larrymurk
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File: shootit.exe (2.2 MB)
Downloaded 68 times.
License: Public Domain

My brother Doug and I love making computer games. I thought it'd be fun to get any people who are interested to get involved in our latest project.

The game is currently like robotron/geometry wars. You have a ship that automatically shoots. The ship is moved with the mouse-- no other controls are used.
I was really thinking it'd be fun to make this more of an adventure where you might collect keys, gold, powerups..

I think the first priority is figuring out if this should be a simple shooter or what type of fun adventure we might try.

I'm writing the game in Game Maker 7 for the PC. I've attached the executable to this post. If people can't download an executable, just tell me and I can change the extension or something. I'll attach the source to the next post.

Please feel free to get involved in any way-
testing/commenting
game overview
story
art
music
..

I should mention: Press ESCAPE at any time to quit game.

---

[Last edited by larrymurk at 02-11-2010 03:08 PM]

larrymurk
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File: shootit.gmk (55.5 KB)
Downloaded 48 times.
License: Public Domain

Game Maker 7 source

Tim
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I think you've got the core gameplay there.

There are a couple of core things I'd like to see:

1. Monsters should not be able to move on top of each other. (Because it's confusing for the player.)
2. The player shoot be able to shoot in more (or less) directions than it is now. (Because it's annoying as it is now.)

The next thing you should focus on are powerups.

Make sure your engine is able to:

1. Shoot in different speeds.
2. Shoot in different directions.
3. Move in different speeds.
4. Move in different directions.
5. Health potions.
6. Switches/Keys and doors.
7. Walls.

After that it's simply a case of level design.

As for the decision whether it's a dungeon/space/zombie shooter, that's up to you. I still have some 8x8 graphics left from my DS project that you can use if you want to.

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larrymurk
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1911
Registered: 12-09-2004
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-- my comments follow dashes like this.

Tim wrote:
I think you've got the core gameplay there.

There are a couple of core things I'd like to see:

1. Monsters should not be able to move on top of each other. (Because it's confusing for the player.)
-- i think we want monsters to overlap, not sure though.

2. The player shoot be able to shoot in more (or less) directions than it is now. (Because it's annoying as it is now.)
-- movement and shooting angle definitely need some major work. right now i just move the ship to the latest mouse position and fire in that direction. unfortunately that doesn't seem to work too well


The next thing you should focus on are powerups.

Make sure your engine is able to:

1. Shoot in different speeds.
-- i can set this pretty much no probs

2. Shoot in different directions.
3. Move in different speeds.
4. Move in different directions.
-- 2-4 i agree these need major work

5. Health potions.
-- enemies do have health. we'd have to decide how to add player health if we want it. Would you have extra ships so you restart room when you die? Would an enemy hit you maybe for how much health it has and you survive if your health is still high enough?

6. Switches/Keys and doors.
-- these should be easy enough to add

7. Walls.
-- i made walls and a pushable block. i'll have to put them in a room.

After that it's simply a case of level design.

As for the decision whether it's a dungeon/space/zombie shooter, that's up to you. I still have some 8x8 graphics left from my DS project that you can use if you want to.
-- tx. for now i'm not going to worry much about graphics.

Tim
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My comments in ****

1. Monsters should not be able to move on top of each other. (Because it's confusing for the player.)
-- i think we want monsters to overlap, not sure though.
**** The reason I said that is that most of the current levels you have lots of smiling faces. At the moment they tend to be on top of each other, and it's confusing if a red happy face is on top, but when you shoot it it doesn't disappear, but the bottom one. What do you think?

2. The player shoot be able to shoot in more (or less) directions than it is now. (Because it's annoying as it is now.)
-- movement and shooting angle definitely need some major work. right now i just move the ship to the latest mouse position and fire in that direction. unfortunately that doesn't seem to work too well
**** I've just looked at the code, and I don't think there's a lot of code change if you want to shoot 2 way or 4 way. I don't think there's an easy way to make the mouse shoot in more precise directions. Perhaps only moving the player if the mouse button is held?


Make sure your engine is able to:

1. Shoot in different speeds.
-- i can set this pretty much no probs

2. Shoot in different directions.
3. Move in different speeds.
4. Move in different directions.
-- 2-4 i agree these need major work
**** I don't think 4 is needed yet. 2 can be added easily (see my earlier comment). If 3 is too difficult, how about moving only half speed and double speed?

**** I'd also like another "bullet set" that has double power.

5. Health potions.
-- enemies do have health. we'd have to decide how to add player health if we want it. Would you have extra ships so you restart room when you die? Would an enemy hit you maybe for how much health it has and you survive if your health is still high enough?
**** That depends on what kind of game you want. If you want lives you'll get Robotron, and if you have health you'll get Gauntlet. I'd like to have infinite lives (like DROD), perhaps an shield system (destroy a shield instead of your life)?


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The best way to lose customers is to let little kids running loose on a forum with too many mod points.

larrymurk
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I think I'll add some of these things next. Unless someone comes up with great ideas on how to make the movement/shooting run better I'll probably wait for my brother to return from vacation to see what we can come up with.

Banjooie
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Let them overlap but not entirely, then? Like--

let's say it's 32x32 pixels

The middle 6x6 pixel is no-collide, the rest is fair game.