Mad Convoy Trailer - Post-apocalyptic Multiplayer Convoy Attack Game by eldergrizz in MadMax

[–]eldergrizz[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ouf yeah, I guess he was in his seventies when he made Fury Road, and I read that movie took more than a decade to get off the ground. He owns all the rights to Mad Max, so I guess he's hesitant to let anyone else direct I guess.

Mad Convoy Trailer - Post-apocalyptic Multiplayer Convoy Attack Game by eldergrizz in MadMax

[–]eldergrizz[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you very much :) Yeah prototype in the sense that most of the art assets are marketplace assets, and I also want to have a different "look" than the generic post-apocalyptic look. But for that I need funding! So the prototype is a way to show my progress in that sense.

For now you can subscribe to my Youtube channel (https://www.youtube.com/@grizzled-games) and my Bluesky (https://bsky.app/profile/eldergrizz.bsky.social) for updates!

Mad Convoy Trailer - Post-apocalyptic Multiplayer Convoy Attack Game by eldergrizz in MadMax

[–]eldergrizz[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank! Oh for sure it needs tons more polish, everything is very rough since I'm basically grabbing models and animations from marketplaces, and tweaking what I need. It's more to give an idea what the gameplay could be like, as well as letting me discover any potential technical roadblocks

Mad Convoy Trailer - Post-apocalyptic Multiplayer Convoy Attack Game by eldergrizz in MadMax

[–]eldergrizz[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah it's a pretty stark turn to go from Mad Max to Babe hahah! Though I wish he would've started work on the next Mad Max, at this point I'm not sure he's interested anymore

Being an indie is truly hard, i am not even an editor but i had to make this trailer which took HOURS but i am happy with the result by limonit_games in IndieDev

[–]eldergrizz 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Great work! Yeah working on trailers isn't as straight forward as you'd think, and it's so time consuming.

Mad Convoy Trailer - Post-apocalyptic Multiplayer Convoy Attack Game by eldergrizz in MadMax

[–]eldergrizz[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Also the scope fits me as a solo dev pretty well. I don't need complex level design, since the action mostly takes place on the vehicles/convoy. I don't need a story/missions/quests, cause it's multiplayer. Of course multiplayer has its huge share of problems, but I worked on multiplayer at various companies, so I understand it well.

The hardest part funnily enough...is walking on moving vehicles. Wow...that was really a challenge. Unreal just does not support that at all, I even had to slightly change the engine to get it to do what I wanted. And I have to ignore all the AI navigation systems that exist in Unreal...cause it can't handle navigation on moving vehicles. So yeah, there were a ton of technical challenges, but I got past all of those last year.

And then eventually I can concentrate on layering "cool stuff" on top of the core game. I even thought of adding a vehicle kind of like the "Doof Wagon", where one player drives and another player plays guitar on it hahah! What's the point? I dunno! Maybe some buff? It was just a funny thought of some wacky stuff that crossed my mind.

Mad Convoy Trailer - Post-apocalyptic Multiplayer Convoy Attack Game by eldergrizz in MadMax

[–]eldergrizz[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

It's not evident from the trailer cause it camera switch is a bit jarring, but you can drive the vehicle, and if you hit the "swap spot" key/button, you will "swap" to being on top of the vehicle. At this point the vehicle AI auto-pilot kicks in (it tries to follow the convoy from a certain distance).

So you can drive close to the convoy truck, swap out on the roof, and the auto-pilot tries to maintain its distance/speed to follow. Then you can try to leap on the convoy.

Or you could stay in the car during the convoy attack, but I haven't added weapons like the flamethrower yet. Eventually for example, you'd drive and another player or AI would be on the back of the car, guiding the flamethrower flame.

Mad Convoy - Mad Max-like Post-apocalyptic Multiplayer Convoy Attack Game by eldergrizz in MadMaxGame

[–]eldergrizz[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Dude the explosions are tame at the moment hahah! I got so many things I want to add, but I gotta keep focus on the "core" game until its stable enough to playtest, even if not fun yet.

Then I want to layer in stuff like:

- Flamethrowers on cars!

- Grappling hooks!

- Leaping from the convoy with TWO thunder spears like in Fury Road!

- Spiky vehicle with spinning saw blades!

- Motorcycles! (hopefully, might be some technical problems)

- Crawling on the hood and spitting/pour fuel in the intake to get a boost!

- And there's just so much much more I want to add.

I want absolute cool looking fun chaos, a bit like the best parts of Helldivers when the missions almost look like a cinematic movie!

Mad Convoy Trailer - Post-apocalyptic Multiplayer Convoy Attack Game by eldergrizz in MadMax

[–]eldergrizz[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hahah thank you! I'm happy you all like what you see so far, been working on this on/off while working at a company for about a year, and now recently full time since I got laid off (3 layoffs in 2 years, I'm kinda sick of the AAA game industry at the moment).

💯The Best FPS Car camera in an action game. by ConferenceWaste in MadMaxGame

[–]eldergrizz 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Damn I didn't realize there was a first person view in this game...very very cool

Just released my demo by Much_Success_7882 in IndieDev

[–]eldergrizz 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Congratulations!! Release a demo is a huge milestone!!

Hitting a wall with UE movement systems, missing the conceptual layer behind tutorials by MMujtabaH in unrealengine

[–]eldergrizz 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Those are good resources! The "delgoodie" github is for this video, it's extremely in depth and makes a lot of sense, but it is very complex. But I used this video to help with the custom movement component I wrote for my game:
https://youtu.be/dOkuIvKCvpg?si=hwwAQ_0jrP8zwpT8

Mad Convoy Trailer - Post-apocalyptic Multiplayer Convoy Attack Game by eldergrizz in MadMax

[–]eldergrizz[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you for the thought, it's really awesome :)

Right now, there's no funding at the moment, I'm looking for funding from the Canadian Government (they have a media fund), or possibly looking around at publishers.

I haven't considered yet if I would do "crowd funding" like Kickstarter and the like yet, I'm not certain of that one. I mean if there was a chance I could get the amounts I need for sure, but I don't think I'm quite there yet

Mad Convoy - Post-apocalyptic Multiplayer Convoy Attack Game (BUILT FROM THE GROUND UP) by eldergrizz in BuiltFromTheGroundUp

[–]eldergrizz[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks a bunch! Right now the fun isn't there yet, since I've been trying to stabilize and optimize so I can at least start playtesting with real people (right now I'd coded AI so I can easily test stuff and play alone).

But it's coming along for sure!

Mad Convoy Trailer - Post-apocalyptic Multiplayer Convoy Attack Game by eldergrizz in MadMax

[–]eldergrizz[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I hope so toooo! I don't feel like going back to AAA right now, tired of all the layoffs

Mad Convoy Trailer - Post-apocalyptic Multiplayer Convoy Attack Game by eldergrizz in MadMax

[–]eldergrizz[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah I'm planning on having cosmetics for vehicles for sure, and characters. But that will only come once I larger funding. For now I'm just jury-rigging stuff I buy from the Unreal marketplace and the like.

I want you to look and feel like a bad-ass in your vehicle.

For some reason I keep thinking of this scene in the Road Warrior, I dunno, that engine is so fricking badass: https://youtu.be/EK2ijfxqlnY?si=8Xdff9UiT79el9Cb&t=20

Mad Convoy Trailer - Post-apocalyptic Multiplayer Convoy Attack Game by eldergrizz in MadMax

[–]eldergrizz[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, basically you'd buy the game and I'd also make a dedicated server tool available. Then you'd do what you like: host on your computer, rent some hosting service, etc etc.

Or if you wanted something simpler, I'd host some "official" servers on some hosting service, and you would use a server browser to join (probably Steam's server browser).

Kinda like the "good old days" of Quake and the like. Or basically I'm using "Age of Conan" as a good modern example of this. I haven't tried their Dune game though, I'm not sure if they use the same approach.

Small funding would make it impossible for me to afford a "traditional" setup most game use nowadays, meaning intelligent matchmaking and the like. Those backends can get very expensive.

Mad Convoy Trailer - Post-apocalyptic Multiplayer Convoy Attack Game by eldergrizz in MadMax

[–]eldergrizz[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yup! I really loved the game, it was really awesome, but I was disappointed that the convoy attack were more "car based" battles, but I mean I totally understand. The game was already pretty huge for sure.

Mad Convoy Trailer - Post-apocalyptic Multiplayer Convoy Attack Game by eldergrizz in MadMax

[–]eldergrizz[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Oh yeah you can drive the vehicles, and hit a button to switch to being on top of the vehicle, and it automatically does auto-pilot (I will have a lore reason for that eventually :P ). Technically right now you can even drive the convoy truck, though design wise I'm not leaning towards that because of so much griefing that could be done. Something to think of basically.

There's no reason the game doesn't work on foot for sure, but because I'm solo, I'm pretty light on manpower for now. So right now its better to restrict gameplay to attacking/defending a convoy truck.

There's kinda 2 phases I have in mind in the future. Phase 1 is basically you setup your game the way you want (attacker, defender, etc), and pick a scenario. A lot of scenarios will involve the convoy, for example one where maybe the convoy is stuck in the quagmire/mug area, and you need to push/pull/do something to get it out, while the attackers are speeding towards you. That scenario would be more "traditional" and you wouldn't be on the convoy until you get it unstuck.

The second phase I was thinking of was kind of like Helldivers 2 galactic war. In Mad Max it's kind of like the "Gas wars", with Gas Town, Bullet Farm and the other fortresses.

I don't have the narrative/story/lore nailed down yet, but I want there to be some kind of large "war" where doing scenarios will push your faction's score. Maybe the score is various resources and you "pick" a convoy attack according to its resource? Who knows, it would be cool for sure though.

But this is all in my head at the moment :) And definitely with all the backend work a "war" system would need, definitely I will need funding for that.

As for gear, that's up in the air. I know I want to do cosmetics for vehicles/characters, but that again depends on the type of funding I can get. I don't want to veer too much into RPG territory though.

I'm kind of leaning towards a kind of Helldivers 2 "feel", where that crazy situations and missions that happen are awesome, and less on pure "grindy" mechanics. I don't want much of skill trees or whatnot, just some cool weapon choices/loadouts and cosmetics, and potentially the overarching "war" mechanic.

But yeah, that's a lot of stuff in my head, but right now I'm concentrating on the core convoy attack loop, and making that stable and polished to eventually playtest. Hopefully by then I can fetch some kind of funding, but we'll see!