Crazy about Mammoths and video games, decided not enough games feature mammoths, so am working on creating "Mammoth Gravity Battles" (www.mammothgravitybattles.com) - a 3D update to the classic physics turn based strategy game, gravity wars. An an indie game developer I am most interested in games that are unusual, thought provoking and offer varied game-play. I have a particular passion for turn based strategy games and games where a simulation core gives rise to emergent game-play. Based in Cambridge, UK

Report RSS Aiming in a 3D gravity field is hard; NASA-rocket-scientist hard.

Posted by on

Mammoth Gravity Battles is coming along nicely, but I have been worrying about one thing – the difficulty. The latest version of the web player demo has been available for a month, and I've had some wonderful feedback. However, the demo takes the player straight into an advanced 3D level with no tutorial. Its really not for the feint-hearted. In addition, I was so pleased with my improvements to the game AI, I think I've left it a little over aggressive – they frequently take you down in a few shots – you
don't have time to mess around!

AimingACross3DAsteroids

The feedback has been positive, but quite a few players struggled with aiming and understanding how the gravity was going to effect their shots. That is because we are not doing something that is easy. In fact its never been done before – players can't have experienced moving three dimensional gravity
fields, unless they work for NASA. So that leaves me a challenge; I don't want to lose this aspect of the game, its what makes Mammoth Gravity Battles unique, but I must facilitate the player's progression so they can handle it. I can help with improving the interface, give more feedback as to where they are aiming, but for them to really get the game – they need to get to the point where estimating complex 3D orbits is second nature. The only way I can hope to achieve this is though a well structured campaign mode that gradually leads them to this point. Starting with simpler 2D aiming at static targets we will work up to aiming at an enemy missile cruiser across a chaotic moving 3D sector filled with wormholes and stars nearing supernova.

Screenshot from Mammoth Gravity Battles

Post a comment

Your comment will be anonymous unless you join the community. Or sign in with your social account: