Monday, December 17, 2012

Final Project CSCI 3651

Here is the video for my final presentation in CSCI 3651. I kind of ran out of time on the video and forgot to mention a couple of things, but I think it turned out quite well. The semester was quite an interesting one, with many things to learn. We used several programs that I have never used before including Blogger, Github, and Stencyl. Stencyl is something that I really enjoyed using throughout the semester. The program makes it so easy to package and create a game.


Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Epic Space Battle V 1.0

Finally finished up the latest version of the game. For this project I think it's pretty much all done, although I could work on it for many more months. I have learned a lot about Stencyl's capabilities and ease of use. Thanks for following and I hope that you enjoy this final version.

PS. You have to push the key pretty hard to get the sound off.


UPDATED
1. Sound
2. No more kinks

Peer Game Reviews

It was interesting to play two of my other peers games, which were both quite difficult. They were both good and easy to pick up on. The video's are embedded below.


Sword and Legend 3D: By Nyjah Melius


The game can be found on Nyjah's blog here: http://enteractivelyme.blogspot.com


Nyjah's game was really good. I liked the graphics, gameplay and music. One comment that I had is that the gameplay was a little bit slow and could be picked up. I think that this could be accomplished by making stamina regenerate quicker and by causing the enemy to attack and react more quickly. Other than that it was a great job!


Jurrasic Survival: By Kevin Goo


Kevin's game can be found on his blog here http://kgoogamer.blogspot.com



Kevin has a really good game going. I found no bugs and the gameplay seems to work perfectly. The images could be better and maybe adding in a gold over time feature would be good too. The balance seems pretty good with the damage from all of the creatures, towers and hp. Great job!

Monday, December 10, 2012

Update Epic Space Battle V0.2

I have introduced many improvements to the gameplay.

Added a conclusion screen that displays score. Increased difficulty over time. Second spawning enemy.  Collisions and an upgrade of a bomb.

Still requiring improvement:

I have come across several bugs, which are all related. When picking up a shooting power up or bomb upgrade it will sometimes add 1, 2, 3, or 4 when the equation should only add one. I think that this might have to do with the collision happening more than once.

1. High score table.
2. Improved instructions.
3. Player choice of autofire or firing meter?


ASWD or ARROW keys move the ship
B or SPACE fires the bomb/missile (I should change the name its really a missile).



Sunday, December 9, 2012

AI Genre vs. Physics Simulation : Luke Dicken

Luke Dicken, founder of Robot Overlord Games, is a proponent of improving AI. In his video he was explaining his love for AI and the need to increase the focus on improvements. He proposed a challenge, in which AI should be the focus of a certain genre of games and what the difference is between Physics Simulation.

An AI genre sounds exciting to me. The boundaries on AI are seemingly endless. Many things can be accomplished with AI. AI can include many different aspects of a game and can be presented in very different ways. I recently came across a game that has quite a terrible AI system, Halo 4. The AI that is presented throughout the campaign is quite glitchy. I have witnessed the AI getting stuck in multiple situations. When the AI is stuck, behind a rock or in between something, it is both confusing and amusing for the player.

AI adds exciting gameplay in many different ways. These can be anything including enemy control, natural disasters, spawning, or just the games adaptability to a certain player. AI controls a majority of challenges that a player faces, so it is necessary to have a good and exciting AI system.

AI games are those that focus on exciting AI that changes from game to game. These AI games can change depending on player choices or a players style of playing the game. These types of games can be much more elaborate than those games that just show amazing "graphics".

A lot of games currently are a part of the Physics Simulation genre. The main focus is to show what happens when a player blows up a building, or shoots an enemy in the head. While this is important to the game, is it more important than the consequence of the players action? A ever evolving game is important for replayability and to ensure that every player has a different experience, while not detracting from the game.

AI is an important step in the future of games, not only to make games more realistic and give the player a feel that the enemy thinks, but to have a game that really changes based off of the players actions.

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fIx-mIMMW4&feature=player_embedded)

Monday, December 3, 2012

League of Legends: Review

I recently downloaded and played League of Legends for the first time. I was quite disappointed as the game added absolutely nothing to the existing genre of MOBA games. The gameplay is exactly the same, which was quite disappointing. The one difference between this and other MOBA's are all of the heroes. It is prudent to say that the heroes are the most important part of the game. All of the different heroes are what make the game exciting. The heroes add anticipation and excitement to the game. The player wonders which character your opponent will choose and how the character will be played. The player struggles to unlock every character as the player plays more and more.

What makes this game so popular and gives it replayability? I would have to say it is hands down the multiplayer experience. Playing chess with the same old computer AI will generate the same moves over and over again. While the computer can choose to make different moves and utilize different strategies, after a certain point it becomes predictable. Playing with other players from around the world, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, is gives this game excitement and replayability.


Friday, November 30, 2012

UPDATE Epic Space Battle V0.13

Made some good progress this week. Added in a health system for the player. A score that is displayed at the top of the screen. Also added in upgrades that drop for the player. I found some bugs and the game is starting to slowdown a bit. I will try to fix those for next week.

Could not get the win conditions to work properly. Hopefully that will get solved. Also actors seem to be stacking up on the bottom and the right edge of the screen, but can only be seen when the game is paused. I'm thinking the kill upon exiting condition is not working as intended.

To do:

1. Fix all collisions and improve spawning. Add waves etc.

2. Health upgrade and possibly invincibility

3. Improve upon scoring(compound score off of time played) and possibly a high score table.

4. Completion screen that displays a score and a button to return the user to the home page with acceptable conditions. (Player death, making it to a certain point, etc.)

5. Different enemy ships

6. Create a firing speed bar that manages firing speed.

http://www.stencyl.com/game/play/15674

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

UPDATE Epic Space Battle v0.12

Finally finished a new version of my game. I was able to get several new features including an improved menu and improved spawns, although they still spawn on top of each other :(

There are still some bugs, especially with the help feature. I am new to Stencyl's layers and having them overlapping is causing me a couple of problems. It might be easier to make it switch scenes instead of layers, but I will try some other things as well.

Features to be worked on for the next version include:
1. Fix help menu.
2. Working deterrent for players to not get hit (knocking player off screen in a better way)
3. Enemy explosion
4. Completion screen that displays a score and a button to return the user to the home page.
5. Different enemy ships (time allotting)

Here is a link to Stencyl's website where the game is
http://www.stencyl.com/game/play/15674

Sunday, November 25, 2012

The Sims Social

I recently played The Sims Social Facebook app. The app seams to be a full game of The Sims, but having never played any version of The Sims before I am not completely sure. The gameplay was quite fun. The game is extremely open with many possible options that open up to the player. During the tutorials there are several different paths for the player to take. The player can interact with a particular NPC quest or none at all.  I haven't got very far into the gameplay yet, but the Sims seems like an extremely open game that has been one of the main selling features.

Character creation was an improvement to many games that I have played with similar features. For the Sims your character plays such a central role and this is one of the reasons why the creators focused on it so much. Other real life features like eating and furniture become a little bit too much and end up detracting from the game. While I have not been able to see the full function of these features I can invasion how it could get annoying with having to constantly feed your character and make sure he/she has the correct equipment in his/her house.

I enjoyed the time that I spent playing The Sims Social and would recommend the game to someone who is looking for a free and fun game to occupy their time.

Monday, November 19, 2012

A Slower Speed of Light- Review

A Slower Speed of Light was an extremely interesting game. I'm not too familiar with relativity and how that affects colors, but once the orbs were all collected I thought that it was super cool that as speed was increased the length of the objects changed. The whole thing with the color changing after a new orb was collected kinda gave me a headache. The game was worth a play through, but I do not think I will put my eyes through that again. I guess there's a reason why we can only see the spectrum of light that we can.




Margaritaville Review




I remember playing Margaritaville quite some time ago. I couldn't find the original review that I wrote, so I shall write one again. I did not liking it too much, as there were a lot of things to be introduced. Games that have too many things to introduce tend to turn away new players quickly. The game seemed to be quite open with many things to do. I'm not the type to enjoy games like this which have an essence of The Sims. The player gets a house and can dress him or herself while leveling and gaining new skills. 


Sunday, November 18, 2012

Epic Space Battle version 0.1

I have had some issues with my game over the last couple of weeks and I basically started it from scratch again. I have taken a step back with it, but I was able to implement a couple of new things, including an opening screen, no title yet.

To do:
1. Fix all collisions and improve spawning.
2. Create a firing speed bar that manages firing speed.
3. Health bar and upgrades.
4. Weapon upgrades.
5. Make a working Help button that shows game controls.
6. Add title to the opening screen.
7. Scoring and possibly a high score table.

http://www.stencyl.com/game/play/15674

Free Write

This is a free writing session that I did for ten minutes. Free writing is a useful tool for people having writers block, or just needing some time to get ideas out. I did this while working on my game, just gathering some of my thoughts.

Today I went to shool. I had comunications class and we leearned about writing resume's and cover letters. I feel like I keep getting behind in this class and I really need to get on the ball. My game is still not working and that is a priority. I also have a test tomorrow in economics. I think it's gonna be hard, but idk how difficult it will be. Maybe the test will be easy, I sure hope so.  Maybe I hsould start another game. No, I need to get this one done first. I thik that it is coming along nicely and I am also learning a lot about Stencyl. I really like the program. It is easy to create objects and the rules by which they live. I have encountered several problems and have learned by resolving most of them. The basic operations done by the characters are called behaviors or functions. Behaviors are slightly complicated to create but it is fun being able to generate. one. There are several ways to create behaviors including using an always block. It took me forever to figure out how to use this block and what it does. the block updates always, being a 60 fps game updates every 60 seconds. there are other blocks including collisions and what to do upon creation of an  object. Many different blocks are there. I am just reambling on now and c lost my train of though. Stencly is powerful in the simplicity you can create scenes objects and behaviors. Using these you can create a game. The most diffficutl part is in the creation of behaviors and deciding what kind of function you are going to create. For one of my behaviors, generating enemies at random times and plaes on the screen, I needed to create a recursive fucntion. STtecnyl does not have a built in recursive function so you need to create one. This awas a difficulyt task for me, not in the coding, but in the idea behind the function. I would have never been able to figure that out without the stencyl forums. THe main problem with the way that I was creating the function was I awusing the block that updates every sixty times a second. This would create 60 characters at random places on the screen every random seconds apart. The biggest problem that I have been having is with the initial blocks to shcoose your code to go in. Another Issue I had was that the explosion o\\upon collison would not go waay. There is no real easy way to destroy an actor types but recently i figured out that instead of trying to kill the actor type after it is generated, the acotr type should have a behavior where it dies after a certain amount of time.

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Update- The New Space Invaders v0.3

I wasn't able to develop much more with the game. Added explosions for the enemy characters. Added a working health bar. The enemies currently take away half of the health, which will be changed later on.

Still to come:
1. Health packs
2. Weapon redesign with upgrades
3. Better looking explosions
4. Increasing difficulty as time passes with more enemies.
5. More levels.
6. Interface for a home page and ease of replaying.

Here's the link to the game on Stencyl's website.
http://www.stencyl.com/game/play/15305


Monday, November 5, 2012

Update-The New Space Invaders

The second update for my game is now out!

Some additional features added are collisions and explosions with the player. Death of the player is now possible. The player explosion has an issue where the explosion image will not disappear after a timer. The issue is due to the difference of objects in Stencyl, the ACTOR TYPE of the exploding image not being able to be killed in a similar fashion as the ACTOR of the player.

Additional features to be added include:
1. Working visual health system with health packs available.
2. Introduction screen and replay ability.
3. additional enemies
4. weapon upgrades
5. enemy explosions.
6. Pause button.
7. Cut music and sounds.

You can find the link here to play it in another window or play from the link below as well. https://dl.dropbox.com/u/25447400/The%20New%20Space%20Invaders%20v1.2.swf

or available on the Stencyl website: http://www.stencyl.com/game/play/15305


Any feedback is appreciated!

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Prototype 1- The New Space Invaders

I just finished the rough draft of the space invaders game. Space fires, the player is able to move left and right. I have not yet achieved all of the main functions that I want for the game.

I am still planning on adding harder enemies, possibly another level, weapon upgrades, shield upgrades, health, and health packs.

The link to play the game in browser on the Stencyl website is <http://www.stencyl.com/game/play/15305>.

More Updates to Follow

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Focus- The New Space Invaders

The New Space Invaders is a mobile space shooter game. The player controls a single ship, tilting the mobile device to control, trying to shoot down baddies as the pass by the screen. The entertainment increases as baddies and the speed at which they travel increases. The player is able to get upgrades for weapons making the game slightly easier, while the overall difficulty increases as the game goes on. The player has to stop a majority of the ships from exiting the screen.

Sunday, September 30, 2012

The New Space Invaders

Software

2-D

Story

You are forced to defend the earth alone as countless space aliens are hurtling toward earth at lightning speed. You control the only fighter jet that has been equipped to handle space flight. Fight off the waves of aliens until the earth can design more defense systems.

Gameplay

This game would be designed as a phone app and would be tilt sensitive to the player moving the phone around. The player would have to push a shoot button to fire the onboard weapons. Space Aliens would drop upgrades for weapon systems, shields, and health packs.

Another TD

Technology

2-D

Story

Zombies are coming to invade your land! You were smart enough to build your kingdom on a plateau so the zombies have to travel through a canyon before they are able to reach you. You hold the area above the canyon and are able to create defenses above the canyon. Destroy all of the zombies before they invade your kingdom.
Gameplay
The player will control the towers and be able to reinforce the towers giving them a stronger attack. The players mouse will also be able to interact with the environment, moving towers and destroying enemies with the use of two abilities. One ability will be the hand blocking the pathway for a certain amount of time. Another ability is the hand smashing the ground and dealing area damage.

Home Defender

Courtesy of http://dribbble.com/shots/536114-Woodcutter-s-House
Courtesy of

Technology

This will be a 3-D game that is taken from a birds eye view.

Intro

You and your brother are busy in the forest cutting down a tree for your new home. A silence falls over the forest. As you stop to listen you realize that something is coming towards you. Your brother calls out just as you come to the same realization, "RAIDERS!" You are forced with a decision, you can both run and your brother will be able to help you defend your home or you can fight the scout taking his weapons and armor (the player will really be allowed to make this choice and either decision will give him an advantage). Running will give him a more powerful tower and fighting will make himself stronger.

Gameplay

The player will control a hero type character who is defending the house(tower) in the center of the map. After the player takes enough damage he will run into his house to prevent player death. The player will be able to upgrade his central tower(house) or his hero. Raiders will come in waves and give him brief breaks(nighttime) to repair and upgrade.

Dream Game


Skyrim

The best dream game that I have ever played would have to be The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. This game allows so much in the way of freedom. Skyrim allows the player to choose a battle style and gives the player free roaming of the entire map. The player follows no real story line unless he/she chooses to. The quests can be completed or left uncompleted. The player can choose whether to battle as a mage, archer, warrior, or assassin type. Each class has its own abilities and specialties but the game doesn't interfere with a player combining fighting styles and allows the player a free choice of what kind of character to create. The player could possibly hunt animals for resources, become a blacksmith, an alchemist or any of the many other choices available to the player.

The downsides to this game were the multitude of bugs that occurred both visually and during the gameplay. I personally proceeded to the exit of the first dungeon before I should have and was not allowed to return to the room where a boss fight occurs. This irked me and I had to rerun through the whole dungeon again while not encountering any enemies which was quite boring. Although not really a bug this was poor design but it did allow the player full control even to the point of harming the player's game experience.