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[CatStack]

I'm cutting my deadline in half due to an exam the day after this competition finishes so I'm really rushing through this so I thought I should probably come up with a title quickly before I think about it too hard. The pre-made name art really helped. That title is Action Gun Dungeon. I think it kind of rolls off the tongue, don't you? I have a vague idea as to what I'm doing so I'll probably post back when I have something worth reading as procrastination fodder.



Yeahhhhh.

[CatStack]

So, I'm going to give up my place on the bottom of the pile (of forum threads) to give some more information on the game I'm working on:

First, it's going to be a multidirectional top-down shmup, with controls so that you can go sideways and rotate the ship to change direction. It's also going to have semi maze-like maps that will be procedurally generated and persistent . I'm going to try and put an emphasis on exploration and finding upgrades and such like, whilst also having the game be fairly fast paced. If I have a little spare time near the end I'll also give the game a short story.

So far I've got a world map generator working (read: something that generates a load of random points and then connects them with a lot of other random points) and a ship to fly around that I'm quite happy with in terms of how the controls work. Next I'm planning on implementing the actual in-game maps which will be dependent on the generated world maps working, so hopefully I haven't screwed anything up there! Although I've yet to plan past that, I probably should.

[CatStack]

No responses but somehow over 300 reads, well at least somebody must be watching because my F5 key isn't that worn out!

Anyway, I've reached my first 'milestone' in the project in that I've now implemented the infrastructure for my game's procedural world, which I'm quite proud of as it's the first procedural anything I've ever coded. I'm so happy, in fact, I'll treat you to some screenshots of my progress.



And to show off the generator, here's a really simple map that you might see at the beginning of the game:



Compared to much more complex one that you might see nearer the 'end' of the game:



Still I've quite a way to go. Here's a fun list of stuff I intend to do in the near future:

• Collision detection and response
• Enemies + simple AI
• Shooting and health
• Items and upgrades
• GUI related stuff
• Items/upgrades distribution manager
• Map saving and loading (half done already)
• Sound
• Game saving and loading
• Environmental obstacles
• Some kind of half-assed story to keep players interested

My intention is to have that lot done by the 30th of December. Given I'm coding this thing in C++ with SFML, I'm probably being highly delusional. Oh well! 

Then if by some stroke of luck I still have some free time I'll probably add a boss, avatars for people in the story mode and changes in the tiles as the player progresses throughout the game world.

[dbb]

This is starting to look good! I'm sure the interest will start to pick up now you've got a couple of screenshots up.

I like the idea - I enjoy playing shootemups, but I sometimes wish they weren't quite so brainless. This one looks like you'll have to think a bit.

Are you going to keep the map in the bottom-right corner? I like games that come with maps.

[J. R. Hill]

Whoa, neato.

[Kazerad]

Oh man this better not be one of those games where the ship moves really fast and touching a wall blows it up. Are those spikes on the walls? Damnit it totally is isn't it.

[Aik]

I'm reminded strongly of mujakwi from the procedural compo (not a bad thing - I like that game a lot).

[CatStack]

Cheers for the responses you guys! It certainly is motivating.

Well, firstly yes I am keeping the map in the bottom right, it'll be an overview of the whole 'world' rather than an individual map, although at first you'll only see where your next destination should be, and when you've got to the destination, the route to that point will then be shown on the map, so basically you'll 'unlock' the map as you travel through the game world. That's the plan at least. If I had more time I'd make all sorts of crazy maps for you to have on the HUD, but then I like maps. The idea is to give the player kind of the general direction as to where they're supposed to go, but not to hold their hand whilst doing it.

Also, no, I don't plan on making the difficulty unreasonably high. Actually I intended those tiles to face the other way, and may change it to that, but then I kind of like the effect the 'spikes' seem to give (even though I'll probably justify it as being dead foliage or something). Again, I may implement different tile sets to show your progression through the game world if I have time. The emphasis is intended to be more on exploration rather than uncontrollable frustrating madness. Although there may be some madness. Like swarms of enemies chasing you through a winding section of thin corridors. We'll see, though, as I think striking a reliably good balance between exploration and action is going to be difficult. It's probably worth mentioning the controls are intended to be pretty easy on the player. I suppose I could always add a bastard-mode after the competition just for kicks, though.

Also, about Mujakwi, I completely didn't realise since I hadn't tried it yet (that said I did have a suspicion somebody might have tried something similar before), although I am trying to try as many of the games from these competitions as possible as on the whole they're great fun. As it goes, I also now really like it, though it's not necessarily what I'm going for. I'm totally happy with what I'm doing at the moment, but at least I now know that one element of the game should work quite well. That's always a good start.

Anyway, I hope by the end of tomorrow I'll be able to post saying I now have a craft that bounces off walls and has some enemies chasing me around. Given any luck you guys'll have something to play about with around Sunday. I'll be sure to keep you guys updated on progress.

[MaloEspada]

Looking cool, keep it up.

[threesided]

Yayyyyy, something of mine is ACTUALLY being used!

For a while there I didn't think that was gonna happen, seeing as Oryx has somehow hijacked pretty much this whole competition

[harima555]

looks good , hope you can implement every thing !!!!, i like the small map screen looks nice

[Andrius]

For a while there I didn't think that was gonna happen, seeing as Oryx has somehow hijacked pretty much this whole competition