It's high time we sat back and re-assessed our current goals for our projects. The DataRun project is now running extremely smoothly. We have a lot of our core features largely complete, and a lot of 3d work already done, meaning we can easily start level design, deal with user interfaces and tightening up our mechanics.
We intended this project to be dealt with by June 20th, which is now three weeks away - meaning we are halfway through the development of DataRun. We've done a lot in a very short period of time, which is fantastic! The reason for this very tight and very strict deadline was in order to enter in the first round of the Mak Something Unreal Competition - namely the Game Mode.
Me and Erwan have talked however, and we came to the conclusion that DataRun may have exceeded what can be described as a game mode. Where a game mode is a new way to play Unreal Tournament 3, DataRun does incorporate any of Unreal Tournament 3's elements - we don't use the weapons, we don't use the levels, heck we don't even use much of the original art assets. DataRun has hastily turned into a fully-fledged total conversion project, far exceeding a simple Game Mode.
Naturally, we don't want to drop DataRun. We've put a lot of work into it, and it's one hell of a project that has some really, really cool features. We could however rethink our production deadline and set it in time for the MSU phase two category 'Best Mod' instead, which would be far more suitable for a TC. This would place our absolute deadline for DataRun at October 10th, instead of June 20th - which gives us more time to produce all our features, tighten the project up to make it a smooth an experience as possible, and potentially include things that aren't in the current production schedule, without having to rush anything out.
Then we'd need a project that we can do in three weeks as a game mode. I think we have one - we can bring back StrangeLove CTF relatively easily. For those that don't know what this is, this is a game where players ride on redeemer rockets and play capture the flag. The game is fast and furious, takes skill, encourages people into acts of
A summary of the breakdown of what would be required is as so:
- A new game mode based on CTF, with some minor tweaks.
- StrangeLove launcher - Redeemer based weapon with 5 shots, primary fire is normal, secondary fire makes the player ride the rocket.
- Redeemer vehicle - a rocket with a large explosion (but still much smaller than the current Redeemer), that can be piloted. It has a second seat that a passenger may sit in (behind the pilot), that that player may fire their normal weapons from. Note that players do not 'get in' the Redeemer - the player that fires the rocket is the pilot, and if the rocket runs a team-mate over, they are put in the second seat. If the redeemer runs over an enemy, or if the second seat is full and it runs over a team mate, they are crushed. Note that the pilot and second player can be shot as normal on the redeemer, and can be run over by other redeemer and be crushed whilst flying.
- A special sniper rifle - it would use the shock rifle animation set, would have a rapid fire rate and reasonable inaccuracy. Ammo recharges slowly over time.
- A couple of custom / modified maps suitable for play.
What do people think?
