I’m a big fan of a short, punchy intro sequences at the start of levels and I wanted to have something along those lines in Outpost Recon. Some great examples in other games include the first levels from all the R-Type games, the flashy title cards of Sonic the Hedgehog and Ristar or the take off sequence from Afterburner. They’re a great opportunity to get a closer look at your vehicle, give your location some context and set the pace for the level.
For Outpost Recon every level involves driving between the different outposts that are scattered around the planet. To make this more apparent in the actual game I decided it’d be neat to show the Rover getting up to speed along an access tunnel and then launching out the side in to the world.
For a first attempt I think it came together pretty well! There’s a lot of areas I can see to improve it (the text spacing is already clawing at my soul) and it could probably do with being shorter. This clip is also a nice chance to see the new rigging in action as the Rover lands on the ground. I could watch that suspension bounce all day.
In the background of the tunnels there are all kinds of things going on. Utility vehicles, people working and repairing things, cargo areas, fluid tanks, furnaces, etc. There’ll be more work done on them at some point. In total there are currently 6 different outpost interior sections that will be called at random to complete the launch tunnels so it’s not exactly the same every time. The interior sections are each made up of three layers, the background, the foreground and a partially transparent shading layer to give the impression of light beams. I plan on spreading out these layers along the z-axis more to give a better impression of depth.
Recon Auth Signing Out