Star Scavengers - Syntax Bomb Game Competition Sept to Oct 2018

[Matty]

Greetings folks,

I started work on a game for the game competition which will be called 'Star Scavengers'.

Basic title screen put together (this may change of course) - it's meant to be scratchy and scribbly....to fit with the name of 'star scavengers'

http://www.mattiesgames.com/starscavengers/


Code written so far: (rest of my framework that I've written is already available)
http://www.mattiesgames.com/starscavengers/gamedataonline.js

Gameplay:

Outfit a squad of space scavengers with equipment, navigate through mazelike space hulks and fight enemy while collecting artefacts and credits to upgrade your space scavengers with better equipment.

Each scavenger has unique stats, name and appearance, and gains experience/rank etc. When one or more of them die you get given new fresh green recruits and have to build them up again......

title page screenshot if you don't want to follow the link:

This will be another web game....

[Qube]

You've done all this within 7hrs of the comp posting? 

Looking forward to seeing a super duper maze based game if you are working at this rate 

*EDIT* I'm still thinking if I have time to enter and have not even pressed one key or clicked the mouse in regards to the comp

[Matty]

Qube...it's easy...."I have no life" - that's how I do it.. ha ha ha

[Matty]

Mission briefing.

[Matty]

Beginning of 'squad gear store' area built....graphics are mostly placeholder currently....

The avatars for the scavengers are head and body with multiple heads and multiple bodies to build in uniqueness and add an rpg style element to the game.

The game will have different items purchaseable which either add to stats or perform functions in the maze area.

The maze area won't be turned based - I've decided it will be real time - with single clicks to control your scavengers.

Click - to walk..it will be grid based, for the purposes of path finding, but it will transition smoothly from cell to cell.

The most time consuming part of the coding will be the 'battle maze' section - as expected - but at this stage I'm doing all the preliminary work first.

So the next step to do is to build all the different elements that can be purchased...make sure they swap in and out of the inventory successfully and then once that is done to build the maze component.

I have code for building maze like dungeons that will come in handy for this feature - it is a carve routine.

Basically it works as follows:

Place a connected path through the maze in a well defined shape - such as an O or a D or something to start with.

Then pick cells and if a cell has a certain number of adjacent empty cells neighbouring (3 or 4) then carve out a hole on a random chance and keep doing this until a certain number of cells have been cleared.

(placeholder gui for now)


And the backdrop;

[Matty]

Beginnings of the mazelike environment:

[Matty]

Star Scavengers Outline / Dev Log

Basic idea of gameplay:
Explore, fight and search for items in a maze and collect 'credits' and other things.
Interact with elements in the maze.
Purchase new gear and upgrade your squad.


'Game To Do'

Interface.
Click on ground to move-need pathfinding.
Click on object to interact (if in right position eg next to door, line of sight of monster)

Visual displays of health should be near the avatars.

Information not needed close at hand:
Stats other than health.
Equipment.
Name.

If mouse over squad member then display detailed stats in corner at half size of squad store/purchase screen
Basically a reduced size inventory and stats layout-transparent too.

Info to display on avatar itself:
Health

Console at base of screen to display text-actions performed-last 4 or 5. (as in a an rpg)

Game is real-time step based. Real time in the way baldurs gate was. (ie it plays in rounds with discrete actions but appears
on the surface to be real time)

Not arcade.

Bar at top of screen to display:
Credits (current)
Oxygen level / time remaining (basically a time limit per level)
Artefacts found and how many remain to be found

Level ends when all artefacts found or oxygen ends or avatars are all dead.

Oxygen just a time limit. (not gameover)

Mission brief: change later.

Interact things:

Doors. Open when touch and next to.
Enemies...shoot when clicked in los.

Gas/radiation clouds test v fortitude d20 + 5 to see if injured.
Basically roll d20 and score under fort + 5 to avoid injury.

Only draw visible tiles within x squares of avatar. Ones at edge are half brightness. Maybe. Simple lighting technique
for speed.

Other things to interact with:
???computers???switches???

Interacting with a computer is like ingesting a potion in a roguelike-unknown results:

1.open all doors.
2.play music-attract monsters.
3.show map to artefact with path.
4.remove all gas clouds.
5.give more oxygen (useful)
....

Need a tutorial especially on each screen:advisor on/off-tells player instructions.

[Qube]

Wow, that's some real quick progress you've made there - Looks promising

I have an idea for a game but today I got as far as putting a cube into Cheetah3D before urgent work pilled in. So great progress from my side

[Derron]

Yes, seems to progress pretty quick. Too quick? Maybe Matty get's unrecognized help by the one refilling his refrigerator and opening his doors - a ghostly developer!

Seriously: keep up the pace and we should be able to have 2 weeks full of "polishing ideas" to make it look way cooler.


@ drawn sprites
The benefit of drawing with a drawing tablet on the computer is: you can get of the white background pretty easily. Another option would be to try out some plugins - I am sure there exist some which are able to set the white outside as "transparent" (including a little feather at the borders) or even are able to set the border-nearly-white-pixels to "nearly transparent" (like photoshop&co. when you select hair...)



bye
Ron

[Matty]

Thanks for the comments.  Much appreciated.  Yes polishing will get done later.  Just need to keep the scope small enough to manage to have a couple of weeks at the end.

[Matty]

Added in the following so far:

Path finding.
Basic lighting
Health Bar
Console Text Box
Mini Inventory/Stats on Screen
Oxygen Meter

[Matty]

Before work this morning:

New backdrop for 'terminal' interface (when accessing computer terminals in the level)
New buttons for 'terminal' interface
Start of code for terminal interface.

Note - at a terminal the user can do the following:
Buy more oxygen
Buy more equipment
Review the map (with details shown on it)
Exit the terminal

[Matty]

There are now computer terminals around the map that you buy more oxygen, buy more equipment, look at the map and so on.

Time to add 'credits and artefacts'....

Then time to add 'gas clouds/radiation clouds'

...and then time to add enemies....and bullets/effects

Terminal


Map


Terminal Background

[Matty]

Gas clouds (and they work too!)

Rebreather and/or life support devices improve your probability of not being damaged by gas clouds.

[Matty]

ZOMBIES!!!!

BANG!BANG!BANG!