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New Mockups Art for HardLander

Feast your eyes on thes new Mockups for hard lander levels.

Norm and I have been hard at work prettifying the game as well as adding lots of new features. Here is a short list of changes:

  • 1080p update for all assets
  • All new art and physics design for ships
  • All new art for levels
  • Ships now explode and parts persist through the match. This leads to hilarious and unexpected happenings.
  • Every level has new animations to create a more immersive experience.

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New Animations, art, and particles running at 1080p

It includes new Animations, art, and particles, and everything has been updated to 1080P.  The thrust of your ship now causes dust to fly around.  Also the thrust animation is much nicer and the length is relative the amount of thrust you are using (the thrust trigger is force sensitive).  I want to play around with having the force of your thruster effect the world around you.  That way you can push a player into the wall or knock a brick off a ledge with your thruster without even touching them.

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HARDLANDER: Version 0.8 Released! New Test levels

The Latest version of HardLander has plenty to celebrate!  Two new levels, improved graphic fidelity and improved stability will keep the fun going long into the night.  So grab some friends and gather around your TV.

Teeter Totter 
4 players face off against 2 teetering totters.   Get it spinning to smash your opponents into smithereens or try and stay out of harms way, it’s your choice!

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Laser Tag
Blast your friends out of the sky in an instant with this levels new ship fired lasers!  To fire your weapon you must push your thrust all the way down meaning that shooting at the wrong time could mean kissing a wall.

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IndieCade 2014

If you are around LA this next weekend attending IndieCade, be sure to come down and play some Hard Lander with me at the OUYA booth.  I would love to see what you guys think!

I added a few new things recently.  I added a laser equipped asteroids that can spawn (rarely).  I also added a reward for going very fast on graveyard;  If you get over 700 kph you will spawn floor clearing concussion bombs to get rid of those pesky squatters!

HardLander is included in the latest IndieRoyale bundle!

I’m pretty excited about it.  It’s also really helped the Steam page.  Today is the second best day of traffic since I launched on greenlight.  If you would like to check the game out, and especially if you have friends coming over this weekend who like to get a little punchy, you can get it for pennies along with some other cool looking games.

Also, I’m about to build a new version of the game with all the cool stuff I’ve posted about previously!  Woohoo!

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Teeter-totter Prototype Level

I’m prototyping a new level I’m calling teeter-totter.  It’s going to be a roundish level with a center pivot, free spinning platform in the middle of the screen which can be manipulated to mess with your opponents.  I like how the platform balances if no one takes off, since the spawns are equidistant along the platform.  Once one person lifts off however it will start to tip.  There are many possibilities for interesting interactions.  For instance you can continually screen wrap vertically trying to get the platform spinning faster and faster but avoiding the wall.  You can hit the platform from the bottom, or use it to smack your opponent into a wall.  I haven’t been able to play test this yet with 4 players but I am hoping that it’s fun.  If so I will continue to refine it.

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Updated the teeter-totter prototype level.  I need to do more play-testing but I like this look better.  Also the hole in the middle gives some opportunity for slick evasion for the nimble pilot.  I enclosed the level to make the rotating platform more important since you can’t escape it.  In previous play-testing people would quickly fly away from the platform.  Now positioning is much more important.  In the image that follows, the surface is balanced until one sprightly rocket ship takes off and it starts tipping to the left.

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Eugene Indie game com 2014

I got a chance to show Hard lander at the first Eugene, Oregon #igcon.  It was a ton of fun and all four controllers were occupied nearly the whole time!  Some people were playing for hours at a time.  I got some good feedback and encouragement.

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Procedurally Generated Asteroids!

I added procedurally generated asteroids!  It makes the asteroids level much more interesting.  I will probably add the chance for more interesting things like lazer satalites or magnetic probes or something later.  Either way, never see the same Asteroids level twice!

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The size, orientation, initial rotation, direction, and mass of the asteroids are generated each round.  The mass is based on the size of the asteroid so smaller ones will be easy to push around.  Currently the algorithm is based on size.  It feels pretty good. I wonder if the most accurate mass algorithm would be something like size3 or something.  Dunno, what do you guys think?

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For anyone interested in the positioning algorithm, here is what I did.  First I pick a random number between 0 and 13.  that is how many asteroids can show up for this round.  Then I randomize the size between two constants.  Then I check at random points withing the screen dimensions to see where I can put an asteroid where it won’t cause trouble.  If the space is clear then I generate the asteroid.  If not, I go through the loop again with a different set of data.  To check if a position is clear I use a sphere check to make sure it did not collide with another asteroid.  If it did it would send them both flying away at warp speed causing a chain reaction with the other objects turning the asteroid field into grenade shrapnel and the round would end in a very explosive tie.  The sphere check has it’s size modified to the size of the asteroid to make sure that we are checking the bounds properly.  I could have just used the maximum size of an asteroid to do my sphere checks but then the generation wouldn’t be as dynamic and random.  For instance you would never see three tiny asteroids sitting next to each other.  I wanted the spawn points to be protected too, so players didn’t spawn inside a giant rock.  In order to do this I put a collider around the start point flagged as a trigger so that nothing would collide with it but the sphere check.  I also had to mask out some other triggers I was using for gameplay reasons.

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IndieGames.com covered HardLander!

Check out the Indigames.com coverage of HardLander! You can check out the article here but here is what they had to say.

Couch co-op and local multiplayer vs games are making a huge comeback as of late, which is great because now we get four-player games like Hard Lander. While it’s already out on the Ouya, Soulareus Games has launched aGreenlight page to get the Windows and Mac version up on Steam.

Flying and landing your ship is the name of the game in Hard Lander, though it’s not as simple as it sounds. The trigger causes your ship to lift off — the longer you hold, the more powerful it thrusts. You have a directional thruster used through the stick — it’s weak but it can direct your path. The interplay between these is tricky, but it’s a lot of fun to maneuver your spacecraft. The main body of your ship is incredibly fragile. Landing on it or crashing it into a competitor will result in death. Bounce off your boosters or the bottom of your ship, though, and you’ll be fine. The last ship flying wins the round.

One of the coolest things about playing this was the stages. Sometimes you’ll need to navigate through narrow spaces or onto platforms to kill the other ships. Other times you’ll need to land butt-down on the arm of a laser-firing satellite and knock it spinning in a direction away from you. The strength and longevity of games like this lie in the options, so hopefully there will be more than a few different, creative stages to do battle on.

The game will be on the showfloor during IndieCade in October, and was featured by Ouya Presents (embedded above) as well. The Ouya versioncosts $5, which is the price same as the alpha version that’s up on Desura.