Blog for Ethan Groves at GarageGames.com

ICBM -- The Game Concept

Ethan Groves — 2007-02-13T17:09:17+00:00

NYFTI GAMES is proud to present the concept for it's first game: ICBM "Island Cannon Blaster Mania"

Game-play:
-3D clone of the classic game Scorch.
Players battle it out in a fast paced, turn based game of strategy, skill, and luck! The goal of the game is to use your cannon to blast the other players off the map! But wait; there is a new twist to a classic game! Do you aim your cannon at your opponents and start blasting at them right away? Or do you aim at the power-ups hanging in the air, hoping to give yourself more firepower in the next turn? ICBM features dozens of power-ups and upgrades to shoot at...

Weapons And *Upgrades:
-RPG (Rocket Propelled Grenade)
-*Guided missile. (Upgrade to RPG: A maneuverable projectile.)
-*ICBM (Upgrade to Guided Missile: This is the most deadly weapon in the game!)
-Rifle (Very accurate and deadly.)
-*Sniper. (Upgrade to Rifle Shot: Small but extremely deadly.)
-Chain shot. (Spreads havoc and destruction where ever it goes.)
-*Skull and Bones (Upgrade to Chain shot: More deadly.)
-Double-shot (Fire two cannonballs in one shot.)
-*Quad-shot (Upgrade to Double-shot: Fire four cannonballs in one shot.)
-*Octa-Shot (Upgrade to Quad-Shot: Fire EIGHT cannon balls in one shot!)
-Wall-Shot (Builds a wall where ever it lands.)
-*Magic Wall (Upgrade to Wall-Shot: Builds a floating wall when you detonate it.)
-Tazer (If your shot comes within a certain distance of your opponent, it zaps him.)
-*Lightning Bolt (Upgrade to Tazer: Causes Lightning to strike where ever it lands.)
-Big ball (Makes your cannonball HUGE so that it's easier for you to hit you opponents.)
-Bouncy Ball (Explodes after bouncing a little ways.)
-Fireball (Fiery cannonball.)
-*Napalm (Upgrade to Fireball: Explodes and burns for a while where ever it lands.)
-*Lava Ball (Upgrade to napalm: More deadly.)

Cannon Power-ups:
-Health (Obvious...)
-Shield (Absorbs 75% of damage.)
-Cash (Use the cash you get to buy weapon power-ups for the next round.)
-Cash heap (Gives more money than "Cash.")
-Treasure Chest (Gives more money than "Cash Heap.")
-Invisibility (Makes your cannon invisible for one turn.)
-Immunity (Causes all opponents who hit you, to receive their own damage for one turn.)
-Drop Here (Hit this object to relocate your cannon.)
-Health Detector (Allows you to see your opponents health levels.)
-Multi-Shot (Shoot twice per turn. Hit another multi-shot to shoot 3 times per turn.)
-Knock Out (Sets all your opponent's aim and power to zero.)

ICBM will support:
-Single Player target practice.
-Multiple players playing on a single computer.
-LAN.
-Online multi player.

END GAME DESCRIPTION.

There is one phrase that I've heard repeated over and over in the game development community: "Start small and simple!" That's why my first game attempt is a basic "Scorch clone." Even now, I'm wondering if I've jumped in over my head. I began writing out a list of things needed to make this game halfway polished and the list is overwhelming! I can only imagine what bigger game projects demand. Don't get me wrong, this isn't the first time I've thought about this, but it is the first time I've actually attempted it. Reality brings perceptions into sharp focus...

Anyway, I'll take things a little at a time and hope for some help along the way. I'm actually rather excited about this project.

Here is my incomplete list of things needed.

Maps:
All maps are Islands!
I'm thinking about making 30-40 maps.
The maps should be fairly easy to make, once I get the models made.
And once I learn how to make them... :P

Models:
-Cannons - Various Colors
-Cannonballs - Missiles and all other projectiles.
-Trees
-Rocks
-Power-Ups and Upgrades

Particles:
-Cannons - Smoke
-Projectile trails
-Fire
-Explosions - Several different variations.
-Volcano - Smoke and Lava
-Dust

Scripting:
-Lots of scripting needed.
-Network
-GUI
-Physics
-Lot's of scripting

GUI:
-Splash Screen
-Start-up menu
-Options menu
-Any other menus

In-Game GUI:
-Power Indicator
-Compass
-Weapon selection

Music: (Don't know what to do about this category.)
-Menu Music
-In-game Music

Sound Effects:
-Explosions
-Burning Fire
-Thud
-Projectile whistling through the air.
-Cash register sound.
-Click-Chunk - Upgrade sound.
-GUI Button Click sound.
-Splash
-Bones clacking together
-Missile sound
-Health
-Rifle - Sniper
-Stretching sound - For Big Ball
-Electricity sound - For Tazer
-Lightning and Thunder
-Bouncing sound
-Ambient background sounds (e.g. Ocean waves)

If anyone is interested in this project, by all means, contact me. I won't refuse anyone's help. It may sound noobish of me to accept anyone onto my team, but it would be foolish of me not to.

Here are some screenshots of my progress so far.

All comments, encouragements, criticisms, rude remarks, and offers to help are more than welcome.

~Ethan Groves

TGE Progress and Accomplishments

Ethan Groves — 2007-01-20T16:24:16+00:00

It's been about two weeks since Tim Aste gave me the link to download TGE 1.5, so I thought I would take a few moments to document my progress so far. Most of my "accomplishments" will probably sound like baby steps to most of you, but considering the fact that this is the first time I've seen any of the material, I feel like I'm making leaps and bounds!

The first day I got Torque, I mostly just explored around, trying to identify the important files, scripts, and objects. Although most of what I did was just messing around, I still wanted to be able to feel like I had done something meaningful. So I jumped into the scripts and started altering things.

After some initial exploring inside the scripts, the first thing I did was to move the max camera distance (in 3rd person view) further away from Kork. After more exploring, I messed around with the projectile explosion particle settings and made the explosions much more impressive. I made them bigger, fuller, and changed the colors around a little bit. Later, I changed the projectile's ballistics setting to "true," so that it would fly more like a real arrow. The velocity setting was a bit too powerful, so I turned it down. I also messed with the gravity settings, but the arrow flight still didn't "feel" right. I messed with it for a while, but I never did get the "feel" I was looking for.

Over the next few days I created my first successful .dts model (a bow), and switched out Kork's default crossbow, putting my new bow model in its place (I also switched out the projectile).

The arrow sits off to one side of the bow, but that is temporary.

Aim...

FIRE!

I still haven't gotten the animations for my bow to work, but I'm not too worried about that at this point. I think it's just a matter of changing the animation names. I am wondering how to make separate .dsq animations... And also how to make .dif models.

After messing around with the explosion particle settings, I decided to take them out all together. I didn't think that exploding arrows were very realistic. I also took out the projectile particle trails. I was a little diappointed though, because without the particle trails, the projectile quickly disappears from sight after you shoot it. I was wondering if there was a way to keep the projectile visible without putting the particles back.

I've created my first map. It's a simple Island with a volcano (although the lava looks more like blood than lava).
My map has two holes... I don't how they got there or how to get rid of them.

Kork jumps into the lava and dies. >=)

Besides messing with Torque, I've been planning my first game project. The game design is still in the works, but coming soon... The name of the game will be ICBM: Island Cannon Blaster Mania!

I've also come up with a name for my "game company:"

(NYFTI = Nifty spelled "creatively.")

In the world of programming, there is a big difference between "modding" existing code and writing your own. Getting to the threshold of being able to write your own code requires a deeper understanding of the code. Well, recently I reached the very beginnings of that threshold (sort of).
I changed this portion of script:

//----------------------------------------------------------------------------
function Player::playDeathAnimation(%this)
{
   if (%this.deathIdx++ > 11)
      %this.deathIdx = 1;
   %this.setActionThread("Death" @ %this.deathIdx);
}
//----------------------------------------------------------------------------

To this:

//----------------------------------------------------------------------------
function Player::playDeathAnimation(%this)
{
   if (%this.deathIdx++ > 0)
      %this.deathIdx = getRandom(1,11);
   %this.setActionThread("Death" @ %this.deathIdx);
}
//----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Although I was still working with existing code, I added something that wasn't there before. =) This change makes it so that the game chooses a random death animation every time Kork dies.

As I stated at the beginning of this blog, these accomplishments are only baby steps, but I'm hoping my "stride" will grow longer as I gain momentum... =P

All comments and crits are welcome.

Pre-Game Animations

Ethan Groves — 2006-09-11T15:35:52+00:00

I downloaded several of the game demos and none of them had pre-game animations. Granted, animations take up more space than a plain picture, but still, an animation makes your game "that much more professional."

Anyway, I got inspired and made a few of my own using GarageGame's design.
Here are some screenshots of the animations.

Here are the links to the animations.

GarageGames: www.youtube.com/watch?v=6of9YNmgTiU

Torque: youtube.com/watch?v=gKglGxyIrC8

Comments? Suggestions?