Subject 33 [Restarted]

[WILL]

http://www.pascalgamedevelopment.com/files/news/2006_05_28_subject33_title.gif

Story/Plot: You wake up in some strange steel bunker. You don't know what happened to you of how you got here, but the splitting headache sure gives some indication. Your clothes are different... they're military fatigues if your not mistaken. Whats this 'SUBJECT 33' written on it?

Just when you thought your day was getting even stranger you step outside the bunker and have a look around. It's a bloody maze! Whats going on here?! You hear a very disturbing sound that suddenly stirs up fear.

Just as you start away from it, you see what looks like a robot come around the corner. Your jaw drops and you run like hell. You whip around the corner as it fires. He just barely missed you. You look over down this new corridor and what do you suddenly see? A weird looking hand gun!

That thing is still coming... no time for all these questions. You scoop up the odd looking 9mm pistol in your hand as you run by and make for cover somewhere down the hall. Just as the thing comes into your sights you fire off a few shots. *Bam!* The robot explodes as sparks fly off it.

Ok, you've never seen anything like that before. Being attacked by a robot and now a gun that fires fancy bullets? What is this sick place?!?! And how the hell can I get out of here?

Then you hear another one... more?! Just then it clicks 'SUBJECT 33', the maze, the robots, the gun... this is some sort of sick game! How can I get out of here? And... can I get out of here?


Same Project, Different Name: I have renamed the project to better suit the plot and disassociate with what this was originally. This game is no longer a clone of the 1982 video game called Night Stalker, it has in fact really taken form into something else. So it cannot be associated with it anymore. Plus, the final FULL version of this game will become a commercial game product. My very first. ;)

I will however offer a shareware version for those to try it out before you purchase it. :)

The original thread for this project is located here.

FNX Games as signed up to become a part of it's production, mainly doing artwork and basic sprites. We still need a musician/sound guy.


Current Build is 7.9.6! (http://www.pascalgamedevelopment.com/files/188/NS2_Build7.9.6.rar) :) (Next build you'll see the splash screen and name change.)


Project was canceled on June 26, 2007

Project was started back up on March 5, 2011

[dmantione]

It could be your intention, but the executable is not stripped, making the download a bit larger than necessary. Is this why you wanted to cross-compile? :)

[aidave]

Interesting idea,
good luck Will

[Traveler]

Nice story and well written :)

But what happend to that other game you were making with k4z? We haven't any progress in months...

Anyway,.. I'll give this version a try when I get home.

[WILL]

dmantione: Hmm.. interesting. It sould have been that I just forgot to strip it. :scratch:

I'll have a look at that before releasing the next build though. I actually wanted to cross-compile because I only have the one machine (my laptop) and I wanted to make Linux and MacOSX versions. (and to make sure that my code allowed me to do so for later)

Thanks Dave and Alex! :)

Would you guys believe that I wrote that in about 15-20 mins? Yup! I already had the basic idea for the plot down, but the synopsis/intro was written up on the fly. ;)

As for Cyber Crisis, it's still up there, but K4Z has gone missing and I'm waiting on some sprites and artwork to experiment more with the game engine. So I'm gonna complete this one in the meantime. Should be a lot simplier of a game to design and complete. Practice for releasing Cyber Crisis.

[WILL]

Been playing with S33 a little lately... wow this is probably one of my more fun inventions. :)

Screenshots!


http://upload7.postimage.org/213546/S33_FogView01.jpg (http://upload7.postimage.org/213546/photo_hosting.html)
Field of View

http://upload7.postimage.org/213553/S33_GrabbingGun01.jpg (http://upload7.postimage.org/213553/photo_hosting.html)
Grabbing the Hand Gun

http://upload7.postimage.org/213564/S33_FireEMPGun01.jpg (http://upload7.postimage.org/213564/photo_hosting.html)
Firing the EMP Gun

http://upload7.postimage.org/213571/S33_ExchangingFire01.jpg (http://upload7.postimage.org/213571/photo_hosting.html)
Exchanging fire with a robot!


Just a little sample of what I've done with the game since all this time. Once I get back onto it, I'll likely add some things, plus make make the game map scrollable. I'm also strongly considering the GP2X platform that is now becoming supported by JEDI-SDL. So this might be the one remaining project that does not end up using OpenGL.

[Robert Kosek]

I get a 404 error when attempting to download the latest build. :'(

It's looking really good WILL! Could you maybe put something like a one shot shield in there? I tend to find a shot, they're really small, coming my way and have nowhere to run. At least, in the last version I did.

[WILL]

Thanks Robert! :)

I believe that I removed the file. If I can get some new graphics for the player(s) then I'll likely release an alpha for everyone to try out.

Lots of new stuff has been put into the game at this point. And despite it's simplistic visual design, it's quite sophisticated AI-wise...

Plus the gameplay is just bloody fun! :twisted:

The fog of war feature is looking to be a permanent feature now. Though I may add in access terminals that will allow you to reveal the map or view other areas via some camera or something...

[WILL]

A profile for Subject 33 has been added to the Great Games Experiment site.

Subject 33 Profile (http://www.greatgamesexperiment.com/game/subject33)

[WILL]

I am canceling Subject 33. This is for the same reason as I have canceled Cyber-Crisis. Content.

This was a great little project to help me work with A* and some other FSM AI, but to do a rather nice job of completeing the game it will rely on the one thing I cannot create. Content.

I'll be willing to send a copy of the source should anyone ask for it. It's a really neat base for any maze/80s style shooter should you want to make one...


PM or email at raproductions@hotmail.com if you're interested. (Email might take up to a week for response!)

[pstudio]

Why not just upload it on PGD for download?
It will be a lot easier for people interested in the code and again, as mentioned before in the Crisis topic, it could be a great starting point for beginners.

[WILL]

Yeah, but not as easy to see how many people are actually interested. :P

I guess that might mean less interested as a result huh? :lol:

[FNX]

Nooo what a pity WILL! :cry:

I loved that game! I think to finish it quickly you could do a radomically
generated maze each time, so that the game would be infinite and you
haven't to design each level. It would be interesting!

Also releasing the source for the community is a great idea to show how
to code good AI.

You're dropping too much lately WILL (S33, GQ), something goes wrong or just
lack of inspiration? :)

[WILL]

You're dropping too much lately WILL (S33, GQ), something goes wrong or just lack of inspiration? :)

I'm not dropping Garland's Quest. In fact it's the one project I'm salvaging from all of these failed attempts. ;)

It's all a part of my recent change in ethos. I'm taking the advice from the folks at Introversion; Content sucks! :lol:

Seriously, think about it. What do you end up spending most of your time on when designing your games? The bloody sprites, models, maps, music, sound clips, video clips, etc... it's all content. I'm not saying that you or I should try to make a game without any of it. --Well actually that'd be kinda cool. :D-- But try to drop that down, WAY down as much as you can.

Indie developers will always have the ultimate content problem. So don't hurt yourself by jumping right in when you can't create the content that you will need in the first place.

Now if you can create the required content, and there are those here that can, great! Go for it. But for those like me who's artistic skills are limited, it's not such an accessible medium.


Anyhow thats my take on all the recent project droppings. I figured better to release it to you guys than have it rot on a thumb drive somewhere never to be used.

If you or anyone else want to finish the game yourself, then by all means go for it. Just let me know and I'll send the code.

The reason for not posting it up is that I have spent a fair deal of time on the project and I'd rather know whats going on with it than just post it and not get a single bit of info back about it. C-C is a different animal. I didn't do much other than the concept art and story plot, which I'm still retaining as my own IP. S33 is open for the taking...

[DarknessX]

Can I get the source? Doubt I'll actually finish the game, but I'd like to see what the code looks like... See some of the techniques used and such.

[WILL]

Sure by all means.

Some of the code is older (mostly the non OOP stuff) so you'll notice some arcaic things in there. but I've updated this code several times from Delphi as a DelphiX Night Stalker clone without any OOP to the now Subject 33 code that is written with Lazarus using JEDI-SDL where it's very much OOP. :)

All the AI stuff is brand new though so don't worry.

[WILL]

Well I've decided to pick up where I left off with Subject 33. I was so disappointed in myself that I never finished it and since I had the time to sit and code undisturbed for a good many hours of late, I decided to finally finish some of the missing features that I had half implemented when I left it.

I didn't get to finish all of the AI just yet, but all of the weapons and the door/key system works just fine. Rockets now fire off explosive rockets that explode on impact with Robot, wall, bunker or doors. The explosion graphics aren't pretty just yet, but it does the job until I can get a nicer visual effect when I port the graphics over to OpenGL.

A lot of what I'm planning is listed in the changelog.txt file if you are interested. I want to make a level editor, but I'm also kind of digging the ability to take a text file and change a few characters and I have a whole new map. You can edit the maps yourself, just keep in mind that they can only be 19x19 right now. With the weapons and door completed for now, I may move onto the map editor/loaded next. That or bash away on the Robot AI or various types of robots.

Read the ReadMe.txt file for directions on controls or other information about the game. It's worth taking a scroll through. Robot AI is explained a bit in the second half. It also gives you a guide for making your own maps.

Make a cool map? Send it to me or better yet, post it here for others to try too!

For this build, Build 9, I've set the Robots to respawn at; 50% Aggressive, 30% Tactical, 20% Evasive.

Fog of war has been turned off by default; I found this made the game very hard to play, but I left it in just in case you wanted a challenge.

Graphics are not 100%. FNX did really nice job with the weapons, tiles and items, but had some trouble with the player character so you'll notice the weird animation when he's running upwards. I'm planning on fixing all this when I make the hop to OpenGL for graphics. Just ignore it for now and enjoy the gameplay. ;)

Here it is for you all to try and enjoy.



309 310 311
Subject 33 (Alpha) Build 9 Screenshots

[paul_nicholls]

Very nice Jason! :)

cheers,
Paul

[chronozphere]

Just gave it a try. :)

I had a hard time dealing with the small graphics and found no way of making the game fullscreen or bigger, allthough the readme mentioned that these options were implemented. How can I make that work on windows? Would be too cool if this was available in an in-game menu.
Also, the main character isn't really visible because it has almost the same colors as the background. It took me a few minutes to find the character actually. ???

But it's great that you picked this one up again. :)

[Wizard]

Great that you started again ;-) I gave it a try and have to agree with Cronozphere: Graphics are too small and no way to make game bigger, character is barely visible and no way to close app once running. Had to kill it through task manager. Tested on Win7

[code_glitch]

Works great on wine errr... what are we on now? 1.3.15 (:)). Just wondering, will you be releasing source code for this or not? Because it is quite annoying running everything in wine and etc... Plus, I sure as heck wouldn't mind taking a look at how it all fits together that nicely. I must say I'm surprised though: sdl libs! OMG! it just made me think about how much I've come to rely on my own code since I havent actually done anything with OpenGl of Sdl directly since I originally worked on my 'interface' so to speak ;)

[WILL]

Hey guys, thanks for trying the new build out! :)

I'm guessing some of you didn't read the ReadMe.txt file or forgot how command line parameters work? At any rate, I made up these batch files or you to have a look at and see how it works. You can edit them and combine any of the parameters shown in the ReadMe file.

As I mentioned in the changelog (it's more of a features implimented and features not yet implemented) a menu is planned, probably once I get the level editor working I'll get to it. For now this is more or less a tech demo if you will.

X2 will double, while X3will triple, etc... FULLSCREEN works best as the others draw more pixels instead and since it's not hardware accelerated yet, you can guess the rest. ;)

Copy these right into the same folder to use them. Enjoy!

[chronozphere]

I'm guessing some of you didn't read the ReadMe.txt file or forgot how command line parameters work? At any rate, I made up these batch files or you to have a look at and see how it works. You can edit them and combine any of the parameters shown in the ReadMe file.


I did actually try to add the parameters by using a shortcut, but it didn't work. Relying on commandline parameters is not very user-friendly (at least not on the windows platform). Providing some BAT files will be a nice easy fix, but an INI file would be better in my opinion. Ofcourse, if you have more time you could make an ingame menu which would totally kick butt. :D

[WILL]

Well the batch files and the command line parameters are mostly for debugging and testing of course, but I plan on overhauling the whole graphics system next. In fact, I've already started. 640x480 will be the default resolution once, I've cleaned everything up. Fullscreen will be a default, I must have forgotten to change it back when I packaged it. I can't debug my code while I'm in Windowed mode so that's why I change it.

I'm planning on getting menus and a proper level editor working soon. I'm especially wanting to get it working for Mac and Linux too. Then I can run it natively on my own primary system. Now that I'm hope, as long as my motivation keeps up, I'll be able to do some of the more graphics based stuff too.

Let me know how the batch files helped guys! ;)

[WILL]

Did those batch files work for any of your guys at all? Please let me know.

Also any comments about the gameplay? Did you like this or that or did you hate this or that? Anything you would like to see?

I have plans in place for the game, which are documented, but maybe I can add stuff that you suggest if it's a cool idea and I like it enough. ;)

Also if I were to eventually release this for the iPad what kind of control interface would you suggest for it? You need to have 2 sets of 'directional' controls to move and shoot. The change of weapons is another one.

I'm hoping to add more cool weapons for later on in the game, any suggestions? I was thinking about grenades, a shield wall gun and maybe some claymore mines as well. What are your ideas?

[paul_nicholls]

Hey Jason, the batch files worked for me just fine :)

I had already made one for myself to do fullscreen anyhow LOL

Neat game...I found it a bit hard for some reason...I kept dying...

It didn't help that a couple of times the weapon I picked up was the bazooka and killed myself due to short range firing :)

cheers,
Paul

[WILL]

Neat game...I found it a bit hard for some reason...I kept dying...

It didn't help that a couple of times the weapon I picked up was the bazooka and killed myself due to short range firing :)

Yeah I have that problem too some times. I might add a little bit of code in so that at least there is a sequence to the weapon or at the very least a gun appears at the start instead of a random weapon. So far an actual weapon will appear every 500 'game frames' until you collect one of those weapons then it'll instead bring up an ammo item of that weapon instead. However once you pickup the actual weapon it'll switch to that weapon, ala Doom style pickups, so you have to watch what you have selected before you start shooting too.

I've tried making 'open space' maps where you have 2x2 or bigger wall-less spots in the map and it seems to do funny things with the player controls and the Robot AI (more so the player in my last test). I was thinking of having such maps, but I'm starting to second guess it's need. Have you perhaps played with the map data at all to see what you can do? Might be easier to do when I make my map editor, but that might take a little bit of time. Whats your thoughts on that?

[paul_nicholls]

No, I haven't had a play with the levels yet, I might do that and see what I can come up with :)

cheers,
Paul

[Chesso]

Unfortunately I cannot get it to work on Win7 x64 (fullscreen hangs, double size is normal, fog one seemed to sorta work like a snail), normal game works but I am looking at a 46inch LED at full 1080p res, so it's like really... really... tiny like ants :).

Played the normal sized game, man those aliens owned me!.

[WILL]

well there is x3 and x4 options too...?

Yeah if you do come up with some neat maps then send them my way. Maybe there are different ways of looking at the gameplay that I haven't thought of yet. ;)

[Chesso]

Oh ok yeah I was just running those batch files, I'll just edit the 2x to do 4x.

The X2, X3 ad X4 setting just runs it as normal for me, I'll try compatibility options, maybe Windows is just being stupid :).

Yeah no go, lowered the resolution and much better to see, it's pretty difficult. It reminds me of a NES game I played once..... the name escapes me, it was really fun too.

[WILL]

at 19x19 tiles at 16x16 pixels, it's probably trying to do 320x200 or 320x240. Your card might not be able to display at such a small resolution since it's an HD screen. I can only imagine how big the pixels would be. lol On my 27" screen I get better than 1080p. As a matter of of fact I can only go as low as 640x480. My usual resolution is actually 2560x1440. This is of course at 27" (iMac)

SO I think that's the main problem. I'm working to fix a higher resolution for the game for now. (I'll be updating the graphics later once I've signed an artist) Build 10 will have a new display system and perhaps even OpenGL graphics so I can record video of gameplay and speed up the game code a bit too. Though I was hoping to wait for an entire graphics overhaul at the same time as the switch to OpenGL. I can only promise a higher fullscreen resolution in build 10. ;)

NOTE: I continued development on my old Windows laptop which was made in 2003, runs WinXP SP2 and has at best a 15" screen. ;)

[Chesso]

Sounds good to me.

I know what you mean about waiting for resources until making any big changes, I have a similar approach when things like that crop up, it's a painful wait!

[WILL]

I've created this track for the music in the game... not sure where I will use it though.

http://soundcloud.com/jason-mcmillen/subject-33-action-1

[chronozphere]

Thats a nice track for a videogame. ;)

Some critisism though: There are some clear volume changes in the music. You should get rid of these, because suddenly changing the volume makes music uncomfortable to listen to. Also, some chord changes could be used, just to make it a tad more interesting. However, using too many different chords is definitely something you have to look out for, since it will attract to much attention.

Hope this helps

[code_glitch]

Ahh, loops in garageband. Aren't we all the artist? It's a shame I cant use them for my music coursework, but good song on the whole. Since its used as an 'action' theme/BGM then the small volume changes chronozphere picked up on should not pose much a problem. On the note of chords, there are some harmonic pairs (don't quote me on the name ;)) that can have some very nice effects indeed...

If you wanted to overhaul it, the most important thing in song making can be structure, a similar transition from variations of a few themes with completely different or at least different intros and outros to the song can make a world of difference.

But on the whole, nice song, it give it about 7.3/10 which is quite good by my scores since no song as a whole got a 10. Ever. (Not evern a 9.anything was awarded ever either so yay) although a few elite songs I really do like did get some high 8s but thats just me... Probably because of significance of the time I first heard them or some really good bits in them... So yay, but thats just me.

[paul_nicholls]

Hey Jason,
Nicely done! I love the tune :)

I did notice 1 or 2 volume changes (see the large spikes in the sound preview from the link you provided above)..I think if you could reduce that, then you have a winner for your game :)

cheers,
Paul

[WILL]

Yeah this was my cheap hack attempt at making music. I was suprise that my tinkering actually produced something half decent. As an aside, I've also taken to learning how to play the piano which may or may not allow me to compose something pleasant. :D ...we'll have to see.

Well if anyone has GarageBand and would like to have a try at remixing, I don't mind sharing creative control a wee bit for the fun of it. Just email me at team@garlandsquest.com and I'll send you the file to play with.

I'll have a look at the spots you mention...

[WILL]

Exciting update!

http://ouyaforum.com/showthread.php?18-List-of-Games-Coming-to-the-OUYA&p=4902&viewfull=1#post4902

Check out the Subject 33 Showcase website: http://www.redantgames.com/subject33/

The prototype (alpha) is being ported to Oxygene as I post this. It will be released for Android devices, the OUYA game console, Windows, Mac and Linux (all via Java RTE) and eventually iPads and iPhones. :)



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This is the mock-up of the mobile version's touch GUI

[WILL]

Paul has finally finished porting the Alpha prototype to Oxygene! (And it works great on Windows & Mac OS X so far) Rejoice, this is a fine day. :)

And to celebrate, here is a couple of videos showing the original game that inspired Subject 33...



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaqbN480Wog


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQgBKuy3RT0


http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xvoyj4_classic-game-room-night-stalker-review-for-intellivision_videogames#.URml_egYewk



...and because we love you guys, here is a latest screeshot of our WIP for Android, OUYA and eventually iOS. :)



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[WILL]

btw... Red Ant Games has a page on Facebook now. If you are on FB, you are invited to Like our page! :)

[Rodrigo Robles]

btw... Red Ant Games has a page on Facebook now. If you are on FB, you are invited to Like our page! :)

It's liked!

[WILL]

Awesome thanks!

We will be releasing some video footage of the game as it progresses. Right now we are getting the game setup so that the video is a bit bigger on Desktops for just that. Can't cut a preview video if it's too small to do so. :)

Also the game is pretty neat right now, but it's not anywhere as cool as when we will finally put in all the other robots and levels and weapons and such, so that'll be the next upcoming thing. Tougher robots. The Drones are the only thing that are in the game and though they might pose a challenge when you are not paying attention or when you are without ammo or weapons and even more so in a group, it's just not overly exciting yet.

There needs to be a tougher enemy that'll make you sweat a little. ;) Those will come!

Menus are also on the list.