As usual, I totally overestimated the amount of work I’d be able to at the last minute… however, by scaling things back quite a bit from my original idea, I was able to come up with something to submit to TIGSource’s Commonplace Book competition! Here’s a link to the TIGSource thread.
It’s essentially just an arena shooter, using the backward-aiming mechanism that I’ve been meaning to use somewhere for ages. There’s a lot about the game that I’m not that happy with right now – I’m hoping to come back to it to give it a serious polish over the next few weeks – but one thing I’m really happy with is the boss that appears after you’ve beaten a certain number of enemies! I think it’s worth playing for that, if nothing else. (Believe it or not, I was originally planning on having seven bosses as well as all the “tower defence” stuff – dunno how that was gonna happen realistically…)
I should probably note here that I made this in Game Maker (as an experiment). I think it worked out quite well despite a few problems here and there (mostly with speed and getting collision to work properly); In fact I may use it again for something more serious! It saved me a lot of work, especially with setting things up in the early stages of development.
Controls: Press Z to shoot. You’ve got a limited supply of bullets, but your gun recharges after a few seconds if you stop shooting. You can also press X to quickly spin around while shooting, which can be quite useful but diminishes your supply of bullets more rapidly. The trick to doing well in this game is mastering the spin move (especially for the boss! 😉 ).
[Download here, Contest Version]
(Zip File, 1.7Mb)
Terry
