Night Stalker 2

[WILL]

<center>Current Project Title: Night Stalker 2

http://www.pascalgamedevelopment.com/files/188/ns2_screenshot01.gif</center>

Basic gameplay based off the concept of the original 1982 Intellivision console game title 'Night Stalker' by Steve Montero.

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 (http://www.pascalgamedevelopment.com/files/188/NightStalker2_Build_6.zip) (594 KB)

[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. 8)

BTW if you want to play the original: Click here! (http://www.intellivisionlives.com/bluesky/games/credits/action2.html)
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. :D


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(up to 4 or so players capacity) and maybe adding a few more weapons: mines, machine gun, force field gun(stops weak enemy shots and robots from passing), grenades, fixed cameras(for possible fog of war feature). 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(see Readme for *some* of my ideas for AI) 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(more than one shot to kill them), plasma weapon(takes out player's fired shots), listening sensors(if you walk or fire your gun, they'll hear you), motion sensors(move and they'll see you, stand still and they'll not), bunker busters(destroy's the bunker tiles), rockets (have a blast radius), tracking dart(leaves behind a trail for all tracking robots to follow), etc, etc... just think robotics and sci-fi. :)

I've not even added the creatures that were known in both the classic games either(Night Stalker had a sequal called 'Dark Cavern' for the Atari). 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. :P

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

EDIT: Best now is 1490 :D, after moving the center of the player's shots to start from the center of his sprite (Player.X/Y + TileSize div 2) 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(not having the actualy docs I wrote up with me now--I'm at work):

: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 :D

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.

[FNX]

MODDED ;)

http://194.20.52.29/fnxgames/imgs/modded.gif

[jdarling]

MODDED ;)

http://194.20.52.29/fnxgames/imgs/modded.gif

You should post the modded version for the rest of us to play with :). Looks very nice :)

[Traveler]

Lol :D

Good one FNX :thumbup:

tiles.rar (http://www.gameprogrammer.net/zip/Tiles.rar) (not as good as yours though :oops: )

[FNX]

You should post the modded version for the rest of us to play with . Looks very nice

Well i'm not satisfied of the result yet.. I'm trying lots of tilesets/colors
until i find the ones i'll say WOW :)

Anyway it's just the gfx, maybe i'll upload it later this night ok?

[FNX]

MODDED AGAIN!

here is my last work on the gfx, i hope WILL will like it at least ;)

http://194.20.52.29/fnxgames/ns2/modded.gif

Here you can download the full game modded Night Stalker 2 (http://194.20.52.29/fnxgames/ns2/ns2.zip)

Actually there's much work to do with the robots, i've added a skeleton
sprite just as a try but it looks nice anyway ;)

I'll work on the bots soon!

WILL where are you?? :P

[WILL]

Well so much for build 7 or any other builds... Looks like I have to start from scratch... old laptop died and along with it ALL of the work I had done for the past month(before I left for sea).

That includes the entire ported(to Lazarus) Night Stalker source, the Scorech2D source for my upcoming tutorial series on artillary genre games and a few other little things.

Fortunately thats the worst of it. The good part out of all of it is that I now have a muhc better system. (Toshiba Satellite) /w a 1.6GHz Intel Celeron M and 512MB RAM. A very nice widescreen lcd screen and an ATI RADEON XPRESS 200M (64MB). A nice system which is much higher than I had before. Fully decked out with wifi and USB ports galore.

So a bitter sweet end to my day. At least I didn't lose me side-scroller's source. *whew* I didn't work on it at all durring the last month. :/

[czar]

I know that feeling. I think many people can relate to you experience.

You couldn't access the HDD from the laptop?

[WILL]

Nope.. it was doing the mad clicks. You know that really echoy click that sorrt sounds like 'sprong!'.. yeah.. hardcore messed up. I may try to recover the data from a shop that does it, but... I thjink it's gone. Which is sad because I had done alot as far as sources goes. I established a toolbox of sorts for my game units... fonts, grapics, input, etc...

I can redo it, but it'll take a bit of time...

On the plus side, I've got a decked out graphics card. :D Well compaired to my old nothing card I had.. :lol: I'll upload the specs later on.

EDIT: It's already up on Delphi3D. I ran GLInfo and got these results. ;)

http://www.delphi3d.net/hardware/viewreport.php?report=1597

I think I can play some of the competition entries now. :D

[WILL]

This little project of mine is on hold for a while until I redo everything. :p

I have only the UnDelphiX-based source to work from. Has just the basic functionality of the game so I have to restructure everything again. So lets hope that whatever code I remember, I remember well enough to get it right the second time around. ;)

I think I can get away with taking a few shortcuts and remake the helpful units before the rest this time 'round. Perhaps I can fasttrack the parts that took some testing to do before.

Graphics files, conventions and KeyMap-ed controls system is ready made too! So it should be less difficult the second time around to get back to a Build 6 state soon.

I'll be skipping the planned Build 7 and going right to Build 8 next run... so please be patient as I do some damage control and build Rome(or this digital version of it) in a few weeks. ;)

[WILL]

Just a little update! :)

I've gotten the core code base coverted and back up to spec.

GameMap fully redone with a new 'Robot Respawn' tile (prevents player shots from destroying robots as soon as they are 'created' or respawned).

Player controls and movement redone!

Item pickup & dropping system redone!

Shots system and Robot AI control still needs to be done.



So far it's almost back to Build 6 status. after I get the 'shots' system done I can move to the AI where I'll go past Build 7 and right to Build 8. ;)

More to follow...

[WILL]

Hey I just might be able to make a WinCE/Pocket PC version of my game. Would anyone be interested?

What the Official SDL site has to say about WinCE: http://www.libsdl.org/faq.php?action=listentries&category=4#40

[Traveler]

I dont own a pocket pc, but yeah, it sounds like a cool project!

[savage]

If WinCE supports DLLs and the FPC codebase for WinCE support those DLLs then it should be possible.

The other alternative is to use the next version of Delphi.NET which will work on WinCE devices.

[WILL]

Hmm... I honestly would rather stick with Lazarus/FPC development, but if SDL is supported as well as many have stated and from what I've read, it might not be nessissary to go that way.

It should be possible. I'm just not sure about being able to do much alpha blending or particle effects in the PocketPC versions as I would have in the PC versions.

Network play between the two would be very neat though! :) I'd like to somehow setup a game server for the game --something like what Soldat (http://www.soldat.pl/) has maybe.

Does anyone out there have a PocketPC that would wish to test my game on their platform? I'm doing Pre-Alpha Testing right now. :lol:

[WILL]

One last progress update before I post Build 8:

Things are going extremely well now. All of the basic functionality of the game engine is pretty much working. (save a few bells and whistles for later) The only thing left is the Robot AI, which I am now able to fully concentrate on restoring and improving upon. (A* and Patrol Points were just completed last night!)

Some new things you'll see in Build 8, will be:

- Visibly show you hiding in the dark corridors
- New Robot Respawn tile to protect newly spawned robots from being instantly killed as soon as they're created.
- You can now pickup and fire the EMP(behaves like the finished EMP) and Launcher (behaves like a normal gun right now --adding blast object to do area damage) weapons! :)
- Several Robot AI improvements; will stop and scan sometimes at generated patrol points, won't always rush the player making it rather easy to destroy it (some will run away or try to attack you from another angle), will either have predictible search patterns or random(like what it does now), an stuff you won't see like multi-player focus that decides for the Robot which one it will focus it's actions on.

Build 9, I believe will include the Rocket Blast for area damage, Robot features like shields, armoured and EMP shielded body and stunned mode and the new Door and Key system. I'll hopefully be able to get a dynamic map format and editor started by then, if not then soon after, I think.


Build 8 soon... ;)

[WILL]

Good one FNX :thumbup:

tiles.rar (http://www.gameprogrammer.net/zip/Tiles.rar) (not as good as yours though :oops: )

Did I mention that I liked the Red Robot? :) Something about it reminded me of what I pictured as a war robot or something like that when I was a kid.

Anyhow, I think I'll keep it around as insparation. ;)

But dude... seriously. pink? :lol:

[WILL]

I just had this awesome idea! Tell me what you guys think about it.

Remember the player modes that I'm aiming for?


Possible game modes:
Single Player: Escape
Single Player: Survival
Multi-Player: Escape
Multi-Player: Survival
Multi-Player: Player vs Player

Well I've got one more. Multi-Player: Online Escape

Basically it's like Multi-Player Escape, only instead of having to join up ahead of time, you can just start playing where you left off once you login to the server. The server will keep your account stored with your progress throughout the game. The maps will be much bigger and there will of course be a heck of a lot more robots. Even tougher ones! :D And basically everyone that is logged in to the server is on one big game. Like an MMO... in fact exactly like an MMO! :)

So you'll have a ton of players online all trying to escape from this huge global maze! :D It's a bit different from the traditional everyone trying to kill each other type of games, but it might have some appeal...

What do you guys think?


Also, I'm trying to get Build 8 out the door, so to speak. But I just keep coming up with all these little things I want to add. :) You guys will appreciate them too, I think.

Some stuff I'm working on right now: Full screen option, 2x and 4x sized screen (I'm gonna see if an idea works), new graphics (by FNX), new walling system to support a future map auto-generator, Alt-Enter toggle from fullscreen to windowed mode(just an idea right now) and of course playing with robot reaction times and shot speeds. (I just read a post in another topic about difficulty in games as you, the developer, are working on them and it sort of applied even more so directly to my game here.)

I hope to have something by tomorrow. *crosses fingers*


Oh! What screen resolutions do you guys like? I'll try to include/use these in my 'auto-size' method of picking a proper game screen resolution. :)

[Robert Kosek]

Well I've got one more. Multi-Player: Online Escape

Basically it's like Multi-Player Escape, only instead of having to join up ahead of time, you can just start playing where you left off once you login to the server. The server will keep your account stored with your progress throughout the game. The maps will be much bigger and there will of course be a heck of a lot more robots. Even tougher ones! :D And basically everyone that is logged in to the server is on one big game. Like an MMO... in fact exactly like an MMO! :)

So you'll have a ton of players online all trying to escape from this huge global maze! :D It's a bit different from the traditional everyone trying to kill each other type of games, but it might have some appeal...It would work if you had a large enough level and a really optimized network. I'm not huge into multiplayer or MMO, but it might be fun. A challenge to program efficiently maybe...


(I just read a post in another topic about difficulty in games as you, the developer, are working on them and it sort of applied even more so directly to my game here.)Aha, I see someone read my little quote there. ;) Game Design Secrets of the Sages has a lot of handy tips from guys (and gals) like the Levelord, Cliff Bleszinski, Roberta Williams and even Sid Meier. It's ISBN is 1-57595-257-2 just incase you wanna pick it up.


Oh! What screen resolutions do you guys like? I'll try to include/use these in my 'auto-size' method of picking a proper game screen resolution. :)2x, 4x, almost anything from 320x240 to 1280x1024. ;)

[WILL]

Well I know it's been quite some time since I released a new Build of my little game here and I'm too anxious to wait for all the finished graphics for Build 8. :P

I've decided to release Build 7.9.6 (http://www.pascalgamedevelopment.com/files/188/NS2_Build7.9.6.rar) instead! ;)

It is practically a whole new engine since Build 6. (And yes, I backed up my sources in a nice safe place this time!)

It is not complete. There are a few bugs, but the gameplay as you can tell right away is much much nicer. Robots have quite a bit more reactions time until they will fire at you. And I beefed up the AI some more adding Robot Characteristics that are right now only applied at random. Eventually once the engine progresses and standard maps and newer robots are added, you'll start to see more of a pattern and less chaos. In this version, I set the number of Robots to 4 at all times. Basically just to demo the robot AI and the player and weapons pickups and controls.

Things that need doing(so don't complain about 'em! ...yet ;)):

:arrow: The Player's sprite is NOT finished! FNX is still working this new version of the 1st sprite frames for him.

:arrow: Rockets to not end in a big blast and cause area damage (including YOU in your too close!) ...yet.

:arrow: Some weapons sprites are awaiting some finishing, enhancements, etc...

:arrow: FOG of War option is not complete yet. Try it out, but be warned it will make you 'blind' once you enter a dark space on the map. (ie. Bunkers and Dark Floor tiles) also since you auto-start on any random bunker tile you'll start off with a blank screen, just move around and you'll find yourself.

:arrow: it's just a basic engine right now so you'll have to quit(press Esc) and rerun the exe to play again. Don't worry there will be menus soon enough. ;)

:arrow: No music, yet. But if you make music and want to give it a go... I like electronic stuff maybe some ambient cyberpunk type techno in there... Something really eary to get underthe players skin as they are playing in Fog Of War mode. :twisted:

:arrow: Only one incomplete robot for now... We are slowly working on the graphics. Soon enough... besides it gives me time to get the game engine worked on more so I don't get all spoiled with too much eye candy.

:arrow: If you want to change the maps go for it, BUT do not stray from 19x19 or it'll crash on ya.


Well that should be about it for all the perks of this release...

I'm planning on changing the name of the game as NightStaker2 doesn't match anymore... it's a totally different game from Night Stalker now. I was thining Subject 33 or maybe just 33. (You know as in 'test case 33' opr something). What do you guys think?

[aidave]

the game is coming along nicely!
nice graphics.

one issue:
- couldnt close it with the X button or from the taskbar

[WILL]

Yeah thats SDL. Won't let you just close it like that as it's a window created by the dynamic library it's self.

[technomage]

You have to handle the SDL_QUITEV in your event loop and quit there. Although I read in the latest relase notes that it will now respond to Alt+F4..

[WILL]

Oh ok, thanks Dean. I'll look into that. Just incase there is a fluke problem with the game and you have to exit in a hurry.

[WILL]

I've posted a new thread regarding the new name of this project. Click here to read it. (http://www.pascalgamedevelopment.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=22259#22259)