Night Stalker 2

[WILL]

<center>Current Project Title: Night Stalker 2

</center>

[size=9px]Basic gameplay based off the concept of the original 1982 Intellivision console game title 'Night Stalker' by Steve Montero.[/size]

Concept / Plot:

You are trapped in a maze where within you must face a series of robots that are after you. Each time you kill one, another takes it's place and is smarter and stronger than the last one.

Weapons are randomly placed within the map allowing you to fight back. Choose between your trusty hand gun and other weapons such as an EMP gun and a rocket launcher. In multi-player mode you can drop a weapon to give to a fellow player. Collect keys to open doors that might lead to your escape.

Outsmart the enemy by using the terrain to your advantage.

See how long you last against a growing hoard of enemy robots all focused on killing you. Or can you eventually find a way out of this maze...?


Possible game modes:

• Single Player: Escape
  Single Player: Survival
  Multi-Player: Escape
  Multi-Player: Survival
  Multi-Player: Player vs Player

You can download build #6 here: Click [size=9px](594 KB)[/size]

[czar]

How much do you feel you have left to do on your game?


I think the gameplay elements could do with significant work. I found it very difficult to play the current build.

1. Once the enemy shoots at you you are always dead hardly any chance to avoid.

2. No indication that you are carrying a weapon.

3. I had trouble working out how to shoot. Even after reading the readme.txt.

4. Enemy bullets tend to hug the walls so you can hardly see them.

Any reaosn why the screen is so small? Is this destined for a cell phone?

What is the darker blue area for? I couldn't work out how to get out of the screen.

[WILL]

How much do you feel you have left to do on your game?

Oh I have quite a bit to do. This is only build 6 afterall. It's the first 'clean' version of the game since I have ported it over from Delphi 7/UnDelphiX. I still have to add other weapons besides the hand gun and of course alter the ammo spawning system according to how I plan on implimenting it all.

1. Once the enemy shoots at you you are always dead hardly any chance to avoid.

Hmm... how many FPS are you getting? You should only have 20 FPS... at least that was what I was striving for.

There is time to get a way from the enemy shots, but you obviously will have far less or no time to get away if you are standing right next to him. Try your attacks on the robots from farther away.

2. No indication that you are carrying a weapon.

Look on the bottom tile row. You'll see a gun once you have picked it up. You start with 10 rounds. Once you run out of ammo you'll see a flashing clip with another 10 rounds.

No so clear to see, no, but I'm planning on expanding on the GUI stuff later. Focus has been more on AI and basic engine functionality.

3. I had trouble working out how to shoot. Even after reading the readme.txt.

W
ASD

It's a directional 'T' like your arrow keys. You are firing your weapon in that direction. Concept allows you to run in any direction and fire in the same or any other direction at the same time.

4. Enemy bullets tend to hug the walls so you can hardly see them.

Yeah, I'm not too thrilled with that effect either. I was considering a reaction time setting that gets lowered as the robots get 'smarter'. It would eliminate them automatically just shooting at the very most soonest possible time to fire(ie. right along the tile edge. :?) Will be addressed soon for sure.

Any reaosn why the screen is so small? Is this destined for a cell phone?

Well maybe. I have considered it as a possibility. After all the original which I mimiced in my earlier versions had only 16x16 tiles like this has now. I just sort or ran with it. I was going to make this game fullscreen, but later decided that I liked the windowed effect much better. I could have a setting for 2x the game res so that users with large desktop resolutions can play it as nicely as those that, like me, only have a 1024x768 desktop. I'm betting your the latter, no?

What is the darker blue area for? I couldn't work out how to get out of the screen.

It's a hidding area. The Robots cannot see you in it. BUT they can shoot through it so it's not cover. See the Map section in the ReadMe with the Map.txt data file. (Yes, you can modify it. ) It shows the legend for what each tile is.

Caution: Don't change the map's 20x12 size! Thats the only map size it currently supports and the game engine will not behave nicely if you change those dimentions.

Feel free to change the layout though!

[aidave]

omg

I LOVE THAT GAME
and i forgot all about it till now

dl'ing

[WILL]

Nice.

BTW if you want to play the original: Click here!
They sell a commercial version of the Intellivision Lives! emulator which includes all the original games OR you can just download one of the 2 free ones off the site that include 3 games in each. One of them offer 'Night Stalker' for free. The other includes 'Astrosmash!' another classic game.


I was thinking of selling this one when it's finished as shareware, what do you guys think? It would obviously not be expensive... maybe $5 USD or so. Would you pay for such a game for your portable device? And with all your intense 3D super metal and bone rippers would you still open up good ole 'place final commercial name of my game here' and play it on your PC at work or at home?

Tile sizes and graphics can be updated of course, I was planning on multiplayer[size=9px](up to 4 or so players capacity)[/size] and maybe adding a few more weapons: mines, machine gun, force field gun(stops weak enemy shots and robots from passing), grenades, fixed cameras[size=9px](for possible fog of war feature)[/size]. The maps might eventually be auto generated. Don't forget I still have to impliment a door and key system too. There are 3 colors of keys so like any other game 3 color doors that require the right key. This could make for some interesting gameplay in the Escape modes.

It could be great fun at the office. Easy to minimize and get back to work when required, if you know what I mean.

Oh and of course I would be pumping up the AI[size=9px](see Readme for *some* of my ideas for AI)[/size] and enemy difficulty, relying less on the robot count --though it will get there in survival modes-- and more on robot abilities such as shields, cloaking, heavy armour[size=9px](more than one shot to kill them)[/size], plasma weapon[size=9px](takes out player's fired shots)[/size], listening sensors[size=9px](if you walk or fire your gun, they'll hear you)[/size], motion sensors[size=9px](move and they'll see you, stand still and they'll not)[/size], bunker busters[size=9px](destroy's the bunker tiles)[/size], rockets [size=9px](have a blast radius)[/size], tracking dart[size=9px](leaves behind a trail for all tracking robots to follow)[/size], etc, etc... just think robotics and sci-fi.

I've not even added the creatures that were known in both the classic games either[size=9px](Night Stalker had a sequal called 'Dark Cavern' for the Atari)[/size]. These guys would stun the player not killing him, but making him immobile and vunerable to robot attacks. This feature is as of yet, up for grabs. I guess you guys will be my quality control consultants. :lol:

Feedback is more than welcome.

[WILL]

So whats the highest you guys have been able to score with the game as it is now? I've only been able to get 1360 so far... I made this little demo a tough one.

And oops, I found a bug. I forgot to make the safe bunker entrance squares not robot passable.

EDIT: Best now is 1490 , after moving the center of the player's shots to start from the center of his sprite [pascal](Player.X/Y + TileSize div 2)[/pascal] Though I'm considering keeping the horizonal fired shots from the player a bit higher on the player sprites. (otherwise it looks like he is shooting from his stomach)

[WILL]

Some major additions to Build 7.

I'll be adding the EMP gun aswell as the effects on the robots when shot. Some will be killed, others will just be stunned.

Some robots will have shields that take a few shots to take down. EMP will do more damage to them than the normal hand gun. I'm thinking of having them regenerate after a period of time for stronger versions of the shielded robots.

Improved player shooting (less akward shooting from your player character)

Robot shooting has been improved. They now have a 'reaction time' before they can fire.

The biggest thing however will be the improvements to the robot's AI. One example; Instead of just charging the player once seen, the robots will make use of a new 'personality' setting.

They are[size=9px](not having the actualy docs I wrote up with me now--I'm at work)[/size]:

:arrow: Aggressive -- robot will charge player as it does now.
:arrow: Evasive -- robot will shoot and run from player.
:arrow: Tactical -- robot will try to find an alternative path to 'flank' player.

Other things will be added aswell. The ReadMe.txt for Build 7 will definately be worth a read. I'll be paying great detail to the AI section in the readme in the next coming versions as thats what will be main attracdtion for this game.


Stuff I will or I'd like to include in future versions:

:arrow: Better player sprite and map tile graphics.
:arrow: Add rocket launcher!
:arrow: key/door feature for escape mode
:arrow: game menu with game mode system
:arrow: network play and multi-player game modes
:arrow: level exits for escape mode
:arrow: creatures(large spiders & bats) -- any ideas/suggestions guys?
:arrow: 2x and 4x screen sizes for higher resolution desktops!


Well thats it for now, back to work... ciao!

[Robert Kosek]

Enemy bullets are fast and cannot be outrun, and not to mention are fired the instant they have LOS. Perhaps a slightly smarter LOS system involving the movement direction and a FOV? It'd allow me to live a few seconds longer. :roll: I also find it difficult in that I cannot dodge a shot. If I move my guy out of the way it still records as a collision when the bullet visibly would've missed.

And I cannot find where the ammo indicator is, all I know is the time counter and the score I think. There is no "lives" indicator that I can find.

I've only made it to the 2nd robot type, the red eye thing that spins like it's a blender, and haven't gotten any other guns.

[FNX]

Hi WILL,
just downloaded and played

Here are my comments:

-Great remake, as I always say simpler idea->better game!
-The game is very difficult!
-I don't like the 4 keys option to shoot in 4 directions, i'd prefer a lot
to shoot according to the last direction i moved with 1 key only (i havn't
played the original yet so i don't remember if is wanted or not)
-Must improove gfx
-Must able to load any size map
-Adding sounds would give a very good touch!
-Adding an outside inerface would give a very good touch!

For the rest i'll write you by PM according to your last message

Bye

[Traveler]

Been working on my compo entry for the past 3 hours so I thought I'd take a break and check your game.

Overal it works pretty well for me. I agree with pretty much everything that has already been said about it.
Currently its quite difficult. Didn't even get near the score of 1360. It could 've been me not being experienced enough though. Having seperate controls for shooting and walking (like FNX mentioned as well) is definitely not favourable.

You already metioned it in a previous post, but I played it on 1280x1024 and yes a higher res version would be appreciated

Also I wouldn't mind bigger map + more enemies (skeletons? Ts there a story btw? Might help coming up with enemie types).

Perhaps some other types of weapons: mines or traps, lasers, airstrikes,.. ehrm on second thought, cancel that last one.

I'm not sure if it is supposed to do that, but the gun you see at the beginning is flickering heavily.

Looking forward to the next version.