Procedural shooter concept study

WIP games, tools & toy projects
#1

I dug out an old project, and worked a bit on it again. The old thread is here, but it got locked meanwhile:

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There is a new version out, r12:

http://www.java-gaming.org/user-generated-content/members/132627/vks-shooter-study-r12.jar

Changes:

  • A new base type of enemy ship
  • The tunnel has better chances not to end up all on the screen bottom
  • Improved placement of enemy waves
  • Slightly improved star background
  • Higher enemy density

But it’s still the same … endless tunnel, endless variations of three basic enemy types, endless life, it’s just a fight for the highest score. And yes, the score drops if your ship takes damage.

Known problems:

  • Sound doesn’t work on Linux
  • Player ship still can leave the screen
  • Still no extra weapons

Edit: forgot it again …

  • Use the cursor keys to move the ship
  • Press ctrl to shoot
#2

The shell/fan type ships had a too large hitbox, gave too little score in average and had no hitpoints.
This is fixed in r13, also the shell/fan type ships got a little visual tuning.

Download:

http://www.java-gaming.org/user-generated-content/members/132627/vks-shooter-study-r13.jar

Preview:

#3
  • Player ship can’t leave the screen anymore
  • Improved generator for dendril type ships

Download:

http://www.java-gaming.org/user-generated-content/members/132627/vks-shooter-study-r14.jar

#4

Slowly it’s getting a game. I’ve changed a few mechanics.

The former “score” is now labeled “power”. Your ships gains power for destroyed enemies, and it loses power if hit, or in collisions with enemies and tunnel walls. If the ships power drops to 0, the game is lost.

At the start you get a 15 second grace time, to survive at zero power and shoot some enemies. After that, it’s just you or them.

A new scoring has been introduced - a counter at the top right that measures how deep you get into the tunnel. Basically that measures how long you survived. I think it’s possible to survive forever, but so far I lost sooner or later in my tests.

The tunnel got some random colors in this release, and the colors change slowly over time.

The new game over screen

Download (27k):

http://www.java-gaming.org/user-generated-content/members/132627/vks-shooter-study-r15.jar

Use the cursor keys to move the ship. Shoot with control.

Still no sound on Linux. I’m not sure how to solve the problem, since on the same hardware, it works with Windows but not with Linux. I believe this is because of the way I try to play samples at different frequencies, by changing the sample rate. The Windows sound subsystem can play “weird” sample rates, the Linux subsystem doesn’t. But I’m not sure if this is the only problem.

#5

The next evolution step - bonus drops and extra weapons. Enemies have now a 1.5% chance to leave a power orb, red, gree or purple, which will give you up to three extra weapons. To get the weapon, you need to pick up the orb with your ship.

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Download (30k):

http://www.java-gaming.org/user-generated-content/members/132627/vks-shooter-study-r16.jar

Steer with the arrow keys. Shoot with control.

PS: The tunnel wall color overlflow/underflow bug is fixed. If you ever ran into it …

#6

I had no idea what I was doing, but great fun anyway (been playing for about 5 minutes). It was simple to pickup and the gameplay instantly made sense. I found it to be just like the space-based shooting flash games I used to play. I’ll play some more and see if I can pick up on any problems.

#7

Thank you. It really isn’t much more than a very simple shooter. The special thing is that all the graphics are procedurally generated on runtime, and therefore there can be endless variations of the enemies.

A while I had hope that I can fit it into 4k, to enter one of the 4k gaming contests, but it soon outgrew that, now at 30k code. But I’m still very pleased with that, to generate so much variety and even at times good looking enemies, with such a little program.

#8

Now with more fireworks!

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Actually I wanted to take a break from the project, but I felt bored and so I’ve been working on a new explosion type, which reminds much of firework effects. Also I could improve the former, cloudy explosions a little. Explosions types are 50/50 assigned to the ship types, so each type should show with equal frequency overall, even if in some areas the one or other type is more frequent.

There were bugs in some of the graphics routines, but I’m not sure if they affected more than the explosions. The basic gameplay is unchanged.

Download (30k):

http://www.java-gaming.org/user-generated-content/members/132627/vks-shooter-study-r17.jar

Steer with the cursor keys, shoot with control. Avoid the space unless you’re game over.