The version used at Minecon was v116 ALPHA, and is not yet available for download. Among other things, it featured a new game mode called Challenge. In Challenge, you focus on doing things as fast as possible, like getting from point A to B. Today we created more maps for the mode. Here is a sneak preview:

We have also added local high score lists with epic voice acting feedback by Kinten to all relevant game modes:

Huge thanks to all the volunteers during Minecon that made it all possible!

Thats it for today!

Good night!

/thewreck

• The last couple updates
• A new reload related feature
• Outdoor climate colors
• A community lead map making contest

Hit the jump for the full read!

The last couple updates

During the week that has been we have seen 2 Cobalt updates and a number of bugs! It always breaks my heart to hear about bugs that slipped by, even so when they are critical crash bugs… To all of you who have been reporting bugs, making suggestions and suffering through crashes, thank you very much! Without your help these updates would be so much harder to get done and the quality of the game would not have been able to reach as far as it has today. The reported bugs should be fixed now and the update containing the fixes is planned for the beginning of this coming week.

A new reload related feature

If you have been following frall on twitter you might have heard that we added a new gameplay aspect:

Reload Boosts! – By pressing the reload or use button at a specific time during the reload (unique for each weapon), the remaining reload animation becomes twice as fast! (usually the rest of the reload)

The reasoning behind this feature was that I have for a long time been feeling that the gameplay aspect of single shot weapons was skewed. Their gameplay was focused to a single instant, and then a bunch of waiting. Along with that, i’ve had a long reluctance towards automatic reloading of single shot weapons because it takes away part of the immersion of “controlling” the character. Unfortunately I for a long time did not know what to do about it. This was until I saw a video of War of the Roses and noticed that they had a minigame for the reloading of crossbows. Instantly the problem and the solution seemed so obvious.

Our take on the feature offers a number of things that fit so well with cobalt:

• It raises the skill ceiling further
• It evens out uneven distribution of gameplay with certain weapons (mostly the single shot ones)
• It allows us to place the reload boost point at a unique position for each weapon which in it self decides how much of a bonus we want the reload boost to potentially have (late in the reload is less of a bonus than early in the reload)
• It fits well with the main focus in cobalt: Timing!
• It severely adds to the tension in a fight, where for example two metalfaces are reloading their single shot rail guns. (who will reload first?)
• It adds a sense of mastery when you start to manage to get the timing right without even looking at the reload progress bar
• It becomes an emergent combo system, where you feel like you are more and more in “the zone” for each consecutive successful reload boost (when me and kinten was playing, getting three in a row in a hectic situation felt incredibly satisfying)

I know I’m hugely in love with the feature. I hope you will be too!

Outdoor climate colors

Kinten has for a long time had his worries about the outdoor lighting system in Cobalt. Mainly the fact that all levels in cobalt tend to be somewhat red… A couple of days ago we finally decided it was time to fix some problems and the way we did it was by adding:

Climate! - In outdoor theme settings you can now pick a climate which will control the overall color of the sky and the hills in the background

We also tweaked the way the actual gameplay layers are colored from the sky, and once we tried it out…

To me the first one looks washed out and strange, and the new one looks warm and deserty! Like you are actually at that location. This is a great step towards creating a really atmospheric experience and is an important part towards creating a great adventure mode. Now, don’t worry, your old maps will still look like your old maps since old maps will by default get the “alien” climate, resembling the old colors as much as possible.

A community lead map making contest

Over at the cobalt forums community member Aconitin is hosting a map making contest! This time around we have offered to include the winning map into the official release of Cobalt! So if you ever wondered what it takes to get a map officially in, here is one way!

Even if you don’t make it to the winning spot, this could be a great opportunity to familiarize yourself with the editor and perhaps talk to other cobalt mappers! You can usually find them in the #Cobalt channel on espernet! If you don’t want to download an IRC client, you can use the webchat! If you are just looking for custom maps for cobalt, the cobalt file database is a great resource!

Cya next week for v111 Alpha!

/thewreck

So what have we learned?
First and foremost we discovered that our main character’s name is Cobalt and not Blueface or Shitface or Metalface or whatever we’ve been calling him/her in the past.
We’ve established a direct line of communication to Cobalt (who is currently stationed at Trunkopia) to avoid further confusion.

We’ve also discovered a new talent amongst us! Actually he’s not new, he’s pretty old (member of Oxeye), but when it comes to words the only ones Jens have been cranking out have either been code related or hasty words of affection jotted down on postcards .
Until now that is.
Surveys show that since he took over the editing department of the Galactipedia Encyclopedia Profundus customer satisfaction has gone up exponentially.
Confusion remains unchanged.
A sample of his latest creative outburst can be viewed below.
In fact, he’s writings have been so popular at the company HQ that he’s taken the prodigious Mattias (aka Anosou) as his writing apprentice.

Speaking of Mattias, another thing we’ve learned during these past few weeks is that his musical genius spreads beyond human comprehension. He’s fast to. You only have to hint the idea of a new tune and before you’ve uttered the last words explaining the song you’ll have it blasting through your headphones.

We’ve also been tinkering with co-op. Cobalt has been nagging us about it for some time now. I guess loneliness knows no decency.

Last but not least, I, Pontus (Kinten), have had to slowly accept the fact that I no longer sport a fantastic beard. I accidentally shaved it all off using a rogue trimmer.
Support mails concerning this are appreciated.

Until next time, swim calmly (Swedish expression).
/Kinten

Now it’s time for a new TIGSource competition and a new game! This time the theme is Bootleg Demakes, and people have posted over 100 threads about competition projects. A “bootleg” means “inofficial copy” and “demake” means “that is made to look as though it were running on older-generation hardware”. We could obviously not resist competing again and, using our Daisy Moon engine once more, created House Globe.

Hit the jump for the full story!

Artifact’s House Globe – 2D Real-time Strategy Game

Our competition entry is a demake of the classic Homeworld by Relic. If you haven’t played it, the short story is that Homeworld is a real-time strategy game in space. Your fleet is centered around your Mothership, which constructs units and is the drop-off zone for resources. In the game you are travelling through space in order to find your homeworld, while evil aliens attempt to destroy you (obviously).

When we began making the game we set our hardware target at the PC games of the mid-ninetees, think Dune 2 (i.e. the 320×240 resolution is intentional). We wanted to translate Homeworld’s 3D view to a flat 2D version, while keeping the key features that made Homeworld the game it is. That means your Mothership (called Maternal Vessel in House Globe) is the center piece of your fleet and will construct all units. It also means that we wanted to keep the tactical/strategical toggle that Homeworld has.

Beyond those initial concepts, we felt quite free to design our own game. We put much effort on making the “micro” part interesting (good control/response when moving units), and having a balanced technology tree. In the end we believe we managed to make a really good game in only 10 days or so.

Features:

• 2D RTS
• Single-player practice vs the computer
• 1on1 online multi-player
• Replay recordings of multi-player games

Screenshots:

Downloads:

• Mac OS X (Universal Binary, 16 MB)
• Windows (14 MB)

Check the readme for game controls (it’s fairly inituitive). If you play any multi-player games, please send us the replay files! And… have fun!

/ jeb

You can either play yourself or cooperatively with a friend, but in both cases the objective is to get Fay and Corn to the top of the tower, where an evil boss awaits. The topic of the competition was that the game should be different every time you play, so the game’s level and boss are randomized when the game begins. Download the game here:

• Mac OS X: http://www.oxeye.se/files/stuff/BIFF_Mac.zip
• Windows: http://www.oxeye.se/files/stuff/BIFF.zip

Like the mods for Harvest, this game has been written completely in Lua. This has been an interesting experiment, and feels like an easy and quick way of testing new game ideas. You will probably see more of this from us

Hit the jump for a screenshot from the game…