Mm Gundam: (BETA 2.0 Released Today, please check it out!)

[gevurah22]

God, I'm never going to finish my other projects.

Anyway, considering moderation of "copyrighted" material has been rather lenient for a long time now, I think it's time to finally work on something I've been toying around with indirectly for a very long time.

Introducing Mm Gundam! As a huge Gundam fan, I've been on a huge Gundam kick for a long time now considering it's the 30th anniversary of the original Gundam series.

EDIT: Well, I pretty much finalized the Mm Gundam's abilities. Check out the vid!

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBfnkRrkDbQ"]YouTube - Mecha Test #5 - Mm Gundam abilities preview[/ame]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INrBn7JAchE"]YouTube - Mecha Test #6 - Mm Gundam Combat #1[/ame]

EDIT: Mm Gundam (Beta 1) is now published and live!



Mm Gundam abilities:

- Shoot Forward (Tap Right + Hold R1)


- Shoot Backward (Tap Left + Hold R1)


- Shield (Neutral Hold R1)


- Shield Buster (Release Shield and Shoot it)


- Beam Bayonet (get close to enemies or certain objects)


- Overdrive (get a purple powerup)


You can also regain health through yellow powerups, plus the Gundam is probably 50x more stable than the Steampunk Samurai. I am extremely happy it worked out so well!

As for the story? Well, you'll be thrown into different Gundam timelines assisting some of your favorite Gundams and pilots against memorable enemies such as the Zeong and Quebeley, on top of mobile armors like the Big Zam and Rafflesia.

Thanks to the renewable life bar, the entire level will be in the Mm Gundam making this technically a one-player affair. There will only be one life as you can retrieve life-ups throughout the stage through obvious means. It'll be difficult, but I'll do my best not to make the level impossible.

So here's to hoping I can get this tribute made soon. I already have the first level skeleton set up so all I need are enemies and details. I'll be updating the page as I continue.

Hope you guys will enjoy this as much as I will!

[OmegaSlayer]

Wonderful stuff!
Since you're quite close to MM, you should tell the guys to make this official.
I would really love some Japanese manga/anime stuff in LBP after the 2000 AD and future Marvel collaboration.

[gevurah22]

Wonderful stuff!
Since you're quite close to MM, you should tell the guys to make this official.
I would really love some Japanese manga/anime stuff in LBP after the 2000 AD and future Marvel collaboration.

Thanks man! When I visit them next month, that's definitely one of my first questions to them.

Seriously though, I've been wanting to do a Gundam level ever since I saw this in the inner flap of the LBP case.



Dude, why isn't this sticker or anything similar to this in the main game?!?!

[OmegaSlayer]

Great, the SD Gundam is one of the cutest things available on Earth.
Actually, jokes and fanboysm aside, it would be good business for Bandai.

Are you going to make different era Gundams?



We so need Gundam in LBP.

[croissantbuncake]

Never got into Gundam myself, but I am pretty keen on the design of the suits from Gundam itself and other similar animes / games etc.

For inspiration take search FichtenFoo, it's the blog of one Micheal Fichtenmayer, he does a lot of custom models based off Gundam kits etc. He has it taken to an absolute art form!

I'll close with two questions:
1. Care to elaborate on this fabled "0 strenght floaty rail technique"?
2. Assuming front and rear firing being controlled by front / rear grabs respectively, where is the location of the "neutral" position?

Thanks! and best of luck with the project!!

[gevurah22]

Wow at the FichtenFoo reference. I remember browsing his site years ago!

As for #1, it's a really simple technique in practice. You connect the mecha to a peach floaty above it using a 0 strength and stiff piston. Then on the x-axis, you connect the floaty to either the wall or dark matter. Now the shorter the distance, the more stable it is. But considering I'm working with nearly the entire map, instability occurs. Using a floaty versus a glass rail helps counteract that instability brought by the great distance. It's not extremely perfect, but it does it's job wonderfully without relying on user input to correct the stability.

#2, neutral grab works by placing the grab switch directly above the player.

Hope that helps and thanks!

[Gilgamesh•]

Looks awesome. That's a pretty interesting idea for stability too, I'll have to see if I can adapt it somehow, though my mechs have a pretty good self-righting mechanism now.

I wasn't a big fan of Gundam, but being a big robot and anime fan, I was eventually drawn to watch the run of Gundam Wing on TV, which eventually grew on me. The mecha designs are really interesting for the most part, just like those of Macross.

[gevurah22]

Thanks man. For slower moving vehicles, it should do just fine. Remember, the closer the object to the floaty rail, the more stable it will be.

I'm still trying to figure out a self centering mechanism for the "floaty rail.". I think I can rock something with rockets or maybe forcing the directional issue. We'll see when I get back from work.

[OmegaSlayer]

There's another manga that is really difficult to find that is really awesome mecha wise.
It's called Five Star Stories by Nagano Mamoru (the man worked with Tomino himself on Gundam mecha designs).
Check it out.


"http://www.slideshare.net/ghostlightning/we-remember-love-the-five-star-stories-mecha-designs"



http://ngeekhiong.blogspot.com/2007/...r-stories.html

http://ngeekhiong.blogspot.com/2009/...odel-kits.html

These are not the better Mecha
There was the blog of a guy who made all the models but I can't find it anymore...maybe it's down...

[Dante95]

Another set of AMAZING mechs! You're really great!! And, as i said to you, i will be very happy to help you with the Sixaxis sensors if you need. I see that you changed the "prospective" of the mechs: these are "on profile", the armorboys are frontal. But, on a graphic side, these mechs are amazing.
I saw your "new" Azure Palace, the underwater one, it was always great, with a sort of mech too I hope you'll finish your project!

[gevurah22]

I think I'm going to reserve the frontal armorboys for something different, probably for my metroidesque project that I'll attempt to find time to complete. Thanks though, and I'll see if I can somehow implement your engine. It all depends on how I can improve on this floaty rail system.

Thanks to everyone who likes it so far. I will have a working level for it before I go and visit Mm and SCEE in two weeks. I'll update as soon as I'd like some testing for it. =)

As for "Knights of the Azure Palace," I'm surprised it works that well, tbh.

[Dante95]

Mmm.... I didn't get the floaty rail system... I know that method to move something like a ground mech, or something on 2 legs, but of can you use it on a flying mech? The rail make a predetermined road, so the mech can go only forward and behind...
Then, the engine is made to help the balance of the mech: you can use two rockets, one at right and one at the left of the mech. Then you connect them to the inclination sensor. If the mech is "rotating" on the left, the sensor activates the rocket to make it return straight. Maybe i can prepare a little tech demo to show this other method...

The, good luck for the visit to Mm Hope they'll like your projecy (and i'm sure they want xD )

[gevurah22]

Well, the whole premise of my take on the floaty rail system is primarily keep the mecha upright, preventing the usual pendulum motion my other mecha have. Granted it supposedly keeps it held down in a predetermined path of going back and forth, having the vertical piston set at 0 strength/stiff allows it to go up and down. It has free range of motion (in a controlled state) without having the instabilities of my previous mecha.

Last night, I actually revised it even more. Taking out the floaty material, replacing it with dissolve, and adding another piston to it's left, my Gundam essentially moves like like the Cybernator this in game (granted no where near as fast), which is exactly what I'm looking for in control and stability.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dm3iag7aCu4"]YouTube - Cybernator - Stage 1[/ame]

I'll take a vid of it in a bit when I get back home from work, but I'd also like to see your thing in action.

[OmegaSlayer]

Cool style of movment, it's really mech like and should really work for a non floating mech.
I really appreciate your dedication to this project.
It's the kind of dedication that brings awesome results.
I also wish you the best for your meeting with MM.

[gevurah22]

The whole Mm thing is a stop on my vacation in England. I'm also going to visit Sony Liverpool since they're the ones who headed the GOTY project. The vacation is more of a family thing since my wife is from England. I'll definitely do my best to make the trip to their studios worthwhile!

As for the project itself, thanks a lot! I really miss those days of side-scrolling mecha action, so I wanted to do my best to create a decent enough system that isn't too reliant on user input. The easier it is for them to control, the better!

I think I have another idea to improve the rail system, but I'll have to wait until I get home from work to try it out. This should make the movement feel less restrictive. I also finally got the beam shield working the way I wanted to. I've even implemented a neat feature that allows to leave a shield in place for a couple of seconds, fly back for some space, shoot the shield, and the shield emits lasers as an added weapon!

I'll record another "mecha test" video highlighting all of it's abilities once I finalize it all, which should be really soon. I want to get cracking on the first stage already!