Challenge: Video Game Makers in the Playground

[Tyndmyr]

A jar can be run locally, so all you need is a file server. I can arrange hosting for that. As in, I've got a server with ludicrous bandwidth and unused capacity.

[-skimmer-]

So I've spent last 2 hours just flying around like this with nothing to shoot at....

[SamBurke]

Is it possible to be a judge as well?

[spectralphoenix]

As I understand it, this is an unjudged challenge rather than an "Iron Programmer." If this is to be a competition, we're going to need a much clearer theme and ruleset. Further, I would recommend that the judges be people with a good understanding of programming themselves.

On that note, I'd like to give this a shot as well. I'm thinking of making a Missile Command game in Microsoft Silverlight.

[SamBurke]

True, but still.

If we're talking about code, I'm not an expert. At all.

However, judging/rating/ranking/critiquing games/art/play etc, I can do.

[Tyndmyr]

Yeah, I'm thinking more personal challenge/learning exercises than a competition. It might be a fun idea later, but I feel like we have a lot of people here interested in learning, and working on that is probably best for now.

That said, hopefully people will toss up their games for others to play, critique, etc. I'm thinking about doing a missile command knockoff...or a top-down flying game. Or a moon lander game. Still indecisive. It'll definitely be 2d in C#, though. I've already got the parallax working for layered backgrounds.

[super dark33]

So I've spent last 2 hours just flying around like this with nothing to shoot at....

The lack of enemies isnt that bad.

its pretty good, the background stars, the closer stars, the spaceship itself looks nice,

7/10 overall.

[-skimmer-]

The lack of enemies isnt that bad.

its pretty good, the background stars, the closer stars, the spaceship itself looks nice,

7/10 overall.

You realize it wasn't my entry yet

[super dark33]

yup, still rating that to make you feel happy.

[Emmerask]

Well, RPGMaker has a free trial.

Or, you can use a more generalized language...if it's a very simple RPG, you can aim for that with anything. I've personally built a reasonably complex RPG in visual basic(flipped into shooter mode in combat). I know there's a starter kit for making an RPG in XNA as well. You should be able to strip graphics off either the XNA site or the Torque site.

Links:

Garage Games: Makers of torque 3d engine, a few other fun things. Very powerful, documentation is sometimes lacking.

Milkshape: My personal favorite 3d modeling app. Not as powerful as 3d studio or blender, but remarkably easy to use. Also cheap($25, IIRC). Note that you only need something like this if doing 3d.

Paint.Net: Free graphics app. It ain't photoshop but it beats the hell out of the standard Paint. And it's free.

RPGMaker: Specialized RPG app. Easy top-down RPG building, not particularly useful for other things.

Visual Studio Express: Free compilers for C#, C, Visual Basic, etc. Microsoft is pretty good about such things. If you prefer linux, hit up Mono instead.

XNA: The XNA library for C#. Grab it and the microsoft C# compiler and you're in business. I recommend the app hub for starters.

Another link to add:

turbosquid which is pretty awesome resource for textures and 3d models, some of them cost money but there is tons of free stuff which can be used in freeware/shareware applications without a problem.

And yes paint.net is pretty good especially if you install all those nice plugins.

I personally would stay away from the free visual studio version since it lacks some key features you really want to have to speed up development time.
As far as I remember (it is some time now) you couldn´t even auto generate getters and setters and there was no auto completion or refactoring.
The normal version is great however.

Instead I would use sharp develop which is a complete ide and not just half of it

For java programming either netbeans or eclipse work both just fine and have all the features you want.

[super dark33]

So hows your progress on these games guys? (and gals)

[dragonsamurai77]

Definitely interested.

[-skimmer-]

So hows your progress on these games guys? (and gals)

Slow but steady....plenty of time until the end of august though

[Tyndmyr]

Yeah, same same. Lots of idea making and preliminary poking about. Digging for graphics and what not(may have to make em all...bleh. Hate doing that). Actual coding starts once I know what Im coding precisely.

[super dark33]

Programmers, whats your status over?

[Trazoi]

Programmers, whats your status over?

Status: sick and taking it slow. I did however managed to get all the tools for ActionScript games in Flash set up.

The thrilling mandatory first program!

Spoiler

Show

[dragonsamurai77]

Programmers, whats your status over?

Status: composing very basic soundtrack, trying to think of attack patterns*

*I'm making a danmaku ("bullet hell") continuation of Space Invaders, but am having trouble thinking up some bullet patterns. Any suggestions?

[SamBurke]

Erm, bullet patterns? Not sure what you're asking.

[Domochevsky]

If in doubt, go with flowers.

[dragonsamurai77]

Erm, bullet patterns? Not sure what you're asking.

Basically, the main point of danmaku games is that the enemies don't simply shoot at you; they carpet the entire screen with layers of bullets. To program such a game, you need to think of beautiful and deadly patterns for them to follow.

If in doubt, go with flowers.

If I can figure out how to program them, I certainly will.

[ShiningStarling]

I have a simple game of this genre already made, but it is a file, how would i show it?

[spectralphoenix]

I have a simple game of this genre already made, but it is a file, how would i show it?

Depends on what kind of file it is. If it's an executable, just put it on a free web hosting service. If it's a .swf or the like, it might be easier to just embed it in a site and talk to one of the people who offered to host games in the beginning of the thread. If it uses third party software to run, make sure you link to the site where that comes from.

[dragonsamurai77]

I am ready to present the first demo of my game, featuring 5 of the 20 bullet patterns it will eventually have. It's not very hellish right now, because I plan for the patterns to start simple and get much worse as they go on. Any thoughts and ideas will be very appreciated.

Controls:
Arrow keys-move
Hold Z-fire
Hold Shift-move more slowly

Download:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=TGP5DOSX

[Domochevsky]

I am ready to present the first demo of my game, featuring 5 of the 20 bullet patterns it will eventually have. It's not very hellish right now, because I plan for the patterns to start simple and get much worse as they go on. Any thoughts and ideas will be very appreciated.

Controls:
Arrow keys-move
Hold Z-fire
Hold Space-move more slowly

Download:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=TGP5DOSX

First thought: Z is always a crap key, since it sits somewhere else on non-english keyboards. (in the top row, to be exact, switching places with Y.)

Second thoughts:
That is one big invader. oO
Space for slowdown doesn't work.
Hitboxes don't corespond with the ship size?
Damage to the enemy is not implemented yet, i presume.

Onwards! o/

[super dark33]

I am ready to present the first demo of my game, featuring 5 of the 20 bullet patterns it will eventually have. It's not very hellish right now, because I plan for the patterns to start simple and get much worse as they go on. Any thoughts and ideas will be very appreciated.

Controls:
Arrow keys-move
Hold Z-fire
Hold Space-move more slowly

Download:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=TGP5DOSX

its temporerly unavailble for me. to download.

[dragonsamurai77]

First thought: Z is always a crap key, since it sits somewhere else on non-english keyboards. (in the top row, to be exact, switching places with Y.) It's standard for these types of games, because Shift is usually used for slowdown. (see below)

Second thoughts:
That is one big invader. oO
Space for slowdown doesn't work. Oops, meant to say Shift.
Hitboxes don't corespond with the ship size? Correct. The hitbox is only one pixel, in the center.
Damage to the enemy is not implemented yet, i presume. It is, there's a health bar on the bottom.

Onwards! o/

Responses in bold.

its temporerly unavailble for me. to download.

Try refreshing it a few times; that fixes it for me.

[Domochevsky]

That standard is crap. Are A, S and D not good enough?

(The health bar didn't move as i was shooting the big invader, so i concluded that there was no health for it yet. Hum. >_>)

[dragonsamurai77]

That standard is crap. Are A, S and D not good enough?

(The health bar didn't move as i was shooting the big invader, so i concluded that there was no health for it yet. Hum. >_>)

The healthbar goes down incredibly slowly because of the boss's massive health. As for the controls, I suppose I could add WASD as options, but then I'm not sure where to put the shooting and slowdown.

[BladeofOblivion]

Yeah, I managed to get it down to half health before I finally died. I'll note that the Spiral Pattern was actually fairly difficult. The Spacebar command seems to do nothing, however.

[dragonsamurai77]

Yeah, I managed to get it down to half health before I finally died. I'll note that the Spiral Pattern was actually fairly difficult. The Spacebar command seems to do nothing, however.

Yeah, that was a typo. Should have been Shift.