What is KnuckleCracker up to?

[Jacobkolstad]

From V's teaster picture I recognize the "forge" texture from CW3, along with the moon-like thing on CW3 Arc Eternal Frykt: Mistet.

[knucracker]

For images during development I just grab the first thing handy that is roughly the right shape (that would be rectangular vs circular :) ).

Game wise, there is indeed a physics (kinematic, not thermodynamic like in the CW games) engine.  It isn't some off shelf thing for stacking up kindergarten blocks and knocking them over with irritated avians, though...  It's custom written to handle the nature of the 'enemy' I'm putting into the game.  I needed scale and certain types of interaction I couldn't so easily get from off the shelf kinematic simulators.

I also wanted to explore the idea of constructable and deconstructable units.  Many games have composite units that you can build.  But, like in the original CW1, I've been searching for the essence of this game play feature not some overly expanded smattering of features.

So some of the key properties I've looked for:
- Tactical decisions based on placement and orientation.
- Considerations for supply lines and delivery delays.
- Strategic decisions for asset allocation.
- Enemy A.I. based on emergent physical properties.
- An RTS/strategy game nobody has played before.

Most of those, in whole or part, could have applied to Creeper World.  But just like in math, sometimes there is more than one solution that satisfies the constraints :)

[Michionlion]

That sounds really awesome.  Even more up my alley than CW was!

[kwerle]

Glad to hear there's something in the works.  Looking forward to hearing more.

[pawel345]

So can we expect a big reveal before Christmas? Or do we wait until after new year?  ;D

[knucracker]

I may release some more screen shots in the next few days... but a video likely won't come till after Christmas. Any video I do should probably be a decently well done 'teaser' video and part of a greenlight campaign.  So I can't just throw one together without some careful work.

But I've made a ton of progress... especially in the visual department, in the last few weeks.  Right now I'm working on some optimized serialization code (for saving and loading game).

Anyway, I'll figure out what I need to do for a video(s) in the coming week or two.  I could release one prior to the greenlight campaign launch as a way of getting the attention of the community.  But, even in that case the greenlight campaign has to follow quickly.

[pawel345]

So you are starting Greenlight before the game is completed? Will Steam be the only distribution method or like Cw3 both?

[knucracker]

Yeah, doing greenlight early is definitely the way to go.  Getting that out of the way early frees up cycles for me later on.

I do not plan on making a steam only release, though.  Anything could of course change at any point, but the plan is to make this game available via all the same channels (or more) that CW3 is available on.

[Chimera27]

Dude, I noticed there weren't any main posts for a while, so I was slightly concerned, then I saw this and I was just like:


Needless to say, even from that screenshot it looks weird and interesting and like it's gonna be pretty awesome, can't wait for it to be video-worthy! :D

[knucracker]

The Game 4 Alpha gameplay teaser is now online!
http://knucklecracker.com/blog/index.php/2015/01/game-4-announcement/

And since the cat is out of the bag, I've create a new board for game 4.  We can continue discussions there:
http://knucklecracker.com/forums/index.php?board=36.0