Ship Swarm Shoot-Up (pure Java)

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#1

After having life get in the way for quite a while I’m back with a second game, a pretty simple (but fun) arcade space shooter:

https://s20.postimg.org/faawh92cd/swarmpic1.jpg

You can get it for PC (Windows / Linux / Max) here: Ship Swarm Shoot-Up

Play is simple: Use Arrows (right and left) or ‘A’ and ‘D’ to move, fire with space bar, enter, or forward (arror or ‘W’). Any key but pause will start the game, and pause will pause / unpause the game.

(In a way this was the first game I tried to make, in that I tried to do something like this in Basic as a kid, but gave up when I realized I had no idea how to detect collisions.)

As I’m pretty sure I won’t actually be making money from this, even as small donations, I’ve decided to release the code as open source: https://github.com/BlackJar72/ShipSwarmShootup

#2

well done, my 2 cents:

  • add some sounds and music
  • add more enemies quickly
  • add some powerups for the player
#3

Thanks.

Well, sound, at least, is on my to-do list – I’ve just been having technical problem, first with audacity, them with microphones. The code to play it is there.

I’ll try to think of reasonable power ups or bonuses.

#4

You can also add a moving background. It will make an impression that your ship is flying through space.

#5

Well, its noisy now (but not musical yet). I was considering, not a moving back ground, but some extra stars (representing closer stars) that would move down the screen a randomly set slow speed – the give the since of movement past layers of distance.

OK, to do – add close / moving stars (and profile), add midi support, and write some music.

Then decide of I want any more enemies or any kind of power-up.

#6

write some music? You should use some stuff from: https://freesound.org/

#7

What’s the fun in that! :wink: Writing music was something I used to be into and would like to get back into it – but not for this.

I’ve decided its loud enough already; sounds already get dropped once it gets fast (I’m not sure whether to blame Java or
Linux, or if this happens on all OS’s, but I’ve seen in at least one other game). Instead I added widgets (well, buttons, at
least, and an info page. May still add moving stars…? But basically its done (I may revisit the idea of an Android port
later, or make a few tweaks, at least I think it is.