Oculus ready!

Just wanted to pop in and say that I just piloted a gun-equipped whale in virtual reality. 

The all-important Scale.

I want to see images like this when my game is done. Only, the whale I have showed you is at the absolute bottom of the scale. I want to see the player getting dwarfed by gigantic sea creatures. A mile-long broadside of blubber and endless rows of cannons gliding past you. Ancient sea monsters rising up from the deep and swallowing your whaleship whole.

All kinds of armed Sea animals, from one-man scouts to mobile animal fortresses. SCALE. Remember how freespace made a big thing about the huge ships compared to your tiny spaceship? Just like that.

This would also open up for multiplayer whaleships, which would be incredibly cool, to just be responsible for one turret on a swimming fortress, or specialized positions like navigation or torpedo stations.

Environment sketch

I want the environment to be colourful and exaggerated, and did a quick sketch to capture the mood.

Underwater Ballistics

Ive been reading up on underwater ballistics, since I am leaning towards making Cetaceans a violent game after all. A really exciting subject, best summarized in this Wired article:

http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2007/06/underwater_guns

I never knew underwater ballistics were this developed or even this viable. I get a lot of ideas how to apply this real-life science to my game:

Stiletto-type Rounds:

Could be the corresponding machine gun, medium firing rate, medium accuracy, medium range. All round-weapon. Weapon similar to vickers machine gun?

Gyrojet :

Fast and long range cluster of self-propelled projectiles, poor accuracy, long range. Imagine the rocket swarms from the Mech Warrior games. Square weapon with a lot of vents, like the original gyrojet guns. Rename to Hydrojet because water themed and cooler?

Speargun:

The "sniper rifle". Long range, high accuracy, low firing rate. Not entirely corresponding to reality, but somehow what you associate to a speargun.

Cavitating rounds:

The "gauss gun" or cannon. Heavy hitter with long reload time and a spectacular trail.

UWJet weapon:

The "laser". Continuous bright stream of heated particles, leaving a fizzing trail of bubbles behind. Cannon could be a nozzle-like contraption with lot of cables and heated parts.

I imagine these to be the "primary" weapons, the cannons, while torpedoes and the like would be "secondary" weapons, in short supply.

Whale target mockup

A quick paintover to help me visualise the final look of the main whale vehicle. 

Animation Test

A quick test/sketch for getting some animation into the whale. My goal is just to have both a quick and dirty model and a quick and dirty animation to get into the game proper so I can test what you actually will see from the cockpit. Dont want to put too much work into it at this stage as I might have to remodel the entire whale to adapt to the cockpit view.

Edit: Someone pointed out that the fins move too much, which is a deliberate choice on my part as I want to see how much movement is visible from the cockpit. Plus ; realism is boring ;)

Now to make some kind of world and get this into the Rift...

Note To Self

Bioluminescent Jellyfish. I need these. 

The History repeats itself : Starting over.

We recently aquired an Oculus Rift for my office, a great piece of machinery which I encourage everyone to try. It DOES have its fair share of issues though, and it requires some reflection on what sort of game you want to make for it. My thoughts after trying it on for a week were:

-Realism is boring. In all examples Ive tried so far it falls too close to the uncanny valley. Stylized (TF2) or even all-out trippy is more exciting, take the chance to create what doesnt exist IRL.

-Cockpits especially and player body in a lesser degree helps with simulator sickness.

-Its impossible to drink tea while in the rift. 

-Towering architecture is cool

-In the contrast between things up close and far away is where the real VR magic happens. Exiting the starting building in TF2 badlands is prime example.

-Slow movement is best suited for VR.
After throwing some ideas around, and throwing my project I started up before I got my hands on the Rift out the window, my co-worker Patrik Liljecrantz reminded me of a project we started up when we were both going to game design school together. We called it Cetaceans:

Whales with guns! Deep sea combat, what could go wrong? We never finished the project back then in 2005, but after comparing it to my Rift notes I deemed it a perfect fit.

-Realism is boring = whales with guns is a pretty kooky concept as it is, but I want to add a more stylized, imaginative and colorful art style to this new iteration of Cetaceans.

-Cockpits help with immersion and nausea - These whales have cockpits...

-Towering architecture - The seabed can hold whatever architecture I can dream up. Skeletons from lost monsters you can swim through, sunken skyscrapers, not to mention the megafauna that will swim by your cockpit.

-Contrast between stuff close and far away - both the cockpit and every little thing that floats around in the sea will help with this point.

-Slow movement is best suited - the underwater setting gives a natural slow inertia to things and NEEDS a slow pacing to feel authentic.

What I needed next is to find a new artstyle and sketch up a model to get into unity and try out with the rift.... I threw together my new vision of the armored Whale:

This is just a quick 3D sketch with vertex colors, the finished version will have actual textures, as well as more details...

More saturated colors, imaginative design and exaggerated proportions. I am still considering a non-violent gameplay, but for now it keeps the guns. (Harpoon guns? self-propelled mini-torpedoes? Water gives me all kinds of headaches...)

The next step is to rig and set up the model and get it into unity, and into the RIFT. Stay tuned for more excitement.