Gauntlet: An action game in the vein of Quake

Hello all,

For the past few weeks, I've been working on a new game sort of like Quake. It originally started out as a simple attempt to create a small multiplayer game, but I guess you could say it evolved from that. Since I only have A6 commercial edition, I can only create a game involving 4 network players. However, the scale of the game is small, so I don't really see this as a problem. The game would be good for small LAN battles at home and stuff. I personally never really liked how most shooters now are so concentrated on massive online multiplayer battles.

The name of the game is Gauntlet. I named it that way because one of the meanings of the word "Gauntlet" is "to be attacked by two or more sides", which is pretty fitting when you think about the story. In cooperative/single player mode, the story is that humans have colonized many worlds outside the Milky Way. However, a strange pestilence; a seemingly infinite mass of alien bugs; have started roaming our worlds, destroying our cities, and bringing sickness where ever they go. Your goal, of course, is to destroy them. The overall plot of the game will not be much more complicated than this.

I have completed some "programmer artwork" and a few multiplayer levels on my own already, so I've got some test screenshots to show you guys. I didn't want to put this thread in the Showcase since I still think this is so early in development. Anyway, you can check out the screenshots here.

You can post your criticisms... NOW!

EDIT: You can check out the new gameplay video HERE:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuwxWXyPa1A

Sweet style.
Looks interesting, but I'd like to see it in movement.

videos always work best, cant really judge it based off these shots, and i wont comment on models and texture because we all know how programming with low resources is a paihn

be careful with that name..

gauntlet is an action-rpg on NES, SEGA and Game Boy too ^^

But, it looks interesting. A nice start.

Aw man, I didn't find anything on wikipedia with that name so I assumed it was free Well, if I add a subtitle or something I can get away with it, you think?

As for a video, I'll add one of those soon. I just need to get some software for it.

BTW, contrary to what the website says, the game is NOT near beta status... I just realized that when I thought about how much stuff needed to be done to make it actually interesting. Sorry for the confusion

You could use Fraps or Gamerscam for capturing. Both are available as trial versions.
Screens: Very nice comic style with potential. For even better results you could overwork the textures (higher resolution!), rework the lighting (work with spotlights and colors) and add some effects like environment mapping for the diamonds in one of the screens. I`m looking forward to a gameplay video.

Gauntlet was released the first time 1985 as arcade machine.

one of my favorites. i was going to mention that, but you beat me to it.

Rondidon: the textures definitely need overworking. I use (don't kill me) 64x64 images for the textures on my models, and I don't even screw around with the polygon mapping to get a good fit. In case you haven't already figured, this is programmer art. If I'm lucky I'll get an artist to redo all the artwork from scratch (there isn't much at this point).

As for environment mapping for the diamonds, that's a good idea. However I must say I haven't had any experience with that (or any shader coding beyond simple dynamic lighting), so I'll need some pointers there. I found a page on the gamestudio wiki entitled "Reflecting Water"... Would that be a good source of information?

EDIT: On the wiki I found a nice page containing a crystal shader .fx file with an example script. Good to know I won't have to write my own.

Firoball: upon searching again through wikipedia, I have indeed found a page for that game. I kind of wish I had noticed it sooner. So here I am at my original question: if I provided a subtitle for my game or something, would that hold me free of copyright infringement?

If you must use it, just make it part of the name, like "Gauntlet of Gore" or "War Gauntlet" or "Hells Gauntlet". I think that would be fine.

War Gauntlet sounds cool. "Hells Gauntlet" Doesn't seem like the theme I'm going for, it sounds a little more doomey. But it's an alright name.

im sorry to say this but those shots are aweful. really bad.
not only are you using the standard WAD (low resolution 256 color textures) your models and levels also look really bad.
this is not meant to bring you down, really.
but its the truth. did you code it yourelf or did you use templates?
because if you used templates, i strongly suggest finding something youre good at first, and after you trained your skills in that, start a small project with someone else to produce something better...

Since when did A3 support dynamic lighting ?
Honestly...spike said it all, "...in the vein of quake" seems a bit far out

Before messing around with crystal shaders try to improve your basic textures, since there is no gameplay footage we can't say anything about the gameplay though

the word gaunlet is just an ordinary word. noone can claim the rights about it

I understand my graphics are bad. My graphics are complete trash compared to commercial standards. Haven't you read anything I said at all? This is programmer art. As soon as I find someone else to do the art, the art being used now will be completed thrown out the window.

I use the standard wad since it's fast and good for tests. This is not the final artwork! This is exactly why I'm in the process of uploading a gameplay video to youtube, to show off the features that I have already programmed, such as multiplayer code, physics, items, etc.



I'm referring to Quake 1, not the new games like Quake 4 or Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. Quake was a very simplistic game, much like how this game will be.

And NO, I do NOT use the templates. I did when I was taking my first steps into the Gamestudio system, but not now. The code is ALL 100% my own work. I have made computer games using various software since I was 8. Half my life has been spent teaching myself file structuring, computer graphics, network handling, and hardware. I know how to program in pure C. No development suites, no click-click creation, just pure programming. I've even made games for DOS that work at the system level.

Take a look at Ken Silverman's self-written games, like Super Silver Brothers or even his Build test game. He's the guy who wrote the Duke Nukem 3D engine! His handmade graphics are trash... Do you expect a man who's spent his life learning solely about computers to be artistically proficient as well? Not likely!

Don't get me wrong. I'm completely open to suggestions, even criticism. But I do not appreciate it when people take me for some average teenage kid who started learning game development yesterday.

Please do not judge my game based on those test screenshots. Perhaps I should not have uploaded them in the first place.

well, thats why i said: "if you programmed it yourself..."
then you know what to do. tweak your programming skillz. programming and programming a game are two different pair of shoes. there are good programmers that program stuff but they have no idea how to set up an environment to do a full game.
once you worked that out, all you have to do is get someone to do your graphics and you are set...

I actually have more experience programming games than I do working on real applications, so that's not an issue for me. The only place I really don't have experience in is shader programming, but I guess this project is as good a place as any to start practicing with that (once I get some better textures). You're right, I definitely need an artist if this project will turn out to be anything worthwhile.

BTW, on the comment that no-one holds the name Gauntlet; that's not true. Copyright law dictates that one can hold and protect the title of a product they created. The owner of the title can't prohibit people from using the word in speech, but others are not allowed to name their products that same word (or phrase) unless the product is part of a different industry.

For example, one man, Joe, builds a piece of software named "Checker" and openly begins holding copyright on his product. Later another man named John builds a piece of software named "Checker". However, John is infringing Joe's copyright, and as such must rename his product or Joe can pursue John through the legal system.

However, if John creates a pizzeria, not some software, and names it "Checker", then he is not infringing Joe's copyright, because his product is part of a different industry.

You can go here for more information.

On a side note, my gameplay video has taken over 2 and a half hours to upload to youtube, and it's still not done. Darn satellite connection. I've even compressed it to a size of 5.6 mb. I could compress it to an even lower size, but that would severely limit the quality.

I would switch to a different service provider, but we kind of live in a hole here, and there's no broadband. I guess you could say we live in "Rural America".

Upon seeing the new AUM retro games design contest, I must unfortunately put this project on hold. I've been looking forward to competing in one of these contests for a while, so I can't really to pass this one up. Sorry guys

On the plus side, I should be able to upload my gameplay video to youtube tomorrow, so you'll be able to see the game in its current state.

Once the contest is over, I should be able to get back to work on this project.

Ah ha! The gameplay video has been uploaded!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuwxWXyPa1A

Criticism, comments?

BTW, I'd like to personally apologize for what I said in a previous post concerning my artwork. It was an immature response to a perfectly legitimate comment. I hope you understand me and forgive me for my rough attitude. The last thing I want is a bad start to what could be some good friendships. Heh, sorry if this sounds kind of cheesy.

Because I have no money to pay for an artists, and because of a lack of artistic talent of my own, I will unfortunately have to put the dev of this game on hold While I have plenty of programming experience under my belt, I feel I just don't have the ability to control a dev team of my own. Thus this project will probably end up going nowhere. Same problem for the winter '09 contest. I don't think I'll be able to compete.

So... Until further notice I'm pretty much out of work. I've posted a topic in the "Jobs wanted" forum, and I'm waiting for a reply. If you're in need of a programmer, PM me!