The Omega Sector [ Early demo available ]

WIP games, tools & toy projects
#1

Hi. I thought I would just share a bit of what I’m currently doing. I’m programming a top-down scrolling space shooter. I am not really comfortable releasing any playable demo yet, but here is at least a screenshot. I guess there’s more to come :wink:

For a full-size version, go to http://i35.tinypic.com/2yycuwy.jpg

#2

I wish you to succeed, the screenshot is nice. Good luck.

#3

Thanks Gouessej. Progress is slow between the job, the mrs. and the 3 kids, but hopefully I’ll have a playable demo up soon. It will be available in all the OS’s.

#4

Good idea!

Do you plan to release the source code one day? It might be interesting for many people, especially for beginners. One of my friends tries to put a lot of Java source codes on his website for them and he has had some very good feedback:
http://mylinux.ifrance.com/sources/doku.php

#5

It looks really nice! :smiley:

I’m eager to play it.

#6

In theory you should have more people to help with coding, but then again it’s harder to manage the team :wink:

Don’t worry about releasing early, though. It’s the best way to get feedback on game play.

Bill

#7

Thanks for the positive replies guys. Great to keep the motivation afloat. And yeah, progress is slower than it has to be because I’ve been mostly alone so far. Luckily, a friend is joining in the development, so we’ll be at least 2 people from now on. And as luck has it, he’s been able to capture the interest of an artist and a sound guy, so before you know it, we’re a little team. (Crossing my fingers here). So far, I’ve done the artsy stuff, and well, I’m definitely no artist. So, all in all, it’s going to be a fun ride, so stay tuned.

#8

Do a diary! It does wonders for motivation.

Cas :slight_smile:

#9

That’s a great idea. Going to try to make that happen.

#10

Alright, there’s a blog / diary / venting channel up for anyone interested. It’s located at http://www.omegasector.org

Cheers.

#11

This looks like a cool idea, I’ll be waiting for a playable.

#12

I’m tempted to release a demo once the first playable level is complete. I figure it might be smart to get some feedback on the playability before everything gets nailed down. I’ll try to keep some status here as well, but the blog page will be the main channel of information I guess :slight_smile:

#13

The blog has a couple of new entries, one with an animated gif showing some basic impact effects (with and without shields).

Cheers.

#14

For a new screenshot of the menu :slight_smile:

http://www.omegasector.org/2008/11/menu-screenshot/

Otherwise, I have to say things are coming along nicely. (although slowly, as usual). Hopefully I can show off a playable demo version soon.

#15

Nice menu, I like the effect around the O. I hope the frame rate in your game is more stable than in this demo. Is “Omega Sector” now the definitive name of your game?

#16

I guess it has turned out as the final title :slight_smile: I never came up with anthing better, - and it fits I guess!

The lousy framrate is due to the frame capture (which is some hasty code I wrote, and thus not very optimal). The actual framerate of the game is actually surprisingly stable :slight_smile:

#17

So, the first demo version is available!

Link: http://www.filesavr.com/omegasector

Unpack the rar file and run the bat file (or execute the jar with increased memory pool)

Now this is really an early version.

What does it offer?

  • A semi functional main menu .
  • A demo level with a few different entities.
  • A couple of different weapons.

How will this demo evolve?

  • Will include scoring, proper loss of lives, and “game over” states.
  • Credits screen
  • Highscore
  • Optimization. Currently the demo is not optimized for performance or for size. Uses immediate rending, for instance.

How does it differ from what the game hopefully will look like in the end?

  • Game will have plot and story, demo is sort of generic.
  • Game will have 2player hotseat
  • Game will have a multitude of weapons, enemies, levels, etc. etc.

Hopefully people will be able to run it, - I’ve only had the chance to test on my 1 computer.

All feedback appreciated, but keep it nice and civil please.

Keys used:

In menu: Left/Right arrow and Spacebar.
In game: Arrow keys to move, Spacebar to shoot (or left mouse button), and Shift to change weapons.

Note that hitting ESC in the demo is kind of bugged, so don’t do it :wink:

#18

Can you do Webstart? Not a fan of .bat and I have a Mac anyways. I guess I can go into the terminal and type java blah blah…

#19

I can’t do webstart right now sadly, need some proper hosting first…

You can go to the directory you unpack the rar, and do “java -Xms64m -Xmx256m -jar omegasector.jar” from the command line, f.ex.

Would be really nice to see if it worked on a Mac.

#20

I’ve got Java 1.5, as unfortunately most Macs still do. Freaking Apple. :’(

So anyway ClassDefUnsupportedError or whatever it’s called.