TMC's Shoot Em Up Dev Diary

[fog]

Yeh, true, thats doable.

The drawback is, that i want my levels to be pretty big.  Maybe take a good 5 - 10 minutes to play through.  So that would require alot of images.  probably far too many to hold in memory at once.  So, i'd have to use an image streaming system.  Which would probably cause all sorts of headaches and game stutters.

It's a good idea, just that i don't think it's really pratical.

Ah right, I didn't realise your levels would be quite that long as you are having so many of them.  You're a braver man than me

[JDog053]

you could split the 4096x4096 image into 4 1024x1024 images and just have them display when you get either near, or in those zones? seems like a possibility? like a much larger tile engine (with bigger pics). Maybe you could make a combination of those tiles and have it so you can create any which type of level from a select few?

ofcourse its purely aesthetic and has no real barin on the gameplay (which is the most important IMO).

I think you should have all the upgrades/bombs shareable as it promotes communication and teamwork. Heavy Weapon had 3 nukes between all 4 players, so they had to decide when and when not to use it.

Anyhoo, so far so good, its really making me get me programming boots on

[T_M_C]

Ah right, I didn't realise your levels would be quite that long as you are having so many of them.  You're a braver man than me

Theres a fine line between bravery and Foolishness.  

you could split the 4096x4096 image into 4 1024x1024 images and just have them display when you get either near, or in those zones? seems like a possibility? like a much larger tile engine (with bigger pics). Maybe you could make a combination of those tiles and have it so you can create any which type of level from a select few?

Yeh, thats what Fog was suggesting.

If my levels wern't so big, then i probably would use that technique.  Although 1024 x 1024 is still really too big.  ideally i would like to keep images down to around the 512  x  512 mark if i could.

Blitzmax is really a 3d engine that uses the 3d in 2d.  Every image is in fact a texture map for a flat 2d plane.  So, texture size restrictions apply if i want to be backward compatible with older systems.

So, image / texture size is a consideration.
Although much less so nowadays.  It's still in the back of my mind.

Anyhoo, so far so good, its really making me get me programming boots on

Yeh, dev diaries are great motivators.  


Update
----------

I've been coding all weekend.

I decided it was time to include the players.

So, drew some sprites, basic neon glow vector triangle types.  And although really basic in design, suit the game quite well i think.
Even managed to create an alpha layer for them too.  Which gets around the black border images, visible when sprites cross each other.

Also redrew my level background lines using the same technique.

So, i sat down ready to knock up some quick player code, which took a bit longer than i had planned.

In fact, it took alot longer.  Alot lot longer.  All weekend.  

I ended up porting across my controls sub editor.  Which is pretty big.  And modified it to handle 4 players.

Now i can select the controls for any player via various sub editor options.

This allows for any action for the player to have any input assigned.  A very flexible system.
Supports for keyboard, mouse and joystick ( single and twins ticks )
The player can choose any combination they want.

All was working well when during playtesting i realised, that i could control all 4 players myself if all 4 players were set up to use the same controls.  

Obviously that would give the player a huge advantage.  Increasing his fire power 4 fold.

So, i'm currently putting in some code that checks that no player has the same controls as another.

If a player wants to try and play a 4 player game by himself, he's going to have to try with different controls for each.

Probably post a screenshot or two tomorrow of the game in it's present early state.

TMC

[T_M_C]

Update
----------

I've finished off the load and save routines for the controls sub editor.

And that set me thinking i really ought to code a profiles sub editor to handle different player saves.
Different profiles for different playing sessions.

So, most of yesterday was spent doing that.  I got stuck on several small bugs which i managed to crack this morning.
And now the profiles sub editor seems to be finished and working well.

This means i can now set up different profiles with different controls for each.

Helps a great deal with playtesting.


I've also put together some screenshots of the game in it's current state.
And two screenshots of the spline camera path editor.

The enemy ships you see are just mock ups and don't actually move.  They are temporary sprites i knicked from another game, just to give the levels a bit more life at this early stage of development.

The player ships are the triangle vector craft.

Movement for the players craft are the usual up , down , left and right and they also rotate left and right too.

I did originaly code the player ships to point in a joystick direction, but this really only limited the players to facing in 4 directions ( 8 at a push ).  Then i decided to recode them to rotate a full 360 degrees giving the player much more accuracy when targetting.


All seems ready now for me to make a start on the player bullet routines.  And creating lots of different bullet patterns too.

Should be fun.

TMC



FOG
===

I get this error message when i try to upload more screenshots.

'An Error Has Occurred!
The upload folder is full. Please try a smaller file and/or contact an administrator. '

?

[fog]

Looks rather lovely that Masked.  I like the change in colours between levels as that keeps things looking a bit fresher and not so generic.

I've doubled the size of the attachment folder so you can can go mad with uploading images now

[TheKhakinator]

Liking the style.

[JDog053]

Wow I really like that TMC, its familiar but different! I think the simplicity of the player ship will really help to draw attention to other aspects of the game, like the planet and the enemy ships.

On the whole a thumbs up from me! Keep them screenshots coming, i'll be following suit in the near future hopefully.

[T_M_C]

Thanks guys.   

It's early days yet, but you get the idea of what i'm trying to achieve,

I've doubled the size of the attachment folder so you can can go mad with uploading images now

And that gets a thumbs up from me.  I'm probably more guilty than most for uploading screenshots.   

And here are two more i couldn't upload yesterday.



This is probably the shortest update i've ever done.   

Update.
-----------

Currently coding ship motion blur.   

TMC

[JDog053]

I really am pleased wit hthis project so far, its got a really nice feel to it! And to me, it'd be a safe bet that its gonna play right Sometimes short updates are good ones...

[fog]

Nice.  I always like seeing shots with editor stuff overlaid on it.  Much more interesting from a dev viewpoint

[T_M_C]

Update
----------

I've got the motion blur coded now for all 4 player ships.

And like in Echoes ( i'm borrowing alot of idea's from Echoes    ) i can have them either off, low, medium , high or max.  With varying length of the trails.

They look really cool.

I've also coded several other sub editors  / menus.

Graphics menu, Audio menu, Gameplay menu and Controls menu.

Although these all are sub editors, they can all be quickly accessed from playing the game, via the F1 keys.
So, i can shortcut straight to the relevent sub editor to make in game changes.

This morning i also coded ship engine trails.
These are particles blown out the back of each ship ( although only coded for player 1 at present ) when the ship moves.
Again these can be toggled on or off at the users discretion.
And again i'm quite pleased with how they look.
Just need to port the code across for the other players.

I've also added an option for players to choose the color of their ship.  Each player can choose 1 of 5 different colors.

I'll also been adding an option for players to choose 1 of 3 different speed settings for their ships.  At the moment the ship movements are pretty quick.  But i'd like to have some other options available for players, just to be on the safe side.
Mouse movement control is as quick as the mouse is moved.  And gives the most accuracy.

I do like to have plenty of options.

TMC

[fog]

Mouse movement control is as quick as the mouse is moved.  And gives the most accuracy.

Ah right, I assumed it would be R-Type style movement and controls.  How are you handling ship rotation?  Is that always locked to the spline path?

[T_M_C]

Ah right, I assumed it would be R-Type style movement and controls.  How are you handling ship rotation?  Is that always locked to the spline path?

Not quite sure what you mean by 'locked to the spline path'

The level can be designed to go in any direction and snakes it's way through the game world.
The camera path is layed down to follow the level.
And when the game runs, the camera tracks it's camera path, thus scrolling the level.

The players are only restrcited to the screen area.  And the level scrolls onto and off the screen.

The payers have free movement anywhere on the screen.

If they happen to pass over scenery then a collision will be triggered and energy reduced.

So, Mouse movement is similar to echoes.  The more the mouse is moved the faster the ship moves.  All with inertia and friction.

Keys and Joysticks though move the ships at constant speeds.  Defined by the user selected speed settings (slow , normal and fast )

Rotation also has inertia and friction, but i've recently reduced these a great deal to help with aiming.  Slowed down the rate of turning.

The player ships can rotate left or right through 360 degrees.

Hope thats a bit clearer.


Update
----------

I've added the first bullet stream for player 1 now and have been spending some time tinkering alot of settings trying to find that sweet spot of movement, rotation, fire rate ect.

I've also been tinkering with some of the graphics too.

And during this playtesting session i came to the conclusion that the ships were a little too big.

I've now reduced their size to 70% of their original size and scaled the bullets and particles to suit.

It's effectively increased the play area and feels much better to play than before.

I'll probably add some other bullet streams today and maybe start on some bullet patterns.

TMC

[fog]

Ah right, I assumed it would be R-Type style movement and controls.  How are you handling ship rotation?  Is that always locked to the spline path?

Not quite sure what you mean by 'locked to the spline path'

Yeah that wasn't very clear. I assumed the player ship would always point the way the camera was travelling (ie. in R-Type the camera moves left to right so that's the way the ship faces)....but I didn't realise the player ship had 360 degree movement so rotation isn't locked at all. 

[T_M_C]

Yeah that wasn't very clear. I assumed the player ship would always point the way the camera was travelling (ie. in R-Type the camera moves left to right so that's the way the ship faces)....but I didn't realise the player ship had 360 degree movement so rotation isn't locked at all.

Yup, players have total freedom within the confines of the screen.  


Update
----------

Yesterday i added some player bullet patterns to player 1.

See screenshots.

Some extra forward spread streams, 2 forward curve streams, a rear stream and 2 side streams.

This allows for about 7 upgrades to give maximum firepower.

I'll copy the code over for the other players too, but i expect i'll reduce the available streams for multiplayer mode.  Partly to increase game performace and also for game balancing.
But i won't really know until i populate the levels with enemies and start playtesting.
But all players will have the code in place for all available bullet streams, should i need them.

I also spent some considerable time trying to find some suitable shoot sfx.

I dug out my sfx cd collection ( built up over a few years now ) and started looking through them.

I tried alot of different sfx that i thought sounded great in Goldwave ( my sfx editor ) but didn't sound right in game.
Until late in the evening when i started mixing 2 or more sfx together in Goldwave and finaly came up with a shoot sfx i was happy with.

Since this game will have constant auto fire for each player, it's important (re. very important ) to get a sfx that won't annoy or distract the player in any way.

I ran a couple of geometry wars videos to see what the sfx was like in that, and mine is along similar lines.

Next thing to code, will be a timer to reduce the current bullet streams.
I want the players to continually collect pick ups to increase their ships firepower, so a timer will be used to give a maximum time limit for the upgrades to last.

It's starting to feel like a shoot em up now.   

TMC