THE GAME:
http://www.filedropper.com/ya2g

THE SURVEY(5 QUESTIONS ONLY):
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=lEiBinfIAM_2fdutz8RachiQ_3d_3d

So, here is a prototype of my very plain 2D shoot em up programming project. I used C++ and the Win32 API(GDI). DirectX plans were scrapped. Worth some plays if you are aiming to get 3k score. There are bugs and stuff but shouldn't make it impossible to attain a high score (but it's hard

). I am obviously going to fix and improve on it while adjusting the shit out of it. And I'll post again when I have a satisfiable final version.

Damn sure is a painful programming process because I have been programming OO(object-oriented) most of the time in my course and haven't had to deal with so many global variables as well as the hungarian notations and the microsoft definitions. So much to learn, so little time. I wonder though if I'm a better programmer because I become better at reading horrible code or would I become tainted because of it. I'll see how much shitty code I can put up with at work next year.

Anyway, please "enjoy" yourselves with the prototype and please do take the time to fill in the survey for my final documentation. Yeah, I'll prolly have the results skew a bit by posting here but that's intentional.

I was expecting to have time to do the stuff while posting some sort of updates on this blog. Ah, damn the lack of experience as well as the heaviness of the other 3 subjects I'm taking. Thanks and sorry everyone for no proper updates and the offtopic shit I blogged. Oh and the presentation for this went great. I'll write about it later.

Feel free to put up any programming/design questions. I would consider myself a beginner in terms of game programming but I am a final semester student in application programming major so I'm kind of a jack of all trades master of none at the moment but I guess that's to be expected of a CS student.

EDIT:
Oh, forgot, the controls are CTRL and the ARROW KEYS.
Tip - Only one type of plane will collide with you.
You're already good if you've scored 2000.
I just wonder if someone is patient enough to reach 3000, that's all.

distant_voice

Germany2521 Posts

November 18 2008 10:29 GMT

gets too difficult too abruptly. for the first minute it's boring then it quickly becomes impossible, and not in the way that Ikaruga is impossible. also I think the game would be more fun if you made the player's ship go faster.

Ludrik

Australia523 Posts

November 18 2008 10:58 GMT

imo if you want to quickly learn the fundamentals of game design/programming you should use a simpler environment such as game maker. It'll help you be able to really understand what you want to do and what the issues in the development of the game will be. Then once you understand the processes of game making in general choose a language that's appropriate. Honestly coding in C++ is a waste of time for most 2d games considering there are faster(in terms of development time) and simpler alternatives out there.

freelander

Hungary4707 Posts

November 18 2008 11:01 GMT

hehe i wanted to make a game like this to practice using SDL

Cambium

United States16368 Posts

November 18 2008 11:07 GMT

On November 18 2008 20:01 freelander wrote:
hehe i wanted to make a game like this to practice using SDL

SDL is awesome, simple and relatively well documented. I did a game with it in Grade 12. Fun times.

Ki_Do

Korea (South)981 Posts

November 18 2008 11:47 GMT

Game is too easy
screen is too big the ship takes too long to reach some places
power ups please =D

nice job dude
5/5 blog
would play again

Nytefish

United Kingdom4282 Posts

November 18 2008 12:45 GMT

On November 18 2008 19:29 distant_voice wrote:
gets too difficult too abruptly. for the first minute it's boring then it quickly becomes impossible, and not in the way that Ikaruga is impossible. also I think the game would be more fun if you made the player's ship go faster.

I found this happened too. You should probably do what most shoot-em-ups do and give the player 2 seconds of invincibility when re-spawning.

Also are you randomly generating the enemies? There's a good reason why almost all shumps have fixed enemy patterns.

It looks nice so far.

Aerox

Malaysia1213 Posts

November 18 2008 16:00 GMT

On November 18 2008 19:58 Ludrik wrote:
imo if you want to quickly learn the fundamentals of game design/programming you should use a simpler environment such as game maker. It'll help you be able to really understand what you want to do and what the issues in the development of the game will be. Then once you understand the processes of game making in general choose a language that's appropriate. Honestly coding in C++ is a waste of time for most 2d games considering there are faster(in terms of development time) and simpler alternatives out there.

I'm doing this for my final sem programming project. And yeah, I got told off with this as well by an acquaintance in the game industry but in the end we both decided it's okay because I am trying to kill two birds with one stone learning about engine creation as well as learning about game creation. The only thing I can rue is the fact that obviously is the game could have been better if I just focused on the game and not bother about the engine. But then again on the flipside, he says the industry needs more engine pros. So I'll be working my way there. I know it will be hard. Just as I've been through this 3-year CS course. I'm an application programming major....... I most likely will try to port this game to several languages/platforms throughout my working days. XD

On November 18 2008 20:47 Ki_Do wrote:
Game is too easy
screen is too big the ship takes too long to reach some places
power ups please =D

nice job dude
5/5 blog
would play again

On November 18 2008 21:45 Nytefish wrote:

Show nested quote +

@distant_voice & Ki_Do
A faster ship it is. I had this as a passing thought but dismissed it. But since there's more than one fellow gamer requesting this, it's now on the TODO list.

@Nytefish
Yeah, a number of friends have yelled about the lack of respawn invulnerability at me. Many sudden loss of multiple lives at respawn. Definitely already on the TODO list. As for enemy patterns, I cannot guarantee much at the moment but there will be modifications in flying patterns to something much less annoying.... I do hate the planes that fly out of screen too early.