[WIP] Forest Moon Attack!

[KevKelley]

TITLE

Forest Moon Attack! 

 

This title is a kind of reference to the Zeller's game Ocean City Defender, which was a pirate of Imagic's Atlantis - a favorite of mine growing up.

 

GAMEPLAY

This is a Star Wars inspired game, and in particular the speeder bike scene on Endor in The Return of the Jedi.  

 

There are three screens to this game (so far).

 

In the main screen you are on a speeder bike being pursued by an enemy speeder bike.  You must avoid rocks, trees, the enemy speeder, and laser fire from above and below. Pressing and holding the fire button will result in your speeder bike to accelerate.  You can also move your bike around in the left half of the screen to avoid obstacles.  Releasing the fire button will decelerate. On the top of the screen is a progress meter showing you how far you have left on the stage.  It will only progress if you are holding the fire button. 

 

If the enemy speeder comes along side you for longer than a moment, they will "fight" you and you will see your health reduced.  If they get ahead of you they will speed away and another will come from behind.  The enemy speeders can also collide with the environment.

 

If either of the troopers shoot you you will lose health.

 

If you lose all your health before the end of the stage your bike will slow down and you will go to a second stage where you are on foot.  Here you must collect boxes to replenish your health to avoid the loss of a life.  While collecting the boxes your health meter will go up but you must also avoid the speeder whizzing by and the laser shots.  This screen was somewhat inspired by Haunting Starring Polterguy on Sega Genesis, where in that game you collect slime in a second screen to avoid losing your life. 

 

If you have your health and make it to the end of the stage you will fight a mechanized trooper.  We will call that the AT-RI robot. Here you are again on foot avoiding laser shots from the troopers but you must also avoid shots from the AT-RI. Pressing fire lets you shoot a laser at the AT_RI. It takes 10 shots to kill.  If you kill it you will move on to the next stage.

 

TO DO

Right now there are a lot of rough edges.  Whether in the transition screens, resetting sprite positions, tightening or adding collision detection, adding additional sounds, or difficulty progression.  Currently when you start both troopers are on the screen firing.  Ideally they will be added the further you are in the game.  I will also reduce the number of trees, as currently not all trees result in collision - only the first tree does.  That may also be part of a difficulty setting.  I programmed all the enemies at once to see what could be handled and then I figured I'd turn some bits on or off to amp up difficulty. I also have to make the AT-RI's lasers do damage if you get shot.

 

But as for the game, the general idea is made and I was actually surprised at how much space I have remaining in the other banks, which leaves me room for other things like title screen, music, and perhaps another screen, but this was a fun little project to play around with, as I was trying out some acceleration and deceleration ideas, as I was kind of curious about making a bB port of the TI-94a's Beyond Parsec.

 

Here is a video of the basic gameplay.

   

 

FR_2022.04.18.bas FR_2022.04.18.bas.bin

Edited April 18, 2022 by KevKelley

[orange808]

You're onto something with this idea.

[+Karl G]

Looks super cool! But I have to ask: where is the menial labor component?  

[+Muddyfunster]

Looking good Kev! I love the concept.

[KevKelley]

2 hours ago, Karl G said:

Looks super cool! But I have to ask: where is the menial labor component?  

Well I do have him pick up random boxes in the middle of the woods. Perhaps I should call this Crossdock 2: Forest Fight!

[KevKelley]

2 hours ago, Muddyfunster said:

Looking good Kev! I love the concept.

I was kind of interested in doing a kind of acceleration/deceleration thing and this fell in my brain. Part of me wanted to do a Parsec 2 inspired game (which I may still do because I imagine that would be easier) but I though speeding bikes was neat and my sons preferred that. My 8 year old wanted me to make a game where things scroll faster in the front and slower in the back, like in "real life."

 

I was hoping to make the speeder part seem frantic but not impossible while the other screens offer a variation of gameplay, dodging or shooting. 

 

I was also hoping the work on this and what I learn can be used on my first game Bag Boy. Last I left off I was making him slide around on ice and in the wind but I was having some problems at the time. While I have a lot to rework in that game this may one day help me finish.

 

[KevKelley]

I added an updated file on the first post.  In it I have changed a couple minor things so that when you die or finish a level it instructs you to "PRESS FIRE."  I have started adding a difficulty progression where it starts with the bottom trooper but after a couple rounds the second trooper appears.  When the second trooper appears there is also a chance for a little furry native to appear in the woods.  If you touch it the furry native will get on his kite and attack the top trooper.

 

I'm still tweaking things to see what looks better or works better, like the number of trees or the robot laser shot (which doesn't do damage yet).

 

There is no game over so this kind of just loops for now.

[KevKelley]

I am thinking that along with the Ewok furry native taking out the trooper I may have him then randomly go back and forth and then drop a health. If you pick it up he will disappear and then the trooper will come back. 

[KevKelley]

I updated the first post.  I wound up making the furry native drop a battery where if you touch it it will charge up your health bar.  I may alter how fast it charges it, as it does it rather quickly but I also found that when I would go for it I also would get shot more so it may work as is.  I'll put it on my tweak list. 

 

The file uploaded now has all troopers on screen so that the furry forest friend would appear.

[KevKelley]

I updated the .bin and .bas in the initial post. 

 

While still some rough edges things are progressing.  The file uploaded cycles from speeder chase to robot attack to forest base defense to speeder chase to robot attack to enemy base.

 

It is still set up to where if you die in the speeder chase it goes to a secondary screen where you dodge enemy speeders and lasers to collect boxes (health). 

 

The robot attack is you on foot dodging lasers to shoot a mechanized bipedal infantry robot.

 

The forest base defense is you defending the forest village of your furry forest moon friends from approaching enemy soldiers.  

 

The enemy base is dodging a bunch of lasers from the base and a trooper while you drop a bomb at the base, return, and detonate it.

 

Right now the game cycles pretty quick for testing purposes so the speeder level is only a fraction of time.  It only takes one shot to kill the robot.  About ten shots to beat the forest level, and then I haven't finished the enemy base.

 

To accomplish the screens in the space I reuse the code for walking and getting shot and recycle a lot of the variables in between screens, which has resulted in some issues in screen changes, as I seem to have forgotten to reset some but that shouldn't be too hard to fix. I still have to fix some minor issues with sound, collision, scoring, and whatever little thing pops up.  Just trying to hammer out the main details and then tweak the values as I go along.  

Hopefully not much longer for me to have a more playable demo instead of what I have now which is just a test of the levels for me to see what needs work but thought it at least demonstrates the main parts of the game. 

 

I included the .bas file incase anyone wanted to play around with the values while I still work on this game.

 

Enjoy!

 

 

 

[KevKelley]

I was finishing up the above post on the tail end of my lunch. 

 

Essentially I am programming the stages and changes and once everything is tightened up I will change the values of when levels change or obstacles activated. I figure the game will start with the speeder chase and gradually add the bottom and top troopers. I am considering making the other screens get progressively harder, like more hits for the robot or maybe faster troopers or more bombs. 

 

Testing has been fun though as I like the variation in gameplay as it breaks things up a bit and while each screen is different they do offer similar elements. I tried to utilize different parts of the screen so you aren't always looking at the same spot. I am hoping to hammer out some of the bigger issues this week to have a nice little demo up!

 

And I must remember to make it couch compliant before I do so I can use that logo!

[ALEXANDER]

On 3/10/2022 at 12:17 PM, KevKelley said:

TITLE

Forest Moon Attack! 

 

This title is a kind of reference to the Zeller's game Ocean City Defender, which was a pirate of Imagic's Atlantis - a favorite of mine growing up.

 

GAMEPLAY

This is a Star Wars inspired game, and in particular the speeder bike scene on Endor in The Return of the Jedi.  

 

There are three screens to this game (so far).

 

In the main screen you are on a speeder bike being pursued by an enemy speeder bike.  You must avoid rocks, trees, the enemy speeder, and laser fire from above and below. Pressing and holding the fire button will result in your speeder bike to accelerate.  You can also move your bike around in the left half of the screen to avoid obstacles.  Releasing the fire button will decelerate. On the top of the screen is a progress meter showing you how far you have left on the stage.  It will only progress if you are holding the fire button. 

 

If the enemy speeder comes along side you for longer than a moment, they will "fight" you and you will see your health reduced.  If they get ahead of you they will speed away and another will come from behind.  The enemy speeders can also collide with the environment.

 

If either of the troopers shoot you you will lose health.

 

If you lose all your health before the end of the stage your bike will slow down and you will go to a second stage where you are on foot.  Here you must collect boxes to replenish your health to avoid the loss of a life.  While collecting the boxes your health meter will go up but you must also avoid the speeder whizzing by and the laser shots.  This screen was somewhat inspired by Haunting Starring Polterguy on Sega Genesis, where in that game you collect slime in a second screen to avoid losing your life. 

 

If you have your health and make it to the end of the stage you will fight a mechanized trooper.  We will call that the AT-RI robot. Here you are again on foot avoiding laser shots from the troopers but you must also avoid shots from the AT-RI. Pressing fire lets you shoot a laser at the AT_RI. It takes 10 shots to kill.  If you kill it you will move on to the next stage.

 

TO DO

Right now there are a lot of rough edges.  Whether in the transition screens, resetting sprite positions, tightening or adding collision detection, adding additional sounds, or difficulty progression.  Currently when you start both troopers are on the screen firing.  Ideally they will be added the further you are in the game.  I will also reduce the number of trees, as currently not all trees result in collision - only the first tree does.  That may also be part of a difficulty setting.  I programmed all the enemies at once to see what could be handled and then I figured I'd turn some bits on or off to amp up difficulty. I also have to make the AT-RI's lasers do damage if you get shot.

 

But as for the game, the general idea is made and I was actually surprised at how much space I have remaining in the other banks, which leaves me room for other things like title screen, music, and perhaps another screen, but this was a fun little project to play around with, as I was trying out some acceleration and deceleration ideas, as I was kind of curious about making a bB port of the TI-94a's Beyond Parsec.

 

Here is a video of the basic gameplay.

   

 

FR_2022.04.18.bas 56.31 kB · 1 download FR_2022.04.18.bas.bin 32 kB · 4 downloads

Thanks KevKelley, your preview game plays and looks awesome !

 

 

[Fort Apocalypse]

Really good! I ran over one of the little fuzzy forest moon inhabitants, though. I think I'm banned for life on Forest Moon now.

[KevKelley]

1 hour ago, Fort Apocalypse said:

Really good! I ran over one of the little fuzzy forest moon inhabitants, though. I think I'm banned for life on Forest Moon now.

I envision it more like giving him a high five as you speed by.