Underworld Ascendant Kickstarter Update #38: Laying the Groundwork
Underworld Ascendant Kickstarter Update #38: Laying the Groundwork
Development Info - posted by Infinitron on Wed 1 April 2015, 02:00:02
Tags: Chris Siegel; OtherSide Entertainment; Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds; Underworld AscendantIt looks like Underworld Ascendant has settled into a weekly Kickstarter update release schedule. In last week's update, we learned that the fish-like Lizardman concept had won the backer poll, proving to some that democracy is a doomed system. But today's update is interesting enough to be worth posting here. True to its name, it's all about how OtherSide are laying the groundwork for the game's development by testing and prototyping various features in the Unity 5 engine. This part about traps is particularly nifty:
The update also has some information about the OtherSiders' experimentations with Unity 5's new lighting model. Oh, and apparently they're not done doing those Twitch LP sessions yet. On Thursday at 11am EST they'll be playing Ultima Underworld II on their channel, with Looking Glass veteran Dorian Hart as special guest.
This week Tim has been building deathtraps that are all physics controlled. What does that mean? Well, in most games a trap is built and it has some script behind it. Enter this trigger and it goes off. In our world weight and mass matter. For example if we had a trap with a pressure plate not only would a player stepping on it make it go off, but throwing a large object of sufficient weight would set it off, or applying enough pressure would also set it off.
Obviously in this simple version this creates different ways of dealing with the trap beyond just disabling it. You could Indiana Jones the trap by pushing on the pressure plate with a torch or the classic 10’ pole.
Another example which Tim already built which is my favorite is a spring loaded trap. Watch a video of it in action HERE.
That is a post with these nasty blades around the top of it. When the spring and gears ‘click’ the trap spins. The coolest part is when the gears pop back in there is this awesome shake on the motion. Not scripted-not an animation, just the way things react to physics--angular momentum in a damped spring. It is small, and a little detail, but looks so…natural.
Obviously in this simple version this creates different ways of dealing with the trap beyond just disabling it. You could Indiana Jones the trap by pushing on the pressure plate with a torch or the classic 10’ pole.
Another example which Tim already built which is my favorite is a spring loaded trap. Watch a video of it in action HERE.
That is a post with these nasty blades around the top of it. When the spring and gears ‘click’ the trap spins. The coolest part is when the gears pop back in there is this awesome shake on the motion. Not scripted-not an animation, just the way things react to physics--angular momentum in a damped spring. It is small, and a little detail, but looks so…natural.
The update also has some information about the OtherSiders' experimentations with Unity 5's new lighting model. Oh, and apparently they're not done doing those Twitch LP sessions yet. On Thursday at 11am EST they'll be playing Ultima Underworld II on their channel, with Looking Glass veteran Dorian Hart as special guest.
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