Using the built-in "shapes/micro.wav" sample.
I'll experiment with more samples and effects, this is not the final result I'm aiming for, but it's a great place to start that I wanted to share.
So, some people mentioned that the aircraft feels slower compared to what they're used to in flight sims. That's because the plane is a bit bigger than a real one. This post's first picture shows how the regular landing gear looks when the body is shrunk down to the scale of a Cessna 172.
When I started working on this game, I wanted to avoid the toil of flight sims and to completely focus on the fun of flying, maneuvering, landing and exploring. I approached the whole game design this way and I didn't use reference materials.
For the 3D model, I drew a sketch that I really liked and I recreated the aesthetics in Blender. For the flight mechanics, I looked at how much a light bush plane weighs on Google and tweaked its other mechanical properties until it felt fun to fly.
I didn't pay attention to the scale of the 3D model. As it turns out, the wingspan is 50% larger than a Cessna 172's. Actually, in terms of dimensions, it's closer to a two engine prop like King Air 350. Yet its mechanics are based on a light bush plane's weight....
As I'm planning Steam Workshop integration and mod support, at some point I'll have to shrink the aircraft down so the game fits with other creators' builds. Should I preserve the original in some way? Should I even keep it as a default in somehow?
I absolutely love speedruns and I'm thinking of organizing a prize challenge for one of my games during Steam Next Fest.
I'm a bit wary of cheating and scale though. If there are a lot of submissions, it will be very difficult to ensure that there are no splices, macros, etc.
Has anyone here organized such events? And even if you haven't, what do you think?
I decided to leave the storyline for later, because what I wrote was linear and didn't fit the open-ended nature of the game well. You can read the detailed patch notes in Steam or itch:
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/4152310/view/696514845224206660?l=english
I was making soundtracks for one of my games and I recorded this to use as a reference for automation tracks later.
I'm kinda sad I can't record an automation track...
I made a montage with some of the new scenery and music coming in the next update. The gas giant is procedural and will be unique for each world.
I'll soon make another post about upcoming gameplay changes, and perhaps a beta branch on Steam. As a teaser, the checkpoint count has been reduced from 100 to 36, and there are new things to do.
I'll also probably scrap the current Steam Achievements, but I want to get some feedback before doing it.
A valuable space probe has crashed on one of Gas Giant 1022's moons. With a cheap bush plane and a little cash, you track down the pieces.
How do you feel about Bush 1022 going a little sci-fi? (not too much though, modern tech is too expensive for the task here... or at least corporate says so)
I had given up on art and music a few years back, so I had no instruments when making the initial soundtrack for Bush 1022. I used LMMS and I played on my PC keyboard or transferred notes that I had written down when playing a friend's guitar.
The situation has changed, I got some of my old equipment and some new stuff. I can now make music that's much closer to my true vision when I started making this game.
When I started making music with LMMS some time ago, I didn't see good acoustic piano built-ins.
I recently came across Versilian Studios VCSL Keys. They work on top of Plogue's sforzando VST, which has builds for Windows, Linux and Mac.
To load a piano pack in LMMS:
PS: I've mixed in background noise here on purpose, the plugin by itself is crystal clear.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEAW8SShBDg I just made this little experiment with 2 guitars, where I have no rhythm at the start, mid and end of this song. I don't know music theory much, so I have no idea if this is a common technique, I surely don't recall hearing it more than once.
It's super fun to play this way, I feel like I've dropped my bag of notes and I pick them back up.
A bit later than I wanted, but I was busier than expected this April.
Here's a sneak peak of some buildings!
That's just cosmetic fun though, I'll be doing a lot of core progression changes in the coming days.