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[Paul Jeffries]

33 Hours work time:



I've mainly been working on 'dungeon' generation for the indoor levels.  I spent some time looking at various methods of dungeon generation but I couldn't find anything that really grabbed me.  Most of the completely random ones don't really suit the sort of squad-tactics gameplay I'm after and I'm not a fan of the ones which assemble levels out of pre-designed chunks.

So, I decided to come up with my own algorithm.  Again going back to Space Crusade, I wanted to have fairly compact levels with a high degree of interconnectivity, so that you can choose between several different routes and attack from different angles.  The algorithm simply recursively 'grows' rooms out of the sides of existing rooms and sizes them to fit the available space, connecting them together with existing rooms where possible.  It seems to work OK, although I may refine it a bit more later on if I have the time.

Updated applet is here:
http://www.vitruality.com/SFR/Version0.7/launch.html

Next thing to implement is fog of war - it's not particularly exciting when you can see where all the enemies are.

[Paul Jeffries]

39 Hours work time:





Recently added:

- Fog of war/line of sight
- Moving between levels
- Doors!
- Scanners!
- Sounds!

Most recent build:
http://www.vitruality.com/SFR/Version0.8/launch.html

Biggest new addition this time is the fog-of-war system, which fortunately didn't take too long since I was able to copy and paste the code to do it out of my other current project with only a little bit of tweaking to simplify it and convert it from C++ to Java.

This is another case where I didn't really fall in love with any of the algorithms I came across on the internet and came up with my own method for calculating the area each character can see.  The system is based around the observation that the visibility of each tile really only depends on the state of the one or two tiles that lie directly in front of it (between itself and the viewer).  If one of those tiles is visible and transparent the tile itself will also be visible - if all of them are solid or hidden then the tile in question will also be hidden.  The only mildly tricky bit is making sure you calculate the visibility of each tile in an order such that you check the visibility of tiles closest to the viewer first.  This algorithm is super-fast compared to something like ray-tracing since you only check each square once and the check itself is simply looking at the state of another two tiles.  The downside is that it's fairly permissive - i.e. it assumes that if you can see any part of a tile you can see all of it - but that's actually a good thing so far as I am concerned.  I might write up the method in a bit more detail if anybody is interested.

The game is starting to take shape a bit more now, which is good because I only have nine hours remaining until my arbitrary and not-at-all-binding target of 48 hours.  Will I make it in time?  Can you taste the artificially-generated tension?

Next job: experience points and levelling  up.  I also really need to think up a decent name.

[Paul Jeffries]

43 Hours total work:

The 48 hour deadline is rapidly approaching now.  I'm almost definitely going to continue working on the game after this point - I have loads of ideas for this now that I'm not going to have time to implement in the next five hours - but I'm still going to try and get a 'complete' game done by that time.

I have at least come up with a name for it now.  Most of the really good sc-fi adventure names have been taken already, so I decided to just call it what it is: A Squad Tactics Roguelike.

Or, for short:



...well, I thought it was clever, anyway.

(Alternative title, if you're feeling mean: A Star Trek Rip-Off)



Latest Build:
http://www.vitruality.com/ASTRo/Version0.9/launch.html

Mostly I'm working on adding small bits and pieces here and there, such as more enemies and weapons.  There are now five levels in the game, culminating in a final boss battle.

[peous]

Hmmm nice ! Lot of progress since last time !
I tested it quickly, some feedback
- How do I knwo what item I have and what it does ?
- What does scanner ?
- How do I pick-up an item ?
- I clicked on my team member and hit him !?
- I did level-up, but don't know why nor what it brings to me
But it was nice ^^
I'll try later versions asap !

[Paul Jeffries]

Hi Peous, thanks for giving it a try!

One thing I really need to add is some kind of screen that explains the controls, but briefly:

- Left click to move and melee attack (including your own troops, at the moment - although I'll probably take it out since there's not a lot of point to it!)
- Right click to use the currently equipped item (either on the square you're pointing at or on yourself, depending on the item)

which you probably already figured out.  However:

- Next to your character's name and health bars is an icon which shows the currently equipped item
- Left click on that icon to bring up the character/inventory screen, which looks a bit like this:



- Below this icon will be that character's inventory.  Left clicking equips an item, right clicking drops it.
- Below the name/health bars is a list of that character's stats.  If you have any upgrade points from levelling up, you can left click on any stat with a '

• ' next to it to improve that ability.

- At the bottom of the screen is a region which shows all the items on the floor at the character's feet.  If you have inventory space, left click on one of these to pick it up.
- If you hover the mouse over any item or stat, you should get a description of what it does.

One other thing that may not be immediately obvious:

- When you reach the exit lift (green tiles with up/down arrows on them) a button will appear down in the bottom left of the screen.  Left click on this to move to the next level (once all your character are inside the lift!)

To answer your other questions:
- The scanner lets you reveal tiles that you cannot directly see, including any enemies or items that might be there.  It's not so useful on the first level since it's fairly open but it becomes pretty vital later on in the game for checking what horrible monsters are lurking around the next corner.
- You gain experience whenever you successfully perform an action (i.e. punching or shooting something, scanning, healing etc.) not just through killing things, which is why you can sometimes level up when it is not immediately obvious why.

Thanks again for trying it out!

[Paul Jeffries]

48 Hours total work:

FINISHED!

Well, not really - I don't think Roguelikes are technically ever 'finished', and I have loads more ideas for stuff I'd like to add.  But I have managed to reach my target of having a 'complete' game experience done within 48 hours of work, so I award myself one gold star.  Now I can relax a bit and continue to add stuff to the game at a more leisurely pace.











PLAY IT HERE:
http://www.vitruality.com/ASTRo/Version1.0/launch.html

Let me know what you think, and whether you think it would be worth seeing an expanded, more polished version of this in the future.  If enough people see some promise in it then continue to develop it I shall.

[Paul Jeffries]

Somebody requested I offer a downloadable version.  So I did:

www.vitruality.com/ASTRo/Version1.0/AS.T.Ro_v1.0.zip

(unzip and double-click 'launch.jnlp' to play)