Modding an Indie Space Shooter
While searching for good top-down shooters I stumbled across 3030 Deathwar, a real gem of an indie game. It combines gameplay elements from the classic Elite, like trading and various mission types, with walking on space stations and derelicts in the style of Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis.
Most of the criticism of the game has been for the harsh difficulty curve and slow progress (I read about one guy taking 8 hours to fly to the next system). But luckily, the developer has released modding tools and updated the game since to address some of these issues.
As noone had done so yet, I thought I would give it a shot and create a balance mod for the game. My main goals were to speed the game up a bit and make it a little more accessible. I also balanced out the mission rewards, to encourage the player to take some of the cooler missions, like photographing planets and finding lost people.
Oh, have I mentioned that the game is free?
You can download the complete game, with updates and the clgMod, ready to go.
And here are the full changelist, the SSC thread with the vanilla game and all related downloads, and the developer’s website. Oh, and please drop an upvote if you’re on Reddit!
Dodo gets a Video and an Update
I made a short trailer for DodoVsDarwin. It also shows some of the later level content, so in case you haven’t seen the soldiers or the baby Dodos yet, go check it out!
The game itself got a small update as well. I fixed some minor glitches that were still bothering me and tweaked the player movement a little. It’s still available right here.
In other news, I am still working on Project Elite. After going through some gameplay prototypes, it is going in more of a free-form direction now, where the player gets to explore on his own. A more substantial update on it’s progress should be forthcoming soon.
Project Elite Pre-Alpha Demo
There is now a pre-alpha tech demo with the two levels shown in the video, that you can now watch live (with varying outcomes, as the ai behaviours are somewhat randomized).
There is also a benchmark you can run. It will measure your system’s performance using a very taxing test level and display a score out of 100 when you mouse-over the button next.
I’ve been getting some feedback on the benchmark and it’s been very helpful. It seems most systems run it quite well (70-90 scores), but running multiple applications in the background slows down the game considerably. So I might have to add some sort of note at the start of the game, or offer some graphics options to turn off some of the visual features.
I would appreciate any feedback on the demo levels or on benchmark scores!
Project Elite on Facebook
Project Elite now has a facebook page.
I realize I am updating the blog too infrequently to get people to regularly check for news. So if you want an easier way of tracking the game’s progress, you can now use the facebook page instead.
In other news, I’ve been getting some great feedback on the demo and video. Perhaps I will post some info on the tech behind it in the coming days.
Video Update and Artist Search
So it’s been quite a while since I posted anything on the Shooter; nevertheless I’ve been working on it pretty much non-stop and it’s about time I gave you an update.
So without further ado: Pre-Alpha Battle Demo
I am also currently looking for an artist. Mainly for UI/Menu stuff, but also potentially for in-game assets like ships and backgrounds. So if you are, or you know anyone who might be interested in working on a top-down space shooter, send an email with some links to previous work to crunchyleafgames -at- gmail -dot- com.
DodoVsDarwin
Besides working on my main project I have spent some time with the GameJam team preparing a “final” DodoVsDarwin version. We worked on adding a little background with some story screens and fixed all the little things that were still bothering us. Oh, and you can actually finish the game now! : )
You can reach each of the team members’ homepages through the links below the game. The full source is available at GitHub here.
Global Game Jam 2011
Went to the Game Jam.
Had a blast.
Made a game.
Check it out here: DodoVsDarwin
We were a team of 4 guys and had 48h to make a complete game from scratch. The theme of this year’s Game Jam was “extinction” which quickly led to the awesome Dodo bird. A creature so completely defenseless und evolutionary unprepared for the ouside world that it was quickly made extinct when humans discoved the island they lived on.
You play as the Dodo bird and must stay alive as long as possible while the island keeps getting harder to survive on. Chase the pigs away from your fruit! Bait the rats into a trap! Poop a tree! Attract your Dodo mate and try to survive!
Particle Engine and Alpha
The game is now closing in on Alpha. All the basic engine stuff is done, except for sound which I will be getting to very soon.
Here’s a short demo of the particle engine I implemented yesterday: Particle Engine Demo
I used the outline presented in this article, adding classes and functionality as needed and then used blitting to render the particles. Even without optimization the performance is satisfactory, but depending on how many particles the game will need I might have to go over the code again and add a little magic dust here and there.
Prototype updated
Prototype 0.4 is up.
The balance should be better, it’s actually possible to beat wave 7 now! There are some small graphical improvements, but this version is not using CopyPixel yet.
You can try the new version here.
I also set up a super-short survey (less than 10 seconds if you’re quick), if you would like to give some feedback.
CopyPixel FTW
So I’ve been working on the rendering code the last couple of days and I’m now considering switching over to blitting for everything.
The main problem with the flash vector renderer is that it has performance issues when displaying a large number of objects at the same time, a problem that simply doesn’t exist when using blitting (see this awesome example). Another problem is that it has trouble with the 2d free-scrolling background, making it move in jumps at times which gives the impression that the game isn’t running smoothly. Perhaps I will be able to fix this with blitting by applying a slight motion blur effect to the background.
Update wise, I will be upping a new version soon with better balance and couple other smaller changes. I think most people haven’t even seen all the enemy types yet, because waves 5 and 6 are way too hard. I will also set up a survey so people can give me their take on the prototype and make suggestions.
Until then you can still play the original prototype here.
