Hello hugomj! Well before answering your questions I just wanted to say that since this was a competition entry everything was a bit rushed so bear with my logic.

The reason to integrate the Farseer physics engine was basically two fold: time savings and educational. I just wanted fast, reliable physics for not only the level but also for projectiles and actors. Also I wanted to learn more about the Farseer physics engine for possibly integrating into future games.

The enemy AI were straight forward state machines.

As you are probably aware by now, raycasting in its nature is efficient. I have limited the level size to 64x64 to simplify level editing. The original tests were 512x512 but designing the editor was a pain and it was SO easy to get HORRIBLY lost. Since the engine only draws the calculated 800 rays you see in front of you (one for each pixel) it never had a hiccup from level size. The level sizes could technically be much bigger since they're simply 2D byte arrays.

I hope this answers your questions but feel free to let me know if you need to know more! 

This was a ton of fun. I know I only got one vote (besides myself  ) but dang it if it doesn't feel good to make a game and have people just try it. Congrats to everyone!

[The Good...]

Post-mortem for Salvage...

The Good...
1. The raycasting engine turned out remarkably well. It runs nice and smooth and can use static walls, animated walls, doors, and destructible walls without any special code really.
2. I learned a lot about how to control a 'camera' even though it wasn't a true 3D environment.
3. I learned even more about vector math. I learned about it back in school, but never really applied it. It all came rushing back once I started coding the game.
4. The campaign editor was a last minute creation, but made the completion of this game possible. I also like the fact that I can release it and let other people play with it.
5. The Farseer Physics Engine is amazing. I can't praise it enough.

The Bad...
1. Content ... or lack thereof. Only 3 enemies. My original plan was to have 6 enemies, several powerups, static actors (desks, chairs, terminals, etc), and several campaigns.
2. The HUD itself isn't as active or as detailed as I would like it to be. I was planning on including more detail, but just ran out of time and artistic talent.

The Ugly...
1. The red demon enemy is unfinished. While it may be difficult to kill him (nearly impossible) he has no death animation.
2. No Sound. Ugly. Period.

Great thread idea. I hope one is made for every competition from now on. 

If you're going to make XNA required please include it in the download. I thought I had XNA, I guess I don't, and I can't be arsed to download it separately to try this game out. I know, my loss.

That's a good idea, Cymon. I've updated the main thread to include the download with the XNA Framework runtime installer here. Sorry it took so long and I hope my tardyness didn't ruin anybody's taste for the game. 

http://pixelfish.mybrute.com/ 

Wow did I read that title wrong ... 

Pretty nice though. I like the fishbowl effect. Gives it a nice underwater feel.

Curses! That'll teach me to trust a hosting service I've never used before. I switched the primary game download to mediafire here and as soon as I get off from work I'll re-upload the campaign editor. Sorry! 

Fixed!!

This is absolutely hilarious! That badger made a complete mess of my cab!  Got my vote!

Woops! Fixed! Pays to pay attention to where I'm uploading I guess. 

This looks very cool. Hope to see it finished!

It's very, very close to being finish. Here's an unfinished demo to show how it plays.

Link to Download! (sorry ... image was broken  )

Conrols:
WASD - Movement
QE - Strife Left/Right
Left CTRL - Light Torch (your only weapon)
Space - Open Doors (the big blue boxes)

Only 5 levels so far and no sound yet (still working on that) but I hope everything looks good. You might need the XNA Redistributable 3.0 and PS1.1 is required and PS2.0 is required for bloom effect.

I'm going to be releasing the campaign editor with the game itself so people can build their own levels.

Comments are welcome! 

One extra week would definitely go a long way towards a finished game. 

I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to put that image in as an easter egg to find.  :D

Just a small update. The engine is progressing smoothly. Projectiles, Interactive enemies, Destructible walls, etc. I've uploaded a new video of the progress. Still a randomly generated level until I get the map editor working, but here you go...





My car died this weekend so my stress level has increased exponentially. I'm still on track for finishing the entry, but it might be quite as feature rich as I had originally hoped.

As posted in the collaboration thread I am in search of someone to help me with the sound as I have no idea how to add music/sound to enhance a game.

[Help Wanted]

Help Wanted 

Project:
Salvage Mech Game (working title for competition)
Talent Needed:
Music/Sound

As I'm working on my competition entry I realize that a game without any sound can be rather boring. Having hearing problems; I've never put much thought into the sound that goes into the games I play. I have absolutely no idea how to use sound and music to enhance gameplay. Any help would be EXTREAMLY appreciated and full credit will be given on the game submission.

Feel free to send me a message with questions. 

This is a quick running video I made to show the progress of the engine. This is my first youtube video so please bare with me if the quality blows.

The wall textures are my own, but the soldiers are sprites 'borrowed' from a Wolf3D fan site for just this demo. The end result will have all my own design.

I'm loving the animation 

Can't wait to see what it all adds up to 

I got sprites working in game! 



I also just threw on my dummy HUD to give an idea of how in-game will look once it's completed. Next up is physics (e.g. collision detection)!

Once physics is done I'll move onto AI and start pumping out concept art for enemies.

A RTS style cockpit game? This should prove interesting. Can't wait for screenshots. 

I'm really diggin' the faded caution stripes on the walls, but is there any way you could sharpen them a little?  They are looking a little muddy.

Or, if the are meant to be dirty, you need a darker color blurring it. If meant to be rubbed away, the smears shouldn't be so smooth.

It looks great though!

The textures I'm using right now are just some free ones I found online. They've been scaled down from 512x512 to 64x64 (in line with the original Wolf3d textures) so they are in fact blurry. I'll probably be redrawing them for better ambiance and clean up the detail a bit for this very reason. 

Screens look nice. I'm also doing raycasting for "Pressure". What language are you writing this in? I'm doing my project in love2D, just because I wanted to learn lua, but it's turned out to be a super pain in the ass. Just curious.

Anyway, our games seem a little similar, so I'm really looking forward to playing this one.

The engine is written in C# with the XNA framework. I'm a .Net developer by trade so this is all I know.  :D

Seeing pressure is actually what gave me the courage to try ray casting. I was originally just going to go for 2D eye of the beholder stuff. Can't wait to see how pressure turns out. 

Playing with textures and shading for spookier atmosphere...

Game and screens have a nice retro feel. Sweet