Swapshot, a work in progress
Community Forums/Showcase/Swapshot, a work in progress
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| I don't have screenshots to upload yet but I wanted to describe the game I'm working on and the engine so that when it is closer to being done maybe people will try it out. So, the project is a 2d game in the style of NES or Super NES artwork but I'm not restricting my use of color. I'm using a tile engine for the levels that I wrote and am still finishing. The tiles are 25 by 25 pixels and the main character isn't much bigger. I have the engine at probably 50 percent completion cause I can build levels, animated in-game objects as well as animated effects such as rain or water falling, etc. The collision system just checks interaction between the player and the few tiles around em so the system is very efficient, I was using a system to check every single tile object for range and then pixel to pixel collision but changed it so it checked the player's x and y and z then checked the nine surrounding tiles. The level is composed of an array that holds one integer per spot , and is arranged with x,y,z say, 1000 by 1000 by 3 z layers for foreground, mid-ground, and background. The size of the finished level is 25000 pixel but the memory necessary for the art and level are tiny in comparison. I'll write another post about the story and other details but I welcome questions and ideas. Just know that I am designing this project to be a product to sell, although it will be cheap cause I need money and I want people to play it. By the time it is done it will be a very long and fun game or else I wont release it till it is fun. |
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| OK , the story is fairly simple. Our protagonist is Lizzie Bartel, low paid research assistant for a human science outpost on a faraway but otherwise dull planet where low security tech is tested. Her life is otherwise uninteresting except her hobby of playing old earth video games from the Nintendo and super Nintendo era. She works hard testing a new form of laboratory aid called a swap shot. Its a handy little gun that was put together by one of the lab aids when he couldn't get a stubborn experiment back into its cage. So, ten minutes of tinkering resulted in a breakthrough in lab animal handling equipment. The idea is that you lock your self in the cage, aim the swap shot out at the animal, tag it with a shot, then the gun instantly spatially relocated you with the target and vice versa. It also helps in getting around the lab when the power is out. So, one day after work Lizzie goes to sleep with her headphones on. During the night a set of meteors suddenly changing course due to a collision caused a mass evacuation and by sheer dumb bad luck, Lizzie slept through it all. So, waking up the next day, she finds the research facility in ruins and her only tool to help her survive is the swap shot prototype left behind in the chaos. Her only aid in navigation and problem solving is P.A.L., personal avatar link, but he's not exactly nice to her, always mocking her and joking about how she is so inept. The plot will focus on her escape from the lab and what happens after that and so on. Its not all planned out but with the element that you cant shoot/kill the enemies but rather have to use them to solve puzzles should make it a fun alternative to the games out there. |
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| OK, to sum up, this project came about as my idea for a first official game, and I wanted to make a game where you didn't kill everything in sight. There's so many out there like that anyways. I wanted this to be different and to make a little money off of it and to also sell the idea of my engine as a good choice for independent blitz developers. Its a very simple engine to code and very easy to alter the purpose of the engine from top down view to side scrolling or even isometric. I'll have pictures up in a week or so but its just the first draft of the level editor and the game. I need to redraw most of the art. |
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| Sounds very interesting. Im excited to see what it looks like! I like the idea of no killing, I think it would definitely set it apart from other games. However, in my opinion I think there should be some way to eliminate some baddies, possibly later in the game. Let me know if you need any help with the graphics or any music. I would offer help coding, but from your posts I gather you are more advanced than me in that aspect. Keep up the good work! Ill keep checking back to see if the screenies are uploaded. :) Last edited 2012 |
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| Once I post the art you will see just how bad my pixel art is. I can draw furrys and stuff just fine but I'm limited with paintbrush and old games to learn from. If you think you can provide art that would significantly be better than mine I might consider letting you in on the project for 10% - 20% based on what you could contribute. I'm not expecting we would make much money off of this but any cash flow helps. I already have a friend on for 20% for various duties and I wouldn't mind the thought of loosing another 20% to someone if the art is good enough. I don't know how to get the pictures up on the forum though, any advice would be nice. I have someone already in mind for music but if that doesn't work out then I'll let ya know. You can email me samples of art you've done so I may consider it, but at least wait until I put up my screenshots so you know whether your style is compatible with my vision. |
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| Also, I forgot to mention that I have some enemy deaths in mind, such as dowsing flame enemies with water or luring boulder enemies into hydrolic,(how do you spell it?) punches to smash em. You just have to be creative with how you use your enemies to solve issues. For instance, boulder enemies are going to be useful in flattening spikes when they fall or roll over em and security droids, although they'll be a pain in the ass when I'm finished with em, will be used as escape options when everything you planned goes horribly wrong and your running away from all the water you just unleashed by picking the wrong valve to open. Its going to take work but I've got the ideas to make this game allot of fun, if you don't hate dying and then being laughed at by the computer who just showed you how stupid your latest attempt was. Ha ha. |
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| You should probably put this in a worklog... |
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| I'm sorry, I didn't realize there was a portion for this type of topic, How do I move it? The site is huge and I'm a bit new to some of this. |
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| No worries. You can't move it, unless a mod can do it for you. But it might be best just to repost it as a worklog. |
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| Thank you for the tip, for everyone who sees this, just look for the new work log named "Swapshot" and look there for future updates and very soon screenshots as soon as I can either send em to someone to post for me since I'm at a library and these stupid computers wont let me do so. Thank you for your viewing and posts |
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| Screenshots as follows for your enjoyment. These are the editor, feel free to comment. playerset.png  screenshot0.png  scrnhot2.png  screenshotnum0.png  screenshot1.png  scrnshot1.png  screenshot.png  |
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| Finally, a few new shots, mostly to show off the new interior artwork for the hallways. Editor Beta scrnshot 2.PNG  Editor Beta scrnshot 1.PNG  Editor Beta scrnshot 3.PNG  |
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