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[Destral]

Update 1/30: Backstory, updated mockup

Setting:

As the universe begins to collapse in on itself in the early stages of the Big Crunch, the gods of the pantheons once again reconvene at the Collosseum At The End Of The Universe - conveniently located two parsecs down from downtown End Of The Universe, with it's famed eateries and recreational venues - for the traditional End-Of-The-Universe competition, with the winner earning the title of Lord(or Lady) of the Universe, and the responsibility of creating, shaping, and watching over the next universal cycle.

Gameplay: Collect coins. Avoid bombs. If possible push bombs into the other players or their bricks. Collect as many coins as possible within the time limit for the round. Avoid taking damage, as it will cause you to scatter coins, which other players can then steal from you. Prevent damage to your insulator blocks, since they are the only thing keeping you safe from the power current beneath them. You can move over the power current, but take damage when you do, so losing insulators essentially hampers your mobility somewhat.

The first build features:

* 4 different player ships, each able to attract, repel, and shoot stuff
* Coins - attract them, collect them
* Bombs - repel them, or even better, steer them at your opponents and their insulator blocks

Future builds may include:

* More ships
* More point items beyond coins
* More weapon types beyond bombs
* Powerups
* Configurable rules
* Additional maps with different gameplay conditions


This project is a collaboration between Cthulhu32 (code/design) and myself (art/design).

[Cthulhu32]

I had an idea last night for naming this project "Powernauts", and Destral suggested "Powernoughts" which is much more appropriate and awesome.

Also, working on the start of the application, so far its SDL and C++, not sure what I am going to use for the network layer. The main goal is getting gameplay up and running in the next week or so so we can really crack down and make it fun. I'm going to try to keep it  cross-compatible as long as I can but the networking layer might break that. Right now the focus will be Win32, so probably Winsock2 for now.

[rivon]

Try to use Enet or RakNet. They're cross-platform and high-level networking engines/libs.

[Destral]

Alright, here's the basic idea we're working from: The game is somewhat similar to

, but players are each placed over a line of blocks on the 4 sides of a square playing field. In the middle of the field are a bunch of dispensers that spit out coins, gems, bombs and other weapons, and powerups. Players have three abilities, an attractor that makes redirects objects in the field towards them, a repulsor that redirects objects in the field away from them, and a weak shot that can damage some objects, like bombs and powerups, but not other players or their line of blocks.

So the basic premise is try to pull the good stuff towards you, try to push the bombs towards your opponents, try to prevent your line of blocks from getting blown up, and be the oen with the most coins at the end of the round. There's a number of other game elements (the blocks you move on, and what's underneath them, the different weapon and obstacle types, player stats, etc) and nuances, but that's the basic premise of it.

[Destral]

Here's a mockup with some of the essential game elements - the rows of insulator blocks, the Powernoughts (player entities) on them, the power generator blocks in the corners, and some dispenser hatches in a random layout which is nowhere near final.



Still to do:

- Dispensed items (coins, gems, bombs, other assorted weapons, powerups)
- Attractor, Repulsor, and Shot for each player entity
- Scoreboard and UI
- Player entities probably need more definition
- Playing field background tiles
- Border for playing field

Thoughts, comments, suggestions - all welcome!

[Devenger]

I really like the clear graphics (especially how you've colour-coded the four different Powernoughts so they are immediately distinct, but also gave them all unique themed appearances so they have a bit of personality). If you can keep all the graphics easily 'readable' yet still containing a bit of flair, it will be visually wonderful.

[Sos]

Make the board trippy-spinning! This would add some action!

[Inanimate]

Make the board trippy-spinning! This would add some action!

This is a wonderful idea. Perhaps there could sometimes be constant spinning levels, others that rapidly spin briefly to rocket stuff around, and some that 'shake', rattling everything randomly, every once in a while?

The game looks really fun, by the way! A nice blend of simple gameplay and interesting action!

[Destral]

Make the board trippy-spinning! This would add some action!

Not a bad idea, maybe for a future iteration. There's going to be a lot of action even without it though, coins, bombs, powerups, explosions all bouncing around amid 4 different tractor beams/repulsor beams/player shots.

[Destral]

Updated mockup with latest game assets.




Special thanks to thedaemon, green, kramlack and john sandoval for pixel pro tips and pointers.

[Destral]

Update 2/13:

Cthulhu32 and I have both been slammed at work, but we've both been working on this on and off. We still hope to have a playable by the compo deadline.

Here's how things are looking so far:





Thoughts on the scoreboard, does it look reasonably clear what's going on? I'm thinking we'll probably go with the second one, but thoughts and feedback are welcome.

[Will Vale]

I like the first one - the second has the "faux 8-bit" fonts which are neat, but look weird given the higher resolution of the sprites and other UI elements.

Will