UPDATE
Update:
Well I really thought I was going to just upload this and be done with it, but it turns out there were some low-cost, high-return changes I could make quickly that would immensely improve quality. So I did.
They are:
-Title screen is no longer just a hand written title, but in fact a super fancy title.
-New sound effects
-New ability (hold X) to slow time for a limited time. Collecting debris from asteroids powers up this ability.
-Old "level" system now counts as a score.
-Per @johanp's request, the smaller particles have significantly reduced screen time. This reduces clutter quite a bit
-Ship repair speed and damage resistance slightly increased to offset the fact that they were intended to be upgrade-able.
-Screen is now kept apart from UI with an added border for clarity
-Bullets and ship have little trails that follow them now. Cute.
I was hoping to add more art to the cover, as well as infinity more things, but I need to get started on a new project for September, so I'll probably just leave it here. Thanks for playing!
Old version:
Old information:
Hey everyone!
This is my first Pico 8 project, and actually my first (sort of) finished game. It's basically an asteroids clone. I'm following the #1GAM challenge for the next year to try to learn more about game development, and this is my first month!
I worked really hard to build a similar game in Unity and got it to about this level of completion in a little more than two weeks. However, as I went to backup the files, I (ironically) deleted them permanently. Rather than be upset, I decided to take advantage to build the game a little bit more smart, and this time in my recently acquired Pico 8. I went from nothing to this in about 8 days.
There's a lot I can say about how horribly programmed or incomplete this project really is, but I'm really just so proud that I actually got this far that I won't bother right now. It's late and I really just wanted to post before the month ended. I'll try to update this thread with a brief overview of Stroids and a more complete list of what I had planned on doing but did not have time to complete tomorrow.
Thanks for reading! I'm a big fan of this community and everything you guys have been doing. I also should give special thanks to NuSan as I had to carefully study his collision code in Combo Pool (one of my favorite carts) to understand how to implement collisions.
P.S. If for some reason anyone is interested in further pursuing this project (i.e, you want to make it amazing yourself), let me know.
UPDATE:
I just finished my blog post of my very unfinished blog detailing a little bit more about making it. I don't get into detail about the hows and whats since it's a very short retrospective piece, but if it interests you at all, link: https://twelvegames.wordpress.com/
Nice six and lovely screen shake. Particles should probably be killed when dropping off screens, currently it is a bit too much for my personal taste.
Also, what happened to big asteroids that split in two?
Well done!
@johanp Thanks for your comments!
I'll try to fix the particle thing (you would've hated the particle trails, they really cluttered up the screen). If you're curious, the reason they stay so long is because they are supposed to be experience points which add to levels... obviously that didn't really become anything, so maybe I'm better off leaving the screen less cluttered (or keep the bigger ones, let the little ones die when they leave the screen).
As for the asteroids... initially the idea was that there would be two different colors for bullets and asteroids and hitting with the same color would make the asteroid grow, otherwise it would shrink. I even toyed with making a mini-puzzle out of this, but sort of abandoned the idea as I'm not much of a puzzlemaker.
The fragmented development of the game (on top of it being my first and my not having a clear idea of how to plan ahead for features) lead to a lot of confusing decisions, and I can really only hope the next game goes better.
This is a lot of fun. Love the collision sound and that the asteroids can collide with themselves. Nice touch!
The shots seem to carry on a ways. I think in the original ASTEROIDS, you could not shoot yourself. Where it's not registering in this game, your shots are staying live for a long time.
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