it aside from it's streamlined. The micro management with the gear in ME1 drove me absolutely nuts. Way to many stupid little things to think about. I love RPGs, and I thoroughly enjoyed ME1, but that inventory management i can happily do without. i understand that some fans of the genre really enjoy that part of it, but for me it was a major detractor from gameplay and story. not to mention i imagine that you will save a lot of work by skipping a convoluted inventory scheme.
I'm impressed. I started with UDK right after finishing MassEffect 1 (way late for that party) with the plans of doing an interstellar space saga. It didn't take me long to realize the amount of work that would be and i changed to a more modest undertaking. I'm sticking to 1 planet, thank you.

Best of luck to you!