Category Archives: Sniper Game

Don’t know why, but this project (Sniper game) is officially on the dropped section.

Yes, it’s dead.

I wonder why I even bothered starting it…

It was way too complex for my abilities, so the initial enthusiasm gave way to boredom and disappointment. Yet, I did know that it was too complex at the start but still went after the ‘vision’.

Funny fact, today – 10-Oct-2010 – was the date I had set for a ‘minimum playability’ alpha version.

At least I tried.

So today there was another small – but important – step on the sniper game. It finally shoots, OK, honestly the bullet looks like it was hurled. But it works, it works…

Now I should make it cast smoke/dust when the bullet hits something. But that’s for another day…

Yes, I’m lazy.

So, I spend a few days working on a 3d model of one of the buildings – with the interior and all that shit – was starting to texture it when my brain tells me: “Dude…there’s something wrong with the layout of the apartments.”, I answer: “Nah, nothing wrong with them, see, there’s the bedroom, the living room, the bathroom and the kitch…wait…where’s the kitchen?”.

It’s not that the kitchen was a fundamental part for the gameplay, it’s just that I completely forgot to include it since the initial layout sketches. The bathroom isn’t essential either and I didn’t forget it.

Meh, back to the beginning.

All I have to say is: Sniper game thingy development is on hold for now. Reason, waiting for Unity 3, that and I’m getting bored and I’m trying to learn how to use Blender (even on 2.5x the GUI is…evil looking, yet, I’m perfectly fine using 3ds max)

Meanwhile, I’ve nearly finished the 3d model of one of the buildings – yes, ONE of the buildings – does that mean I work slowly? Probably, but it mostly means I rarely plan stuff before I start.

On the bright side, I’m very ‘modular’ friendly, so my building is just that, the building, everything else – the doors, windows, furniture inside the apartments – will be different objects, which means that every single 3D model can be re-used either on this project or on a future one. Some people would say that’s lazy and I agree, but it works most of the time.

It was taking a while…but ‘that time’ is back again.

What is ‘that time’?

Simple: is that couple of days – normally after 1 month of starting a new project – where I think: ‘Is this really a good idea? Is it worth all the work and learning and all that shit? If I finish it will people like the game?’

Today started ‘that time’ for “The Sniper Simulator Part1, no Part2 planned”. And my lack of dedication and work on the project – and ‘Real Life’™ problems – are making me wonder if I will ever finish it…

And I should really give a name to the game, can’t stand working on something that does not have a name.

That I do!

So, what’s new?

• Walking
• Toggling reticle on and off (and disabling walking while the reticle is on)

What’s next?

Dunno, either I work a little more on the 3D models for the town or I make our sniper shoot. We’ll see (I bet 5 bucks on the 3D models).

Don’t ask me, I have no idea.

In fact I’m terrible at naming anything. Well, until now every game project I was involved in (see vortexcruz.net for more info) never had a final name, with most names being jokes or just stupid – “Colina Silenciosa” = Silent Hill, so it was a joke on our own project, “Final Master: Bation” just stupid – and now “The Sniper Simulator Part1, no Part2 planned”, yep, that’s the ‘codename’.

Well, seems like I should waste a bit of time coming up with a bit of back story for the game and see if that helps on getting a final name.

Considering I’m still learning all this stuff (let’s pretend life is not a never ending learning process)

Yesterday I learned that “550/413 = 1” and it took a while to find why, until I found a post at the unity3d forum that said something about ‘Integer division’…

‘huh? integer division? what would be so special about it?’

(more…)

So, working on a sniper game, where I have to 3d model a small city environment – which includes endless loads of little objects and all that – what did I waste hours modeling?

(more…)

Still choosing a reference sniper, must be compact and lightweight.

After all, the – almost non-existent – back-story of the game does not include an organization behind our sniper, so rifles wouldn’t be dropped in the chosen place by someone else, he would have to carry his own, from home or whatever place he came from. Also, considering the game play – you choose your own place to shoot from – it wouldn’t even make sense to have a rifle dropped at 10 (or more) different places.

So we can be pretty sure he wouldn’t be carrying something like a CheyTac Intervention – this being, from memory the longest sniper I read about – sure it’s a nice rifle with good accuracy and a long range, but almost 1.4 meters of length and a weight over 14 kilograms it’s far from portable.

So I made a small (very small) list of suitable rifles:

Desert Tactical Arms ‘Stealth Recon Scout‘ — 7.62 NATO, Weight: 5 kg, 800mm long

TEI ‘M89SR‘ — 7.62 NATO, Weight: little over 5 kg, 850mm long

RPA ‘Rangemaster 7.62 STBY’ — 7.62 NATO, Weight: ≈7 kg including scope and bipod, 710mm long when folded

PGM ‘Ultima Ratio Commando II‘ — 7.62 NATO, Weight: ≈6 kg, ≈750mm long when folded

At least on paper – sorry, no real life experiences with rifles – these should be relatively easy to transport by hand in the middle of a city without being arrested on the first 10 seconds. All of them have an effective range of 800 m or more, except the RPA rifle. So all of them are good reference rifles to use on the game.