SSC Fizzle

WIP games, tools & toy projects
#1

Just a brief background of this project and me. I am very new to Java and programming in general, started learning about 4 months ago. I decided I needed an outlet to express some creativity and the SSC Fizzle kinda fell into place. This game is based off a comic book I was writing a couple years back and the style of the game is influence by The Oregon Trail, such a good little game. When I say we in the video below I am referencing my close friend, him and I are developing the story line and character design. As for the code and art work, that is me which is such a fantastic learning experience with Slick2D, LWJGL and Java in general.

Currently the structure for the Intro sequence is setup which is what you will see in the video. I am posting this at such an early stage in development because I want you guys to see it as everything unfolds. Also I will be able to look back in a year or two and get a good laugh :).

The story line is being worked out currently. The next update I put here will have the beginnings of the story line in the game, both in text and artwork.

But to elaborate on what we have so far. The game is set in the early 1930s with an experimental space program, the SSC stands for Secret Space Command. The SSC is a rouge branch of the American government and sends the Fizzle into space to spy on the party lead by Hitler (it *'ed out the word, hmm interesting. Well you know, it starts with an N and ends with azi). Something happens to the Fizzles engine while orbiting Earth and they are hurled out of our solar system. The story line up to this point is pretty solid but once you go past this point in the game the story line will differ depending on the direction you head. Throughout the game you will need to negotiate with Alien species that you meet for food, fuel, or you can choose to fight them and take the supplies, obviously risking losing the fight and damaging your ship or possible Game Over. The goal of the game is to ultimately make it back to Earth BUT there are other endings as well, you could choose to stay out there to continue the exploration.

Throughout the game there is always a possibility for you crew members to die, which if they do you will not be able to utilize their skills anymore. Their is always a chance of a mutiny if crew moral gets too low. You can run out of fuel mid journey and have to figure out a different way of getting your ship moving, also you can run out of food and everyone will starve. I wanted to make this game have different possible ways of losing and winning.

The game is meant to be pretty cheesy and have a touch of classic sifi. We want people playing to have an innocent laugh but still not so corny to where it is not taken seriously.

The video explains pretty much everything so far, 2D 8bit space adventure game. Please keep in mind the terrible audio quality is due to the broken mic I was using, have to use what you have sometimes.

800×450 28.3 KB

jc3TOTGIflw

#2

Any Gameplay? How will the game be? Also you only need the id of the video, not entire link. For example,

[nobbc]
[/nobbc]jc3TOTGIflw[nobbc]
[/nobbc]

Renders as

jc3TOTGIflw

#3

Thank you SHC for the youtube tip, it was driving me nuts haha. No game play as of yet, still working on the Intro sequence. The only way I can describe how it will play is similar to a Text Based Adventure, but I know that is very vague and probably really inaccurate. Pretty much you will be given a decision to make and it will lead you to your next destination based on your decision. There will be no animations or moving parts in the game.

#4

Story?

#5

(I put this at the top as well, you have prompted a very good question)

The story line is being worked out currently. The next update I put here will have the beginnings of the story line in the game, both in text and artwork.

But to elaborate on what we have so far. The game is set in the early 1930s with an experimental space program, the SSC stands for Secret Space Command. The SSC is a rouge branch of the American government and sends the Fizzle into space to spy on the party lead by Hitler (it *'ed out the word, hmm interesting. Well you know, it starts with an N and ends with azi). Something happens to the Fizzles engine while orbiting Earth and they are hurled out of our solar system. The story line up to this point is pretty solid but once you go past this point in the game the story line will differ depending on the direction you head. Throughout the game you will need to negotiate with Alien species that you meet for food, fuel, or you can choose to fight them and take the supplies, obviously risking losing the fight and damaging your ship or possible Game Over. The goal of the game is to ultimately make it back to Earth BUT there are other endings as well, you could choose to stay out there to continue the exploration.

Throughout the game there is always a possibility for you crewr members to die, which if they do you will not be able to utilize their skills anymore. Their is always a chance of a mutiny if crew moral gets too low. You can run out of fuel mid journey and have to figure out a different way of getting your ship moving, also you can run out of food and everyone will starve. I wanted to make this game have different possible ways of losing and winning.

The game is meant to be pretty cheesy and have a touch of classic sifi. We want people playing to have an innocent laugh but still not so corny to where it is not taken seriously.

Cheers :smiley:

#6

Sounds interesting.
Do you already know how you keep the program adding new events counting in former decisions?

#7

I have it working by setting each Alien species as an object which is tied to a variable, if your choice is to engage in a fight it will change the variable to X and if your choice is to negotiate and be friendly then it will be set to Y. That way if a you run across another Alien species and they are allies or foes with the other Alien species you encountered, then it will check the variable and give the proper reception.

This is the only way that I have come up with that works.

#8

Thats a good way to manage the diplomatical part!
But will there always be the same dialogues (or whatever)?

#9

Yes and no, the dialog will be static for each decision end point, but your choice could send you to A, B, C and so on which will result in a seemingly fluid dialog that could change every time you play (that is the goal at least). If you play the game through one way and play again with different choices another time then you will receive different results with the story line. Now with that said, if you played it through the second time the exact same way you played it through the first time then the odds are you “could” go through the same sequences.

Now that brings me to my next point, the reason why I said “could”. Once you have made your decision, lets say you choose to be friendly and offer an Alien species a trade agreement. This will look at your Players traits such as his Charisma trait, then a Random number will be generated that will act as the Aliens trait which will be compared to your trait. So even if you choose to be nice but your Player choice has bad Charisma or even good Charisma, your negotiations could fail which could lead towards a fight or just a move along please. My thought in having this style of setup will eliminate the game being 100% pre-scripted, which results in exactly that. Even I want to be able to lose while playing, even if I know the best path (which I am trying to avoid having a “best path”).

This is obviously the goal haha, always seems easier said than done but I must say that the decision system I have setup so far is actually working perfectly. :slight_smile:

#10

It looks like you are having a plan !
Keep working on this and it will be good!

#11

Thank you Drenius!