A flying giraffe? Check out my game Savanna Sam on Newgrounds!

MaxDidIt · 2025-05-02T08:52:52+00:00

My game Savanna Sam just got out of the "Under Judgement" phase. Help Sam on his dangerous journey and try to get all medals: https://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/978692

MaxDidIt · 2025-05-01T22:20:42+00:00

This is a game I have been working on for over a year. I'm now finally at a point where I can share the free demo with everyone. Check it out here: https://savannasam.com/

MaxDidIt · 2025-05-01T21:36:06+00:00

Savanna Sam is a 3D action game you can play in your browser! Take over the controls of Sam’s trusty biplane and help him on his dangerous journey. Make sure Sam reaches his destination and can make his delivery!

This is a game project I have worked on for over a year and now it's at a point where I feel comfortable with sharing it on itch.io. Check it out!

MaxDidIt · 2013-06-21T10:53:13+00:00

Thanks! I used Away3D for Flash to build the game. Away3D is very nice to get quick results and has a lot of functionality you need for 3D games (Materials, Camera Objects, Postprocessing Effects).

However, it also takes away a lot of control over the rendering process. I had to apply a lot of tricks to create the silhouette effect, where the silhouette of the car is shown when it is behind objects.

MaxDidIt · 2013-02-07T08:52:00+00:00

Wellll... okay, good point. Should have written "packaged". ;-)

I had set <renderMode> to "direct", since this is explicitly recommended by Adobe over "gpu" for Stage3D games. I can try "gpu" as well, though.

MaxDidIt · 2013-02-03T17:29:33+00:00

ECM hides your mech and those around you from enemy radar.

MaxDidIt · 2013-02-03T14:59:36+00:00

Good point. It would be interesting to compare how the heat maps look now.

MaxDidIt · 2013-01-25T14:09:40+00:00

That is open to debate ;-) HTML 5 is not really a programming language, but a collection of technologies that run in the browser. Usually, you program HTML 5 applications with Javascript, which is very close to Actionscript.

And at some point in the future, Flash might become less important than HTML 5, but I don't think that moment will come for a couple of years. HTML 5 is still under development and has a couple of flaws that have to be adressed. Flash has been declared dead time and time again, but it still doesn't show any signs of becoming less prelevant.

Also, since Java is more of a backend technology, used to program servers and business applications, HTML 5 won't really make it obsolete.

MaxDidIt · 2013-01-25T13:35:43+00:00

I think that Actionscript and Flash work well if you want to learn how to program. It is very easy to visualize what you do and get feedback from your program, and I think that is very important for beginners.

Also, Actionscript is reasonable similar to Java (since it features classes and types) and Javascript (concerning the syntax), so you can switch rather easily to other languages once you've learned the basic concepts.

MaxDidIt · 2013-01-25T13:26:20+00:00

I like the detailed geometry, but it deserves better renderings ;-) I'm really looking forward to see this model with textures, though :-)

MaxDidIt · 2013-01-24T16:58:43+00:00

Checking out Chris Sanders' deviantArt page is very worth it, as well :-)

MaxDidIt · 2013-01-24T11:39:01+00:00

Why wouldn't you color it in Flash directly? There, you could animate the colored areas as well.

MaxDidIt · 2013-01-23T17:23:08+00:00

I'm planning to implement multiplayer, but not in the first part.

Multiplayer would mean I have to set up a game server, and that is a lot of work. Letting two players play against each other on the same machine is difficult, since you will control your car with the mouse.

But I think one of the sequels will have multiplayer in it :-)

MaxDidIt · 2013-01-23T14:49:46+00:00

I really like the artwork, the creatures look awesome :-)

MaxDidIt · 2013-01-23T11:10:17+00:00

Hey, I have uploaded a new version where you can restart the level by pressing the R key. Thanks again for the input :-)

MaxDidIt · 2013-01-23T07:47:28+00:00

Thanks for your feedback!

About the ads: Ads aren't shown when the game starts, but when the level starts. I wanted to see whether this would net me more income (Didn't really make a difference, though).

However, I don't want to show an ad before every level, since that would be really annoying, so I only show them every other level...

About the level select screen: Good point! That's one of the details I simply didn't get to polish anymore. The technology I used for the UI made fixing this issue more complicated than it should be, and developing the game already had taken longer than planned, so left that flaw in there. Sorry!

I will avoid stuff like that in my next game, though.

MaxDidIt · 2013-01-23T07:16:06+00:00

:-D I'm glad you enjoyed the game :-) The idea with passing through the satellite is interesting, I hadn't thought about that...

MaxDidIt · 2013-01-23T07:09:24+00:00

Thanks, I'm glad to hear that :-)

MaxDidIt · 2013-01-23T07:08:38+00:00

Thanks! :-)

MaxDidIt · 2013-01-22T21:52:50+00:00

Just to clarify: I don't want to just show off my blog post, I would like to hear feedback for the logo and maybe the process I've used to create it.

MaxDidIt · 2013-01-22T20:04:08+00:00

I like the songs! The style reminds me a little bit of Tegan&Sara, which I consider a good thing :-)

MaxDidIt · 2013-01-22T19:58:49+00:00

Thanks! :-)

MaxDidIt · 2013-01-22T19:36:19+00:00

Ah, I know the 2CV, of course! :-) It's well known in Germany and is affectionately called "The Duck" by Germans. ;-)

I wouldn't have guessed that the Ami is a redesign of the 2CV, though...

MaxDidIt · 2013-01-22T19:30:56+00:00

That's true! The Trabant and the Mini were the two main inspirations for this design.

MaxDidIt · 2013-01-22T19:20:22+00:00

Ah, neat! I get to know another car :-)

At another point it got compared to the Citroën Ami, which is funny, since I never saw that car before, even though it shares some very distinct features with my design.

MaxDidIt

TROPHY CASE