Subterstrike Game Development
+Game Development
- - Prototype terrain sample -
+
+ Prototype terrain sample
- I am currently developing an underground-submarine openworld multiplayer physics inspired game. As a gamer and enjoyer of large, rich maps and depth to gameplay, I would really like to say thats what I started out trying to create. Instead, the story goes that I had this random idea for terrain manipulation. Games like Minecraft and Terraria use squares and cubes, which just feels boring in my opinion. I thought I could do something much more visceral As a sort of tech-demo/proof of concept I programmed a shape that could be modified by boolean geometry operations, mainly union and subtract with a second polygon. This led to a very interesting, but quickly boring "game" to hop around in. However, since I could drill through and place prettymuch any shape I wanted to, it felt like I could "fly" through the land, much like a submarine "flies" through water.
I implemented some modularly built vehicles with use of graphs theory and object oriented programming, and terrain generation using cellular noise. The reason I used cellular noise is because if you look at the lines between cells, they form a network without dead ends. Then by applying an algorithm using a density function on depth I am able to fine tune the width and density of the caves without impacting their interconnectedness. By using this method chunks can generate completely independent of their neighbor, which is optimal.
"Multiplayer is the hardest part of game dev, maybe release that later" I have been told by a lot of people. However, as a hobby-server configurer and network security nerd, I thought I could take it on. I was right, however as a network security nerd I have more layers of firewalls than I do braincells. Every single time I have an issue with networking, its a firewall. Once I found which ports were blocked, yes multiplayer was easy.
The result? I could fly drilling vehicles through terrain, pop out of the ground or into random caves, mine materials, play hide and seek with friends, and even orbit the planet. One of the things important to me in this game was accurate physics: thrust, torque, gravity, mass, all the fun stuff. While I am a physics minor, I am more importantly a heavy player of physics and rocket science games such as Kerbal Space Program. I was able to glide through AP physics simply because it just part of the games world, it included everything we would learn in the classroom. Realistic physics also added to the depth of gameplay I was looking for.
After some formal computer science education, I discovered new ways to more efficiently implement many of the algorithms I had initially generated and rewrote them ...multiple times. Currently everything runs buttery smooth and framerates are high due to efficient caching of unloaded chunks, multithreaded chunk generation, gpu accelerated compute shaders to modify chunk density, enhanced use of object oriented programing and graph algorithms to build massive modular vehicles, authoritative server networking to disable hackers, and other performance tweaks.
So this sounds amazing, where's the game? Well, a game needs graphics, audio, a sound track. As much as I'd love to release it now, its unplayable for these reasons along with a few minor implementations left such as NPC's and reworking the tech tree. Currently I am contracting a graphical artist and sound designer. Alpha tests have been a lot of fun, and investors have appeared. The finish line is close.
+ I am currently developing an underground-submarine openworld multiplayer
+ physics inspired game. As a gamer and enjoyer of large, rich maps and
+ depth to gameplay, I would really like to say thats what I started out
+ trying to create. Instead, the story goes that I had this random idea
+ for terrain manipulation. Games like Minecraft and Terraria use squares
+ and cubes, which just feels boring in my opinion. I thought I could do
+ something much more visceral As a sort of tech-demo/proof of
+ concept I programmed a shape that could be modified by boolean geometry
+ operations, mainly union and subtract with a second polygon. This led to
+ a very interesting, but quickly boring "game" to hop around in. However,
+ since I could drill through and place prettymuch any shape I wanted to,
+ it felt like I could "fly" through the land, much like a submarine
+ "flies" through water.
I implemented some modularly built
+ vehicles with use of graphs theory and object oriented programming, and
+ terrain generation using cellular noise. The reason I used cellular
+ noise is because if you look at the lines between cells, they form a
+ network without dead ends. Then by applying an algorithm using a density
+ function on depth I am able to fine tune the width and density of the
+ caves without impacting their interconnectedness. By using this method
+ chunks can generate completely independent of their neighbor, which is
+ optimal.
"Multiplayer is the hardest part of game dev, maybe
+ release that later" I have been told by a lot of people. However, as a
+ hobby-server configurer and network security nerd, I thought I could
+ take it on. I was right, however as a network security nerd I have more
+ layers of firewalls than I do braincells. Every single time I have an
+ issue with networking, its a firewall. Once I found which ports were
+ blocked, yes multiplayer was easy.
The result? I could fly
+ drilling vehicles through terrain, pop out of the ground or into random
+ caves, mine materials, play hide and seek with friends, and even orbit
+ the planet. One of the things important to me in this game was accurate
+ physics: thrust, torque, gravity, mass, all the fun stuff. While I am a
+ physics minor, I am more importantly a heavy player of physics and
+ rocket science games such as Kerbal Space Program. I was able to glide
+ through AP physics simply because it
+ just part of the games world, it included everything we would
+ learn in the classroom. Realistic physics also added to the depth of
+ gameplay I was looking for.
After some formal computer
+ science education, I discovered new ways to more efficiently implement
+ many of the algorithms I had initially generated and rewrote them
+ ...multiple times. Currently everything runs buttery smooth and
+ framerates are high due to efficient caching of unloaded chunks,
+ multithreaded chunk generation, gpu accelerated compute shaders to
+ modify chunk density, enhanced use of object oriented programing and
+ graph algorithms to build massive modular vehicles, authoritative server
+ networking to disable hackers, and other performance tweaks.
+ So this sounds amazing, where's the game? Well, a game needs graphics, audio,
+ a sound track. As much as I'd love to release it now, its unplayable for
+ these reasons along with a few minor implementations left such as NPC's and
+ reworking the tech tree.
- - A grid flying through caves -
+
+ A grid flying through caves
- 
-