18: Spacecute - No name yet

[Gazza_N]

Based on Lost Garden's SpaceCute, without the cuteness. :P

You select a little ball by right clicking on it. You then launch it by clicking, dragging, and releasing the left mouse button, smacking it against the other little balls to do them damage. Damage is proportional to the speed of impact, with the majority of the pain transferred to your target (although the active ball will take damage too).

Fun? No. But it's a start. I'm also very happy that my home-made billiard ball physics code works. :D

Ideas for expansion:
> I want to have the motion of the ships affected by the gravitational fields of the planets and other celestial bodies. I tried using the gravity system I wrote for Rockets!, but it didn't work too well gameplay-wise (except as a possible black hole trap ;)). This extends to possible planet damage - for now ships just bounce off of planets.

>I'm thinking of having players earn credits of some sort for each hit, proportional to the total damage they do (IE, damage from the initial impact as well as any collateral damage done). They can then use this to upgrade their shields (which decreases the amount of damage they take from impacts) or engines (which increases the speed that they can travel, and therefore the damage they can deal). Doubtless there are other upgrade types which will come to mind while playing. ;)

Releases:
The Nameless SpaceCute Game Prototype 1

[edg3]

That is addictive enough as it is btw ;)

I like the idea, and I like bouncing off planets :P this game has a lot of potential.

[|-|1Pp13]

Idea stealer =P but im not entering so its fine

i like it, well everything except you have to select the ball before you can use it

[Gazza_N]

i like it, well everything except you have to select the ball before you can use it

That may stay or fall away as the game develops. It may be that I'll have ships selected at random. However, I need to flesh things out first. Just bouncing balls around is kinda fun as a toy, but it makes for a very dry and uninteresting game. Once those mechanics are down, I'll look at unit selection. ;)

[Fengol]

For some reason I kept seeing this Star Control 2 combat, turn based in my mind!

You'll need to have "point gravity", create an attractor that alters a ships direction and velocity towards itself; the magnitude adjusted by the distance to the ship (remember you can create repellors too).

To avoid a ship constantly swinging in an out of an attractor I suggest that a ship has a "travel time" after which the friction rapidly increases until the ship comes to rest. The travel time is only reset when the ship is knocked again.

[Gazza_N]

Excellent! That travel time method solves the problems I've been having with my attractors. Thanks! :)

[Thaumaturge]

That's a pretty cool start, Gazza. I like the idea of including the effects of gravity - it reminds me of a space-based Scorched Earth game that I came upon once, which included planets that deflected shots. ^_^

The little impact effect looks good in this setting, by the way. ^_^

[Gazza_N]

Alas, I'm going to have to give this one a miss. I hereby withdraw from Comp 18 (whine, sniffle, emote, etc.) due to a lack of both time and ideas. Bleh. :(

However, for those who are interested in how I got the billiards thing working, I've posted the source code here. You'll need GM7 to view it, and you may not be able to compile it if you're not using the Pro version, but hopefully it'll come in useful for somebody. ;)

[Thaumaturge]

I'm sorry to hear it, Gazza. :/

I hope that you find more of both time and inspiration soon! ^_^

[Gazza_N]

As do I. ;) This is the first comp I've pulled out of since I joined Game.Dev and it's not a happy moment, but Real Life must take priority right now.

I shall return! <Epic music goes here>