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Shattered Earth - WIP


KaeruYojimbo

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Space freighters aren't built for speed. Even pushing my ship to the limit and not stopping to sleep, it still takes three days to get back from Ganymede. Three days since the last transmission I received from earth cut off suddenly. Three days to prepare for the worst and still not be ready for what I saw. Earth was gone, reduced to nothing but space junk.

 

My name is Dex Nebula. I fly a supply ship. I'm pretty good at it. That's why what's left of EarthGov hired me to search for survivors. Buncha poor bastards who weren't killed instantly and are now drifting through the rubble waiting for their life support suits to crap out. Unless I can find them and get them to a space station before that happens.

 

shatteredsc.bas_3.thumb.png.66db8d099283ec8de59f3ebef6e61848.png

 

Your goal in Shattered Earth is to fly your ship through the debris field that used to be earth, collect 4 survivors, and get them to the relative safety of the space station before their space suits run out of air (the cockpit of your space freighter only has room for one, so they have to ride in the cargo hold). The space station will be cloaked until you've found 4 survivors, meaning that even if you enter the screen where it is located, you won't be able to see it unless you have four survivors in your cargo hold. Besides the debris itself you'll have to deal with surviving orbital defense satellites that, with the central command system that was on earth gone, are now unable to distinguish friend from foe and fire at anything that moves, including you. When you successfully dock with the station, you'll get a bonus and move on to the next level.

 

The levels in Shattered Earth a procedurally generated, so no two games are exactly the same. It's rare, but not impossible, to find yourself in a level that can't be completed. Let's call that the "You threw your joystick at the wall in frustration but that's OK because you needed a new one anyway" feature and not a bug. Each level is made up of 16 screens arranged in a 4X4 grid. Moving off one edge of the grid wraps you around to the opposite edge.

 

Controls:

Joystick - move your ship in eight directions

Fire Button -  launch a photon missile in the direction you're moving or the last direction you moved

Reset Switch - resets the game

Left Difficulty B - begin a new life on the same screen where you were killed

Left Difficulty A - begin a new life on a randomly selected screen

Right Difficulty Switch - pause (A) and unpause (B) the game

Color/B&W Switch - select a color or black and white display palette

 

Scoring:

Survivors increase in value as you collect them (50, 100, 200, 400 points) but the value resets to 50 whenever you lose a life or start a new level.

Destroying a defense satellite is worth 25 points.

After docking with the space station you will receive a bonus of 5, 10, 25 or 50 points (depending on how many consecutive survivors you rescued) for each time unit remaining, plus 250 points for each survivor rescued.

If you complete a level without losing a life or destroying any satellites, your bonus will be 1000 points per survivor.

 

 

Newest version:

Shattered Earth 20240306.bin

 

 

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We'll be playing Shattered Earth on tomorrow's (Wed Apr 29) ZeroPage Homebrew stream LIVE on Twitch at 6PM PT | 9PM ET | 1AM GMT! Hope everyone can watch!


Games:

 

 (SET VIDEO TO 1080P60 FOR FULL QUALITY)

 

 

Edited by ZeroPage Homebrew
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New ROM in the first post.

 

I started adding obstacles and sounds. The end of level bonus sound effects are just placeholders until I come up with something better.

 

Oh, and you can start a new game with the fire button now (you're welcome, James!)

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9 hours ago, KaeruYojimbo said:

I started adding obstacles and sounds. The end of level bonus sound effects are just placeholders until I come up with something better.

Oh, and you can start a new game with the fire button now (you're welcome, James!)

Woohoo, thank you! ?  Great update and love the new obstacles!

 

1 hour ago, KevinMos3 said:

Very cool.  My only complaint is the obstacles that shoot lasers in the 2nd level.  Not sure how to avoid them.

I don't think there's a way at this point. I just leave the screen and come back to have it randomly generate a new layout (hopefully without the lasers).

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 4 months later...

Update:

 

Left Difficulty Switch A - If you leave a screen from the direction you entered it, the previous room will be the same as it was. So if you're trying to go through the rooms in order or avoid a particular obstacle, you can't just leave and come back to get a different layout.

 

Update to the Update:

I just discovered that the game would crash after finishing a level, so here's a fixed version.

 

ShatteredEarth20201012b.bin

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ZeroPage Homebrew will be playing Shattered Earth on tomorrow's (Tue Oct 20) stream LIVE on Twitch at 6PM PT | 9PM ET | 1AM GMT! Hope everyone can watch!

 

Games:

 

(SET VIDEO TO 1080P60 FOR FULL QUALITY)

 

Edited by ZeroPage Homebrew
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What an interesting concept, I like it!
Currently the only thing I would change is to make screens not random at all and more like mazes, but that's just me
EDIT: I forgot to mention, it would be really nice if you add a "twin stick" optional control mode like in RobotWar 2084

Edited by MCP90
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On 10/20/2020 at 1:00 AM, MCP90 said:

What an interesting concept, I like it!
Currently the only thing I would change is to make screens not random at all and more like mazes, but that's just me
EDIT: I forgot to mention, it would be really nice if you add a "twin stick" optional control mode like in RobotWar 2084

Thanks! The premise of the game is that you're in a field of shifting debris, thus the random screens. I get that this won't appeal to everyone, but it's not something I plan on changing. I hadn't ever considered a twin stick control scheme. I don't think it would be too difficult to implement, but I'm not sure how much it would actually add to a game where only one enemy appears at a time.

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5 hours ago, KaeruYojimbo said:

Thanks! The premise of the game is that you're in a field of shifting debris, thus the random screens. I get that this won't appeal to everyone, but it's not something I plan on changing. I hadn't ever considered a twin stick control scheme. I don't think it would be too difficult to implement, but I'm not sure how much it would actually add to a game where only one enemy appears at a time.

oh yeah it makes sense, the game is very cool as it is. If at completition there's still some rom space consider adding the dual stick option, while not strictly necessary it's an added bonus

Edited by MCP90
forgot a word
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4 hours ago, KaeruYojimbo said:

Thanks! The premise of the game is that you're in a field of shifting debris, thus the random screens. I get that this won't appeal to everyone, but it's not something I plan on changing. I hadn't ever considered a twin stick control scheme. I don't think it would be too difficult to implement, but I'm not sure how much it would actually add to a game where only one enemy appears at a time.

I have to admit, I didn't think this would be a good twin-stick candidate until I watched ZPH play through the game. Since the game is timed, your kind of forced to speed run through the levels and a twin-stick "option" would be cool for when you encounter a few of the enemies. Btw, I like the different enemies (witnessed so far), especially the big one that pauses when you shoot it. I really need to find time to play this.

 

So yeah, another vote for the twin-stick option and how about a "Buncha poor bastards" patch featuring the four survivors. I really like their look.?

 

<Edit> Could you display the final level achieved upon game ending?

 

Edited by sramirez2008
Final Level
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Wow, I like it. In a alien world that you can explore and enemies to defeat. The complex playfields, which you can hide and straife behind is awesome. Seems like the screen kernel is more or less perfect. The concept is pretty original. The game in its current state plays well and has oodles of potential. 

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Here's the latest update. First, I fixed it so the Wumpus (the giant enemy you can't kill) can't insta-kill you when you start a new life anymore. In theory anyway. My testing procedure was "die a lot and see if it happens." It didn't, so I'm assuming this little bug is fixed. Second, I added a new enemy type. This one is kind of an easter egg, so you may not find it right away. This will be the last new enemy type I add, but I plan to add some new behaviors to existing enemies (including the new one) in later levels.

ShatteredEarth20201111.bin

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3 hours ago, KaeruYojimbo said:

Second, I added a new enemy type. This one is kind of an easter egg, so you may not find it right away.

Nice, Found the easter egg in my second playthrough of the new build! ? Nice surprise.

 

- James

Edited by ZeroPage Homebrew
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