Creating a crossplatform Shoot-Em-up Construction Kit

[Gunnar]

Hi, I'm new to this site.

I'm currently working on a cross platform Arcade Game Construction Kit
that will allow everybody to easely create good Shoot-Em-Ups.

The Kit is based on SDL and the games created with it
will run on all Operating systems. (Windows/MacOS/Linux/Amiga OS/ BeOS).

The Kit is halve way finished now. I'll release the sources when its finished

Here are some sceenshots of my game '194X' which is my working game to develop the Kit around it.
The game is heavely inspired by classic the Arcade shoot em ups. I think the screenshots should look familiar to most of you






You can read more and download the game on my website.
http://www.greyhound-data.com/gunnar/games/index.htm

I wrote the Kit and created the 194X game in the last two month.
I hope to finish the Kit in the next two month.
But to be able to finish the Construction Kit I will need to create some more games with it, first. I believe that you can only fully develop a routine if you use it.

I'm looking for some motivated GFX-artist that want to create some Shoot-Em-Ups with me now.

If you create a game with me, now during the beta phase of the Kit then please contact me. Its your choise if you want to sell the game or not.
All I ask for is that the Kit will include the first level of each game that is created during the beta phase, so that when the Kit will be released we will have some good examples for the users.

Please contact me if you are intestested in creating some games with me. (gunnar@greyhound-data.com)

You have free choose of the genre. It could be horizontel or vertical scroller.
It can be a space or underwater shooter or something like commando.
I'll be happy to add whatever kind of special effects you need.
(Underwater blurs, smoke, partical explosions, whatever)
As more features you need as better the Kit will get.

The kit currently allows you to create games in resolutions 320 pixel, 640 pixel or higher.
320 pixel games will even run on very slow computers like classic Amiga with <100Mhz.
A 640x480 pixel game will run smooth on any computer with 500Mhz.

I'm happy to answer all questions.

Cheers
Gunnar[/url]

[mice]

Great work.

I think you should mention that you've ripped the gfx from 1944, not that it just has "inspired you". People will be upset over this kind of thing.

[Shatterhand]

Will this development kit be simple to use as, say, something like "Click & Create", it will be more complex, like "Gamemaker", or is it a full blown language, like "Blitz Basic" ?

[Eps]

Just please -- don't make it as much of a let-down as the original SEUCK on the Amiga. I lusted after that for much of my childhood, then when I got it -- well, to say disappointment set in would be an understatement

[Gunnar]

Shatterhand:
Will this development kit be simple to use as, say, something like "Click & Create", it will be more complex, like "Gamemaker", or is it a full blown language, like "Blitz Basic" ?

The Arcade Construction Kit is targeted for non programmers.
Very easy to use with NO programming knowledge needed at all.
I have not used "Click and Create" but the name sounds exactly like the Kit will be

The idea is that if a person is able to paint some GFX with even the simplest paint program then it will be able to create a game like the testgame.

Making the Kit so simple has pros and cons.
Con is that the Kit will be inflexible - The Kit will only be able to handle situation that were considered when designing the Kit. Thats why is important to create a number of different games with it now to find missing features and add them.

The pros are that the Kit will be brain dead easy to use and that every situation is pre-compiled into the Kit which means that games created with the Kit will be running optimally fast.

Just please -- don't make it as much of a let-down as the original SEUCK on the Amiga. I lusted after that for much of my childhood, then when I got it -- well, to say disappointment set in would be an understatement

The original SEUCK came out for C64 some years before the Amiga version.
IMHO the C64 version was much better than the Amiga version.

I think the test game 194x shows already that you can create proper games with the Kit, doesn't it?

How many more features will be added to the Kit depends partly on your help.
If more GFX artists help me to create some games now with it
as more usefull features will be added tio the Kit and as better it will be.

I'm looking forward to get some feedback

Cheers
Gunnar

[cigsthecat]

Can you post a demo of the actual program? I can't really give much feedback as all you've got is a lame version of 19-whatever. I'd be interested in trying it out/testing for you.

[Shatterhand]

yeah. If you post a demo of the development kit itself, I would love to give you some feedback.

[Gunnar]

Can you post a demo of the actual program? I can't really give much feedback as all you've got is a lame version of 19-whatever. I'd be interested in trying it out/testing for you.

Sorry but the Kit is not polished enough for publishing it today.
It would only give a bad impression to you.
Public demos will be ready in about a month.

And to be frank the Kit is currently only able to handle exactly
these movement and enemy type reactions that you are see in the that lame game.

That is why I'm looking for GFX artists with game wishes to give me more challenges to solve with the Kit. I think two more different games to be created with the Kit and the Kit will be flexible to handle most situation.


Cheers
Gunnar

[tikkaman]

Looking forward to using this Any chance of some screenshots of the editor(s)?

[Gunnar]

Looking forward to using this Any chance of some screenshots of the editor(s)?

That you all ask for the editor makes me realize that I must have been very unclear in my first post. - sorry about this
I'm currently developing the Kit. Its not fnished and the GUI is totally unpolished yet. (read ugly) But this is not important and will change in the next weeks.

I'm here asking for your help to add more features to the game engine.
I believe that the best way of developing features is by really using them extensively

Currently the game engine can handle all the situations that you can see in the testgame.
To create and use more enemy types and enemy behaviors I would like to create a few short or even full games together with a few GFX artists.

The Kit is currently limited and it lucks ugly so please don't focus on the limitations of the Editor as of today.
Please rather send me your GFX and your ideas.
I'll be happy to implement all routines needed to solve whatever needs your game will have.

While doing this I'll polish the Editor (which I did not do yet)
When the Editor is a bit nicer looking and has some more features
then I'll be happy to open it for general testing.
In its current state this does not make sense.


Currently I'm need game graphics.

If you have developed a Shoot-em-up and like to support the idea of the kit,
then please allow me to use the gfx of one of your game levels.

Or if you are a talented artists and ever wanted to create a shoot-em up,
then please contact me and lets create your dream shoot em up together.


Its very important for the completion of the Kit to now create a few different games with it.
The reason is, that the idea is the Kit us to be totally easy to use.
This means you define objects and enemies by simple selection their
animation frames and by selecting their "type" from a dropdown.

Example: Type: "Gunturret"
After selecting the enemy type (like turret)

the Kit will allow you to specify some parameters specific to the selected type:

For a Gunturret you have those variables:
Turret-Turnspeed:
Shoots on: (always on closest Player/random Player)
Follows Player: (always / only when in range of xxx pixel)
Shoots[0-n]:
Bullet (pick bullet anim)
Bullet_speed:
Bullet_does_x_damage:
Reload Speed:
Bullet_range: (unlimited/ xxx pixel)
Bullet_deviation: (pick pattern list (optional) )
Shoot_if: (always / target in xxxx picel range)
2nd Shoot_if: (always / pick random-event-list)

Number of Hitpoints:
Counting as damaged when number of Hitpoints below:

Sprite Animation for undamaged:
Sprite Animation for damaged:
Sprite Animation for destroyed:

Explosion Animation:

Gives_x_much_score_points:



As you can see the system is easy but very flexible in creating enemy objects.
But the Kit only knows these types of objects which I have needed for creating the 194x game demo.

Coding new objects without really using them will not work well.
If you don't use some code extensively then its nearly impossible to think of all details in advance.

I hope that a number of people are interested in creating some Shoot-Em-Ups with me.
If you are then please send me some GFX and your ideas.
Please do not ask for the features of the current Kit - but let your inspiration freely flow.
Tell me what you want to have as features in your game and I'll add the needed routines to the Kit.


Many thanks in advance

Gunnar

[Shatterhand]

It would be nice if the enemies objects had a "timeline", and you could tell the object to create (IE fire) bullets in specific parts of this timeline.

It could be like, say your object will stay on screen for 1800 frames. (Unless its destroyed before, of course)

you could have a timeline, that show a list from 1 to 1800, this way you could put specific actions at each frame.

so say, you insert at frame 50 three actions to fire bullets. In those "actions" you could tell what kind of bullet will be fired, its direction and its speed. Also it would be important that the kit could have some function to automatic calculate the direction between two objects (say, the enemy and the player), so you can aim bullets easily.

At frame 100 you could tell the object to raise its speed, at frame 300 to go at another direction, etc etc.

You could have this "frames list" for every object that isn't controlled by the player (bullets too).

This would give a LOT of freedom to design the game. I don't think it should be the *only* way to design things, but it would be a good option.

[Shocky]

Shatterhand:
Will this development kit be simple to use as, say, something like "Click & Create", it will be more complex, like "Gamemaker", or is it a full blown language, like "Blitz Basic" ?

The Arcade Construction Kit is targeted for non programmers.
Very easy to use with NO programming knowledge needed at all.
I have not used "Click and Create" but the name sounds exactly like the Kit will be

Just please -- don't make it as much of a let-down as the original SEUCK on the Amiga. I lusted after that for much of my childhood, then when I got it -- well, to say disappointment set in would be an understatement

The original SEUCK came out for C64 some years before the Amiga version.
IMHO the C64 version was much better than the Amiga version.

Seuck/Click and Play/Click and Create/The Games Factory/Multimedia Fusion style easy editor is definitely the way to go. It's important that people actually are able to produce something and not just waste time learning yet another semi-low level coding/scripting language and get fed up with it. STOS, AMOS and Gamemaker were too low level, only the code-oriented folks got any results with those.

The original C64 SEUCK was already proof of which way is better. Nevermind the inflexibility, people were actually making games with it for a long time. Amiga-SEUCK was a disappointment after the C64 version (and especially it's sound creation:), but still I had so much fun with it. And you could do more with it than the makers probably even thought of when designing it, for example I managed to do an Operation Wolf -clone.

Too bad they never made a SEUCK 2 with enhancements

Europress Software/Clickteam's Click and Play was revolutionary, you could do pretty much anything with it with the hidden variable-counters and boolean operations. It's drawbacks were mainly the lack of proper scrolling and serious problems with the graphics/animation formats. Too bad it's sequel softwares didn't improve the design so much, though I have to admit I haven't thoroughly tested them. I'm really looking forward to Multimedia Fusion 2.

Anyway, Click and Play was meant to be very flexible and allow creating most kinds of games, therefore compromises had to be made. If we had a similar software which was clearly targeted at making shoot 'em ups no compromising would be needed. No-one could claim that a lack of tools was preventing them from realizing their dream shmup. Unless they are having totally unrealistic plans of doing something like R-Type Final, which will just remain plans anyway for all eternity.

Shatterhand's idea for timed events in an objects lifespan sounded very good and even essential.

This Gunnar's project sounds almost too good to be true...

[shiftace]

Interesting idea... I can't say that I like the idea of a generic engine in which all behavior is pre-programmed, but you do seem to know what you're doing and what the consequences are. I hope it works.

In some sense, placing enemies and patterns, even by click-n-drag, is still programming -- it just uses a very literal language. I think what would be coolest would be to define a flexible scripting language, write a compiler to translate simple, graphical-editor constructs into that language, and write an engine that interprets those scripts. Or what about compiling to GameMaker/Blitz/etc. code? Seems like a clear win for users, just a lot of work for the programmer...

[Matarick]

I just hope you can accept dual stick movement 4 directionals for movement and four more for shooting?
I have all of these ideas for a side scrolling Robotron like game but no canvas to paint it on since I know barely anything about coding outside of PRINT, RUN, GOTO, <lib.h>, and RETURN.

Thank you for working on this project.

[Gunnar]

I just hope you can accept dual stick movement 4 directionals for movement and four more for shooting?
I have all of these ideas for a side scrolling Robotron like game but no canvas to paint it on since I know barely anything about coding outside of PRINT, RUN, GOTO, <lib.h>, and RETURN.

Using dual joysticks one for flying and one for shooting is an interesting idea.
I haven't thought about this. But sure I can add support for this.

Matarick, if you want to really create your game then please email me.
I can do the coding part for you.
Gunnar@greyhound-data.com

Actually I'm exactly looking for people like you
My Construction Kit and the game-engine works well.
To make it more flexible I need now to create some more games with it.
So I'm looking for people with motivation and ideas and GFX to create the game around.

Thank you for working on this project.

Cheers

[D]

Looks great and very promissing.
Then we can all battle and vote who makes the best shmup

[Kaiser]

Any news on that gunnar?

[Gungriffon Geona]

hmm... I'm interested in this.

albeit I prefer working in 3D than 2D, I'm willing to do a few things (I got one enemy type unit and a player ship design with an interesting "armors" idea.) I could easily do some crazy render work to make some interesting stuff.

[Dale]

A way of setting Hitbox sizes for the players ship and enemy bullets would be good as well,And a way to create shields bullet reflecter's bullet absorbers would serve this program well to.

But It looks great so far keep up the good work.

[Grindie]

I'd be interesting in providing some GFX if you're still working on this... although, looking at your last post in this topic, I'm guessing you're not.

[CodeMonkey]

If you are still out there Gunnar it would be cool to see an update. The stuff you already showed looked promising.