GiddilyGeekin

22/05/2023

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2336240/Airscrew_Racing/

A chaotic, ruthless racing game for one to four players. You will need both your flying prowess and weapon control skills to dominate.

01/04/2022

I'm just going to leave this here :)
https://youtu.be/wYi_d6SWEZY

Welcome to my second Devlog!Airscrew Racing is an air combat racing game with 4 player local multiplayer. This game is under development but available to pl...

11/02/2022

This month I have made a goal to get people aware or Airscrew Racing. I made this video to highlight the gameplay! What do you think?

Airscrew Racing is an air combat racing game with 4 player local multiplayer. This game is under development but available to play for free.Blog: https://gi...

03/01/2022

Now you can pick you pilots and be rewarded for taking down your friends!

Now you can pick your pilot and be rewarded for taking down your friends...

04/12/2021

Showing off the newest map and weapon!

Think Blue Shell... But like more of a shocker...

20/11/2021

Another update to my progress!

Overview of Sprint: A big part of the success of this sprint was having a chance to playtest the game with my brother. I came away from that excited and pretty happy with how the game balance was. There were plenty of arias that needed to improve but overall the game is at a very stable point. From....

27/10/2021

I'm back with the reveal of my new map!

Hello my fellow flyers! Hope you find favorable winds. Airscrew Racing is back on the radar and here are the updates for you! New Weapon: Snow Cannon In an attempt to help player one keep the lead we added a new weapon that can keep those pesky people off their tail. The item is similar to the gatli...

28/05/2021

All my characters are done!
https://giddilygeekin.wixsite.com/home/post/stuff-of-nightmares

Question of the day: What name would you give our female fox pilot? Overall Recap Hello again and welcome to another spring recap. A few things that happened of the sprint that where not directly tied to goals is that Haakon has made another track for the new map I am working on. Finish animating ch...

15/05/2021

Getting back in rhythm
https://giddilygeekin.wixsite.com/home/post/a-quick-update

It has been a while since I have given a written look on where we are going. I went on a tangent in character development and have done a first pass in looking for voice actors. I am pretty excited that the characters are coming to life and really think it will add to the game. I have also been devo...

02/04/2021

My first time trying a Devlog! Hope you enjoy!
https://youtu.be/rsnsKYf94xw

Airscrew Racing is a Air Combat Racing game that I am developing. In this devlog, I am gliding over the big picture of where this game is headed. Blog: https...

19/03/2021

https://giddilygeekin.wixsite.com/home/post/new-map-blocked-out

Goals next sprint I have been putting allot of thought into the crafting system. Not just this sprint, but constantly re-visiting the concept and trying to figure out how to convey the crafting system. It’s the most confusing thing to explain to new players and I hate it. It should be the best par...

06/03/2021

https://giddilygeekin.wixsite.com/home/post/full-speed-ahead

The hardest part about determining what my goals are for the week is knowing that the time I spend in one area is time that other parts of the game are stalled. It is getting exciting because I feel like the game is at a state where people can play and understand what the vision is. At the beginning...

20/02/2021

I be done seen about everything...
https://giddilygeekin.wixsite.com/home/post/when-i-see-an-elephant-fly

Hello everyone! It has been a fun little sprint and the characters are coming together nicely. I had another chance to play-test the game and it helped me find a few bugs. I had reached a lot of my goals and wanted to add a propeller to my airplanes. I also tried to work on sound effects for the pro...

05/02/2021

https://giddilygeekin.wixsite.com/home/post/unicorn-sloth-added-to-roster

Hey Everyone! Progress is going well. I am posting this a day early because I hit most of my goals and need to keep the momentum. First, here is a recap from goals the sprint: Add 2 more characters to the first pass I don't think it's much of a spoiler if I tell you what I did here. Heck, I am not t...

23/01/2021

This sprint I go into the dilemma of having too much to do and deciding the path forward.
https://giddilygeekin.wixsite.com/home/post/squashing-bugs

Hello again. This sprint had a lot of tasks that I wanted to try and address so here is the recap of the goals: Shotgun duration is too long This was long originally for debugging. Now you have it for 6 seconds. Reset is too punishing Reduced reset time from 3 seconds -> 1.5 seconds. I also added to...

10/01/2021

Added a bunch of weapons and got to playtest the game!
https://giddilygeekin.wixsite.com/home/post/happy-new-year

Hope you all have a happy new year. I got to take a break from game dev and spend time with the family. I even have my brother and father in law try Airscrew Racing. They are super competitive and we played for hours. I was amazed at how the strategies evolved to counter one another. From that Geeki...

23/12/2020

https://giddilygeekin.wixsite.com/home/post/happy-holidays

Happy Holidays Everyone. It might be a while before my next post but this one is a pretty brief update on how I plan to design characters for my game.

Wishing you a wonderful holiday season from GiddilyGeekin! Due to the sprint ending right on the holiday I am giving a report on how things are looking this sprint. My original goals where to complete the first pilot and get a start on the second one. I am making a pretty big change in my strategy i...

11/12/2020

Another sprint come and gone!
https://giddilygeekin.wixsite.com/home/post/customize-your-ride

27/11/2020

In this sprint, I added dogfighting! Gameplay in the link.
https://giddilygeekin.wixsite.com/home/post/dogfighting

With the Thanksgiving holiday coming up I really wanted to beef up a few things. I ended up doing a lot of improvements that were driven by the goals. The biggest one was the in-game collisions. It was driving me crazy that airplane collisions were not engaging. If you got hit => you spun out in a b...

14/11/2020

14/11/2020

Hey everyone! Hope all is going well. This sprint has been a pretty busy one but I have enjoyed it a lot and feel pretty satisfied with the feel of things. There are a few real head-scratchers that I have been trying to figure out but I still think progress was pretty good this week.

Accomplishments
🤓 Implement Crafting Visual (just the loading bar)
I wanted to do a circular loading bar so that you can see how much time you have until your next item is ready or expired. I still need to work on the look and feel of this but getting the concept down and coded is pretty exciting!

🧐 BUGFIX: collisions causing lag
I am still looking into this bug. I felt like the other features will remove how badly it will affect gameplay for others.

😡 See only next checkpoint
I got pretty stuck on this one. Ironically this is usually the opposite effect that fellow game developers want so I am having a hard time coming up with a solution. This is being moved to my stretch goals this coming sprint.

🙂 Allow reverse when landed
This was pretty easy and makes it easier to get out of stuck places. I am also pleased with the fact that I didn’t add a different button for this to be possible. To reverse you will just need to press both turn sharper buttons while landed and let off the gas.

😀 Add checkpoint reset
This was another really clean fix that adds a countdown to the player's screen then moves them back to their last reached checkpoint.

Stretch:
🥳 Build an official website
I have finally done it! I made my own website! Check it out here! (https://giddilygeekin.wixsite.com/home)

Other fixes
-Updated crafting logic to delay building next item between uses
I also made getting hit more punishing.

-I added some upward vertical movement if you get hit by something that causes you to lose control for longer durations. This is to help feel like the punishment duration is not as long. It still needs work but it's in the right direction.

-Added a visual for if you are going the wrong way.

Goals for next sprint:
1. Reflective Shield
2. Split screen bug
3. Damage boost
4. BUG: camera transition to the landed state from hit state.
5. Work on Gatling Gun
6. Create a new item

Stretch Goals
1. Work on next map visuals
2. BUG: collisions causing lags
3. Airplane collisions
4. See next checkpoint

17/10/2020

Hello everyone! Going to be really brief on this sprint. I all my time last week helping my dad building a house so I had very little time for Giddily Geekin. I also started working for a new company so I am adjusting my schedule so that I can still be putting some time into this. So sorry there are no fun pictures or Gifs this week. Here is a look at my goals:

😑 Test out new map
I was unable to test out the new map. I ordered some equipment to allow more than 3 local players but the equipment is defective. Honestly just didn’t have time for organizing this one.

❗️ Missile Alerts on UI
This one took a little work. But now AI and you can be notified if there is a threat near by (i.e. Rockets, shotguns etc.). It is super basic now but can be added to as I nail down UI design.

🤔 Dodge homing missiles using roll
I just keep kicking this rock down the road. I am starting to wonder if this is a good feature. Your response time to dodge most rockets would have to be insanely fast.

🧑‍🏭 Actions / Position effect crafting weapons
This I did add and now weapons crafted are based on your position. Needs serious testing and balancing.

🤑 Add Sound Effects
I have been working on this and just purchased a bunch of sound effects that I think will sound great in this game!

Goals for next week:
1. Add sound effects
2. Design intuitive crafting Visual
Stretch:
1. Finish designing first pilot
2. Build official website

03/10/2020

During this sprint I did not get everything done I wanted to. I got a bad migraine at the start of the sprint and took about a week to get over the headaches and numbness. The second week of the sprint I was feeling better but decided to help my dad who is building a house. So here is a follow up on what happened:

😀 Block out new map
Able to block out a new course for you to race on! It includes tunnels, bridges and castles!

😶 Design something in blender
I started designing a new pilot for the planes. I don’t know if I love the character yet…

😁 Add Turn Sharper ability to Gatling Gun
Done. Pretty easy but needed it done.

😏 Add a weapon
Added a shotgun weapon that can blast shields down immediately and bring down other planes!

😔 Work on Tiered Crafting
I was unable to get a start on this.

Here are the goals for next week. Hoping to make sure that the new map is fun and that the games flow is improved.
1. Test out new map
2. Missile Alerts on UI
3. Dodge homing missiles using roll
4. Actions / Position effect crafting weapons
5. Add Sound Effects

Stretch Goals
1. Build website
2. Finish designing first pilot

19/09/2020

Regarding Goals from last Sprint.

At the beginning of this sprint I was growing concerned about using my own behavior tree implementation. The biggest issue I was worried about if this would be the cause of allot more work later on. The behavior tree worked well but I think the real gain from the previous sprint was coming up with the perception updater that fires events for all actors that “can see”.

I decided to look into this again and discovered the original issue that was causing so much grief earlier. It was a setting in UE4. That opened allot of doors for this and allowed me to have more control on how the AI was being assigned to the pawns. (Pawns are objects in UE4 that can be controlled. In this case the airplanes).

Now the players inputs are stored in a structure that is either accessed by the airplane or the AI Controller. If the player goes into Gatling Gun, the AI Controller will navigate the course while the player controls the turret. If the player wants to have auto pitch controls then their controller will record all movements and those are passed to the AI Controller that overwrites pitch movement and then passes it to the airplane.

Accomplishments:

1. Migrate behavior tree to UE4 structure
2. Add AI Behavior for gatling gun
3. Add Booster item (I am surprised how much fun this added)
4. Fixed Rocket interactions (collisions mainly and events)
5. Fixed Shield interactions (removing references to allow UE4 garbage collection)

Goals for next week

1. Block out new map
2. Design something in blender
3. Add Turn Sharper ability to Gatling Gun
4. Add a weapon
5. Work on Tiered Crafting

Stretch Goals

1. FMOD in UE4
2. Missile Alerts on UI

https://gfycat.com/largerepulsivefoal

04/09/2020

So this sprint had a pretty abrupt change to what I worked on. I had intended to get more maps made but quickly realized that that was going to take ALLOT of time and that it does not line up with the Fail Fast principle. I needed to get more game mechanics nailed down prior to designing maps cause the game play could change and I would need to scrap allot of final product stuff.

So I moved the stretch goal, ‘I want my AI to fight in race’, to my main goal. This has been super challenging because I want the controls for the NPC and player to be controlled similarly. UE4 has a behavior tree and system that is super nice to use. This unfortunately will not work for me. I need partial control over my planes when using some weapons such as the Gatling gun. So I created my own behavior tree. This has been super fun but has taken allot of time. I also had to create a perception system that updates what each plane “sees”. The UE4 systems only see in single XY plane. I needed to be able to see in the XYZ spectrum.

Accomplishments:
1. Develop Custom Behavior Tree
2. Develop simple Race Behavior
3. Develop Perception System
4. Applied for UE4 Epic Games Dev Grant
5. Clean up main menu

Bug Fixes:
a. Fixed ground sticking
b. Fixed Booster particle terminate bug
c. Cleaned up wall collisions (created new bounce state)
d. Fixed air drag particle system

Goals for next Sprint.
1. Compelling Game play
2. More items
3. Attack avoidance
4. Improve AI

21/08/2020

MY FIRST YOUTUBE VIDEO!

This sprint was mainly geared for applying for the Epic Games Dev Grant. So I needed to get a working, buildable, and playable game. So I will jump right into things that happened this sprint!

🤩 Find 2D Artist
I was able to find an excellent 2D artist. His work can be seen in the logo. He did a great job and I really think it finishes the look of the game.

🤓 Make Working Main Menu
This took ALLOT of work. Expecially where I wanted to have customized options such as setting up your plane color, inversion preference, and if auto pitch. I am really happy with navigation and thin it is in a presentable state.

😈 Weapons upgrade over time
This is what will stand out from other racing games. Currently you don’t need to hit item boxes to get stuff. You need to just avoid being hit!

👿 Weapons drop if hit
As mentioned above, you get hit that nice weapon you where working toward is GONE!

▶️ Downloadable Game
I now have a buildable version of the game for Windows. If you are reading this and want to try it out make a comment before my next sprint and I will send you a link to play the pre alpha!

😴 Deflecting Shield
Didn’t get to this. Decided to use my time to build a game video pitch instead.

🩹 Simple UI of weapon I have and will get next
Got it. And yes, it is simple

💩 Boost Item(flame particle effect)
Got the boost particle effect... But not as an item. Decided to use my time to build a game video pitch instead.

Goals
1. Apply for Epic Games Dev Grant
2. Castle Map
3. Design a pilot
4. Clean Up Main Menu
5. Booster Item
6. Forest/Mountain Map
7. Reflective Shield

Stretch goals
1. Build a Website
2. Cluster Rocket
3. Shotgun
4. NPC’s logic tree
5. Dog Fight Mode
6. Slow down on hit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mN4XTsm-wI

Announcing A game that is currently under development

14/08/2020

I want to know what you think! Harvey Lanot (https://www.lanotdesign.com) designed these options for my airplane racing game. Which should I go with? A? B? or C?
*Color will be added on final

07/08/2020

Hey everyone! Since the last dev log allot has happened. For one thing I got a composer to join the team! He will be writing the music for the game and has already got some pieces that we will showcase next log.

Here is where I ended up on my goals this sprint:

🤓 Non-Player Logic Rework
This was once again a lot of work. It’s a pretty important aspect because it is the springboard for allot of the things I want to be able to do. Because of this I can now have the plane go into autopilot when they have crossed the finish line.

🤖 Race against AI players
Because I was able to get the logic working you can now race multiple planes at once (green plan pictured is an NPC)

🛡 Make a shield
Got the shield model working and some logic tied to if a rocket collides with it. A cool feature is that the color of the shield will change as damage is taken.

🤩 Homing rocket
The 2nd rocket is now in the game. The homing needs to be tweaked but the rocket finds and locks onto the closest plane and goes until collision.

🥳 Gatling gun
This is what is being showcased. It was pretty satisfying to get this working! When you are in gatling mode your plane goes into autopilot and navigates the the checkpoints while you blast others out of the sky!

🥺 Rocket shotgun
I didn’t get to this one. Sorry!

Other things:
Make see through particle material
Added markers for checkpoints

Goals for next sprint:
1. Find 2D Artist
2. Make Working Main Menu
3. Weapons upgrade over time
4. Weapons drop if hit
5. Downloadable Game
6. Deflecting Shield
7. Simple UI of weapon I have and will get next
8. Boost Item(flame particle effect)

Stretch goals
1. Build a Website
2. Cluster Rocket
3. Shotgun
4. Fix some annoying collisions on Tres map
5. Torpedo
6. Slow down on hit

23/07/2020

Doing the devlog a little early this week. Finally, I was able to test multiplayer! It was a ton of fun and I am super excited that the controls feel tight and responsive! I also changed how I track my tasks by putting tasks on a google jam board and think it makes it much easier to see what needs to be done. Here is the status on the goals from last week:

😉 Non Player Plane Logic rework
This was a pretty big task. I needed to move the logic from the AI plane to the parent flying pawn. The transition went smooth. I did not get all the way done but now I have it setup to add different pathfinding algorithms depending on the needs.

🥳 Logic to declare winner
I now can determine when a winner has finished the race. Also, I have the planes go into auto-pilot after race completion.

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Play test race
I was able to play test the game both weekends this sprint. The attached image is of me showing who is boss!
I didn’t make it to the stretch goals. Part of why I decided to end the sprint early is because the stretch goals are nice but not important to trying to follow the ‘fail’ fast principal. This next sprint is all about getting some items in the game to test out the core racing feel.

Goals for next week:

1. Non-Player Logic Rework
2. Race against AI players
3. Make a shield
4. Homing rocket
5. Gatling gun
6. Rocket shotgun

Stretch goals:

7. Make see through particle material
8. Flame Particle effect on boosters
9. Improve explosion effects
10. Fix checkpoint bug
11. Slow planes on in Hit state
12. AI do barrel roll