Heading to the Garage and Space Rocks...

Since working with TGB I've commited to making at least one fun high quality game, if not dozens. It's such an awesome engine with an awesome toolkit. Since my second to last .plan I quit my job. I wont get into the gory details here, the reasons are in a previous .plan if you want to know. Needless to say I've found myself with a lot of time on my hands. I started taking an electronic music class at Deanza College here in the bay area in California. I was amazed at what was possible with creating music on the PC and the potential for doing my own sounds and music in my games. So I ended up buying an M-Audio midi controller and started using some software and am now neck deep creating music loops. But I digress....

During this time off I was also hoping to head out to Eugene in October for IGC and to take the TGB class. Unfortunately both IGC and the class were cancelled but I still had wanted to take the class so I had Davey Jackson let me know when the next class was. I'm excited to say it starts on Monday and I'm looking forward to getting some formal training on this thing called TGB.

I worked on a game called Space Rocks at the end of 2005. It was a simple little homage to asteroids. Not much of a fun game by todays standards, but it was fun to make - in a weekend. I think thats what got me hooked. It only took me a couple days to get the game playable and Torquescript made it totally possible. Over the past couple weeks or so I've been upgrading and polishing it up a bit and is shaping into something more interesting for me and I have some more ideas to expand it for fun. I wouldnt mind working with a team at this point on a larger, more focused and planned project. Got anything for me GG? :D I think I've got my head around TGB fairly well and once I go through the class I'll be looking to push the boundaries with it and I'll need some help with art and game design ;) If anyone is interested lets chat to see if we share a vision of a game project.

In this round I've added a splash screen, a menu (partially working - highscores not implemented yet), and three power up items and they are: health, ammo, and energy. Use your ammo and energy wisely... You can see the status of your health, ammo, and energy on the upper left screen. At critical damage the health icon will start burning which means you better get some health before you get hit again. The difficulty still needs to be tweaked.

Screenshots:






Download here


How to play Space Rocks v0.2 and general notes:

-Rotate the ship by moving the target cursor with the mouse and press 'W' or the right mouse button to thrust.

-Additionaly you can use the 'A' and 'D' keys to rotate the ship left or right (currently needs work).

-Shoot the asteroids with the left mouse button or the spacebar.

-You can pick up powerups after you destroy certain asteroids.

-Use your ammo and thruster sparingly, you have a limited amount. Watch the icons in the upper left corner to monitor your levels. Pick up the powerups with an 'A' to recharge your ammo and powerups with a 'E' will restore your thruster energy.

-The ship icon in the upper left corner of the screen will turn darker red every time an asteroid hits your ship and will be on fire when your damage is critical mass. Pick up the powerups with the '+' in the middle to recharge your sheilds and restore the ships health. It is on loan so - you break it you buy it...


Have Fun!

Tom Bentz
games@digitalblur.com