Guns, Action, Mayhem, Etc.

[Gerix]

So, this is a project I have been working on for a while. I have not received my pandora yet, but I figured I could start coding it anyway. I have been neglecting the graphics side of things, because I figured I would need to rewrite a lot of it when I moved from OpenGL to GLES. Anyway, I prefer working on the background stuff. My goal in this project is to learn various game programming concepts in order to move on to more exciting things. This game is written in C++ using SDL and OpenGL. By the way, it is really intimidating to post this where so many great projects are being posted.

As you can see from the screenshots, I have been using some Quake 2 models I found online. The player is a Terran Marine and the zombies (the only non-controller AI I've started to program) are Yoshi. I did not have any experience with models, so starting with Quake 2 seemed like a good idea. I also figured I would not need very much due to the perspective.

You can see that the floor actually cuts the models in half. I know it looks horrible, but I will not be using these models if I ever release this, so I have deferred that effort. Since the game is top-down, the floor is a 2d object. It is basically a giant poster. Actually, you can see a picture of me at Buffalo Wild Wings on one of the walls. Same class. You have probably gathered that I have only made one room. The reason for that is because I could not find the time to make a level editor, and writing a level in XML is a pain in the bum. But I think I need to implement some sort of space partitioning tree before I do that. None of my friends are that interested in game programming, so I'm on my own, except on those rare occasions where I get to show off my work to this one guy at the local university.


^Pay no attention to the resolution in this shot. I just got a little crop happy.



Anyway, I should probably get back to studying.

Edit: I've decided for the time being to put all development efforts into making a turret defense game. It's been on my list of things to do, I've thought of a way to use my existing code base, and most of the things required to make the turret game would be required to make the zombie game. So, instead of finishing the zombie game and moving backwards, I decided I should write the classes necessary to create the turret game and build further to finish the zombie game.

 

[foxblock]

Sounds good already, a game like that should play perfectly with the Pandora's controls (given you use one nub for movement, the other for aiming as I would imagine).
I find those Flash Zombie-Survival games pretty fun, so I would love to see a varieties of weapons, maybe an upgrade shop, barricades, etc. - for me it should have an arcade mode (which can still be scary by making use of sparsely lit rooms, etc.)

Did you write your own engine from scratch (and a Q2 model loader respectively)?

None of my friends are that interested in game programming, so I'm on my own

Yeah, I have the same problem, but it was a good idea to start this thread on here, you just might find somebody to help you out

Keep it up and don't feel intimidated by any project on here at all, everyone has to start small.

foxblock out

 

[Gerix]

Ok, so I typed up a really long-winded response, which somehow inspired me to see a minor change I could make, and then I clicked one of the thumbnails and navigated away from the page. *facepalm* So this is the condensed version.

Currently, I'm using keyboard and mouse to control the player, but I plan on writing a class to make dual nub control a possibility once I get my Pandora. I was also thinking about having minor touchscreen interface (for menus, panels, and maybe inventory).

I also like the Flash survival games. I think they inspired me a little bit to write this. As far as guns go, I have the slug/shot throwers already programmed, but I would like to program weapons that use other types of projectiles. I was also thinking about making a container that held two guns and responded to primary and secondary fire controls, so you could have something similar to an M4/M203 combo. I haven't really thought about an arcade mode. But those are good ideas.

One of my big dreams is to create engaging AI. I would love to have a squad of bots that act as a unit, but that's a far way off. I still need to program basic pathfinding. But I can still dream.

I programmed most of the game from scratch. I pulled my file reader class from a previous project. It's not really that special, it just runs through markup. Also, I found an online tutorial on loading Quake 2 files, and based my class largely on that.

While programming this, I realized I was looking through a lot of tutorials. So I thought it would be a good idea to cite them in the relevant classes. That way, if someone were looking through my code and had trouble with something I did, they could just check out the tutorial.

 

[Yamara]

It sounds like a neat game, and the title is cute. What you're describing reminds me of a demo I played on the Playstation of a game called Loaded. It was bloody and violent, but the colors and ease of gameplay made it curiously compelling.

 

[Gerix]

Bumping to say I made a release. It's not available for the Pandora yet, so any users who use their Pandas exclusively will not be able to give any feedback. Hopefully, the README says everything needed to get the game working for you. Any feedback (besides unrestrained laughter) is greatly appreciated.