Hi all ... and sorry for my absense of late. Thanks again to Scurra and doho for taking over the GDS for a couple of months -- I should be able to run April's (the 1-year anniversary!).
I'll spare you the TMI about my dayjob -- it's been crazy and the end of the tunnel seems to be sliding away.
However, in the few spare hours, I've put together an arcade/action computer game for a coding contest. A few of you have already heard about it from me, and darke even saw an alpha version.
Now I have a BETA versions available:
Edit: Link Removed
It assumes that you have at least DirectX8 and a fairly good video card (needs 1024x768x16 or 1024x768x32 mode and able to handle 512x512 textures). If your graphics card isn't up to snuff, the game should tell you so.
If you interested in testing and giving me feedback, I appreciate it ... the deadline for the contest is March 31st. (Of course, if you just want to play the game and not tell me, that's cool too.)
I hope all is well with everyone else ... I expect to start showing my face a bit more as we head into April.
-Bryk
That's actually the focus behind the game engine ... exploiting the cool graphical toys available with DirectX while sticking to a 2D format. A lot of the "cool" things are truly just 1-line calls to the engine. It makes life very easy in that regard.
Personally, I use the "Monty Python" method: "RUN AWAY!!!" ;-) They're not the smartest things, so you might need to encourage them to get around a corner to run toward you. Then run away in a straight line and shoot back over the path you just came -- they should run right into your shots. Also, there is 1 square on the board that you can move onto and they won't ... I'll let you figure that one out. ;-)
The game always consists of 10 levels, no matter how often you clear a level or how often you blown up. The point of the game is to get the best score over those 10 levels.
That's actually the point of the sequel ("Gem Raider", planned for this fall or winter) ... retrieving the white diamonds, because the security circuits can no longer be switched off. It will also have bigger maps, allowing for the ARC-like scrolling, another new enemy (Orange Gems), and a more traditional play-until-you-die-enough-times type of gameplay.
Your score is based upon how quickly you get all 4 switches flipped. You start with a score -- like $3,000 -- which ticks away $1/second. If a white diamond is destroyed, you lose an extra $200. To get the best score, you need to get to the switches as quickly as possible. Blowing up the bad gems does nothing to your score ... but tends to make getting to the switches a lot easier.
Actually, that *is* my code, in combination with that DLL (the game engine). I have it listed in the credits file as a "known bug" ... but I haven't figured out how to even identify exactly when it occurs yet.
Thanks -- it's been a fun little diversion over the past month.
-Matt