game idea.

[cryptis]

well i was wondering if you thought about making game similar to echoes but based on defence instead offensive tactic. for while ive had an idea for a game where you are kinda of an orb that defends itself with different shields but i have no ability to make it.

so the main aspect of the game would be your craft which is just an orb ,which i call the core, that stays in the center of the screen that has a movable claw that you can use to grab power-ups from afar and place in one of the slots of each section or use to throw level one asteroids around the screen to hit other asteroids or ships.

now for the power up aspect of the game your core has 3 different sections the inner which is on the surface of your core and an outer section, and a middle. each section would have 6 slots for the attachment of shield power ups but the different sections use different types of power ups.the outer section would have 2 different types of star ships, mother ships that can fire 4 homing lasers but don't move, micro ships that fly around shooting things. while, the middle section uses energy shields , and laser satellites which can fire a beam cannon for a few seconds then has to recharge. then the inner would consist of gun turrets that have a very limit attack range, grinders which chew up asteroids when they hit it, then energy shields . each power up would have hps and require different amounts of slots, the claw would be invulnerable to all atk. also the energy shields would be able to be upgraded 1.

the enemies would consist of asteroids, and star ships. asteroids would have 3 different levels, big which breaks into 4 mediums, mediums that break into 2 small, and then small. then the enemy star ships would consist of micro ships, mother ships that can move but slowly, and then battle cruisers that fire energy beams in between movements.

the controls would be very simple.
left click would control the claw.
the right click would tell your mother ship, gun turrets,micro ships and laser satellites where to aim. when you right click, a circle will be place on the screen where you clicked and anything that enters that circle would be shot at.

well that's the basic idea, thanks for reading.

[fog]

Hi cryptis,
That's certainly an interesting idea.  I can't say I've had one exactly like that but I have a million and one others which I'll never have time to make.

That's the great thing about game design.  Everyone who has ever played a game has at least one idea they'd love to see developed and really it's a lot easier than you might think.....it must be if I can do it

You should check out some of the BASIC languages available or one of the many "drag-and-drop" game builders around where you have to do little or no coding at all.

You might even enjoy it

[cryptis]

well i ve tried game maker before with not much luck, and ive looked at the c languages but they were over my head. can you give me any suggestions for other drag/drop game maker programs?

[fog]

well i ve tried game maker before with not much luck, and ive looked at the c languages but they were over my head. can you give me any suggestions for other drag/drop game maker programs?

Can't say I have much experience with them but I did have a look at Torque Game Builder recently.  I stumbled across it accidentally while trying out Torque X and while it's not for me, I was pretty impressed.

Download the demo and try one of the well documented examples and see how you find it.

As far as coding is concerned like I said earlier I'd check out one of the many BASIC's before jumping into C++/C# etc.  They are fairly powerful these days and will teach you a lot of the techniques and methods you would need in C++/C# and most of the forums provide plenty of support so you should never be stuck for long.

Have fun.

[Michael_King]

For 2D game development, i recommend PureBASIC www.purebasic.com. I use it passionately for all my software needs, and it has a huge community developing many different attachments and libraries for it. The 2D engine on it is the best ive seen on any engine, plus the output exe files are incredibly optimised - meaning less size, more speed.

[fog]

For 2D game development, i recommend PureBASIC www.purebasic.com. I use it passionately for all my software needs, and it has a huge community developing many different attachments and libraries for it. The 2D engine on it is the best ive seen on any engine, plus the output exe files are incredibly optimised - meaning less size, more speed.

Is PureBASIC suitable as a starter language then?  I've never really looked at it before.

If not then I think Playbasic has a nice syntax.

[Michael_King]

I easily moved from DBPro to Purebasic.. plus purebasic is capable of doing anything C++ etc is, so you could extend its functionality with the windows API etc...

 I think its well worth it.

[cryptis]

its ok guys you dont have to find stuff for me. but i think i would rather try learning gamemaker then some of that other stuff. although i dont think ill be making anything major, probably just tinker around with it for the 3rd time.

[Michael_King]

Thats cool, though the 'drag-n-drop' development software range is quite limited, so if you ever wish to extend functionality to whatever you make in the future, purebasic, freebasic, are probably the best programming packages available.

[fog]

Thats cool, though the 'drag-n-drop' development software range is quite limited, so if you ever wish to extend functionality to whatever you make in the future, purebasic, freebasic, are probably the best programming packages available.

That's why I thought Torque Game Builder was good, especially for beginners.  You can do it all using the drag and drop interface, then as you advance you can start messing with the scripts behind that.