Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Foxlike Tech Demo Release

I did some work in an attempt to create a single coherent level.  It needs a boss, but is otherwise a showcase of the games current state.  It shows off the system fairly well.  You may need to run it in compatibility mode.

Get It here: Foxlike4117.zip

It has been awhile since I've looked at it, but there are some cool things going on there.  I added time manipulation a little while ago and everything runs really, really smoothly.  The controls are probably the best in the genre, so that's neat.  I worked on those a fair bit.

What is Foxlike?

Foxlike is a rail based shooter, much like Star Fox.  Which is where it gets its name.  It takes place in space, which is great.

Controls:

I went with a uniquely PC based approach to the control scheme.  I though of other things, but decided to run with a computers strength and ignore how one might build such a control scheme on a console.  I also added some unique mechanics which no one else has.
Movement: WASD moves you around like a typical third person shooter, except instead of going forward, you go up or down

Shooting: Move the mouse to aim and left click to attack.  You can also select different weapons with numbers 1-4. 2-4 have limited ammo.

Time Manipulation:
Here is where my novelty is, at least within the genre.  While Star Fox has a boost/brake mechanic.  This game replace that with the manipulation of the force known as time.  Fun stuff!

R - send you forward in time without entering the intermediate space
F - slows time, but allows you to fire at a high rate
V - Reverses time, does weird things
right-click.  Allows you do dodge sideways much like when you press R.

Other Design Decisions:

Conveyance:
Foxlike does not through things at you like you've never seen, it introduces game-play elements over time.  In the case of an enemy, you'll see one so you have a chance to learn how it operates.  Then you'll see some more so you can get a feel for it.  Then that enemy will be apart of the game and cruelly mixed with other elements in order to make a challenging and engaging experience.  Don't say we didn't warn you.

Palette:
Its important to have this pop and be distinguishable.  For this reason, I chose to make the main characters ship red, so its stands out against the enemy colors which so far or green, grey, blue and yellow.  Objects and obstacles are grey.  Ideally when you see something you can get an idea of what it's going to do.

-Liam

A Quick C# 'Game' in XNA


It never really got finished, but I figured I'd post it anyway.

ArcanusValiant.zip

You may need some redistributable, I'm not particularly sure.  It isn't much, but I did solidify my C# skills and give me experience with Microsoft's XNA library.  I used visual studio to make it and all in all it worked pretty well for a few days of tinkering.


-Liam