Gimbal - Build spaceships. Multiplayer. Physics.

[colinshark]

It's time to show off my big project of the past two years.

This is Gimbal. Players build ships from pieces, fly them, and blow up other players' ships. It's top down 2D to keep game mechanics simple. Wide open maps. Newtonian physics with aerodynamics.

Rewind a couple years, and this is the game I wanted to play and wished existed. The end result is pretty close to my original vision. It was awesome to actually play an intense game against real people for the first time.



Tech Stuff...

APIs
C# codebase
XNA for sound/graphics/input
DirectX for gamepad support
Lidgren for UDP networking

Tools
Visual Studio 2008 is my IDE
Paint Shop Pro 7 for art
Audacity for sound
Reaper for music
Lightworks for video editing

Some cool stuff...

Per-Pixel collision detection, optimized with bounding circles. All the parts of a ship affect the physics and handling.


Motion blur on particle effects.


One aspect of the component-based physics engine: Missiles physically leave the launcher when fired, and free up some weight and drag on the parent ship.


Client-Server multiplayer network model. Clients send their input changes (deltas), and the server runs the simulation. Server sends regular vehicle state updates to the clients.

The physics engine is multithreaded and runs on N logical processors.

There are more cool programming tricks in this game. I can speak to any part you are interested in.



Anyway, check it out if you want. You can see pretty much everything in the demo that I recently launched (at www.gimbalgame.com).

[DarthBenedict]

Looks interesting, downloading the demo now.

[harhis23]

How much does the purchasable version cost? Basing on the Intro, I found this game interesting. Perhaps I'll consider buying the complete version after I'm done playing with the demo later.

[neema_t]

Is this purely combat or will there be quests and trading? Multiplayer I can take or leave but if this is anything like Escape Velocity I'll buy a million billion copies (well, one for sure, two probably).

Actually it looks totally brilliant anyway, I'll get the demo right after I vote for you on Greenlight!

[mickygor]

...wow. Your dedication to modelling physics has won you my money. Well, some of it anyhow.

[tomeoftom]

This is so far up my alley it's practically trapping me inside my dumpster. I applaud you for, as mickygor said, actually understanding the joy of emergence and making a simulation that is tactile, transparent, and complex. You will definitely have my money as soon as it's more disposable.

EDIT: Now that I saw the "WATCH OUT FOR THE BING BAR OPTION" warning in your demo's installer for DirectX, I simply have to buy this out of respect.

[sendmark]

It's good fun :)

[Heliocentric]

I ignored this thread at first mistaking it for the http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/

Doh, this looks great.

[Harlander]

This sounds great, and I'll give it a try at the earliest opportunity.

It's also lending weight to my "every game I try and fail to make will be later made, much better, by someone else" hypothesis

[colinshark]

I ignored this thread at first mistaking it for the http://kerbalspaceprogram.com

Haha, KSP is awesome. I love what they've done.

[Gnoupi]

Downloading it right now from IndieGameStand (sloooooooowly), I tried the demo in the meantime, it's fun indeed, from the little I tried. And it gets simply impressive the moment you realize that all those ships are made by placing the thrusters on the good places, the guns, etc. Really impressive.

I miss being able to target with the mouse, like in SPAZ, for example, but I understand that it's not the point of the game :P

I miss one thing, though, the ability to map two keys to a thruster for the same direction. Why? Because that would allow me to strafe. Exemple, WASD for thrust, and rolling, and Q and E pushing both turning boosters in the same direction, for extra dodge.

But maybe I missed how to do it.

[colinshark]

I miss one thing, though, the ability to map two keys to a thruster for the same direction. Why? Because that would allow me to strafe. Exemple, WASD for thrust, and rolling, and Q and E pushing both turning boosters in the same direction, for extra dodge.

A function (like thrust forward) can be mapped to one and only one input. I considered multiple mappings, but the interface becomes more complex. I could maybe do a software part that can control another part and add alternate inputs.

[colinshark]

Some updates:

1. I've upgraded the official servers to EC2 small instances. They have more horsepower now, but they are expensive. I'll see if that solution is sustainable. If not, I'll find another host.

2. Steam Greenlight: Gimbal is now "96% of the way to making the top 100 list". With the top games being accepted to Steam, it should only be a matter of months before Gimbal is Greenlit.

3. Gimbal is now live on Desura, as of yesterday. It's not Steam, but it's still good. I'll issue Desura keys to existing players, too. Just PM your key to "colinshark" on Desura, and I'll set it up.

4. I have a (free) expansion planned for release in Q1. I'm currently in development. New features will include different game modes and parts.

[colinshark]

Gimbal Newz



1. Expansion: There are just a couple weeks of dev/testing left for the Gimbal Expansion (Beta) features. Some of you have been in on this, so you know what it is. You'll have to wait until the actual release for the complete feature listing, but there will be more parts and popular game modes such as Capture-the-Flag, to really flesh out the game. There is no charge for the expansion- It's just a very large release.

2. Cheap Gimbal: Gimbal is now part of the IndieGala Mass Effect Bundle for the next 11 days. It's Pay-What-You-Want, but you need to beat the price threshold to get Gimbal and Mass Effect 2, among others.

[P7uen]

This thread was enough to convince me, just bought it without touching the demo, if only for your approach to simulation etc as the chaps up there said before. Can't wait to get home and have a bash.

One question: there is mention of bots, is it online only, or can I play with myself (ooh err missus) locally with bots? I am an anti-social man.

[colinshark]

One question: there is mention of bots, is it online only, or can I play with myself (ooh err missus) locally with bots? I am an anti-social man.

I am anti-social as well. You can definitely play alone with your bot friends, in a local server.

[ColOfNature]

Once again I am reminded of a game I bought months ago on the strength of RPSer's recommendations and never actually got round to playing. Might be time to bump it to the top of the list, what with the shiny new goodies.