Zenith - a development inspired by The Sentinel (Crammond)

[compsci]

Free download available for Windows (98 to XP) with OpenGL, at http://www.johnvalentine.co.uk/m00014.html

About Zenith

Zenith is a first-person immersive action game of skill and strategy where you use the landscape's resources to gain height, and ultimately depose the Sentinel at the Zenith.



Gameplay

You start with your consciousness occupying a robot shell at the bottom of the landscape. You can create objects on flat parts of the landscape that you can see, but that costs energy. Likewise, you can absorb objects to gain energy - trees are useful as your basic energy supply.

To gain height, you create a robot shell in a higher position, and 'transfer' your consciousness to it. You can build a stack of boulders, then occupy a robot shell that stands on top of the stack, and from there you'll be able to see more.

But where would a game be without the bad guys? At the highest point of the landscape is the Sentinel. Like a lighthouse beam, it casts a scan across the landscape, and depletes the energy of any object worth more than one energy unit - including you and the objects you create. The energy is not lost forever, but scattered around the landscape as trees.



You win by deposing the Sentinel from its pedestal (by absorbing it - something you can only do if you're above the pedestal). On the way, you'll need to avoid the scan of the Sentinel (and its helpers, the Sentries), and absorb anything you can to maintain your energy and help your ascent to the Zenith.

If you find the game plot a bit complicated, the game provides you with hints as you go.

Game Design

The game itself is played in first-person 3D. The lighting is atmospheric, and the game should play well on low-spec machines. In designing this, I opted to go for smooth control and an interface that lets you play quickly (useful in the difficult levels). Landscapes are generated randomly, and you can enter a landscape number to repeat a game.



Download

Download the game now at http://www.johnvalentine.co.uk/m00014.html (use the 'Download' link on the left of that page). A Player's Guide is included in PDF format.

Written using Delphi and GLScene (OpenGL component for Delphi).

[Huehnerschaender]

Hey! Looks very interesting!

I surely give it a try after finish playing the PGD compo entrys, which has priority for me atm to have an idea of what the others did (and so understand judges decisions).

Greetings,
Dirk

[compsci]

Huehnerschaender,

You'll want to download it again, if you downloaded previously - improvements have been made since your post.

[WILL]

Give us a brief synopsis of your game/gameplay and it's story/plot. Give us something juicy to chew on until we are able to download it.

I've never heard of Sentinel before so odds are you'll have to sell the game a bit to people to get them interested enough to try it out.

[compsci]

Will,

I've posted a brief write-up of the game (edited the first post in this subject)

J.

[Huehnerschaender]

Hi Compsci,

I found some time to give your game a try today.

Indeed, your game uses very smooth and fast graphics! I like that, for the game itself has no need of overpowered grpahics.

I got stuck in the first level. Since I remember playing sentinel on one of my first computers (I guess it was the Amiga) I was able to find quite fast into the game and the gameplay idea. But somehow the game stuck and I was not able to "grow" higher than the sentinel.

But I will try it again later on, for now I have to go to bed and get some sleep.

Anyhow, very nice work from what I have seen yet.

Greetings,
Dirk

[compsci]

Huehnerschaender,

Occasionally, you'll encounter a level that can not be completed. The occasional few might not have enough trees to give you the height you need. The levels are randomly generated, so try another game at the same level.

Almost all landscapes can be completed; you just need to make clever use of energy, or look carefully at the opportunities presented by the landscape. For example, if you're standing on a boulder, its two units of energy are committed to that boulder. Sometimes one large step is better than two small steps. I'll leave the rest for you to figure out.

[AthenaOfDelphi]

Hi compsci,

I used to love playing The Sentinel, even if I wasn't very good at it... was a neat concept and very original... I've actually been looking to get it on an emulator, but so far, I've no had any success, so I'm really pleased to see a game based on it.

I've tried the demo and it looks pretty good... plays fine on my older machine. Does it have sound btw? If so, then I had a problem with that as there was no sound.

My only really complaint is the mouse movement/look... drove me crazy in the short space of time I was playing, other than that, its pretty good.

Good luck with the project... I wanna play :-)

[compsci]

AthenaOfDelphi,

Yes, mouse movement options are personal preferences, and so far, you're stuck with the one method. I have a 'switch' that can lock the mouse cursor when looking. If it helps, I could bring that into the Configuration interface, together with the sensitivity option.

What exactly was the problem you had with the mouse look?

No sound yet.

[Huehnerschaender]

My problem with mouse look was that every direction was inverted to what I am used to.
And setting "invert mouse" in the option didn't do anything.

Forgot to mention the mouse thing in my earlier post.
It was very annoying to me. Always looked in the wrong directions like an idiot :lol: