Welcome to Monkey Wings!




Posted by Big Boss

All right! I just wanted to show you guys the project we've been working on at Full Sail for the last 4 months or so (2 months of preproduction, 2 1/2 months of coding/production). This small gameplay movie was made over a week ago, but we've made several improvements to it since.

In Monkey Wings you fly an aircraft. You can fly it just like any other plane, but the goal of the game is to perform tricks under a time limit. There are rings scattered around that net you more time to do more tricks and get a better score. BUT, there's a stress meter on the bottom left of the screen which fills up the more tricks you do. When full, you lose control of the plane for a while.

Keep in mind, this is a work in progress, but we will have a playable demo by the end of next month. It's our first 3D game (4 of us), but we're very proud with what we've done so far.

Anyway, enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWtz6klRjwY


The video was done in FRAPS, so the quality isn't that great and there wasn't any sound recorded.




Posted by Roger Smith

Hah! I rather enjoyed that. It's like a mix of Wind Waker's graphics with NiGHTS's gameplay.




Posted by TendoAddict

So how hard are the trick's to pull off? The Video only had about three and the trick meter never really hit critical. So are they hard to do or was it more of a basic visual show of the game?




Posted by Big Boss


Quoting TendoAddict: So how hard are the trick's to pull off? The Video only had about three and the trick meter never really hit critical. So are they hard to do or was it more of a basic visual show of the game?


Some tricks are harder than others, and the harder or longer they are the more points you get, but also the higher your stress meter goes. And yes, there are more than 3 tricks. We're shooting for 11, but we'll have to see how that turns out with the limited time we have.

We're still balancing the game, and that includes the stress meter, how many points are required to gain medals, how much you get for each trick, etc. The video doesn't show everything you can do.




Posted by Bebop

What platform is this being built for? PC?

Are all the rings always going to be in a straight line?

Also need smore monkies.




Posted by Big Boss

PC, of course. Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft aren't big on giving schools dev kits for development (Although we are getting a GameCube sometime... just not for full game projects). Also, it's easier for a small team to make a PC game as we don't have to worry about the limitations of specific console hardware, and we can put the game out there for people to play no problem on the net.

As for the rings, they won't be in a straight line. Among other things, I'm responsible for the track design, so each ring track is different depending on the difficulty level. The one you saw there was just one we did to test the ring placement module.




Posted by Vampiro V. Empire

Does the camera switch perspectives automatically every time you do a trick? If so, that can be really disorienting. But good work, looks pretty fun.




Posted by TendoAddict

I also noticed on the Menu there was two planes but the stat's seemed to be the same (though the size was not).
Is it safe to guess that the game will have a few planes with varying differences? Also their where three bars , are their three main stat's you use for each plane?




Posted by Big Boss

Because of how the trick input works, we can have camera effects while doing a trick without disorienting the player. Tricks are done with button combinations while holding the trick button. While I preferred to have it more natural, in the sense of having simple movement of the plane make up a trick, we chose to go for button combination because we couldn't think of a way to code it under the time limit otherwise. We needed to get trick input working early on because it's pretty much what the game's about.

As for the planes, the bars are supposed to represent the attributes of each plane, but because of complications with the art team we may not have enough planes to warrant different attributes. We might just yank out those bars altogether.




Posted by boomstick

Wow, good job, I liked that quite abit, just wondering, what 3D modeling program did you use?




Posted by Big Boss


Quoting boomstick: Wow, good job, I liked that quite abit, just wondering, what 3D modeling program did you use?


Our former Art Director, Brad Acree, along with anyone doing art for the Final Project games uses 3ds Max for modeling.

I'm sure it isn't mandatory. They just prefer it over Maya.




Posted by Fate

Is this what you've been hiding from me? <3333




Posted by Big Boss


Quoting Fate: Is this what you've been hiding from me? <3333


:*

Actually, it looks better now.




Posted by Speedfreak

Badass, there aren't enough games made about flying that are all that accessible, in my opinion. I looked at Full Sail, fuck knows how you afford to go there. Couldn't really pick a better university though, good job.




Posted by Fate

I really don't know how he could afford to go there, either. :(




Posted by Vampiro V. Empire

He's a whore. Guaranteed.




Posted by Big Boss

Thanks everyone for your positive feedback, from myself and the rest of Wildhouse Games.

And yes, I'm a whore.

"Wildhouse Games, We Pay To Make Games."

Hehe.




Posted by Fate

so much hate :(




Posted by Bebop

More monkies




Posted by Vampiro V. Empire

Have monkeys on the wings of the plane throwing bananas, like a machine gun, and dropping coconuts, like bombs. Then put the game online so you can dogfight with up to sixteen other people. **** rings.

Oh, and have the monkeys throwing around poo, like a taunt maneuver or something.




Posted by Fate

He's only been working on this for like two or three months. His final project is in like a week. No time, unfortunately. :(




Posted by Vampiro V. Empire

How hard can it be for an up-and-coming big hotshot like him. Wreck our **** with math and programing.




Posted by Speedfreak

Ditch the planes and turn it into a monkey shit-flinging FPS.




Posted by GameMiestro

If you hit one of those rocks, do you lose in a fantastic explosion?




Posted by Vampiro V. Empire

Does it look like you would?




Posted by Big Boss


Quoting GameMiestro: If you hit one of those rocks, do you lose in a fantastic explosion?


You bounce off like an aircraft made of rubber.



Posted by Bebop

Realism in games is now.




Posted by Fate

Flying through rings happens all the time these days. :cookie:




Posted by Dexter

Realism in games? How lame. I want to turn into a cute, cuddly dinosaur and shoot harmless looking bubbles out at freakish monsters then pop them to death and eat their fruitful remains. That's the formula that makes a great game.