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Xeno Versus: 2D Space Combat -- Early Screens

Name:	Chris Jorgensen
Date Posted:	Oct 10, 2006
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Blog post

Well, I promised I would put some screenshots up last time (instead of more splash screens) and today I've finally gotten around to doing that. This game is very far from completion, but I thought I'd share my progress. Some things are missing (final particle effects) and some art is temporary (the smooth green fog overlay, the bubble shield in the first pic), but I think these pictures are representative of what I'm trying to do with this project.

This last week I finally converted the game over from 2 player to 4 player, complete with appropriate default keybaord/joystick/AI assignment to the ships. (Though I haven't yet given players the option to change that default yet.) That made for a good excuse to rewrite a bit of lousy script. :)

So the game has 3 levels of zoom. The idea is that the camera follows the center point between the ships and zooms to a level that keeps all the ships in view. It is still being tweaked, but basically is working. I'm using zoom levels because constant zooming in/out tends to disorient the players, I've discovered.

Anyway, on with the pics! These are from a foggy/nebula level that I'm working on.

Zoom Level 1:

Zoom Level 2:

Zoom Level 3:

So the theme is basically manga comics. I thought the gray strip on the right looked like a black/white comic strip, though that wasn't my aim when I made it. the colored rings around the ships are supposed to indicate which player is controlling that ship. (Red is always player 1, blue always player 2, etc...). Before the battle starts, each player pics a fleet of 6 ships, and then uses 1 at a time versus the other 3 in battle. (As you can see, my AI is pretty dumb at the moment. It likes to snuggle the other ships rather than attack.)

I'd love feedback if anyone has any. This is still pretty early on in the process, but now seemed like a good time to post a blog update and get some thoughts.

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Rob Sandbach (Oct 10, 2006 at 16:56 GMT)

I quite like the style, its cool stuff!

I'd suggest maybe making the panal on the right a bit thinner to increase the game space, seems a bit chunky atm, you might be able to slim it a bit by cutting out the gaps between
the circle and the health bars?

Alex Rice (Oct 10, 2006 at 17:20 GMT)

Looks pretty cool! I agree with Rob about the width of the players panel.

J. Erick Christgau (Oct 10, 2006 at 17:22 GMT)

Looks good.

Probably don't need the double-bang (!!) after the player number. Perhaps just make the "Player #" a little wider, height is fine. It'll make it a bit easier to read. Also, I know it's the style, but the letters are a bit cramped together. Even a thin line between them will help since they run together now.

Stephan (viKKing) Bondier (Oct 10, 2006 at 20:24 GMT)

I like the green layout alot, so why is it temporary? keep it!!! please.

Any Mac version? ;-) I really enjoy asking this...

Chris Jorgensen (Oct 10, 2006 at 21:45 GMT)

@Stepan

I guess when I say "fog" I only mean the stuff that overlaps the ships. The green clouds underneath the ships I've been calling "nebulas," and those I'm keeping more or less. So most of it's being kept. I just think the overlay can look better. As for a Mac version.. well, I'm writing this entirely in script, so it should be Mac compatible.

@All

Thanks! I"ll keep those suggestions in mind as I revise things. If anyone else reading has some thoughts, I'd love to hear 'em. :)

Andy Hawkins (Oct 10, 2006 at 22:52 GMT)

I remember Star Control had a good zoom method which was a snap zoom. However maybe try an accelerated zoom. So it builds to the next zoom level over time rather than a constant rate which could be the reason for the disorientation. The camera doesn't have to keep up completely - it just has to get there soon - within a second or two.

Looks good tho' nice work :)

Mark McCoy (Oct 10, 2006 at 23:24 GMT)

I really like the ship designs and the bright colors. Looks very fun.

The gray panel isn't working for me though.

The main thing is that the individual panels feel too busy. I can't quickly tell what is going on. This is partly because there is text on 3 out of 4 sides. (Try replacing "power" and "health" with a lightning bolt and a cross icon?)

Also, the gray seems to drain the color energy somewhat (What does it look like with the manga characters slightly color tinted?).

I'd possibly play with some other layouts besides the vertical square block. For example placing each player in each of the corners, with some sort of non-square layout for thier health/power indicator. Or possibly 2 on each side in the bottom corners.

I'm a sucker for iterating through lots and lots of HUD layouts. Even if you end up close to where you started, you learn alot from the things you throw out.

Ishbuu (Oct 11, 2006 at 05:53 GMT)

About the whole color thing though, as someone who reads *a lot* of mangas, the printing quality is more... printed and they're hardly ever (read: never) uniformly so dark.

Mere nitpicking but yeah. The whole HUD bar on the right seems very busy for my likings, its best to just look over and quick see what you need to see. There's too much text, maybe try symbol/color coding some things better, and possibly increacing the width of the bars a bit.

Looks great so far mate! Keep up the good work :)

[Ishbuu]

Stephan (viKKing) Bondier (Oct 11, 2006 at 07:25 GMT)

For the zooming I would recommend to check out that game:
www.shrapnelgames.com/digital_eel/weird_worlds/1.htm

Available for both Windows and Mac.

Chris Jorgensen (Oct 11, 2006 at 15:55 GMT)

This is really great feedback. I appreciate all of it. For fun I went ahead and revised it a little bit last night based on the comments. If anyone is still reading this entry and its comments, the new shot is at:

New: www.xenoclone.com/images/xv_sidebar_rev1.jpg
New and brighter: www.xenoclone.com/images/xv_sidebar_rev2.jpg

I tried committing more to the "comic strip as the HUD" idea. This version is thinner, has more color, fewer words, and some other minor tweaks. I should note that where it says "Player #" I'll probably have a name of some sort there in its place, either the ship name, fleet name, captain name, or player name. Thoughts are very much appreciated.

@Ishbuu

Could you explain what you mean by uniformly dark? I think I know what you're saying, but more of your thoughts would be awesome.

Edited for extra comments.
Edited on Oct 12, 2006 07:01 GMT

Alan Hembra (Oct 11, 2006 at 21:01 GMT)

Definetly an improvement Chris.

Have you thought about putting the symbols above their respective bars? It would let you slim down the size of the HUD and gain back some screen real-estate. I know as a player unobstrusive HUD's and lots of available screen is much appreciated. Though that may cover the pics of the girl's heads up some.

Nauris Krauze (Oct 12, 2006 at 08:35 GMT)

New GUI looks better, but I wouldnt advise spending too much time on it at this stage. Your game will change most likely and HUD stuff will have to change too, perhaps even fundamentally, so its better to sort out the functionality and flow first and then go over with spit and polish in the very end.

Daniel Staub (Oct 12, 2006 at 20:42 GMT)

MMmmmm StarCon type battles, you got my interest.

Anthony Harris (Oct 13, 2006 at 00:32 GMT)

just a suggestion,

you could have the vertical words 'power' and 'health' from your first gui iteration as transparent backgrounds of the bars they represent. so that no extra space it taken, clarity is achieved and there is nothing to block or distract from your beautiful manga icons...

just a thought

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