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Project Spark Information Q&A
- Thread starter nbraun80
- Start date
hipbabboom
Huh? What did I say? Did I screw up again? :(
I'm sure there are plenty of limits with project spark but don't fall into the trap that everything you haven't seen is a limit. Especially when there's so much you haven't seen. Case in point: Over all the videos and all the live-stream, they go into the menu and you see a wealth of options and controls that are never touched on or used in a demo regardless of how many times they changed things up. On the compilation reels, you then see materials and things that have never been demoed... look at the geometry wars clone for example: How on earth did they make a glowing grid that deforms with particle explosion??! We've seen nothing like that demoed. To address your complaint specifically, I think we've only like two character models ever used in the demos but you've seen them go into the menu and scroll through dozens of models. In the last PAX pre-live stream they showed not only how to customized one of the existing characters in meaningful ways but they go to show the same skeletal mapping being applied to character and troll alike. They haven't even touched on the potential of their DLC plans; everything we've seen are just likely things that ship with the product. I don't think you have much to worry about in this right.
yeah, I mean they showed in that e3 stage demo that him and another guy were playing the same level together, I just wonder how many players you can do and if you can do matchmaking if you make like a kart racer. Also I wonder if you'll be about to edit a world with more than one person at a time.
Would be awesome if they include some sort of music creation tool.
New video. Dev team member Eddie Parker demoed Project Spark. Nothing really new, but this video pretty much covers everything so I think it would be a great video to add to the OP for new people to see.
http://www.vg247.com/2013/09/03/team-dakota-shows-vg247-how-to-make-a-game-in-project-spark/
http://www.vg247.com/2013/09/03/team-dakota-shows-vg247-how-to-make-a-game-in-project-spark/
That would be great. If I could pick up my guitar, play a riff and add it to the game then I'm all for that.
Hmm, somehow the game seemed really low fps-ish in that last video, especially in the later part. I guess winter biom is not that optimized.
Mike_Lescault
Neo Member
Sorry for the delay on this one. This is from Aury, one of the brain programmers:
"Kode, the language used to create Brains in Project Spark, supports strongly-typed variables including booleans, numbers, vectors, colors, strings, objects, and sets. You can create any quantity of uniquely named variables of each type. Variables can be global or local to an object. Any defined variable can be accessed and mutated on any object in the game world. Using these primitives you can construct complex data structures when necessary."
We're definitely not trying to tease anyone! We will have multiplayer and we expect it to be really awesome. We're holding off on providing more details until we have everything nailed down so we know for sure what we can do. We also want to make sure we can release all the relevant information at the same time, to help give you the big picture with the right context.
We know that people weren't overly happy with the length of the PAX Twitch stream. We're working on a more consistent Twitch schedule so people will know ahead of time what we'll be showing. We're also hoping to put out a short video today or tomorrow to provide some additional information on what we showed off at PAX.
We haven't announced any type of limit yet. That feature is still very early in development, so we may not have more info on it for a several weeks/months.
Mike_Lescault
Neo Member
We're not planning anything big for the upcoming shows, mainly because the team is heads down getting ready for Alpha.
We're toying with the idea of doing 2-3 streams a week. Maybe two 45 minute ones, and one long 3 hour one. Either way, would love to get a list of things everyone would like to see us do in Project Spark, since that'd be a lot of streaming time to fill!
A 3 hour stream? I'd love that so much lol
I would definitely love to see something were you guys make maybe a Mech or a mechanical monster and fully animate it or something like that.
I'd also like to see a full-fledged FPS. We've haven't really seen yet if we can see our hands w/ a gun/weapon in first person yet.
ha I know just giving ya a little crap. Ha
. I know you guys don't want to say anything until you're sure it'll work like you say.as far as streams, 2-3 a week sound awesome. Personally id like to see hoe you make objects you construct move like someone said with the mech. I'd also like to see making some flying games, racing games, and some water racing. Seeing how to make a metroid like game where it mainly takes place underground would be neat too.
- Flying game would be great. For example, a flying adventure, in which you control a bird
- RTS game would be cool
- Showing how more elaborate cut-scenes are made. Acting up, voice recording, stuff like that.
- Creating a boss level. Fiddling with more elaborate brain mechanics of enemies (that desert dragon in the dunes in the trailer is fascinating)
- Showing how mech movement is created,
- Going all deep on custom UI elements
- Showing fun and creative ways to create new art from the existing object parts
- Multiplayer gameplay: for example fps battle match created and played.
- Racing game on water or land or air
- Building old school game with retro looks ala pacman
- Demonstrating how a strong platformer with tight controls similar to meatboy can be made
- Demonstrating how a game looks on xbox 360 (although I doubt we will see this)
- Explain how will online or in game level search work
- Music creation, even the simplest one
[*]Flying game would be great. For example, a flying adventure, in which you control a bird
[*]RTS game would be cool- Showing how more elaborate cut-scenes are made. Acting up, voice recording, stuff like that.
[*]Creating a boss level. Fiddling with more elaborate brain mechanics of enemies (that desert dragon in the dunes in the trailer is fascinating)- Showing how mech movement is created,
[*]Going all deep on custom UI elements
[*]Showing fun and creative ways to create new art from the existing object parts
[*]Multiplayer gameplay: for example fps battle match created and played.
[*]Racing game on water or land or air- Building old school game with retro looks ala pacman
- Demonstrating how a strong platformer with tight controls similar to meatboy can be made
- Demonstrating how a game looks on xbox 360 (although I doubt we will see this)
- Explain how will online or in game level search work
- Music creation, even the simplest one
agreed this this, especially the bolded.
Garrett 2U
Member
Awww yeah, that is awesome!
YESSSSSSS
Awesome!
This makes me so happy!I'm so excited to start working with Project Spark, can't wait to get hands-on.
Every time you guys release more information I am shocked by how flexible and powerful Project Spark is, so much potential!
REMEMBER CITADEL
Banned
Everything that he said, but especially this, I'd like to see how you animate complex objects with independently moving parts. If you could show an example of a mechanical transformation, all the better. There was a glimpse of that in the second community montage, but I couldn't quite tell whether the transformation was done mechanically, through animation of separately moving parts or if the flying object was simply destroyed and a new ground unit spawned. Ingenious community creations in Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts (like mechanically transforming robots) impressed the hell out of me.
Animating objects in general interests me a lot, I'd like to see how much of that is under our control (apart form the already detailed Kinect motion capture, of course).
Here are some more ideas for the streams:
- Create a basic footbal game. Provide us with more specifics regarding object physics, we have seen glimpses of ball movement in trailers, so giving more info about that would be great
- Create a simple board game (for example Don't get angry) with its set of rules
- Dedicate a stream to special effects. For example create elaborate fireworks, or comprehensive explosions, stuff like that
- Dedicate a stream to deep environmental creation, for example recreate a majestic grand canyon, some breath taking vistas
- You mentioned in the stream that someone in the team created a modern look only with the fantasy assets. Recreate that, it would be inspiring to see that.
- Dedicate a stream to gameplay focused on/in water.
How about you take 3 bipeds (spiders DO have 6 legs, right?), animate them indivually & then stick them together? You'd probably have to bend down to create the hind legs, effectively hiding the duplicate heads / upper bodies in the front biped's ... posterior
Might work, no?
PS: If we're lucky they'll have generic stick-like biped skeletons where you can attach stuff like arms / body etc. If gluing together of such skeletons (and the individually captured animations) would also be possible, one could imagine to create VERY complex creatures.. Gotta stop now, I'm getting too excited
Spiders have 8 legs. What you've suggested seems like it might be remotely possible in some way, but it would be a giant hack.
I was also thinking it'd be great if there were a generic skeleton we could add our own Kinect-captured animations to or at least apply existing animations, and glue whatever parts are available to it to make new creatures.
I was also thinking it'd be great if there were a generic skeleton we could add our own Kinect-captured animations to or at least apply existing animations, and glue whatever parts are available to it to make new creatures.
Argh I knew I would get it wrong - 8 it is then
Agree that this might take an effort to animate a spider like this, but thinking about the results makes me chuckle already. But I wonder if there are other animation possibilities (visual editor oder animation via code..), or perhaps a library with default animations for different types of skeletons / rigs.. I would very much prefer if it was a modular system with simple, configurable building blocks (stuff like a hinge that rotates between a given set of angles etc.) insted of dozens of detailed, precanned animations, but that might just be me.
Agree that this might take an effort to animate a spider like this, but thinking about the results makes me chuckle already. But I wonder if there are other animation possibilities (visual editor oder animation via code..), or perhaps a library with default animations for different types of skeletons / rigs.. I would very much prefer if it was a modular system with simple, configurable building blocks (stuff like a hinge that rotates between a given set of angles etc.) insted of dozens of detailed, precanned animations, but that might just be me.
too much eslim
Member
I just want to know it is possible to make a 2d fighting game, will there ever be a cell shaded/ anime theme, and a city theme.
Next stream was announced on Twitter about 6 hours ago.
https://twitter.com/proj_spark/status/376809927622135808
https://twitter.com/proj_spark/status/376809927622135808
This last stream was great. Lots of new info. Guys were pretty flexible and deviated from whatever they planned. Although we have not seen animation tool for mech, which is still work in progress, but the guys have shown how versatile the whole language can be, and you can really play around infinitely. Some sound assets were shown, but we could not hear them. Also some of the new stuff: You can create a slow down effect, and there are lots of mathematical functions, so you can go pretty deep with programming.
Mike, I hope in one of the future streams you guys will cover the cameras, and its options. Make a 2-3 min movie, that would be fun.
Although we have not seen animation tool for mech, which is still work in progress, but the guys have shown how versatile the whole language can be, and you can really play around infinitely. Some sound assets were shown, but we could not hear them. Also some of the new stuff: You can create a slow down effect, and there are lots of mathematical functions, so you can go pretty deep with programming.Mike, I hope in one of the future streams you guys will cover the cameras, and its options. Make a 2-3 min movie, that would be fun.
HigherLevel
Member
I haven't follow this game very closely, but could you make an old school arena style FPS out of it?
Pretty sure that would work (check the new video, they even have presets for fps games that make your character start in first person view). They haven't talked about multiplayer yet, though.
Still choppy as hell here
In this latest stream they talked about FPS. You can have a first person camera - they already showed that some time ago. There was a question about whether you can have your weapon showing while in first person view because previously they had only shown crosshairs. There is no When/Do state for showing a weapon held in first person view, but they demonstrated a workaround where you can attach your character's body to the camera and position it so that your hand and weapon are showing on screen.
So far they've also demonstrated how to make a shrink ray and a meteor shower made of flaming birds. The meteors were set to deform the terrain upon impact.
So far they've also demonstrated how to make a shrink ray and a meteor shower made of flaming birds. The meteors were set to deform the terrain upon impact.
I definitely think its possible, there's an fps camera so I don't see why not.
also guys I'll pit the YouTube link for the latest stream in the OP as soon as its up or when I get home from work.
I definitely think its possible, there's an fps camera so I don't see why not.
also guys I'll pit the YouTube link for the latest stream in the OP as soon as its up or when I get home from work.
Youtube video is up
well played sir.
Great stream. I have a great set of ideas for this and I really just can't wait for the beta to come out in a month.
Wish the "Showing weapon" stuff was native to the coding, but it doesn't seem that hard to add in yourself.
Also, a question for Mike... You guys stated the prop limit at the moment is something like "3000 to 4000 objects." Do props that are attached to other props count as only 1? If not, does that mean pre-built objects that can be "unglued" like the houses count as many objects?
Wish the "Showing weapon" stuff was native to the coding, but it doesn't seem that hard to add in yourself.
Also, a question for Mike... You guys stated the prop limit at the moment is something like "3000 to 4000 objects." Do props that are attached to other props count as only 1? If not, does that mean pre-built objects that can be "unglued" like the houses count as many objects?
Mike_Lescault
Neo Member
- Flying game would be great. For example, a flying adventure, in which you control a bird
- RTS game would be cool
- Showing how more elaborate cut-scenes are made. Acting up, voice recording, stuff like that.
- Creating a boss level. Fiddling with more elaborate brain mechanics of enemies (that desert dragon in the dunes in the trailer is fascinating)
- Showing how mech movement is created,
- Going all deep on custom UI elements
- Showing fun and creative ways to create new art from the existing object parts
- Multiplayer gameplay: for example fps battle match created and played.
- Racing game on water or land or air
- Building old school game with retro looks ala pacman
- Demonstrating how a strong platformer with tight controls similar to meatboy can be made
- Demonstrating how a game looks on xbox 360 (although I doubt we will see this)
- Explain how will online or in game level search work
- Music creation, even the simplest one
Here are some more ideas for the streams:
- Create a basic footbal game. Provide us with more specifics regarding object physics, we have seen glimpses of ball movement in trailers, so giving more info about that would be great
- Create a simple board game (for example Don't get angry) with its set of rules
- Dedicate a stream to special effects. For example create elaborate fireworks, or comprehensive explosions, stuff like that
- Dedicate a stream to deep environmental creation, for example recreate a majestic grand canyon, some breath taking vistas
- You mentioned in the stream that someone in the team created a modern look only with the fantasy assets. Recreate that, it would be inspiring to see that.
- Dedicate a stream to gameplay focused on/in water.
Awesome suggestions. I'll talk them over with the team and see what we can do. Thanks, Stampy!
This is true. But in a lot of ways, giant hacks are the secret sauce behind Project Spark. While we're constantly coming up with new ways for creators to more easily implement key game mechanics, the game truly shines when people have to come up with creative ways to achieve the desired experience. In a lot of ways, it's very much like normal game development: How can you take this bailing wire, chewing gum, and concert ticket to combine them into something awesome and unexpected?
The question isn't IF you can do something. The question is HOW would you do something. I'll ping some of the team members on this question and see what ideas they come up with. I guarantee no two members of the team will come up with the same solution, which is very cool.
I'm not sure about the exact prop limit, but ultimately the number is high enough that it's unlikely to be an issue in most cases. As we discussed in the stream, it's as much or even more about what you're doing with your objects, than it is about how many of them you have.
This is the exact reason why I see Project Spark not only as a great game creation tool but also as an invaluable building block towards the future of game design. Having experienced the "old days" of game creation where using Assembler and counting every byte was essential, I vividly remember seeing people "abuse" modern, designer friendly tools like Game Maker or Unity for the first time - my gut reaction was always the same: "You possibly CAN'T DO THAT, that's a really ugly hack and wasting resources!". But thankfully, technology has advanced at a rapid pace, and designers are less and less bound by available resources. That's the reason we see all those crazy games popping up everywhere - and I honestly believe Project Spark has the potential to set free a whole new generation of future game creators, because it removes even more barriers.
Officially confirmed: Project Spark turns regular gamers into McGyver
Agreed. Spark is very user friendly, but you will still need to do a lot of thinking and experimenting to get things exactly the way you want it. Helps exercise the brain. At least that it was what I think it is gonna be like. A lot of people will be able to pick up the game and make their own creations very easily. However there is a lot there that only those who put the time and energy and thought power into it will achieve.
hipbabboom
Huh? What did I say? Did I screw up again? :(
Thank you for this
I will strongly consider naming my first son after you because of this <3