BLOCKABOUT Open Beta Launched - Built with Torque3D
by Paul Weston · 04/22/2014 (12:26 am) · 8 comments
Greetings all,
Today I turn 42, a great number, the answer to the meaning of life, the universe, and everything... A fitting day to choose for the launch of our new game...
BLOCKABOUT is a lot of fun to work on - it's full of physics, things flying around, things that go boom, has great team deathmatch play and even has both client and server world editing built right in. It's a neat package that we're excited to now be sharing with everyone.
We launched our Open Beta today. We have so much more we want to do, and development is ongoing, but we have posted a public release on our site for anyone to download and try out.
I could go on about all the trials and tribulations that went into this, but today I want to celebrate the completion of this milestone. So please find below some text from our web site, which sums up the game and what it's about pretty nicely.
There are so many people here who had a hand in this, through code sharing in the resources area and through forum support, etc. To all those who contribute to the community, we salute you and thank you for all that you do. We have always enjoyed working in Torque3D, and hope that BLOCKABOUT may become a nice showcase for the engine.
So without further ado, here is the skinny. Enjoy!
Cheers,
Paul
From blockabout.ca:
What is BLOCKABOUT?
BLOCKABOUT is an exciting new multiplayer sandbox/shooter/physics game, where you have the ability to create and play your own maps and share them with friends online.
In addition to being a first-person/third-person shooter, BLOCKABOUT also adds elements of real-time strategy such as resource gathering, and tops it off with the ability to build whatever you want using the in-game World Editor or by firing blocks from a Block Launcher weapon.
And then we let you blow it all to pieces with cool physics :)
Choose one of the sample maps to use as a base, and customize it; or start with an empty map and build your world from the ground up. Add a forest, roads, rivers, and define the terrain to your liking...
Add vehicles, boats, turrets, weapons, ammo, buildings, destroyable objects, or use the library of building blocks to construct your own creations!
Place AI characters on your map wherever you like, using the built-in AI kit... Make them enemies or teammates, choose their weapons and behavior, and pick from various AI player classes including humans, orcs, robots, various animals, and marine mammals/fish for maps with water...
The game is built with NVidia's PhysX 3.3, so blocks fly about everywhere when you shoot them. Castles crumble and walls fall apart. Gather the fallen blocks for resources, then use those resources to construct other things... Endless possibilities...
We also use Winterleaf Entertainment's OneWorld product, which allows both the host computer and the connected clients to use the World Editor and build maps together in real-time... This lets you build co-operatively, or drop vehicles and objects on the battlefield during a PVP game.
Share your custom mission files and any new prefabs you create with anyone you like, and they can try them out in their copy of the game easily... Everything is modular and will drop right in.
Play all of this for free on your local network at home, or become a registered user to play online and receive updates to your game automatically using our Auto-Patching system.
Network/Online play is currently designed to perform well with up to 64 players per game!
Registered users will receive updates as we add things to the game... Our Auto-Patcher will simply send you new or updated files when we make them available, as soon as you log in using your Registered User Account.
Finally, and this is a big one - the game has complete Oculus Rift support. Run around and shoot your friends and blow things up, all in full immersive virtual reality with head tracking... Consumer-level VR is coming, and with Oculus being recently bought out by Facebook that will only speed up the adoption of this technology. Get your hands on one of the first games to include full support for this exciting device!
Download the game today at blockabout.ca!
Today I turn 42, a great number, the answer to the meaning of life, the universe, and everything... A fitting day to choose for the launch of our new game...
BLOCKABOUT is a lot of fun to work on - it's full of physics, things flying around, things that go boom, has great team deathmatch play and even has both client and server world editing built right in. It's a neat package that we're excited to now be sharing with everyone.
We launched our Open Beta today. We have so much more we want to do, and development is ongoing, but we have posted a public release on our site for anyone to download and try out.
I could go on about all the trials and tribulations that went into this, but today I want to celebrate the completion of this milestone. So please find below some text from our web site, which sums up the game and what it's about pretty nicely.
There are so many people here who had a hand in this, through code sharing in the resources area and through forum support, etc. To all those who contribute to the community, we salute you and thank you for all that you do. We have always enjoyed working in Torque3D, and hope that BLOCKABOUT may become a nice showcase for the engine.
So without further ado, here is the skinny. Enjoy!
Cheers,
Paul
From blockabout.ca:
What is BLOCKABOUT?
BLOCKABOUT is an exciting new multiplayer sandbox/shooter/physics game, where you have the ability to create and play your own maps and share them with friends online.
In addition to being a first-person/third-person shooter, BLOCKABOUT also adds elements of real-time strategy such as resource gathering, and tops it off with the ability to build whatever you want using the in-game World Editor or by firing blocks from a Block Launcher weapon.
And then we let you blow it all to pieces with cool physics :)
Choose one of the sample maps to use as a base, and customize it; or start with an empty map and build your world from the ground up. Add a forest, roads, rivers, and define the terrain to your liking...
Add vehicles, boats, turrets, weapons, ammo, buildings, destroyable objects, or use the library of building blocks to construct your own creations!
Place AI characters on your map wherever you like, using the built-in AI kit... Make them enemies or teammates, choose their weapons and behavior, and pick from various AI player classes including humans, orcs, robots, various animals, and marine mammals/fish for maps with water...
The game is built with NVidia's PhysX 3.3, so blocks fly about everywhere when you shoot them. Castles crumble and walls fall apart. Gather the fallen blocks for resources, then use those resources to construct other things... Endless possibilities...
We also use Winterleaf Entertainment's OneWorld product, which allows both the host computer and the connected clients to use the World Editor and build maps together in real-time... This lets you build co-operatively, or drop vehicles and objects on the battlefield during a PVP game.
Share your custom mission files and any new prefabs you create with anyone you like, and they can try them out in their copy of the game easily... Everything is modular and will drop right in.
Play all of this for free on your local network at home, or become a registered user to play online and receive updates to your game automatically using our Auto-Patching system.
Network/Online play is currently designed to perform well with up to 64 players per game!
Registered users will receive updates as we add things to the game... Our Auto-Patcher will simply send you new or updated files when we make them available, as soon as you log in using your Registered User Account.
Finally, and this is a big one - the game has complete Oculus Rift support. Run around and shoot your friends and blow things up, all in full immersive virtual reality with head tracking... Consumer-level VR is coming, and with Oculus being recently bought out by Facebook that will only speed up the adoption of this technology. Get your hands on one of the first games to include full support for this exciting device!
Download the game today at blockabout.ca!
About the author
Programming team lead, Gambit Realm development studio. Based in Ottawa, ON, Canada.
#2
04/22/2014 (4:26 am)
Great news, good luck for your project.
#3
04/22/2014 (7:44 am)
Thank guys! Hey in case you didn't know, you are both in the game Credits on the web site :) 
#4
Otherwise I would call it more an alpha version, it is not really playable, especially the performance on the maps that are not from me is very bad, I get around 15-20 FPS, while I get 100-150 FPS on my own example terrains. I don't know why, because the polycount and drawcalls are in limit.
And sometimes the game crashes randomly.
04/22/2014 (1:32 pm)
I wonder why you gave credits to those where it was not mandatory, but with my creative commons terrains where credit is necessary, you did not credit me.Otherwise I would call it more an alpha version, it is not really playable, especially the performance on the maps that are not from me is very bad, I get around 15-20 FPS, while I get 100-150 FPS on my own example terrains. I don't know why, because the polycount and drawcalls are in limit.
And sometimes the game crashes randomly.
#5
Well, those guys just happen to be in there because we have had extended personal interaction with them... As for everyone else like yourself who has contributed to the community, we tried to go out of our way to make the thank you message inclusive to all. As we said, everyone's efforts are appreciated.
Alpha/Beta, tomato/tomato :) Point is it's now out there... It's free, it's fun, and yes of course things will be changing over time including the maps. I think your island terrains just work better because those maps are pretty empty. The Jungle Temples mission is large, with thousands of destroyable blocks, so performance will scale accordingly. We are aware of this and are always striving to improve framerates, etc. Have a couple of leads on next steps with that.
Cheers
P
04/22/2014 (2:08 pm)
Hi Duion,Well, those guys just happen to be in there because we have had extended personal interaction with them... As for everyone else like yourself who has contributed to the community, we tried to go out of our way to make the thank you message inclusive to all. As we said, everyone's efforts are appreciated.
Alpha/Beta, tomato/tomato :) Point is it's now out there... It's free, it's fun, and yes of course things will be changing over time including the maps. I think your island terrains just work better because those maps are pretty empty. The Jungle Temples mission is large, with thousands of destroyable blocks, so performance will scale accordingly. We are aware of this and are always striving to improve framerates, etc. Have a couple of leads on next steps with that.
Cheers
P
#6
From a beta version I expect something playable for the end-user, per definition your game is more an alpha version, it just shows off some basic functions you plan to integrate, but not suitable for end-users.
04/22/2014 (2:24 pm)
It is not the size of the map, Torque could handle even double the size of your biggest map, but just regarding polycount, drawcalls etc. The problem is likely the physics and the object count. If you touch physics objects the tend to shiver, which may produce a lot of load on the system.From a beta version I expect something playable for the end-user, per definition your game is more an alpha version, it just shows off some basic functions you plan to integrate, but not suitable for end-users.
#7
However, for anyone else reading, I encourage you all to give it a try... Works great in Team Deathmatch, and you can build all kinds of things using the blocks while you run around shooting your buddies. And you can do all of this with an Oculus Rift :)
My sons and their friends are finding lots of ways to use the game, coming up with building ideas we hadn't even thought of. There is lots of potential with more exciting improvements to come.
And as I said, we are aware that the game performance needs to increase on the heavier maps... This is an ongoing effort and we have a few ideas how to make that much better.
Cheers
P
04/22/2014 (2:33 pm)
All feedback is welcome, so thanks.However, for anyone else reading, I encourage you all to give it a try... Works great in Team Deathmatch, and you can build all kinds of things using the blocks while you run around shooting your buddies. And you can do all of this with an Oculus Rift :)
My sons and their friends are finding lots of ways to use the game, coming up with building ideas we hadn't even thought of. There is lots of potential with more exciting improvements to come.
And as I said, we are aware that the game performance needs to increase on the heavier maps... This is an ongoing effort and we have a few ideas how to make that much better.
Cheers
P
Torque Owner Lukas Joergensen
WinterLeaf Entertainment
Good luck with the game, keep us updated!
- Also do you have a Facebook page or Google Plus or something like that, which we can follow to get updates?