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[BadgerManufactureInc]

THE EXCAVATOR /




is a retro vertical scrolling arcade shoot-em-up
inspired by 'Ikaruga' and 'Galaga' featuring pixel
explosions, falling crates & waves of alien swarms.


Spawndemo: (Updated 5th November 2009)

http://spamtheweb.com/ul/upload/051109/48034_The_Excavator_091105.php



  Engine by Badger . Pixel art by Bones . Concept by Fullspectrum
        Music by Brocklesocks . Main Theme by Fullspectrum . Lead Designer Superflat




DEMO COMING SOON



CONTROLS:

-Shoot button not required: Autofire
-Arrow keys or mouse to move
-Square brackets: ''[' and ']' to
cycle available main weapons.

There is a shop in between
levels where you can trade
money that you pick up.



MISSION STRUCTURE

1) "Moon rock"
2) "Axinite"
3) "Human Cell Structure"
4) "Anatomy of a plant"
5) "Brids & the bees"



Possible other features:

-Weapon 'mutators' will feature
as bonus items in the shop.

-A jigsaw puzzle showing your
'contribution to the scientific
community' where you unlock each
piece of the puzzle if you score
high enough during each landmark
section of the game (bosses/
minibosses).

The puzzle would be unlocked as
per Sabre Wulf or Heroes of Might
& Magic (to name a couple of
other games that feature similar
unlockable puzzles).

We are a small dev team of creative gamers and designers.  

Superflat is my older bro; he only has limited time to turn to this project since he also has to work on Amnesia, and Soul Brother.  

The Excavator also features design and music from my younger bro fullspectrum (Nick Byrne).

Gfx, coding, sfx and blog are done by me Badger (Barnaby Byrne).

Bones is pixel artist and gameplay designer.

Brocklesocks has made a track or two for the game as well.



As per fullspectrums synopsis, who is the games concept designer:

The Excavator is a game is about a microscopic nanocraft that is injected into rock minerals and fossils in the name of scientific research.  Levels will range across mineral types such as moon-rock or stone, with a different colour scheme for each, and the craft will evolve over time as it finds new minerals and artefacts.  Electro music will feature along with dynamic vector art set against various spawning and shooting algorithms.



Excavation refers to digging up the past; hopefully we will be doing so in an innovative way that is fresh.


Any help or feedback is always more than welcome.  I am using code from 8bitrocket which implements the dirty rectangle blitting method in Flash, also Flash ideas and inspiration from Pierluigi Pesenti, Andre Michelle, Tony Pa, Jobe Makar, Adam Atomic, Jack Polymer amongst other widely available reusable resources and many more of my own functions and methods.

:D

 

[BadgerManufactureInc]

I've tried various spawning methods out including beziers and have experimented with random factors.  My current method of choice is almost spawning the way I want, but I'm still still sitting on the fence with regards to the randomisation/linearity debate.  Both options I think wil be there, as game modes, 'story' and 'arcade'.

[Loren Schmidt]

I've enjoyed both randomized placement and manual placement. Parsec 47 and Self Destruct are great examples of randomized enemy placement, if you're looking for reference.

One thing that bothers me about randomized enemy placement is that I've never seen anyone make a randomized shmup seem as varied as one where the level design is manual. Aside from a bit of a difficulty ramp, people tend to just use the same placement routines incessantly, with little variation through the course of a level. I'd love to see themed areas and more shaped levels in a randomized game.

[BadgerManufactureInc]

Thanks for the tips.  Any more useful advice is much appreciated.

I just checkedout Parsec 47 on youtube it seems pretty cool, Im leaning towards random spawning as a personal preference.  I can appreciate both sides of the debate. 

I'm like to implement both modes. I know what you mean about randomly spawned enemies that 'feel' like they are predicatable, which always seems ironic.  I think theres an elusive golden-ratio balance of randomization and that the genre can be fed new vitality through employing such a concept.

We can still offer a traditional story mode too having said that.

On the arcade mode difficulty levels from within an options screen could be used on a survival/arcade mode to determine random animating and spawning offsets & coefficients within the engine, such as rotation radii or formation tightness etc. 

Sometimes attacks are random but it is concealed well. It might be very subtle - or negligable - aspects of their creation or behaviour that fluctuates which leads the player to a false sense of security, in as much as the player is tricked by not even noticing.

One other game I wanted to mention is "The Design" which is a shooter within a technical drawing.  It's close to my own heart as I've done 5 years of using Autocad in building structures Engineering lol. 

One idea of fullspectrum's that I am implementing is that of 'evolution' as a theme. 

I have been preemptively checking out rRootage's bullet spawning libraries in detail as advised to me by nitram_cero.  There are some very interesting ideas there based around genetics of some kind I'm not 100% sure yet what the algorithms therein entail but will be checking it out in more detail soon.  As for enemies and the craft evolving.. I did have 1 idea. 

I think that I will make it so there are more enemies spawning than you will be able to shoot so you have to focus your attack on certain types.  The craft will then evolve depending on which enemies you choose to focus on and you then inherit some of their properties...

The gameplay ideas to this end would be based around inheritance, symbiosis, genetics and evolution etc. 

The idea needs a bit more developing once I've ironed out my wave spawning code but I like the principle and would like some feedback.  Although I have seen similar ideas my proposal would be different as outlined above.  It occurred to me while on the underground station (US read 'subway' station) earlier today, while standing in the sun.

[Xion]

Self Destruct

This looks pretty cool, I look forward to it indeed.

[Jasper Byrne]

Yeah this is shaping up nicely, Bones!

[BadgerManufactureInc]

Thanks for the encouragement.

And for that link Xion, I checked out Self Destruct a very cool little shmup with some clever spawning techniques that I may borrow some ideas from.  The pixel art is lovely in Self Destruct too   A graphical style needs to be finalised for Excavator too, but I kind of like vectors for the time being. I enjoyed blasting those enemy formations in Destruct, and the background images are way cool, they totally trip me out haha (I assume they're procedurally generated?)

I'd like to learn how to create those backgrounds. 

It's also very evocative of the arcade 'wonder years'; I imagine that's the intention and it's pulled off very convincingly imho.  Nice work Terry & Annabelle.



I guess it helps that I've finished games in the past and I'm finding that determination being rekindled since joining thanks to this gaming pedigree community.  It can get frustrating at times trying to concentrate or trying to get something working when coding.  Well I just hold onto that feeling that I get when a project gets through to demo stage and you feel such a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment when someone you know plays and enjoys your game. 

[fullspectrum]

Nice work so far, I started a little beat last night for The Excavator.

I want it to sound like the tunes you got on the hackz screen when playing old, copied amiga games.

[BadgerManufactureInc]

Great news, and thanks for the compliment.

I'm looking forward to hearing your music cant wait to experience the Amiga Demo style sound that you've worked on.

[Edit]

After hearing that over the phone I can safely say that the music is shaping up to be exactly what I wanted.  Yes yes, excellent skills as ever Mr fullspectrum!! 

And more good news, I finally got spawning working how I wanted.  Now I can concentrate on pushing the engine to the max while making it faster/ optimizing.  Realistically there may not be as many particles as pictured above, at least not until I transfer the engine (which is quite compact) in the future but I'm considering getting a blitz license and I'm looking into flixel. 

This version will be done in Flash so I will have to make the most out of what is available and look into optimization to a higher degree than I have done before.. 

A basic demo is not far away; here is a sequence of screen shots showing the updated spawning in action:

At the moment these two alien waves attack together, the outer one starts left of the screen near the top, encircles the orthogonal wave sequence while it is moving, and exits left.  Another aspect of the design that I want to focus on is the idea of shapes fitting together, so that when aliens spawn they appear to symbiose or temporarily create new shapes amongst themselves as hinted at in the screenshots; at which stage they may behave differently with their movement or attacks.

It's easy to modify the wave data with the way I've constructed the engine.

As always feedback/tips much appreciated.

 

[Loren Schmidt]

This continues to look really promising. I like the idea of the game throwing many enemies at us, and letting us select (or deselect) types by shooting them. If you can get the evolved varieties to really be esthetically attractive and feel different from one other, I think seeing them change over time would be really engaging.

Oh, and I love the idea of enemies that interlock. I'm imagining scrolling fences of interlocked enemies, and snakes, and big spinning pinwheels...

As for your framerate concerns- I've worked with ActionScript a bit (though I'm really not an experienced programmer) and while Flash games do run inefficiently, I bet with a bit of work you could get the game to run nicely on most systems without sacrificing detail. It'd be a shame to lose out on the ease of distribution that Flash offers. I'd also recommend considering Java if you can stomach it. It's slightly less convenient to distribute than Flash, but much faster.

Here's a link to Parsec47, if you haven't already played it:
Parsec47

[fullspectrum]

Sparky just mentioned interlocking shapes, I think that could be the real solid hook to this game.

'Spinning pinwheels' sounds amazing. The idea that these individual enemies have personalities all of their own, then when they connect become a single entity with another hidden characteristic is exciting. Vector transformers.

[BadgerManufactureInc]

@fullspectrum

Sparky just mentioned interlocking shapes, I think that could be the real solid hook to this game.

Man, definately.  I think we're onto a good idea.

'Spinning pinwheels' sounds amazing.

Now we're talkin!  Also, how about 'vector countdown'..remember that old board game with the rotating/interlockable discs?

The idea that these individual enemies have personalities all of their own, then when they connect become a single entity with another hidden characteristic is exciting. Vector transformers

Totally, good way to say it.  I'm looking at the way Transformers fit together now you mention it.


@sparky

This continues to look really promising.

Thanks for the kind feedback.

I like the idea of the game throwing many enemies at us, and letting us select (or deselect) types by shooting them.

And again thank you; the enemies will vary in 2 main ways of weapon and craft types and characteristics.

Some of the attributes that the enemies will display/that you can inherit will be:

-firing speeds vs damage
-weapon types
-craft speed
-spread/focus fire
-size (min and max parameters).

And if you choose to vary your focus of destruction instead of ganging up on one type in particular, you will end up with all-round ability instead of maxed out on any particular skill.

If you can get the evolved varieties to really be esthetically attractive and feel different from one other

That's a really central aspect of the game's design to focus on too so thanks for mentioning it; I am finalising the level structure (rock types and artefacts etc.) and will post a low down of it once fullspecturm has had time to think it through.  Then the enemies can be strongly themed and as such hopefully more aesthetically pleasing, and distinguishable.

I think seeing them change over time would be really engaging.

Definately, I think maybe they will adapt not just during a given sequence but during the course of a level as well.

Oh, and I love the idea of enemies that interlock. I'm imagining scrolling fences of interlocked enemies, and snakes, and big spinning pinwheels...

Yeah it should be cool man, I love the idea as well and my code makes it easy (for me) to do just that as I am familiar with the way I've set it out;  we're onto something I think in terms of pipeling these ideas into the engine while maintaining simplicity.

As for your framerate concerns- I've worked with ActionScript a bit (though I'm really not an experienced programmer) and while Flash games do run inefficiently, I bet with a bit of work you could get the game to run nicely on most systems without sacrificing detail

Thanks for the vote of confidence!! haha.  I think every game goes through this process, i.e. as engine functionality develops, performance becomes more of a concern since you know how much strain is being put on it.

I am aiming for simple, I'll see how much I can make it work with.  In a sense predecided, but I am proud of how concise the engine has become so we'll see.

It'd be a shame to lose out on the ease of distribution that Flash offers. I'd also recommend considering Java if you can stomach it. It's slightly less convenient to distribute than Flash, but much faster.

I shall be looking into Flex and Flixel (in addition to Ogre and Blitz)after this engine is ready.  I've seen an amazing particle explosion done in Flex by somoeone.  For the time Flash is ok; its nice and accessible although performance is not always to my taste.

Here's a link to Parsec47, if you haven't already played it:
Parsec47

Many thanks again, I just got a copy and have been playing it.  What a brilliant game.

[BadgerManufactureInc]

I'm imagining scrolling fences of interlocked enemies, and snakes

Thanks again for taking time to check the thread.  I've got snake type formations working quite nicely now, check these pics out:

The second one I especialy like, although there will be less enemies per wave in the finished version, this is just to highlight their movement patterns; and to (hopefully) demonstrate the flexibility of the sequence creation process.

Now I will work on increasing the number of different patterns.

I also need to carry on looking at interlocking, and adjusting their properties as they overlap/interlock.

The golden snake looks more like a dragon now.  I'm really getting into this.

 

[BadgerManufactureInc]

I have created scene graphs for alien spawning.  These can be used as approximate guildelines for the sequence data from within the engine.

Each of these sequences 1A-1E, and 2A-2E can be mirrored over x or y as desired, to create sequences that overlap.

Anyway this should get the ball in motion.. these can in fact be downloaded and edited by simply blanking in the colour squares and filling in new ones.

[BadgerManufactureInc]

Some ideas for how the aliens can interlock:

-Rotate as a pair around one another while adjacent.
-One alien absorbs adjacent alien and grows.
-Aliens 'bounce' off one another.

They can be staggered at spawn point, so that they fit together like a fence once on the screen.


Some ideas for the differences in appearances:

-Type 1 using lines and circles
-Type 2 drawn using mainly acute angled lines
-Type 3 drawn using mainly obtuse angled lines
-Type 4 drawn using groups of closely spaced pairs of lines
-Type 5 drawns using circles only
 

The faster craft could be visually more streamline by design.

Slower but stronger craft could be drawn spikey/blunt/less aerodynamic.

Finally the scene graphs don't currently show that there should be some kinds of craft that follow you around, and some that try and avoid you. 

Obviously there will need to be one visually distinct type of craft per graph drawn above as well as one for each of these random craft if they are to exist in the story mode.

I could swear some so called linear (trad.) shmups have enemies that follow you or run away in admidst waves that follow set patterns.. someone please correct me if I'm wrong.