Bunny Bash - Preparing for Steam Launch

edited in Projects
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http://store.steampowered.com/app/340680

Bunny Bash is a project we, at DarkArts Studios, have been working on on-and-off for over a year. It was put up on steam greenlight, mostly to guage interest, late last year in a very early alpha (more like prototype in fact) state. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) it was greenlit incredibly quickly, we expected it to take at least 6 months, like our previous project, not to be greenlit almost immediately. That said, having the expectation of time we were mid working on something else and had to leave it on the back burner for a while and are now focused entirely on getting this game finished.

I've not really mentioned much about this project at all, except for the occasional random screenshot to other threads when "on topic" such as the discussion on the South African Chapter of the More Blood In Games Special Interest group and one prior post during the physics rewrite I did a few months ago.

I thought I'd keep a random thread going here and update it occasionally since there does seem to be some interest in it's progress.

Bunny Bash is, what I like to call, a "coffee break multiplayer". Few controls, quick dive in and play with almost zero learning curve. It's a silly, cartoony, casual game with exaggerated kills and deathmatch references but as far as actual gameplay goes (look and sound excluded) think of it as something akin to multiplayer mario.

I'm currently slowly migrating prototype code into a new project (and also upgrading from Unity 4 to Unity 5 as I go) and have as yet not migrated all the networking code across, although that's almost done now and also a lot of the visuals have placeholder graphics, for example our art guy is still skinning the bunny and the 3D modeller is still animating and rigging so he looks a bit "smurf-like" and static, but that of course is the nature of in-development games ;)

For those curious about the technical aspects, Bunny Bash is done in Unity, but with Unity's entire physics engine stripped out and replaced with my own "for feature reasons" (eg: I can specify different gravity direction and force at any point in the entire game allowing for levels Unity's own physics engine won't allow).

Anyway, without further ado here's a short video I recorded while testing some sound engine changes and using "mundane farm NPC rabbits" until the prototype networking code is fully migrated - this really needs sound to fully "enjoy" ;)

Comments

  • hehehehe. That was amusing.

    The splatter/spatter sound is great but obviously the visual and sound fx seems to last a bit too long after the initial squash. (Like a fountain instead of a once off explosion)

    Despite the environment, it looks like the game plays on a 2d form of motion? left right and jump?

    In a multiplayer setup I get the feeling this would be like the first Mario brothers game. (or mini-game in SMB3)
    I'd look forward to seeing further iterations.
  • edited
    Slow going, but progress continues, here's a little something:

    Thanked by 1NickCuthbert
  • Wow, those squish fx are juicy as hell!
    Thanked by 1Sash
  • If you're into that sort of thing, you can follow our progress which we'll be updating semi-regularly now on The Bunny Bash Facebook Page.
  • Many bunnies were killed to provide this screenshot. I will neither confirm nor deny camping on this spot.

    image
    Thanked by 1PaxRon
  • Some blood performance testing :)

  • I've been working on a custom blood splatter projection shader (for Unity) this week. It's starting to look & work quite nicely I think.

    image
  • Reminds me of popping bubble wrap…pure stress reliever. Keep up the good work.
  • A progress update screeny, showing the new blood shader in action right after a big kill.

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  • edited
    @clive thats so gory! What happened to the cute bunnies :'(
  • @clive thats so gory! What happened to the cute bunnies :'(
    They're still there, just ... they don't like each other much ;)

    image

  • We're (finally) at the point where we're starting to share early builds (without network play, just single/player "practice mode") with a few people that have been close to the project to get feedback on general gameplay, physics, controls etc prior to being completely "Alpha". Getting some great feedback and I have, as it stands right now, only 2 more tasks (albeit largish ones) before I'm willing to rubber stamp that "Alpha" all over it.
  • Some more recent footage:

  • edited
    Just a thought about sounds.

    I'm certain this is something you plan to get to, but the sound design on the jumping/footsteps (that's the default Unity footsteps sounds) make the game feel much more empty than it should.

    The blood could also use sound work, but the lack of impact sounds on the jumping (and squashing), and that jumping (and squashing) seems such a big part of the game, is especially noticeable.

    Air whooshing sounds can help convey rising and falling, although of course this has to be subtle, it looks like most of the game is spent rising and falling.
  • I totally agree about the sound, there's a reason though ...

    none of the sounds (I mean none of the foley) is actually our foley yet. It's all placeholder sounds from my "generic library", the sound engineer is actually starting this next month (December) custom creating all the SFX we need. So, because of that, no mixing has been done either.

    The music though was custom created, and some of it (but not all) is complete.

    Not much time has been spent in/around getting the sound effects timed, mixed, perfect because most of that would have to be redone once final sounds are in.

    Clive
  • Another dev snapshot video

  • Just a short note this morning,

    Bunny Bash's steam store page (and community) are live as "Coming Soon" -- the holidays were very productive ;)

    http://store.steampowered.com/app/340680

    Three more feature adds to go, with hopefully a "go live" as Early Access set for around April pending final internal beta test round results.
    Thanked by 1konman
  • Congrats man!
  • Just another dev update, a quick recording that shows a bit more of the game the last few weeks work.

  • So ... the game is very close to ready for Early Access release now. But since it's a multi-player game it needs multi-player testing and at this point, I'd like to expand those with beta access quite a bit and exercise the game, and of course multi-player, a lot more since the current test group is quite "global" I'm finding that everyone keeps missing everyone else being online.

    If anyone on here is keen to participate and give feebback in the last of the test rounds please send your details here:

    http://groups.google.com/group/bunny-bash-alpha

    Thanks :)
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