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View Full Version : New Local Game - Bounty Arms UDK Standalone Demo and Teaser Trailer now out



froogle
18-02-2010, 03:07 PM
http://open-reset.com/ba_group_banner_small_03.jpg


Hi Everyone,


We are officially releasing the Bounty Arms UDK Demo to the public to play. Best played with an Xbox 360 controller.

With the help of Splat and the hard labour of Obi-Wan, we have now got our first UDK version out. The great thing is that it's now a standalone game and it doesn't require UT3 anymore. Get it here: Bounty Arms UDK version

This demo is basically the same as the UT3 mod version, but the UDK has a more updated version of the UE3 engine. So it has real time AO, dynamic lighting on enemies etc.

We've also added a few things, like working turrets, special ability bar, damage material indicator on the player and other small various little addons and tweaks.

I hope you enjoy the UDK demo, and please look forward to future versions. To keep up to date with future versions please visit our blog here: Bounty-arms.blogspot.com



Name: Bounty Arms
Version: 0.36
Compatibility: PC
Web: http://www.moddb.com/games/bountyarms
Blog: http://bounty-arms.blogspot.com/



Description:

Bounty Arms is an old-school 3d side-scrolling action game that utilizes modern technology from the Unreal Engine 3.

Over the course of the final game you gather power-ups that hugely alter your character and weapon arsenal, travel across the galaxy to many different worlds, unlock hidden doors to secrets, join with new comrades, fight the multitude of varying enemies that each world will bring, and defeat the bosses that rule them.



Download Game:

Bounty Arms UDK Demo (http://www.moddb.com/games/bountyarms/downloads/bounty-arms-udk-demo-01)




Manual (Right Click, Save Target As)

http://www.open-reset.com/Bounty_Arms_Manual.pdf



Screenshots:


http://open-reset.com/ba_teaser_screenshot_01.jpg
http://open-reset.com/ba_teaser_screenshot_02.jpg
http://open-reset.com/ba_teaser_screenshot_04.jpg
http://open-reset.com/ba_teaser_screenshot_06.jpg
http://open-reset.com/ba_teaser_screenshot_07.jpg
http://open-reset.com/ba_teaser_screenshot_08.jpg
http://open-reset.com/ba_teaser_screenshot_10.jpg
http://open-reset.com/ba_teaser_screenshot_12.jpg



Videos:


Direct Links (Right Click, Save Target As)

HD: http://www.open-reset.com/ba_teaser_big.avi
SD: http://www.open-reset.com/ba_teaser_small.avi
HD: http://www.open-reset.com/ba_teaser_big.mov
SD: http://www.open-reset.com/ba_teaser_small.mov

Youtube Link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIKsYVrr7P8

http://www.youtube.com/user/OpenReset





Hope You Enjoy!

Fengol
18-02-2010, 03:25 PM
I saw the video of this on ModDB; very awesome looking *downloads*

MarryO+LewyG
18-02-2010, 04:17 PM
Looking great, hope you can get this on psn or live, slim chance but holding thumbs.

Chippit
18-02-2010, 05:18 PM
http://www.devmag.org.za/news/345/

Bonezmann
18-02-2010, 05:54 PM
Wow, looks awesome! Will download soon! :)

Gazza_N
19-02-2010, 09:08 AM
O.O

ROBOTS!

Looks spiffy! I'm pulling it down as fast as my laemternets will allow to give it a go. And then the Time of Judgement shall be upon ye... :P

Nandrew
20-02-2010, 12:29 PM
I saw a vid of this some time ago and it looked really frikkin cool. :) My PC isn't equipped for this sort of thing, but I'll see if I can play it on some other system.

Gazza_N
21-02-2010, 08:52 PM
Okay, I've given this a shot and completed it. Here we go:

> Puuuuuuurrrrrrrtyyyyyyy. :O~ It's a very good-looking game, t'be sure. Beautiful level, nice animations, wonderfully detailed texturing and lighting. Well done there.

> Note: I played it on keyboard, not gamepad. Good responsive movement and jumping controls, not so much for combat. While I like the simplicity of a "point gun in general direction of enemies and shoot" mechanic, I found it annoying that I couldn't pinpoint specific enemies, or run in one direction while shooting in another. If this is present with the gamepad, it didn't carry over to mouse and keyboard and made combat a little frustrating at points, especially while trying to shoot at clustering enemies while retreating. Please bear in mind that not all PC gamers have gamepads hooked up to their machines. ;) Also, having turrets and enemies shooting at me before I can see them is a little cheap of them - perhaps you could pull the camera out a little so that the player has a bit more advance warning.

> Combat is a bit of a sore point, mainly because of the targeting issues I mention above. Clustering enemies that keep running off-screen and that I can't aim at accurately are a little frustrating.

> Platforming was quite fun - you have some really neat jumpy puzzles here! :D A few areas had me stuck, though. It wasn't clear that certain steel railings were destructible - I discovered this by accident. It also wasn't clear at all that the robot arm over the crusher was something I could jump on - I died quite a few times while jumping into the crusher before I accidentally landed on the arm and realised it was a platform, not a background prop. Perhaps some platform-like protrusion on it would make this clearer? Platforming could benefit from a slightly pulled-out camera as well, if only to allow better movement planning on the player's part.

Overall, a fun game so far! Abovementioned issues aside, it kept my attention long enough to finish it, so it certainly isn't a waste of time from where I stand. ;) I'm keen to see where you take it from here!

froogle
22-02-2010, 11:43 AM
Hey everyone,

Thanks for the kind words.

@ Gazza_N, because this is a very early stage of the game we still need to look into a lot of aspects of the targeting, aiming system but it is good to hear your feedback. This game is also primarily aimed for the console. The limitation of movement is due to the degrees of rotation that you get on a keyboard which is why a gamepad is recommended but not needed. The camera is actually now being reworked and prepared for co-op so distances and angles need to be finally adjusted for multiple players.

In terms of platforming we are trying to lead the player in a natural way without making it seem to obvious but we are getting feedback on this and will possibly change certain things. As for the arm section we will look into that as well.

Thanks for your feedback and comments. It is why we wanted to release it so that we could get a feel for what people thought and their comments. So please feel free to post more feedback.

Squid
22-02-2010, 01:18 PM
Downloading now. Gonna give it a spin.

Bonezmann
22-02-2010, 05:55 PM
Had a playthrough this weekend, very fun game and the platform puzzles you presented were awesome. Although there was a thing here and there that bothered/frustrated me.

POSSIBLE SPOILERS FOR THOSE WHO DIDN'T PLAY IT YET.

It took me a while to figure out that some of the railings could be destroyed, The aiming sucked, I couldn't see where I was shooting which resulted in me just randomly running and shooting enemies. The part where you have to jump over the molten metal using the drifting rocks/platforms was utterly frustrating as I continually missed a jump because the platform/rock was too small.

The handy squishy thing was pure awesomeness and it was pretty obvious to use the extending arm thing to cross. I too figured it out after dying a couple of times, but it was an awesome discovery nonetheless. :)

There's also a big red robot around the middle of the level that does absolutely nothing.

Other than that, fantastic game. Also gave me a touch of oddworld feeling. :)

One final question: Will the co-op be splitscreen, networked or will it be playable on one screen like the old NES games?

Squid
22-02-2010, 09:55 PM
Righto, Gazza pretty much covered everything.

From a technical perspective the game is excellent. The graphics and physics work very well. The animations of the levels need some extra credit too, they're fantastic.

I played with a 360 controller and the platforming in particular works really well, by far the games strongest asset.

The combat on the other hand still needs a lot of work. The aiming system is frustrating and forces you to run around in circles trying to hit stuff.

Some things need to be explained to the player: what can I destroy? What can I jump on? What can I interact with?

Overall, a lot of potential.

froogle
23-02-2010, 02:48 AM
Hey everyone thanks for the feedback. We appreciate it.

@ Bonezmann, the aiming is a very early draft of what we actually want. It will have more complexity and work way better in future releases and final version. Look at this demo as a 0.1 alpha version of the game. We definitely have plans to improve the aiming, make it more obvious who you're shooting and targeting etc. It will get better.

The lava part is hard because we'll probably have it as a reward/trophy and the extending spring is just the easier alternative way to get across.

The big red robot will attack you in the next version, we just didn't have time to program the AI, do the animations and all his attack effects.

We want to have 4 players co-op on the same screen. We want it to be a game where you can sit around with 3 other friends and just have fun with all 4 characters.

Thanks for compliment as well :)


@ Squid, Combat will be better. I promise :)

We do hear that people want more hints to lead you into something. What we were trying to do is naturally lead the player into discovering things on their own without having overly exaggerated signs. I guess with more play testing and feedback from the pubic we'll meet a happy balance. This is why it's so good to get comments from people on forums etc so that we can address these issues.


Please keep the feedback coming :)

Gazza_N
23-02-2010, 08:26 AM
I'll second what Squid mentioned about objects like switches - it would help if you highlighted them with a glow or brackets when the player gets near, just to show that they're interactive.

Also, I may be preaching to the choir here, but bear in mind that you don't need to be blatant in how you guide the player. There's no need for giant neon arrows, or a screen-sized "YOU CAN TOTALLY JUMP ON THIS!!1!1!" popup. You'd be amazed how a slightly different colour scheme on important objects, or something subtly different in their shape or design can say "HEY! I'm important! You want to pay attention to me for some reason!". This was the problem with the railings and the arm - they didn't seem any different from anything else in the level, so I subconsciously ignored them as potential puzzle items. One part where you *did* do this indirect guidance thing well (and I apologise for not mentioning it before) is with those fans/geysers that you use to float across the gap near the end of the level. Their colour scheme and fancy effects made them stand out from everything, so I recognised that they were special and tried to use them, even if I wasn't entirely sure what they did.

obihb
23-02-2010, 01:18 PM
Hey, just jumping in here with a quick explanation about the level design choices.

The stuff mentioned about subtleties in interactive things is a good comment and in fact is something we consider more so than blatant glows or extra graphical popups. It's a work in progress and we feel our way through it. It's not something that is widely done in games.. I mean.. to not be blatant about these things is almost never done in games accept old school adventure games maybe. Actually Crysis also comes to mind in some respect, with regards to picking up dropped weapons... etc They don't glow or flicker or even collect unless you push a button while targeting them. Now this may take it a little too far but did it stop you from finishing the game?.

But in our demo if you consider the objects that you have found to be interactive you will notice they are different. Not blatantly so but different none the less. And the same kind of object will always have the same clue to be different. It's a different mind set to play without glowing icons pulling your eyes where ever the developer wants you to look. It forces you to be more alert or to be more involved in finding that answer.

So then even just by playing this demo you start to see the pattern. It's not something you have to keep re-learning over and over. It's an initial learning experience and the "rules" so to speak will stay the same through out the game.

This is really the thinking behind the choices and we can either be more or less obvious with things and of course it's still a matter of open discussion for us to implement various things to help the player out but I think still we struck a pretty good balance with it so far. Considering that many people played all the way through the demo, it was not hard at all and I think personally to have the screen with less glowing icons or objects is better for the overall look and feel of the game.

dislekcia
23-02-2010, 01:53 PM
Hey, just jumping in here with a quick explanation about the level design choices.

The stuff mentioned about subtleties in interactive things is a good comment and in fact is something we consider more so than blatant glows or extra graphical popups. It's a work in progress and we feel our way through it. It's not something that is widely done in games.. I mean.. to not be blatant about these things is almost never done in games accept old school adventure games maybe. Actually Crysis also comes to mind in some respect, with regards to picking up dropped weapons... etc They don't glow or flicker or even collect unless you push a button while targeting them. Now this may take it a little too far but did it stop you from finishing the game?.

But in our demo if you consider the objects that you have found to be interactive you will notice they are different. Not blatantly so but different none the less. And the same kind of object will always have the same clue to be different. It's a different mind set to play without glowing icons pulling your eyes where ever the developer wants you to look. It forces you to be more alert or to be more involved in finding that answer.

So then even just by playing this demo you start to see the pattern. It's not something you have to keep re-learning over and over. It's an initial learning experience and the "rules" so to speak will stay the same through out the game.

This is really the thinking behind the choices and we can either be more or less obvious with things and of course it's still a matter of open discussion for us to implement various things to help the player out but I think still we struck a pretty good balance with it so far. Considering that many people played all the way through the demo, it was not hard at all and I think personally to have the screen with less glowing icons or objects is better for the overall look and feel of the game.

Listen to what the playtesting is giving you. Remember that these people are used to games that aren't necessarily polished or even player-friendly. Normal gamers probably won't follow what's going on too well if there's confusion among experienced players.

And yeah, while I get where you're coming from with not wanting to put HUD elements all over your game or spam super-glowing attention-getters on interactive elements of a level, you do need to think a little more about your meaning scheme. The fact is that games have done exactly what you're trying to do for a long time now, Valve in particular are masters of this. Their use of lighting cues and texturing to guide players in Half Life 2 is amazing... I really suggest playing Portal again with the developer commentary on, it'll give you a lot of insight into designing the kind of low-impact guidance devices that you're keen on :)

Bonezmann
23-02-2010, 02:14 PM
I had no problem seeing the buttons I could interact with in the game, just a suggestion, but you could maybe allow players to enable or disable all/some of the help icons/glows in the game? Oh, btw, I can't wait for 4-player co-op. ;)

obihb
23-02-2010, 04:37 PM
We listen to what people are saying, don't worry about that. We're not ignoring any of that feedback by any means. We do think about a wide variety of things with regards to this specific "problem" about dealing with "clues" as it were.

My previous post is about explaining the thoughts behind the current state of the level and the learning curve involved in playing through. I think we did not fail in the current level but rather it can be tweaked. Proven by the fact that a small percentage of feedback mention anything about not knowing what to do or rather taking extra time to figure out what to do. Which in this level is only one major thing, blowing up some of the railings.

dislekcia
23-02-2010, 05:17 PM
We listen to what people are saying, don't worry about that. We're not ignoring any of that feedback by any means. We do think about a wide variety of things with regards to this specific "problem" about dealing with "clues" as it were.

My previous post is about explaining the thoughts behind the current state of the level and the learning curve involved in playing through. I think we did not fail in the current level but rather it can be tweaked. Proven by the fact that a small percentage of feedback mention anything about not knowing what to do or rather taking extra time to figure out what to do. Which in this level is only one major thing, blowing up some of the railings.

Definitely! I don't think anyone's saying the level failed, just that it would be better with that problem addressed :)

Seriously though, do the Portal thing. It will give you some new tools to assault this from different angles with.

obihb
24-02-2010, 12:39 AM
I think we'll continue to use our judgement on these kind of things. It works so far. I think the 2 people that took an extra 5 minutes to figure things out are now more satisfied that they did so on their own.

We've got loads of gaming experience spread through our dev team and we'll make it work how we see fit. We probably will not copy Portal.

SandyBordShorts
24-02-2010, 04:51 AM
Being original shouldn't interfere with doing something well:
http://thegameprodigy.com/what-game-designers-can-learn-from-avatar/

obihb
24-02-2010, 08:47 AM
Thanks for all your concerns. I'm pretty sure we've got a handle on things.

dislekcia
24-02-2010, 10:01 AM
I think we'll continue to use our judgement on these kind of things. It works so far. I think the 2 people that took an extra 5 minutes to figure things out are now more satisfied that they did so on their own.

We've got loads of gaming experience spread through our dev team and we'll make it work how we see fit. We probably will not copy Portal.

Nobody is suggesting you copy Portal OR maligning your game. In fact, the reason people are raising this point is probably because it's the area they feel they can help improve your already awesome stuff the most. It's actually just a small point that perhaps you're responding a little too strongly too. It's not a question of attacking your game design skills or suggesting that you should be closer to something like Portal (which probably sounds like it doesn't make much sense if you're only thinking about it in a graphical context) but the idea that Portal's developer commentary contains some concepts that will help you do what you want to do better, eg: You'll be able to just tweak one or two subtle little things to make it subconsciously obvious to players that said barrier is breakable without having to deal with user frustration.


Thanks for all your concerns. I'm pretty sure we've got a handle on things.

But then again, this sounds like maybe you don't want constructive criticism. Again, nobody's attacking your work. It looks cool, people are just mentioning how it could be even better... Be sure to post again when you've updated the combat and I'll give it another go.

Gazza_N
24-02-2010, 11:04 AM
I know that some comments may've sounded harsh, but we're just telling you what we experienced as first-time players who didn't know anything about your game or level-design ethos. That's the fact of it. You wanted feedback, we gave it. We've all built games to varying degrees of complexity. We know how much it sucks when people don't think the game you've put so much effort into is perfect. You have to realise that we only mention these things because we think they'll help, not because we doubt your team's ability or because we take sick pleasure in tearing all your hard work apart.

Truth is, speaking for myself, I wouldn't even have bothered posting feedback if I didn't think the game was worth feeding back on. ;)

Now. Go forth and create more awesome!

froogle
24-02-2010, 11:11 AM
Hi Everyone,

I just want to say that we do take all your feedback into consideration. I'm sorry if it sounded like we don't want constructive criticism. All we're really trying to say is that it's early in it's development, and that we do have lots to sort out. The game isn't complete by any means.

All the comments made about notifying a player are valid. We're not ignoring that fact. We just have a particular idea of how we want to make it. We're not saying that it's right or wrong. We just want to explore that avenue. If it works out then great, but if it doesn't then we're not closed to reverting to some more traditional methods. We might also have the ability to turn notifications on and off so you get the best of both worlds.

Again I do apologize if opinions came across too strongly, but we do listen and consider everyone's feedback.

We will be constantly updating features and we hope that we can address all the problems that people have brought up.