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[Mincus]

Basic idea: 5-way multi-player asteroids.

No score, the idea is to shoot the other players.
Whilst there's still asteroids left on the screen your bullets will push instead of damage them.
Destroyed asteroids will release ship upgrades (better shields, more powerful ammo, faster ammo).
Once the asteroids are destroyed the players turn on each other. Last player standing wins.
Hitting an asteroid is an instant death.

I'm aiming to have quick 'rounds' lasting 1-2 minutes.
Players can either be local or networked.
I've a few ideas for how to solve the lag issue for networking, but the short rounds should eliminate too much griping over it.

I know the entry is a bit late, I wanted a screenshot before posting the idea, but that hasn't happened just yet (should have something soonish though).

Edit: On the technology side, I'll be using C# with OpenTK with my own custom framework, which will allow it to run on Windows, Linux and OS X (assuming a mono install on the latter two). Having OpenAL installed will make things sounds far better for users but isn't a requirement.

[Sos]

Sounds cool enough to me! You should check out Player.IO, it supports c#

[Inanimate]

Oooh, what an interesting idea. I like the idea of competitive asteroids, and getting power-ups by 'salvaging' from them. Multi-player shmups: we need more!

[Mincus]

The idea has its roots in a game called Spheres of Chaos (http://www.spheresofchaos.com/ -- It's free, although last time I tried it I had problems with it on Win7), which is a very pretty psychedelic asteroids clone with tons of additional options and enemies as well as up to 8 local players. Has a few game modes, including a 'battle' and the upgrades.

Taking what I remember from playing that when I was younger is how I came up with the shields. Lives + instant death doesn't work wonderfully in this arena and the game always played better in a co-operative mode as a result.
Changing this to rounds + shields and a requirement to destroy all the asteroids before your shots damage other players should balance this I think, although I won't know until I get those systems working. Maybe I'll add the lives/instant death as well as a second mode.

Should have a playable local version by this time next week anyway. Hoping to test it at TIGjam UK 4 if I can persuade people.

[Mincus]

Currently at this point:

Asteroids are destructible, shields work, just bonuses to add for local play then 'net play to write in.