I made a video-game: METAL MAYHEM! [Free Alpha build online!]

[luc0s]

I made a video-game: METAL MAYHEM! [Free Alpha build online!]

UPDATE:

The Alpha build is online now! You can download it from here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/1pyjk8d7kxbc7um/Metal%20Mayhem.rar
I want all of you who have 2 or more Xbox360 controllers to play our video-game and tell us what you think and how we can improve Metal Mayhem!


Some of you might already know, but for those who don't: I'm a young video-game designer and a student at the Utrecht School of Arts, a Dutch art university, where I study to become a professional game-designer.


Recently I finished my very first serious video-game project. With a small team of only 4 people, we managed to create a fully working Alpha version of our first independent video-game: Metal Mayhem!

Metal Mayhem is inspired by the old TV shows Robot Wars and BattleBots. Two to four players can join the arena with a steampunk battle robot. Crush your opponents, score points and win the match!

Metal Mayhem started as a school project by 4 students on the Utrecht School of Arts. Currently, Metal Mayhem is growing beyond a mere school project. People are genuinely excited about Metal Mayhem and want to see it released. We're currently working really hard to make that happen. More info about this will be released very soon.


Here is the official trailer of Metal Mayhem:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Htf0KB7Ts68


Keep in mind folks, that this is only the Alpha version of our game. We will continue working on Metal Mayhem, with the goal to turn Metal Mayhem into a real professional video-game, good enough to be released on Xbox Live, Steam, GoG.com or other distributors (we're still trying to work out some deals to get out game released).


The Alpha build is online now! You can download it from here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/1pyjk8d7kxbc7um/Metal%20Mayhem.rar
I want all of you who have 2 or more Xbox360 controllers to play our video-game and tell us what you think and how we can improve Metal Mayhem!

 

[DeargRuadhri]

Good luck, and if I can, I try to test it, but a little issue I might have: I don't own a single X360 controller.

 

[luc0s]

Good luck, and if I can, I try to test it, but a little issue I might have: I don't own a single X360 controller.

First of all: Thank you so much!

About you not owning any Xbox360 controllers: Well, for now, that is a problem. We currently only have Xbox360 controller support in our game. We're trying to figure out an alternative for those gamers among us who don't own Xbox360 controllers. The thing is, it's very tricky to develop a local multiplayer game without using Xbox360 controllers. In theory we could build in keyboard support, which means you would have to plug in multiple keyboard to play with multiple people, but in practice this is not as easy to implement as it sounds.

 

[DeargRuadhri]

First of all: Thank you so much!

About you not owning any Xbox360 controllers: Well, for now, that is a problem. We currently only have Xbox360 controller support in our game. We're trying to figure out an alternative for those gamers among us who don't own Xbox360 controllers. The thing is, it's very tricky to develop a local multiplayer game without using Xbox360 controllers. In theory we could build in keyboard support, which means you would have to plug in multiple keyboard to play with multiple people, but in practice this is not as easy to implement as it sounds.

I fear I know what you are talking about, but a standard keyboard has more than 100 keys, which should be easily enough for at least 3 players, taking into consideration that these players have to have enough space in front of the keyboard (without that, actually 4 players could use one keyboard without problem, but we can't brake the boundaries of physics. ) As for multiple keyboards, the keys would have to be mapped individually for all players, as Windows, if I'm not mistaken, can't differentiate between the single keyboards, which is a problem, as two players couldn't use the same keys, even if they used different keyboards, it is a minor annoyance, but it is still there.

If you could, you should try to make the game keyboard compatible, and I'd help you fine-tune it as best as I can.

 

[luc0s]

I fear I know what you are talking about, but a standard keyboard has more than 100 keys, which should be easily enough for at least 3 players, taking into consideration that these players have to have enough space in front of the keyboard (without that, actually 4 players could use one keyboard without problem, but we can't brake the boundaries of physics. ) As for multiple keyboards, the keys would have to be mapped individually for all players, as Windows, if I'm not mistaken, can't differentiate between the single keyboards, which is a problem, as two players couldn't use the same keys, even if they used different keyboards, it is a minor annoyance, but it is still there.

If you could, you should try to make the game keyboard compatible, and I'd help you fine-tune it as best as I can.

We're currently thinking about a single-player mode, where the 3 other robots will be controller by an A.I. One of my colleagues who's skilled in A.I. programming offered us a helping hand to get the A.I. done. if we can do that, we can make the single-player version playable with a keyboard without any trouble. But don't get your hopes up just yet. We still have lots of other things to do before we'll ad a single-player option with A.I. controlled opponents.

 

[volsung]

I keep reading "Mental Mayhem" instead of "Metal"

It looks like a fun little arena. How about a Linux version?

 

[DeargRuadhri]

We're currently thinking about a single-player mode, where the 3 other robots will be controller by an A.I. One of my colleagues who's skilled in A.I. programming offered us a helping hand to get the A.I. done. if we can do that, we can make the single-player version playable with a keyboard without any trouble. But don't get your hopes up just yet. We still have lots of other things to do before we'll ad a single-player option with A.I. controlled opponents.

Smart idea, and as I prefer singleplayer over multiplayer, I wouldn't even mind, and the game looks really promising at least from the video.

 

[luc0s]

I keep reading "Mental Mayhem" instead of "Metal"

It looks like a fun little arena. How about a Linux version?

The game is build in the Unity 3D engine. As far as I know, it isn't supported by Linux. However, we'll look into this. If it is possible for is to make a Linux build, we'll do so. But at the moment, it's Windows only. We will release a Mac OS X version too. Hopefully Linux too.

Anyway, the Alpha build is online now, but it requires at least 2 Xbox360 controllers to be played. Without 2 Xbox360 controllers, you can't play the game. Since not everyone has Xbox controllers, we'll have to think of something for the gamers without controllers. If you have any ideas, please let us know.


here is the Alpha build: https://www.dropbox.com/s/1pyjk8d7kxbc7um/Metal%20Mayhem.rar

 

[volsung]

The game is build in the Unity 3D engine. As far as I know, it isn't supported by Linux. However, we'll look into this. If it is possible for is to make a Linux build, we'll do so. But at the moment, it's Windows only. We will release a Mac OS X version too. Hopefully Linux too.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-57455039-2/unity-4-gives-game-coders-animation-flash-linux-support/

 

[DeargRuadhri]

The game is build in the Unity 3D engine. As far as I know, it isn't supported by Linux. However, we'll look into this. If it is possible for is to make a Linux build, we'll do so. But at the moment, it's Windows only. We will release a Mac OS X version too. Hopefully Linux too.

Anyway, the Alpha build is online now, but it requires at least 2 Xbox360 controllers to be played. Without 2 Xbox360 controllers, you can't play the game. Since not everyone has Xbox controllers, we'll have to think of something for the gamers without controllers. If you have any ideas, please let us know.


here is the Alpha build: https://www.dropbox.com/s/1pyjk8d7kxbc7um/Metal%20Mayhem.rar

Well...you could also utilise both the keyboard and the mouse, even though this would only allow two players to play, if something else comes to mind, I'll tell you.

 

[luc0s]

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-57455039-2/unity-4-gives-game-coders-animation-flash-linux-support/

That is good news. We are using Unity 4 right now, so that means a Linux port should be possible. I'll inform our programmer!

 

[luc0s]

Our official Metal Mayhem Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/metalmayhemgame

Like and favorite that shit!

 

[Treasa]

couple thoughts:
If xbox360 controllers work, will ms controllers work? (like logitech, for instance?)
Then, what about 1 controller + a keyboard? There should be an open source keyboard script running around somewhere.

I know nothing about coding, I was just thinking out loud.

 

[luc0s]

couple thoughts:
If xbox360 controllers work, will ms controllers work? (like logitech, for instance?)
Then, what about 1 controller + a keyboard? There should be an open source keyboard script running around somewhere.

I know nothing about coding, I was just thinking out loud.

1 controller + keyboard should already work, unless our programmer disabled the keyboard scripts in the final build. I don't know. You could try it out.

Some logitech controller work with our game, but others don't. It depends on the internal layout of the controller (I'm not talking about the physical button layout, but the internal layout inside the controller). If the controller has the same layout as the Xbox360 controller, it will work. If the controller has a different layout, it might not work, or work only half.

 

[volsung]

You are aware that you can plug a large amount of USB keyboards to a single computer right?

In any case, this may be a bit extra programming but how about LAN multiplayer for the PC?

Just curious: who's doing the coding? A software engineer? Computer scientist? One of you guys who learned a programming language?

 

[aramilsiandol]

From what I see, this looks very good (even for Alpha version). But just as Dearg Ruadhri has said, I can't test it since I have no X360 controller. I guess I'll wait 'till you add keyboard support, or I'll just drive to my fried in another city that has a controller. Anyway- good luck!
Always remember not to give up if you don't succeed at first, and just as important, don't never become [font=arial, sans-serif]arrogant[/font] if you do =)

 

[tommy5761]

I think a quote from Thomas Edison will fit nicely here .
"I have not failed , I`ve only found 10,000 ways that don`t work"

 

[luc0s]

You are aware that you can plug a large amount of USB keyboards to a single computer right?

Which is not gonna work, because Windows does not recognize the difference between the different keyboards. If you press a button on one keyboard and press another button on another keyboard, Windows will think you press 2 buttons at the same time at the same keyboard.

Multiple keyboards on one computer is not going to work, or at least we don't see how this could ever work.

In any case, this may be a bit extra programming but how about LAN multiplayer for the PC?

LAN support is being considered. It might be implemented in one of the future builds.

Just curious: who's doing the coding? A software engineer? Computer scientist? One of you guys who learned a programming language?

Just a fellow Game Development student. At our university we get trained in 3 different specialties: Game Art, Game Design and Game Development. Game Art = creating the visuals for the game, Game Design = designing the mechanics and gameplay for the game and Game Development = programming the game.
We all start with all 3 specialties, but after our first year we had to pick one single specialty. at first I chose Game Design, but I switched to Game Art. I did most of the 3D visuals for Metal Mayhem.
Our programmer chose Game Development, as he already had experience with some programming languages, such as Javascript and C#. Our game is programmed in C#, if I'm not mistaken.

 

[luc0s]

From what I see, this looks very good (even for Alpha version). But just as Dearg Ruadhri has said, I can't test it since I have no X360 controller. I guess I'll wait 'till you add keyboard support, or I'll just drive to my fried in another city that has a controller. Anyway- good luck!
Always remember not to give up if you don't succeed at first, and just as important, don't never become [font=arial, sans-serif]arrogant[/font] if you do =)

Thank you so much for your support and tips! I'll definitely not give up, and I'll certainly try not to become arrogant if we become successful.

 

[luc0s]

I think a quote from Thomas Edison will fit nicely here .
"I have not failed , I`ve only found 10,000 ways that don`t work"

Maybe I'm a bit dense, but what exactly are you trying to say with this quote?