And now, as promised, a quick look at the Big Exciting New Project (BENP™)!
The idea is to make a multiplayer cold war era submarine simulator like nothing else out there. Each player controls an individual crewman on a submarine, and every system aboard the sub is modelled to a Sub Commander level of detail (possibly even more complex). The players must cooperate to control the sub, engage targets, deal with disasters etc. The 'targets' can be either AI controlled surface ships or other player controlled submarines. AI crewman can be added for single player mode.
The game will be made using the Unity engine, which will allow for stunning, modern 3D graphics. I plan to make it available for sale on Steam through the Greenlight program.
It's a huge project, and to be honest I have no idea if it will ever be released. It will certainly take a year or two to get anywhere near a playable game. It's coming along pretty well so far though - the multiplayer code seems to work, I've roughly modelled the interior of one submarine and the code for hull breaches / flooding works pretty well.
Here are a couple of screenshots from inside a Soviet Foxtrot-class submarine in the game. Keep in mind that the game is
very early in development. All of the 3D models are placeholders, and everything shown here will change many times before the game reaches an alpha state.
(Click to view the full size images)
Flooding in the Fore Torpedo Room!
Interested to hear what you think!