Primary game build, feedback welcome

http://www.geocities.com/cfare2002/Ship.zip

I have a long way to go: scrolling, powerups, music, all the regular enemy ship patterns, etc. etc.

But i wanted to get feedback on what i have so far, 10 hits kill the enemy ship.

The enemy ship follows one of two patterns and swaps between then periodically.

I get patches of jerkyness, though i think its my machine rather than the code (though i have a lot of optimisation to do anyway), i'm interested in hearing if anyone else gets it too.

Edit: it seems the link doesn't work, if you copy it then paste into the address box in IE/netscape it should work.

Make the animation go by time using GetTickCount() instead of by frame. I can't even play it on my pc, it lasts just over a second. According to my log file, i got 1198fps. :D :D :D

My system specs: P3 1GHz, 512MB SDRAM, GeForce3 Ti500 /w 64MB onboard DDR RAM, Win2k Professional

Here's my log file:

Code:

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Opening Error Output File (Log.txt):

Create BOB 0
Create BOB 5
Create BOB 5
Create BOB 7
Create BOB 0
Create BOB 6
The FPS is 1
The FPS is 1198
Closing Error Output File.

---

eepas! Will do, im getting 75 fps, so i didnt think it would be a problem. :)

Ok, done, frame-rate should now be capped at 75.

Two problems:

1) If you close the program using ALT-F4, the program is not actually unloaded if you look in task manager.

2) For some reason, the ships, explosions and the gunfire are garbled. Its not the BMP files, because they look fine when I open them in PhotoShop. See the attached picture.

Thanks for the heads up, when i run it from my PC, the art isnt garbled, hmm, and ideas what could cause that?

I'm not sure I can do anything about the Alt-F4 thing, since windows handles that, perhaps looking out for the Alt-F4 key press and preventing the game from running another frame would do the trick.

This art thing really is puzzle.

Only thing I can think of is not having it in the right directory

I've tried something new now, could you test it see if the art is still bugged?

Its very odd, if i download the zip, extract it to a separate directory and run the game the art is fine.

The first thing i thought of was that I had changed the palette on my comp. but looking at the scrambled art it doesnt look like a palette problem.

Hmmm....

Wow that didn't work too well at all. The first time I ran it the only thing that loaded on the screen was the lives and screen text. I used ESC to exit, and it worked fine with the blue fade out (pretty cool). Then I tried it again, and everything was the same with the loading. Except this time when I exit with ESC I got a bunch of memory errors and all of my Windows' folder were closed. Here are my specs: 500 mhz, win2k, 384mb ram, 4mb video card

And the log file:

Code:

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pening Error Output File (Log.txt):

The FPS is 1
The FPS is 49
The FPS is 48
Closing Error Output File.

---

So obviously it appears as if it deals with the log.txt file.

Too bad because I really wanted to try out your game.

eepas i'm terribly sorry for causing you these problems!

*is puzzled!*

The log file doesnt actually do much, at present, though it may prove the anser to finding this problem.

*scurries off to link the log file to everything*

My brother's PC is networked to mine so i tried it on his, and i get the garbled art problem, so atleast i can actually attempt to solve it.

I think the problem is the function i'm using to load the bitmaps into their respective surfaces, though its really weird that it works on my PC!

Aha! Victory is mine!

The art should be ungarbled now.

Man, that was a battle, grrr *shakes fist at Andre LaMothe*

The art looks fine now. :D

All you need to do is fix the problem where it doesn't close properly on ALT-F4.

OK, looking into it, what improvements to the enemy motion/firing would be good?

You might want to make him avoid collisions, instead of look for them.

Ok think i've fixed the alt-F4 problem now, see if it still causes you problems.

He doesnt actually look for collissions, he follows a set of patterns and collides if you're in the way.

But you think it would be better if he avoided you?

I deliberately made one pattern come forward so that the player is given a reason to move forwards rather than sit at the back of the screen.

I was thinking of using a variation of the patterns in this demo for the lvl1 boss.

ALT-F4 now closes it properly.

Have you ever played the DOS game Raptor? Because this really reminds me of it. :D :D

nope never played it, i'll look it up, see if i can learn something from it :)

i think i found a little mistake, when you die you can still shoot a little while after

ah i didn't spot that, thanks for the heads up.

Raptor: Call of the Shadows

EDIT:

Looks like Mountain King Studios released a new DirectX version, info available here.

Thats a very cool game :). Damnit, now whenever i look at mine i think.... lame...

grr!

I think i'll have to set mine in space, that way i figure i can get away with less art i'm going to replace the background with stars that flow by.

Your game works for me now, Clyde. I think it's pretty good, too.

I have a few questions/statements for you, though.

1) How many hits is it supposed to take to kill one of the enemy ships?

2) Do the enemy bullets go faster? It seems like they do.

3) As earlier stated, don't have the enemies look for collisions.

4) Why is that the your ship does after one hit, but it takes several hits on the enemy, especially since your bullets are bigger?

your game == :cool:

1) In the demo version you have, it takes 10 hits to kill the enemy ship

2) Yea i think they do go faster, you think they shouldn't?

3) The whole scenario in that demo, is being totally removed, i was just testing out my basic game build, to see people's reactions.

4) This is a question i was going to ask: What kind of shoot em games do people prefer?

The ones where you get hit once you die (except when you have a shield) like R-type, Gradius etc. or the ones like raptor where you can take multiple hits?

At present i'm heading towards the R-type way simply because if you go the other way you need to have frantic action or it becomes too easy.

I've uploaded my current build onto the previous download link, you can check it out, its not overly playable (the ships no longer reappear, or fire for that matter), but you can see my new background (would like feedback on the stars, too few, too many, etc.) along with music ("borrowed" from Gradius), oh and i've upped the resolution cause my brother complained the ship was too big.

I had to rewrite a heck of lot to go from functions that control the motion/firing patterns of one enemy to ones that could handle multiple enemies.

Sounds good, Clyde.

Personally I like shoot 'em up games where you can take multiple hits. Where you have enemies coming at you continously, and you are having to fight really hard to kill all of them off. Then again the best space fighting game ever is Space Invaders, so I guess if done right both are good.

check out the game subspace/continuum (http://www.subspace.net/index.shtml) its very cool but only multiplayer

It's been a while since I last played subspace... oh the memories...

Clyde,
That is a really good game. It reminds me a lot of Raptor. A few of the early ships look like the old Kilrathi ships from Privateer: Wing Commander. If you haven't played that game, then you wouldn't know what I am talking about. So I am just going to stop typing now :)

Coding is proceeding well, i have to add powerups and then basically all thats left is designing the level.

I had an idea for some of the powerups: instead of getting them off enemies, like you do normally you have to pass through a series of lasers, without hitting the emitters.

Its hard to explain, if you upload my current build you can see what i mean. (two lots come after the enemies).

At the moment it upgrades the weapon (though it can only upgrade it once at present so if you upgrade twice you can no longer fire), but i was thinking of having normal weapon style powerups, ie. you kill a bunch of enemies and an icon appears that you fly into that gives you a better weapon, but using my laser idea for maybe shield upgrades?

You think the laser thing is an ok idea or should i scrap it?

btw. watch out the enemies in the current build all lock in on you.

Quote:

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I had an idea for some of the powerups: instead of getting them off enemies, like you do normally you have to pass through a series of lasers, without hitting the emitters.

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Ha that's funny. I had an idea like that. To gain health you would have to go through a health beam or something like that. It would be like a beam of light that goes through space and when you go through it reheals your ship (hence a health beam).:)


EDIT: But if I ever get around to making a space shooter, and I decide to include the health beam as part of my game I won't be called a copier, so as long as you use your similar idea. Ok? :D ;)

I'm having an animation problem:

When i fire a weapon initialy the plasma blast sprite seems to ghost a little, creating the impression that the ship has fired twice, the ghosting gradually resolves itself and by about half way up the screen it looks ok again.

When i slowed the frame rate down to have a closer look the problem evaporated.

You can see the effect on my latest build here (the problem is especially noticeable with the blue plasma rings):

http://www.geocities.com/cfare2002/Ship.zip (can't click the link, ya have to copy and paste).

If the problem was that my code isn't running fast enough i would have expected the frame rate to drop, yet that hasn't happened...... *puzzled*.

it looks fine to me, maybe its your monitor again :D

damnit i need new PC!

Well atleast the problem is not with the code :)

i couldnt get the sound to start on my machine, are you using windows media for the music or other?

Cool! I always loved this type of game. Looks really good.

At one point I picked up some yellow item and then was unable to fire. Is this supposed to happen for some reason?

Fun! :cool:

Quote:

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Originally posted by Clyde
At the moment it upgrades the weapon (though it can only upgrade it once at present so if you upgrade twice you can no longer fire)

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Wow this game is really coming along. Good job.

"i couldnt get the sound to start on my machine, are you using windows media for the music or other?"

I turned the sound off, it that version, it was bugging me because i had to continually make changes to the code then restart the game.