PGDmC: Vectored!

[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

[paul_nicholls]

Damn! it looks like the FTP has finally been closed (was still up about 1hr ago)

I just missed out on uploading a final change to my entry - a restart game option (using same fire button), and fixing the firing method ; quick taps fires normal, hold down for 2+ seconds fires missile without you having to judge time and release the button.

oh well...

EDIT: I have updated my dropbox version anyway with this new one, enjoy!
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1805932/paul...inal%21%21.zip

cheers,
Paul

[jxs]

I just tried the latest version from your dropbox. The visual wireframe style is great and the effect while rotating is really smooth. Maybe you could add white points (starfield) flying by in the background?
Some questions on the gameplay though: Do I actually have to destroy the asteroids? It's quite easy to reach the checkpoints by collecting clocks and just avoiding asteroids and slow downs. Also I haven't really figured out why one should use the secondary weapon (except to test what it does ). I found it much easier to use the primary weapon if I really wanted to destroy an asteroid. Btw I also discovered how to cheat: if you don't have a secondary weapon, but keep fire button pressed long enough and then collect a missile while fire button is still pressed, it's launched immediatly .
To sum up, this is a really nice game, but there should be more motivation to shoot those yellow asteroids.

[paul_nicholls]

I just tried the latest version from your dropbox. The visual wireframe style is great and the effect while rotating is really smooth. Maybe you could add white points (starfield) flying by in the background?

Hi jxs, thanks for playing my little game

I do have stationary red stars in the background, but they are are hard to see and don't move. It might be better to make the white as you say and move them too

Some questions on the gameplay though: Do I actually have to destroy the asteroids? It's quite easy to reach the checkpoints by collecting clocks and just avoiding asteroids and slow downs

That is a really good point...sometimes it is useful to destroy asteroids to get a power-up that might be behind it, but as you say, you can avoid them. I will see if I can try to change that LOL <evil laugh mode initiated>

Also I haven't really figured out why one should use the secondary weapon (except to test what it does ). I found it much easier to use the primary weapon if I really wanted to destroy an asteroid. Btw I also discovered how to cheat: if you don't have a secondary weapon, but keep fire button pressed long enough and then collect a missile while fire button is still pressed, it's launched immediatly .
To sum up, this is a really nice game, but there should be more motivation to shoot those yellow asteroids.

Ok, thanks for the observation with the 'cheat' LOL I will have to see if I can fix this
I will also try and make more reasons to shoot the asteroids too!

Thanks again mate

cheers,
Paul

[czar]

I think secondary missile should a different button. Holding down space for 2 seconds is a long time. With incoming asteroid it is like a game of chicken and usually the missile doesn't launch in time. It is much much safer to just collect triple shot or similar and blast asteroids.

[paul_nicholls]

I think secondary missile should a different button. Holding down space for 2 seconds is a long time. With incoming asteroid it is like a game of chicken and usually the missile doesn't launch in time. It is much much safer to just collect triple shot or similar and blast asteroids.

Thanks for the feedback, much appreciated

I think I might drop the missile time down to 1 second or similar, but I think I will stick to the same button for now and see how it plays out (pun intended)...

cheers,
Paul