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[WIP] Hexagon APK + DK2 version

HelloMeow
Explorer
Hi!

Here's what I've been working on.




ChallengePost page

Get the current version here:
Hexagon.apk
Hexagon.zip DK2 version

Hexagon is a twin stick shooter, where every single element of the game is synced to the song you're listening to. The game lets you pick a song and then stuff happens to the beat. You can pick any mp3 file on the device, or choose one of the included demo songs.

You control a simple hexagon. Avoid enemies, which spawn on and react to the beat. As the song's intensity increases, so does the number of enemies. Score points by shooting at them with bullets that are synced to the music.

The game has a clean and minimalistic look, with effects and a perspective that enhance the virtual-reality experience. As changes in the music are detected, color schemes and the point of view of the camera will shift.

The goal of Hexagon is to blend gameplay, music and VR together in a fun game.
VRJam: Hexagon
30 REPLIES 30

HelloMeow
Explorer
I've been experimenting with different perspectives.

The first is a 360 degree playing field that's wrapped around the player with a vertex shader.
The second is a top down view of a rectangular playing field.

I think the second one is going to be the best for the game. The 360 wraparound sounds like it would be the best thing to do for VR, but the top down view feels better. It gave me a better idea of what was going on and the added restrictions to the movement made the game more hectic, whereas the 360 playing field limited what I could see and made escaping enemies too easy.

I'm not sure...




VRJam: Hexagon

HelloMeow
Explorer
I've made some progress in the last few days. I decided to stick with the flat rectangular playing field and added a perspective system that changes the perspective based on changes in the song the player is listening to.

When I first added it, it felt super disorienting. It wasn't because of the moving VR camera, but because the input wasn't rotated along with the camera. After that was fixed, it felt surprisingly smooth. It feels awesome to have your point of view change along with the song. The color system is getting there as well, but I still need to find some fitting colors.




Next up is a better enemy spawning system, more enemy types and nicer colors!
VRJam: Hexagon

sfaok
Protege
Looking good! Love the way the enemies spawn to the drum beat at the end.
Changing perspective when the tempo/volume changes is inspired too, really cool feature.
Developer of Ocean Rift. Follow me on Twitter @sfaok

Anticleric
Expert Protege

Anonymous
Not applicable
I have tried the test build late last night, but could not figure out how to move the player?

And while I appreciate a minimalistic game, this might be a little over the top. The graphics could do with some TLC.

Oh, and when using a filebrowser to look for music files, don't put the user in '/', but hide everything under /sdcard/, otherwise most users will have a lot of trouble looking for their files. In this case maybe default to /sdcard/Music/ to make that search easier?

update: I have hooked up my bluetooth gamepad, and now I can move the 'aircraft' and shoot. So the input works.

HelloMeow
Explorer
Thanks for giving it a try. Which gamepad did you use? You're supposed to control the player with the left and right stick. It appears to work for other people with even the crappiest gamepads.

It's an early build, so some effects and features are still missing. I'm still experimenting with the visuals, but it might end up staying roughly the same. There will be more subtle stuff that visualizes the music.

If everything pans out the file browser will search for mp3 files. Looking for a default music folder is plan B.

"Anticleric" wrote:
Very cool. Check this out.

https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/14210

May be exactly what you need 😉

Haha, I'm not trying to make an exact copy of Geometry Wars.

"sfaok" wrote:
Looking good! Love the way the enemies spawn to the drum beat at the end.
Changing perspective when the tempo/volume changes is inspired too, really cool feature.

Thanks! Because the music is analyzed on the go, sometimes interesting things like that happen. Sometimes it fails horribly though. It can't be perfect.
VRJam: Hexagon

Anonymous
Not applicable
"KoningStoma" wrote:
Thanks for giving it a try. Which gamepad did you use? You're supposed to control the player with the left and right stick. It appears to work for other people with even the crappiest gamepads.

It's an early build, so some effects and features are still missing. I'm still experimenting with the visuals, but it might end up staying roughly the same. There will be more subtle stuff that visualizes the music.

If everything pans out the file browser will search for mp3 files. Looking for a default music folder is plan B.


I use the Samsung Gamepad, and as I said, it works fine.

But I have trouble to shoot where I want to shoot, and fly to where I want to... With the three ways of movement going on at the same time (head movement, player by gamepad and shooting direction by gamepad) it is more a question of not hitting anything than real actually aiming for something 🙂

HelloMeow
Explorer
"arnoudh" wrote:

I use the Samsung Gamepad, and as I said, it works fine.

But I have trouble to shoot where I want to shoot, and fly to where I want to... With the three ways of movement going on at the same time (head movement, player by gamepad and shooting direction by gamepad) it is more a question of not hitting anything than real actually aiming for something 🙂


Are you familiar with twin stick shooters? The controls are pretty much the same as many games in the genre.

Do you think its possible that the Samsung Gamepad could be a bad controller for the genre? I've read some reviews that mentioned bad analogue stick quality and another tester said that the controls are fine, but it didn't play very well because of the sticks on the Samsung Gamepad.
VRJam: Hexagon

Anonymous
Not applicable
The gamepad seems to react to my input just fine, it is just that I do not like multi input controllers 🙂

I am getting too old I think, I grew up with Suzo digital joysticks and max 2 fire buttons :geek:

urwin
Honored Guest
I like the minimalistic approach, will play it.