Round Em Up Public Preview 1

[Guyfawkes]

NOTE: This is not a full release of the game, just an early preview to see if people are interested in the game idea. Please do not post news on the release, thanks.

I think I mentioned the game on the forums last year when I first started coding the game as an experiment to see if it would work. Its called Round Em Up and the aim of the game is to get the animals into an enclosure by leading them to it by placing obstacles to block their path. There are some twists to the game such as (in the 'forest' level) a harvester type machine that cuts down the bushes (the obstacles for this level) and rain clouds that rain on some spots and generate a new bush.

I hope to make the game story based, kinda like bomberman (first similar game I could think of) with different themed graphics for areas like deserts, forests etc along with other game modes and features such as quick game, highscores, level generators, trade levels etc to add more playability.

Nothing is really set in stone so I am open to suggestions on new ideas for the game. As it stands the game is playable, the basic game is coded so I have uploaded a preview release of the game so you can get a better idea of it. Please note that there is no difficulty setting as everything is enabled just to see it working and after you complete the level the game goes back to the basic title screen. There are probably one or two bugs, no need to report them as its not needed yet.

I cant draw to save my life so I really need some artists to work their magic and create some nice graphics for the game. There are basically 9 or 10 pieces of graphics to do for each themed level so its not a lot of work and it can easily be split between people for different themes. If you are interested please let me know and if you would like to try out some ideas before offering your services you can do so by editing the graphics in the preview release found in the /roundemup/gfx/ folder. Also if you would like to help out with music/sound that would be useful as well.

If you are interested in helping out with the graphics or music/sound or have any suggestions for new features in the game please let me know by replying here.

You can download the release here. <- I updated this release to remove the mouse support as the left mouse button is clashing with up/left diagonal joystick input.

 

[Trip]

Sounds like an interesting idea chief.
I'll give it a quick go when I get time later

EDIT: As for the graphics & sound.. there's an open source game like settlers called Widelands & I think that the graphics would probably fit in quite well with this game. Might be worth checking out?

The textures should be useable at the very least

 

[critical]

Cool - this sounds great. The concept isn't dissimilar to Sheep, I believe it was called:

http://pc.gamezone.com/gzreviews/r13225.htm

except that ISTR you used commands from the herder to guide them along rather than obstacles. It's been years since I played that, but I really enjoyed it. Anything like that would get the thumbs up from me

 

[gaterooze]

Excellent idea, and without the up-left bug would already be quite fun to play. It may sound strange, but I found the gameplay reminiscent of Qix!

How about some indestructible obstacles (brick walls) that start on the map, the frequency of which you can increase to ramp the difficulty as the levels go up?

The mowers are a nice touch to add difficulty. More random factors like that would be cool, perhaps a fox which runs past, making the sheep around it act crazy for a moment, sending them on different tangents and speeding them up.

Are you planning different user-obstacle types, perhaps a couple of special limited-use ones? For example, a single-square puddle you could lay down which will trap and hold one sheep for a limited time while you go about building.

Hm, what about those storm clouds occasionally frying a sheep with lightning as they pass over? That could act as a sort of timer for the level, and you could lose points for ones you don't rescue a la Defender or Robotron.

Another wacky idea could be a "puzzle mode" similar to Rampart, where you get different shaped blocks of trees (like Tetris blocks) and have to fit them in to make your walls.

 

[Guyfawkes]

At the moment I am just deciding to continue the game or not depending on if there's enough interest. I will give it a few days to see and if there is any offers of help for the graphics as this will be an important factor.

Please keep the ideas coming, as I said I am open to all ideas and so far GunPei2X's are great!

edit - Oh, Ill try and fix the up/left bug later on and update the download, I spotted it at the last minute and was too lazy to fix it

 

[PSyMastR]

If you ever need graphics work done, i could help.

 

[Guyfawkes]

I updated the download to remove mouse support for the moment. The left mouse button was clashing with diagonal up/left joystick input. I will sort it out when the game is properly being worked on.