The Genesis of S’troidz!
Jun/093
To really kick off My Game Experiment it’s probably a good idea to come clean with what the heck I’m really building. Saying it’s “an Asteroids-style shooter with a few tweaks” isn’t saying much at all so let me to present some details.
The game is called, S’troidz! and it is Asteroids-like in that there are enormous rocks floating around that you need to destroy. There’s also the occasional visit from those pesky aliens. Unlike Asteroids however it will have several different alien ships, various power-ups, bonus points awarded for fast play and music.
One important decision I made about S’troidz! that I hope I don’t end up regretting is integrating what could be called “Dynamic Game Balancing“. Experienced developers might also call this “Bull Crap”. They’re probably right but I have a poor man’s version wired up that seems to be working well so far. The details behind it will be covered in a future post. Anyhoo… let’s look at some concept art!
S'troidz! Concept Art
If that didn’t whet your appetite for more S’troidz! just wait till the next post when you get to play a demo from the latest iteration!
Stay tuned!
7:37 am on June 18th, 2009
One step at a time! Step 1. Get a ship on-screen. Step 2: make it respond to keyboard input. Step 3. Make it accelerate the longer the button is held. Step 4. Make it decelerate when the button is released, until it stops. Step 5. Make it wrap from one end of the screen to the other.
Those five steps are more than enough to chew on for a first-timer. Complexity from simplicity.
8:41 am on June 18th, 2009
Agreed! I’ve been tinkering with each of those individual components for a few weeks now and have them tied into something that I think is playable. The idea to blogify the journey came a bit later. Everything should be caught up in the next post.
Thanks so much for visiting. I haven’t been able to accomplish anything without the help from experienced developers and your (and their) input and guidance is greatly appreciated!