[ALPHA] Kaboom Arena - We make things go BOOM!

Update: 17th July 2015
This release was sneaked in to address some of the issues encountered with the migration to Unreal Engine 4.8. It is also includes the new persistent storage release of the Game Flow service. Version 0.6.4.0 is now ready for download.

[FIXED] Bug where Bomb Collision when Thrown was making the player model stagger and jitter.
[FIXED] Bug where Dying While Powered-Up the Indicator Remains.
[FIXED] Bug where Maps are not random enough.
[FIXED] Bug where Arena Music Not Playing.
[FIXED] Bug where Menu Music Not Playing.
[FIXED] Bug where Bomb Particles Not Working Properly.
[FIXED] Bug where Dynamite Particles Not Working Properly.
[FIXED] Bug where player was not taking damage.
[FIXED] Minor bug with BLUI not displaying properly.
[FIXED] Bug where Sheep was accidentally being spawned.
[FIXED] Bug where arena walls were not aligned with the arena floor.
[FIXED] Bug where arena spawn points were not above the ground level.
[FIXED] Bug where Fire Damage Not Applying.
[FIXED] Bug where Double damage being applied.
[FIXED] Bug where Server not being added when run.
[FIXED] Bug where Server GUID not being sent with Heartbeat.
[CHANGED] Weapon damage to rather use radial damage.
[CHANGED] Animation names for Gobbo.
[CHANGED] Menu to now include a Sheep model as well.
[CHANGED] Gobbo Material to have no power for the material.
[CHANGED] All Game Flow calls to use the Game Flow Blueprint Function Library.
[CHANGED] The message system to use a messages data table instead of being hard coded.
[CHANGED] Some systems that use hard coded messages to use the correct message system.
[CHANGED] The chat window to use the new Game Flow webservice and HTML elements to make it look fancy.
[ADDED] Sheep animations and assets.
[ADDED] BLUI plugin to the project to allow us to display HTML files inside the game and HUDS.
[ADDED] New intro sequence for the game, just for fun.
[ADDED] Blui plugin and relevant source code to enable it in the project.
[ADDED] Blui enabled Chat WIndow.
[ADDED] Game Flow data tables to be used by the Game Flow system.
[ADDED] The code that clears messages for a specific server when a server is first hosted.
[REMOVED] Maze elements temporarily while code is re-factored and cleaned up.
[MERGED] Merge request #12.

The game is currently still in Alpha and we have just released v0.7.0.1, see this post for more information.

Please provide feedback through the usual channels.

Update: 23rd July 2015
We are going to be doing a large play test on Sunday the 26th July from 17:00 GMT+2 until 22:00 GMT+2. Please feel free to join us if you want to.

We plan on recording footage from some of the games, so it should be a blast.

There will be a local South African server running as well as a few international servers for those in different regions.

The details of the server will be provided closer to the time. I hope to see some of you joining us.

Update: 28th July 2015
This is some game play footage of the Alpha v0.6.4.0 that we recorded during a play test session. Mathew, Karl and Katja joined me in this session. You will hear Matthew and I discuss some features as well as a few issues that need resolving.

This is the raw footage, so you will hear us discuss one of the bugs and a possible solution as well as a host of other topics.

My thanks go to Matthew Leach, Karl and Katja Muller for making the play test so awesome.

This video covers two or three complete rounds of gameplay and I decided not to edit and just let the video record. We have identified some areas of the game mechanics that need improving and will be doing another play test when we get this resolved.

Update: 4th August 2015
So after the last play test, we identified a few flat spots in the game play that need addressing. In the video it becomes apparent that players are able to predict the detonation of the bombs quite effectively and thus it becomes a game of who can whittle down the opposing player the quickest. So during the video you will hear us discuss some options and try to come up with something that will work, the discussion eventually went offline and we came up with the following game mechanic changes.

Random Fuses:
Currently the bomb initiates its fuse on first bounce and then runs for a set time before exploding. We are however dealing with Goblin explosives here, so it is only natural that their fuses would not be so predictable. The fuses are now randomly set on first bounce to a minimum of 0.25 seconds and up to the maximum fuse length set for the weapon in question. The same mechanic applies to to dynamite which is activated when a player exits the arming area.

Radial Damage and Damage Radius:
At one point during the game test, I was able to run through a chain of about 8 bombs going off without getting hurt once, we have since changed the damage radius and added radial damage. The damage radius has been increased to a more acceptable level and we have also now implemented radial damage which means you take less damage the further away you are from the center of the explosion.

Lob and Loft:
Currently the game uses a loft mechanic where the player can throw a bomb in to the air in a nice arc, we realized we needed another way of delivering the bomb. We have now introduced the lob mechanic, this basically drops the bomb close to the players feet in front of them which now makes the bomb predictably even less likely.

Some Power-Ups are now Items:
During the game, it became apparent that certain power-ups were a little useless on their own, the smoke bomb being the primary example. The idea behind the smoke bomb is to hide yourself or to hide all manner or nasty explosives in it, the current mechanic makes your dynamite turn in to a smoke bomb when you pick it up and therefore limits you to only being able to use your bombs in the smoke. We have now decided to move some power-ups to items and implement the item mechanic (see next point).

Item/Inventory:
This mechanic was always on the cards and was a way for the player to spend the gold they earned in game on items that they could bring in to the next match. These included items like Bear Traps, and Turrets, and these were only ever able to be bought in the shop. We have now decided to make some Power-Ups (see above item) to become items that spawn in the arena and this can be added to one of your 5 slots, you can then trigger these items and still have access to your normal weapons. A list of the changes of Power-Ups and Items is added to the bottom of this post.

Stamina Potion Drops:
Initially the game only dropped a Stamina potion on a player death if they had full Stamina, during the play test this became apparent that this was not practical. The dead player will now always drop a Stamina potion (and a Health potion) regardless of the Stamina value of the player. Initially we toyed with the idea of allowing Stamina to replenish over time, but we have decided to go this route first and see how the next play test goes.

Arena Sizes:
The current arena being used is a 10x10 arena with 8 spawn points and we realized that this can be a little big for smaller amounts of players. We have now added different sized arenas: Tiny (3x3 with 2 spawn points), Small (4x4 with 4 spawn points), Medium (6x6 with 4 spawn points), Large (8x8 with 6 spawn points), and Extra Large (10x10 with 8 spawn points). By selecting your number of players in the Host game menu, the game will automatically select the size of the Arena for you.

Arena Design:
We are also looking at changing the arena design a little and will also be introducing different themed arenas in the near future. For the next release we are going to focus on just changing the current arena design and once we have nailed the game play we will start looking at different types of arenas.

So we are now working our way through this list and have nailed about 80% of the items already (the power of Unreal Engine) and are aiming to have another release ready for the next play test on Sunday 9th July 2015. I personally think these new changes are going to definitely add the depth to the game and I am looking forward to our next play test. I will provide more information about the Play Test and the server details closer to the time for those that might be interested in joining us.

Here are the list of Items and Power-Ups that was mentioned in an earlier point.

Power-Ups:

  • Bouncy Bombs (makes bombs bounce more)
  • Bag’o’Bombs (replenish bombs quickly)
  • Short Fuses (shorten bomb / dynamite maximum fuse time but not the minimum time)
  • Incendiary (bombs detonate and leave a fire in their wake)

Items:

  • Smoke Bombs
  • Trip Mine (not implemented yet)
  • Battle Sheep (not implemented yet)
  • Barrel ‘o’ Orc (not implemented yet but is basically a poison smoke bomb that effects your health and stamina)

** More items and Power Ups will be added once we have the base mechanics nailed and are ready to move on to the final stages for the game.*

Anyway, thanks for your time and I will keep updating here as we make more progress and move forward to our final release.

TL;DR; Basically we identified mechanics that need changing and we are changing them. 8-}

Update: 5th August 2015
So we have finalised the entire list except for the items/inventory system. This is about 75% complete and I will be finalising that code tonight and releasing it to our testers. If all goes well we should have a new release by Thursday night or early Friday morning (CAT) in preparation for the new play testing on Sunday.

Play Test moved: Due to some unforeseen circumstances the new play test has been moved to Sunday the 16th August 2015.

While talking about play testing, I have been approached by a few people to start the play testing earlier and therefore I will have the servers up and running from 17:00 GMT+2. Initially I am only going to bring a South African server up, but if you would like to play test and want me to bring up a server in your region, I can provision servers for New York, San Francisco, Amsterdam, London, and Malaysia. Just drop me a pm or email me at quintond@gobbogames.co.za before Sunday and I will get the server up for you.

I am also going to bring up a Team Speak server for the play test, so if you want to talk to me during the games and play test, I will be available. All server details will be provided before the play test on Sunday through all our usual channels including these forums.

I hope to see some of you online. 8-}

Update: 14th August 2015
So since the last play test and the recent updates, I have been working on getting the new Item system in place as well as tweaking the Game Messages / Chat Window functionality. Tonight I have reached the goal and here are the fruits of my labor. I literally have 2 items left on my current list and I will then be releasing v0.7.0.0. This new release adds a lot of depth to the game play and hopefully the players will like the new changes.

This also marks the last build (barring any major issues) before we start our Steam Greenlight push and see what happens there. 8-}

http://puu.sh/jBpff/42c068c8c0.png

New Message Received and the Chat Window is not faded. You will also notice that we have 10 smoke bombs (5 each in slots 1 and 3).

http://puu.sh/jBphC/5865e338ca.png

Chat Window has now faded slightly. You will also notice that we have 10 smoke bombs (5 each in slots 1 and 3).

The game flow service is now working very nicely and all the kinks have now been ironed out. The next step will be to enable SSL on the service and do some more regression testing.

Update: 15th August 2015
We are pleased to announce that v0.7.0.0 of the Alpha is now available for download. Currently only the Windows version is available but the Linux version will follow shortly.

The release includes a whole host of new game mechanic changes that were identified during our last play test and I hope that you will enjoy the changes.

We would recommend that you go through the Player Manual again as there are quite a few changes.

Change List:
[ADDED] Blui plugin for the Chat Message window.
[ADDED] JSON Query plugin to the game.
[ADDED] Placeholder toolbar in preparation for the new items.
[ADDED] The ability to change the map based on the max players selected.
[ADDED] The ability to lob bombs near to the ground by using the lob toggle.
[ADDED] The base ability to pick up items and then use them from your slot.
[ADDED] The base code to allow players to use items.
[ADDED] The base item that will be used for item pickups.
[ADDED] The code that indicates the current slot as well as switches to the next current slot when a slot is depleted.
[ADDED] The code to clear server chat messages.
[ADDED] The code to decrease player numbers on the server when a player leaves or quits.
[ADDED] The code to get server guid.
[ADDED] The code to get the server list from the web-service.
[ADDED] The code to increase player numbers on the server when a player joins.
[ADDED] The code to indicate a new player has connected.
[ADDED] The code to load server and player settings.
[ADDED] The code to retrieve Player GUID from the web service.
[ADDED] The code to save server and player settings.
[ADDED] The code to select the next and previous items.
[ADDED] The code to use the current item.
[ADDED] The different sized arenas (T, S, M, L, XL).
[ADDED] The different sized arenas loot spawners (T, S, M, L, XL).
[ADDED] The final code to prevent items being spawned when no more items are slotted.
[ADDED] The final code to toggle amounts and reset the toolbar when it reaches 0.
[ADDED] The server guid as the first message on a new server set up.
[CHANGED] Added support for Unreal Engine 4.8.3.
[CHANGED] All the maps to have a landscape now.
[CHANGED] All the maps to include blocking volumes.
[CHANGED] All weapons to do damage fall of based on distance.
[CHANGED] All weapons to do more damage.
[CHANGED] All weapons to have an increased radius.
[CHANGED] All weapons to use a random timer from 0.25 seconds to the weapons max fuse time.
[CHANGED] Fire entity to have a slightly increased radius.
[CHANGED] Some of the arena files.
[CHANGED] The default start-up map.
[CHANGED] The loot spawn ratio for all the various sized maps accordingly.
[CHANGED] The loot spawn ratio on the extra large map.
[CHANGED] The toolbar texture for no items.
[CHANGED] The toolbar texture for smoke items.
[FIXED] A bug where you could pick up gold while dead.
[FIXED] A bug where you could pick up potions while dead.
[FIXED] A bug where you could pick up power-ups while dead.
[FIXED] Bug where chat window was not toggling its opacity correctly.
[FIXED] Bug where chat window was not updating correctly.
[FIXED] Bug where chat window was using the correct server id.
[FIXED] Bug where exiting the game menu prevented the chat window from being rendered.
[FIXED] Bug where html chat window was not receiving correct server guid.
[FIXED] Bug where Re-spawn Menu Not Rendering Correctly.
[FIXED] Bug where server guid was not being set correctly on player.
[FIXED] Bug where the arenas lighting was incorrect and not being calculated correctly.
[FIXED] Bug where the smoke item was not spawning using the loot spawn system.
[FIXED] Bug where the text chat window was not returning focus back to the game viewport after finishing entering a text chat.
[FIXED] Bug where too many game menus were being generated.
[FIXED] Bug where you can pick up More Items than a player has space
[FIXED] Some lighting issues on all arenas.
[MERGED] Merge request #13
[REMOVED] All offsets on some of the arena loot systems.
[REMOVED] Blui plugin.
[REMOVED] JSON plugin.
[REMOVED] The landscapes from all the maps as it was causing lighting issues.
[REMOVED] The smoke potion.
[REMOVED] Unused asset.

The game is currently still in Alpha and we have just released v0.7.0.1, see this post for more information.

Please provide feedback through the usual channels.

Update: 16th August 2015
This is a new upload that addresses the issue with the Linux build not working, we upgraded to v3.1 of Blui in the process.

The game is currently still in Alpha and we have just released v0.7.0.3, see this post for more information.

Please provide feedback through the usual channels.

Update: 21st August 2015
We are going to be running 3 test sessions on Sunday 23rd August 2015 for v0.7.0.3.

  • First test session: 17:00 to 18:00 GMT+2 - CLOSED
  • Second test session 19:00 to 20:00 GMT+2 - CLOSED.
  • Third test session: 21:00 to 22:00 GMT+2 - CLOSED.

If you would like to join us and maybe take your chances and pit your skills against the developers, please download the game (v0.7.0.2) for some fun and all manner of things that go boom.

We will also have a Team Speak server up and running, there are limited slots so it will be on a first come first serve basis. Join in the fun and have a chat to the developers at the same time. The Team Speak server details will be made available prior to the test sessions.

We hope you join us on Sunday and help us make things go BOOM!!!

Update: 22nd August 2015
We have released version 0.7.0.2 of Kaboom Arena that addressed a couple of urgent bugs. The play test on Sunday will be using v0.7.0.2 of the game.

Changes:
[FIXED] Bug where a dead player could still use their available items until they re-spawned.
[FIXED] Bug where the re-spawn button had some hit box errors that could intermittently prevent it from working.

The game is currently still in Alpha and we have just released v0.7.0.3, see this post for more information.

Please provide feedback through the usual channels.

Udate: 24th August 2015
We have released version 0.7.0.3 of Kaboom Arena that addressed a couple of urgent bugs.

Changes:
[FIXED] Bug where the dedicated server would not allow players to pick up items.

Please download v0.7.0.3 for Windows 64 bit here:

Please download v0.7.0.3 for Linux 64 bit here:

Please provide feedback through the usual channels.