Progress on the Space Melee
by Chris Jorgensen · 09/13/2006 (10:55 pm) · 6 comments
Seeing as how I haven't written anything here in a long while, I thought I'd blog it up a bit. No, no screenshots yet, I'm afraid. (Though I think enough will be complete for some shots soon.) I do, however, have a draft of a couple menu screens that I'll share. :)
Above: First draft of main screen
Above: First draft of options screen
As you can see, the working title is "xeno versus." My website, which is just text right now, is www.xenoclone.com. I should note that I have no relationship to the game "Project Xenoclone" and have, in fact, had this domain since 2000. So as far as I know I had the name first! (It used to be home to a Total Annihlation set of mods that I did... then it was home to my scifi movie/tv reviews... next it will be home to my games.)
I just thought I'd go over a few decisions that I've made that will simplify things. Because, quite frankly, as much as I would love to make the coolest game ever, my project "team" consists of 2 artists, 1 musician, and 1 programmer... that programmer being me. Those decisions:
1- No network support. I toyed with the thought of doing this but have decided against it. I simply would rather spend more time on gameplay than fiddling with this kind of thing.
2- Code entirely in TS. My dream is to write it efficiently enough in TS that I won't have to go to the source to tune performance. The idea is I can then have a game known to work on Win/Lin/Mac.
3- Simple AI. I had considered doing something fancier, perhaps a GA-based LCS, but after hearing the opinion of others, and looking at the work ahead, I think I'm just going to tweak my simple little AI I've got going now, until it's a worthy opponent, and be done with it.
4- Simple controls. I've reduced the game to using 3 buttons: thrust, shoot, special. I think it will be a faster/easier game to pick up if I leave it at that. Steering just involves pointing the a-stick or d-pad in the direction you want to go. (Keyboard/mouse still being tuned.)
Well, that's enough rambling for now. I have to save some for the next blog, when I put up some screenshots of the game itself in progress.
Above: First draft of main screen
Above: First draft of options screen
As you can see, the working title is "xeno versus." My website, which is just text right now, is www.xenoclone.com. I should note that I have no relationship to the game "Project Xenoclone" and have, in fact, had this domain since 2000. So as far as I know I had the name first! (It used to be home to a Total Annihlation set of mods that I did... then it was home to my scifi movie/tv reviews... next it will be home to my games.)
I just thought I'd go over a few decisions that I've made that will simplify things. Because, quite frankly, as much as I would love to make the coolest game ever, my project "team" consists of 2 artists, 1 musician, and 1 programmer... that programmer being me. Those decisions:
1- No network support. I toyed with the thought of doing this but have decided against it. I simply would rather spend more time on gameplay than fiddling with this kind of thing.
2- Code entirely in TS. My dream is to write it efficiently enough in TS that I won't have to go to the source to tune performance. The idea is I can then have a game known to work on Win/Lin/Mac.
3- Simple AI. I had considered doing something fancier, perhaps a GA-based LCS, but after hearing the opinion of others, and looking at the work ahead, I think I'm just going to tweak my simple little AI I've got going now, until it's a worthy opponent, and be done with it.
4- Simple controls. I've reduced the game to using 3 buttons: thrust, shoot, special. I think it will be a faster/easier game to pick up if I leave it at that. Steering just involves pointing the a-stick or d-pad in the direction you want to go. (Keyboard/mouse still being tuned.)
Well, that's enough rambling for now. I have to save some for the next blog, when I put up some screenshots of the game itself in progress.
About the author
Owner of Cascadia Games
#2
09/13/2006 (11:10 pm)
Instead of a speech bubble for the second pic... it seems like a thought bubble would be more appropriate. 
#3
09/14/2006 (5:25 am)
Dang I wish my "art" was this good... 
#4
I really like 2d top-down space melee games -- I look forward to seeing you complete this one! It looks like you're more than covered for art assets, but if you would like any pre-rendered ship art (40 frames, 9 degrees per frame), I have some available from an old project of mine that's been gathering dust for a while.
--clint
09/14/2006 (9:04 am)
Beautiful art! I really like the bomber jacket in the second pic. Kindof reminds me of Porco Rosso.I really like 2d top-down space melee games -- I look forward to seeing you complete this one! It looks like you're more than covered for art assets, but if you would like any pre-rendered ship art (40 frames, 9 degrees per frame), I have some available from an old project of mine that's been gathering dust for a while.
--clint
#5
09/14/2006 (4:18 pm)
Very nice. The menu drafts are coming along very nicely! I remember many long evenings playing star control and other space melee games - I'm definitely looking forward to seeing more of this one.
#6
Thanks for the offer. But I'm trying to be pretty careful with how I match the ships to the art. I'm not sure they mesh just yet as is, I'm afraid.
@All
The artist, my lovely younger sister, claims that this stuff will pale in comparison to her latest work. I'm pretty excited to see what she comes up with!
09/15/2006 (5:23 am)
@ClintThanks for the offer. But I'm trying to be pretty careful with how I match the ships to the art. I'm not sure they mesh just yet as is, I'm afraid.
@All
The artist, my lovely younger sister, claims that this stuff will pale in comparison to her latest work. I'm pretty excited to see what she comes up with!
Torque 3D Owner Peter Simard