PGDmC: Vectored!

[czar]

HI Paul,

Graphics look cool. But I am getting some weird play issues.

I can press ctrl and I see a bullet, but it only works once.

I can press space bar and it fires, but I can't seem to hit anythiung.

If I fly through a green bomb looking thing the control seem to freeze and I can't move any more.

If I hit the yellow blob I appear to die but the game goes on without me, i.e, I have no plane to fly.

I love the 3d vector look and the smooth rotations is nice.

I have played it three or four times but I am confused as to what is going on, sorry.

[paul_nicholls]

HI Paul,

Graphics look cool. But I am getting some weird play issues.

I can press ctrl and I see a bullet, but it only works once.

I can press space bar and it fires, but I can't seem to hit anythiung.

Ok, weird...ctrl shouldn't do anything in the game, only space and cursor keys...

You can only shoot the yellow asteroids - 4 shots destroys them, less hits makes a hit noise and doesn't do anything else.

If I fly through a green bomb looking thing the control seem to freeze and I can't move any more.

Not sure, but I think the green bomb looking thing is a missile (see secondary weapon box in the image below).

If the controls 'freeze', then you are either out of time (or destroyed)...are the large red time numbers at the top saying "00 00 00" (hours minutes seconds)?

If I hit the yellow blob I appear to die but the game goes on without me, i.e, I have no plane to fly.

Yup, the yellow blobs are asteroids - avoid those or you go boom haha

I thought this would be a cool thing to do - have the game go on without the ship instead of just freezing

I love the 3d vector look and the smooth rotations is nice.

I have played it three or four times but I am confused as to what is going on, sorry.

Ok, you have to collect the clocks (see item next to ship in image below) to increase your time, and if you hit the green arrows you go faster. If you run out of time before the next checkpoint it is game over, or if you are destroyed.

Red arrows slow you down too, so avoid those!

Collect the missiles (secondary weapon), and the I, II, III shot icons to give your self a primary weapon (or switch primary weapon).

Quick tap on the space bar fires primary weapon (if any).
Hold down space bar and release after 1 second fires secondary weapon (if any).



Good luck!

cheers,
Paul

[czar]

Thanks for the explanation. It is making more sense now

I would like to be able to restart without having to escape out and restarting the app. But otherwise it has an addictive quality that I like.

One unfair situation - there was no clock available before my time ran out. i.e., no clock from the start until I died.

[paul_nicholls]

Thanks for the explanation. It is making more sense now

I would like to be able to restart without having to escape out and restarting the app. But otherwise it has an addictive quality that I like.

The only reason I didn't have a reset button was to keep the competition button use down, but I will probably add one (and menus, etc.) in a post-competition version

One unfair situation - there was no clock available before my time ran out. i.e., no clock from the start until I died.

That is unfortunate and unlucky!

If you shoot stuff then the randomization of objects might bring one or more clocks into existance...

Also try and hit the green speedups too

cheers,
Paul

[paul_nicholls]

I just managed to 'slip in' a "vectored - in-game items.pdf" document into the FTP and dropbox versions of the game zip file that has pictures and descriptions of each in-game object (not including the asteroids) to help if you are confused

cheers,
Paul

[Traveler]

Nifty little game you got here. I works great. Very smooth. The music is nicely chosen and so are the sound effects. I'm not so keen about using the same button for two different functions though. I often pressed the spacebar longer than the specified 2 seconds in order to release a bomb (which btw is the most fun weapon to use by far), only to find myself destroyed because I waited too long. Which brings up the matter of replaying the game. You need to restart the whole program in order to do that. It kills your flow. Other than that, nice job!

[paul_nicholls]

Nifty little game you got here. I works great. Very smooth. The music is nicely chosen and so are the sound effects.

Thanks mate

I'm not so keen about using the same button for two different functions though. I often pressed the spacebar longer than the specified 2 seconds in order to release a bomb (which btw is the most fun weapon to use by far), only to find myself destroyed because I waited too long.

I did it this way because:

a) it reduced the button count for the game to hopefully add bonus points LOL
b) this is how a cartridge game on the Commodore C64 worked (Seafox). You did a quick tap to fire a torpedo upwards, or held it down to fire a forward torpedo (the c64 joystick only had 1 button usually) - I thought this was quite clever so I copied it

EDIT: dang and blast! it only just occured to me that in Seafox you held the button down and didn't have to release it to fire the forward torpedo! I got it slightly wrong in my game (must fix this...)

Which brings up the matter of replaying the game. You need to restart the whole program in order to do that. It kills your flow. Other than that, nice job!

Yeah, I know it killed the flow, but again I didn't have a reset button to minimize the button count in the spirit of the competition - I am planning on changing this in a possible post-competition release

Thanks for trying it!

cheers,
Paul