Game Design, Programming and running a one-man games business…

Gratuitous Space Battles 2 planet image update

cliffski

Nothing is final until the fat spaceship explodes, but there are some screens showing some test GSB2 battles with new planet imagery. I am going to need to knock up a level editor which lets me adjust all the planet sizes/parallax etc, so I can do something more creative than just slap any old planet with any old nebula, star and background… But I definitely like the ‘big battle over the planet in the background’ thing. Feedback is most welcome. (click to enlarge)

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One of the things I’m not sure about is the extent to which I let the planets zoom in when you zoom in the camera. There are two possible methods, the ‘treat the planet as an object an infinite distance and don’t scale it’ approach, and the ‘it’s just another object in the scene so zoom in’ approach. I frankly don’t care which is more accurate. Nothing about GSB2 is accurate, it’s just aiming to look l33t. I keep changing my mind as to how to set up the camera regarding planets.

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5 thoughts on Gratuitous Space Battles 2 planet image update

  1. Loved the first game and looking forward to this. My thinking on the zoom issue is somewhere between the two options (if possible). Allow them to zoom but scale down the rate they zoom to something like 30-50% compared to the ships. That gives them a sense of distance without being static set pieces painted on the background.

  3. Maybe just have the planet zoom slower than the ships, just enough to show that it is at a distance, but not enough to show off individual pixels bigger than a pixel.

    It feels realistic and doesn’t make much of an issue.
    You could then set a zoom ratio on each scene object so that things closer to the “camera” zoom more than things further away. Allowing a large asteroid field with ‘roids at different distances, to give a solid illusion of depth without and 3D magic.

    Looks good so far, I assume the ships are placeholders at the moment? They look a little blurry.

  4. Have you considered a Saturn like planet with rings, the rings getting very close to the battleships?
    Would look really cool if planets are spinning slow, and Saturn rings moving noticably.
    Would look really really cool if parts coming off ships left holes in Asteroid rings

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