It's time for another development update, as 39 Days to Mars moves towards a playable version and the release of the first gameplay trailer.
What's New this Fortnight?
A lot has been going on behind the scenes. I've been working on improving the code behind the game, so that it's easier for me to manage multiple input methods, multiple players, and multiple puzzles. The game now has a selection screen, where you can set up and start a co-op (or single player) game.
More importantly, the rendering system is being developed, and the game is starting to reflect the concept artwork.
Developing a Unique Look
One of the many tasks I worked on this fortnight was deciding how the game is rendered - that is, how everything gets displayed on the screen. For 39 Days to Mars I had a unique style in mind, and I wanted to get as close to this as possible.
On the left is the concept art, and on the right is what the game looked like last week.
As you can see, the current version has a lot of messy and overlapping lines, and no background. Rendering is done in layers, and so the first approach is to take the outlines and simply render them over the top of the background. This works fine for simple objects:
However, when objects overlap, it looks like they've all been drawn in the same place with no regard to depth or occlusion:
The obvious solution to this is to colour the objects in. When you stack multiple layers together, the colour occludes the lines behind it, and everything looks the way it should. However, problems occur when the objects start moving in relation to the background. (See In-Depth explanation on the Development Blog).
Watch This Space
Alongside the control systems and rendering, I've also been gearing up for better cross-platform development. I've been using a small test project to help understand the technical challenges in porting to Linux, MacOS, Ouya, and hopefully even the Wii U! Watch this space.
