Steaming Ahead - WEEK 06

The sixth week of work since I got Steam Green-lighted has come and gone. So as promised, here is a weekly update on the progress towards the Steam release of The Little Crane That Could.

This week I added two new levels, bringing the total level count to six. Both levels involve operating the crane, as opposed to a bulldozer or excavator. I also created a truck for hauling cargo. And I've spent a lot of time tweaking the soil simulation. For instance, merging back the soil particles in the terrain has been improved, so that the resulting terrain is smoother, with less hard edges. The quality of the soil simulation is getting close, but is still not ready for release.

A lot of work remains to be done. I want to release with a minimum of 8 levels, so I need to create at least two more. I need to look into the Stream SDK, and integrate it into my game. I need to create a convincing sound for the pickup truck, as currently it sounds like a diesel bus from London. And there are a lot of other loose ends to be tied up.

Steaming Ahead - WEEK 05

The fifth week of work after the Steam Green-lighting has come and gone. So as promised, here is a weekly update on the progress towards the Steam release of The Little Crane That Could.

I have added two new levels for the bulldozer. In the first level, you need to clear a helipad covered by a landslide. I especially like how this one turned out. I also added a level where you recover a stranded truck with the bulldozer. That one is a little less refined.

A added a cheat-sheet graphic that shows the controller mapping. It displays dynamic information, which changes as you switch vehicles, or switch modes from driving to camera to hydraulics. It's not pretty, but it is effective. I don't have controls remapping yet. I fear that may be a hairy one. I will have to see what the steam sdk expects for this.

Lastly, I have been tuning the excavator physics, so that it will properly scrape dirt from the terrain using its bucket. Oh, and as a bonus: I've finally switched my shading from Gouraud to Phong.

Steaming Ahead - WEEK 04

The fourth week of work after the Steam Green-lighting has come and gone. So as promised, here is a weekly update on the progress towards the Steam release of The Little Crane That Could.

I have added a level selection screen to the game, using my Dutch-Blunt vector font. Like the font, the screen is very minimalistic, see below.

I have created the first level for the game, which is a simple driving exercise where you need to follow a parcours trough the hills. Here's a map of the current parcours.

I have added a game-over screen that gets triggered when you win or lose a level. And then I also added a second level as well, which is an exercise in loading cargo.

I spent quite a lot of time getting a topographic map in the game. But I am pleased with the results.

Steaming Ahead - WEEK 03

The third week of work after the Steam Green-lighting has come and gone. So as promised, here is a weekly update on the progress towards the Steam release of The Little Crane That Could.

This week I started to think about actual level design, and what missions to assign to the crane/bulldozer/excavator/whathaveyou. And I am also having second thoughts about the title 'The Little Crane That Could'. The new engine's main feature is the soil-simulation, could it be that the bulldozer and digger will be more prominently feature in the game that the crane?

• The Little Diggers That Could?
• The Little Dozer That Could?
• The Little Machine That Could?
• Mud Machines?
• The Little Crane That Could II?

Frankly, I don't know any more. The steamworks interface lets me rename the game, but it could very well be that this renaming is a one-chance only, so I need to get it right.

So back to the level design... I think that after a driving tutorial, the first mission will be a loading task, where the crane truck will load a pickup truck. So first order of business was putting a pick-up in the game. I decided on using this pickup model from turbo squid. It took me a day to reduce the vertex count of the model so that it was suitable for in-game use, and then I had to rig up the physics for it. I think it looks pretty good, but still needs better audio, because I am still using a very low-revving big old diesel engine sound for all the trucks. It is fine for bulldozers, excavators and big rigs, but for a pickup truck not so much.

With the pickup truck added to the world, I then had to put in a mechanism to switch between vehicles. So first you operate the crane truck so that you can load the pickup truck. Then with the TAB key, you switch controls to the pickup truck so that you can drive around with your freshly loaded cargo.

And lastly, I've been distracted with the design of a new font to be used in my games. I created a low poly font called Dutch-Blunt and I open sourced it.