GraveDigger

fued · October 2, 2019

Hello chaps, some of you might recall the Usborne´s computer game books from the 80s.

I had a great time with one of them in my youth, "Creepy Computer Games", particularly, the game that has the same post title´s.

Superb stuff eh? This was the code that taught me how to use arrays to create a "board" for games to run on.

It didn´t work out of the box on my TRS-80 COLOR as at the time, I didn´t know it was the same as the Dragon, so I was trying to run TRS-80 code and failed.

I eventually solved the puzzle and got the game running, anyways, here is what it looks like:

So, I´m working on a rogue like/strategy turn based kind of game and thought to re-create this very one game here, GraveDigger, as a warm up and tribute.

I will knock out a mode close to the original and a mode with some twisted ideas.

fued · October 2, 2019

If you would like to take a close look at the book, follow this link:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bxv0SsvibDMTRUl3SFRONGN0MFk/view

Some may also know that I use a modern variation of basic, very powerful one indeed, called GLBasic, get it here:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/819510/GLBasic_SDK/

Now a bit of making of.
The original game is about putting a player on the left upper part of a 20x10 squared board, 20 crosses randomly spreaded around and 3 skeletons on the top right area.

The game is turn based and your objective is to stay alive for 60 turns. Skeletons tend to hunt you and you have to play with the environment to block them.

You can also use a turn to dig a hole where the skeletons can´t go over. All in all, a surviving king of rogue like, it shares similarities with CHASE and ROBOTS,

check it here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chase_(video_game)

In my version, I´m going to use a 200x 120 resolution, sporting a board of 20x12 slots 10 square pixels each.

You can see a Layout here:

The game mode A will sport clear semataries while B will have a more constructed ones like the example depicted above.

So, let´s get into random generation.

Apart from aesthetic tiles, grass fences and blocks, an exit gate also gets generated.

Here I want to extend a bit on the original objectives, I want you to exit the place and not only stay alive.

I also would like to sport more zombies if possible.

Here you have a bunch of zombies going about. Notice they all move at the same time when it is their turn, this has to be changed to each moving on their own time.

This is one of the subjects I wanted to try while doing this kind of game, if everyone moves at the same time, the game flows faster and you can sport more enemies, otherwise, it can cap to a limit as the player might not have patience to wait so long to play again. This also relates to game area , character´s speed and visibility.

fued · October 2, 2019

Here is the game running on my debug overlay, you can see what each one is about.

Notice the red squares around the player? It shows how close an enemy is to him and dictates the AI behavior of them zombies (ye no skeletons here).

Zombies also tremble harder if close by, I had to add this visual aid to it as it looks cool and stressful.

Here is a temporary title screen and transition fxs. It should be 4x faster than this.

Here you will also be able to change game mode.

Game over and Game won screens, the first one is to show the player scared as that is what happens on the original.

I´m giving the player 3 chances to get scared before game over, might add a bit more.

Player gets wary as he gets scared and can be seen on his idle animation.

fued · October 2, 2019

The Player can also fall into its own digged hole, or, can be pushed into it by a nearby zombie.

Here are two possible animations for that, one is fast, direct and brings a surprise, the other is cartoony and has anticipation.

While I enjoy the cartoon one better, I´m going to stick with the direct one as it seems to fits the game better.

Here is a zombie attack and some testing of the player´s idle animation.

Some more changes to the base gameplay, you now have to pick up a key in order to open the sematary gates, no more 60 turns wait.

That poses some trouble on level generation, here is what I decided for:

-gates spawn in the middle, player appears on a lower side part and key on an upper opposite side part.

-gates spawn on the sides, player appears on the lower part of the same side and key on the upper opposite side.

That generates the longest runs, it still has a level of randomicity on the regions, so always a different game.

Zombies also spawn from graves and the above solution gives a reason for players to move on the start of the game, ye, where zombies are coming out.

I´m also adding a cognac pick up to extend the game, it falls from a zombie in case turn 30 is reached, you got the key and a zombie is going about a clear tile.

This gives you an extra reason for not leaving the sematary just yet, but I´m also adding more zombies.

The game boots with maximum 3 zombies, pick up the key and that goes to 6, pick up the cognac and that goes to 9.

There are many bugged situations when deving a game, some are hilarious, like this one here:

fued · October 2, 2019

I spend this past weekend polishing the experience, adding sounds and music.

Music has 3 momentos that kick in should you pick the key or the cognac.

Here is a test video of it, sound is not quite well mixed yet.

fued · October 2, 2019

Finally got the polishing done, tweaked the controls, added sound varieties to zombie yells, better sound mixing, some score at the end, etc.

This should resolve game A and I hope to pack that up and have it released later today or tomorrow.

I would like to know your thoughts, specially if any of those Usborne´s book played importance in your life.

fued · October 2, 2019

Here is a link to the current PC version of the game:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=179qs2v8cFWUzgHeTFOl5D1AEabf3f88p

Use arrows+ZX or joypad+AB, ESC and menu button on joypad to return to title and again to quit.

On menu, first button starts. During game, hold first button to stay in digging mode, add a direction to dig, second button to skip turn.

fued · October 7, 2019

Working on mode B with hard changes to the gameplay and mechanics.

Better level generation, zombies fall into pits and you can swing you shovel to push them back.

Pushing them back should provide a domino effect if they bump on others and should add greatly to the gameplay!

It is not quite done yet but I´m on it.

fued · October 10, 2019

Advancing, polishing some final stuff, like making sure the level generator does not fail and if it does, regenerate.

Made a few 1000 generation tests and got it going neat.

Looks like when you hold reset switch on some games from the Atari 2600.

fued · October 20, 2019

I extended the shovel power. It now pushes back a zombie 3 blocks and 2 for bounced ones. Should give you room to maneuver and make the gameplay less tight.