The Invaders and Asteroid Wars Updated

Posted by J Tatham

I have just released The Invaders v1.1 and Asteroid Wars v1.1.

The Invaders

Changes:

  • Added the mothership that was initially missing from the first release of the game.
  • Added mothership scoring between 50 – 300 depending on when the mothership gets destroyed.
  • Added mothership engine sound.
  • Minor tweaks to gameplay balancing.
  • Changed scoring model.

Asteroid Wars

Changes:

  • Added particle effect explosions. Grayscale for asteroids and colour for ships.
  • Added Level-Up Sound Effect.
  • Fixed disabling of ship controls when game has paused.
  • Fixed ship thrust issues when game has ended.
  • Minor Gameplay UI tweaks.

Asteroid Wars Released

Posted by J Tatham

I have just released a new open source game called Asteroid Wars.  It is a remake of the classic space shooter Asteroids.

Description
The aim of Asteroid Wars is to destroy asteroids and saucers. The player controls a triangular ship that can rotate left and right, fire shots straight forward, and thrust forward. Once the ship begins moving in a direction, it will continue in that direction without player intervention unless the player applies thrust in a different direction.

Each level starts with a few large asteroids drifting in various directions on the screen. As the player shoots asteroids, they break into smaller asteroids that move faster and are more difficult to hit. Smaller asteroids are also worth more points. As well as asteroids, every so often a flying saucer will appear firing randomly into space, hoping one of its shots will hit the player.

As the player progresses through the game, the waves of asteroids and saucers gradually increase in difficulty.

Screenshots

Asteroid Wars - Title Screen Asteroid Wars - Gameplay Asteroid Wars - Game Over Screen

 

 

 

 

Click Here to Play and Download

The Invaders Released

Posted by J Tatham

I have just released a new open source game called The Invaders.  It is a Space Invaders remake.

Description
The aim of the game is to destroy the alien assault.  This is done by moving a space ship horizontally at the bottom of the screen, while shooting the aliens that are descending upon you. Once all the aliens are destroyed a new wave of aliens begin their assault. As more aliens are defeated the aliens movement increase in speed, and defeating the aliens brings a more difficult wave to destroy.

The aliens attempt to destroy the space ship by firing at it while they approach the bottom of the screen. If they reach the bottom, the alien invasion is successful and the game ends.

Screenshots

Title Screen Gameplay Game Over Screen

 

 

 

 

 

Click Here to download and play.

Final Hours Released

Posted by J Tatham

I have just released a remake of the classic game Missile Command.

Description
The game is played by moving a crosshair across the sky background using a mouse and pressing the left button to launch a counter-missile from the ground. Counter-missiles explode upon reaching the crosshair, leaving a fireball that persists for several seconds and destroys any enemy missiles that enter it.

Screenshots

Title Screen Gameplay Game Over Screen

 

 

 

 

 

Click Here for more information and to download and play.

Breakout Game Released

Posted by J Tatham

I have just released a remake of the classic game Breakout.

Description
The player controls a “paddle” to bounce a ball against bricks a layer of bricks at the top of the screen, and to prevent the ball from touching the bottom of the screen. When a brick is hit, the ball bounces away and the brick is destroyed. When all the bricks are gone, the player goes to the next level, where another pattern of bricks appears.

Screenshots

Title Screen Screenshot 1 Screenshot 3 Screenshot 2

 

 

 

 

Screenshot 4 Screenshot 5 Game Over Screen

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click Here for more information and to download and play.

The Infected RL Development Diary #2

Posted by J Tatham

Since the last development diary I have made quite a bit of progress.  This includes adding field of vision, procedurally generated maps, hit effects and more.

Combat
To allow the player to know when they have hit a creature, or to know when they have been hit, I added a hit effect.  The tile turns red then quickly fades.  See the animated gif below.

Hit Effect

 

 

 

 

Monsters/Creatures
When a monster is killed a corpse is left in its place.  Corpses are represented by a red character ‘%’.

Maps/Levels
Maps are now procedurally generated.  I implemented a procedural map generator using K-D Trees which are a special case of Binary Space Partitioning.

The map generator currently creates rooms and corridors.  Doors, stairs, etc. will be added to the generator within the next few weeks.

Below are screenshots of maps created with the generator with increasing complexity:

Map Generator 1 Map Generator 2 Map Generator 3 Map Generator 4

 

 

 

 

FOV
The game supports Field of Vision for the player to make walls, creatures, and items visible if it is in there line of sight.  This feature has been implemented using ray casting.

Ray casting is a method for calculating Field of Vision where rays are traced from the centre of a source square to a select number of destination squares.

Map Ghosting
Along with the FOV, I have added map ghosting to provide a faint outline previously seen walls to show where you have been.

Below are screenshots of both the FOV and Map Ghosting:

Screen Shot 2 Screenshot 3 Screenshot 4

 

 

 

 

 

Sound
I have started working on the sound.  At the moment only the creatures make a sound and that is when they die.  There are 4 death sound effects and are chosen at random when a creature dies.

Next Up…
Next on the list it to look at items as well as weapons.  As well as melee weapons, I want to have ranged and explosives, though most combat will use melee weapons.  I will also be thinking about and working on music for the game.

That’s it for now. Check back soon for Developement Diary #3.