Bloodridge

WIP games, tools & toy projects Archived Projects
#1

Hi All,

I’ve been working on this game engine for a while now and it’d be good to get a bit of feedback from you guys.
It’s a browser based fantasy SPS (second person shoot-em-up).

Screenshots and a demo of the game engine are at http://www.hayles.demon.co.uk/bloodridge/bloodridge.html

(Apologies for the artwork/architecture/animation - I’m a coder really!)

What I’d like to know just now is;

  1. Does it run for you at all? I’ve checked IE and Firefox on windows - how about linux & macs - anyone?
  2. What sort of FPS are you getting? (It’s pegged at 20fps max but only really needs >15 to play smoothly)
  3. Is it fun to play? Will people play this if it’s worked up?
  4. Is it too violent for a browser game? (I feel victimised by them svarts sometimes and that’s with rubbish AI!)

I’m also wondering about the best avenue to take;

A. Human v human combat (Unreal tournament, Wolfenstein ET, Counter-strike &c) - sorta what I got now.
B. Human v bot monsters (WOW, D&D online, Guild wars &c) - mulitplayer quests with different monsters &c
C. Single player fantasy (Tomb raider &c) - no multiplayer (so no webstart/applet certificates needed) just single-player missions against bots.
D. Single or multiplayer RTS (hidden and dangerous, commandos &c) - one player controls a whole team by switching between characters.

I like A. best as it’s most exciting, but what about getting ‘bums on seats’? Which will pull most clicks?

I’d be grateful for any comments/suggestions (positive or negative!)

#2

Wow that’s really cool! Works perfectly, runs just fine on my Core Duo at least =)

I’m going to make the following control suggestions though:

  • Rip off the WoW control scheme, use Q for strafe left, E for strafe right. It works pretty well.
  • Use R for the reverse view, makes more sense anyway
  • Make the camera turn left/right a liiiitttle bit faster when you’re using the mouse. I think up/down goes faster than left/right, they should be the same speed. Slow it down for the zoom though

Not too often you see something fully playable like this just suddenly appear. Very nice.

#3

I second what NVA225 said, really cool.

On the tutorial I got ~16fps but on the missions framerates dropped to ~10fps. As you’re doing software rendering your bound by the lag caused by blitting. It might be just the blitting of your backbuffer that makes your fps drop. As an alternative you could support JOGL rendering, which support applets.

For the gamesetting I think both deathmatch and coop (multiplayer quests) would be cool!

#4

Nice work! Very smooth on my computer. I like the way how the camera got zoomed in and out when you are turning around.
It reminded me so much about Tomb Raider.

Bugs:

  1. When the first time I load the game(which is the tutorial lvl), the frame rate stays at 20. But then if I load any other lvls, the
    frame rate starts at 4 and increases a little bit every a few seconds. (evtually it will reach 20). I believe the actualy frame
    rates is much more than it shows on screen. (it should be at least 30 I think)

  2. My pc seems to have problem with the sound, I have to disable it or my OS freezes after moving around for a little
    while.

Suggestions:

  1. It would be nice if you add the health bar and energy bar.

  2. As thijs mentioned, try to make the game support JOGL(or lwjgl) if you are not sticking with Java 1.1.
    (jvm 1.1 is a dying, MS will nolonger support it after the end of 2007)

Here is my running environment :

Celeron m 1.5ghz
512 ram
Intel graphics media accelerator 915GM
JRE 1.6
(JRE 1.6 really kicks ass, everybody should have it installed it on their computer :slight_smile: )

#5

Works on Linux (Mandriva 2007 with Java 1.6), although the health meter and parts of the inventory flicker. Also, I had no audio playback, but since that’s a recurring problem on my setup, I don’t know if that’s due to your code or not.

#6

Thanks Guys!

Good to know Linux works - I know about the inventory flicker (lazy temp coding!) Sound seems to be a problem generally - I wonder if there’s a ‘work-anywhere’ sound system I don’t know about…

I’m looking at adding JOGL support but I want to be sure the software version runs ok first! 10fps sux :frowning:

I’m wondering about customisable keys and mouse sensitivity - guess I’ll need to add an options screen!

#7

on firefox on windows xp with a x2 3800+

i got average of 15fps, but it felt like it was alot more, it looked very flickery tho, i would prefer to play at the smaller resolution rather than scaling it up i think.

pretty impressive little demo.

#8

Just posted up version 0.0.2 at same address;

  • MipMapping added
  • Sound system improved - should be OK on linux now…
  • Mouse sensitivity improved
  • ‘Small view’ option added for slower machines

Keep the comments & suggestions coming!

#9

Wow, it’s great. I think keeping it in software rendering is a good idea since it actually works.

It would be great if you could increase the weapon responsiveness. When I click to shoot the bow & arrow or swing the sword there’s a minor delay in the sound and graphics before anything happens.

Amazing job, well done, I wish I could do 3D like that.

Keith

PS: The mouse aimer is a quite a bit too high in the window, so to hit anything with the sword you need to be looking straight down at it.

#10

Yeah, I know what you mean but I need to keep the timing if multiplayer’s going to work OK :- you’ve hit on one of the critical issues…

You don’t really; sword swipes aren’t aimed at all - anything in the way just gets hit. It’s another good point though. People will assume you need to aim that way (sigh). Why isn’t there a decent mouselook system in java? Maybe I should hide the crosshair for melee weapons…

#11

Version 0.0.3 posted;

  • Now supports all screen resolutions.
  • FPS counter more accurate.
#12

Excellent!!! If you use JOGL, it will be even faster and more playable. Your game is quite fun, you’re not an artist but you have done your best. It flickers a bit. If you need some help or advice to use JOGL, I’m here. I have been converting a game which mainly used AWT and Swing into JOGL and the result begins being interesting. Do you know d3caster? I’m improving the 3D engine right now. I think that you have a good base, your game is pleasant, go on working! Good job!!

#13

Vers. 0.0.4 posted;

  • First 2 missions can now be finished and link together.
  • Healthbar & Spellbar flicker removed.
  • Player can now heal themselves by casting ‘heal’ directly on their character.
  • Additional attack route added to Keep mission.
#14

That was awsome!!!
I loved the missons but i cant figure out what to do in the second one (The 1st Dungeon).
I found one bug where is you jum before you die you die in the air and your health bar starts from the right and goes left (it looks like negative health). I think you should also make the controls different: Q and E to strafe, W,A,S,D and/or arrow keys to move,and the rest the same.
This game is sweeeet!!! Keep up the good work!

#15

I found it hard to get interested in the gameplay, how about turning it into a mario cart ish kindoff game?

#16

Hi. Do you use the 3D engine called “jPCT”?? Do you plan using JOGL one day? Good luck.

#17

[quote=“Roninator,post:14,topic:29395”]
Point taken - I’ll change the keys to Q & E to strafe & R to look behind.

[quote=“g666,post:15,topic:29395”]
Maybe next game!

[quote=“gouessej,post:16,topic:29395”]
Yeah, jPCT (www.jpct.net) is free and pretty good given the small jar size. It does support LWJGL, but I think there’s issues about using this in an applet… I’d rather keep it simple.

#18

What about using Java Web Start? It would allow you to use JOGL inside an applet and it would be easy for the users to install the librairies. Nevertheless, jPCT uses LWJGL. If you really want to keep it simple as you said, you may prefer using a 3D engine rather than build your one engine. Thank you for the modifications on the keyboard configuation. ;D

#19

New version 0.0.5 now posted;

  • Extra tutorial mission added.
  • Fire button now more responsive.
  • Q & E now can be used to strafe, R to look behind.
  • AI (very slightly) improved - enemies will now ‘guard’ some locations.

[quote=“gouessej,post:18,topic:29395”]
I hadn’t planned to do a webstart version because it works fine in a browser. The idea is to get to as many people as possible and I think maybe webstart is a bit ‘techy’ for the average surfer…

#20

Webstart has been designed to be very simple for the average users. I don’t agree with you. It’s not really “tec…”.

Your game would work better as an application than inside an applet. I can proove it. As I said, I’ve been programming a game with JOGL but I started from the source of Vincent Stahl who used only AWT inside an applet. When I converted his applet into an application, the performance increased noticeably, not hugely because the slowdowns in my case depended on other factors. That’s why I think that it could be interesting for your game.

Don’t forget that Webstart is integrated in JRE 1.6 and many people use it with JRE 1.4 and 1.5. Webstart would require only a few modifications in your code, I suppose, only modifications in the files loading process. Nevertheless, you know better than me if it would really be interesting to do it.

Finally, do you plan to use only jPCT or to write your own engine one day? That’s not a critic, only a question as I respect your game. I sometimes play with it and according to the number of replies, I’m not alone in this case.