View Full Version : ctrlr - weekend games 01
FuzzYspo0N
22-05-2010, 12:17 AM
I have lost touch of the quick fun games that everyone loves to play/make. I decided to get out of this little mindset by challenging myself to what i am calling a weekend game. The rules i made for myself are simple :
Start day : some day on a weekend
End day : the next weekend
Restrictions : No more than 3 days touching code, Design to succeed
The results so far, ctrlr. It is going well so far, 1 day or so of code, LOADS to polish. There is meant to be fog of war, so its not that simple even though this map might seem simple. Theres also a hidden backdoor, which lets you get the wifi quicker.
What is it :
A mix of 3 mini games, shared mechanics, simple objective based gameplay.
(so far one mini game is almost entirely playable, just posting for feedback and ideas)
Why is it :
I spent a good few hours playing commandos last weekend, and i love how difficult it is, and i love how the challenges can take long because you have to figure it out. I also love normal stealth/sneaking/security games so i figured i would want to make my own one.
The concept is the four phases, get info on the building etc, get into the internal network via hacking in, set up a nice path to infiltrate, infiltrate and complete objectives.
How is it :
Note, i am designing the game with an iPhone interface for many reasons,
so keep it mind that it will be on a touch device. This means the "weird" zooming feature in the recon phase is designed similar to the photo viewer on the device (where i prototyped interface controls). Also the world scale + finger size makes it difficult to control a tiny player, zooming in also focuses the gameplay, making it a little more intense etc.
Controls :
Double click to zoom in or out
Once zoomed in (and only when zoomed in) you click to move.
Escape goes back from any game mode or menu
Known Issues :
The controls are feeling a bit annoying in recon mode, the collision snags occasionally (my fault)...
Its possible to get "stuck" i think, not sure.
Its possible to double click and have no zoom, and move zoomed out, double click a few times to correct the view.
How does it look :
http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/8179/hackzor1copy.jpg
http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/9335/hackzortargetchoose2.png
http://owned.co.za/screenshot.220.jpg
http://owned.co.za/screenshot.222.jpg
Where is it :
yes yes, there is a playable version.
Self Extractor (1.5MB) (http://owned.co.za/CTRLR01.exe)
Popular-demand-zip (1.7MB) (http://owned.co.za/CTRLR01.zip)
Chippit
22-05-2010, 12:42 PM
Awesome to see you went through properly with this.
dislekcia
22-05-2010, 03:17 PM
Cool minigame. I kept dying until I managed to zoom in, although the zoomed in play does make the game feel a lot more immediate and claustrophobic. Nice.
What about adding some sort of "scan" mechanic where you have to stay still in a location (and keep your finger on an onscreen button) in order to search for things like wires and wifi spots. Wires would tell you where cameras and motion sensors were, etc.
dislekcia
22-05-2010, 03:17 PM
Cool minigame. I kept dying until I managed to zoom in, although the zoomed in play does make the game feel a lot more immediate and claustrophobic. Nice.
What about adding some sort of "scan" mechanic where you have to stay still in a location (and keep your finger on an onscreen button) in order to search for things like wires and wifi spots. Wires would tell you where cameras and motion sensors were, etc.
FuzzYspo0N
22-05-2010, 04:29 PM
Yea that sounds like a cool idea, i have the network mode almost ready for a playable prototype,
Any ideas for the network phase?
Was thinking more like, Find camera controls, disable it. Run into packs of viruses, using them to bypass firewalls (ala assassins creed and groups of students), avoid the sysadmin etc. The network view, is layed out like the office is. So terminals are named/numbered like acc05 is a computer node, but its on the visible map in the accounting department. That being for the "frame the CEO" kinda thing, you would use the network map to find the CEO's office and get a feel for the internals of the layout.
BlackShipsFillt
24-05-2010, 09:52 AM
Oooh... okay first off, the minor buggy bits:
There is a bit of white noise on the edge of the planes of the sprites, I don't know if you see this on your graphics card.
The double click to start before you can move isn't well explained, though it works fine once the player figures it out.
The object appears to have a cube bounding box with a lot of friction, this means the player can get stuck against a wall if one of its corners are touching and they need to turn to move away from the wall.
Some of the buttons seem a bit sticky, it probably just needs a rollover (I'm sure you're working on this)
Cool concept though... leaves me excited as to what to do after I've found the network point.
Is it meant to be a real person moving past security cameras and guards, or remote control hacker-bot or maybe a visualization of a program ? Some sound effects might add cool atmosphere... maybe the guards talking or the cameras turning... or if it is visualized AI's in the matrix then beeping and robot talk.
I haven't played assassin's creed, I kind of imagine you could do a mini game where there are a lot of programs are moving around and you can intercept and disguise yourself as one of them, maybe an interesting mechanic. Maybe you can create bad sectors and hide the duplicated data in them.. not sure what you are thinking, I don't know too much about actual hacking.
Also, as another point, this current game revolves around very exact mouse clicking (the thing where you get stuck on walls)... this is going to be a problem on a touch screen where the touches are only as exact as the player's fingers.... perhaps a little bit of AI assisting on the clicking might be nice.
Maybe... and I'm not certain where you are going with this... but if the next couple phases are about infiltrating and destroying something, then before the infiltration phase the player can load up his/her backpack with viruses, but adding too many slows them down and makes it trickier.
Maybe this phase could also benefit from some additional interactions, like hooking up to terminals to open or close doors (to get in or keep guards out) or disable security cameras or even create distractions.
Anyway... it's looking really nice, and is carrying the hacker feel so far, congrats!
FuzzYspo0N
25-05-2010, 01:21 PM
1) I see the white noise only on the OSX build, weirdly enough.
2) "double tap to begin" will be explained better, thanks
3) The object is a circle collision bounds, and i know i am not countering any issues yet on collision
4) The menus will be hover slidey thingy based for touch device
5) It is a real person, sound is planned too,
As for the network phase, those are cool ideas too. Depending on scope and timeframe i am going with something along these lines for now :
a) The network phase consists of 2 screens, the network itself and a "desktop" of each of the pc's on the network. See figure 1 and 2
http://img64.imageshack.us/img64/2608/netpart1.jpg
http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/554/netpart2.jpg
b) In order to hack the network, you navigate the nodes for a computer that has permission to run programs from a tmp folder, and there are subtle clues as to which it will be in a certain section.
c) you are only ever inside one section of the network at a time, blocked by firewalls to the next section. Running the virus will automatically trigger the firewall breaker and if you dont get kicked out of the network you will unlock the next section (that means, finish what you want to do in that section cos you cant go back).
d) The firewall breaker is a mini game, its imaginable by mixing guitar hero / reaction based gameplay and "packets" entering the firewall, remove packets you want to remove, inject packets to trick the firewall, and dont make too many mistakes.
e) There are all sorts of things on the network, possibility to unlock doors (all things usable in phase 3), insert viruses into cameras (allowing blocking them for a short period etc).
Trying to keep it all in the scope, the simplest option is good. I am hoping to have a playable version of the networking tonight sometime if i can. Any other ideas based on the description (or clarification i guess) are welcome :)
FuzzYspo0N
25-05-2010, 01:41 PM
As a matter of interest, Mac build, > intel macs, 2.1mb (http://owned.co.za/ctrlr.app.zip)
Nothing new yet ( except some rendering issues? can anyone see the issues on other macs? )
FuzzYspo0N
25-05-2010, 09:53 PM
Update : Also found the rendering bug and fixed it, thanks blackships.
FuzzYspo0N
02-06-2010, 07:47 PM
No excuses here, but i went over the timeframe i planned. With my focus on completion i wasnt far out so i decided to push a little more on this (i also got sick a good few days and had work to keep on top of) but im glad because the single level i have done is coming along really nice. I am hoping to have an updated build soon.
The fun part about a self challenge is realising what went wrong. Ill post a detailed post mortem on things i should have done differently to avoid overstepping. And, i still havent coded > 3 days on this yet so i dont feel all that terrible :D
dislekcia
03-06-2010, 04:01 AM
More stuff to play soon? I'm keen to see what you do for the hacking gameplay!
P.S. Did you get pwnt by Manufactoria as well? We did. So hard.
FuzzYspo0N
03-06-2010, 10:24 AM
Haha, no i didn't. Damn you for linking me again though ;D
I reworked the recon level, making more scale, more enemies, few more cameras. I also added a few more paths for the enemy AI, so they choose one randomly on spawn/reset. This makes it a little more fun and playable so far cos they are unpredictable.
Hacking part is also slightly different but yea, i should have something new to play soon :) Also added a good few layers of polish, and flow. Only thing "left" on the content side is to do the interior of the building. I had some ideas for a reaction based game there, where theres a fixed set of paths, and its just up to timing when to click and dash between visibility cones.
FuzzYspo0N
03-06-2010, 04:08 PM
02 is ready but its a test of a whole new underlying structure of code.
I rewrote all the menus and level because it needed to be flexible and allow for use of behavioral code (like the gaurds each had their own code, but a behavior tells each instance to behave a certain way, using one set of code). I also added a bunch of polish to the menus so long, and changed bunches of the code layout.
After such a large refactor, im assuming something might have gone wrong. Thats why i am releasing 02 now, so that 03 (the fuller recon/network phases complete) will be more stable for playing.
Get it here
Only windows at the moment,
CTRLR02 (Windows , zip 1.6MB ) (http://owned.co.za/CTRLR02.5.zip)
Feedback on the new gameplay, and ignore the ugly stretched scale in recon, that wont be like that later :)
NOTE: Zooming was removed but apparently some was left in so if it happens its gonna break things
NEW NOTE: I updated the build with the target menu draggable. "pickup" a page, when you are in the target menu.
FuzzYspo0N
03-06-2010, 10:13 PM
I added the temporary menu, and the pages can now be "tossed" side to side, but its still a bit buggy. (same link as above)
FuzzYspo0N
07-06-2010, 09:59 AM
:D
http://img532.imageshack.us/img532/2581/net1n.jpg
BlackShipsFillt
09-06-2010, 10:35 AM
I tried playing it again, I can't zoom out in the recon bit, and the guards can look through walls
That new menu (above) looks sweet!
FuzzYspo0N
15-06-2010, 08:42 PM
That was the new network phase and hacking thingys.
still not dead, work + sick etc. Neaarly done. hoping to get some time on day off.
FuzzYspo0N
15-08-2010, 10:53 PM
Ok,
well after reevaluation, and redesigning the gameplay (the 4 phase thing was just irritating) its back to almost ready.
> Added A* and proper enemy logic
> Camera's just alert guards, not instafail
> Guards instafail properly now
> Breathing sound (that little pulse image) is nearly functional for guards
> Footsteps trail will alert the camera if it can see them (its quite close to the player)
> Much bigger level area
> Few more objectives (including a better win condition)
Only things left are the hackables, the wall keypads, computer terminals, that sort of thing. I devised a much simpler mechanic for these and it will be challenging and simple (i hope). Whenever i work on it more, i should wrap these up and post a build again.
And a teaser.
http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/9350/terminals.jpg
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