SyntaxBomb - Indie Coders

Hopefully I've linked that right.

Anyone remember this game from around 1983 on the Vic 20? I'm guessing probably not but I was a huge fan as a teenager. There were very few Vic games I played more than Envahi.

I'm doing my own take on this but deliberately not going overboard with remaking it. Core gameplay remains mostly the same but I am tinkering with some bits to make it better. Definitely aiming for pretty tough to play like the original though.

As for the theme, it's kind of both Airwolf and Dambusters as in you fly a super helicopter trying to take out different types of aliens to prevent them breaking the Dam, causing the city to flood, or just flat out invading it.

Going with some editing on some actual photo's of city backdrops that are freely available and pretty small graphics for the player and enemies as the game is played on a static screen. The beauty of the game is in the variety of different alien types you need to deal with. The video does show all of them on the Vic version. My plan is to put them all in and tweak them a bit, then maybe think up a couple of new ones, if I have time. So far I'm doing pretty well as the Cloud with acid rain and the Grabber are already in. The Dam eaters are what I'm currently working on so I'm on target to have time to tart it up a bit once the gameplay is rock-solid.

I'll put up a couple of screenshots once I can actually get some decent graphics for the aliens as it's full of coder art mixed in with some purchased helicopter assets, and doesn't look too great right now.

Well on tartget so far anyway...

Quote from: Derron on February 05, 2018, 23:42:21BTW: Willkommen im Forum/Welcome to the forum

Thanks, it took me an embarrassingly long time to end up here

I reworked the title screen image:


Now I think I'm allowed to call it pixel art 

@ Adam
Looks like something is summoned there - or exorcised :-)


And it seems to be of a bad idea to loose a coin in that room - it will be lost forever in all those chamfers/creases.


bye
Ron

Could be... I wonder what it is?

Initial provision for 128 individual tiles complete, now starting work on campaign structures and layout...

Cool idea!  I get lots of AAA ideas with this and super complicated stuff.  Oh, and someone already made Get to Tha Choppa!!!

@iWasAdam - that looks pretty cool   my game looks pretty archaic in comparison

it's not about how it looks (that can help  ), but how it plays...
I don't have a game as there is nothing to play. But I'm getting there slowly. At least you can see the progress and how it all fits together this time

Looks great Adam.

But we really need a Worklog Section.  This has gone far off topic seeing as this is a game engine design, rather than an actual game for the Competition.

Going back to the original topic of the thread then, how many people are actually working on a game for competition 4?

And how many are going to give an idea of what they're doing?

I think I'm the only person who's basically spilled exactly what they're working on and the theme but maybe I missed something?

As we're a two weeks into the ten week time limit now I'm expecting most people have had thoughts and are working on their games by now,  so they have a chance to make the deadline.

I've got one more enemy type to put into mine before I put in a level selection system and then start balancing it. I went for a different approach to some of the other games I've worked on and started putting all the elements of the game in before starting to think about how they are going to be balanced. At present I'm hard-core enough at it to just play with everything thrown at me as fast as it can but I'll probably go a bit easier on players in the end

You can play it as a game now, even without the dam buster enemies but the graphics are so bad that I'm reluctant to put a video up on it as yet.

I've put some screenshots up on my blog yesterday but please don't judge it for looking terrible at present. There's still a long way to go. It actually already plays pretty well when it's all moving, even at this stage.

QuoteGoing back to the original topic of the thread then, how many people are actually working on a game for competition 4?

I don't know how many are entering

I will be entering ( providing all work hell doesn't break loose ).

QuoteI think I'm the only person who's basically spilled exactly what they're working on and the theme but maybe I missed something?

I've not spelt out exactly what I am doing but I have posted one image ( unfinished ) for the theme of my game.



It's a squad based game where you have to work as a team and individually. That's all I'm gonna give away

Good choice Qube 

I'm sitting this one out and working on a game I've been wanting to write for a while.

The art style has changed from rendered to pixel art after enjoying the Retro Competition (sadly too ill to complete my game).

After that I intend to complete my Retro Competition Entry - but without any restrictions.  So basically it will look prettier.   

QuoteBut we really need a Worklog Section.  This has gone far off topic seeing as this is a game engine design, rather than an actual game for the Competition.

We do have a worklogs forum section https://www.syntaxbomb.com/index.php/board,52.0.html ( created about 10 days ago-is ).

Cool.  A few of us obviously missed that.

[troll]
I wonder who posts the most screenshots ? Yue ? Adam ?
[/troll]

Well Adam posts screenshots every 4 seconds - but Yue posts bigger pictures