The theme for October's Featured Vehicle theme was Balloon Bombers. Let's take a look at the video first in case that's what you came for:
Here's the full list in text form:
FEATURED VEHICLES
- Slinky Sky Bomber - Tatsumesan
- Firework - Detaal
- UFO - SmokieTheSalmon
- Smart Magic Circle - Pyroteknikid
- U.F.O. - Stranger - 54:04
- A-53 Stormcloud - Chunkboi
- Bomber Blimp - Dominus Noctis
- Naughty Floater - Jonny_Arson
- The JellyFish - ArchG
- Mace Malstrom - St. Nicolas
- Double-Hull Airstrike Blimp - Dominus Noctis
- Air Dominator mk2 - Stranger
- Orbital Strike - PaperMachine
- The Massive - Zombie Ninja
- Floating-Shish-Kebab - IceCreamMan4254
- Zorglub - Stranger
HONORABLE MENTIONS
- X Shaped Balloon BOmber - VanWykDanielG
- Squid (Finished) - YuanGabriel.Maralang
- Quad Propeller Airship - Turbo Jack Flash
- Bear Trap Dropper - St. Nicolas
- Orbital Attack Satellite - St. Nicolas
- Air Raider mk1 - Stranger
- Floater - Johnny_Arson
- Airborne Grinder - Richard333
- Air Tactical mk1 - Stranger
- Air Warrior mk2 - Stranger
- Earth Shaker Platform - Richard333
- Bombing Zepplin - DarkySword
Thanks to everyone who entered. As usual, there were a number of very cool entries, and I'm always impressed by the creativity of the designs. Recording the footage for this contest definitely took the longest per entry, as flying is just difficult to do quickly/efficiently. It can take a while to move around, it's tricky to line things up, and with these types of air vehicles in particular you can end up way too high or smashing into the ground more often than you'd like.
There were a few entries that I really liked the design of, but were just too difficult to use effectively, so they generally ended up in the Honorable Mentions category. I decided to allow the UFO entries to qualify even though the balloons weren't exactly part of the main design. They were just very satisfying to use, with them exploiting a laser physics side-effect nicely.
NEXT THEME: WALKERS
DEADLINE: DECEMBER 14TH
For the next theme, we're going with Walkers! I think we have everything we need to finally make satisfying walking vehicles, so it's time to give it a go. They don't need to be mechs, or have any particular design. The more "pure" the walking motion/design, the better. By pure I mean using logic and mechanics/physics as the main means of making the vehicle move. Using balloons and gyroscopes is acceptable, but I'll probably give bonus points for avoiding them, and thrusters/turbines will feel a bit like bending the rules.
Because this is starting late, and some holidays are coming up, the deadline is a bit longer. December 14th will the last day to enter a vehicle. As usual, set the vehicle category to Featured so it's easier for me to find it. Can't wait to see what you guys are able to do with this theme.
DEVELOPMENT UPDATES
I've been taking a short break from Instruments development to work on my side project. I'll probably reveal a trailer/demo for that in December, but I'll be back on Instruments full-time for the next week or two. My goal is to get all the remaining advanced vehicle building stuff done. I may be adding some new (simpler) parts, but the main focus will be getting multi-select, copy-paste, and related functionality in ASAP. Will fix some bugs along the way as well. While I don't expect to expand the types of vehicles that can be built much more, these updates should make it possible to build large/complex vehicles a lot faster.
Adding more content is also on my radar for things to do soon, but I feel like the game needs even more stuff to do (more objectives and more things to interact with) before I go down that path. The amount of work left on the game is sometimes a bit overwhelming, but I feel like I get more done when I don't think about it too much. The long-term plan/roadmap has a good overall direction, so I'll just keep chipping away at it and we'll get the game done when it's done.