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Kensei
07-04-2009, 11:36 PM
Alright, This is not set in stone yet, hence why it says very neutrally, 'Kensei's Game'

I have a few ideas swirling in my head so I thought I'd put them down here so I can think straight :P

Idea 1 - Remake of a classic

I am unsure how many slightly older gamers remember a game called The Horde (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Horde_(video_game)). I loved this game as a child, despite being a bit hopeless at it in the later missions.

It was considered an action/strategy game and consisted, basically, of preserving enough of your crops from the Horde to pay taxes and buy some goodies on the side.

The first phase included using your starting gold to build fences (to stop the horde), traps (to kill them), cut trees (for gold), place saplings (to grow into trees), place knights and archers (to kill the horde) and place cows (that earn you more gold than normal crops)

After a set amount of time, the Horde would come and this is where the action part begins. Controlling your character, you must kill all the Hordlings before they eat too much of your crops, villagers and cows. To aid you in this, you have fences, hirelings, pits of spikes and your trusty sword.

One defeated, the season changes and you go back into the strategy phase to build more fences etc. This repeats 4 times before you have to pay taxes and buy new goodies.

How I will leverage this idea:
I have fairly low expectations at this moment, I am likely going to do away with the 3D/isometric idea and get it first to work in 2D. It is likely not to have as many features but I will see how I go :P

http://www.mobygames.com/images/shots/original/1139153286-00.gif

Idea 2 - Crop Rotation

Suggested by Fengol, what about a game where you have to grow crops. You could have different characters that perform different duties (think Theme Hospital) and different crops that take more or less space.

After a cycle natural disasters hit or something and you need to prevent these... This kinda sounds like The Horde idea but without the violence

Idea 3 - Keep working on Wizards?

My current side project, that seems to get more and more complex daily :P Search for my topic on this game if you want more information. Basically it is a side-scroller shooter.

My worry is there is heaps of side scroller shooters on the market and to make this one unique will be incredibly tricky since people have been playing these games (two player) for years and years

GGE Link (http://www.greatgamesexperiment.com/game/wizardsexperiment)
http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z210/KenseiZA/Random/ss3.jpg

Idea 4 - My Shopping Centre game

A running gag in my household, the game I have been working on in my head since I first decided I wanted to make games. It changes everytime I think about it but the premise was there are no shopping centre games. We have games about cooking, driving, shooting, rocking on guitar, building cities and we don't want games about going to the bathroom. But there is none that simulate the 'thrill' of shopping.

At present it is taking the form of racing around a supermarket, trying to get all the items on your shopping list before the other players. Other ideas included a 'tiredness' rating when the items cannot be found.

Ok. It sounds silly. Nevermind :P

And I think that is it for the moment. Likely something else will pop up but those are the ideas so far.

-----------------------
Updates

09/04/09 - Tile Prototype 1 (http://www.quickshare.co.za/files/g5i4kbtg/TileEngineTut.zip.html)

Instructions
XBox Controller:
Left Thumbstick to move around the map
'A' to place selected tile
Left Bumper to cycle to previous tile
Right Bumper to cycle to next tile

Keyboard
Arrow Keys to move around the map
'Space bar' to place selected tile
Q to cycle to previous tile
W to cycle to next tile

NOTE: Visual Studio 2008 (express) and XNA Framework 3.0 are required to run this as it is a solution, not a complete executable

Aval4nche
08-04-2009, 08:11 AM
Some good ideas there, Kensei.

I like your idea of remaking The Horde. That game was a classic. You could also add random instances that may help or harm you e.g. a tornado that wipes out the horde or Mad Cow Disease that makes cattle go beserk.

I don't think you should make another side-scroller as there will probably be enough of those in this comp.

But keep refining your Shopping idea. Maybe there is potential for a management sim there (Think Theme Hospital).

I hope this helps. Good luck, Kensei.

Fengol
08-04-2009, 11:10 AM
I think remaking The Horde is a good idea. You can do some tile-based screen and click with the mouse or move with the controller to place crops. Then have the horde attack. Should be fun :)

Bonezmann
08-04-2009, 03:01 PM
Idea 4 - My Shopping Centre game

A running gag in my household, the game I have been working on in my head since I first decided I wanted to make games. It changes everytime I think about it but the premise was there are no shopping centre games. We have games about cooking, driving, shooting, rocking on guitar, building cities and we don't want games about going to the bathroom. But there is none that simulate the 'thrill' of shopping.

At present it is taking the form of racing around a supermarket, trying to get all the items on your shopping list before the other players. Other ideas included a 'tiredness' rating when the items cannot be found.

Ok. It sounds silly. Nevermind :P

And I think that is it for the moment. Likely something else will pop up but those are the ideas so far.

I vote for this one, it's an original idea. I always say it's better to use an original idea than to remake something. It sounds fun too :)

You could maybe think about the old "KTV Reggies Rush" for some inspiration. ;)

edg3
08-04-2009, 06:11 PM
Idea 4 - My Shopping Centre game

A running gag in my household, the game I have been working on in my head since I first decided I wanted to make games. It changes everytime I think about it but the premise was there are no shopping centre games. We have games about cooking, driving, shooting, rocking on guitar, building cities and we don't want games about going to the bathroom. But there is none that simulate the 'thrill' of shopping.

At present it is taking the form of racing around a supermarket, trying to get all the items on your shopping list before the other players. Other ideas included a 'tiredness' rating when the items cannot be found.
I quite like that, I picture you having mingames as challenges. Think tournament style ranking/score system where 4 players can take part on one screen, to out shop/drive/shoot/rock each other.

I just imagined playing a game where in the game the guy im playing needs to play guitar hero for points :D

SkinkLizzard
08-04-2009, 06:27 PM
at the moment I'm leaning towards a horde remake, I never played horde
but it sounds fun.
I can't really comment on wizards as release 3 refuses to run on my pc :(

Kensei
09-04-2009, 01:55 AM
I'm going with the Horde remake for the moment - I feel confident I can pull off something decent with it.

Spent most of the day fiddling around and making a very basic tile engine.
Word of warning, the coding for this is horrid, I have basically chucked everything into the Game1 class and use a 2D array to store the values of every tile. I welcome suggestions on how better to do this (I am aware that the RPG Starter kit uses this but it will need to wait until I get back to London if I want to download it)

But it is something to fiddle around with and see what I mean.

Edit: Screenie for those who cannot play:
http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z210/KenseiZA/Random/tut.jpg

Gazza_N
09-04-2009, 07:35 AM
Nice. I too think that Horde is the best option. It looks like something manageable to develop, and it'll be a lot of fun when it's done. Good luck!

Fengol
09-04-2009, 09:29 AM
I played with the tiletut; I'm not sure about the keypress delay because it seems unresponsive but looking good so far :) Can I suggest building in at this early stage a cow or something random that wonders aimlessly around the map which avoids moving into wall tiles. This'll get you thinking on how enemies and friendlies with more complicated AI traverse the map, and makes your game an immediate sense of interaction!

Fengol
09-04-2009, 10:24 AM
On a side note; aren't you and Gazza_N of the "why don't people use GameComponents" conspiracy? Why isn't your tile system in a GameComponent?

Kensei
09-04-2009, 10:37 AM
Will consider the cow thing ;)


On a side note; aren't you and Gazza_N of the "why don't people use GameComponents" conspiracy? Why isn't your tile system in a GameComponent?

Ummm, because...er...well, I did warn you that the coding for this thing was horrendous. I literally created a new XNA project and followed an old tutorial I found and then expanded on it. Methinks it was based on a beta release of the XNA framework - the idea was for me to get something tangible out there to demonstrate what I wanted to do - keyword here is Pro-to-type :P

The code from this prototype will be salvaged, created objects from and then scrapped. But, shhh, don't tell it...

Gazza_N
09-04-2009, 10:42 AM
On a side note; aren't you and Gazza_N of the "why don't people use GameComponents" conspiracy? Why isn't your tile system in a GameComponent?
Unlikely. That magnificent coward Gazza_N is scared of XNA and hasn't attempted anything in it since late last year. And that was a particle emitter.

dislekcia
09-04-2009, 10:53 AM
On a side note; aren't you and Gazza_N of the "why don't people use GameComponents" conspiracy? Why isn't your tile system in a GameComponent?

I don't get the point of GameComponents... In fact I think the only one we used in SpaceHack is the built-in one that gives you access to the box's UI and rumble ;)

I don't like the way you lose control over when each component is updated because they're added to a structure you don't have full control over. Plus order-dependent updates? Blech. No. If I was building a networked game, I might build a networking game component, but even then I'd probably deal with it's processes myself instead of letting it hook into the Game object's loops.

Chippit
09-04-2009, 11:54 AM
I don't get the point of GameComponents... In fact I think the only one we used in SpaceHack is the built-in one that gives you access to the box's UI and rumble ;)

I don't like the way you lose control over when each component is updated because they're added to a structure you don't have full control over. Plus order-dependent updates? Blech. No. If I was building a networked game, I might build a networking game component, but even then I'd probably deal with it's processes myself instead of letting it hook into the Game object's loops.
My thoughts on the matter exactly. The transparency is nice, but I find it's not really practical at all.

Fengol
09-04-2009, 01:11 PM
Game Components are supposed to be reusable components across projects for example a reusable camera component or input device. When I was evangelising XNA back in 1.0 CTP Microsoft hoped the community would generate components for free use allowing beginner developers to just "snap-in" the components they want and have a game.

The reason I poke Kensei and Gazza_N is because when I pointed them to the Riemers' tutorials they deplored the lack of game components as an excuse not to go through them.

Kensei
09-04-2009, 01:44 PM
The reason I poke Kensei and Gazza_N is because when I pointed them to the Riemers' tutorials they deplored the lack of game components as an excuse not to go through them.

hee hee :P That was because my brain asploded with the level of detail in programming required to just draw a few triangles on the screen. I do not discount the benefit of knowing the underlying processes for creating a texture from scratch, I was just underwhelmed compared to the awesomeness that was my hero George's 2D tutorials.

at the end of Reimer's 3D tutorial, well until I stopped, I had a terrain map that drew based on the colours. At the end of the XNADevelopment, I had a character that could jump, move, duck and fire fireballs as well as a moving background. So it was not a lack of GameComponents (As far as I remember, George's tutorials don't use GameComponents either), it was a lack of stuff I could use in my XNA development practically.

I am an impatient developer -_-*

Aequitas
15-04-2009, 11:03 AM
I am an impatient developer -_-*

you are far too impatient, cause if you'd just continued a little more with reimers tuts, you'd have an freaking xwing, flying around a city shotting things!!

How is that not awesome?

Kensei
15-04-2009, 12:35 PM
you are far too impatient, cause if you'd just continued a little more with reimers tuts, you'd have an freaking xwing, flying around a city shotting things!!

How is that not awesome?

<_<


>_>

Dammit, that is pretty cool...

To be honest I was disillusioned by the first series of tutorials where all you are drawing triangles.

::grumbles:: I am sorry guys, you are right, I am too impatient :( ::slinks back into her corner::

Fengol
15-04-2009, 12:57 PM
::slinks back into her corner::

*kicks you out of corner and stares at you with evil, grand vizier eyes until you start doing the tutorials*

Anyone interested in XNA should do Riemers tutorials because they wonderfully explain HLSL which is used for 2D and 3D development

*strokes oiled beard and grins maliciously. Yes... Yes...............*