Steam

The Little Crane That Could was released on Steam today!

Steaming Ahead - WEEK 09

Yay! The Little Crane That Could -- steam edition is finished! So today, I submitted my game for review, and if it gets through, it will be out on April 27.

I also made this launch trailer:

I'm excited for its release. I've worked very hard for 9 weeks after I got the Steam green-light. And now it is here! I will reward myself with some Scottish Whisky tonight.

At launch you will be able to grab your Win/Mac/Linux copies at 15% discount. And last, let me phrase why this game stands out, and is unique among its peers:

The terrain is the real hero in this game! With never seen before dig-anywhere technology™ you can shape the world. Any changes to the world will persist between levels and game sessions, and there are no restrictions: cliffs, overhangs, caves, tunnels: it is all possible.

The world size is near infinite: you can dig a hole, then drive for an hour in a random direction and backtrack by following your track impressions in the terrain. You will then find your dug hole as you left it: no short-cuts: real terrain simulation!

One disclaimer: I did not solve the problem of 'floating terrain' though... dig away all the dirt below and round an area, and the remaining dirt will float mid-air. I think it has limited effect on enjoyment and playability though, and as it is far from trivial to fix, I will leave it at this."

Steaming Ahead - WEEK 08

The eighth 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.

I have done most of the Steam API integration, and tested this on Windows and Mac builds. The integration went reasonably well, so there may be a simultaneous release for multiple platforms. I did notice some issues of the steam overlay on OSX with retina display though. I have added Steam statistics and achievements as well. Because I use the steam folder for game storage, I intend to lock the game to steam. This means that it will not run if the steam client is not running.

I have added fog to the game so that the popping in/out of terrain geometry is less glaring. You can still easily see it, but it is less prominent now. The fog also adds a depth-cue. And I added a simple sky gradient from white at the horizon to blue overhead. So the visuals are still far far away from cutting edge, but at least they look a little better now. This game's strength is the state of the art simulation code, not its pretty looks.

I also added reconfigurable keyboard control, where you can assign keys to the functions in a .txt file. And to help, cheat-sheets for keyboard control and gamepad control are added.

Steaming Ahead - WEEK 07

The seventh week of work since I got Steam Green-lit 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.

Some good news: Again, I added two new levels this week, bringing the total to eight levels, which I think is enough for a first release of the game. I particularly like the last level, in which the Crane and the Bulldozer need to work together as a team. I think the veteran players of the mobile game will like how it turned out. I also made a big leap in quality for the simulation of the excavator. The bucket now interacts with the terrain a lot better.

Because some good strides have been made towards release, I now need to spend time on non-engineering tasks. I started to create a store-front for on Steam, and getting the artwork in place. For what is called the 'box-shot' I turned to what is my favorite rendering tool: Kerkythea. This renderer has good support by Wings3D, so I can setup the scene, and the camera in Wings3D, and have Kerkythea do a great photon-mapped rendering of it. Let me know what you think of it in the comments!

I tend to do most development on Ubuntu, with an occasional jump to OSX if I need to do profiling. But now I switched to using Visual Studio more, and have been dusting off the Microsoft Windows port. All this in preparation for the steam release of course, where Windows is the most important platform. For next week, I will work on integrating Steam's API into the game. I have already started reading the documentation on it.

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.