ATTENTION: THIS PROJECT IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION W.I.P. (<--- work in progress).

PROJECT BLOG: http://aerialmachines.blogspot.com/

Post inside Blender Artists; Blender Software community forum:

http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=179222)

GAMEPLAY VIDEO:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICGet8znndo

CURRENT STABLE VERSION: Release 2.0

Download link: http://aerialmachines.googlecode.com/files/AMr2b.blend

Important: You need to install Blender 3D software to play, please download Blender 2.49b for your platform (Linux, MacOSx or Windows) from here: http://download.blender.org/release/Blender2.49b/

The target of this project is to maintain a playable .blend file for computers.

This file aims to demonstrate some of the Blender Game Engine's features and it's usage.

The file is meant to remain easy to study and transform.

It could be a resource to learn and teach drawing, logic, physics and mathematics.

The gameplay is very simple: two players battle cooperative or against each other using flying machines. There is no visible ground, just the sky, some clouds and fuel stations. There is some flying enemies too.

The players can choose between battling together against the enemy machines or battling each other. They also can do both: battle the machines and betrayal the other player. The players have a limited amount of fuel to do all of that: they need to dock their airships to refuel. To refuel the player needs to stop at any fuel stations available. When the player stop to refuel his airship becomes very fragile. To attack, players and machines shoot each other. The players can fly using two different velocities: fast and slow. To go fast they need to spend more fuel.

Because of some graphic conceptual reasons the fuel stations inside this game are called "docks" and fuel is called "breath".

HOW TO PLAY:

1) Download and install the Blender 3D software version 2.49b for your platform: http://download.blender.org/release/Blender2.49b/

2) Download the file "AMr2b.blend" and open it using Blender: http://aerialmachines.googlecode.com/files/AMr2b.blend

3) Place the mouse cursor over the main scene and press the "P" on the keyboard to make the game start.

4) To Stop the game press "Esc"

5) Player 1 controls: "Arrows" to move, "K" to speed up (remember it burns more fuel), "L" to shoot, "Downarrow" to release the dock (fuel station / pink box). To dock you just need to touch one of the docks (fuel stations). Press Up and down arrows at the same time to stabilize the ship. During dock or stabilize you are weak: one hit = death.

Player 2 controls: "WASD" to move, "C" to speed up (remember it burns more fuel), "V" to shoot, "S" to release the dock (fuel station / pink box). To dock you just need to touch one of the docks (fuel stations). Press W and S keys at the same time to stabilize the ship. During dock or stabilize you are weak: one hit = death.

File features at a glance: -2 players game -Keyboard support -Fuel system -Score display -Health bar -Primitive artificial intelligence -One scenario

CONCEPT

This is the project's concept guidelines section:

-This project is an evolution (followup) of the "14bis & 20" game project >> http://asdumont.blogspot.com/

-Easy to noobs to understand.

-One single scene. (<<<???Mmmmmumble Let me see... :?

-Low poly.

-Easy to maintain.

-Think it more like a "tool box" instead of a game. To make it feel like a giant "Lego brick box". The player needs to abandon his/her passive interaction and join development cycles of frustration: Does achievement exists under technology development? What's the point of developing something that is already surpassed?

-Two players per computer could be interesting addition to improve human/social interaction while playing because computer graphics environments tend to be auto-centric and that's not necessarily a good thing.

-Thin.

-Which is the minimal setup to see most of the Blender Game Engine Features?

-Kind of "River Raid" 3D.

-You don't need super hardware to play it.

-Two players using one keyboard.

-Needs to run Texture face materials and GLSL mode. Hypothesis: Texture face: Alpha only for clounds, no light. Generic dirt texture. Shadeless vertex colors baked to texture (<TEST!).

-GLSL mode: Gimp normalmap + Texture face. Vertex color. Blender 2.5alpha2 for scratches. Noticeable pixel blocks for dirt (128X128? Mipmaps off? << Testing...)

-No logic bricks webs.

-Demonstrate various game engine features.

-Named logic bricks.

-Mipmaps off? Probably not, issues with Blender's autostart and mipmaps off script.

-To think .blend file as distributable archive for Indie games. Think about a model to make people play .blend directly instead of standalones.

-.blend files easy for great audience, documentation.

-To be a valuable resource for use inside k12 environments, Cultural Institutions video game development practices and theory.

-To raise discussion around teaching 3d game development and learning processes inside technical environments.

MOOD BOARD

Note: Please go to the Blog (http://aerialmachines.blogspot.com/) for further references on graphic guidelines development.

-Leonardo Da Vinci and Santos Dumont drawings.

-Zeppelins.

-Samurai Jack.

-Okami (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%8Ckami)

-Death Spank, by Ron Gilbert.

-Pixel Art.

-Wii Sports Resort by Nintendo: the airplane game.

-Russian Detective. First World War Zeppelin Episode >> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfUaw0BfaZA.

- ピーターパンの冒険 >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adventures_of_Peter_Pan

- "Up", the movie by Pixar.

IDEAS

Loop and dive as "special" combos (<<EDIT: Not a good idea. Most testers doesn't like the original motion).

Replace health made with IPO with another one based on text.