Wiebo de Wit's thoughts about programming, game development and more…
Games You Should Play: Gridrunner Revolution.
This game has me crying and laughing at the same time, and OddBob has tried to write a description of it, which is commendable, but like a lot of things in real live, just out of reach…
Yes, Gridrunner is a definite Llamasoft classic, and lovers of blasty games must play it.
Ok, back to playing.
Some people (via forums and email) have been asking me if the editor will be able to export animated images of the particle effects. This will not be the case, although someone can code that themselves if the need is there. The engine/editor project is open source, after all. I need real-time effects for my game and that is why this project has started. It’s not to hard to program a feature like that, so who knows what the future brings?
Since compiling the editor requires some use of custom Blitzmax modules (wxMAX, XMLlib) I think I will upload compiled versions of the editor from time to time. And, I’m not sure if I will keep the XML way of loading and saving from the editor. I may go the .csv type I am using for the game configuration. Less complex code = better. Although loading and saving in XML is sooo simple.
Since uploading the project I haven’t touched the code. 
I’ve been busy playing Fallout 3. I bought it some time ago, installed it, thought ‘meh’ and never touched it again. Last weekend, I started it up, and ‘got it’. Loving it so far.
I woke up this morning, sensing something wrong going on in the world and I was right. Oddbob has a new bag, err… home on the web and he has released a new arena shooter, called Squid Yes! Not So Octopus… …right… Let’s call it SYNSO from now on Graphics look very purty with a nice inflated pixel style going on. Give it a try, I know I will…
Yay! Update 20! I did some serious tweaking and polishing these last few days. Got a more complete game loop out of it, and fixed some small annoying bugs like enemies entering your shield radius for some reason. Turned out I had old code there which didn’t scale the radius correctly… I also created the graphics for the power-up icons. For now they are just fine and I think I will keep them. I also added little ‘splash’ texts which can pop up anywhere informing you of events. Spent more time tweaking the beam gun, it’s much more stable now. Also added a player-like hud to the collector to show how many more aliens you can grab with it. Aliens will get a weight factor. In the beginning, the collector has a max weight of 10 so you can catch 10 enemies with a weight of 1, or 5 enemies with a weight of 2, and so on. I think I will allow you to grab power ups with your collector as well, so you can upgrade it. I’m not sure if I will keep the player-like hud, as it gets confusing. It’s almost an identical shape and I keep assuming it’s the player hud I’m looking at. More testing needed there But I’ve been playing more and more of the game as it comes together and I like it, which is always a good sign.
All in all, I’ve tweaked and polished as far as I can go for now. I can’t seem to put it off any longer: creating the graphics for more enemies. Enemies will be slightly circular in shape, allowing me to add layer upon layer of shielding, guns, scaffolding, etc… I also need to create more gun graphics, to show you how much more bad-ass you are as you progress into the game.
I also had a nifty little idea about bonus stages, or ‘challenging stages’ as Galaga called them… We’ll see how that turns out, but it should break the game play up a bit as you progress. Earning medals in this mode could be a nice departure.
On the gaming front: Assassin’s Creed is a very nice game, but getting repetitive. I’m into my 6th or 7th assassination now and collecting the info through the same missions again and again is getting boring. But the environments are SO NICE so I just keep at it. The Virtual Reality approach is cool, and I think I can see where the next two games (it’ll be a trilogy, right?) will take us. Present Day and Future cities?? I think so.
Bye for now!
Well, the game loop is done. Right now I’m concentrating on the code which creates different levels of enemies, adding layers of protection around it as the enemy is higher in level. I’m working with simple images now but I will create some nice armour graphics later on. Each layer of armour can also house guns, missile bays and more stuff I can think of. Should be cool. Blasting away the layers of protection on enemies is always something I enjoyed in shooter games!
After that I will concentrate on coding and designing the player’s power-ups. I am thinking of the usual stuff: more bullets, lasers, beams, etc. I will need these when I need to play test the new layered enemies, as everything needs to be in good balance. I intend to give the player the means to get the advantage though.
I loaned Assassin’s Creed from a friend of mine, going to try that later today as well! I’m not going to disappear in that game, I intend to keep these updates in code and on the blog coming these next few weeks.
Recent Comments