next »

[Greg]

214 Talking rock of Africa—immemorially ancient oracle in desolate jungle ruins that speaks with a voice out of the aeons.

I've been working on a 2D engine for a while that I've cobbled together from scratch, one sub-system after another.  It's just about getting to place where I get to actually make a game rather than being stuck in the eternal hell of programming engine innards.  This compo ought to give me the push I need to get over the hump and finish a first game before I get side-tracked again.

So far I just have the map editor which supports arbitrary textured geometry.  Player sprites and enemies aren't fully implemented yet.  I'm working on that part right now.  Once the entity system is in place, I should have enough to begin working on a game proper, do textures, music, and design.  If all goes well, I should get to the point where I can start that in about a week, I hope.

Here's a shot of the basic engine (The debug overlay shows that all the data structures are connected properly)

Hopefully I can come up with something playable by the end.

Any artists out there want to collaborate?  A pixeler would really kick this game up a notch.  Please pm me if you have any characters languishing in need of a game engine or have a burning urge to texture terrain for some ungodly reason.

[Greg]

Some shots from the map editor so far.
Please excuse the terrible textures.  This is a work in progress,
and I'm no artist, or level-designer either really. 

A simple map:


Another map, utilizing more odd angles, less aligned geometry:


Collision Model view only:


A close up (zoomed in), to do some detail work aligning Quads. 
Note that there is a snap-to-grid feature, with adjustable grid spacings.

[Greg]

I'm changing the title to The Lost Oracle for now.  Sounds quite a bit better. 

[Melly]

Intriguing.

Don't worry too much about the art. Just make the game good.

[Greg]

Right. That's pretty much my thought too.  I'll probably wind up doing something more abstract.

[Greg]

I guess I haven't talked about what kind of game I'm making.  I think it's going to be a top-down, world explorer; like Legend of Zelda, SmashTV or Adventure. I am going to try to complete:

• Projectiles
• Evil Robots
• Doors that open/close
• Maybe a blunt weapon like a knife or baseball bat
• various items/treasures

The graphics might be closer to Adventure than Zelda, as I'm going to focus on trying to get the game mechanics really tight before everything else.  The engine should be really fast, so I might be able to maintain several hundred enemies and bullets flooding the screen at any one time without visible lag on an average PC.  At least that is what I'm shooting for.  Additionally, it supports really large map sizes.  So hopefully, once the core game mechanics are in place, I'll have the time to whip up one or two gigantic maps to explore with various goals. 

I realize that this sounds rather conventional for most ideas around here, but I still think that if done well, it'll stand up quite nicely on it's own.  Besides there is a certain element of recklessness in the design. It's sort of RPG rolled together with schmup, which makes absolutely no sense, but is going to be friggin awesome. :D

[Greg]

made some sprites today.



I think the middle guy looks like Leo Laport, lol.

[Pencerkoff]

Hello I am Pencerkoff

Right. That's pretty much my thought too.  I'll probably wind up doing something more abstract.

So this isn't your game?  Or was it your game?

-PENCERKOFF

[Greg]

Hello I am Pencerkoff

Right. That's pretty much my thought too.  I'll probably wind up doing something more abstract.

So this isn't your game?  Or was it your game?

-PENCERKOFF

Pencerkoff, no, it's going to be something closer to this, but with more shit flying around:


very Lovecraftian, huh?   I'm still working on it.  It's kind of taking a long time.  There has been a lot of engine work, so I haven't worried about the art or game design very much.  (which is why I'm doing this contest: to force myself to ).  The general idea is in these pics though.