The two opponents met in the dark and for a brief moment it appeared that decorum would be observed and that they would shake hands but they merely glowered at each other and then marched to their designated command posts. Gary and Chris were ready. Many would die today.
The tension mounted among the observers and a quite hush descended over the darkened arena as the two sides got ready to unleash hell on each other. There was no traditional tossing of the coin, no, it was decided that Gary would be launching an assault on Chris and his defences. Chris however was glowing with a vibrant confidence that today Gary would meet his match and descend into the depths of despair as his forces are slaughtered under the might of his defences.
Battle started.
For the first few minutes Gary enacted the role of a World War general and disregarding of the lives he was throwing away he piled soldier after soldier like toys against the first of Chris’s defences. The observers gasped in horror as Chris’s gun turrets unleashed metal hell on hundreds. The screams could be heard above the repeated ‘thump thump’ of the discarded shells hitting the floor. In the front row of the observers La Grande Fromage began to convulse as he could no longer hold back the tears at the sheer horror of what was unfolding in front of him. Chris and Gary were oblivious to all this and could be heard boasting and laughing as they continued on with their macabre show. Throughout all of this Chris gave a running commentary – seemingly oblivious to the lives he was extinguishing by the second.
Eventually Chris’s first line of defence fell under the sheer weight of numbers. Amazingly the screams and bodies of the dead appeared to bolster Gary’s forces and they forged ahead onto the second line of defence which to the gasps of shock from the observers turned out to a flame thrower turret – a weapon long since banned from most civilised countries. To make matters worse Chris zoomed in on the kill counter to show the number of lives claimed by the flames, which seemed to emanate from hell itself. From the glow on Chris’s face we could have sworn this was his proudest moment. Gary, determined not to be defeated, pushed even harder on his forces in an attempt to crush Chris’s hell hounds.
A look of shock crossed across Chris’s face as his second line of defence fell and Gary’s forces marched like a legion of possessed demons onto the final line and the target itself. By this time the observers had become numb to the entire killing and to some extent became emotionally involved in the outcome. Would Chris pull off a miracle and manage to defeat the storm that was headed his way? Would Gary show any mercy?
The commentary from Chris turned to despair as the horde took down the last of the turrets one by one and then the target. He made light of it but you could tell that inside he was a broken man. Finally with the turrets down Gary’s forces triumphantly marched onto the target and blew it to hell.
Okay, it may not have happened exactly as I depicted there but you know what, it is damned close. The battle took place to demo Multiwinia to the guys from IGN. We set up the development room to show the game from Chris’s point of view through the projector onto the wall and then closed the blinds and turned off the lights. The show was amazing and I am totally convinced that everyone should get a projector to play the game. The particular game mode being shown was a new one that had previously not been shown in public before. Chris and Gary paired off because out of all of us they are the best at playing the game. The game rocks dudes and when it comes out in September you are not going to stop playing it so kiss goodbye to your loved ones because you are not going to see them for a long time.
Back on the development front, I had a bit of a breakthrough today and got spectator mode working on both the client and server. I was able to watch a four-player game using only AI teams. All I need to do now is make sure all the UI paths work and get this mode totally tested so that it can make the Gold Master deadline. It turned out that getting this mode up and running was a lot simpler than anyone anticipated because of the way the game deals with teams and clients. It’s unlike any network system I had come across before but it works really well and is an elegant scalable solution. Going to have to be careful now because I am going to want to code all future network solutions in this way, which is fine while I am employed by Introversion ☺
Tales from the front line S01E02
Tales from the front line S01E02
Last edited by Byron on Fri Jul 04, 2008 8:59 am, edited 2 times in total.
Re: Tales from the front line S01E02
Byron wrote:Back on the development front, I had a bit of a breakthrough today and got spectator mode working on both the client and server. I was able to watch a four-player game using only AI teams.
So, spectating a game you're not participating in?
Might I ask if you're planning on including the ability to "fill up" a game you're hosting, so you can have the full four players and an arbitrary number of spectators, independent on whether the host is participating or spectating?
~
Great story, by the way. Well narrated, too.
Code: Select all
zanzer7 26-Sep-08
shinygerbil 30-Sep-08
'nuff said.
I bet it'll be shinygerbil though.
-
shinygerbil
- level5
- Posts: 4667
- Joined: Wed Dec 22, 2004 10:14 pm
- Location: Out, finding my own food. Also, doing the shinyBonsai Manoeuvre(tm)
- Contact:
-
shinygerbil
- level5
- Posts: 4667
- Joined: Wed Dec 22, 2004 10:14 pm
- Location: Out, finding my own food. Also, doing the shinyBonsai Manoeuvre(tm)
- Contact:
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 7 guests