[Sokurah]

Alright...I've been working on this for a few weeks now and all things considered I wasn't really going to post about it,
but then I thought "what the hell - let's see what kind of feedback I get on it".



The thing is: I'm not really that interrested in remaking Oids, but I'm sure that if you're looking at the demo you'll
be thinking "then why the hell did he just remake most of it?"

Well, fair enough.

Actually I just wanted to do something scrolling and Thrust-like set inside a base - a bit like Cybernoid...but not Cybernoid,
and I felt that Oids had the right things so I began to make the parts I needed. And suddenly I'd remade most of it.  

Demo removed. I'll probably post a new one a little later.

For speedy development I've mostly just used the original Atari ST graphics.

Code:

Arrows to control, Left-Ctrl ro fire, Alt to thrust.
S will turn sound on/off (from in-game only)
ENTER will toggle fullscreen mode (from in-game only)
SPACE will dump a bunch of men in the landscape (for debugging purposes. In-game only)

You can shoot everything.
If you shoot the dome'like buildings a couple of men (Oids) will be released from it. You can even shoot the men if you're sadistic.

However, as it's only an early demo a lot of things are also lacking.
You can't land and pick up the men and the only way to end a level is to use the ESC key.
There's iniertia but I've disabled gravity for this demo...and there's not much sound either.
Teleporters aren't working and neither are the attractors and repulsors...
In other words: lots of things are still missing...but it's definitely more than half-finished.


But to be quite honest: I don't know if I'll actually finish it. It's been fun to make this,
but making the maps is a lot of hard work and I don't really wan't to do much more than the 2 levels in this demo.
...perhaps if someone is willing to give me a hand?

[Ian]

Plays nicely, but I still can't see what Caff get out of it

Had a couple of instances where sprites disappeared and then reappeared after aecond or so or popping in when scrolling.

Didn't the original game have gravity?

[caffeinekid]

Squeeee!

[Sokurah]

Had a couple of instances where sprites disappeared and then reappeared after aecond or so or popping in when scrolling.

Oh, I forgot to mention that since it can look like a bug. It happens when you're at the map-boundary and you have the lefthand side and the righthand side of the map on the screen at the same time. I just haven't gotten around to making sure the sprites from "the other side" are drawn (just as the scenery is). I haven't given it much thought since the (original) game I was going to do wouldn't wrap around like it does now.

Didn't the original game have gravity?

Yeah, it did have some light gravity, but nothing as "bad" as Thrust.

Plays nicely, but I still can't see what Caff get out of it

...it is fun taunting Caffy, isn't it?

[caffeinekid]

Exactly how many WIPs of games I really want to play are you going to do? It's cruel and unusual punishment... unless you get around to finishing them.

Otherwise you are going to morph into Minion at any moment - and no one wants that to happen.

[Ian]

What other games do you like then Caff?

[betpet]

Oids? 

[Minion]

What other games do you like then Caff?

Asteroids
Blasteroids
Arkanoids
Hemorrhoids

There is a pattern I think

[Happymonster]

Arachnoids?

[Sokurah]

Exactly how many WIPs of games I really want to play are you going to do? It's cruel and unusual punishment... unless you get around to finishing them.

Otherwise you are going to morph into Minion at any moment - and no one wants that to happen.

I'm sure this one - if I decide to finish it - will be finished not long after X-Quest 2.
...and XQ2 is not abandoned...I just haven't touched it for a while. 

See, being compared to Minion is why I wasn't sure I should post about it...but on the other hand I only have 6-8 open wips - not 600-800.

Asteroids
Blasteroids
Arkanoids
Hemorrhoids

There is a pattern I think

I had a mail from his wife a couple of hours ago and was told that he's already got number 4 on that list.

[Sokurah]

Exactly how many WIPs of games I really want to play are you going to do?

Oh...and is it my fault you have excellent taste in games?

[Scottige]

I mind my mate hacked his own levs on this on the turd and they were ace.
He also hacked JSW on the 48k long before any editors.

Cool choice Soks.

[caffeinekid]

OIDS on the Atari ST had a built in level editor. People make their own galaxies (sets of levels) and it was pretty cool.

Some of them were bastard hard though.

[Sokurah]

Code progress
I've been a busy bee the last couple of days. I've implemented gravity now. It's a bit heavier than the original game, but it feels very good.

Tonight I've coded the teleporters. It works pretty well and I'm very satisfied with the result. Sweet.

You can now also land your spaceship on the ground. You'll need to go very slow and be close to upright (+/- 4 degrees) when landing or it'll end very badly for you. BOOOM! ...but I think that goes for NASA's spaceshuttles as well.

If there's any men closeby they'll run towards the ship and enter it, which will add them to the scorepanel, and if you've rescued all of them they will start waving their arms so you know it's time to leave the planet (leaving is not coded yet, though).


I'll do a bit more and then post another demo.

OIDS on the Atari ST had a built in level editor. People make their own galaxies (sets of levels) and it was pretty cool.

Some of them were bastard hard though.

I would like to have all the levels from the original game present (does anyone know how many there are?), but none of those user-made ones as they seem to be ridiculously difficult and sucky.

If anyone wants to contribute to the project, by mapping some of the original levels, you'll need to stitch together a map from the Atart ST version and send it to me as a picture measuring 2048x512 like the one attached.

I think I'm going to map one myself now. I'm thinking it should end up being red'ish.

[Sokurah]

Alrighty..that's another level done. How hard can it be, folks?

That's a hint for you Caffy.


...actually, in this state it's still far from done. All things that are not the landscape - ie. trees, bushes, buildings etc. needs to be removed and their precise coordinates written down so I can enter them again manually as data so the player can interact with it ingame. I'll have this level done sometime tomorrow - then I'll post a piccy. I see I also need to code the big rocketlauncher on the lefthand side of the map. Work, work, work... 

[caffeinekid]

Wouldn't it be easier to reverse engineer the level format of the original game?

Gary/STompy was going to do it for me once many moons ago when I was toying with the idea of trying to remake the game myself.

If you could load in the level files from the original then all the user levels would be playable with no extra work for the masochists that actually wanted to try them.

[Sokurah]

Wouldn't it be easier to reverse engineer the level format of the original game?

Gary/STompy was going to do it for me once many moons ago when I was toying with the idea of trying to remake the game myself.

If you could load in the level files from the original then all the user levels would be playable with no extra work for the masochists that actually wanted to try them.

I've thought about it, but I wouldn't know how to extract level data from the ST version.
...it would've been easier with a Speccy game because I know that machine inside out.

I'm way past the point of no return though. Even if I was able to figure out the original mapformat it would probably mean having to scrap pretty much all the code I've done so far, so I'm better off just doing my own thing. It's served me pretty well so far.


I've updated the link to the demo, in the first post. The demo now includes all the new additions I wrote about yesterday, as well as a third level - which is red like I wanted.

You still can't complete a level, but you can still fool around and shoot things, pick up men, shoot men, and use the teleporters and so on.

I will also appreciate any feedback I get on the demo.

Here's a piccy;

[caffeinekid]

It's coming along really nicely. I miss the thruster flame from your ship tho, I used to use it to set the oids on fire by hovering over them because I'm a sadistic git.

Good work. Keep it up!

[Sokurah]

It's coming along really nicely. I miss the thruster flame from your ship tho, I used to use it to set the oids on fire by hovering over them because I'm a sadistic git.

Good work. Keep it up!

Wait...you're a sadistic git?
...I guess 50% right isn't too bad.


Seriously though, the thruster flame and it's...effects...are going to be there. It's just a matter of time.

How do you like the more detailed/textured graphics on level 3?  Better/worse?

[caffeinekid]

It's interesting but feels a bit too bright and distracting to me. Sorry.

[Sokurah]

It's interesting but feels a bit too bright and distracting to me. Sorry.

Does that mean you'd prefer monochrome'ish, as in the original, or would a darker grey stonetexture look better?
Perhaps more like the attached picture? (which is a quick and dirty test)

...or perhaps just a simple gradient? (although not like what I did on level 2 which looks terrible. LOL)

[Ian]

As you're asking for input on the new graphics scheme - seeing both, I would have to say that I still like the old style black interior. You could have differing coloured outlines for each level though, so you could still have a red level - with red being the exterior gradient on the lines, rather than orange.

As for rescuing the people - are you mad? Killing them is much more fun!

[caffeinekid]

Black might look good with the blue sky but the red was way too much. Whatever you have for the land interior needs to be pretty subtle, if not blank I think.

Have you thought of having strata and see how that looks? Probably shit actually but just an idea as it's meant to be a cut away cross section of the land. LOL.



...kinda thing...

[Ian]

You didn't re-decorate specially did you Caff?

[RobF]

Given the disjointed manner of the level structure, I think avoiding textures wherever possible is the smartest move unless you're making it up of parts a la Aquaria. It's going to look pretty fugly and/or create way too much work to make it look half decent.

Wot I'd do is get together a set of different gradients for the backgrounds - mix it up with some pretty straightforward and some more block of colour descending (I'm on the Mac so I can't really mock up a pic right now) but erm...

dark blue rectangle
slightly less dark blue rectangle
slightly less than the less dark blue rectangle
and so on and so forth

etc... if that makes sense. Then do the landscape in complimentary colours. That way as I twatted earlier, you don't really need to do a great deal to differentiate the levels. You can have some bold and brassy like the example I chucked across, some dark and so on and so forth. You could probably run to colourising in the code even, depending.

It also leaves you relatively open to add a bit more details in the background if you wanted - maybe a silhouette of a city or industrial complex or something on certain stages.

Generally, I'd just keep it pretty stark if I were doing it to keep my options open. But I'm not. So err yeah.