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.