What Makes It Tick

Hello, And welcome to System overload

My name is Jared Wilton and i am working as lead programmer on the game System overload currently in development for IOS platform.

Today i will be giving you a quick run down on the systems that are in this game and how many of them are currently working.

lets get to it.

From a programming stand point this game is not anything to crazy over the top but its also not to simplistic, we have all learnt a lot trying to program this game to work how we want it and have also had to cut back on a few things, developing for the IOS platform has limitations and we had to learn these limitations and code to suit them.

so far the game is progressing nicely most of the in game systems including collision damage shields movement are all working correctly and test builds are running on devices as low as the iphone 3gs, that game is being created in a way that will allow it to run on all new devices and as low as the iphone 3gs.

I will be creating a script that will detect what device you are on and load in appropiately sized textures for all models this will make sure that the performance on lower devices is optimized but ensuring the game will look good on newer devices that can handle much bigger textures and can do a lot more

the hardest systems we have left to make are random objects, these have caused us design issues things just not looking right when code picks random objects and now we think we have that sorted out we are moving onto the hard part the coding of arrays to spawn random objects random colours and remove those objects from the array as the player passes them this system is essential to ensure optimization on all devices. these systems will need to be coded in a way that will allow the check point system to work, dulled down it will essentially grab all of the players details and the details of what tiles are spawned around the player at the time he passes the check point the code will need to be able to identify the objects that have been randomly spawned and ensure they are re created so the player doesn't know they where actually destroyed. 

that system and the level section systems are the hardest ones left to be done but im confident we can get it done in the time we have left, Between me and our second programmer we have enough brains to smash this game out.

we will keep you posted on the progression of these difficult systems and snapshots of how they work as time goes by.

Welcome to System Overload

Welcome to System Overload, the new exciting puzzle game we at FireFlash Studios are developing for the iOS.


We at FireFlash Studios are just starting out as an indie games company and will be realeasing our first game called "System Overload". In SO, you play as an A.I whom is aware of their surroundings and is trying to escape from the impending deletion resulting from the system crash in which the A.I Resides.

The A.I character is represented as a flying neon ship and the collapsing world around the character is seen as a futuristic 'Tron' Like world which is coming apart at the seams. Debris such as computer parts, data clusters, computer hardware are all breaking apart and wreaking havoc for the A.I as they struggle to get to the last remaining connection out of the system.

The art is going to be very heavily based around neon lighting and bright visual effects so that the Sci-fi element is reinforced through the art. The base colours for the art will be reasonably mute except when subject to neon lighting. Everything is going to tie into the art style and is going to keep within the colour range so as to not create any unnecessary distraction. (Aaron Tagliabue)

Programming its self will be rater simple as most of the coding is movement and collider based. There will be very simple tracking AI for some of the laser Turrets. But other than that we will have to code for the iPad's Accelerometer and touch screen capabilities but that won't be difficult as it is simply a raycast for the touch screen and for the accelerometer it is Input.Accelerometer.(Chris Langford) 

The levels are being designed in a tile format this means that the tracks of Project Overload can be built with interchangeable pieces which can speed up the design and building process. Of course this means we will have a numerous amount of tiles to ensure that all levels will be new and exciting, and levels that have been built will have various things added by our dedicated design team team e.g. extra turrets, conduits, lasers by level designer and background work by art designer. Having interchangeable tiles also makes things easier to make our Time Attack! mode. (Duran Alexander Boskovic)