November 07, 2007
Level 2 would be finished by now, but after playing through it I concluded that, in fact, I had made it too easy. I'll be honest, I want this game to be very hard, because I think shoot-em-ups should be very difficult. On the other hand, I don't want the game to be cheap, or require trial and error…
November 04, 2007
I've gotten halfway through designing the second level, and it's turning out well so far. My biggest problem is that this level is turning out to be easier than the last one, which of course is not good. So, I can crank up the difficulty on this level, or I could lower the difficulty on the other o…
November 01, 2007
So I haven't been able to get anything done game development wise this week, but I have a long weekend coming up, so I'll be able to get to work. I plan on designing level 2 during the weekend, and hopefully completing the boss too. I already know what the second boss will be, so I suppose half the…
October 28, 2007
I decided to go with the "Kamikaze" ships:
They're pretty self-explanatory...and fast...and deadly. I'll make sure to throw a bunch of them in with a bunch of shooty enemies in order to mess the player up.
Now that the new enemies are programmed, and I have an idea for the boss, I'm going to start d…
They're pretty self-explanatory...and fast...and deadly. I'll make sure to throw a bunch of them in with a bunch of shooty enemies in order to mess the player up.
Now that the new enemies are programmed, and I have an idea for the boss, I'm going to start d…
October 24, 2007
The bombers are now done. They take one shot to kill and fire several bullets before flying offscreen to safety. They're very hard to hit, as was the idea, but can be a major problem if not taken out quickly. All in all, another enemy that turned out just as I wanted it to.
Now I'm trying to decide …
Now I'm trying to decide …
October 21, 2007
Started working on a new enemy:
These are bomber enemies that come down quickly in an arc, drop a few shots, and retreat offscreen.
Getting the angle of the bomber correct was no picnic. I represented the motion of the bomber using projectile motion equations, using tangent to get the angle. Well, ta…
These are bomber enemies that come down quickly in an arc, drop a few shots, and retreat offscreen.
Getting the angle of the bomber correct was no picnic. I represented the motion of the bomber using projectile motion equations, using tangent to get the angle. Well, ta…
October 18, 2007
In terms of game news, it has been a very good week for me. Capcom has announced a remake of Bionic Commando, and Nintendo has announced a new Advance Wars with online multiplayer. While I'm at it, there's also Street Fighter IV.
I don't have game development news, but I thought those things were wo…
I don't have game development news, but I thought those things were wo…
October 15, 2007
After hitting a wall working on my 4E6 entry, I decided to give "Captain Ace" some much needed attention. I want the second level of the game to take place in a field of debris, so I added a whole bunch of space garbage drifting in the background:
The debris is just for show, so it doesn't have any …
The debris is just for show, so it doesn't have any …
October 13, 2007
It appears the new unit vision is working:
Now the exterminators can't see through walls. It seems that the vision is working well now, so I can...er...hmmm...not quite:
So that's not good. I need to think of another way to go about getting this working, because my current methods just aren't cutting…
Now the exterminators can't see through walls. It seems that the vision is working well now, so I can...er...hmmm...not quite:
So that's not good. I need to think of another way to go about getting this working, because my current methods just aren't cutting…
October 10, 2007
So selection and movement for the exterminators is working smoothly. The basic movement commands: move forward, turn right, and turn left all work. Also, the exterminators check collision with each other, so two can't be on the same tile. Not really much to show screenie wise, but hopefully I'll ha…
October 07, 2007
Work has been done on my 4E6 entry, just nothing screenshot worthy. I'm mostly reorganizing some of my code and adding the selection code.
To be honest, Halo 3 has been very distracting, and alot of my free time has been spent playing that. I think the initial thrill of the game is wearing off, and…
To be honest, Halo 3 has been very distracting, and alot of my free time has been spent playing that. I think the initial thrill of the game is wearing off, and…
October 03, 2007
And here's our intrepid heroes now:
Hopefully my er...special...programmer art can convey that those are supposed to be people. At least, from an overhead view.
I'm still coming up with the plot details, but don't have the story fully thought out yet.
Basically, each level will require the player to …
Hopefully my er...special...programmer art can convey that those are supposed to be people. At least, from an overhead view.
I'm still coming up with the plot details, but don't have the story fully thought out yet.
Basically, each level will require the player to …
September 30, 2007
And so it begins:
That's a basic tilemap for a level in this game.
Here's the same map with some basic "fog of war":
My 4E6 entry is going to be heavily based on the board game Space Hulk, except instead of space marines and tyranids, there will be special paranormal soldiers and evil genetically-ench…
That's a basic tilemap for a level in this game.
Here's the same map with some basic "fog of war":
My 4E6 entry is going to be heavily based on the board game Space Hulk, except instead of space marines and tyranids, there will be special paranormal soldiers and evil genetically-ench…
September 27, 2007
Finally fixed the multiplier:
Now more kills are needed per level to reach the next multiplier, so reaching multiplier 9 is really difficult, but heroic if achieved.
So I plan on entering 4E6. The elements this year have given me an opening to introduce a turn based strategy game I've been wanting to…
Now more kills are needed per level to reach the next multiplier, so reaching multiplier 9 is really difficult, but heroic if achieved.
So I plan on entering 4E6. The elements this year have given me an opening to introduce a turn based strategy game I've been wanting to…
September 24, 2007
Captain Ace demo, for those who like shooty games.
Thanks to everyone whose tried the demo. So far, I'm really proud of this game.
I seriously need to get started on level 2, because I have some pretty good ideas for new enemies. The next level will take place in a field of debris, so there will be b…
Thanks to everyone whose tried the demo. So far, I'm really proud of this game.
I seriously need to get started on level 2, because I have some pretty good ideas for new enemies. The next level will take place in a field of debris, so there will be b…
September 20, 2007
Here is a short demo of Captain Ace.
The demo contains the first level of the game, in its current form. There is no game over, so lives are meaningless right now. The game doesn't do anything after the boss is beaten, so just exit out.
The game requires XNA to play. An Xbox 360 controller can be use…
The demo contains the first level of the game, in its current form. There is no game over, so lives are meaningless right now. The game doesn't do anything after the boss is beaten, so just exit out.
The game requires XNA to play. An Xbox 360 controller can be use…
September 17, 2007
Oh noes! It shoots back now!:
The boss has ten little guns on the sides, and a cannon that fires from the middle. It's a fun boss battle, but not too difficult as this is the first level. It can't actually be killed yet, I haven't programmed that in, but it should be done soon.
I'll most likely be re…
The boss has ten little guns on the sides, and a cannon that fires from the middle. It's a fun boss battle, but not too difficult as this is the first level. It can't actually be killed yet, I haven't programmed that in, but it should be done soon.
I'll most likely be re…
September 14, 2007
That one is slightly bigger than the others:
The boss doesn't do anything yet besides it's basic motions, but it is now in there. I have to program events associated with the boss battle, like ending the level when it is killed. I also plan to have it so an item transport flies by often during the b…
The boss doesn't do anything yet besides it's basic motions, but it is now in there. I have to program events associated with the boss battle, like ending the level when it is killed. I also plan to have it so an item transport flies by often during the b…
September 11, 2007
I finally did some work on the game today, and finished the first level! Well...aside from the actual boss, which still needs to be programmed. I know already exactly what the boss will be, and it will be the next thing I work on.
The level turned out really well, in my opinion. Now with the pixel-p…
The level turned out really well, in my opinion. Now with the pixel-p…
September 08, 2007
Not really much to report on Captain Ace, just very slowly getting the first level done. I realize there's has been a distinct lack of screenies, so I'll try to get some posted soon.
I know that 4E6 is going to start this month, and I'm looking forward to it. This time I definetly plan to enter. I'm…
I know that 4E6 is going to start this month, and I'm looking forward to it. This time I definetly plan to enter. I'm…
September 05, 2007
More level design has been done on the game. I've yet to determine how big the levels for the game will be. I don't really remember exactly how big levels in these games usually are, but obviously they should probably last a few minutes, not including the boss battle.
I also added tiny explosions on…
I also added tiny explosions on…
September 03, 2007
Pixel-perfect collision is now working with ship-to-ship crashes. I also had to work to get the collision working properly with the saucers, as I used the rotation method to draw them which offset the bounding box.
I plan on working this week on various things that will polish the gameplay and visua…
I plan on working this week on various things that will polish the gameplay and visua…
August 30, 2007
After I put up the video, Jesse Chounard mentioned how I didn't appear to be using pixel collision in the game. This is true, up till now I've simply been using bounding box collision, which won't really cut it for a game like this. So, I've started getting pixel-perfect collision working.
So far it…
So far it…
August 28, 2007
I made a short 30 second video to demonstrate the game.
30 seconds because I captured the video using the unregistered version of FRAPS, which I probably should register now that I can actually use it.
More level designing is done, and soon I'll be coding the boss battle for the level. I'm also going…
30 seconds because I captured the video using the unregistered version of FRAPS, which I probably should register now that I can actually use it.
More level designing is done, and soon I'll be coding the boss battle for the level. I'm also going…
August 26, 2007
I've been designing the first level, now that all the little gameplay bits are coded. The first level is shaping up too be very fun, and also very difficult. Make no mistake, the game isn't going to be easy, as I don't believe that scrolling shumps should. However, it isn't going to be insanely dif…
August 23, 2007
I've made the final code change to convert the game from a galaga type game to a level-based game. Previously, all of the enemy bullets were held in a large list, so they wouldn't disappear when the enemy object was respawned. The only problem with this was that it became difficult when I created m…
August 21, 2007
Got the score counter and multiplier working:
Honestly, I got the idea of having a multiplier in this while playing Guitar Hero II. It even works in a similar manner. Each ten ships the player shoots, the multiplier increases by one. If the player dies, the multiplier resets. I'm thinking that the m…
Honestly, I got the idea of having a multiplier in this while playing Guitar Hero II. It even works in a similar manner. Each ten ships the player shoots, the multiplier increases by one. If the player dies, the multiplier resets. I'm thinking that the m…
August 18, 2007
Added the lives counter and the power ups to the side:
I haven't added the score counter yet because I'm debating how I should draw it. I could use XNA's SpriteFont, because it would be a good way to learn how to use it. On the other hand, I could easily just make a drawing method designed to draw o…
I haven't added the score counter yet because I'm debating how I should draw it. I could use XNA's SpriteFont, because it would be a good way to learn how to use it. On the other hand, I could easily just make a drawing method designed to draw o…
August 16, 2007
I've mostly been fixing gameplay bugs with the game, as well as adding a death animation. When the player is killed, they respawn with temporary invincibility, as is standard in this type of game.
I started designing the first level, to get an idea of how the gameplay is turning out. The game is rea…
I started designing the first level, to get an idea of how the gameplay is turning out. The game is rea…
August 13, 2007
Power-Ups, and the Space Trucks that carry them:
The Power-up effects had been programmed already, but now they can be grabbed in the level. Power-Ups appear after destroying one of the transport ships. These will appear throughout the level. In addition, transport ships will randomly appear during …
The Power-up effects had been programmed already, but now they can be grabbed in the level. Power-Ups appear after destroying one of the transport ships. These will appear throughout the level. In addition, transport ships will randomly appear during …
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