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BlackShipsFillt
16-12-2009, 11:52 PM
For competition 24 I'm trying to make a little, retro themed, simulation/defense game... I'll be posting updates to this post at the start of this thread.

If you just want to play here's the online version... However the code is very poorly optimised so it may run surprisingly slow.
www.blackshipsfillthesky.com/spectrumdream/spectrumdream.html (http://www.blackshipsfillthesky.com/spectrumdream/spectrumdream.html)
Otherwise the Windows downloadable can be found here, It may run faster and it won't have the framerate capped by the browser :
http://www.blackshipsfillthesky.com/spectrumdream/spectrum dream - windows build 23-12-09-2.zip

You can press "m" to turn off the annoying music. You can press "Alt F4" to get rid of the annoying sound effects, but this may also quit the game. If you don't like the random level it generates, restart it (there is no main menu as yet).

Other controls :
Movement keys to scroll around.
The menu at the top to select buildings and spells and a click to place the building or spell.

Screenshot (with a logo I added in)
http://www.blackshipsfillthesky.com/images/SpectrumDream(DevelopmentShot7)2.png

The idea is that it will play a lot like a tower defense / shooter defense game but with an economy. It could also be thought of as a simple city simulation but with enemies attacking and spells.

I haven't gotten very far, and already a lot of the features I've wanted to include I've realized are far beyond my programming abilities (you will see how slow it runs once I upload something (barely) playable, and this is after taking out the pathfinding), as well as my time constraints.

These are the mechanics I want to jam in somehow, if I find the time :


There will be no selection of units or buildings other than (maybe) to view statistics and possibly to upgrade towers. Though I would prefer to centralise upgrading, and to have the units actually display their characteristics - ie. If they are wounded they should limp, if they have a sword they should carry one.
No commands can be given to specific units.
There are no resources in the RTS sense. The resources you need to manage are the lives and time of your followers, though to some extent you can manipulate the resources they collect. Your followers collect and build all your structures autonomously, but they have needs which must be managed as well (like having enough food).
There may be some general commands that all units or buildings may respond to, like defend or attack an area, similar to Majesty. These commands will take the form of spells.
Buildings get selected and built through a permanent central interface like standard tower defense games. These buildings produce various units and unlock spells and other buildings.
Spells can be cast through a spell selection interface, like Populous the beginning.
Spells can be leveled up with experience, like static shooter defense games.
The units, especially you own, must have relatively complex behaviours. They must automatically collect resources, repair, defend, worship, farm, trade with each other, heal sick, have fun and be lazy.


In terms of Competition 24 I am trying to design the game as both a city defense game and a shooter defense game, and the game should be able to be played and be enjoyable both ways... Although the levels I produce will most likely require both sets of mechanics - ie. a well defended base and a lot of spell interference in order to survive.

However I hope to make some special levels (possibly as tutorial levels) that focus on one part of the gameplay at a time:


A level wherein the player receives a little spell power at the beginning, but earns worship points for enemy kills. These points can be spent on better spells and abilities. Basically a defense/shooter game where the object is to stop enemies reaching a base. The enemies become progressively more dangerous with time as do the player's spells and recharge rate.
Another level where the player cannot cast destructive spells, but must rather build a base that can defend itself with towers and military units. These units level up with experience and buildings can be built that offer them better equipment. This gameplay would be very similar to Majesty, as your units and defenses get stronger so do the enemies until a big boss comes along.


I feel there is a lot that RTS, city simulation or tower defense games can gain from inserting the player into the game in a more direct role, in this case a god or mage role, where the player can directly and nontrivially affect the world, in this case through spells, unlike most RTS titles where the vast majority of the action is as a result of issuing commands through units. Whereas strategy and defense games are multiple third person games, I want a lot of this game to involve the first person.

I cannot finish this game by February, but I'll certainly be able to get a single simple sandbox playable.

I will be updating this post, so check back here if you're interested in any progress.

Fengol
17-12-2009, 05:55 AM
Love the 8-bit look. Can't wait for a download

Nandrew
17-12-2009, 01:33 PM
Seconded on the aesthetic. Hope that you can pull off the premise well enough too. Lessee that first download soon. :D

Dark Prince
17-12-2009, 06:18 PM
Looks good, eager to see the final product

BlackShipsFillt
20-12-2009, 02:31 PM
Here's a screenshot

http://www.blackshipsfillthesky.com/images/SpectrumDream(DevelopmentShot8).png

BlackShipsFillt
22-12-2009, 05:10 PM
I've uploaded a playable version (finally)... (I've edited the first post as well)

It's downloadable here (6MB) : http://www.blackshipsfillthesky.com/spectrumdream/spectrum dream - windows build 22-12-09.zip

Otherwise the webplayable version is here : www.blackshipsfillthesky.com/spectrumdream/spectrumdream.html (http://www.blackshipsfillthesky.com/spectrumdream/spectrumdream.html) Though it may not work as well in the browser, the framerate may be capped (if this thing runs at all) and the aspect ratio gets confused if you resize the window.

As it is there is no win condition, and the game starts falling apart once the scene gets complicated... Recently I had an Ogre that decided to make on of my cottages its lair. It was a cunning strategy as all the nearby towers became occupied with destroying the Ogre, even though it was safely nestled in the cottage, allowing the other Ogres an easy way in. The Ogres can be tricky, they somehow manage to exploit every new feature I add it, though, for the most part I've managed to control them. But just in case they become a problem I have made them really small.

You have to restart the program if you want a clean map, Alt F4 or Refresh in your browser. "M" to toggle music.

Gameplay mechanics that are absent but may conceivably be included if I spend more time on it :

Win/Lose conditions
More unit types, enemies and spells
Leveling up of spells and of the units
Upgrades, or better versions of the buildings
Bug fixes and less headless-chicken-AI
Multiple levels and story screens


Right now this doesn't qualify for competition 24. This is only the basebuilding defence part. I am hoping to spend another week or so before the deadline and get the other design working. It is currently kind of tricky, but it is relatively quick to get yourself into a winning situation (even though the game will never declare you the winner)...

The trick is to build enough cottages to get plenty of peasants and then to build a couple defence towers and a guard house and then head for the lightning (you first need a mage tower for the spell radius and then a temple of the storm to charge the spell) and then blast away at all attackers... Be careful of placing buildings far away from wood, this will frustrate your peasants.

Any feedback will be much appreciated. Also please let me know how it runs.

BlackShipsFillt
23-12-2009, 01:28 AM
Made some minor changes... tried to reduce some chicken-headedness... added some extra baddies (though they're essentially the same ones, I'll get to making a variety of enemies later on)

http://www.blackshipsfillthesky.com/spectrumdream/spectrum dream - windows build 23-12-09.zip

Otherwise view the web version, it should also reflect the alterations.

Fengol
23-12-2009, 06:23 AM
I simply love the 8bit style!

You need to put some tooltip text on the menu because I don't know what the different buildings do?

Also, I couldn't figure out how to quit the game. Eventually Alt-Tab'd and killed with Process Explorer :(

BlackShipsFillt
23-12-2009, 09:26 AM
Yeah, you're right, I have a terrible tendency to give poor help...

I'll put in an escape key... but as I mentioned above it was Alt-F4

BlackShipsFillt
23-12-2009, 11:05 AM
Okay... I've added in some basic tooltips... It will still be disorientating for a new player though, I'll only make tutorial levels once I've got all the features in. And this will be in January... Thanks Fengol for the pointer, sometimes I forget how important these things are.

http://blackshipsfillthesky.com/spectrumdream/spectrum dream - windows build 23-12-09-2.zip

And you know where to get the web version.

Fruzz
23-12-2009, 11:48 AM
Wow, I really love the 8-bit look too. I really like quick progression from building houses, to building armies to using powerful spells. The AI is fun and I really like the way the characters have been animated. Its really just excellent fun right from the start for me :)

Nandrew
23-12-2009, 03:03 PM
Okay, this is really cool. No weird resource tracking, no admin, no buildings that take ages to set up while you sit and watch ... even if this doesn't turn into the multi-genre game that you're going for, I'm really enjoying the style and direction that's being taken so far! You're putting in detail where it matters and scrapping most of the crappy fluff that usually seems to plague games like this.

You're getting the "fun" element down and I'm really looking forward to later versions. This will go on Dev.Mag fo' sho' once it reaches that sweet spot of development.

Fengol
24-12-2009, 11:19 AM
The tooltips and story introduction make this game SO playable. Really awesome fun!

BlackShipsFillt
24-12-2009, 01:37 PM
Thanks for the feedback everyone!

One thing I'm curious about is how it is running on everyone's machine... what kind of framerate is everyone getting? It's playable at the 25fps that my browser caps it too, but it's much sweeter at 50fps.

I'm concerned because although I know a few ways to optimise it, I don't think I'll ever spend the effort to design a properly efficient RTS engine... and I do want to distribute this game (once it is complete) to players outside this community, but if people complain about the shoddy coding releasing it could do more harm than good.

Fruzz
24-12-2009, 02:47 PM
I get 15 to 20 FPS in the browser version when I first start. After building some stuff and getting lots of units it drops to 10 to 12 FPS. It seems perfectly playable though.

I also noticed some other odd things, once I had managed to build up my base a bit the ogres stopped attacking.

Another weird thing was once I had expanded my base so that one of the ogre caves was within reach of my soldiers and builders it seemed like the priority list of the builders got confused. My soldiers were trying to destroy the cave and then my builders were trying to rebuild it. It seems like that took priority over them building new things I wanted. They would build a bit of the new stuff and then go back to trying to rebuild the ogre cave :)

BlackShipsFillt
24-12-2009, 04:22 PM
okay... I reckon I can get it running slightly faster... Glad to hear that 20 fps seems acceptable.

There are quite a few AI anomalies that need sorting out, sometimes the Ogres seem to migrate between lairs instead of attack... The builders repairing Ogre lairs is an "if" statement I've forgotten to include (the builders don't see a distinction between ally and foe), but I'd be a lot more concerned if the builders suddenly stopped building... Occasionally they do get locked inside buildings, and units quite often move into each other, which bug me.

Fengol
25-12-2009, 10:32 AM
Any chance of seeing your source? Or sharing the resource and tutorial links you used to master Unity?

BlackShipsFillt
25-12-2009, 05:39 PM
I don't think Unity is the ideal engine for this sort of game, but I happen to love the development environment...

I'm busy redoing the sprites system, Unity doesn't come out the box with a decent sprite wrapper, so I hacked at it a bit but I've since rediscovered a much more elegant way (I'm now trying out the ubiquitous SpriteManager class, it's on the UnifyCommunity Wiki, look it up)... The project is already (bizarrely) bloated to 180Mb, but I can probably cut that down a lot (it's probably .wav files)... the C# files are obviously very small... though my code is horribly confuscated... (and I'm not a good coder to begin with, I only discovered what "ref" does yesterday)

If you'd like I can upload the source, but if you have a specific project/problem I'd be happy to try direct you to some help/tutorials/resources, Unity is pretty good with help and tutorials, most often you can just use the scripting reference, but some features only appear in the manual (because not all the components are 100% editable through scripting) and allot of features are lacking explanation.

I got started with the standard tutorials : http://unity3d.com/support/documentation/video/

but there are loads of tutorials out there if you google it... I'm not certain how advanced or specific your problems are...