Fun! I guess it only saves your records if you land successfully?

yes! I knew I forgot to mention something. And the purple bar is your fuel (which was meant to balance out the power of planes with rockets by giving them less fuel).

She's done, Jim. Link on the first page!

Changes since the demo:
- I slacked off the game side a bit. Gameplay revolves around high scores in different categories (highest altitude, number of loops, etc.)
- More variety in planes. Bi and tri-planes are in, but fairly rare because they sometimes defy the laws of physics.
- Rolling is in. You can briefly see "The Third Dimension".
- More gooder physics. Some days all I did was tweak variables. It's driven me crazy. I'm aching to make a totally abstract game now.
- I had engine sounds, but removed them due to being awful. For now, when you fly a prop plane, go "pfpfpfpfpf" out loud. And when you fly a jet, go "vrrrrrrrr".

The application has failed to start because the applictation confuguration is incorrect. Review the manifest file for possible errors...

This is on Vista. Woe is me. I go into a cold sweat every time I see the word 'manifest'.

I did manage to scroll through your .pngs while humming the bubble bobble theme, and that was pretty fun!

Thanks for the epic explanation two4teezee. I'll pour over it more closely tonight. It's written in C++ using the PopCap framework.

I totally understand all the "it's pointless" comments. But it's not likely to grow a point any time soon.

How about a plot about a test pilot for a really dodgy airline (or aircaft manufacturer)

Excellent. I'm doing something similar to this. I just need a good name now. "Old Timey Test Pilot" or somesuch.

This is great, lots of potential and I think it's really amusing (I'm getting my Master's in Aero) and good fun. I probably just spent about 40min just flying around!

Awesome, glad you like it. The physics has been much improved since that demo. I forgot to account for the fact that planes are mostly hollow (the test plane weighs 100 tons and all the other forces were jacked up to compensate). I got my masters in Aero from wikipedia two weeks ago Now if only I could find an explanation of how some planes can fly inverted.

This game reminds me of Dogfight

pretty cool game. It's probably more fun with 2 players. My main inspiration was an old arcade game called Two Tigers.

The main issue with doing a side view flying game is that you can only see about 3 seconds in front of you. So dogfighting and bombing is impossible without always looking at radar, which is no fun imho.

I think the randomizing aspect is AWESOME. What about this: could the gamer pick his parts and have the game kinda throw them together for him? In a Build-A-Plane mode or something like that...

Yup I'd love to do that eventually.

maybe a way to save your plane so you can challenge others to beat your score with that plane?

yup that's on the to-do list. It'll just be typing in a seed like some of the other games are doing.

It was more random than procedural

Agreed, and it makes me a little sad. This idea is fun, but so far it's a stretch to call it PG. Maybe I'll do something more PG with the course/test creation.

Grab the demo: http://www.mediafire.com/?tv1z2w2j5hz

Would love to hear feedback and ideas for actual gameplay.

Instructions are in-game. There's 2 throttle meters. The first is for your prop, the second is for your jets (much more powerful). You won't always have the luxury of jets in the final game.

The default plane is a bit of a slug, but it's good for testing. If you're having trouble taking off: set elevators to even, throttle up to almost max, give it a couple seconds to build speed, then tap the elevators (down arrow) gradually.

On the to-do list now:
- bi-planes and 7 wing-planes (8 would just be silly)
- some imagineering, sound and graphics
- rolling the plane so you can go the other direction
- show the plane from top-view on the hud and during rolls so you can see what your wingspan is.

Right button works fine for me.  But it runs at about 3fps on my laptop and I can't see your cool bloom effects

Would be nice if that piano scale was a little less common. Sounds like Philip Glass on Meth.

Overall though, it's pretty cool. I spent 20 mins exploring all the weird possible combinations. Even if only a fraction of them offer interesting gameplay.

Might be interesting to add some feedback effects.. so for example, the bigger you get, the more attractive the npc is to the swarm. ie. morph the rules as the game progresses.

News Flash!: Aerodynamics is Hard

I mean people get degrees in this stuff. So I've spent too time trying to be physically accurate, and not enough time on clever hacks. But fear not, today will be the hackocalypse. Expect a playable demo friday-ish.

seems like a lot of the games in the competition are just randomizing something that isn't normally randomized and calling it PG.

it would be a fun challenge to make a PG game that never used random.

Looks to me like a wicked skate park.

Maybe you play as an insurance salesman.

Well, at first the physics will just be thrust/lift/drag and a big hard line for the ground. Maybe later I'll try using an actual physics engine (Box2D).

For now I'm thinking you get one tank of gas, and score points for distance travelled, max altitude, doing stunts, and landing safely.

Renamed from ghetto planes. yes, "Test Pilot" took every ounce of my creativity.

She's done like dinner.

Link:
http://www.mediafire.com/?imvyy0myzlm







Short answer: Randomly build a plane, then try to fly it.

I have the random sizing and arrangement of parts almost done. Next step is physics (or the bastardizing thereof)

There's just 1 wing, tail, fuselage, and engine so far, but I'm hoping to have some truely monsterous configurations eventually. Add more engines to go faster, add more wings to lift the engines, add more fuselage to support the wings... to infinity.

The gameplay aspect is kind of half baked. still searching for simple ideas.

I don't want to say too much at this early stage, but it will involve outer space yokels whose only salvation from an alien menace is interracial marriage. Also, it will make levels from any picture.

I'm imagining genetic algorithms on hobo DNA, and Photosurf. yummy!

<- another new man baby declaring his in-ness!

procedurally generated airplanes. that's my dream.