The Groov Cosmos: Creating New Environments

Since I last posted, I've made a lot of progress on The Groov Cosmos. I've made some progress on the music system, which wasn't implemented when I posted the last video. Plans are to include the song from the last video, but at the time I had just pre-recorded the track and synced it up with the music system from the original Groov, which was silently driving the visuals in the background. I've been planning and implenting a much more advanced music system for The Groov Cosmos, and I hope to post some results soon (it's still a little early to show off).

Something I have gotten a lot of work done on is the "Scene Designer" tool that I've been developing to help me create the visuals for Cosmos. I've finally gotten it into a fully functional (if a little buggy) state, which means I no longer have to journey into the absurdly long text file in a potentially fruitless attempt to remove a stray light or add an architectural structure. The fact that I can now create a scene from start to finish using a visual, real-time system has made a huge difference for my ability to just think creatively and quickly prototype new ideas. Here are a couple of screenshots that show some of the progress I've been making:

 

I hope people are enjoying hearing about the process behind creating this game -- it's a very new and exciting experience for me to be building a game like this!

New Project!

Anyone reading this site is probably wondering why I haven't come out with another game since Groov was released. I've been busy learning a lot about graphics programming (I basically knew nothing about it while making Groov), and have been slowly but surely been getting progress done on my next game. It's going to be a follow-up to Groov in a very loose sense: you'll still be flying the conductor around, blasting enemies into musical oblivion. But instead of an arcade-style dual-stick shooter, The Groov Cosmos (working title....) will be a story-based action adventure! Music will still be an integral part of the experience, and is worked into the storyline in a cool way. I'm posting some concept art and a VERY early video of the "game."

What you're looking at in this video is a procedurally modeled environment that will be like many that the player encounters early on in The Groov Cosmos. The video also demonstrates the deferred shading system that allows for many dynamic lights in the environment, which I hope to use to create a dance club-like setting that will enhance many of the battles the player will fight.

Also, an important note: this isn't exactly a game "announcement." Part of the reason I haven't posted anything for so long is because I'm very unsure about how long it will actually take me to complete this game. It might be a year, or it might be 10 years. Seriously. I hope to one day release it, but it might have to be put on the back burner as I exit school for the treacheries of the real world.

Thanks again for making Groov such a big success guys! It's nice to finally post something about my new project, and I'll try to keep posting updates as I make progress.