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[WIP] - Chuckwagon: On The Lone Prairie.

Joyhype
Honored Guest
chck1.jpg
Hi, everyone.

My name is Matthew and I'm making a game called Chuckwagon: On The Lone Prairie with the help of my two friends Mark DeNardo from Pixeljam Games (Robot Unicorn / Glorkian Warrior) and Chris from Fru for Xbox One. We run an indie game collective called Joyhype which is based in New York and The Netherlands. Mark does sound & game design, Chris handles the mobile implementation and stabilizes the build, I code and do the world set dressing, art/modeling.

I'd like to create this thread to do a little devblog to update the progress and share with you images of the dev pre-production cycle.

I will also stream development on Twitch.tv at http://www.twitch.tv/joyhype of me building the game. Since I'm not in school this week, I decided to try making my first ever VR game.

firepit.gif

What is Chuckwagon?: Chuckwagon : On The Lone Prairie is a frontier game where survival is paramount, and your only ally is your gun, your wits, and a bit of luck. The end user will be able to explore rich landscapes, avoid being stampeded by bison, and trade with a quest-keeper. Players will unravel the mysteries of the frontier through emergent storytelling, encounter a wide variety of animals, and see how long they can survive.

How does it work with Gear VR? Players can move, and can shoot, but cannot do them simultaneously. Players will be able to shoot using the touchpad, and interact with the quest-keepers quest UI via gaze interactions. Using a series of smart gestures, and recognizing whether or not the player is in the active move state, or shoot state, players will be able to move around the world, and interact with objects using just the gear vr and not having to pair to a controller. Chuckwagon is not a gaze shooter.



Here are some images of what the game is starting to look like:

chk2.jpg



Images hosted on Imgur.
    Image 1: Meet Chuckwagons Frontier-esque landscape: https://i.imgur.com/rcSPVDg.png

    Image 2: VR Bugs are Funny (GIF): http://i.imgur.com/fMx7F5r.gifv

    Updated: April 15

    Image 3: Updated Scene. Wagon area implemented: http://i.imgur.com/KpvBzXR.jpg

    Image 4: VR capture: http://i.imgur.com/vcop17G.png

    Image 5: Night time cycle: http://i.imgur.com/X5Pq3iq.jpg

    Updated: April 16

    Image 6: http://giphy.com/gifs/3d-fire-oculus-3o ... HaVxu?tc=1 Night time mode.

    Video Logs :

    Video 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6C4U0lZ5P1w


    * Notes: Some of the coloring is off because some are taken straight from Unity and the others from the Build. The higher contrast ones are the build versions. The game only has around 5,000 tri's right now.

    Update log: April 15 1AM: Added Wagon. Lighting changed. Location text shows in the sky "Westword Spires" and then fades away drifting into the distance. Clouds in the back move slowly. More cactus and grass added. Ray casting is coming soon and collectible weapon boxes floating around the land. Invisible border walls keep player contained in the land. Fog lighting altered for mobile.

    Update log: April 15 8PM: Polished lighting. You can shoot Bison and they rotate when they fall over. Now I want to make the Bison blink. Card game assets are implemented but functionality is missing.

    Update log: April 15 10PM: Recorded video. Bison blood added.

    Update log: April 15 10:44PM: Quest system implemented. Location UI added. LOD operations optimized.

    Update log: April 16 3AM: Night time cycle added. Bison now have different movement states. Blood spawns and the bullet has a new trail renderer attached to the end. Players can only move forward. And or only shoot. Aiming is done by positioning of the head.

    Update log: April 16 10AM: Firepit added. Bison moan. They Drop little packages when you shoot them. Shop keeper is designed but not implemented. Game is running around 100,000 tris right now. Hopefully I can optimize some things. The game runs smoothly at 50-60fps per eye on my Macbook.

    Update log; April 16 12PM: Players can starve to death. They also get thirsty, and hungry over time.

    Update log: April 17 10Pm: Fire pit colors tweaked. Took a day break to work on another game project that is due for testing soon and homework 😕

    Update log: April 18 2PM: Gaze functionality is in for the quest cards! We're working on our pitch video right now. And updating the of the graphics. Dynamic lighting is added in, and the sun now fully rotates around the world. We're at a 150k with good performance 60fps and very few draw calls.

    Update log: April 19 3PM: Polished some of the games mechanics / design. Grass patches added. LOD operations tweaked. Working on submission pitch.



Follow us on Twitter :3

Follow me on Twitter! http://www.twitter.com/MattStenquist

Mark on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/MarkDenardo

Chris on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/Chrusb


Feedback is welcomed! 🙂

- Thanks,
Matt, Chris, and Mark.
SaaS and Fullstack developer. Hobby Game developer.
35 REPLIES 35

Joyhype
Honored Guest
^^ hi mark 😛

Hey guys here's a look at the night time fire pit in the game.

http://giphy.com/gifs/3d-fire-oculus-3o ... HaVxu?tc=1

This is a gif showing off the fireplace, the night time stars, and moon. I'm now working on some night specific only events both visually and mechanic wise. Shooting stars, wolves, etc.
SaaS and Fullstack developer. Hobby Game developer.

MaximMiheyenko
Honored Guest
Nice progress! Cant wait to see updates.

M.
Maxim Miheyenko, VR Production. House of Languages: viewtopic.php?f=77&t=22268&start=40

Elvina
Honored Guest
"Joyhype" wrote:
Bump 😛
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6C4U0lZ5P1w
Here' is a video showing off what Chuckwagon looks like.


I like western style and your angular art, looks good!
Background music in video is fun, will it be the same in game?

Wish you good luck with game developing.

ricard2798
Honored Guest
Like the original clean look, i would even call it retro 🙂
now, where is the pot with CHILI 🙂

Joyhype
Honored Guest
"MaximMiheyenko" wrote:
Nice progress! Cant wait to see updates.

M.

"ricard2798" wrote:
Like the original clean look, i would even call it retro 🙂
now, where is the pot with CHILI 🙂
"Elvina" wrote:
"Joyhype" wrote:
Bump 😛
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6C4U0lZ5P1w
Here' is a video showing off what Chuckwagon looks like.


I like western style and your angular art, looks good!
Background music in video is fun, will it be the same in game?

Wish you good luck with game developing.


Thanks for the kind words guys.(Ricard, Elvina, Maxim) :3

- Elvina Yes, the music in the video was made specifically for the game, and it'll be the same. It might be a little different but that's pretty much the style we're going for.

- Ricard As for the pot of chili, I was thinking of actually modeling one of those bbq-pits that would go over the fire pit.
SaaS and Fullstack developer. Hobby Game developer.

dotKokott
Honored Guest
Looks good Matt! Really dig the style 🙂

Curious how this project is going to evolve!

P.S. Add some vultures

Joyhype
Honored Guest
Thanks, Chris!

I'll make sure to add in some birds that are flying high near the big spire cliffs and also a lens flare when you look at the sun to give it that cliche western feeling.
SaaS and Fullstack developer. Hobby Game developer.

Joyhype
Honored Guest
sun.jpg

Here's a new image with the sun. The sun creates dynamic lighting affecting all the shadows in the game world. The sun also has a script that now alters the day/night cycle in the game, turning on the fire pit, spawning stars, and vice versa. Pretty neat stuff ._.

-> http://i.imgur.com/MnVHhzW.png (sun hosted on imgur)
SaaS and Fullstack developer. Hobby Game developer.

markdenardo
Honored Guest
Hi.

Mark here with some thoughts on the game design of Chuckwagon, a game I'm making with Joyhype, and the use of playing cards in the questing system and interface design:

Games are like most technology in that it references past innovations, and creates our identity though our perceptions of that past.

What's particularly interesting about Chuckwagon is how through game design we reveal a window to a moment in the past, and create an interface using game elements from that era; specifically card games.

There is a resurgence in board games design/card games in the indie community, I think because of the same reason vinyl albums are still selling: attractive interface design.

Holding something well designed in a person's hand still has an intrinsic value that is, for most people, still higher than having everything digitally composed in a streamlined user interface. In the past, people used to stare at many things that did not have their complexity of smartphones, but still had good aesthetic interface. Things like books, drinking glasses, tables, keys, etc. are still more complex than the tools crows make, and keep us pretty occupied. Because they are pretty.

Album covers are pretty and immersive objects. Listening to an album, staring at an album cover can create a completely immersive experience because of one main factor that has not changed: the witness of this is still the human mind.

Card games as well have this aspect, and because of the quantity of the individual 2D objects you can reference, it is essentially a paper container that has 52 screens. 52 possibilities aren't as many as the probably billions of images we all look at, but it does contain sufficient for a game making experience, and in fact it is a longer standing interface design that has been refined over much more time than laptops or smartphones.

In fact I think what makes laptops and smartphones effective is that there is a direct linkage in user interface going from physical 2D media like pictures, playing cards, and album covers to the screens of smartphones, laptops, and movie theaters.We are still making a mnemonic language.

Mobile games like Threes, Card Crawl, and Hearthstone take directly from the card vocabulary though, creating a postmodern experience, where you don't need to physically carry cards to play a card game, so you get to have your cake and eat it too.

Because this is a VR game, and we are creating in essence an immersive reality, it made sense to incorporate something like card games into the game mechanic. We are trying to send you back in time and make you think in a way similar to a frontier era, really anywhere in the world, not just the wild west. Just anywhere where people play cards as a pastime. There are people in Mali, right now, who use flintlock rifles to as tools of self defense, hunting, etc. It makes me think that everything we create in the past is actually about the past in the future, the future past, where we have awareness of more advanced technology but are enjoying the benefits of less options.

Particularly in game design, this issue comes up a lot. The concept of choice. Do I make a game where I can do anything? Do I need to make every event programmatically possible, or make a system where glitching and modding by way of sandboxing? I think the question gets answered here by two things: the choice for immersive story based gameplay, and also the need to create game sessions that can be as long or short as needed that will not effect the quality of the game.

Like with the Tarot, a card system invented as both a game and decision making tool, we are using a deck of cards as a means of making fun choices.

When you pick a card, any card, in Chuckwagon, it allows you that freedom to roam in a VR world and see what there is to explore while still looking for items to acquire and trade to survive. It is a story that has an ending as well, for now. We really look forward to sharing this game with the community and seeing how people respond to the system, tweaking it, making it better. Thanks!

Joyhype
Honored Guest
Awesome post Mark^.

chckw.jpg

Here's a link to Mark's Soundcloud with the first draft of Chuckwagon's ambient audio.
https://soundcloud.com/markdenardo/chuc ... lay-sketch
SaaS and Fullstack developer. Hobby Game developer.