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2D Space Shooter! (Prototype added)

Started by Haptic May 15, 2010 at 9:48 PM 11 replies 3k views

Original Post

May 15, 2010 at 9:48 PM

Edit: Flight prototype. Description can be found in a lower post. Download from RapidShare (<200kB) Hey guys, Out of nowhere, I've started building a 2D space shooter mixing action/strategy with some RPG components to be added later. This is a fledgling idea and I'm happy for people to tear it apart, as long as it's constructive. It will let you design your own ships basically from scratch based on components you have bought or discovered/looted (with a range of defaults/templates for those not so interested in that aspect). Combined with the physics system, this means you can have a tiny agile fighter that can only take a few hits, or a lumbering battlecruiser that can take a beating but handles horribly. There will be large amounts of upgrades (most with optional automation $$), with an intuitive key-mapping system to use them all. So say you add a turret. The basic version will be manually controlled, and so you will have to press keys to aim it and shoot. If you are willing to pay more money though, you can get varying levels of automation or crew which will make the tasks automatic. The automation levels for a tracking missile for example, will most likely involve how many targets can be tracked at once and that sort of thing. Or maybe you just prefer to be in control of particular weapons. All ships would be piece-by-piece destructible. So basically, if somebody runs in to your giant cannon, theres a chance it will break off, and you will lose any benefit it gave. If you were able to, say, break off an enemy fighter's wing without totally destroying it, and then captured it, you could get 'research points' (or just technology) based on its condition and the components attached to it. This would be similar to the usual RPG looting system, but I'm not sure if it would become incredibley tedious or not. How strong the components are depends on your upgrades and ship design and this adds strategy to the design and combat. You could fortify your ship massivley, but this would make it heavy and slow, so your battle-plan would have to change accordingly. I'm not a fan of permadeath in this context, so maybe once you discover a technology, you can always refit it to your ship. This would make dying incur a financial loss but little permanant damage. I like these ideas but they still don't sit completely right with me. I'm especially worried about things becoming overly tedious. The combat is fast-paced and exciting though so maybe it will balance. It's obviously all in early planning but Id love to hear any criticisms or suggestions you guys have. [Edited by - Haptic on May 22, 2010 9:53:30 PM]

Eric Seiler

May 16, 2010 at 12:13 PM

Sounds like it could be fun, but there isn't much there yet to criticize :)

I'd recommend playing Star Control (very old, but has rudimentary physics and keyboard controls). Play Star Control II if you want to see how they extended that into an RPG-like experience. I'm pretty sure you can download it for free, but I don't have a link handy. Star Control 3, I'm not so sure about -- never played it. They are very old however, so don't expect too much in the way of eye-candy.

To me it makes sense to just get the controls solid with a minimal amount of add-on components, if any. While that might not seem like the most interesting aspect of your design, it is the foundation for it because if piloting your ship doesn't seem very enjoyable then you're unlikely to keep players interested long enough for them to start seriously upgrading their ships.

Azwad-Mars

May 16, 2010 at 1:15 PM

These are nice ideas, the only thing i could suggest (though it may be overcomplicating the game) is to perhaps have a "required men" amount for the parts (like the gun turret) to operate them and so instead of perma death in the context to ships maybe the hired people would die instead and thus you would need to once again hire men to work the part which would further incur financial loss.

But yeah, great ideas here that definetly leave alot of strategy in the mix.

TyrianFin

May 16, 2010 at 3:56 PM

Sounds nice and possible to do.

Just two hints.

1. Make hanger menu where you can look and re-equip your ships.
(player can own multible ships / lives :D)
(And I love when I can see my newest big bad gun set under my ship :D)

2. Make level of upgrade modules non-linear.
There is som combos that give you more boost on some areas,
but at same time give you some big vulnerability.
(Long range cannon + high range focus module + multi barrel mod == one big bang with bad fireing speed)

/Tyrian

Storyyeller

May 16, 2010 at 5:47 PM

Quote:
Original post by Azwad-Mars
These are nice ideas, the only thing i could suggest (though it may be overcomplicating the game) is to perhaps have a "required men" amount for the parts (like the gun turret) to operate them and so instead of perma death in the context to ships maybe the hired people would die instead and thus you would need to once again hire men to work the part which would further incur financial loss.

But yeah, great ideas here that definetly leave alot of strategy in the mix.

I think that's the way Star Control II did it.

Haptic

May 16, 2010 at 8:41 PM

Thanks for all the replies! You've given me alot to think about.

I must admit I havent played a whole lot of space shooters, I just had a compulsion to build one. I will definitely check out Star Control when I get a chance.

Quote:
To me it makes sense to just get the controls solid with a minimal amount of add-on components, if any.

Yes, I've made sure so far that the 'flying around' by itself is fun enough to captivate me for a while. I'll put up a flight prototype for testing once the damage system is in place.

I was thinking each attainable ship class would consist of a 'core' body which would serve as a foundation for adding physical components. The core would contain the bare essentials, such as tiny boosters, so you always have something to fall back on. Of course, if the core dies, you die.

So essentially, with no components, you can still have fun flying around, but it will get better and better handling and speed as you improve the ship.

Quote:
perhaps have a "required men" amount for the parts (like the gun turret) to operate them and so instead of perma death in the context to ships maybe the hired people would die instead and thus you would need to once again hire men to work the part which would further incur financial loss.

This is more or less what I was going for. Whether it is crew you have to replace or parts, the essence is that you lose money if you die. The main problem is balancing the economy correctly so that it's a decent blow to the player, but not crippling.

Quote:
1. Make hanger menu where you can look and re-equip your ships.

Of course =).

Quote:
2. Make level of upgrade modules non-linear.

Yeah, balancing the game will be pretty important so I'd definitely invest a lot of time there. I like the idea of show a strength, expose a weakness. One ship will never be the best for all situations.

justkevin

May 17, 2010 at 9:11 AM

This is my favorite genre. My last game, a flash 2d space rpg called Starcom was very much like this, and my next game will be as well :)

You might find my postmortem useful:

http://lab.wx3.com/wordpress/?page_id=3

Brian Damage

May 17, 2010 at 9:39 AM

Sounds a lot like a project I was involved in during my period at university. We only got up to the stage where we had a ship flying around a space station (which was a big blue square labeled "Space Station") with the ability to call up a (mockup) star map and to press "H" to jump to another star system. Still, the ship looked good, and left particle trails and had a pair of little guns. It was all jury-rigged behind the scenes, though, more of a tech demo than anything.

We were going to call it "Flying Unit Construction Kit", which got a bit of a laugh out of the other students. I remember that the ships would have been built on a skeleton/chassis system, with one layer of struts, then a layer of components, each of which had to contact at least one strut, then a layer of armour over the top, with the intent that armour should be able to wear away. We were also going to have little things like hydraulics attatched to the strutwork, so that the ships could be dynamically reconfigurable - you'd be able to have weapon ports that opened and closed to protect delicate mechanisms, for instance. We'd even intended that you could have a purely melee ship - thrusters and a bunch of armour, possibly with some sort of free-spinning buzzsaw contraption rotating around the ship's center, or space jousting lances.

I actually have a more recent design doc soemwhere - I was going to have a second go at making the game once I got my engine finished. Good luck with yours.

Haptic

May 22, 2010 at 8:05 PM

I've finally had some spare time to knock up a prototype for the flying and ship-destruction aspects of the game.

Summary:
You're in charge of a small fighter, flying between numerous colourful rectangles of varying size. This is basically just a flight test.

The ship is composed of its main body (can not be destroyed), and a wing on either side. If you hit an object hard enough (needs to be a bigger object), then there's a chance the wings will break off. This makes your ship always want to turn (due to lack of symmetry), but I've tried to make it more of a nuisance than a death blow.

The movement I've aimed for lets you slide around a bit. You can really become quite good at it and drifting around an object with only several pixels between you and death is a great feeling.

Feedback Wanted:
Any comments you have on the physics/wing-strength etc would be greatly appreciated.

Controls
Up Arrow - Forward Thrust
Down Arrow - Backwards Thrust
Left/Right Arrows - Rotate Ship
Esc - Quit Game

W/S - Inc/Dec Thrust Value
D/A - Inc/Dec Torque Value

Requirements
- 1920x1080
- Windows
- VSync Enabled (no dt-movement yet)
- Microsoft VC++ 2008 Redistributables

It runs at over 1500FPS without VSync on my rig, so performance shouldn't be an issue.

Thanks alot to anyone who tries it out.

Edit:
Customisable thrust and torque values added.
Base torque value increased. Angular damping increased accordingly.

Download from RapidShare (<200kB)

[Edited by - Haptic on May 22, 2010 9:05:56 PM]

karwosts

May 22, 2010 at 8:18 PM

Tried it out, seems to work fine. Ship feels really sluggish though, are you committed to such a slow turn speed? I feel more like I'm driving a steamroller than a spaceship :)

Haptic

May 22, 2010 at 8:24 PM

Thanks alot karwosts, glad to hear it worked (never given out a build before).

Do you mean how fast it can actually turn, or how long it takes to get to its maximum turning speed?
See, it feels fine to me but I'm used to it now, so that sort of feedback is great.

When the game is a bit further along, you will be able to customise your ship, so you could just make it lighter and put better boosters on the sides.

karwosts

May 22, 2010 at 8:29 PM

I was referring to the rotational acceleration feels weak, rather than max rotation speed. I'm sure it feels natural after playing it a while, but it seems like it would be very difficult to do any kind of combat or really dodging anything if it takes a few seconds to change the direction of the ship.

Haptic

May 22, 2010 at 8:43 PM

Yeah I can see what you're saying, I'll look into it.

I might make the thrust and torque adjustable for testing purposes so people can quantify the settings they'd like.

Thanks alot.

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