okay, if you chose this for a style, be sure to incorporate this style everywhere. the basic idea of using this art style is very good, but look out that you dont overdo it. your human models as well as your landscapes should, while keeping the style, be tweaked towards it.

a good example for this would be viewtifull joe. a very rough and edgy style, but it looks amazing.

since you decided to not use a toon shader, its harder to keep the style up. maybe you check out some screens of the gundam game from the n64 or tsumi to batsu from the n64 to get some ideas.^^

thank you for your replies, thank everyone for their replies, it's nice to hear that people like this game, and will support it

btw: we are going by just a few gundam games:
1: Journey to Jaburo
2: Federation vs. Zeon
3: Gundam vs. Zeta Gundam

plus we have been looking at screens from other gundam games, however, even though we want a mecha game similar to gundam, our mechas look completely difft, as you can see, all though we are using mecha anime as a base, we want to make the mechas just a little different.

Hi! I really like your screenshots! I have high confidence that it's not 1998, as that's not a very good constructive criticism... Besides, what can you do in order for the game's graphics to be less like it was made in 1998? Well, to me, games that were made with 1998/amine-style is okay! Some anime games can be mixed in with realistic graphics that uses Vertex and Pixel Shader 2.0, even if the games won't use shaders...

Anyway, as for screenshots with the Slim mecha's boosters, you might want to tone down the specularity...it looked too vibrant on my eyes when plaing a game.

thank you, and for an update:

1. code is coming along nicely, i fixed a few bugs that looked really bad when the player "evaded" (evading is strafing really quickly to get out of the way of something).

2. The hud is really in good shape now, it is almost completed, most ammo, health, energy, panels are up, radar has been fully fuctional for some time now.

3. level development isn't going by quickly yet, but more models are being created and updated.

so, overall:

Code (not including ai)- ~90%
Ai - 2%
Models and animations - ~40%
levels - ~ 5%
Textures - ~ 3%

we will get a motion capturing system up so we can do animations and stuff, the only ai we have now is a turret, and even it needs to be changed.

overall though, the game's progress has picked up, for only 2 guys work, we have got alot done lately, we have been held back from doing the game at full force for ~6 months now, but this will soon be fixed, then progress should skyrocket.

Ok the general colors textures are homogenous, good point !

for the squarry style , that's your choice, you could have used more polygons :
you could have used a smooth functions on some parts of your models
to round them.

anyway great work

thanks again guys, a quick update:

it seems i have not explained any of the deeper parts of this game, ie gameplay, ai, etc, so i will try to give an update on it:

the game play isn't too complex...

first off we have basic movement (strafing, walking forward, backward, etc), the movement uses "fake physics" so to speek, we are not using any physics objects, but when you move, you speed up and slow down according to the environment, for space movement your slowing down takes twice the time it takes on low gravity and earth gravity. now to move on, also included is "boosting" which all of the mechs use, also the fallspeed and movement speeds vary by which mech you are in, so for example, if you are in a slim mech with less armor, then your speed is faster, if you are in a heavy armored "tank" stylized mech, your speed is about half of that in the faster mech. Every ability has it's negative sides, and we use this to balance out gameplay. this way it is possible for a fast low armored mech to fight against a heavy armored slow mech, and both be balanced fighters, this way it leaves it more to the player, and how they play determines their survival. to move on, you also have something called "evading" which is moving out of the way really fast, or in other words, dodging, if you have played unreal tournament 2004 or similar releases, they also have this feature. Now for a status update:

to begin with, we started working in our office last week, this has doubled, if not tripled the work flow. Ai is the primary concern this week, i am trying to get the ai to be worthy to fight against, but since it is a first game, it will have to be simple, i have the movement working, although it just randomly moves in random directions, and changes movement every few seconds, so it seems that it is semi-intelligent. i also have it's firing working, but when i combine the firing and movement, something is conflicting, i will have to fix this sometime this week. As for our menu, the main menu is up, we are still working on sub menus, but we will not focus on this much more till we have a working ai, and bugs are worked out. I am sorry that i cannot post screenshots, but i will give some hope for anyone expecting to atleast test out the game. We are looking at releasing a demo, possibly sometime at the end of the year, or somewhere at the beginning of next year, so be on the lookout, however i cannot give a specific date, because we don't want to make a deadline and not be able to meet it.

Note: to make one last note, i will have to say one thing, the gameplay in this game is key, it is the most important thing to us, lets just say if you liked the gundam games on ps2, or wish that you had a block button in the armored core series, then you will like ours . The gameplay will be different in the fact that you have a mouse and keyboard, so no auto aim, but, we are going for a similar result. Also, i could compare the gameplay to armored core, but the motion is more "fluid" in this game. We would prefer to give you a better result and let it take some time, rather than release this game on a specific date, and have to rush to finish it, so dont expect dor's(date of releasal), however what you can expect is me to answer questions, if you have more questions, just pm, email, or post here, my email is g_rec_01 at yahoo dot com.

until the next update, manslayer101

It sitll needs some work, yes, but imho it looks better than many other showcase1 projects.

I like the mechs, and mechs simply HAVE to be blocky to look good
The levels don't show much at all yet, but you already said they are more or less test levels, so that's ok.

thanks firoball , and yes the levels are test levels, also, i forgot to mention, the hud and radar are 100% done, they have been that way for a while now, also a new mecha has been created...

ok, i have decided to do another update, to let you know what is going on and how progress is going:

during the last weeks i have been working on the ai code, as well as contributions for the forum, and for my partner. There is ai on both sides, and is easily edited, however it has problems that need to be fixed, if anyone can help out i have the code in the scripting forum, but that is not what this update is about. i want to say that there will be no screenshots for a while, at least not until we have a full working project, or at least until more levels are done. Ai and levels are the main concerns now, there is more code than anything else, levels and models are still being worked on, so visual elements may take some time, however, because we have the office, progress is still faster, as i mentioned in the previous update. For those who are acually wanting to see more of the game, and want updates, i am free to answer any questions, just ask me. The first level of the game is coming along, it is still being worked on, because neither me or my partner are good at level "design". I am sorry that we can't have more "visuals" but patience will be rewarded.

As said in the update, please ask your questions, i will answer as soon as i can.

Edit: for anyone interested, i have created a magapage blog, at blogspot.
http://mangapageupdates.blogspot.com

update time, however this update will be short:

well the only things to say are that we opened our forums so that we can get a mod and admin team, we're still hiring, also pretty soon we will be opening a website for preva, mangapage, and a soon to be publisher. As soon as we can get this done then we can update via the site, probably make new screens as soon as the site is up. Also level design has been the main concern now, we are trying to work on some maps, so far there are 3 maps in development, as soon as some are done, i will be updating you. Ai is still on the fritz, it's still having problems, pretty soon i will be moving the preva updates to our forum, however i will continue to update in this forum as well. well, until the next update, cya