Who wants to help me Beta test?

[Covar]

For the last assignment in my Computer Graphics course we were tasked with building an extremely simple 2d game, primary suggestion being something like Tempest. So I went and made something like Tempest.

Anyway I have everything I need to ace it, but I have until tomorrow to fine tune things, and figured what better way to do that then to get feedback from you guys (probably anything else, but what can you do )?

The game was written in C# using XNA, as such it's windows only (sorry mac users). Yea it sucks, but so does writing a Ray Tracer in XNA (grrrr). Anyway The zip should have everything you need to install the game, and when you're finished you can uninstall it from the Control Panel.

Already on my list is to add game states, so I can have a title screen, and a game over screen, and to refactor how I build the playing area so it can support some of the crazier designs that you see this kind of game.

Heads up Blue triangles are innocents, other than that you just...

Controls

• Left Arrow or 'A' : Move ship to the left
• Right Arrow or 'D': Move ship to the right
• Spacebar: Fire laser

 

[GasBandit]

Ok, but it better have a fast techno tocatta and fugue remix in it.

 

[makare]

it seems to work fine.....

I suck at it though.

 

[General Specific]

I started randomly rapid firing and got my score into the negatives. After that, it kept going into the negatives and the triangles seemed to come at much slower intervals. Do the shots just keep flying indefinitely and hitting targets I can't even see yet?

 

[GasBandit]

Maaaan this is installing so slow.
Added at: 16:42
Ok... couple things... triangles are often too close together, and the ship should move when they key is pressed, not when it is released.
Flight of the Valkyries is acceptable. I guess.

 

[Covar]

it seems to work fine.....

I suck at it though.

Don't worry, so do I.

I started randomly rapid firing and got my score into the negatives. After that, it kept going into the negatives and the triangles seemed to come at much slower intervals. Do the shots just keep flying indefinitely and hitting targets I can't even see yet?

No, they should be dying either when they collide with an Enemy or Innocent, or travel farther then the blue boxes. It could just be as it gets farther away the projection transform is causing it the line to not render. I think I might shorten the range, see if that makes the issue more obvious.

Maaaan this is installing so slow.
Added at: 16:42
Ok... couple things... triangles are often too close together, and the ship should move when they key is pressed, not when it is released.
Flight of the Valkyries is acceptable. I guess.

Thankfully the project requires me to turn in the source code and assets.

Glad you approve the music, it's Public Domain which makes it okay to use. Triangles too close is noted, I'll try forcing greater distribution in the ranges. Movement is tricky. If I don't have the Key release then the ship moves just way to fast, making it too hard to stop on a specific plane. I could probably stick a timer in there instead of a key lock. I'll take a look.

Thanks guys, big help so far.

 

[makare]

If I made a videogame like that every time you hit the right target the background would respond in some way like with light or colors. I'd get all pavlovy with lights and colors... I blame nintendo.

 

[Covar]

I agree with the movment/firing keyup issue. I'd instead do it on keydown and institute a timer (as you mentioned) so that firing/movment only happens every X times a second while the key is held down. I imagine you're likely instituting a cyclical game engine (some routine that runs over and over again, updating positions and doing hit testing, etc)--in that case you don't even really need a timer. You can also just institute a counter--person presses key, ship moves/fires. Every cycle, if the key is still down, increment the counter, else reset it to 0. After x increments, counter resets itself and ship moves/fires again.

Also, how does the game end? There doesn't appear to be any lives or any other way to signal the actual end of the game.

By default XNA games have an update loop that attempts to run at 60 fps and a draw loop which attempts to sync with the display. So without some kind of timer or keyup lock it will process a keypress at 60Hz. I'll put in a timer later tonight or this morning and look into slowing just that part down some.

As for the end of game, the game currently only runs. I'll be putting int various game states soon, title_screen, main_game, and game_over. So when the score gets down to 0 the game will end. Maybe see about tracking the time spent playing so that you can see a stat after you lose.

If I made a videogame like that every time you hit the right target the background would respond in some way like with light or colors. I'd get all pavlovy with lights and colors... I blame nintendo.

Does a Wilhelm scream when you shoot blue triangles count? Because it does that now. It's a little horrifying.

 

[makare]

By default XNA games have an update loop that attempts to run at 60 fps and a draw loop which attempts to sync with the display. So without some kind of timer or keyup lock it will process a keypress at 60Hz. I'll put in a timer later tonight or this morning and look into slowing just that part down some.

As for the end of game, the game currently only runs. I'll be putting int various game states soon, title_screen, main_game, and game_over. So when the score gets down to 0 the game will end. Maybe see about tracking the time spent playing so that you can see a stat after you lose.


Does a Wilhelm scream when you shoot blue triangles count? Because it does that now. It's a little horrifying.

huh I didnt hear anything. In fact it took me a while to realize I was shooting the wrong triangles.... even though you told us what to do.

 

[Covar]

huh I didnt hear anything. In fact it took me a while to realize I was shooting the wrong triangles.... even though you told us what to do.

It's in my latest build.

Here's an updated version, with the Wilhelm Scream, shorter laser range, and simple game states. Spacebar moves from the first screen to the game, and from game over back to the title screen. I'll redo the controls tomorrow morning.

 

[Covar]

Fixed controls. Everyone was right it's much more smooth this way, makes the game a little easier in that the controls don't get in the way. The game also gets progressively harder the longer you stay alive.

You can get the latest version (and the one I'm turning in) here.

Thanks for all the feedback.