PGD Big Boss Entry: Earth Under Fire

[Galfar]

You can download my PGD Competition entry called Earth Under Fire from
here (http://www.fi.muni.cz/~xmauder/pgd/EUF_061.zip) (4MB, source included)

http://www.fi.muni.cz/~xmauder/pgd/EUFSmall.png
large screenshot (http://www.fi.muni.cz/~xmauder/pgd/EUF.jpg)

It is simple space shooter. I didn't have much time for it - four levels only,
code is messy. Some bugs that were in final PGD entry version are fixed
in this one.

[savage]

Screen shot looks great. I'll try and download it this week-end.

PS. Your post has now been promoted to being a news item.

[Traveler]

I second that,..

Going to give it a try this weekend

[cairnswm]

Yay - A game small enough for me to download and test :)

[Traveler]

I played your game today. It worked pretty much okay for me, despite one access violation during the first level (after training).

Overall I thought the game was quite slow. Fighters, bullets, lasers, everythings is going a bit slowly. It lacks the action I see in other spaceshooters. I feel you could have done more to spice it up a bit. Your weapon variations are nice though.

The collision detection needs some work. There were several times where rochets went through either myself or the enemy.
Also (more of a design issue), unless you want to have a highscore, there's little need to actually destroy the enemies (except for the bosses) Its quite easy to go around enemies to collect pickups without getting destroyed in the process. I did notice in further levels fighters were equipped with guided missiles so that appraoch might not work there, but it's still something you might want to look into.

[Chebmaster]

The info windows at the top are incomfortable, making my eyes run to the top to check the health/energy and distracting from the battle.

Suggestion 1:
With ships so though, taking many hits to destroy, they just ask for the pain skins. I think, even the simple blackened spots will do.

Suggestion 2:
Make energy level visible on the ship itself (some variably glowing part, or something like that).

Suggestion 3:
That huge, spectacular, rotating nebula is too obwious (looks cool at first, but then more and more like a solid object). Slow it down to make its rotation less noticeable, or make it rotate on the edge of the screen, with only half of it visible.

[WILL]

Is there a homepage or project site for your game?

And BTW, very nice visuals! I couldn't play it unfortunately because of a crash bug that comes up at just after the title. :?

[Galfar]

No project homepage yet.
Sorry about crash bug
(I hope that judges haven't encounter it).

[Galfar]

There is a new version of Earth Under Fire available at:
http://galfar.vevb.net/cms/projects/euf.html.

Game has been extended and many bugs have been fixed since Big Boss version in May.
There are new missions, new weapons, new ships, and other things. High score tables and saving of players progress in campaing has been added too.

Some issues that Traveler and Chebmaster wrote about in previous posts has been fixed too:
gameplay is somewhat faster now, missile collisions were fixed, energy levels are now visible on directly on your ship (and bosses and your allies too).

I would appreciate any comments or bug reports.

If the game seems too tough you can set difficulty to Easy in Setings.exe program.

<a href="http://galfar.vevb.net/cms/uploads/projects/euf-jupiter.jpg">
http://galfar.vevb.net/cms/uploads/projects/euf-jupiter.thumb.jpg
</a>
<a href="http://galfar.vevb.net/cms/uploads/projects/euf-slayer.jpg">
http://galfar.vevb.net/cms/uploads/projects/euf-slayer.thumb.jpg
</a>

[savage]

Hi Marek,
Did anyone make this a news item? I don't remember seeing this on the news page.

[NecroDOME]

Forum -> Your projects -> Announcement: PGD Big Boss Entry: Earth Under Fire.
It was on the front page :)

[savage]

Sorry I should have been clearer. I meant the update in October rather than the initial post in May.

[NecroDOME]

dunno... can't remember I saw it there...

[savage]

Comments on gameplay....
Ok I just had a quick game on Normal and Hard. Hard is way to hard and Normal is not challenging enough. I know you are trying to go for realistic effect with only having one life, but it halts the game too abruptly. You might have to tweak it a little so that Easy and Normal get 3 lives and Hard only get 2 or something along those lines. I think the power-ups look good, but would look better if they had more of a neon glow about them and maybe have them tumbling.

You may also want to consider making the asteroids obstacles that damage the ship's hull, but maybe have them smaller and less frequent. Again this is a game play balance issue. Maybe also make the asteroids more irregular in shape.

When I saw the intro, before the main menu comes up, I actually thought you could pick the ship you wanted to use, so I was a little disappointed to find that the ship I had to use was "allocated" to me.

Overall a great little game and I look forward to further enhancements to it.

[Huehnerschaender]

Okidoki, after this post I recognized that there is something new on one of my rivals in the last competition (nope, I think there was no news entry on that Dom).

I've downloaded the latest version and played it right now...

First comments:

- It looks much more like a real game to me now! Good work! The competition entry had too much of like a "proof of concept" thing.

- The graphics are well made (but I still don't like the pickups). Pickups look too comic-like. They don't fit to the rest of the graphics which are made quite realistic

- There were pickups I was not able to pick up.... and I don't know why.

- It's a little hard to keep an overview of your stats (life etc) and keeping an eye on your doings. Maybe it's me, maybe it's the positioning of the HUD. Don't know.

- and yes, like Dominique said.... one life is a little short gameplay. I was happy to reach first kind of boss... it killed me and GAME OVER. Hmmm.. Just try to let the player have a chance on trying out some tactics etc.... one or two more lives will help here.... (I know, in TANX the player had just one life, too.... so I am one of the last who can find fault on this :) )


This were justsome thoughts about this version..... but hey, it's very FINE! So this few things changed and you have one more potential customer for a shareware or commercial game.... So please take this as a very positive criticism!!

Very good work so far. Finish it to a complete game!

Greetings,
Dirk

[Galfar]

Thanks for comments Dominique and Dirk.


There were pickups I was not able to pick up.... and I don't know why
You won't pickup items that you already have like weapons and reactors. Also when you have
max amount of energy, ammo, and hull you won't pick up these types of pick-ups. That way your
wingmen can use them if you don't need them.


It's a little hard to keep an overview of your stats (life etc) and keeping an eye on your doings. Maybe it's me, maybe it's the positioning of the HUD. Don't know
Well, the stats are displayed directly on you ship too as little bars. But I too have problems
with it because I usually don't look at my ship but on what's in front of it. I just don't know where else to put them.


When I saw the intro, before the main menu comes up, I actually thought you could pick the ship you wanted to use, so I was a little disappointed to find that the ship I had to use was "allocated" to me.
Right now the ship you fly is part of the story. At least at the beginning - you are a test pilot of a new prototype (later you get a bigger ship). But I think ship class selection (say before every mission like in some combat space sims) could be done. But only main differences between ships
now are the look and hit points. You can get all other equipment from pickups. It could be much useful if ships had more distinguishing features like speed, maneuverability, armor, and others (maybe in future).

Pickups: I would gladly replace those boxes by some models but I don't have any. I can make only the simplest 3D models so the boxes will probably stay here (possibly with the neon glow - that's a good idea). Most of the ship models now are from various Internet or free or other sources (so majority of them would have to be replaced if going shareware or commercial). At least they are quite noticeable now if not pretty.

And finally: more player lives. Player can repeat each mission any times he wants now. But I understand that being shot down just before the end of the mission is not very pleasant experience. Well, pilot could eject and Navy could send him another ship. Maybe make the new ship invulnerable for a few seconds so the player could get out of the fire that killed him before?