Sci Fi Quest

[jrok]

Okay, horrible working title for a game, but that's all I got right now.

 

As an experiment, I've taken a bunch of the work I've done with the engine for "Circus Galacticus" and have begun to port it over into more of a page-flip adventure model. I was always interested in trying something like Secret Quest and Adventure with a little more depth of gameplay and arcade action. The setting is an alien world on which the player has crash landed, in pursuit of a traitor on the run from the Galactic Empire. It would be a game of exploration and action, with multiple goals to accomplish in addition to finding the parts to repair your ship and leave the planet.

 

NAVIGATION:

I'd like to implement a fairly large and expansive world map, with some persistent elements and enemies. In addition to random encounters with weaker foes, I'd like to try to incorporate a few "roaming" bad guys like Adventure's dragons who are powerful enough that you'll want to avoid/evade them early in the game. Terrain will vary in shape, color, layout and effect, and certain special screens (like the screen containing your starship) will contain entrances into structures like bases and temples with their own submaps.

 

ACTION:

I'm using the shooting mechanic from Circus Galacticus, but I'd like to vary this up as well with some hand-to-hand combat. I've also ported over the quick-button-tap "dash" maneuver from CG, although now I've turned it into more of a Shatner-esque combat roll. I'm going to add to this over time, allowing player to shoot mid-roll so they can pull off flashy-looking kills. I've re-worked the AI for obstacle steering a bit, but I will also try to include some set piece challenges with more patterned attack movements.

 

INVENTORY:

The inventory will contain a picture of the item you are holding, controlled by the second joystick. I always liked the way Riddle of The Spinks was a little cryptic about how/where to use certain items, so I'm going to take a page out of that book, I think, and use manual-based hints for some items.

 

SCORING:

I'll be looking at Raiders of the Lost Ark as a frame of reference for the kind of scoring here. The game would be scored on goals completed, including various mini-quests like rescuing a hostage, killing a certain monster, blowing up the enemy base, finding an alien artifact, executing a traitor, etc. So scoring would be along the lines of "percentage complete" when you either die or escape from the planet.

 

I'm a little curious if this is a game that people would be interested in playing. It would be much more complex to program then CG, but I feel like it would be a more interesting game in many ways. I've included a small demo (6x6 world,robot present in every room, no inventory).

Edited May 10, 2010 by jrok

[+Philsan]

Awesome!

[jrok]

(Fixed a bit of bugginess)

SciFiQuest1.bas.bin

[rpgfaker]

Damn Cool! Love the multicolored spaceship and fat lazerbeam this looks like it's going to be epic.

[jrok]

Damn Cool! Love the multicolored spaceship and fat lazerbeam this looks like it's going to be epic.

 

Thanks!

 

I'm using the playfield to draw the lasers, which accounts for their fatness. I'll still working on the spaceship. I'm sure the color-blending for that and for other won't look as hot on real hardware, so right now I'll just try to optimize for emulation and alter the colors as necessary later on.

[yuppicide]

Listening to the description, it sounds awesome. Sounds like it could be one of those "I can't believe you did this in bAtari Basic" games. Will try shortly.

[+Atarius Maximus]

Wow!! Amazing demo, it looks fantastic. Keep working on it, I look forward to seeing your updates!

 

Steve

[+TrekMD]

This looks very good!

[yuppicide]

Looks like your previous game, but different just a tad.

 

Graphics are nice as usual.

 

I forget if I asked this.. how did you draw such nice backgrounds? Those trees are pretty.

[jrok]

Looks like your previous game, but different just a tad.

 

Graphics are nice as usual.

 

Thanks man. Yeah I am repurposing a lot of the Circus code, to see if it would fit in a more adventuring styled game.

 

I forget if I asked this.. how did you draw such nice backgrounds? Those trees are pretty.

 

Do you mean how are they 16 bit wide? If so that's just flicker.

[yuppicide]

Not sure what I mean, lol. It's just that they're pretty and look different. Look higher res to me or something. Is it that you use a pfheight or what?

 

 

I forget if I asked this.. how did you draw such nice backgrounds? Those trees are pretty.

 

Do you mean how are they 16 bit wide? If so that's just flicker.

[jrok]

Not sure what I mean, lol. It's just that they're pretty and look different. Look higher res to me or something. Is it that you use a pfheight or what?

 

Oh, I understand now. No, the trees (and rocks and other terrain) are drawn with the player0 sprite, same as in Circus Galacticus. Basically, the left half of each tree is drawn on even drawscreens and the right half is drawn on odd ones eight pixels to the right. Since the two 8-wide sprites are drawn side by side, the flicker gives the impression of a 16-wide sprite.

 

Cheers,

Jarod.

Edited May 18, 2010 by jrok

[iwan-iwanowitsch-goratschin]

You have to finish Circus Galacticus first..........................

[KevinMos3]

This looks awesome jrok. Too much teasing though. Waiting on Circus Galacticus to be finished, now I'll be waiting on this as well... too much excitement.

[+Gemintronic]

Looks awesome. I'm not sure if it's been mentioned, but, I'd like to throw in my vote that you fire first - press and hold to roll. Those damn, dirty robots don't deserve a barrel roll!

[yuppicide]

The barrel roll graphics look awesome.

[jbaudrand]

very cool!!!!

 

I like the gameplay

[+save2600]

Looks awesome. I'm not sure if it's been mentioned, but, I'd like to throw in my vote that you fire first - press and hold to roll. Those damn, dirty robots don't deserve a barrel roll!

 

Agreed! And the start of a great game it looks like

[jbaudrand]

is it 100% batari? or is it ASM?