The Probe

[paul_nicholls]

Hey all,
I haven't uploaded the latest version yet, but I have been playing with a new element in The Probe...a Sentry.



The Sentry has a rotating beam that if it hits the player, then an energy discharge hits the player causing damage. If you take too much damage, you die.

At the moment, it zaps the player if in range regardless of the beam's location - I need to work out the collision detection yet (see this thread if you think you can help [http://www.pascalgamedevelopment.com...sion-detection]):

I have also changed the crystals graphic, and made it so there are different colours available when designing levels - looks much nicer I think

PS. A person playing the game can now use a game controller to play (yay!), and can even configure the keys & game controller button use to control the game!!

cheers,
Paul

[paul_nicholls]

I have a question for you all regarding some graphics for The probe...

I want to represent the probe's "health" using some sort of graphic, and I was thinking that a spanner would look good (as the player is a robotic probe...):

spanner.png

If I had this added to the head up display with a percentage next to it (0-100), and have the icon also as a collectable in-game to recover health, do you think this is intuitive enough to represent the player's health in the game?

See the possible HUD screenshot below:



I am also playing with the health power-up box colour too...any suggestions would be nice

cheers,
Paul

[Traveler]

Yeah, I think that would work quite well. It's not an uncommon icon in games. The blue frame around the spanner doesn't really fit imo though (color-wise).
I toyed in Lightwave for a bit and came up with this animation. Here is the animationstrip: .
The light reflection is perhaps a bit strong in this one, but I can change that if you want to.

[paul_nicholls]

Thanks for the tip, and especially the animation

Not sure I want to make the spanner spin, but neat!

cheers,
Paul

[code_glitch]

Can I just say, that this also works a treat on wine 1.3.6 on ubuntu 10.10. Frankly, I think every pascal program so far is turning out to work VERY well. Clocked around 50fps with 20-35% cpu usage. Nice work.

[paul_nicholls]

Can I just say, that this also works a treat on wine 1.3.6 on ubuntu 10.10. Frankly, I think every pascal program so far is turning out to work VERY well. Clocked around 50fps with 20-35% cpu usage. Nice work.

Thanks for the feedback code_glitch, much appreciated

cheers,
Paul

[paul_nicholls]

Hi all,
I am wanting to add into The Probe some sort of liquid/goop/acid, etc. that will over time damage and then destroy crystals/rocks/the probe? that are touching it.

I could just put into the game liquid as static 32x32 tiles (possibly animated) like the rest of the tiles in the game, but it would look silly if the ground got blown up underneath it and the liquid didn't fall, or an object exploded in it, destroying some of the liquid - leaving a hole.

Thinking about it, I want to have an outlet somewhere and have liquid coming out of it.

The liquid should fall down, and fill up tile squares once it has hit the bottom.

So I guess I might need to use particles?

Any ideas?

EDIT: I guess if I didn't use particles, I would want to do something similar to boulder dash rocks! in this video:



See 1:02 minutes onwards for the first bit of falling water...

cheers,
Paul