A quick preview of the wicked madness that will soon be the new Metal Drift cauldron of carnage ™. After performing the necessary incantations over many moons, (only 1 moon actually); my unholy creation has finally reached an adequate stage for public viewing. Mind you this is in its larval form. It has not grown skin, or talons, or the ability to be awesome….yet.
For those of you just tuning in; I started working on this new level ‘Javelin’ last summer, but shelved it to tackle more bite sized projects. But after our spring sale in April, I felt renewed zeal and decided to rededicate myself. Like the crazy uncle winding his own fishing lures or building tiny civil war re-enactments in the shed for hours each night, I’ve returned to this strange hobby with gusto. So, exciting new stuff to expect in Javelin:
- Now Extra Smooth!
As you can see in the fly through, the track and walls are smooth curves, rather than hard edged ramps and corners. In previous levels the movement of the tanks was not well supported by the level. The tanks move in big arcs, the levels had few of these. So Javelin is full of them.
- Even More Smoothness!
The big curves weren’t enough. I removed all the bumps from the ground. This wasn’t a strategic game play issue, just a constant frustration! Javelin is smooth, no lips on the ramps, no raised pads or bumps on the shield wall thresholds. It feels faster to me, and more fluid now. No more lining up a shot, just to lose aim when you drive down a ramp or through a shield wall.
- Extra Speedier!
The boost areas are more spread out now. You can see them as blue blocks on the ground in the flythrough. Having one long boost tunnel, as in past levels, seemed too separate and concentrated. I
wanted to try short bursts of boost scattered around the level so you could more easily fight while boosting. It speeds up the game quite a bit in general (a common suggestion we’ve heard).
- Lastly!
I’m trying out a more unique approach to the supporting geometry. I’m not worrying so much about reusing everything, and will be customizing more. I put a lot of thought into aesthetic improvements as well, but I’ll talk more about those as I get texturing done. I can’t make big changes at this point (if I ever want to finish this beast) but I’m always open to feedback. Please feel free to drop me a line. weston (at) blackjacketstudios.com
-W
I'm so excited, you just have no idea.