Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Yikes! This is the most impressive Unity-powered project I’ve seen to date. BeGone is a butter-smooth, not-at-all-ugly multiplayer FPS you can play right out of your browser. Click on the link, pick a server, wait some seconds and you’re off, engaging in hot manshoots with up to 11 other players. You hear that? That’s the sound of the past crunching under the heavy boot of Tomorrow. Go play, or watch some footage after the jump. News courtesy of the ever-independent Indiegames blog.
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While not exactly about playing games (this is more for the making of games) the launch of Unity 3, the third iteration of the free-to-use game engine, has me excited. Of all the game-making tools out there, Unity is the one I’ve spent the most time with, and it was actually responsible for the RPS game, RockPaperShotgunity, which we cobbled together last year. Also, I totally made some big spheres move about making booming noises. I am The Creator. People who know stuff are more excited about the unified editor, the post-processing and shader improvements, the occlusion culling, deferred rendering, and other tech stuff. Full What’s New list here, although some of that is for the paid-for Pro version, which I think is limited to a month demo, something like that.

Never made a game before? Spong In A Posty! Although that’s probably a bit out of date for Unity 3. Maybe it’s time to do another one.

A Friday afternoon distraction here. Langman is really just a conceptually pure thing. It’s a unity-powered combination between the word-game hangman and a platformer, so you have to jump between the letters to select them. Fall to your death, and you lose a guess. Guess wrong and you lose a guess. Guess right, and you may add another guess. Battling against my (perhaps predictable) intrinsic dislike of word-games involving spelling, this managed to charm me with its Retro aesthetics and chiptune sounds, plus increasingly complicated levels. Cute. Play here or watch a trailer below…
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Continuing my march through the tips folder, I hit upon Nir Gooday – and his brother’s – game. It’s Minesweeper. In 3D. It’s 3D Minesweeper. Which is the sort of thing which strikes you as totally pointless… but then you realise there’s a spark of genius here. There’s something oddly compulsive of taking that step. I mean, it’s become such a social staple that we don’t even think about of its name any more. Minesweeper. A game about stepping on mines, and actually physically doing it actually provokes a tiny shiver of anticipation. Alas, it’s an idea whose execution sells itself short – it demands bangs and whistles one goes off, the full on explosion and shaker-speaking noise. Add that, Nir, and you’re away. Make it turn-off-able for the wimps. Play here. There’s also a facebook app version, if that’s your sort of thing.

Cordy, as Simon Parkin rightly notes, is a Little Big Planet clone, crammed into Unity. Only a couple of demo levels here, but feature all manner of Rube Goldberg styled levels of spinning, falling and crushing stuff. Very quick to play, and hopefully more to come – though, obviously, to be a real Little Big Planet clone, it’d have to include some manner of construction elements. WELCOME TO OUR ROBOT GAME state Silvertree media, proudly. I would be too.

Have a dash of Nintendo in your PC tea, with Michael Johnston’s fan-made, browser-based reimagining of the second NES Legend of Zelda game as an FPS of sorts. Large, flat open lands, caves and floaty heart icons, all from the player-perspective rather than a bird’s eye view. Dedicated/clever/fiddly/oddly grindy, but quite lovely in its strange past-meets-present genre-bending.
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Courtesy of Leigh: A game for the days when you think that Valerie Solanas kinda had a point.
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Edge Online report that Unity have revealed their 3D engine running in Google’s Chrome browser without a plugin.

Described as a “potential game changer” by Unity VP Brett Seyler, Native Client is a security sandbox currently in development for Chromium which allows “the secure execution of native code”. Unity’s Web Player software is not required.

Dark magicks. And kind of a big deal. Lots more in a big post from Unity over here. “The future of games on the web,” indeed.

This was supposed to be the last build of Shotgunity, the game we’ve been making using the free Unity development suite, with Build 8.1 (NEW LINK). Starting from scratch, with no prior knowledge of Unity, or indeed any type of coding, we planned to make a game based on RPS by today. Did we hit our deadline? Did we hell. But find out how surprisingly far we got after the cut.
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That is the first Tiger Woods gag I’ve ever made, anywhere, for the record – I’m entitled to at least one after these longs weeks of respectful silence, surely?

It’s made in reference to what’s a surprise move by EA, and a big ol’ happy event for the Unity engine. Which, just to remind the slowpokes, is a pretty darn beefy 3D game engine capable of running inside a browser. In this case, to power full-blown golf sim Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online. Yeah, Disgraced Sex Pest Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online. Get over it. The last word’s the important bit.
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Post Thirteen in the chronicles of Spong In A Posty Rock, Paper, Shotgunity – the game we’re making using the free Unity development suite – and it’s unlucky for some. That some is YOU. It’s time for some barely coherent rambling, Build 07, after the cut.

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